Only a third of the UK and Ireland SAP user organizations think they have the necessary skills to use all their data effectively. The SAP user group spans the two countries have published some research linked to its annual Analytics Symposium, an online event on 21 April. Its survey of 117 SAP user organizations revealed that 32% believe they have the necessary skills to use all their data effectively. Fewer than half (44%) think they have the essential data and analytics/intelligence technologies. This discovery is set against a context where their use of data for business intelligence and data analytics has increased. And nearly two-thirds (62%) said data analytics has helped them navigate the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chairman of the user group, Paul Cooper, said in a release about the research: “Even before the pandemic, the data demands on many organizations had risen significantly. Having the necessary data analytics technology and skills is becoming hugely important, as our research reveals 70% of organizations have executive or senior-level sponsorship of their data strategy.” Cooper is head of information systems at Burton’s Biscuit Company and the user group chairs.
The survey said that more than half (58%) use or plan to use SAP Analytics Cloud. Some 55% of organizations are currently using the Hana in-memory database. Of those organizations not using it, 45% said they were waiting to move to the entire SAP S/4Hana ERP system rather than purchasing the in-memory database separately. Cooper said in an interview with Computer Weekly, “The skills thing keeps coming through. And senior people in organizations have become more insight hungry. There is no point in giving a senior manager a whole pile of data. So, dashboards and visualization become all the more important to help them to ‘step through’ data.”
He said it would be interesting to see if longer-term IT investment projects will get going again over the summer as the pandemic begins to tail off instead of the short-term emergency projects that have characterized the pandemic period. “I was intrigued that people are waiting for S/4 to use Hana. Every organization will have different drivers. Some will want the performance of Hana [as a high-speed database], others will want it as part of a road-mapped journey to S/4, given the scale of that, in terms of IT, business, and [systems integration and consultancy] partner input.”
The survey revealed that of those organizations not currently using Hana, 45% said they were waiting to move to SAP S/4Hana rather than purchasing the in-memory database separately. Asked why customers would not reach for other suppliers, who specialize in data analytics rather than SAP, he said: “It comes down to integration. There are efficiencies if you can keep things together. And what I’ve seen of the analytics tools that SAP has been working on in recent years deliver on data visualization – like their digital boardroom concept.”
He said the pandemic had increased the need for better data analysis, as some companies have disrupted their business models. An example would be food outlets seeing more customers out of London with people working from home and not commuting into the capital. “And, regionally, things have been different in different phases of the lockdowns. So, companies need to track that and understand types of localization that were not there before.” When the survey respondents were asked about their most pressing business intelligence needs, data accuracy and consistency (22%), dashboards/visualization (20%), and using data to help reduce costs/wastage across the organization (17%) were the most commonly cited.
Strategic alignment
The research reveals that over half (55%) of organizations currently use Hana. Just over a quarter cited strategic alignment with SAP’s roadmap, probably about S/4. But processing data for real-time decision-making (17%) and a need to process growing data volumes (13%) were also cited, both of which are to do with Hana as such. “Hana has never had the level of interest of S/4 among our members,” said Cooper. “That has a broader impact, but some need speed, and others see it as a stepping-stone to S/4.”
Michiel Verhoeven, managing director of SAP UK and Ireland, said: “The availability of skilled talent is vital to the success of all organizations and the real growth of the UK and Ireland. Addressing the skills gap is a shared responsibility between industry, education, and government.” In the release, Cooper said: “While the SAP Hana in-memory database has certainly gained traction in recent years, the research shows that some organizations are simply waiting until they move to SAP S/4 Hana before taking advantage of the technology. Our member research last year revealed that the pandemic has impacted the speed at which some organizations are moving to S/4, so the challenge for many will be ensuring they can effectively meet their ever-changing data demands in the meantime.”
This raises the possibility that organizations might miss out on the high-speed data analytics capability offered by Hana and other in-memory databases – or other data management approaches that confer a similar speed benefit. “It’s mainly been the technical members as opposed to our applications – ‘what’s the business case?’ – type users who have been interested in it [Hana]. But some organizations might be missing out [by delaying Hana uptake till S/4 implementations].”
He added tof the research’s main discovery: “This research underscores what we found from the white paper on skills we published at the end of last year: a shortage of SAP skills is coming. If you look at classic SAP people in organizations, many haveworkedg with it since the mad rush of projects in the 1990s. They will soon be looking at their life/work choices. “Organisations, including my own and SAP, are looking at apprenticeships, but there is an underlying shortage looming,” he said.
