Already the fastest growing subsidiary of SAP AG, SAP India now has the opportunity to accelerate growth due to HANA – a product that is touted as a game-changer and one that will alter the enterprise applications landscape globally, and in India too.

HANA is seen as the next-big thing in enterprise IT due to its ability to analyze large amount of information quickly. Compared to traditional methods, HANA (High Performance Analytic Appliance) uses in-memory technologies. In this approach, information is processed in RAM, instead of being read from disks. This improves performance in a significant way as it allows real-time crunching and analysis of data.

For example, Colgate cut down processing time from 77 minutes to 13 seconds using HANA. Similarly, NRI, a research and consulting services provider, was able to use SAP HANA to analyze traffic information in Tokyo, and gained the ability to search through 360 million data records in approximately one second. Lenovo plans to use SAP HANA to process 1.8 million contract records with multiple attributes in less than a second.

This real-time analysis of information provides a great strategic advantage to organizations. This is significant when you consider the fact that most organizations today are finding it exceedingly difficult to handle vast amounts of data. For example, a recent survey conducted by Hitachi Data Systems in association with market analyst firm, IDC revealed that about 70 percent of respondents in India believed that the demand of the business for deeper analysis outpaces the ability for their systems to ensure the data they have is relevant, timely and useful. In other words, their data growth is outpacing their ability to effectively manage it. With HANA, SAP has an opportunity to address this challenge.

“Most CFOs today want to look at the costing and profitability parameters of a project in real-time, as sometimes, dynamic market situations require quick answers and quicker decision making. HANA enables enterprises to do this instantly today,” explains Maneesh Sharma, Head-Business Analytics and Technology, SAP India.

Sowing in the seeds of HANA

SAP is doing a number of pilots on SAP HANA with a lot of customers in India, and has already signed on customers such as Essar and Infosys. Essar is a huge conglomerate operating in more than 25 countries across five continents. This huge presence across multiple sectors generates a huge amount of information. With different systems for different lines of businesses, the amount of data that the group analyzes for reporting is to the tune of 3 TB.

Explaining the challenge of analyzing this huge dataset, Jayantha Prabhu, Chief Technology Officer, Essar Group, says, “The key challenge in analyzing the huge amount of data is the capability of the system to crunch the data within a defined time frame. While we are able to get the operational reports from the BW warehouse, the real time analytics is always a constraint due to the time required for generation of the report.”

Post-deployment of HANA, this is no longer a challenge. “SAP HANA will enhance the decision making capabilities of the management with the ability to run queries on the information at timelines which was not possible earlier. This has increased the flexibility to respond to the dynamic requirements of the business,” explains Prabhu. Access to consistent real-time data will improve Essar’s forecasting abilities as well as provide intelligence on how to redirect the business as needed based on recent events, customer relationships, product plans and market variations.

Further, the ability to pull in data from any source means that information can be pulled in and analyzed from any source. Prabhu says that with SAP HANA, Essar also has the capability of consolidating the database of the existing Business Warehouse solution from SAP into HANA, which will further improve operational reporting performance.

Another company that is doing a pilot on SAP HANA is Infosys. The software giant has utilized SAP HANA to understand profitability by project, conduct “what-if” analysis on the fly with granular revenue and cost data. The pilot is a real-time simulation of project financials. Infosys will use HANA to simulate margins starting from company levels and drill down to P&L owners and individual projects. Managers and leaders will be able to view current margin information in real-time and make real-time simulations to take corrective actions. Business leaders can explore and interact with key variables that affect a project’s profitability and do analysis at all levels within the company.

Globally, SAP has built a list of reference customers in different verticals, which it will use for accelerating adoption in India. SAP’s Sharma says that almost every vertical looks promising in India. These include traditional sectors such as BFSI, Retail, Telecom, Oil & Gas and Media.

"For HANA, we are not limited by the traditional ERP view. We are approaching each sector with a scenario-based solution. For example, for the telecom sector, it could be churn management"

- Maneesh Sharma, Head-Business Analytics and Technology, SAP India

“For HANA, we are not limited by the traditional ERP view. We have just scratched the surface of fully tapping the full potential of a game changer like HANA. We are approaching each sector with a scenario-based solution. For example, for the telecom sector, it could be churn management,” says Sharma.

Every company that deals with a lot of data is a potential candidate for SAP HANA. For example, consider refineries which deal with a lot of data. Every minute, prices in the market change, and refineries have to take decisions accordingly, as it impacts their Gross Refining Margin. The key challenge for calculating this GRM margin is the volume of data to be processed, and the disparate systems from where the information needs to be fetched. Refineries can leverage HANA for real-time GRM tracking and simulation. Hourly GRM visibility is of strategic importance to production planners, traders and executives and impact the profitability of a refinery in a significant manner.

The strategic importance of India can be seen from the fact that SAP has launched a CoE for HANA in India, with its partner HP. Similarly, global consulting major, Capgemini, has also set up a competency centre in Mumbai to support HANA.

Every year, the enterprise IT industry looks out for major innovations that dramatically alter the way the industry consumes or delivers IT. HANA could be a potential candidate. If HANA does succeed in living up to its full potential, we can see profound changes in the way the world looks at business intelligence.