SAP Names Cathy Daum Vice President

SAP Names Cathy Daum Vice President of Indirect Channel in EMEA NEWS Region

PARIS, France - March 29, 2006 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that it has named Cathy Daum, a specialist with 20 years of channel and IT industry experience, as vice president of its Indirect Channel organization serving small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) in North, East, West and South (NEWS) region of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

In her new position, Daum is responsible for building and enabling a strong channel which will act as an extension of SAP’s own sales and delivery force in the SME market to significantly grow revenue generated through the company’s growing indirect channel. Daum is a member of SAP’s EMEA NEWS executive team in Paris, reporting to Eric Duffaut, senior vice president for small and midsize enterprises in EMEA NEWS and member of the EMEA NEWS leadership team.

Daum’s appointment comes as SAP enters its next phase of momentum in SME and partner channel growth. As a core part of its strategy, SAP is introducing a new go-to-market model aimed at opening more business opportunities to partners and increasing SAP’s engagement with its growing partner network. Daum will oversee the regional roll-out of the SAP PartnerEdge™ program for channel partners. With its unique system of value points and focus on long-term customer satisfaction, SAP PartnerEdge provides the infrastructure and toolset for channel partners to be successful.

Currently, SAP has nearly 2,800 customers and nearly 300 partners in the EMEA NEWS region for mySAP™ All-in-One. SAP® Business One, its business management solution for small companies, subsidiaries and enterprise business units, now has more than 4,300 customers and a partner network of nearly 500 delivering the solution to businesses in EMEA NEWS.

Daum gained her extensive experience in strategic planning and operational execution during 12 years in senior pan-European management positions. Prior to joining SAP, she served as vice president at BEA Systems, where she was responsible for all BEA partnerships and strategic alliances in EMEA. She has also worked for Vignette, IBM and Lotus.

Daum holds a master’s degree in Modern Language Studies from the University of Cambridge.

SAP America Invests in Financial Services with New Hires

SAP America Invests in Financial Services with New Hires



NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. - March 28, 2006 - SAP America, Inc., a subsidiary of SAP AG (NYSE:SAP), today announced a series of executive appointments to expand and enhance its financial services division. The executives will report to Jim Hughes, senior vice president of SAP for Financial Services, North America. Recently honored by FORTUNE magazine as one of America's most-admired computer software companies, SAP is a popular choice for workers and customers who consider SAP a safe haven amid the turmoil of consolidation in the software industry.

“We have a strong commitment to provide innovative financial services solutions for our customers, and this industry continues to be a strategic priority for SAP America,” said Jim Hughes, senior vice president of Financial Services. “Financial services software experts see SAP as the force driving the industry, especially in the North American region. Our expanding team provides a comprehensive portfolio of banking and insurance industry knowledge to the marketplace.”

The recent appointments to SAP’s financial services division include:

John Burke, vice president of Insurance Solutions, heads the North American Insurance Solutions division, where he is responsible for integrating the pre-sales and industry principal teams for the North American insurance market. He joins SAP from Siebel, where he served as an insurance vice president and general manager. Burke's 22 years of insurance industry experience originates from positions held at Oracle, The Travelers Group and Progressive Insurance.
Edward Chick, vice president of Banking, Leasing and Capital Markets for North America, leads the sales team. He joins SAP from Siebel, where he served as a regional sales manager for financial services. Chick brings more than 20 years of international experience in sales, marketing and business development.
Steve Hancock, insurance industry principal, has 22 years of insurance industry experience, including posts at Computer Sciences Corporation, where he led strategy, development and sales support of the claims management solutions.
Patrick Miller joins SAP as insurance industry principal. He joins from the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. Miller has more than 15 years of insurance experience in operations, policy management, customer service, strategic marketing and partner integration.

FORTUNE Magazine Ranks SAP

FORTUNE Magazine Ranks SAP Among Its Top Three Most Admired Computer Software Companies in America

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. - March 06, 2006 - – FORTUNE magazine has ranked SAP AG (NYSE: SAP), the world’s leading provider of business software solutions, No. 3 in the Computer Software category in FORTUNE’s annual ranking of America’s Most Admired Companies. The entire list of rankings is posted on www.fortune.com and appears in the March 6, 2006, print issue of FORTUNE magazine.

“SAP is honored with the number three ranking among FORTUNE’s most-admired computer software companies in America,” said Bill McDermott, president and CEO, SAP Americas. “This reflects the hard work of our employees, whose dedication to maintaining record high customer satisfaction levels is the foundation of our success.”

According to FORTUNE, the most admired companies are those known for high-quality products and services, driving innovation, effectively managing talent, delivering consistent returns to shareholders, and demonstrating social responsibility.

With an overall score of 7.28, SAP achieved especially high ratings in innovation, employee talent, social responsibility and quality of products and services.

“We place a strong emphasis on investing in our products, employees and our community,” said McDermott. “We believe investors and analysts recognize the value of our company through SAP’s consistently strong results and our focus on enabling every customer to become a best-run business.”

FORTUNE’s annual list of “America’s Most Admired Companies” is based on a survey of the top managers and analysts representing 582 companies across 65 industries. Participants are asked to rate companies in their respective industries based on eight attributes: innovation, employee talent, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment and quality of products/services.

SAP’s Shai Agassi Provides Vision

SAP’s Shai Agassi Provides Vision for the Next Evolution of Enterprise Software – the Web Services Wave

Industry Thought Leader Delivers Vision for Marketplace in 2015 and Makes Call to Action for Partners to Collaborate to Drive Economic Growth

HANOVER, Germany - March 08, 2006 - During a featured keynote at the International CeBIT Summit, Shai Agassi, president of the Product and Technology Group and executive board member, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP), discussed how industry trends are driving the next wave of product innovation during the coming decade. Agassi detailed how IT can play an increasingly strategic role for every business around the world and in turn drive exponential growth in the global economy. During the summit, Agassi joined an elite delegation of speakers from trade, industry and politics, including Colin MacLean Boyd, CIO, Sony Ericsson; Dr. Thomas Endres, CIO, Deutsche Lufthansa; and Yang Yuanqing, chairman of the board, Lenovo Group, who presented their thoughts about global IT trends and issues. The announcement was made on the opening day of the CeBIT 2006 trade fair, being held in Hanover, Germany, March 9-15.

“The power behind a highly collaborative, open ecosystem of partners who together build the common business language that allow customers large and small to drive innovation throughout their organization will also fuel economic milestones for decades to come,” said Agassi during his keynote address to 500 attendees gathered at the event. “We are already seeing that this can happen when collective innovation is realized within the ecosystem, with more than 1,000 ISVs committing to building solutions on the SAP NetWeaver platform. It is just a taste of what’s to come for our joint customers who are yearning for software companies to join together under a common platform to enable business process innovation.”

Agassi described the three enterprise software waves that the industry passed through during the 1980s, 1990s and the early part of this decade. The first enterprise software wave was the mainframe wave in the 1980s, where companies started utilizing and processing stored information to more effectively run their businesses as well as service their customers. The client/server wave disrupted the mainframe generation by allowing customers to better leverage software as a strategic enabler of globalization. Next came the Internet wave in the 1990s. This third wave helped to drive transparency of information inside corporations and across the value chain, providing efficiencies in companies’ sales, supply chain and research and development.

During this time, companies were investing heavily in technology, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other applications, in order to gain these greater efficiencies. The pace of innovation at this time was unprecedented and companies were using software to more effectively manage growth in an efficient way. The big payoff from the 1990’s was that investments in ERP systems allowed back-office and front-office applications to be seamlessly connected, allowing for user productivity. Agassi described how SAP has helped companies for the past three decades grow their business and manage these three waves.

Agassi said that SAP is well-positioned to continue to be a trusted partner during the newest wave—the Web services wave. “Increased flexibility and speed are the business requirements that will be served as customers begin their migration to services-based solutions,” said Agassi. “This next wave of innovation will be enabled not just by the technology infrastructure but by agreement on a common language of business, which will give customers the ability to change processes very rapidly to address their growing needs. SAP is working to deliver both the infrastructure and the common business semantics to enable global businesses to operate.”

