ORLANDO- SAP SE today announced enhancements to its data visualization tool Lumira that are aimed to enable an organization to use the products on data generated by connected devices.
Lumira (formerly called SAP Visual Intelligence) is a self-service, a data visualization application developed in Vancouver, B.C. It was designed for individual business users, office teams, and enterprise organizations.
Internet of things visualization capabilities will be ported into SAP Lumira “to enable interaction with IoT data,” the German software maker announced at the Sapphire Now conference here. The data visualization tool for IoT was built by David McCandless, a British data-journalist, and information designer based in London who is also the founder of the visual blog Information is Beautiful.
When you look at typical visual analytics tools, y0u are likely to find a collection of graphs, pie charts, and dials. The data visual representation designed by McCandless could be described as a modern pictographic oasis by comparison. Multi-coloured shapes, icons, and even photos replace numbers and bar. McCandless’s designs are also interactive so that a user can drill down further to gain more information by tapping on the images.
“The human eye is wired to see colours, shapes, and patterns,” he said. “Representing data this way helps people to uncover the stories behind the data.”
And that is the whole project, according to Nic Smith, senior director of marketing for analytics at SAP.
“It’s all about story-telling,” said Smith.”By marrying the data visualization of Lumira with business intelligence we are able users with and easier way to understand data.”
Even non-data scientists will be able to understand data presented by Lumira, he said.
On of the key selling points of Lumira is that it enables users to change alter data structures and correlations to suit their needs without the need of seeking assistance from the It department. The user can then port the configured data back into the system so that it can be consumed by more casual users with tools like Business Explorer. Lumira can also be used with the SAP HANA in-memory platform.
Some of the new features recently made available as well as those expected to be released later this year include:
- Ability to deliver governed data discovery and agile visualization with business intelligence (BI) platform integration for enterprise and small and midsize enterprise (SME) customers with a new in-memory engine
- Smart insights with time series forecasting and outlier detection
- Extension manager for in-product SAP partner or personal visual extensions
- New crosstab capabilities for multidimensional analysis to easily swap rows and columns, display hierarchies, and data formatting
- Ability to easily share beautiful insights with capabilities for chart zooming, new chart types, and enhanced infographics with support for ESRI maps
- Big data discovery and data wrangling with Hadoop, helping end users to access, prepare and mash with traditional data sources
- High performance and data mash-ups with SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) application data
“SAP is focused on end-to-end analytics and data management capabilities because that’s what companies need to execute and thereby innovate,” said Steve Lucas, president, platform solutions, SAP. “Analytics solutions from SAP work together to provide a comprehensive, yet simple and integrated, analytics technology platform that propels customers’ ability to succeed.”
By mid-year, SAP also plans to enable individuals using the free version to visualize the inventory in their supply chain, to access additional features found in the paid version of the application. The paid version of Lumira is priced at US$995/user.
The company said it is making it easier for individuals to purchases SAP products.
SAP said it will expand in-application purchase to additional products such as the purchases of relevant add-ons and extensions or third-party content.large and small organizations can now buy from SAP without the need for a purchase order, invoice or lengthy RFP process. They can simply purchase as soon as they want and across multiple devices with the ease of a credit card. The SAP Digital organization has streamlined contracts for its offerings down to a simple one-click online agreement and transparent pricing. Individuals can configure their new applications, usually in a few hours or less, without requiring the aid of their IT department or outside consultants.
Users in both large and small organizations can now buy from SAP without the need for a purchase order, invoice or lengthy RFP process. They can simply purchase as soon as they want and across multiple devices with the ease of a credit card.
The SAP Digital organization has streamlined contracts for its offerings down to a simple one-click online agreement and transparent pricing.
The new, simplified portfolio of services, best practices, methods, contracts, pricing, and tools focuses on outcome-based services, according to SAP.
The company provides a single service and support lead for most client engagements. The lead is responsible for driving the development of customer innovation roadmaps and facilitating solution engineering to ensure an all-inclusive proposal that draws on the full domain of SAP expertise.
The service & support organization helps customers reduce complexity and total cost of ownership and navigate rapidly changing technology and business demands.
“We have simplified the way SAP approaches client engagements, ensuring a seamless customer experience focused on business outcomes,” said Michael Kleinemeier, a member of the global managing board of SAP.
