Top benefits of implementing Machine Learning right now

Machine learning is a type of AI that allows computer programs to adjust when exposed to new data, in effect, “learning” without being explicitly programmed. Machine learning is similar to data mining in which databases are examined by humans to produce new information and insight. However, machine learning provides an unbiased analysis of the data. Today, companies all over the world are implementing machine learning in every level of business. Don't wait for your competition to pass you, get a jump start at implementing machine learning for your business right now with SAP powered by Approyo.

• Faster decisions - Machine learning algorithms can prioritize and automate decision making. They can also flag opportunities and smart actions that should be taken immediately – so you can achieve the best results.
• Adaptability - Artificial intelligence doesn’t just look at historical data. It can process real-time inputs – so you can adjust on the fly. Think of cars that can automatically stop before rear-ending another vehicle.
• Algorithmic business - An “algorithmic business” uses advanced machine learning algorithms to achieve a high level of automation. Making the shift can pave the way for innovative new business models, products, and services.
• Deeper insights - Machine learning can analyze big, complex, and streaming data, and find insights – including predictive insights – that are beyond human capabilities. It can then trigger actions based on those insights.
• Efficiency - With smart, machine learning-supported business processes, you can dramatically improve efficiency. Plan and forecast accurately, automate tasks, reduce costs, and even eliminate human error.
• Better outcomes - From triggering smart actions based on new opportunities and risks, to accurately predicting the results of a decision before it is made – machine learning can help you drive better business outcomes.

Industry Benefits for implementing Machine Learning

• Manufacturing  -Manufacturers collect a huge amount of data from plant sensors and the Internet of Things – which is perfect for machine learning. Computer vision and anomaly detection algorithms are used for quality control – and others are used
• for everything from predictive maintenance and demand forecasting to powering new services. 
• Finance - Few industries are better suited for machine learning than finance – given its high data volumes and historical records. Algorithms are used for trading stocks, approving loans, detecting fraud, assessing risks, and underwriting insurance. They’re even used for “robo advising” customers and aligning portfolios to user goals. 
• Healthcare - Machine learning algorithms can process more data and spot more patterns than any team of researchers or doctors, no matter how many hours they put in. From medical image analysis and early cancer detection, to drug development and robot-assisted surgery – the machine learning possibilities in healthcare are endless. 

Read the full blog post on www.approyo.com

Approyo CEO Chris Carter appears on DM Radio, Google and Amazon: The Future of Data Centers?

Approyo CEO Chris Carter was a guest on the latest episode of DM radio, "Google and Amazon: The Future of Data Centers?" with host Erik Kavanagh.

About this episode:
Time was, every major corporation built their own data centers! You found an appropriate site with enough power and cooling, bought all the hardware, set up the operating systems, loaded your applications, and then, sooner or later, had yourself a data center. These days, one visionary summed it up like this: “Friends don’t let friends build data centers.” The future is clearly in the Cloud, with Amazon, Microsoft, Google and others vying for those dollars. What does that mean for your organization?

Listen now: http://dmradio.dataversity.net/google-and-amazon-the-future-of-data-centers/ 

Guests:

• Keno Fischer, Julia Computing
• Chris Carter, Approyo
• Patrick Mcfaddin, Datastax

About DM Radio:
DM Radio is a weekly, one-hour live radio show broadcast Thursdays at 3 PM Eastern / 12 PM Pacific. It is owned and produced by The Bloor Group in partnership with DATAVERSITY. It is currently syndicated across three networks and broadcast live on WFOY and GAB Radio Network (please note: These are live radio stations which broadcast 24 hours per day. DM Radio and its affiliates have no control over any other show outside DM Radio.) Each show includes host Eric Kavanagh, a guest Analyst, and several industry experts brought together to discuss hot topics in Data Management. Every show is recorded and converted to a podcast within two US business days of the show. Some shows will keep the conversation going in a Webinar format at a later date or be followed by an article to dive deeper into the topics.

About Eric Kavanagh:
Eric Kavanagh CEO, The Bloor Group  Eric has more than 20 years of experience as a career journalist with a keen focus on enterprise technologies. He designs and moderates a variety of New Media programs, including The Briefing Room, DM Radio, as well as GARP’s Leadership and Research Webinars. His mission is to help people leverage the power of software, methodologies, and politics to get things done.

SAP Positioned as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Management Solutions for Analytics for Seventh Consecutive Year

SAP announced that it has been positioned by Gartner Inc., the leading provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry, as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Data Management Solutions for Analytics report — where SAP has been positioned as a Leader since 2013.

The evaluation is based on completeness of vision and ability to execute. According to the report, “Gartner defines a data management solution for analytics (DMSA) as a complete software system that supports and manages data in one or many file management systems, most commonly a database or multiple databases.”

“We are convinced that our improvement on the ‘ability to execute’ axis in the Leaders quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Data Management Solutions for Analytics report — as compared to the previous year — reflects the success of our customers and the value they create with SAP HANA. It’s the only data management platform with a multimodel database, advanced analytics, machine learning and AI capabilities,” said Gerrit Kazmaier, senior vice president, SAP Database and Data Management and SAP Analytics.

“Looking ahead over the next year, we are very focused on making enterprises more intelligent through our proven solutions for analytics and our data management portfolios available on premise and in the cloud.”

To qualify for inclusion in this Magic Quadrant, DMSA vendors must have had to support one or more of the following four use cases Gartner identifies that support analytics: traditional data warehouse, real-time data warehouse, context-independent data warehouse and logical data warehouse.

Read the full announcement on SAP.com 

What's new in SAP Data Hub 2.4?

Introduced in 2017, SAP Data Hub is the all-in-one data orchestration solution discovers, refines, enriches, and governs any type, variety, and volume of data across your entire distributed data landscape. It supports your intelligent enterprise by rapidly delivering trustworthy data to the right users with the right context at the right time.

SAP Data Hub 2.4 was released in Janaury 2019. While this is an incremental release, following the Introduction of SAP Data Hub 2.3 major release, it is more than just corrections and bug fixes. There are several new features and key enhancements which provide greater flexibility and more protection for customers.

What's new in SAP Data Hub 2.4:

Extending native connectivity to support more databases and applications
Today, SAP Data Hub already provides a broad spectrum of connectivity to big data and enterprise sources. As integration remains a building block for the digital transformation, one of the priorities is to continuously grow the native connectivity with more enterprise applications.

In this release, SAP added direct integration with several structured data sources including MS SQL Server, MySQL, IBM DB2, and Google BigQuery. Once a connection is established, SAP Data Hub will automatically crawl the metadata for these connected sources. You can then browse, view, profile, catalog, and share the data directly within the Metadata Explorer. In addition, there are more than 350 predefined operators and data pipelines that already exist ready to be used for supporting broader scenarios.

Enabling Data Lineage for disparate & distributed data sources
SAP introduced the SAP Data Hub Metadata Explorer in the previous release. The goal is to provide a centralized location for all data professionals to gain insights on diverse datasets in today’s modern distributed landscape.

This release SAP is increasing our investment in metadata governance by offering end-to-end support for data lineage at the schema level. You can use the new lineage analysis feature to view a graphical representation of the source, transformations, and dependencies of a dataset. Lineage information can be extracted from computed datasets such as SQL View, and other types of computations including stored procedures, BW transformations, datastores, and the Data Hub pipeline modeler.

The Data Lineage feature will further help you to gain visibility about your data assets and greatly simplify root cause analysis. You will have a clear understanding of the data’s origins, how the data may have changed, and which areas might be consuming the data.

The initial support is focused on SAP connections including Business Warehouse, HANA, Vora and data pipelines. Our plan is to extend this functionality towards all supported sources as well as allow a complete audit trails for business security and compliance in future release
.
Providing a new Anonymization operator for individual’s privacy protection
With GDPR being enforced in 2018, SAP knows meeting this regulation is still on everyone’s mind. Previously, you could use the data mask operator to mask out all or a portion of the data that contains sensitive information. Now, you can use the new anonymization operator to further protect the privacy of each individual identity by grouping similar records into a category. Thus, you can discover statistically valid insights from your data without risking re-identification of individuals.