In order to build out the Web services that are essential for business, SAP is providing the solid foundation for companies to grow their businesses through a business process platform based on SAP NetWeaver®. SAP is continuing to invest in building out a robust partner ecosystem, an ecosystem that will leverage these business services to drive a new wave of innovation that provides customers with the nimble solutions they require.

“Today information is power,” said Agassi. “Our focus is to empower all employees, not just select few, by allowing them to effectively tap into and leverage the data that resides on their SAP and non-SAP systems. SAP believes that people like their current user experience, but want business process context to be part of it. We want business users to utilize this data to accomplish daily tasks in more productive ways and make complex tasks simple.”

Project Mendocino, the joint initiative between SAP and Microsoft to revolutionize how information workers leverage enterprise applications and desktop productivity tools, is an example of how two companies can work together in the new Web-services environment to deliver a powerful solution that saves customers time, resources and money.

Agassi concluded his speech by highlighting what the audience can expect to see from SAP in the near future.

“There are three things that SAP has built as the foundation for our global business during the past 30-plus years – a promise to continue producing the best products in the market; an ethical commitment to increasing shareholder and stakeholder value through strong financial results and commitment to all people in SAP and our eco-system; and the ability to maintain our leading market share position through organic growth of our business,” said Agassi. “We’re 100 percent committed to innovation as well as enhancing what is already the strongest software portfolio in the market. SAP has been a leader for three decades in anticipating what will be the next technology wave and then delivering the right solution at the right time, and we will continue to do so for decades to come.”

SAP and Siemens Financial Services Expand Partnership to Meet Growing Demand for Affordable, Flexible IT Financing Tools

SAP and Siemens Financial Services Expand Partnership to Meet Growing Demand for Affordable, Flexible IT Financing Tools
Strong Initial Success Leads to Program Expansion into Five Additional Countries


HANOVER, Germany - March 09, 2006 - Building upon a long tradition of offering value-added services to their customers, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and Siemens Financial Services GmbH (SFS) today announced the expansion of their financing partnership for SAP® solutions into five new markets: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden. SAP Financing services offer a range of affordable financing options for companies and public sector organizations of all sizes who are investing in IT solutions as part of their growth strategies. The announcement was made at the CeBIT 2006 trade fair, being held in Hanover, Germany, March 9-15.

Marketed through “SAP Financing” and operated by SFS, the financing offerings for SAP solutions are now offered in a total of 18 markets, with availability expected in a total of 41 countries by mid-2006. The rapid expansion plans are in response to strong market demand at the outset of the offering: After 150 days on the market, customers in 13 countries have requested financing with a total volume of 67 million euros. By expanding the offering to further markets, SAP and Siemens Financial Services aim to meet an increasing global demand for IT: According to a current survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit1, more than two-thirds of executives of small and midsize businesses in Europe, Asia Pacific and the United States singled out IT as central to their growth strategies.

Launched in October 2005, SAP Financing services are tailored to meet the specific cash-flow requirements of customers choosing SAP solutions (see press release titled “SAP and Siemens Financial Services Make Financing SAP® Solutions Easier and More Affordable,” at: “http://www.sap.com/Company/Press/Press.epx?PressID=5052). These services conveniently cover all costs of SAP and partner software on the SAP price list as well as hardware, internal and external services and maintenance during project installation for SAP solutions. Offered through all SAP sales channels, including value-added resellers, independent software partners and implementation partners, SAP Financing offers businesses and public sector organizations of any size an affordable IT road map to help spur business growth.

Germany-based Raiffeisen Waren-Zentrale Rhein-Main eG (RWZ), an agricultural production tools and organic goods supplier, is now leveraging a preliminary financing phase of 12 months for its implementation of mySAP™ Business Suite.

“There are a lot of factors to weigh in making any purchase decision and all too often the financing process gets bogged down in red tape or takes a back seat to running the day-to-day business,” said Manfred Schorn, head of the Finance service unit, RWZ. “SAP and Siemens Financial Services created a sound financial plan, fast and free of hassle, and a customized implementation concept, addressing both our budgetary and business needs with a viable solution.”

“Tailor-made financing packages facilitate technology investments for all sizes of companies,” said Joachim Diers, international program manager, SAP Financing, Siemens Financial Services. “By using SAP Financing to spread the costs over time, existing credit lines can be preserved and cash flow improved. As the total costs of the IT solution can be predicted and planned up to seven years, companies gain a competitive edge.”

“Our partnership with SFS has yielded tremendous early results,” said Thomas Baur, head of SAP Financing, SAP AG. “In only five months since its inception, we’ve seen a growing demand for our offering with SFS because it provides existing and prospective SAP customers of all sizes with simple, affordable and all-inclusive financing options. We look forward to collaborating with SFS to accelerate the reach of our partnership into five new markets.”

SAP Delivers New Supply Chain Solution to Help Companies Capitalize on Market Change

SAP Delivers New Supply Chain Solution to Help Companies Capitalize on Market Change
New Release of mySAP™ Supply Chain Management Creates Adaptive Supply Chain Networks That Intelligently Synchronize Supply and Demand


HANOVER, Germany - March 09, 2006 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today launched a new version of its supply chain management solution to help companies further evolve traditional, linear supply chains into flexible and dynamic networks of supply chain partners. The latest version of mySAP™ Supply Chain Management (mySAP SCM) offers new industry-specific functionality; strengthens demand-driven fulfillment networks; links service and product supply chains; and further enables companies to create an adaptive supply chain network. Companies using the new capabilities can increase their supply network productivity and profitability by identifying and capitalizing on sudden changes in supply and demand. The announcement was made at the CeBIT 2006 trade fair, being held in Hanover, Germany, March 9-15.

With more than 13,600 active mySAP SCM customers in all market segments and more than 1,800 running advanced planning, optimization and collaboration tools from SAP in conjunction with their supply chain execution systems, SAP has achieved its market-leading position by empowering companies to balance two opposing priorities: the need for efficient operations of stable business processes and the need to instantly adapt to rapidly changing business conditions. Capabilities from the latest release of mySAP SCM address both of these concerns.

Synchronizing the Service Supply Chain with the Product Supply Chain
Many companies have begun to recognize that the after-sales market now represents a significant revenue opportunity. A critical element to serving this market is to collaborate with business partners by synchronizing and integrating a company’s service supply chain with its product supply chain. mySAP SCM achieves this through service parts planning and execution capabilities that leverage SAP NetWeaver® to deliver a solution that is integrated by design—not stitched together after-the-fact, as is common in competitive solutions. The new capabilities enable end-to-end business process integration in complex and distributed environments, resulting in higher flexibility, visibility and adaptability to business changes. The benefits of this approach include higher forecast accuracy and performance for all parts, including those with irregular demand patterns. This in turn results in reduced inventory levels, improved working capital and customer service levels and lower operating costs.

Caterpillar Logistics Services Increases Supply Chain Adaptability
SAP customer Caterpillar Logistics Services, Inc. is currently in the process of implementing the latest release of mySAP SCM with the goals of increasing the adaptability of its service supply chain and enabling its network to intelligently replenish and produce based on actual demand.

“We chose to collaborate with SAP in the development of mySAP SCM in order to provide our customers with a comprehensive systems offering capable of delivering competitive solutions in the marketplace,” said Mary Bell, chairman and president, Caterpillar Logistics Services, Inc. “We are confident that mySAP SCM will support us in optimizing the logistics performance of many of our current and future clients. The mySAP SCM offering, combined with Cat Logistics’ processes and logistics professionals, will position us to continue providing global logistics excellence well into the future.”

