SAP Enables Chief Marketing Officers to Understand and Respond to Social Sentiment in Real Time

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today introduced a new solution to help organizations gain real-time insights into market trends and customer sentiment. Companies can adopt the rapid-deployment solution in less than six weeks to use up-to-the-minute customer data for more effective business strategies and decision-making. The SAP rapid-deployment solution for sentiment intelligence with SAP HANA, now generally available, was announced at the TDWI San Diego World Conference – Big Data Tipping Point, being held in San Diego, California, July 29-Aug. 3, 2012.

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According to Gartner Inc., more than 80 percent of the data in the world today exists in unstructured form and is expected to double every three months. To remain competitive, companies must rapidly extract insights from this data by equipping business analysts and decision-makers with instant access to analysis of blogs, social media sources, emails and other communications.

The SAP rapid-deployment solution for sentiment intelligence with SAP HANA lets users analyze customer sentiment from social networking sites, communities, wikis, blogs and other sources, and combines the information with customer relationship management (CRM) text data. Users can evaluate customers' insights through easy-to-read views on their mobile devices, tablets or desktops, enabling them to take immediate action. This is the latest offering from SAP to help customers quickly adopt effective "big data" analytics solutions.

"Mining unstructured data can provide a direct path to understanding how customers are responding to products, brands and overall company values," said Shawn Rogers, vice president of research, Enterprise Management Associates. "As the amount of unstructured data – especially from social media sources – continues to grow, companies have the opportunity to really understand their customers if the information is captured and analyzed effectively. SAP's integrated approach helps users gain deeper insights from company and external information to more quickly and easily make sense of the ever-growing amount of data and act on it."

The SAP rapid-deployment solution for sentiment intelligence with SAP HANA loads text data from Twitter, Facebook, the SAP® StreamWork® application and any other Web channel with a publicly available API. It then applies semantic analysis using text data processing capabilities from SAP Data Services software. Decision-makers can visualize customers' sentiments toward their products and brands in real time using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer® software and the SAP HANA® platform, including:

• Closely aligning market sentiment with sales campaigns, promotions and service activities.
• Proactively improving customer satisfaction by listening, monitoring and responding in a timely manner.
• Projecting sales and marketing trends to drive increased revenue.
• Analyzing all types of unstructured data (e.g. HTML, XML and TXT files) residing in internal (intranet) or external (Internet) forums, blogs, wikis and company websites to derive insights for better business value.

With the solution, sales and marketing departments can analyze large volumes of text data to identify relevant nuggets of information. That information can then be integrated with structured data such as sales and marketing campaigns residing in the SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) application to gain new insights. Organizations can evaluate the impact of these campaigns and events on consumer awareness, sentiment, behavior and intention to better understand the local demand for products and services, or to receive early warning of defects and shortcomings.

"The SAP rapid-deployment solution for sentiment intelligence with SAP HANA allows chief marketing officers to dip their toes into 'big data' with a project that rapidly results in business value," said Steve Lucas, global executive vice president and general manager, Database & Technology, SAP. "To truly harness the potential of 'big data,' enterprises need to build a culture of insight discovery and data-driven decision-making. SAP solutions enable enterprises to rapidly scale analysis across their lines of business, turning 'big data' into 'intelligent data.'"

The SAP rapid-deployment solution for sentiment intelligence with SAP HANA combines pre-configured content, best practices and pre-defined services to quickly deploy the solution with immediate cost-savings.

"By using the SAP rapid-deployment solution for sentiment intelligence with SAP HANA, companies can have a comprehensive view of business-relevant data of all types across employees, customers, partners and suppliers to support business decisions and strategy," said Steven Birdsall, senior vice president and general manager, SAP Rapid Deployment solutions. "The rapid-deployment solution approach delivers this through pre-defined exploration views and dashboards, while tapping into popular social networking environments with pre-configured interfaces, allowing deployment in as little as four weeks. It is ideal for companies that are unaccustomed to rolling out the latest in analytics or social media technology. SAP Rapid Deployment solutions help organizations gain full visibility into their deployments, reducing any risk factors with a defined scope and predictable costs."

Other SAP solutions that help enterprises build cultures of insight discovery include SAP Predictive Analysis software. It gives business analysts and data scientists a user-friendly, graphically rich tool for predictive modeling and advanced visualization of "big data" in real time when coupled with the power and speed of SAP HANA. Additionally, SAP Visual Intelligence software gives decision-makers and managers self-service tools to explore data across multiple information sources and visualize it in real time with SAP HANA.

For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom.

About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 195,000 customers (includes customers from the acquisition of SuccessFactors) to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

© 2012 by SAP AG. All rights reserved.

SAP and the SAP logo are registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and other countries. Business Objects and the Business Objects logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects Software Ltd. Business Objects is an SAP company. Sybase and the Sybase logo are registered trademarks of Sybase Inc. Sybase is an SAP company. Crossgate is a registered trademark of Crossgate AG in Germany and other countries. Crossgate is an SAP company.

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For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:

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For more information, press only:

Samantha Finnegan, +1 (650) 276-9350, [email protected], PDT
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SOURCE SAP AG

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