View the full post on www.approyo.com

9.5 reasons to upgrade to SAP S/4HANA today

SAP S/4HANA is the digital core – the nerve center – of your entire business. It consolidates internal and external elements into a single, living structure that goes beyond traditional ERP software. In other words, it connects all your processes, provides you with live information and insights, and seamlessly integrates your enterprise with the digital world at large.

SAP S/4HANA 1809
SAP S/4HANA 1809, released in late 2018, significantly increases the possibilities for digital transformation across all lines of business. Imagine giving voice commands to your SAP ERP system and obtaining instant analytics. Or automating a large portion of your business processes, freeing employees for value-added activities. The streamlined architecture of the 1809 release is also scalable, enabling you to drive growth and profitability.

Enter the Intelligent Enterprise
Intelligent enterprises effectively use their data assets to achieve their desired outcomes faster – and with less risk. SAP is committed to helping every customer become a smart, best-run  business and make the world run better. SAP S/4HANA 1809 is the core to the intelligent Enterprise.

Intelligent Technologies will help SAP Applications differentiate while at the same time natively comprehending the context of the business application. This includes higher-order intelligence with many scenarios oriented along business outcomes and relevant to lines of business, feedback mechanisms leveraging IoT and business networks as data sources for training feedback, as well as actionable insights in order to derive connecting insights to strategic decisions via a consistent User Experience (UX).

9.5 reasons to upgrade to SAP S/4HANA right now:

1. Improve order fulfillment
2. Increase customer satisfaction
3. Reduce manufacturing error rates
4. Reduce procurement costs
5. Respond to market fluctuations faster than ever
6. Streamline your supply chain
7. Improve your manufacturing cycle time
8. Streamline your supply chain
9. Reduce unplanned downtime
9.5 The Intelligent Enterprise

Download the Whitepaper: 9.5 reasons to upgrade to SAP S/4HANA right now

SAP Releases Q4 and 2018 Results

SAP Announces Preliminary Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Results on www.sap.com. The results continue to show growth for SAP HANA and SAP S/4HANA. This growth mirrors Approyo's growth and accolades throughout 2019 and align with our vision as the premier SAP Platform as a service partner.

SAP Hits or Exceeds All Raised Outlook Metrics - Targets More Than 3x Cloud Revenue by 2023

• Cloud Subscription and Support Revenue Up 32% (IFRS) and Up 38% (Non-IFRS at Constant Currencies)  in FY 2018 
• Cloud Backlog Increased 30%, Exceeding €10 Billion at Year-End  
• Cloud and Software Revenue Up 5% (IFRS) and Up 10% (Non-IFRS at Constant Currencies) in FY 2018
• Cloud and Software Order Entry Exceeds €10 Billion, Up 14% at Constant Currencies in FY 2018
• Operating Profit Up 17% (IFRS) and Up 10% (Non-IFRS at Constant Currencies) in FY 2018  
• Guiding for Up to 39% Non-IFRS Cloud Subscription and Support Revenue Growth and Up to 10% Non-IFRS Cloud and Software Revenue Growth in 2019 at Constant Currencies  
• Guiding for Up to 11.5% Non-IFRS Operating Profit Growth in 2019 at Constant Currencies – Faster Than  Total Revenue Growth
• Targeting More Than €35 Billion in Total Revenue by 2023 

Full Year 2018 Highlights:
Even after multiple guidance raises during the year SAP met or exceeded all of its 2018 outlook metrics.