“SAP is a leader in software ramp-up processes and deployment,” said Lora Cecere, research director, AMR Research. “Customers that take advantage of this early adoption program will get closer access to the SAP development team, creating a system that distinguishes them from competitors.”1

New Capabilities Aid Manufacturing, Distribution-Intensive and Service Industries
The latest version of mySAP SCM offers new industry-specific functionality, including new forecasting and replenishment for retail operations. This functionality enables retailers to strike a balance between increased customer service levels and overall lower merchandise inventory. Enhanced capabilities help retailers replenish products with long lead times, handle seasonal products and introduce new products with short product life cycles using historical information on similar products to forecast demand.

Companies in the apparel and footwear industry can take advantage of new supply chain planning and collaboration capabilities to help retailers plan seasonal products using seasonal views and to source and replenish these products over a global network of factories or vendors at the store, style, size or color level.

New capabilities designed for other important industries include:

Enhancements to help consumer products and chemicals industries companies transform their supply chains into demand-driven supply networks that recognize promotion and turn business.
New project-management capabilities in SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO) for industrial machinery and components and aerospace and defense industries that support multilevel planning and adaptiveness in bottleneck situations.
Adaptive manufacturing enhancements that improve productivity and usability in planning and scheduling transactions, maintenance of the planning environment and support for integrated business planning.
New supply network collaboration capabilities that support Kanban and distributed manufacturing to enable supplier-managed inventory.
Visibility that keep companies apprised of the health of their supply chain, send notifications when exceptions occur and track key performance indicators to help manage the supply network with maximized efficiency.

Services-Based Approach Provides Maximum Flexibility
By leveraging the SAP NetWeaver platform, mySAP SCM can integrate with a company’s existing technology infrastructure and provide visibility across the business network. In addition, the SAP NetWeaver platform allows companies to create composite applications on top of mySAP SCM and across other SAP and non-SAP solutions to evolve and maximize the performance of company-specific business processes.

“To respond swiftly to shifts in customer demand, market opportunity or external threat, supply chain networks must be flexible and dynamic,” said Harald Stuckert, senior vice president and general manager, Extended Supply Chain Solutions, SAP AG. “The latest release of mySAP SCM makes the vision of adaptive supply chain networks a reality. Intelligently, these networks can sense and respond to changes in market conditions and to internal supply of products and services to help companies operate more efficiently and, ultimately, more profitably.”

SAP NetWeaver® Extends Adaptive Computing Capabilities to Companies

SAP NetWeaver® Extends Adaptive Computing Capabilities to Companies Running on the Microsoft Platform
SAP Invites Partners to Participate in the Adaptive Computing Compliance Test to Bring Greater Efficiency and Flexibility to IT Environments


HANOVER, Germany - March 09, 2006 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that it is extending the adaptive computing capabilities of the SAP NetWeaver® platform to Microsoft environments. Adaptive computing allows customers to run applications as services on any shared computing resource at any time, reducing cost of ownership by up to 40 percent. The enhancements from SAP allow companies using both SAP NetWeaver and Microsoft operating systems to run multiple instances of enterprise software or databases on the same server through “virtualization” of applications from hardware resources. With more than 50 percent of SAP applications running on the Microsoft platform, this extension doubles the reach of application virtualization to thousands of mutual SAP and Microsoft customers. The announcement was made at the CeBIT 2006 trade fair, being held in Hanover, Germany, March 9-15.

Lower Costs and Greater Scalability for Current and Future Projects
“Customers are on a treadmill of complexity and cost that limits the value IT delivers to the business,” said Zane Adam, director, Windows Server Division at Microsoft Corp. “Virtualization is a key technology to help liberate IT but must be implemented as part of a broad approach of enabling self-managing dynamic systems. Together with SAP, we have taken a large step forward in our effort to help customers lower their total cost of ownership and allow for greater innovation within their business. This type of adaptive computing will enable a cost effective deployment model for our mutual customers.”

By making its adaptive computing capabilities available on Microsoft operating systems, SAP is allowing companies to virtualize not only current applications and databases, such as mySAP™ Business Suite and Microsoft SQL Server, for lower costs and scalability, but also new products from SAP and its partner ecosystem of independent software vendors (ISVs). Due to the adaptive computing capability of the SAP NetWeaver platform, applications need not be re-written or modified in any way. Application virtualization is code free, independent of application design, available out of the box, and certified to run any current or future application on all tested configurations.

SAP’s Open Partner Ecosystem
Today’s announcement demonstrates SAP’s commitment to work closely with its technology partners to ensure customers have the widest possible choice of operating systems, servers and storage technologies. SAP formed the Adaptive Computing Council (ACC) in 2003 as an open forum for proactive information exchange and ongoing collaboration between SAP and its ACC partners. As part of this effort, SAP and its partners abide by a two-level quality assurance code that covers compliance testing and interface certification for adaptive computing, ensuring a robust, tightly-integrated customer solution.

“This is another powerful example of successful, customer-driven collaboration between SAP and Microsoft, following Project Mendocino, the first joint-product initiative between SAP and Microsoft,” said Ori Inbar, senior vice president of Solution Marketing for SAP NetWeaver, SAP AG. “There is a large universe of customers who use both Microsoft .NET and SAP NetWeaver. It was crucial that both companies work together to enhance flexibility and make system management easier. The collaboration between SAP and its ecosystem is allowing customers to save on IT costs and deploy their savings to increase innovation across their lines of business.”

SAP Sharpens Application Management Tool to Help Customers Easily Master

SAP Sharpens Application Management Tool to Help Customers Easily Master Their IT Environments
New SAP® Solution Manager Drives Bottom-Line Benefits from Top-Ranking SAP Standard Support


HANOVER, Germany - March 09, 2006 - Continuing its strong track record of offering customers unparalleled value in support services, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the latest version of the proven SAP® Solution Manager, a set of tools, content, services and best practices from SAP to help customers increase the reliability of their solutions, enhance support for all aspects of their solution deployment and drive down the associated costs of managing their IT environments. The new SAP Solution Manager offers enhanced support for collaboration between SAP and customers’ support organizations, a new interface that integrates help-desk products from third parties, as well as best-in-class remote diagnostic capabilities for Java-based solutions. The announcement was made at the CeBIT 2006 trade fair, being held in Hanover, Germany, March 9-15.

SAP Solution Manager is provided to customers at no additional costs. With the new enhancements available by the end of March 2006, the new SAP Solution Manager will offer:

New features to better support project management, including project documentation, task assignments, integration of related services and project-related knowledge exchange. A central and up-to-date overview of current issues enables accelerated resolution and offers links to related content in SAP Solution Manager. Improved knowledge transfer caters to faster integration of SAP experts into customer projects.
End-to-end diagnostic capability to centrally analyze and monitor a complete system landscape based on the SAP NetWeaver® platform, including Java components and third-party applications. Enablement of accelerated root-cause analysis through tighter integration with service desk or monitoring for cross-component processes.
Bi-directional interface for the exchange of messages between SAP Solution Manager and third-party help-desk applications. This enables the service desk in SAP Solution Manager to be integrated into help-desk applications of the existing customer support infrastructure. Customers thus can leverage investments and experience and optimize support processes.

“SAP has added important new capabilities to SAP Solution Manager to complement its business solutions and help customers tap the greatest possible value every day from their investments in SAP software,” said Uwe Hommel, senior vice president, SAP Active Global Support. “With the new version of SAP Solution Manager, we are going the extra mile to support our customers faster and more pro-actively by adding the new collaboration features that bring to bear the combined know-how of our worldwide network of SAP experts.”

“HP successfully worked with the SAP development team to connect HP OpenView Service Desk to SAP Solution Manager,” said Hartmut Braun, worldwide alliance manager, Technology Services, HP. “HP contributed to the definition and development of an open Web services-based interface to link SAP Solution Manager to service desk solutions, like HP Open View Service Desk, as an important step toward enabling customers to leverage existing investments in enterprise IT service management solutions, while at the same time reaping the full benefits of SAP Solution Manager.”

