Assessment of SAP Crystal Solutions

As we discuss the possibility of emerging into business intelligence software we must keep in mind the overall purpose of using any type of software is to reach strategic goals in order to increase market shares. I will discuss how business intelligence software will allow us to meet those strategic goals. We will establish what type of information and analysis capabilities will be available once this business intelligence software is implemented. We will discuss hardware and system software that will be required to run specific business intelligence software. Lastly, I will give a brief synopsis on three vendors (IBM, Microsoft Microsoft and Oracle) that are dominating the business information software

One of the main functions of any business is to be able to use data to leverage a strategic competitive advantage. The use of relational databases is a necessity for contemporary organizations; however, data warehousing has become a strategic priority due to the enormous amounts of data that must be analyzed along with the varying sources from which data comes. Company gathers data by using Web analytics and operational systems, we must design a solution overview that incorporates data warehousing. The executive team needs to be clear about what data warehousing can provide the company.

Forecasting analytics will enable SYSCO to make appropriate upfront decisions and monitor customers as well as the industry. Extraction and data mining are also useful tools that will positively affect SYSCO’s decision-making process. Lastly, consulting support and employees’ training will facilitate the implementation of the new software in the company. For all these reasons, the use of BI at SYSCO can create a competitive advantage of the company in the industry. However, this competitive advantage depends on the competition – do the competitors use a similar software or by chance the same and do they already have a strong position in the market? Outperforming for example “U.S Food Service”, SYSCO’s main competitor, might be arduous if that company relies on a similar software and already has an eminent role in the

There are many ways that organizations are able to leverage the power of predictive analytics. One of the more popular ways is through their current SAP software. SAP has been one of the premier enterprise software tools and now has made its way into the predictive analytics side. The ability of the software to work with the current data environment is able to save both time and money. The current software has the capability to perform five forms of analysis including: Time series analysis, classification analysis, cluster analysis, association analysis, and outlier analysis. In the time series, analysis of historical patterns are used in the known data to make predictions about future values (MacGregor). Classification analysis tries to predict a variable using the data of other variables that you believe affect the values of the variable that we are trying to predict. Cluster Analysis groups the data into clusters or segments that have similar attributes which is often useful when trying to understand subsets of larger data. Association analysis looks at the association of different things, with an example being if a customer purchases this product what other product are they likely to buy. Finally an

Founded in 1976 by Dr. James Goodnight and Dr. John Sall, both professors at North Carolina State University, SAS Institute, Inc. provides business intelligence (BI) software and services at more than 40,000 customer sites worldwide, including 90 percent of the Fortune 500 companies. SAS, which stands for “statistical analysis software,” is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina. It is the world’s largest privately held software company, having over 100 offices worldwide with approximately 10,000 employees. With an unbroken record of growth and profitability, SAS had revenue of $1.18 billion in 2002 and invested about 25 percent of revenues into research and development. (1) The phenomenal success story of SAS is, in no small part, due to

SAP AG has a legacy of being very analytically strong in their ability to translate diverse databases and applications across an enterprise and unify them into a single system of record. The series of these applications illustrate how effectively the company is integrating analytics, BI and KM data and processes into a cohesive series of workflows that can better support organizations in their efforts to attain strategic plans and objectives. Crystal Reports would be very valuable for companies attempting to gain greater insight into the significant risks they face, given turbulent market conditions and rapidly changing customer bases. The ability of SAP legacy analytics and BI applications to ascertain patterns in complex data has long been a core strength of these technologies within the company (Curry, 1999). Today the need has never been

SAP is a Large and successful technology company, that is headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, being the market leader in ERP applications and business analytics at that time (Lakhani, Iansti and Fisher 2014). SAP Hana was seen an enabler of Cloud strategy, whereby the platform was regarded as the integration layer linking the old sap products and the newer cloud-based products (ibid).

