On the day of the 2011 SAP earnings press conference, last Wednesday, some news about SAP’s outlook for 2012 beyond financial projections came from Vishal Sikka, SAP’s CTO.  According to Sikka, SAP will offer support for SAP ERP on the SAP HANA in-memory database platform by the end of the year.

It has been known for a while that SAP has been planning to advance HANA as the underlying architecture for SAP of the future (see In-Memory Future: Gartner Assesses SAP HANA Architecture), although SAP only officially announced that HANA “is at the core of its platform roadmap” in December.

SAP’s offerings for making use of HANA’s in-memory technology so far have included HANA as an analytics appliance, specialty applications such as the SAP CO-PA Accelerator and SAP Smart Meter Analytics built on the platform.  One of the most recent offerings, SAP BW on HANA, is the first to access HANA as the database layer of the application.  SAP ERP on HANA is SAP’s next step toward making HANA the underlying platform for all of SAP.  After ERP, support is forthcoming for other modules of SAP’s Business Suite such as CRM and SRM.

At the end of SAP’s roadmap for HANA, the in-memory database will serve as the basis of a platform-as-a-service.

SAP has been slow to enter the cloud marketplace.  Its chief cloud offering, SAP Business ByDesign, was announced in September 2007, and at that time, SAP expected to reach 10,000 customers for this new solution by 2010.  By 2010, however, SAP did not have many more than 100 customers for ByDesign due to technical problems and release delays. Even now, the solution is available in very few countries; support was made available for Australia and Mexico only in the 3.0 release of August 2011.

Despite this slow start, adoption of SAP Business ByDesign is increasing.  Around this time last year, SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott said that SAP would reach 1000 ByDesign customers by the end of 2011.  SAP has reached this target, according to Euro Am Sonntag.  McDermott expects SAP’s ByDesign business to continue to grow, predicting that revenues for ByDesign will triple in 2012.

SAP has also been adding to its portfolio of software-as-a-service solutions with its OnDemand applications such as SAP Sales OnDemand, and SAP Carbon Impact OnDemand, and with its acquisition of SuccessFactors, which is moving quickly toward closure.  According to McDermott, the acquisition of SuccessFactors will give SAP the critical mass it needs for SAP’s cloud business to turn a profit.

SAP has kicked off 2012 with another acquisition.  This time, SAP intends to buy datango’s user training software.

datango, headquartered in founded in 1999, has built a comprehensive enterprise software training solution.  datango’s Performance Suite includes software that facilitates the development of training materials such as documentation, classroom presentations, e-learning sessions and online help.  datango’s solutions also include demos, simulated environments that support practice sessions and test sessions, in-line help in the live system, and automated translation support for 40 languages.

After the acquisition closes in a few months, SAP plans to integrate datango’s solution with its existing enterprise software offerings and rename it as SAP Workforce Performance Builder.  What will SAP Workforce Performance Builder offer to SAP customers?

The new solution from datango may be able to save SAP customers a substantial amount of time and money on user training. datango makes the following impressive claims on the efficiency of its product.

• Up to 80 % less time spent on preparing documentation
• Up to 30 % less time spent on presence training sessions
• Up to 60 % fewer standard inquiries at the helpdesk
• Up to 40 % less time spent on correcting errors
• Up to 90 % reduction in costs of Delta training courses

Markus Schwarz, Global Head of SAP Education, expects that this level of efficiency will be preserved when datango’s software is integrated with SAP and that the new training solution will lower the cost of SAP implementations.

As analyst Josh Greenbaum points out, good training has a positive impact in many areas of the enterprise.

[P]rocess mastery and overall software ROI is only the start. End users who are well-training tend to like their jobs more, customers who interact with well-trained employees tend to like their vendors better, and companies in regulated industries that train their employees well tend to stay out of regulatory purgatory more. There’s no end to the potential ROI of good training.

A less costly user training and support process for SAP will make it much easier to deliver the level of training that users require to help their businesses flourish.

