NetBase and SAP to deliver social media analytics to enterprises

In order to help global enterprises capitalise on the use of social media data, SAP AG and NetBase have announced that SAP will resell NetBase’s solutions as the SAP Social Media Analytics application by NetBase.

SAP Social Media Analytics, sold and supported by SAP as a solution extension product, delivers marketers more accurate real-time analytics for understanding their markets and customers through the social Web, the company said.

According to SAP, the solution processes billions of social media posts across millions of sites globally to extract structured insights and metrics that enterprises can use to quickly discover market needs and trends, quantify perceptions about products, services and companies, and effectively track their success in the market.

“The social Web provides marketers with an unprecedented opportunity to transform the way that we understand our consumers and go to market,” said Stan Sthanunathan, VP, Marketing Strategy and Insights, Coca-Cola Company. “The companies that can listen carefully to what the market is saying, understand these perceptions clearly, and act confidently are the ones that will gain competitive advantage. Hundreds of solutions claim to capture consumer sentiment, but NetBase stands alone in its ability to help us get to the bottom of opinions, emotions and behaviours.”

“Before social media, businesses were in control of their brand messaging,” said Peter Caswell, CEO, NetBase. “Now, the market is saying what brands are really about. To keep ahead of the curve, next-generation companies need to adopt a new customer-to-business (C2B) operating model that runs at the speed of social media and can deliver what the market wants. We have invested in the enterprise-ready social intelligence platform that C2B companies need. We are excited to be collaborating with SAP to help them make this transformation globally, ” added Caswell.

According to a report written by Zach Hofer-Shall, analyst at Forrester: “Too many companies remain trapped by merely monitoring or passively collecting social media. Few actually reach Social Intelligence: driving their marketing and business strategy using the data that social media creates. Today, companies underutilise social data and often leave it sitting in its own silo… By keeping social media in listening silos, companies are missing the biggest opportunity to connect social data with other customer data for deeper Social Intelligence.”

Both companies said that with the Social Media Analytics solution customers will now have a faster and more reliable means of monitoring and understanding the market’s reaction to new product launches, they would now be able to quantify market perceptions about products, services and brands and more accurately identify the strengths and weaknesses of competing products and brands. In addition to which customers would also be able to track the success of marketing campaigns and successfully tap and uncover trends in consumer preferences to gain a competitive advantage.

“SAP customers have recognised that social media offers them great potential beyond listening to and engaging with their customers,” said Sanjay Poonen, president, Global Solutions, SAP.

“We believe that sophisticated sentiment analysis is at the core of a variety of business decisions. NetBase offers scalable, more accurate technology; tools that are easy to integrate with SAP solutions; and iterative analysis capabilities that will allow businesses to take advantage of social media as a strategic data source. By teaming with NetBase and other partners, we continue to offer customers increased choice and flexibility through our vibrant global partner ecosystem and further extends SAP’s social enterprise strategy.”