SAP today introduced the SAP BusinessObjects Sales Analysis for Retail analytic application powered by the SAP HANA platform.

The application aims to offer prebuilt data models, key performance indicators (KPIs), role-specific dashboards, and customized reports to provide retailers with a deeper understanding of all factors influencing the merchandising life cycle.

Key features of SAP BusinessObjects Sales Analysis for Retail include the following:

• Point-of-sale (POS) analysis to allow retailers to assess performance and generate quick responses through the use of prebuilt dashboards, interactive reports, and more than 70 KPIs;
• Inventory management to allow retailers to identify critical stock and margin issues through close inventory alignment;
• Promotional analysis to enable retailers to understand the return on investment (ROI) and impact of promotions in real time, allowing users to set up thresholds, alerts, and workflows for an early response system that drives performance; and
• Store operations to help users understand which stores are performing best and why, allowing retailers to achieve visibility across locations and manage by exception.

SAP BusinessObjects Sales Analysis for Retail is planned for global availability to customers in the second quarter of 2012.