Managing the SOA Transition with SAP Solution Manager
Support that is modeled around business execution becomes increasingly important as companies transition their IT from traditional architectures to leverage the advantages of new services-based architectures. The roadmap to SAP’s business-driven approach to SOA, known as enterprise services architecture (ESA), is enabled by SAP’s market leading platform, SAP NetWeaver, which provides service-enabled, ready-to-use business processes on top of a greatly simplified technology platform. Many of the support services and tools offered by SAP, including the new version of SAP Solution Manager, are designed to help customers effectively manage their current SAP environment, efficiently transition to ESA and fully realize their IT investment goals.

“We were convinced by the enhanced collaboration and diagnostics capabilities of SAP Solution Manager” said Dr. Volker Manns, head of SAP-Basis, ThyssenKrupp Steel AG. “As we wanted to leverage those as quickly as possible we decided to join the Ramp Up program right from the beginning. The upgrade from SAP Solution Manager 3.2 to Release 4.0 was an easy exercise and we are looking forward to using SAP Solution Manager for cost effective management of our SAP NetWeaver landscapes.”

SAP at CeBIT 2006
SAP’s main booth at CeBIT is in hall 4, stands D12/D28; SAP’s booth for public sector organizations is in hall 9, booth E37.

About SAP® Solution Manager
SAP® Solution Manager is an application management platform addressing the entire IT environment, supporting SAP and non-SAP software and covering current and forthcoming SAP solutions. It supports the connection between business processes and the underlying IT infrastructure. As a result, it eases communication between an IT department and its lines of business. It combines tools, content, and direct access to SAP to increase the reliability of solutions and reduce the total cost of ownership. SAP Solution Manager is available for SAP customers free of charge

Capita Insurance Services Extends Customer Strategy with SAP® CRM

Capita Insurance Services Extends Customer Strategy with SAP® CRM On-Demand Solution
Capita Insurance Services Expands Its Relationship with SAP to Include Sales Automation Solution


LONDON - March 14, 2006 - SAP today announced that Capita Insurance Services, the insurance division of the UK’s leading support services company Capita Group plc, has selected the SAP® CRM on-demand solution. The on-demand software builds on the company’s existing deployments of applications from the SAP for Insurance solution portfolio, including claims management, financials and human capital management. Capita Insurance Services selected SAP for the flexibility of its customer relationship management (CRM) software, offering the company the option of starting immediately in an on-demand model and transitioning seamlessly to mySAP™ CRM as business needs evolve.

Capita Insurance Services is deploying the SAP® Sales on-demand solution to meet the immediate needs of its sales organization. The sales force automation (SFA) solution provides the company with visibility across its current and potential customer base, helping improve opportunities to make more effective decisions for business growth and development. Capita Insurance Services plans to add on the SAP® Marketing on-demand solution in the next phase of its CRM rollout.

“We are delighted with SAP’s on-demand solution as it is a great fit with our immediate needs and overall CRM strategy,” said Jeremy Locke, business development director, Capita Insurance Services. “In today’s market, it isn’t enough to just respond to customers today. The best companies deliver value to their customers over the long term. SAP understands this and has built a flexible solution to deliver fast results while also providing the seamless transition to strategic CRM that we’ll need as we expand and improve our customer strategies.”

The SAP CRM on-demand solution will enable Capita Insurance Services to deploy applications immediately to its sales organization and help achieve fast results with minimal upfront investment. Unlike other solution providers Capita Insurance Services considered, only SAP could provide both the flexibility it needed today to achieve results quickly as well as a seamless, disruption-free growth path for the future.

“The take-up of CRM on-demand is gaining pace in Europe,” said Ed Thompson, VP and research director, CRM, Gartner. “The focus will be on large enterprises who wish to adopt CRM quickly without compromising their ability to go on-premise at a later date. The potential for a lower level of disruption in a migration from on-demand to on-premise will be of interest to enterprises that plan to run on-premise in the long term.”

“SAP is thrilled to open a new chapter in our successful, long-term relationship with Capita Insurance Services,” said Julian Johnson, vice president of CRM Solutions, EMEA, SAP AG. “We believe that fast success, flexible options and lasting value are a winning combination and we look forward to working together to achieve results today and in the future.”

Arizona Electric Power Cooperative Makes Safe Passage to SAP

Arizona Electric Power Cooperative Makes Safe Passage to SAP
Mid-Market Energy Supplier Creates More Flexible Enterprise with SAP


BENSON, Ariz. - March 14, 2006 - — SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, Inc. (AEPCO), a not-for-profit electric cooperative providing energy to communities across the Southwest, joins a growing list of companies that are using the SAP Safe Passage program—a tailored package of applications, technology and incentives—to migrate to SAP, the world’s leading and most experienced business software solution provider.

Using mySAP™ ERP, SAP’s market-leading enterprise resource planning solution, AEPCO and its sister cooperatives—Sierra Southwest Cooperative Services, Inc. (Sierra) and Southwest Transmission Cooperative, Inc. (SWTC)—will consolidate approximately 100 disparate legacy systems onto a single, integrated platform, streamlining business processes for improved usability across its three cooperative organizations. This move will aid in the modernization of internal systems and help AEPCO preserve its intellectual property.

“We realized the need to modernize our business processes and move to a more streamlined and integrated approach in order to increase enterprise visibility in our internal operations,” said Lee Anne Wilfert, CIO of Sierra. “SAP was the natural choice—it offered a complete, flexible, enterprise-wide, integrated solution and the reassurance of knowing we were partnering with a stable vendor that could support us for the long term.”

AEPCO values its employees and all that they bring to the business. By standardizing business processes on a single, integrated, enterprise platform, AEPCO will be able to preserve the valuable working knowledge, trade secrets, networking contacts and customer information that resides in each employee’s head. By transferring this knowledge to a place where it can be stored, shared and accessed by the entire company—from employees at the electric generation plant site to the boardroom—AEPCO will be able to save time and money on training new employees, decrease the drain on company knowledge resources and increase productivity among workers.

“We are dedicated to building and maintaining a strong relationship with AEPCO as the company undergoes this significant business transformation,” said Bill McDermott, president and CEO, SAP Americas. “The SAP Safe Passage program gives companies an affordable way to protect their current investments, ease integration with the SAP NetWeaver® platform and begin the process of innovating their businesses today.”

SAP Comments on Planning of Works Council Election

SAP Comments on Planning of Works Council Election



WALLDORF, Germany - March 14, 2006 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today issued a statement regarding the planning of a works council election. On March 2, SAP AG employees voted against the creation of a committee to conduct a works council election by an overwhelming majority. The SAP Executive Board felt obliged to evaluate all available options to ensure compliance with this clear mandate from SAP employees.

An extensive evaluation of the legal situation in Germany has shown that the current federal laws do not provide the option for SAP to establish an employee representation system aligned with its traditional practices or to prevent the imposition of an election committee by a court ruling.

As such, the executive board welcomes the decision today by the SAP employee representatives in the supervisory board to organize a works council election themselves. The employee representatives will hold a company meeting in the coming weeks with the aim of electing a committee to conduct an election for the 9,000 colleagues at SAP AG’s sites in Walldorf and St. Leon Rot.

“It is important now that we make the best possible use of the options available to us within existing corporate law,” said Claus Heinrich, member of the SAP Executive Board.

“If SAP is to have a works council, then it should be a works council that is representative of the heart of the company,” said SAP CEO Henning Kagermann. “We have a duty to maintain our unique company culture and values.”

Statement on European Company Structure
The executive board would like to clarify that there are no plans at present to adopt a European corporate structure. Since fall 2005, the board has been evaluating the pros and cons of converting SAP AG into a European corporation. This evaluation is unrelated to the discussion of creating a works council.