SAP GRC Access Approver on iPhone (Screenshots: iTunes Store)

Access Approver for iOS was released by SAP a few months ago.  This app allows busy managers to approve, reject, or forward Access Requests and Firefighter Requests with a few thumb swipes while on the go.  The app displays access details and risk analysis, and gives managers the ability to include comments on approval or rejection of requests.

Requirements and Compatibility

On the back end, this application requires the most recent SAP GRC application, GRC 10.0.  NetWeaver Gateway 2.0 and the Sybase Unwired Platform make up the required middleware. On the front end, any mobile device running iOS 4.2 or later (iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch) can run this app.  Blackberries, Android devices, and Windows Mobile devices are not supported.

Watch the video below to see Chris Radkowski of the SAP GRC solution management team demonstrate the features of the SAP Access Approver app on the iPhone.

SAP’s CIO Oliver Bussmann, famous for rolling out one of the largest iPad deployments, is advancing toward his goal of being device agnostic by rolling out Android devices to SAP next week.  Although he is bringing a Kindle Fire as well as two Android devices (a Galaxy II S smartphone and a Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet), an iPhone, an iPad, and a BlackBerry with him on his tour to the 2012 International CES and the AppNation Enterprise Summit, he does not think the Kindle Fire is ready for the enterprise.

In November, Bussmann mentioned that he planned to test the new Amazon Kindle Fire for enterprise deployment at SAP as part of his device agnostic strategy. Since then, he has been testing an SAP BusinessExplorer app for the Kindle Fire. Bussmann does not think the Kindle Fire is ready for corporate use yet due to its lack of support for important business features such as VPNs, device encryption, and Microsoft ActiveSync.

Other Android devices, however, are ready for enterprise use in Bussmann’s estimation.  Next Monday, SAP will begin deploying Android devices, and will favor Samsung devices such as the Galaxy II S and the Galaxy Tab in the deployment.  In February 2011, Sybase announced a partnership allowing Samsung mobile devices to be optimized for Afaria, Sybase’s mobile device management system.  SAP manages its existing iPad deployment with Afaria and has chosen Samsung as its preferred Android device because of the security and consistency provided by Afaria.  Bussmann hopes to see 1000 Galaxy Tabs deployed at SAP by the end of 2012.

More iPads are in store for SAP employees as well.  SAP had deployed 14,000 iPads by the end of 2011 and Bussmann expects to see 20,000 iPads deployed at SAP by the end of 2012. The first wave of iPads were issued with CRM and BI tools installed to managers and salespeople.  Now, knowledge workers at SAP who generally remain in their offices are beginning to receive iPads.

Read more about Bussmann’s plans for mobility at SAP on Eric Lai’s UberMobile blog at Sybase.

As we invent new ways to capture and store information, companies acquire more and more data. As data grows, it becomes more and more important for companies to choose the most efficient database possible.  IDC, a market intelligence provider, recently published a white paper showing that Sybase ASE is worth a look in order to reduce database costs.

In a survey sponsored by Sybase, IDC examined cost factors involved in running a relational database management system in 12 companies selected from around the world and from various industries.  The companies IDC studied ran database systems from 7 different vendors in all, and an average of 3 different relational database management systems per company. IDC was able to compare costs for different database systems within the same company and across different companies.  IDC considered the costs over a 5 year period.

Read the complete IDC white paper here.

Cost Comparison

IDC considered software licensing and maintenance fees, hardware costs, staffing costs, and opportunity costs related to downtime in comparing the expense of Sybase ASE and database systems from other vendors.

Software licensing and maintenance fees

The survey found that license and maintenance fees for Sybase ASE were 31% less than fees for databases from other vendors when the license costs for a growing database were considered over a 5 year period.  The survey found that the average license fees for Sybase ASE were $17,800 per 100 users over 5 years.

Hardware Costs

Because of Sybase ASE’s compression technology, IDC found that Sybase ASE requires significantly less hardware than database systems from other vendors.  Sybase ASE required 24% less storage capacity and 29% less server processor power than other database systems in the survey.

