"We're in an information-gathering mode" regarding HANA, said an employee of a large energy company who attended Tech Ed, in an interview.

"We have a small project on the books for next year," added the employee, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. The company will search out potential use cases for HANA and look to perform a proof-of-concept, he said.

But other users are already convinced that HANA will provide broad value, and have invested accordingly.

Building materials supplier TAMKO implemented HANA to do operational reporting on its ERP (enterprise resource planning) system data, said Chuck Martin, director of application development, during a Tech Ed presentation.

After implementing SAP ERP software in 2007, accessing data within it began getting more complex and time-consuming, he said. "We couldn't get the reports out fast enough." The company also wants to give business users access to their own data and the ability to develop their own reports with the support of HANA, he added.