SAP Financial Management Software Certified by the Financial Systems Integration Office

SAP Financial Management Software Certified by the Financial Systems Integration Office for Compliance with Federal Standards



WASHINGTON, D.C., - March 15, 2006 - SAP Public Services, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of SAP America, Inc., today announced that its mySAP™ ERP 2005 financial management software has been recertified by the Financial Systems Integration Office (FSIO)—formerly referred to as JFMIP—as meeting their functional requirements for core financial systems. Improving federal financial management systems is critical to increasing accounting and forecasting accuracy for financial and program managers. The FSIO certification validates that mySAP ERP 2005 delivers the integrated business processes and financial management best-practices required by federal agencies to deliver increased visibility and transparency to manage budgets, operations and program performance to help improve the efficiency of services provided by the federal government.


In this certification test, SAP complied with the expanded FSIO requirements for core financial systems, including the ability to prepare a Partial 224 report (FMS-P224) in accordance with Treasury’s Government-wide Accounting Project (GWA). This new capability allows agencies and Treasury to transition their disbursement and collection systems to a new, more efficient method of processing without sacrificing existing, unconverted data.
In addition to supporting the FMS-P224, SAP has added functionality in mySAP ERP 2005 to support automated rules-based commitment & obligation splitting, contract integration with funds management, and multi-stage goods acceptance to streamline core financial management processes. mySAP ERP 2005 is tailored for federal agencies and incorporates the appropriate controls for ensuring the accuracy of data entry and completeness and consistency of transaction processing and reporting.
Since 1999, the FSIO’s rigorous testing methodology has ensured that government financial systems collect accurate, timely and complete information while providing for adequate agency management reporting and supporting the preparation and execution of agency budgets.

SAP Recommends Dividend Increase (2006)

SAP Recommends Dividend Increase (2006)



WALLDORF, Germany - March 16, 2006 - The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board of SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) recommend that shareholders approve a dividend of €1.45 per ordinary share at this year’s Annual General Meeting of shareholders. This would represent an increase of 32% over the 2004 dividend of €1.10 per ordinary share. If the shareholders approve this recommendation the total amount distributed in dividends would be approximately €448 million. The Annual General Meeting is scheduled for May 9, 2006 in Mannheim, Germany. The payment of the dividend is scheduled for or after May 10, 2006.

“It has always been our policy to let shareholders participate in our success”, said Werner Brandt, CFO and Member of the Executive Board of SAP AG. “The increase in dividend is in line with our targeted pay-out ratio of 30% of SAP group’s net income.”

Note to holders of SAP ADRs (American Depositary Receipts): One SAP ADR (American Depositary Receipt) represents one-fourth of SAP AG’s ordinary share. Accordingly, the final dividend per ADR is calculated as one-fourth of the €1.45 dividend and is dependent on the Euro/US-Dollar exchange rate. SAP AG pays cash dividends in Euro, so the exchange rate fluctuations will also affect the US-Dollar amounts received by the holders of ADRs on the conversion into US-Dollars of cash dividends paid in Euro on the ordinary shares represented by the ADRs. The final dividend payment by SAP AG to the depositary bank is scheduled for May 10, 2006. The depositary bank will then convert the dividend payment from Euro into US-Dollar as promptly as practicable.

SAP Helps Rubbermaid Commercial Products Streamline Delivery of Product Information

SAP Helps Rubbermaid Commercial Products Streamline Delivery of Product Information to Distributors and Customers While Reducing Costs
SAP NetWeaver® Master Data Management Provides Unified View of Information on 3,000 Products Across 12 Systems


CHICAGO - March 20, 2006 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Rubbermaid Commercial Products (RCP) has improved distributor relations, enhanced customer service and significantly reduced administrative costs since its implementation of SAP NetWeaver® Master Data Management (MDM), which provides a single view of RCP product data for its more than 3,000 products. Now, RCP can respond more quickly to distributor and customer requests for product information, because its product data is more current and accurate. The RCP website is now receiving four times more traffic than before the implementation due to improved accuracy, usability and performance. The announcement was made at National Manufacturing Week, being held in Chicago, Ill., March 20-23, 2006.

RCP, a division of the giant consumer and commercial product manufacturer Newell Rubbermaid, Inc., is responsible for a vast range of products that are delivered to airports, factories, hospitals, offices, schools and other commercial and industrial organizations. Because some products are designed and manufactured in-house and others are outsourced, RCP’s product information became scattered throughout 12 separate databases. As a consequence, RCP found itself scrambling to locate and send product information each time it was requested by one of several hundred distributors. RCP turned to SAP for a better method of managing its data and keeping it visible for all partners and distributors.

“Prior to the SAP implementation, we found that getting the right product information to our distributors and partners was time consuming and extremely challenging,” said Joe DeZarn, director, marketing communications, Rubbermaid Commercial Products. “Now, SAP NetWeaver MDM has enabled us to significantly improve the ways in which we are collaborating with our distribution and retail partners. We can publish accurate and cleansed product information directly to our partner systems, as well as other channels, such as the Web and printed publications. Our customers look to us to provide continued leadership in addressing their needs for prompt and accurate delivery of information, and SAP NetWeaver MDM is playing an important role in helping us achieve that.”

SAP NetWeaver MDM was deployed at RCP in less than three months and went live for more than 300 users, with nearly immediate adoption due to the ease of the interface. A key component of the SAP NetWeaver platform, MDM integrated directly with RCP’s existing technology landscape, eliminating the need for a costly IT overhaul. Based on enterprise services architecture (ESA), SAP’s blueprint for complete services-based solutions, SAP NetWeaver MDM will enable RCP to enhance the flexibility of its business processes.

“We realize that, in most companies, master data lives in multiple systems, spreadsheets and applications, evolving independently and sometimes in conflict,” said Nimish Mehta, senior vice president, Enterprise Information Management, SAP. “Inaccurate master data can lead to poor decision-making, costly delays and lost opportunities for up-selling. SAP has created a master data management solution that addresses this issue head on, enabling companies to consolidate, cleanse and normalize all master data. With SAP NetWeaver MDM, companies such as Rubbermaid Commercial Products can ensure they’re sending the most reliable information to partners and customers, thereby increasing productivity and retaining competitive advantage.”

About SAP SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software solutions*. Today, more than 32,000 customers in more than 120 countries run SAP® software—from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize enterprises to suite offerings for global organizations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver® platform to drive innovation and enable business change, SAP business solutions help enterprises of all sizes around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. SAP industry solutions support the unique business processes of more than 25 industries, including high tech, healthcare, retail, public sector and financial services. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol “SAP.”

More Than 200 Customers Have Taken “Safe Passage” to SAP

More Than 200 Customers Have Taken “Safe Passage” to SAP
Customers Migrate Away From Uncertainty During Program’s First Year


WALLDORF, Germany - March 20, 2006 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that more than 200 companies have taken advantage of the Safe Passage program to migrate away from the uncertainties arising out of Oracle’s acquisition of PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Siebel and Retek. These results provide further evidence of SAP’s growing leadership position in providing enterprise solutions to companies of all sizes. Since the program’s introduction in January 2005, companies around the globe have utilized the Safe Passage program as a means to secure long-term IT investment security and gain access to market-leading solutions.

Among those companies that have made the move to market-leading SAP® solutions are: Altana Chemie AG, Areva T&D India, Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, Inc., AXA, Bilcare, CLLS, Diesel, Foodstuffs South Island, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Holland Casino, Riddell Bell, Rotkäppchen GmbH, Swiss Army Brands, Thakral, Twit Wing, UniLab, Veka AG, Waste Management, Winkhaus Data GmbH, Ya.com and YAZAKI Europe Limited.

The Safe Passage program offers companies SAP solutions, technology, maintenance services, investment protection and a clear road map to the next generation of business software. The program includes immediate access to the SAP NetWeaver® platform to help customers simplify integration of applications and, when customers are ready, migration to other SAP solutions such as mySAP™ ERP, the market-leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

“Customers of all sizes, competing in a cross section of industries have one consistent requirement: they want to innovate and grow their businesses,” said Léo Apotheker, member of the executive board, SAP AG. “The overwhelming success of our Safe Passage program serves as tangible evidence that customers are abandoning their legacy solutions and confidently selecting SAP to run their businesses without the risk of interruption. This is especially true in the enterprise software marketplace, which is experiencing an unprecedented amount of industry consolidation, coupled with the promise of rationalizing disparate software code.”