Staffing Costs

IT staffing is the greatest factor in the cost of running a database management system; IDC’s survey found that database-related IT staffing cost companies an average of $253,862 per 100 users over five years and made up 75% of the total cost of running the database. Sybase ASE required an average of 27% less IT staff time to maintain than did database products from other vendors.  Sybase ASE’s self-management features account for the greatest time savings.  In the survey, Sybase ASE required 40% less time from staff for performance tuning, 39% less time for database configuration, and 33% less time for database maintenance, patching, and upgrades.

Opportunity Costs

In order to measure opportunity costs based on downtime, IDC considered loss of productivity for internal users, and loss of revenue from external users.  IDC found that users on a Sybase ASE database are affected by an average of 3.75 hours of unplanned downtime annually as compared to 7.17 hours annually for users on other databases for an average downtime savings of 48%.  Downtime costs were an average 39% less annually for Sybase ASE than for other databases.

The Bottom Line

When all the factors above are combined, Sybase ASE costs companies an average of 28% less than other database management systems. IDC estimates that Sybase ASE could save a company $129,000 per 100 users over 5 years when compared to other databases.

Switching the Database under SAP Business Suite

The authors of the IDC white paper argue that it is especially worthwhile to consider converting the database for SAP Business Suite to Sybase ASE.  They point out that since SAP manages data internally in a way that is independent of the underlying database system, converting SAP data from one database to another and tuning it is relatively simple when compared to other commercial applications.

If you are interested in doing a database conversion, BayForce can help.  Contact us toll-free at 877-642-4727 or via the form below to find out more about our SAP assessment and project resources.

SAP VP Jeff Word travels the globe answering questions about SAP HANA.  Recently, ASUG News was able to interview Word and ask a few questions of their own about HANA and SAP BW, reasons to adopt HANA, and the future for SAP DBAs.

According to Jeff Word, the two most common questions he hears about SAP HANA are first, “What happens when the power goes out?”, and second, in the context of running BW and the Business Suite on HANA, “When can I cancel my database contracts?” Although he did not give an answer to the second question, he explained that there are backups for the data in HANA  in case of a power outage and that SAP is working with hardware vendors to provide an integrated solid state drive back-up solution for HANA.

And the benefits of that as an appliance: Those drives are physically attached to the same motherboard that has the RAM on it, so you have a lot less latency. If there is a failure, you lose a lot less things in the pipes between the machines. And SSD is hundreds and hundreds of times faster than disk I/O, so you get much faster recovery times. Plus, it’s the same administration console [SAP admins] already use for back-ups today for SAP.

BW on HANA

Word shared a few details about the BW on HANA ramp-up program, which began on November 9, 2011.  There are between 50 and 60 customers participating in the program who were chosen to represent a comprehensive range of use cases for the database. These customers were chosen from among those who were already running NetWeaver BW 7.3, a prerequisite to running BW on HANA.

According to Word, transitioning data from a traditional BW system to HANA only takes a weekend because no changes are necessary in the BW system.  When transitioning to BW on HANA, however, there is also an opportunity to drastically reduce the size of the database, since HANA can parse the raw data without all of the formatting applied in successive BW upgrades.

Word would not reveal how BW on HANA is priced, but shared that “it’s cheaper than most people think.”

Where and Why to Start with HANA?

Word advises “HANA-ized” transaction reports as the easiest place to start when adding HANA to an SAP system.  He acknowledges that there is an additional cost to adding HANA in this way, but argues that there is a great return on investment in satisfying a person who keeps harping on the glacial pace of a transaction or report.

It may be the head of that department. They haven’t been able to do something because of this constraint of the system. There’s something they can’t do or do very, very infrequently as a result of this constraint. The head of controlling might want to come in every morning and run X report. But now, they can only do it on Monday, because it has to run over the weekend. There’s an ROI associated with that.

HANA and SAP DBAs

HANA will change the role of SAP Database Administrators, according to Word. Performance tuning will no longer be needed since HANA’s speed will remain constant. Even though most of an SAP DBA’s work is tied to performance, Word thinks there will still be a need for people with core database skills, but that DBAs will have to learn new skills to remain relevant in a HANA world.

