SAP plays catch up on data visualization - sort of
- Summary:
- SAP showed some interesting takes on the notion of data visualization and end to end supply chain.
Steve Lucas, president SAP platform solutions gave a spirited and entertaining performance at BI 2014, showing off lots of cool stuff along the way. Lucas demonstrated the makings of a data visualization toolkit built upon SAP's Lumira technology he claims will encourage business managers to move away from Powerpoint as their prime means of presentation. The big idea? To make information actionable.
You can get a sense of what he means from the image above which shows how you might construct a complex infographic to make a point. Tammy Powlas has a more detailed explanation over at SCN.
I really like the idea and from what we saw, the toolkit will be familiar with those that have played with Photoshop and other graphics programs. While I totally get what SAP is trying to achieve I'm left wondering about several problems:
- Who is going to design these great alternatives to the ubiquitous Powerpoint presentation? They will have to be compelling in order to do the job for which they're intended. But then I don't know too many managers who have 'designer' in their resumé. Competent with Powerpoint - yes...designer? No. So while it may be easy to create something, that's not the same as something compelling. Training will loom large in those deals or, SAP will have to find design advocates among users communities in the SAP customer groups.
- It is clear that on this front, SAP is playing catchup with Tableau, which seems to turn up in every enterprise conversation today. Tableau is not the only player in town but it is the company du jour making the most headway in this space. This rankles with SAP because they say they have far more functionality etc etc. But as I pointed out to Lucas, functionality doesn't trump ease of use and attractive consumption models. This is something where SAP knows it needs to find better answers and I am guessing that will come via the channel.
More promising was the smart vending machine SAP demonstrated and which can be kind of seen in the above image.
Here the company's vision is far more expansive and interesting yet challenging.
We have seen smart vending machines for quite a while with vendors like Salesforce.com marrying their technology to Coke vending machines. Last year, Jon Reed and I saw an early iteration of a smart vending machine that could offer choices and upselling opportunities to the customer.
This year, SAP has taken the concept a lot further, talking about how sensors inside the vending machine could be used to send data back to replenishment centers that in turn could feed data out to scheduling and delivery systems for individual route planning. That's end to end supply chain in action.
This is still very much in its infancy but the promise of a mass personalized experience cannot be far away. You might argue - if this is so good then why are we not seeing these machines at every street corner?
It turns out that the vending machine of yore is not much good for the proposed purpose. What's needed are standardized machines with operating systems and databases to match. As you might imagine, SAP wants to be at the forefront of that piece of retail action but it will need to persuade many business stakeholders that the investment is worthwhile. This is new territory for a company far more used to CIO conversations, a fact reinforced in customer conversations where it is clear many are not used to meeting business savvy people from SAP.
As a postscript - I am wondering where the expression 'customer experience' fits into the idea of a future IT. Having said that, the vending machine example is one where I can see considerable scope for niche execution and where the long term potential is high.
Will the day come when the vending machine will tell me that my Twix is out of stock but available 100 yards down the street while letting that machine reserve one for me for the next 30 minutes? I don't know - but it's a nice idea.
Disclosure: SAP is a premier partner at time of writing.