SAP Business suite powered by SAP HANA opens a new chapter in the ERP world. ERP 2.0 combines OLTP and OLAP processing, and merges the world of structured and unstructured data. How will this effort lead to transform the traditional ERP System of Record into an ERP System of Engagement with Social Media data and Machine data, as examples, to create new business opportunities for SAP Business suite customers?
ERP as the System of Record is the foundation, and by adding the capabilities to integrate machine data to the transaction system, and by utilizing the predictive capabilities in SAP HANA, a SAP ERP customer could change the maintenance planning by extending the regular maintenance cyclesf for example of 1000h of operations to 3000h, and rather provide precautionary maintenance based on results of predictive analysis. This can lead to lower overall cost, because less regular maintenance services are performed, and at the same time un-planned loss of operations for a machinery can be reduced.
In a consumer goods example, a customer using only System of Record information like Sales, open order/backlog and available inventory, might be able to reduce either larger backlog or future overstock by considering sentiment analysis of unstructured data from product reviews from social media and web forums.
System of Engagement = ( System of Record + machine data + un-structured data)
Please see these links for more detailed information:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=4859915&trk=anet_ug_hm
Which steps and resources are required to make the transformation to a ERP 2.0 type of system?
Please see this blog by Joshua Greenbaum, which describes which processes might be helpful to take and how more creative resources are required to drive business opportunities with Tier Two innovations.
http://www.eaconsult.com/2013/05/21/sap-innovates-innovation/
What is the Internet of Things?
With the proliferation of the Internet, Enterprise IT saw a shift towards Systems of Engagement, encompassing the edge of the business, leveraging social networks, and processing loosely structured data that is constantly changing. Today, we are witnessing another massive revolution where enterprises will need to build the Systems of Things in parallel to Systems of Engagement to harness the Internet of Things. As the previously dumb devices on the edge become intelligent and get connected, Systems of Things will be needed to source, capture, analyze, predict and act on the data in real time.