Business Software

SAP (News - Alert), the world’s largest maker of business software applications, said an update of its data-analysis software will work to enhance its customer base, as well as increase revenue, in a press release.

SAP is now shipping selected customers the most recent version of its programs from BusinessObjects, the fourth edition. The company bought it for an astounding $6.8 billion in 2008.

The new more advanced program, will be available to the public starting in May, and will be shown at an event in New York tomorrow. The updated business software’s new design is more user-friendly and can implement and look at data from numerous sources.

“There’s a lot of pent-up demand,” said Dave Weisbeck, senior vice president for SAP’s solution management, business intelligence and enterprise-information management. The business software can be used on smartphones and tablet computers, making it more accessible to new users who want to analyze data from their own operations or from social media comments on the Web, he said.

Within companies that have SAP’s business-intelligence software, probably only about 10 to 15 percent of employees actually use it. The ability to use the analytics tool on mobile devices will make it more widely accepted, Weisbeck said in an interview.

The release is a first step for in-memory technology, which lets users access and analyze data in real time, Poonen and Weisbeck said. In the future, it will be available as a database that works with SAP’s Business By Design software, which users can access using the Web.

The software will be available on various mobile devices including Apple (News - Alert) Inc.’s iPad, and will support mobile-operating systems including Google Inc.’s Android and Microsoft (News - Alert) Corp.’s Windows Phone 7.