These tools provide companies’ reliable information and true insights in order to improve the decision-making, collaboration and produce better company results. It helps organizations to better understand how things are going and eventually where things might go wrong. The multi-row tables and datasets can now be evaluated directly on the database – without performing interim steps of aggregation.

SAP is the world’s third-largest software company, founded in Germany in 1972. They are the world’s largest business software company and the third largest independent software provider. The most current version of SAP, ECC 6.0, is primarily made up of the SAP Business Suite. The main parts of SAP Business Suite include SAP ERP, SAP PLM, SAP SRM, SAP CRM, and SAP SCM. All of these components are supported by the foundation of SAP NetWeaver (Wagner, B., Weider, S., & Tracy, S, 2009).

As one of the leading providers of enterprise software worldwide, SAP has built an exceptional base of technological expertise in the core areas of enterprise software development, ranging from analytics to traditional Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems of which they are the best-known. Of the many areas they have expertise in; SAP is considered the global leader in analytics due to their acquisition of Business Objects and the rapid integration of the acquired acquisitions into the mainstream base of SAP enterprise products. Their ability to integrate both Business Intelligence (BI) and Knowledge Management (KM) is illustrated in how effectively the r SAP Crystal Solutions Suite is tailored to the decision-making requirements of enterprises. The following series of questions and answers pertain to an evaluation of the SAP Crystal Solutions Suite and supporting materials.

In the current site, there is more interactivity to the user. The website explains systematically the reasons that led to the necessity for creation of the software. It is imperative to note that the site acknowledges the role of technology in a business and hence calls for improvements that will lead to efficiency. Therefore, the site remains informative and candid while still maintaining interaction with the user by relating everything with the business environment. In the site, there are specific tools that have been presented which can actually have a massive impact in the running of a business. The SAP crystal reports solutions are created with the sole intention of helping the IT gurus (SAP crystal solution 2012). This is because they are the standard for creating, security sharing and managing the report information delivery. This tool is extremely useful in a business world that is changing rapidly with time and thus a massive need for creating and presenting reports often. Furthermore, it is one of the cheapest alternatives in the world of IT. The SAP crystal reports are efficient and easy to use in that they can use data from any source and in whichever prior form. The SAP crystal reports server are designed for the creation of interactive charts that can be shared through many convenient methods including the emails and the Microsoft office word format. Furthermore, the

Information and visibility are vital factors of a supply chain because they provide the basis on which supply chain managers make decisions. Information Technology (IT) has many different tools which can be used in a supply chain to provide information, then process it and even execute on them to enhance the performance of the supply chain. Technologies enable us to gather information in a more accurate and timely manner that can drive decision making which is a key to the success of a supply chain. The information that supports the performance of a supply chain must have the following characteristics. (Sunil Chopra, 2013)

For consecutive twelve years SAP dominated the massive business applications market. it absolutely was eminent primarily as a result of it absolutely was extraordinarily versatile. as a result of SAP was a standard system (meaning that the varied functions provided by it can be purchased piecemeal) it absolutely was an especially versatile system. an organization may merely purchase modules that they wished and customise the processes to match the company’s business model. SAP’s flexibility, whereas one in all its greatest strengths is additionally one in all its greatest weaknesses that ends up in the SAP audit.

The worldwide information landscape is changing rapidly due to innovation in technological solutions. Technological solutions play a crucial role in decision-making through analysis of a massive data or big data. The explosives changes in the supply and demand of the market require firms to respond proactively and spontaneous. Accordingly, enterprises managers should be able to collect, filter and analyze the enormous amount of data from many sources in real-time. Therefore, organizations turned to use technologies for decision-making, solve the complex and challenging business problems. The tools used to support decision-making has become very wide and filled with the buzzwords. In this report, we will outline the connection between the two types of software solutions that support the decision-making process; Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Business Intelligence (BI).

The original vision of 5 former IBM employees is now one of the most vital tools for system analysis, applications and products in data processing. Since the early 1970s, it has been a hugely popular source for business software packages. SAP provides end-to-end solutions for all sorts of business functions, from manufacturing to logistics.