What can big data do for you?

When it comes to SAP’s relationship with big data, it has been keen to encourage customers to adopt solutions that help them better process and manage their data, such as HANA and SAP’s Predictive Analytics. Earlier this month, at SAP’s Innovation Forum in London, F1 firm McLaren spoke about how it is using SAP's HANA Cloud Platform. McLaren has used HANA to process huge volumes of data gathered from 120 sensors placed on one its cars, to predict over 20,000 various driver scenarios.

February also saw the announcement of a partnership between SAP and Reuters, to help it better cover the US presidential elections. Reuters will be using HANA to give its journalists access to over 100 million survey responses, enabling them to report more precisely on public opinion. Recently reported in reported in Computing, Transport for London (TfL) has also adopted HANA for its data management. TfL is using HANA for large volumes of data, including that collected from Internet of Things connected devices, to support its day-to-day operational planning.

As these examples show, big data has relevance in a wide variety of industries – from transport and infrastructure to journalism and planning. But it’s also important to consider how less high profile businesses and enterprises are approaching their own big data strategy. Businesses without the resources or expertise of Reuters, McLaren and TfL, will find adopting and implementing platforms like HANA or embracing Predictive Analytics much more of challenge, without some clear guidance and support.

We are holding a number of events on big data throughout the year, to help User Group members with planning a big data strategy. At the end of March, we are holding a webinar on ‘SAP Predictive Analytics - Innovate the Future’ – you can sign up here. We’ve also planned an Analytics Symposium in July and a Big Data Special Interest Group in September.

For more detail and to check out newly added events, visit our calendar.