SAP CRM Benefits from NetWeaver Update

NetWeaver updates will be accessed by mySAP CRM 4.0, providing analytic applications to business users of the suite.

HANOVER, Germany—The update to SAP AGs NetWeaver business integration platform announced at CeBIT 2004 here Thursday will give a boost to SAPs customer relationship management applications, according to company officials.

NetWeaver updates will be accessed by mySAP CRM 4.0, providing analytic applications to business users of the suite. The NetWeaver 2004 update will also provide mySAP CRM with a new high-speed search engine, which will allow users to segment customer data.

NetWeaver 2004s business intelligence and portal components provide new analytic extensions to mySAP CRM, giving business users the ability to design analytic processes that map to their business processes. Users will be able to design software agents that run in the background, analyzing data from multiple business applications, then feeding the information back into operational CRM processes, such as for a call center or marketing application.

"Were bringing advanced analytics to frontline users," said Siegfried Leiner, vice president CRM product management at SAP. "This technology is easy for specialists, but now were making it relevant for day-to-day users. They can improve their decision-making and make better use of the tons of data in their organizations."

NetWeaver 2004s new in-memory database technology will bring a new search engine to mySAP CRM. The search engine will be able to search millions of records from multiple data sources in seconds, according Leiner. Its expected to be particularly useful in the marketing campaign modeling process as users will be able to determine specific customer segments to market to, Leiner said.

"Were giving the end user what they need most—speed," said Leiner. "Theyll be able to do in seconds what used to take hours and days."

The analytics extensions for mySAP CRM will be available to customers in June, with the high-speed search engine to follow in September.

In addition to the NetWeaver 2004 launch, SAP announced at CeBIT a partnership with Visa International to integrate NetWeaver and the Visa Commercial Format (VCF), a data set containing enhanced spending data from all Visa Commercial payment products. The integration is expected to give clients of both companies better visibility and utilization of spending data without the costs normally associated with companies efforts to perform such an integration. Visa Commercial travel and entertainment (T&E) data will flow directly to SAP ERP systems, officials said.

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