You will still need people with that deep, deep data architecture understanding. But they’re not going to be doing the tuning that they’re doing in SAP today; they’re going to be doing something much more value added. So they will have to reskill to become data modelers and data architects—but it’s a very easy thing to retrain someone in a day or two to do that, using the data modeler from HANA or the new information composer. We’re moving and skilling up higher value activities for those same resources. Because you can’t take a kid out of college and teach them all of the database stuff, and turn them into a data architect.

To read the entire interview at ASUG News, click here.

With a stunning user experience and insightful analytic reports, SAP’s mobile BI applications are not only easy on the eyes but pretty intelligent, too.

Up until now, mobile analytics mostly focused on simply making business information accessible on mobile devices. For example, the SAP BusinessObjects Mobile app – delivered earlier this year with the SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 release – allows users to view reports on a smartphone or tablet. This is without a doubt an important part of increasing accessibility to BI content, but it is just the first step companies need to take in the process of unwiring enterprise analytics.

The next level of analytics involves exploring and actually analyzing vast information on a mobile device and entails taking advantage of third-party services like Google Maps, augmented reality, and intuitive views that present answers instantly. SAP is developing a new set of mobile analytic apps that support such capabilities. These apps go beyond simple on-the-go analytics and actually guide users through their information to help them understand root causes of business problems, get instant answers, and respond from anywhere.

For example, the SAP BusinessObjects Explorer mobile app enables users to find data simply by using key word search, sort and filter data, generate charts, interact with the data, and also share reports by email or bookmark. And since October of this year, integration with Google Maps and augmented reality capabilities are now a standard part of the app.

Leveraging the iPhone or iPad’s GPS location and compass, the SAP BusinessObjects Explorer mobile app is able to provide users with geo-localized business information. Users can call up a list of business locations, for example, and see the points of interest displayed either on a map or overlaid onto the real world. And simply by tapping a particular point of interest, users get more detailed information via the familiar SAP BusinessObjects Explorer interface. This video shows the app with its integrated augmented reality tools in action.

The SAP BusinessObjects Explorer mobile app is currently available for free in the App Store on iTunes. With over 240,000 downloads, it is one of the most downloaded business apps on iTunes. It is also the most used frontend to SAP’s powerful in-memory computing database, SAP HANA.

The next version will transform the way every employee interacts with analytics. (screenshot: SAP)

Planned improvements

The next release of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Mobile App is planned for Q1 2012. The updated version will have even more compelling visuals, will be integrated with solutions like SAP Streamwork and the SAP Sybase Unwired Platform, and will be available On Demand. A preview app, called SAP BusinessObjects Experience, provides a glimpse of the upcoming version. This preview app is free to download from iTunes; it is compatible with iPad and requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Planned for release in mid-2012, the new SAP Business Analytics Studio will be the first ever mobile analytics software development kit that allows SAP, partners, and customers to build custom mobile apps based on specific use cases for industries and lines of business. With this tool, developers will be able to embed analytics into any mobile app, blurring the lines between analytics, transactions and collaboration. For instance, a user can be in a workflow app and easily access analytic reports in order to make a more informed decision; or a user can be in an analytics app and then start a workflow to immediately act on a business problem.

Here is a video depicting how SAP can transform every person’s role in an organization with Mobile Analytics from SAP.

The Future is Now

Combining in-memory processing and SAP’s acquisition of Sybase and BusinessObjects, respective experts in mobility and business analytics, the latest mobile analytic apps deliver some truly impressive new features and functions.

Nevertheless, SAP is at work building even more features and functions in its mobile analytic apps that will enable every person to get instant insights, make informed decisions immediately, and deliver results anywhere. The next releases will include features like the ability to understand root cause instantly, perform what-if analyses, respond accordingly, and even start the appropriate workflow from within the application. This video depicts the near future of Mobile Analytics from SAP.

The following mobile analytic apps are already available today.

