SAP's (
SAP
) in-memory analytics HANA has been a key revenue driver in the
past quarter and the enterprise software maker plans to further
this line with HANA powered management apps on the cloud. HANA is a
platform on which analytics applications can be built to process
large amounts of data faster than the current systems. Its
in-memory computing is the key innovation and data can be processed
at a much faster rate and it is cheaper to run as it can be ported
onto inexpensive standard hardware.
SAP has already announced that it is targeting revenue from HANA
to be at least Euro 320 million ($422 million) for 2012. SAP is now
set to unveil a line of cloud-based EPM (enterprise performance
management) applications that run on top of the HANA
platform. Pricing for apps will be on a subscription basis and
will depend on the complexity of the management app and the
customer's size. We expect HANA to be a big growth opportunity
for SAP.
Check out our complete analysis for SAP
The cloud based management apps such as EPM OnDemand, include
capabilities to investigate and fix errors related to expenses. It
allows for real-time analysis of P&L and capital project
planning. The company expects to release more products in the
future with a design focus on smartphones and tablets. EPM
Unwired, is one such app, and is a mobile client that will serve as
a launch pad for all of SAP's EPM software. It is written in HTML5
in order to leverage native capabilities of the device it is
deployed in with the first run releasing for the iOS platform. The
focus on mobility is to cater to the sales-force which is
always on the move and for professionals such as retail managers
who spend a lot of time away from their desks and could access all
relevant information from mobile phones and tablets.
Cloud, Mobile and HANA to drive 2012
The cloud business will see early adoption by small and medium
size businesses as the SaaS model makes it cheaper to adopt and
deployment on the cloud makes it easy to integrate. The absence of
legacy ERP and CRM systems makes the cloud model more viable as
there are no integration issues. Larger businesses would take much
longer to fully move to the cloud as this would involve migrating
legacy systems. So we can expect revenues coming in from large
businesses in the longer run and revenues are likely to be
exponential. Large businesses prefer to keep a mix of both systems,
with critical systems still being maintained in house and not on
the cloud. The mobile services are likely to be driven by the
bring-your-own-device movement as employees demand access to
business data on their mobile devices and there is a large
opportunity to tap the existing customer base.
We currently have a
$73 Trefis Price Estimate
for SAP which is about 10 percent more than the current market
rate.
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