For the full year new cloud bookings were €1.81 billion, up 25% (up 28% at constant currencies). Cloud subscriptions and support backlog increased 30%, reaching €10 billion at year-end. Cloud subscriptions and support revenue was €4.99 billion (IFRS) or €5.21 billion (non-IFRS at constant currencies), achieving the full year outlook (€5.15 to €5.25 billion non-IFRS at constant currencies). Software revenue decreased 5 % year over year to €4.65 billion (IFRS), flat year over year (non-IFRS at constant currencies). New cloud and software license order entry exceeded €10 billion and grew by 14% at constant currencies year over year in the full year. Cloud and software revenue was €20.62 billion (IFRS) or €21.58 billion (non-IFRS at constant currencies), exceeding the full year outlook (€21.15 to €21.35 billion non-IFRS at constant currencies). Total revenue was €24.71 billion (IFRS) or €25.96 billion (non-IFRS at constant currencies), exceeding the full year outlook (€25.20 to €25.50 billion non-IFRS at constant currencies).

SAP’s rapidly expanding cloud business together with solid growth in support revenue continued to drive the share of more predictable revenue. The total of non-IFRS cloud subscriptions & support revenue and non-IFRS software support revenue was 65% of non-IFRS total revenue for the full year 2018, up 2 percentage points.

For the full year, operating profit was €5.71 billion (IFRS) or €7.48 billion (non-IFRS at constant currencies), achieving the full year outlook (€7.425 to €7.525 billion non-IFRS at constant currencies). Earnings per share increased 2% to €3.42 (IFRS) and decreased 2% to €4.35 (non-IFRS).

Operating cash flow for the full year was €4.30 billion, a decrease of 15% year over year. Free cash flow decreased 25% year over year to €2.84 billion. At year end, net liquidity was –€2.49 billion.

Fourth Quarter 2018 highlights
In the fourth quarter, new cloud bookings were €736 million, up 25% (23% at constant currencies). Cloud subscriptions and support revenue grew 41% year over year to €1.41 billion (IFRS), up 40% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Software revenue grew 1% year over year to €2.09 billion (IFRS), up 8% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). New cloud and software license order entry grew 18% at constant currencies year over year. Cloud and software revenue grew 9% year over year to €6.32 billion (IFRS), up 11% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Total revenue grew 9% year over year to €7.43 billion (IFRS), up 13% (non-IFRS at constant currencies).

In the fourth quarter operating profit increased by 22% year over year to €2.40 billion (IFRS), up 8% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Earnings per share decreased 8% to €1.41 (IFRS) and decreased 15% to €1.51 (non-IFRS).

SAP S/4HANA
SAP S/4HANA is at the core of the Intelligent Enterprise. With S/4HANA, customers automate more and more of their business processes enabling employees to focus on higher-value tasks. It detects patterns, predicts outcomes and suggests actions empowering companies across all industries to reinvent their business models for the digital economy.

S/4HANA adoption grew to approximately 10,500 customers, up 33% year over year. In the fourth quarter, more than 40% of the additional S/4HANA customers were net new.

Business Outlook 2019 
Reflecting SAP’s strong cloud and overall business momentum as well as the Qualtrics acquisition with a January 23rd, 2019 closing date, the Company is providing the following 2019 outlook:

• Non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue is expected to be in a range of €6.7 − €7.0 billion at constant currencies (2018: €5.03 billion), up 33% – 39% at constant currencies.  
• Non-IFRS cloud and software revenue is expected to be in a range of €22.4 – €22.7 billion at constant currencies (2018: €20.66 billion), up 8.5% – 10% at constant currencies.  
• Non-IFRS operating profit is expected to be in a range of €7.7 – €8.0 billion at constant currencies (2018: €7.16 billion), up 7.5% – 11.5% at constant currencies.  
• In addition, SAP expects total revenues to increase strongly, at a rate slightly lower than operating profit.
• The comparative numbers for 2018 do not include Qualtrics. Callidus revenue and profits are included in the comparative numbers from the April 5th, 2018 acquisition close date. 
• While SAP’s full-year 2019 business outlook is at constant currencies, actual currency reported figures are expected to be impacted by currency exchange rate fluctuations as the Company progresses through the year. 

Read the full results: https://www.sap.com/docs/download/investors/2018/sap-2018-q4-statement.pdf