• SAP BusinessObjects Mobile
• SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
• SAP BusinessObjects Experience
• SAP BusinessObjects Strategy Management
• GRC Access Approver
• SAP Streamwork app for iPhone

These analytic apps compliment the broader suite of mobile apps from SAP. There are more than 30 apps available today, which can be found in SAP Store, the new home for SAP mobile apps. In this blog, Eric Lai, a blogger for Sybase, an SAP company, gives readers an introduction to SAP Store.

This article was originally published by Heather McIlvaine at SAP.info on January 5, 2012.

As the business world moves ever faster, the decision-making process must become both speedier and more accurate. Here are five tips for better decision-making.

It’s no secret that the success of any organization is directly linked to the quality of its decisions. Whether it’s a board-level assessment of strategy, acquisitions, and major projects, or the daily frontline choices made throughout the enterprise, all decisions can have an immediate, significant, and lasting effect on the success of the organization.

But as the pace of business continues to quicken, there’s less and less time to collect data and consider it. While time constraints have increased, so has the volume of data in our organizations, making it harder and harder to find the information needed to have a “single point of truth.” In its “Digital Universe Study,” IDC estimated that the volume of global data in 2005 was 130 billion gigabytes. This grew to 1,227 billion gigabytes in 2010 and is forecast to grow to 7,910 billion gigabytes in 2015.

Compounding the challenge, scrutiny by regulators, the media, and the community is at an all-time high. Small errors can be quickly magnified in social media, damaging reputations and requiring swift and sometimes expensive responses.

So, while we have unprecedented access to our data, the value depends on its quality. Before using data as a basis for a business decision, use these five questions to assess information:

Question 1: Is it reliable? Obviously, the more reliable the information – including how it is summarized and presented to the decision-maker – the better. Take an honest look at the process for providing the information to determine the level of risk that it might contain errors that matter. Consider:

• Is the information complete and accurate? Does it come directly from the corporate systems, where it is secured and subject to internal controls, or is it massaged in spreadsheets before being presented?
• Are adjustments made to the raw data based on an analyst’s judgment as part of the reporting process? If a report is from a data warehouse, is the data store secure and are all the reports working the way they should?

Question 2: Is it current? Is the data up-to-date, reflecting the current situation? Or is it based on financial statements that are weeks, if not months, old? Out-of-date data results in “managing through the rear view mirror,” trying to chart a course based on where you’ve been rather than where you are going.

Question 3: Is it timely? Is the information there when it is it needed, or is there a lag between request and fulfillment? If the first set of information doesn’t offer a complete picture, how long does it take to drill down into the data? Is it possible to ask multiple questions and get the answers fast enough to make quality decisions? Waiting hours or days to get needed insight is a competitive disadvantage; there’s always a risk that waiting for information will result in losing a window of opportunity.

Question 4: Is it useful? Having to wade through a stack of reports is not useful. Data that requires running additional reports or making inquiries because the information is unclear, or raises more questions than it answers, often does more harm than good. Instead, having the required information presented in a clear and easy-to-understand way is key. The old expression rings true: there’s a big difference between data and information.

Question 5: Is it at-hand? Global businesses are running faster than ever, and executives and managers need to make quick and educated decisions no matter where they happen to be. Information must be readily at hand anytime, anywhere. If it’s on a desk somewhere and a decision must be made quickly in the field, opportunities can slip away.

These five questions can be asked by decision-makers at any level of the organization. Executives and managers can use them to ensure they have the information they need to run the business when they need it, where they need it, in a useful form. Where there are gaps, corrective action can be taken quickly. Internal auditors can use these questions when they assess decision-making methods, which are part of almost every business process.

The pace of business is accelerating, but, thankfully, technology is also improving in its ability to deliver quality information. Queries that used to take nine hours (searching more than a billion records) can now be completed in just a few seconds, making it possible to ask follow-up questions and get answers before making a decision. Predictive analytics is also maturing, enabling more accurate predictions of future market activity.

While nobody has a crystal ball to tell the future and guide choices, reliable information gleaned from solid data is the next best thing when making business decisions. Don’t rely on anything less.

