With Spatial Analytics, PLM is cool, too!

Former Member · ‎2014 Oct 06

Most of my fellow SAP Mentors are working on cool stuff like Mobile, Fiori, Design Thinking, Analytics, etc. However, for the rest of the SAP world that does not navigate at the forefront of SAP's development, there doesn't seem to be much happening. Such could be the vision of SAP's Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) offering. Yet, as a regular visitor to the SAP PLM conference over the last 3-4 years, I have witnessed the rise and integration of the-company-formerly-known-as Right Hemisphere. Let's have a tour in Spatial Analytics.

The Days of Right Hemisphere

Before its acquisition by SAP in the fall of 2011[1], Right Hemisphere was offering “solutions repurposing the existing 3D CAD data for visual communication”[2]. This may sound very technical, but the technology was already impressive, enabling companies to visualize entire models like airplanes or manufacturing plants with incredible response times, like in the video below:

Like every acquisition, it’s always hard to predict what will come out a couple years later.

SAP + Right Hemisphere = Visual Enterprise

Right Hemisphere is now called SAP 3D Visual Enterprise.robert.abarbanel had been on the Righ Hemisphere team for 2 years before the acquisition. He now acts as Product Owner in the SAP Spatial Analytics team of Vancouver, Canada.[3] If you meet him during his multiple speeches for the ASUG or at conferences, you’ll quickly feel his passion for 3D- and Geo-Spatial Analytics. Pretty soon, he’ll pop his laptop and give an impromptu demo of how to use SAP Visual Enterprise to perform Visual Analytics, even within your Microsoft Office Application.

In a recent meeting with the SAP Mentors, we asked Robert: besides rebranding, how are you integrating Right Hemisphere into the SAP & Business Objects portfolio?

Spatial Analytics

Now part of the SAP landscape, SAP 3D Visual Enterprise has been extended and its dedicated Software Development Kit (SDK)[5] has been used for several integration scenarios with other applications like Dashboard[6], Explorer[7], Lumira[8] or Design Studio[9]. These are still being developed, but here is a sneak peek.

Conclusion

In summary, here are 3 things you should keep in mind:

SAP Visual Enterprise allows companies to visualize in 3D,
- to use 3D Models as jumping off points into other data and KPIs, and
- to paint measures and values right on a 3D Model to increase understanding of the data taking advantage of human physical insight and relationships
SAP Visual Enterprise Viewer can be downloaded for free[10]
The SDK can be used to integrate Visual Enterprise to other applications

Now you know that SAP Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is cool, thanks to Visual Enterprise. Don’t hesitate to contact Robert Abarbanel (robert.abarbanel@sap.com) for more information.

Learn More

There’s a lot of information available on Visual Enterprise, here’s a selection of interesting links: