This is the first time I’ve blogged about the SAP Analytics Extension Marketplace, a one-stop shop where SAP eco partners promote and sell tools to extend SAP Analytics products.
Now I don’t want to write a dull marketing piece about the site. Instead, I’ll first try to briefly describe its aims in plain terms and then follow up with a partner and customer perspectives in subsequent blogs.
If you’re familiar with SAP Analytics, then you probably know that we’ve concentrated on what’s called trusted data discovery and visualization with products like Lumira, Design Studio, Webi and many more.
But there’s only so much one company can do alone.
We rely on a growing ecosystem of partners – some niche and some giant blue chips – to fill the gaps. And those gaps are diverse. Every customer has a number of unique use cases. So it’s evident that one company will not meet every user’s requirements on its own.
We’ve got around 100 (and counting) SAP Analytics partner extensions on the SAP Analytics Extension Marketplace. And they’re built using SAP software development kits, meaning they’re reliable and secure.
So how can we integrate partner extensions with SAP Analytics products?
We’ve experimented with a number of different ways to make partner extensions very visible and accessible for users. And our methods have evolved to the point where we’ve started to embed a link– resembling a jigsaw puzzle piece – within SAP Analytics products, to appropriate extensions. And when you link to an extension, you’ll jump to that partner’s site, where you can test-drive and (if you choose) download the relevant tool instantly.
We don’t innovate alone.
Within SAP Analytics, I am responsible for vetting and growing our partner ecosystem. It’s not an easy task, since many companies want to nail their colors to our mast. But the role helps me to understand the multiplicity of our partners and customers. And that fascinates me. I hail from India and yet I am learning to appreciate the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of businesses in every corner of the globe. And now I have an opportunity to foster a huge community of partners to co-innovate and enable a spectrum of people who are driven to make things simple for users of SAP Analytics.
When I return home each evening (sometimes too late to tuck my baby girl into bed) I marvel at what dreams she might have. Instinctively, I know that she will leave her lasting mark on this world (because she is as smart as her mother). And I really think that she will best do that by reaching out to a talented community of like minds. So, when I encourage partners to join the SAP Analytics Extension Marketplace, I feel I’m helping to foster the next generation of cooperation, maybe hyper-collaboration, but certainly simplicity for analytics solutions.
See also
In my next blog, I will (or hope to) introduce a partner so that they can objectively tell of their experiences with the SAP Analytics Extension Marketplace.
Regards,
Vinay Hegde
Analytics Extension Expert
mail: vinay.hegde@sap.com