SAP Announces Web-Based Workforce Management Capability for Retail Industry At National Retail Federation ConventionSAP Advances Its Leadership in Retail Labor Scheduling With New Centralized Planning and Scheduling Functionality NEW YORK, Jan. 13, 2003 -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced new Web-based workforce management capability for the retail industry that transforms labor scheduling and optimization into an analytical, cost-effective business management process visible to all levels of the enterprise. Building on SAP's position of leadership as a provider of labor scheduling solutions to the retail industry, the new workforce management capability will provide retailers with the flexibility to automate their labor scheduling in a centralized environment, the ability to carry out statistical reporting, and an open architecture for integration with other systems. The announcement was made at the National Retail Federation Annual Convention and Exposition being held in New York City, Jan. 12-15. The new workforce management capability of mySAP(TM) Retail, available by year's end, will utilize an optimization engine that finds the best possible floor scheduling for retail stores by balancing such weighted variables as staffing needs, employee skills, payroll requirements, employee availability, workplace rules, and performance standards. SAP tailored workforce management, a key capability of mySAP(TM) Customer Relationship Management (mySAP CRM), to meet the industry-specific scheduling needs of retailers with multiple operating locations. The Web-enabled capability can be modified for future application in other industries that have similar workforce management challenges. "Retailers are looking for ways to better manage their operations at both the corporate level and in the field; and based on market information, reviews of RFPs from customers and prospects, it is clear that a demand for a Web-based centralized solution exists," said Ronald Hanscome, senior program director, META Group. "Labor management solutions that allow retailers to centrally manage and control labor costs while maintaining or increasing service levels to customers give companies significant advantages in the market." With an installed base of 20,000 licensed sites worldwide and 40 plus customers of its current labor-scheduling offering including Lowe's, The Children's Place, Petco, Starbucks, and Rite-Aid, SAP will leverage its in-depth knowledge of the global retail industry to deliver the new Web-based solution. The enhanced workforce management capability will perform the complex process of creating optimum employee schedules utilizing configurable business variables and actual business data captured throughout the day. The capability will enable retailers to set parameters and monitor compliance levels across the enterprise, modify configurations based on changing business needs, centralize control of operations and maintenance, and provide corporate management with centralized control over scheduling activities. Workforce management features advanced tools for system configuration and maintenance, forecasting, schedule creation and maintenance, employee data maintenance, reporting and analytics. "With better control over scheduling and visibility into our customer patterns, we can ensure that we have the right staff in place to most effectively serve our customers' needs," said David Markley, director of Labor Control, Rite-Aid Corporation, a leading U.S. drugstore chain with more than 3,400 stores serving customers in 29 states and the District of Columbia. Workforce management enables retailers to gain greater control over labor forecasting and scheduling processes on a centralized, corporate basis while allowing input and interaction from field locations. The collaboration among corporate and field locations enabled by the Web-based solution will allow retailers to implement standard business processes across the entire enterprise and monitor performance for all locations in a timely manner. Corporate operations managers can configure and maintain settings across the enterprise for multiple or individual locations, conduct categorization and queries based on a number of configurable attributes, and generate forecasts based on multiple layers of indicators including traffic, items, transactions, and sales. Field and location managers can use the solution to maintain location-specific settings such as operating hours on a temporary or permanent basis, make adjustments to forecast variables based on location-specific needs, and change indicators at configured time levels. They can also make weekly updates to employee availability, work area, and location as well as skill-level assignments. "SAP is a well established leader in enabling effective workforce management in the retail industry, and we will set the standard for Web-based solutions giving retailers the ability to make real-time business decisions," said Jim McMurray, senior vice president, Industry Business Unit Retail at SAP. "Together with the supply chain management, customer relationship management, analytics, human capital management, and enterprise management solutions available with mySAP Retail, the workforce management capability will give SAP customers an unrivaled solution suite to more effectively manage their enterprises from point of sale and service to fulfillment and relationship management." Workforce management with mySAP Retail will be available in the fourth quarter of 2003. About SAP SAP is the world's leading provider of e-business software solutions. Through the mySAP.com(R) e-business platform, people in businesses around the globe are improving relationships with customers and partners, streamlining operations, and achieving significant efficiencies throughout their supply chains. Today, more than 18,800 companies in over 120 countries run more than 56,000 installations of SAP(R) software. With subsidiaries in over 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol "SAP." (Additional information at http://www.sap.com ) Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believe," "estimate," "intend," "may," "will," "expect," and "project" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including the SAP Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2001 filed with the SEC on March 28, 2002. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates. NOTE: SAP, the SAP logo, mySAP.com, mySAP, and all other SAP products and services mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and several other countries. Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.
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