SAP said that customers cite the strength and availability of SAP business solutions and technology for their industries, the SAP commitment to their business goals, and solid vision and strategy as the top reasons for making the move to SAP:

Foodstuffs (South Island) Limited
Foodstuffs South Island Limited will transition away from its existing J.D. Edwards legacy applications for financial management, under the terms of Safe Passage.

“Our current IT landscape for wholesale and retail is mainly supported by in-house systems that have been developed over a number of years in conjunction with a J.D. Edwards financial solution that has been in place for 15 years,” said Phil Wright, general manager of Information Technology, Foodstuffs (South Island) Limited. “A strategic review identified that we required more integrated data across our organization, and a fully integrated ERP platform was the best option. The SAP solution suite will allow us to optimise business processes and leverage industry-specific capabilities which are designed to lead to greater business benefits and IT support benefits. This strategy is intended to deliver full supply chain visibility, improve our ability to collaborate with suppliers and improve the information systems that support our owner/operators.”

Holland Casino
As the only legal casino-operator in the Netherlands, Holland Casino runs twelve national casinos. Holland Casino’s IT-landscape consisted of PeopleSoft solutions for human resources (HR), enterprise performance management and finance, as well as several other legacy systems. Payroll was executed by means of a lot of customizations in the PeopleSoft payroll interface. When PeopleSoft was taken over by Oracle, Holland Casino decided to replace its solutions in the areas of finance, HR as well as payroll. Of these systems, HR, including payroll, was considered most critical due to its comparatively high complexity.

After evaluating options including SAP and Oracle on the basis of their key selection criteria: trust, sound vision, market power, reliability and functionality; Holland Casino decided that SAP applications for HR, payroll and finance were the best choice. Holland Casino also decided to replace its existing hard-coded interface with SAP NetWeaver® Exchange Infrastructure.

“We were very impressed by SAP’s sound vision and trustworthiness,” said Gijs Houtzagers, program manager, Holland Casino. “At the solution level, we were very pleased that we were able to not only migrate rather easily from PeopleSoft but actually improve and standardize processes at the same time, especially the payroll process. No other vendor could have come close to providing the levels of functionality and stability right out of the box. Last but not least, participating in the Safe Passage program made the transition to SAP for us very attractive from a financial point of view.”

Riddell Bell
Riddell Bell Holdings is a midsize business in the equipment, sports accessories and team sales markets in the United States and internationally. The company was formed more than a year ago through the marriage of three brand leaders in the head protection and sporting accessories sector of the consumer products market: Riddell, Bell and Giro. With manufacturing both internally owned and externally managed, Riddell Bell has a sophisticated and challenging business environment to manage.

Riddell Bell needed an IT platform and business solutions to grow and manage its business. After evaluating the alternatives, the decision was made to host applications including mySAP ERP, supply chain planning, SAP Apparel and Footwear (SAP AFS), CRM sales and service, financials and analytics.

“Business growth by acquisition had created a heterogeneous business process and systems environment,” said Sharon Nelson, CIO of Riddell Bell. “The breadth of our undertaking spans from design, to manufacturing, to distribution, sales and service, global trade, and partner management. In order to serve our customers with speed, excellence and purpose, we elected to standardize our business and technical environment through deployment of SAP.”

About Safe Passage
Safe Passage programs from SAP are comprehensive offerings from SAP addressing the concerns of Oracle customers of all sizes facing the uncertainties of the end of life of Oracle, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Siebel and Retek solutions. The elements of Safe Passage programs include: access to SAP’s best-in-class enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other market-leading solutions; financial protection for a customer’s existing investment in Oracle EBS, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Siebel Systems and Retek; SAP Financing options; immediate integration benefits through the SAP NetWeaver® platform; and migration support services. In addition, third-party maintenance for certain PeopleSoft and JD Edwards solutions is available through SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow and SAP’s network of channel partners focused on small and midsize enterprises

Swiss Army Brands Sharpens Business Processes with SAP

Swiss Army Brands Sharpens Business Processes with SAP
Global Consumer Goods Company Selects SAP® Solutions to Support Product Line Expansion


SHELTON, Conn. - March 21, 2006 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Swiss Army Brands, Inc., distributor of Swiss Army timepieces and Victorinox multi-tools, cutlery, travel gear and apparel, has selected SAP® solutions to optimize business processes and drive the expansion of its business lines. After comprehensive evaluations of several vendors, the distributor decided to retire its Oracle/JD Edwards legacy system and turned to SAP to enable faster, more informed decisions while supporting the unique requirements of the various Victorinox Swiss Army product lines. Specifically, the integrated SAP® Apparel and Footwear (SAP AFS) application will enable the growing company to implement global strategies, ensure consistent quality and react quickly to customer demands.

In the apparel industry, businesses need to react within days or even hours to changes in consumer behavior and customer demand for convenience, choice and value. SAP AFS features a flexible master-data structure that represents sizes, colors and styles at the stock keeping unit (SKU) level and gives planners up-to-the minute visibility into daily activities. By integrating data across the supply chain, the SAP application will enable the company to improve on-shelf availability.

“SAP enables small and midsize companies such as ours to adopt the same modern, best-in-class software and business processes that have historically not been available to us due to cost,” said Tom Hennigan, senior vice president and chief operating officer, Swiss Army Brands, Inc. “We view the implementation of SAP as essential for us to provide our customers with the same service levels that much larger brands provide.”

Swiss Army Brands will leverage SAP solutions to integrate its global distribution operations, provide a platform for growth, transform its supply chain and standardize information on an enterprise level. Incompatible legacy systems, coupled with the need to take advantage of new technologies to reduce costs and improve planning and efficiency, prompted the company to select SAP. Swiss Army Brands will leverage SAP applications and the SAP NetWeaver™ platform to enable smooth system integration across the organization’s distribution facilities, which will help streamline operations and improve financial management controls.

Under the agreement, Swiss Army Brands will implement a full range of SAP solutions including enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) in a phased rollout for approximately 200 users.

“Swiss Army Brands joins the expanding list of companies that have recognized the need to optimize their business processes for operational success,” said Bill McDermott, president and CEO, SAP Americas. “We are pleased that companies with their sights set on the future choose SAP to deliver solutions that can get up and running today and help ensure their future.”

SAP Expands R&D in Shanghai

SAP Expands R&D in Shanghai
SAP Labs Opens New China Facility in Anticipation of Increasing Staff Levels to Meet Growing Global Development and Support Needs


SHANGHAI, China - March 22, 2006 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the opening of a new research and development (R&D) facility in Shanghai to accommodate an expected strong increase in R&D staff in the coming years. The opening of the new facility for the current staff of more than 400 employees marks a strong beginning to a year of investment and expansion for SAP Labs China, bolstering its position as a world-class software R&D laboratory of the same high standards as SAP development facilities around the world. Products designed and developed at SAP Labs China are intended not only for SAP customers in the Asia-Pacific region but also for Europe and the United States.

“Over the last eleven years the lab has benefited from China’s growing pool of world-class IT and R&D professionals and from collaboration with China’s most prestigious universities and academic institutions,” said Claus Heinrich, member of the executive board, SAP AG, who was in Shanghai for the opening of the facility. “This combination has enabled the lab to make the leap from a localization facility serving Chinese customers to one of SAP’s premier global development centers.”