This article was originally published by Norman Marks at SAP.info on December 7, 2011.

With Windows 8, Microsoft is preparing for life after the PC. An app store and support for both touchscreens and mobile platforms are to make the next version of the company’s operating system a weapon fit for any arena.

The tried and true desktop PC now has 30 years under its belt. Most of those years have been spent with a loyal companion: the Microsoft Windows operating system, which debuted way back in 1985. These days, however, the PC seems passé, and new platforms like tablets, smartphones, and the cloud have long since begun encroaching on the erstwhile alpha’s territory.

And whither Windows? With Windows 8, Microsoft appears ready to make a significant leap, describing it as the most innovative release since Windows 95. Likely the most daring aspect of the transition is how Windows 8 will run not just on PCs, but on netbooks, tablets, and Windows phones, as well. Just a few of the new features include an app store, a touch interface, and tiles in place of windows. An alpha version – or the “third milestone” in Microsoft-speak – is currently available, and the first beta is expected to follow this fall.

The start screen displays your most important tiles, along with various information (screenshot: YouTube)

Multitouch, tiles, and 3D

At the recent All Things Digital D9 conference in California, Windows president Steven Sinofski unveiled acompletely revamped interface in comparison to Windows 7. Where once were windows is now a tile-based design – also known as Metro or Immersive UI – that users may recognize from Windows Phone 7. On the start screen, conventional programs and apps are displayed in this format and deliver information at a glance. The Outlook tile, for example, shows incoming mail in real time, and your browser presents your active downloads.

Available video demos reveal the multitouch gestures used to navigate in the system. You can open a tile simply by touching it, while swiping enables you to arrange programs next to each other and adjust their size. This makes it possible to display and run multiple programs on the same screen. Another swipe of the finger and new apps enter the screen. You can enter text using an integrated touch keyboard, which also gives you the option of dividing it ergonomically into left and right blocks. This interface variant is considered definite for Windows-based tablets, and is also probable for desktop PCs. Using the latter will, however, still be possible with a mouse and keyboard.

Meanwhile, insiders report that a 64-bit version intended for high-performance desktops will be capable of 3D effects. Word is that a version modeled on the Aero design of Windows 7 may also be available for platforms with less horsepower.

Touching the weather app tile, for example, brings up more detailed information (screenshot: YouTube)

Windows Phone Marketplace: the template for the Windows app store? (Screenshot: Microsoft)

32-bit and 64-bit versions

Although Microsoft originally announced its intention to offer only a 64-bit variant, it has since confirmed that Windows 8 will also support ARM processors. These chips – often used in tablets and smartphones – are currently only available in 32-bit configurations. The fact that mobile devices have limited working memory is another argument for a 32-bit version of Windows 8.

Meanwhile, a component known as Feature-on-Demand User Experience (FonDUE) could enable the operating system to start only certain applications and processes depending on the device in question. To ensure availability on all devices, Microsoft is also said to be working on a file system called Protogon – a successor of NFTS. The first hardware manufacturers to receive development kits for Windows 8 were Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA, as well as the ARM processor manufacturers Qualcomm and Texas Instruments.

App store

Causing the most stir, however, is the rumor that Microsoft is planning its own app store for Windows. The related discussion was stoked by a blog entry in which Steven Sinofski introduced all of his division’s developer teams – including an “app store” team. Through such a store, it would presumably be possible to purchase, download, and update apps. The corresponding developer platform, at the moment known only as “Jupiter,” allegedly ensures that all apps are compatible with Microsoft Silverlight and .NET. This would make true rich Internet applications (RIAs) possible. Installations are said to be based on the AppX standard, making them usable on both stationary and mobile devices. In addition to apps, Microsoft appears to be continuing its support of conventional programs, which may run in a Windows 7 mode.

Security from the cloud

To prevent hacking attacks, Windows 8 is expected to require activation through Standard OEM Activation (OA) 3.0, and the obsolete BIOS concept will be replaced by UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). Should the desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) concept come to fruition, cloud functions would provide a boost to the system’s security and usability.

