Although there are some obvious user cases for leveraging the power of in-memory computing in Finance, such as easier reporting of data held in the depth of ledgers and controlling modules, perhaps the most compelling is facilitating driver-based planning and budgeting.

This means that rolling re-forecasts can be rapidly produced simply by inputting new driver data such as the number of orders, the sales volume by SKU or one of a multitude of internal consumption ratios.

If you wanted to move further upstream with demand drivers, you might choose to integrate things such as market size, market growth and market share.

Interesting budgeting guru Steve Player suggests in his latest blog that we should perhaps go further by integrating back as far as measures of customer sentiment garnered from social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

By combining SAP solutions such as SAP BPC and SAP Social Media Analytics this is now possible, but where would you draw the line on integrating drivers into planning?