The strong growth of SAP’s business in China has encouraged the company to increase its investment in local R&D operations. With a compound annual growth rate of 70 percent over the last nine years, SAP is one of the most profitable foreign companies in China. Officially established in November 2003, SAP Labs China has grown to become SAP’s fifth largest development center, after SAP Labs locations in Germany, India, the United States and Israel. The new facility, on which construction began in March 2005, will enable the labs to move out of its currently rented quarters and into a permanent home that can accommodate future growth. SAP Labs China will begin to occupy its new facilities as of March 2006.

SAP Labs China focuses on software development for small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) with R&D work that encompasses the entire product life cycle from market research through prototyping, development, rollout and support. Concepts originated by SAP Labs China—such as the SAP® Best Practices Baseline Package of implementation procedures, documentation and preconfiguration settings, and the recently developed toolkit for the SAP Safe Passage program—have gone on to become mainstream offerings used by SAP customers around the world.

The Shanghai location also acts as a regional technology and solution center supporting fast-growing markets across Asia, including Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and India. As part of SAP’s worldwide network of R&D operations, SAP Labs China collaborates closely with other SAP research facilities around the world as well as with SAP’s global field operations, partners and customers.

Study Reveals Importance of Business Intelligence for European Retail Banks

Study Reveals Importance of Business Intelligence for European Retail Banks
Banks Face Revenue Growth Roadblock Due to Uncharted Customer Needs, According to Survey Sponsored by SAP


BARCELONA, Spain - March 23, 2006 - Only 23 percent of European banks today can readily access customer information on customer transactions, according to a new survey of 125 retail banks across 30 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Conducted by the European Financial Management & Marketing Association (EFMA), the University of Mannheim and SAP AG (NYSE: SAP), the study reveals business intelligence as a key IT focus area for European banks, 88 percent of which aim to improve data quality in the next three years. Results of the study were released today in conjunction with the 28th EFMA Convention being held in Barcelona, March 23-24.

Based on self-assessment questionnaires, the study finds that banks fully understand the value of gathering, accurately storing, analyzing and retrieving relevant customer data. They realize that to clearly define such data into segments will impact the success of their strategies for new customer acquisition, cross-selling and multi-channel customer-management and this is more strongly pronounced since the first survey carried out in 2003.

“In this third year of our joint study, EFMA and SAP offer an even wider base of participating banks and deeper insights into the challenges faced by our members for transforming retail financial services to meet customer expectations,” said Patrick Desmarès, executive director of EFMA. “These key findings bring us to the heart of the problems, and the opportunities, for our industry. In the coming year it will serve as an excellent platform to help EFMA further its mission of provoking debate and discussion to encourage innovation.”

Key findings on customer information systems include:

Whereas easy access to data on customer transactions, satisfaction and attitudes is a reality for only 23 percent of EMEA banks today, 88 percent of the banks intend to reach that level of data quality by 2009.
One-third of EMEA banks analyze customer data on an ad-hoc basis.
Only 11 percent have a regular and consistent data mining process.
Eighty-nine percent intend to gather data by customer segment that covers either all customer-relevant data or only some key parts such as complaints, sales visits and invoicing.

“In an even more mature market, organic growth can be pursued only with the support of a more structured business intelligence process allowing banks to reach an appropriate level of information quality essential to have a deeper understanding of customer segments,” said Daniele Bonfanti, program manager at Financial Insights, EMEA. “Banks need to transform data collection and analysis in a highly flexible process to be able to really support the business decisions and initiatives and, more importantly, the need to move away from a business intelligence approach that is often too late, too slow, too rigid.”

Additional key findings include:

Growth strategies to drive profits: An overwhelming number of banks (75 percent) favored growth over cost-cutting as their primary business strategy.
Greater efforts to speed up response times: Sixty-one percent of survey participants expect to offer differentiated products and service propositions based on validated customer need by 2009, up from 12 percent today.
Constraints with current IT systems: More than one-third of banks report constraints to their IT systems in achieving their strategic goals. In three years, 98 percent of these banks expect IT to support their business strategies, as well as provide competitive advantages.

“Banks’ IT systems and organizational structure need to support information availability across the entire enterprise to leverage the potential of effective customer management,” said Richard Lowrie, director of banking strategy, SAP AG. “In comparison to the results of the study conducted in 2003, the new study reveals a correlation between a bank’s business strategy and the ability of its core systems to support customer-centric business processes. For SAP, the findings confirm that our development efforts in analytical banking capabilities meet a pressing and ongoing need in the industry.”

Worldwide Supply Selects SAP Business One from Third Wave Business Systems

Worldwide Supply Selects SAP Business One from Third Wave Business Systems and SAP to Maximize Operational Flexibility and Sales Management



NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. - March 27, 2006 - SAP America, Inc., a subsidiary of SAP AG (NYSE: SAP), today announced that Worldwide Supply, a rapidly growing buyer and reseller of used networking and telecommunications hardware equipment, has implemented SAP® Business One as its business management solution. Designed as an integrated software solution for small and midsize enterprises, SAP Business One was selected over JD Edwards and NetSuite for its robust sales capabilities, allowing Worldwide Supply to consolidate sales contacts and improve revenue reporting while providing the operational flexibility required by a growing business. The solution was delivered and implemented by SAP Business One partner Third Wave Business Systems of Elmwood Park, NJ.

Based in Wantage, NJ, Worldwide Supply buys and sells used data, optical and telecommunications networking equipment to customers around the globe.

“Our work requires the swift turnaround and fulfillment of complex customer orders in order to maintain a competitive advantage,” said Jay VanOrden, owner, Worldwide Supply. “SAP Business One offers a full set of management tools in a single solution, allowing us to manage all aspects of sales and inventory, our core business processes.”

“Growing businesses such as Worldwide Supply require consolidated software solutions that maintain control over all processes while providing a clear-eyed, up-to-the-minute view of the entire business,” said Korey Lind, president, Third Wave Business Systems. “By selecting SAP Business One, Worldwide Supply is obtaining a solution adapted for their business which remains affordable and can be easily implemented for immediate business gains.”

Yusuf is Responsible for Leading the World’s Largest Enterprise Software Company

Yusuf is Responsible for Leading the World’s Largest Enterprise Software Company in Developing Partnerships and Processes for its Software Platform


PALO ALTO, Calif. - March 28, 2006 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the appointment of Zia Yusuf as executive vice president to lead the platform ecosystem development efforts for the company. Yusuf is chartered with continuing to build an open ecosystem, based on an industry standard design led by SAP to provide value to customers, partners and SAP through co-innovation. Based at the company’s Palo Alto offices, he will report to Shai Agassi, president of the Product Technology Group and executive board member of SAP.

“The successful track record that Zia has demonstrated at SAP as head of the global corporate strategy group and his ability to drive strategic, competitive and operational topics provides him with the unique insight and knowledge of external market forces to lead internal execution of the platform partnering model,” said Agassi. “SAP has built a strong ecosystem of more than 360,000 members in our SAP Developer Network, including more than 1,000 independent software vendors building software for the SAP NetWeaver® platform, and much of the credit goes to the ecosystem team led by George Paolini. During the past few years, SAP has invested a tremendous amount in creating a world-class partner community and we’ve been extremely successful. I want to thank George for the foundation he has laid and now Zia is tasked with taking our already successful program to the next level to provide sustained progress for SAP and our partners for years to come.”

Yusuf assumes the leadership of the Platform Ecosystem unit after leading the company’s Corporate Consulting Team, the Corporate Strategy Management team and the Design Services team, all of which report to SAP CEO Henning Kagermann. Prior to managing these strategy organizations, Yusuf played a key role in the founding of SAP Markets, Inc., the business-to-business marketplace company of SAP, where he served as its vice president and chief operating officer. As SAP Markets expanded globally, Yusuf was appointed as managing director to lead SAP Markets into the Asia-Pacific region.

“Today SAP’s ecosystem has a solid foundation for co-innovation and the SAP NetWeaver platform is the focal point that enables our partners’ ideas and applications to flourish,” said Yusuf. “No longer is it possible for a single vendor to be all things to all customers. Our partners are critical to SAP’s strategy and I look forward to maintaining a regular dialog with our partners about what their needs are and at the same time sharing with them the direction in which SAP is heading, so that both sides can be as successful as possible.”