By partially or completely outsourcing the operating system, network administrators would gain the ability to configure Windows 8 centrally and stop malware from directly accessing the Windows kernel. In addition, backups, security, functions, and multiple user accounts could be offered as cloud-based services.

Another new function, the touch keyboard (screenshot: YouTube)

New tools and functions

Among all the new features planned for Windows 8, Microsoft intends to rework the task bar, add in speech recognition, and include an icon that displays the progress of device driver installations. The system will also support both USB 3.0 and Bluetooth 3.0, and users should be able to activate an enhanced Task Manager through a registry key. Meanwhile, compatibility with disk images in ISO and VHD format will eliminate the need for programs such as Daemon Tools.

Those who have missed the “up one folder” button since Windows XP will be please to hear that this feature is making a comeback, and Windows 8 will also incorporate the online storage system Windows Live Mesh to a greater extent. Screenshots of the alpha version of Windows 8 reveal buttons for synchronizing local folders and making them available in the cloud. Much more vague, however, are signs pointing to a login process that involves Windows Live or face recognition. Gamers can continue to hope for an integrated Xbox service that may support the motion-sensing control system Kinect.

Here are some more of the key innovations Windows 8 is expected to offer:

New file management: Microsoft’s own studies have found that users are particularly dissatisfied with the current Windows file management system. Copying or moving files takes longer than two minutes 20% of the time; naming conflicts occur, and the entire process can fail because one particular file can’t be moved. Microsoft wants to change this with a window that displays copying processes and enables users to pause them individually. The source and destination folders in question are constantly visible, and a percentage indicates how far along each process is. Microsoft also plans to address problems related to file name conflicts.

Ribbon menu: You may already be familiar with this combination of menu control and toolbar from recent versions of Microsoft Office. Tabs at the top of Explorer reveal different sections of functions, replacing the previous “File,” “Edit,” and “View” drop-down menus. Though more intuitive for new users, many die-hard Windows users find this confusing, which is why the concept is not certain to be included.

History Vault: Like Apple’s Time Machine function, History Vault creates backups you can use to reset your computer to a specific point in time. This has the potential to make full reinstalls of Windows – in cases of lagging performance, for example – a thing of the past. Unofficial sources report that this function can also be used on individual objects and deleted files.

Quick start: A combination of “Shut down” and “Hibernate” makes for faster startup times. UEFI, the successor of BIOS, plays a central role in this feature while also conserving energy.

Immersive Reader: Replaces the notoriously error-prone Adobe Reader.

Windows 8’s new file management system makes copying files easier (screenshot: YouTube)

The motion-sensing input system Kinect: Will gestures someday replace touch interfaces? (image: Microsoft)

Final release: 2012?

As Microsoft has just issued the third milestone of Windows 8 – three being typical of Windows releases, the first beta version could arrive this fall. It is expected, in fact, to be presented at the BUILD conference, which is scheduled for September 13-16 in Anaheim, California. The conference will replace Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference (PDC), an event the company commonly uses to release beta versions of Windows. As for the release of the final version, forecasts range between early 2012 and later that fall.

Summary

Windows is the most-used operating system in the world. However, Windows 7 and its predecessor, Windows Vista, were targets of a broad range of criticism: The systems are known for consuming significant resources, suffering rapid declines in performance, and being neither intuitive nor attractive. Apple’s Mac OS X enjoys greater esteem, yet Windows’ high level of prevalence and standardization make it the first choice of companies in particular.

In recent years, Microsoft has been known more for maintaining its market power than for setting the pace of innovation, but this could change with Windows 8. A fresh design, cloud functionality, and above all, the compatibility advantages the company is promising among Windows-based PCs, phones, and upcoming tablets present compelling arguments to businesses. The question remains, however, as to whether Microsoft has already missed the boat on mobile platforms and will thus be more or less tied to the shrinking PC market.

Will Windows Phone 7 guarantee the success of Windows 8? (graphic: Microsoft)

This article was originally published by Daniel Hardt at SAP.info on September 8, 2011.