SAP HANA Goes Supersonic with Aerospace & Defense
The SAP HANA platform will soon take flight as part of the SAP for Aerospace & Defense solution portfolio’s latest expansion, the company announced Wednesday. Enterprise mobile apps, analytics solutions and SAP 3D Visual Enterprise applications will team with SAP’s flagship in-memory database technology to support manufacturing processes and more.
The expanded offering from SAP for A&D will also help original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) improve their aftermarket services. These services usually net higher profits than hardware, making them especially appealing to OEMs, according to Christopher MacLuckie, a solution manager with the A&D Business Unit of SAP Labs.
Players in this high-flying market must enhance their product lifecycle and asset management processes in order to stay competitive. And to keep the revenue soaring in, they must boost their win rates in the increasingly vicious business of bidding for contracts.
Aerial Combat
The battle to boost win rates can be as vicious as air-to-air dogfighting.
Aerospace giant EADS won its bid to build the U.S. Air Force’s KC-45 aerial refueling tanker in 2008, which sparked a lengthy and contentious challenge by its contract rival Boeing. Boeing won the rematch in 2011, delaying EADS’ plans to build a manufacturing complex outside Mobile, Ala.
EADS subsidiary Airbus broke ground on its Brookley Aeroplex last month. Keeping the feud alive, Boeing publicized further development of a South Carolina facility the following day.
Air Superiority
“Competition in this space is fierce, so providing superior customer service can be a huge differentiator,” MacLuckie said in a statement. “By integrating the latest technology into their aftermarket service processes, OEMs gain real-time insights into customer information and equipment status, enabling them to respond faster and improve service levels.”
SAP’s expanded A&D solution portfolio will help OEMs push the envelope and win in the aftermarket by:
- Improving customer service: SAP 360 Customer powered by HANA offers the latest customer relationship management functionality combined with in-memory technology to make sense of Big Data.
- Increasing productivity: SAP technology in enterprise mobility and visualization can help increase operational efficiency by supporting process workers with real-time, contextual data that leverages the latest advances in 3-D visualization.
- Improving equipment utilization: SAP Predictive Analysis software combines predictive functions with the in-memory technology of SAP HANA, enabling OEMs to mine and analyze their maintenance data easily and quickly.
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Now We’re Cooking with Jet Fuel
SAP’s A&D customers will demonstrate how they use these innovative technologies to boost their profitability in the aftermarket services business at SAPPHIRE NOW, May 14 to 16 in Orlando. They can create their own experience for the conference — and you can build your own agenda here.
Follow Derek on Twitter: @DKlobucher
Related Media:
“SAP for Aerospace & Defense” in SAP.com
“Airbus Breaks Ground in U.S. as Boeing Expands” in Aviation International News
“American Eurocopter: Meeting Government Regulations for Asset Management” in SAP.com
Derek, loving all of the great HANA news you've been publishing lately. Exciting stuff. This latest A&D example is a great showcase of how businesses can gain a competitive edge when the right technology is deployed.
Thanks, Tim. I'm frequently surprised by how much time and money companies can save by implementing the right technology.