Leading National Media Company Taps the SAP® for Media Solution Portfolio

Leading National Media Company Taps the SAP® for Media Solution Portfolio and SAP NetWeaver® to Consolidate Internal Systems on a Single Technology Platform


New York - March 29, 2006 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company and publisher of The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The International Herald Tribune (IHT), has selected applications from mySAP™ Business Suite and the SAP® for Media solution portfolio to support its advertising management, home delivery and single copy circulation systems. The company also selected the SAP NetWeaver® platform to standardize its reporting requirements. This strategic project will displace legacy systems and allow the company to reduce costs and increase revenue by supporting cross- and up-selling advertising and subscription opportunities.

“The New York Times Company chose SAP solutions as part of an overall corporate mandate to systematically improve efficiency,” said David Thurm, senior vice president and CIO, The New York Times Company. “SAP has a strong understanding of the challenges facing the newspaper industry and offers solutions that support a wide variety of our needs, providing support for ad sales and circulation operations, as well as business intelligence that helps us make the right choices to position our company for future growth.”

Increasing Revenues: Advertising and Circulation
The advertising management application from the SAP for Media solution portfolio will allow The New York Times Company to take bookings for advertisements across different newspapers and media, from print to digital, and includes display ads, inserts and online advertising. It will also enable the company to manage orders and contractual terms and conditions, handle invoicing and settlement and generate in-depth reports on all activities.

The circulation management capability of SAP for Media integrates sales and distribution processes with ad sales functions, as well as with other SAP and third-party solutions. This capability helps publishers increase their circulation figures by streamlining sales and distribution processes by integrating the entire workflow—from initial customer contact through order processing, service, billing and settlement.

“As competition increases, media companies are focused on generating new business while maintaining their existing subscription and advertising base,” said Bill McDermott, president and CEO, SAP Americas. “With the selection of SAP, The New York Times Company will benefit from solutions that are robust, scalable and strategically viable—allowing the company to focus on keeping pace with changing market demands.”

COGNOS 8 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE DATA INTEGRATION FOR SAP R/3

Cognos 8 Business Intelligence data integration for SAP R/3 provides a complete solution for accessing, extracting, and transforming SAP R/3 data for your BI environment:

Streamlined Integration and Delivery—extract, merge, and deliver all SAP R/3 data and metadata in your working language for use in data warehouses, data marts, and analytic applications.

Consistent Organizational View—integrate all of your information for better reporting and analysis across the organization.

Increased Operational Efficiency—eliminate the need to generate ABAP to access R/3 data, freeing up valuable IT resources.

Existing Security—leverages the SAP R/3 security environment to ensure confidence in extracted data.

A COMPLETE SOLUTION

By extending the data integration capability within Cognos 8 BI to the SAP R/3 data source, you can extract SAP R/3 data to consolidate and transform disparate data sources. This data can then be loaded into an enterprise data Support for Unicode: IT can interact with data and metadata that contains multiple, simultaneous locales so global organizations can integrate SAP R/3 data from all locations. Non-Unicode environments are also supported for organizations that are migrating their SAP R/3 applications.

Easy to Use, Maintain, and Install: Starting data integration for SAP R/3 only requires simple SQL coding. You don’t need complex scripts or ABAP expertise to access rule-based SAP data. With few components, it is easy to install and run.

Fast Extraction: Universal data access (UDA) determines table joins for three different SAP table types—transparent, pool, and cluster—and then pushes them to the database. The capability includes a compression utility to automatically compress data from the application server and decompress it at the data integration server to minimize network traffic and accelerate the extraction process. Dependable Security: All components reside within the SAP security environment and work within the R/3 security model. Users experience the same, reliable security they expect from SAP.

COGNOS AND SAP—A HISTORY OF SUCCESS

As a certified mySAP.com Software Partner, Cognos is one of SAP’s key business intelligence partners. Cognos was the first mySAP BI partner to establish its own Competency Center at the SAP PartnerPort in Walldorf, Germany. On-site engineering and consulting resources ensure tight product integration and the best possible customer support. SAP tests Cognos products internally with all scheduled SAP R/3 releases during development.

WEB-BASED DEPLOYMENT

Cognos 8 BI uses a zero-footprint, Web-based deployment model. This helps reduce the administrative burden on IT while improving user adoption. With centralized deployment and administration, IT does not have to install and manage client desktop software, minimizing deployment and maintenance costs.

This open, Web standards-based environment is built on the proven Cognos ReportNet™ architecture. This design allows organizations to take full advantage of their existing IT infrastructure and skill investments. The reach of the Web means users can easily access and distribute their BI data from anywhere in the organization with continuous availability.

Cognos 8 BI is built on a single, native Web services architecture for maximum flexibility. It works with your existing application and Web servers, portals, browsers, enterprise applications, platforms, databases, and security models. It supports Windows, UNIX, and Linux operating systems in uniform and mixed platform deployments. A single, fully documented API allows developers and IT users to customize, integrate, and rebrand the reporting interface to suit their organization. Designed for enterprise-level deployment, Cognos 8 BI offers proven scalability to hundreds of thousands of users through an N-tiered, multi-server, multi-threaded architecture. This design provides full failover recovery and dynamic load balancing.

BETTER PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Cognos 8 BI is the only solution that provides complete BI functionality in one product, on a single, proven architecture. It delivers seamless reporting, analysis, scorecarding, dashboards, and event management. This simplifies your IT environment and the way everyone works with information. The result is high user adoption, better decisions, and greater agility across the organization. Cognos 8 BI is the clear choice for BI standardization and a cornerstone of better performance management.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

· Cognos Data Manager 8.1

· SAPGUI - for SAP Network Interface

· SAP R/3 on one of the following platforms: Windows NT, HPUX, AIX, and Solaris ABOUT COGNOS

Cognos is the world leader in business intelligence and enterprise planning software. Our solutions for corporate performance management let organizations drive performance with planning, budgeting and consolidation, monitor it with alerts and scorecarding, and understand it with business intelligence reporting and analysis. Cognos is the only vendor to support all of these key management activities in a complete, integrated solution. Founded in 1969, Cognos now serves more than 23,000 customers in over 135 countries. warehouse, dimensional data marts, or other delivery structures, extending the data sources available to the Cognos solution. SAP data can be easily integrated for use with Cognos 8 BI and enterprise planning capabilities.

A SOLID ARCHITECTURE

Cognos data integration for SAP R/3 provides an open SQL interface for accessing SAP R/3 data by going through the SAP Application Layer. It is the only way to access all of the tables within SAP. SQL code entered into the Cognos data integration platform is interpreted and resolved using pre-built, out-of-the-box ABAP functions. Data extraction, merging, transformation, and dimensional management are optimized to deliver dimensional data warehouses that are ready for business reporting and analysis. Cognos data integration for SAP R/3 delivers dimensional data warehouses from your SAP R/3 applications in the shortest possible time.

KEY COMPONENTS OF COGNOS 8 BI DATA

INTEGRATION FOR SAP R/3

The platform has the following components:

· The Cognos 8 BI data integration for SAP R/3 application.

· A Cognos dictionary and table utility allowing application developers to view R/3 tables and columns with descriptive names in the language of your choice.

· Cognos ABAP Programs that reside on the SAP server.

BENEFITS FOR IT

Access R/3 within a Familiar Environment: Work within the Cognos 8 BI data integration framework for easy SAP R/3 data extraction.

Proven solution for Multi-Platform Support: Data integration for SAP R/3 supports all SAP modules and has been tested against SAP R/3 4.6 and 4.7. It also supports a range of platforms including Windows NT, HPUX, AIX, and Solaris.

Cognos 8 BI

Data Integration

SAP GUI

Data Compressor

Cognos ABAP Interface

Connector

SAP SECURITY

SAP SECURITY