from DSSResources.com

SAP helps customers weather economic cycle with unique offerings addressing most timely business challenges

Best-Run Now Initiative Combines Software and Services to Bring Customers the Tools They Need to Manage Costs and Liquidity, Save Costs and Manage Their Workforce Through a Challenging Global Marketplace While Planning for Future Growth

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa., Oct. 29, 2008 -- Recognizing customers' need for IT solutions that can be quickly consumed and enable them to adjust and respond to a challenging global marketplace, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the launch of the Best-Run Now initiative, highlighting solution offerings that focus on optimizing operations and address pressing business needs. Available now in select markets with varied configurations, the offerings combine SAP(R) software, services and special financing terms to deliver rapid time to value. The initiative aims to help customers address real-time business issues, including more efficient management of information on cash flow and liquidity, maximizing a global workforce through change and how to optimize procurement and supply chain processes.

In a rapidly changing market environment and a challenged global economy, IT organizations must focus investments to projects that address pressing business needs and deliver fast value. Drawing on a 35-year history of working closely with customers, SAP has brought to market solution offerings that include services designed for effective results. As credit lines are tightened and spending slows, companies need to identify opportunities to streamline operations in order to maintain the bottom line and shore up shareholder confidence. Better real-time visibility into operations can help identify areas for improvements that result in savings. For example, companies that can more efficiently identify and act on cost-savings opportunities through improved compliance with procurement contracts and policies can deliver significant positive changes in net income and operating margins.

"In the face of uncertain economic conditions, enterprise software has become an important refuge for companies that want to gain operational efficiencies and keep their heads above water," said Joshua Greenbaum, principal, Enterprise Applications Consulting. "These offerings represent sound and timely IT investments that bring value by providing the kind of functionality companies need to invest in to improve efficiencies and achieve cost savings. SAP's special package offering will be a welcome option for customers that recognize IT's essential role in meeting the needs of a challenging marketplace."

As companies face potential shortages in sales and consumer spending, limitations in accessing credit and fluctuating costs, it becomes essential to make shifts to improve operations and protect the bottom line. Identifying opportunities to increase visibility into cash and liquidity, make efficient workforce shifts, more rapidly access critical performance data, streamline supply chains and accelerate savings in procurement and expenses can make a critical difference in long term performance and agility. SAP has designed offerings addressing needs of customers in all size segments. For the large enterprise, SAP's offerings combine software solutions with special incentives to make acquiring and implementing these solutions even easier. Each of these can be easily consumed to deliver rapid return on investment and operational improvements, and focus on issues that companies everywhere are facing due to global market environments, including:

-- Cash, Liquidity and Financial Risk-enables companies to accelerate cash flow, manage cash and liquidity more effectively and mitigate the risks associated with fluctuation in FX, interest rates and commodity prices. The offering accelerates commercial cash flows, improves insight into global cash and liquidity, and helps preserve profit margins.

-- Managing Workforce Through Rapid Change-includes tools essential to helping quickly assess a workforce situation, identify and maintain the right people within the organization and provide cost effective training to up-skill and maintain certification and compliance levels within the organization.

-- Accelerate Savings in Procurement-helps to rapidly maximize cost savings by closing the loop between identified and negotiated savings, resulting in increased spend under management, reduced costs and improved compliance with contracts and policies.

-- Business Planning and Consolidation-enables streamlined planning, budgeting and forecasting and a fast, accurate close, utilizing familiar and easy-to-use tools in a single integrated application that reduces maintenance, improves data integrity and simplifies deployment while enabling flexible planning and consolidation functions.

-- Energy Data Management-provides utilities the means to manage energy profiles, offer real-time pricing and complex billing, and optimize energy settlements with the goal of improving energy efficiencies.

-- Business Intelligence Accelerator (BIA)-boosts the performance of analytic processing and enables business users to access and analyze large volumes of business data without labor-intensive set-up or design activities.

-- Optimize IT-focuses on reducing IT operational costs by targeting key areas of cost and accelerating the value timetable for business applications such as the SAP(R) ERP application.

For the small and midmarket customers, the ability to quickly acquire solutions to deliver results is pivotal in tight economic times. Understanding the unique needs of this market, SAP is addressing the challenge directly with additional offerings focused on streamlining access to critical business solutions. With special arrangements for licenses on leading solutions, such as the SAP(R) Business-All-In One solution, and additional products enabling improved business insights, such as BusinessObjects(TM) Xcelsius and BusinessObjects(TM) Crystal Reports, smaller companies can also take advantage of tools enabling agility as well as timely decision-making. These offers are available direct from SAP and via SAP channel partners.

"No other company in our industry has the ability to provide, in a matter of days, offerings designed to help customers address the challenges that have emerged on a global scale," said Bill McDermott, member of the SAP executive board and president and CEO, Global Field Operations, SAP AG. "Customers around the world, the biggest and the smallest, trust SAP to innovate and deliver the solutions they need to become best-run. The strength of our product offerings, combined with industry-leading services and support, enables us to create these solution packages, including special financing offers, to roll-out for customers immediately. As the global market environment continues to shift dramatically on a daily basis, it becomes more important than ever for companies to utilize their IT investments to increase efficiencies, improve operations and respond rapidly for long-term viability and success."

All packages are available for immediate shipment and rapid deployment. Package specifics and availability vary by region. For specific information please visit http://www.sap.com.

About SAP

SAP is the world's leading provider of business software(*), offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. With approximately 76,000 customers (includes customers from the acquisition of Business Objects) in over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol "SAP". (For more information, visit http://www.sap.com)

(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning and related applications.

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 "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" 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 ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

Copyright (C) 2008 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serve informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.

For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:

Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24

United States Only: 1 (800) 872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727)



DSS Home |  About Us |  Contact Us |  Site Index |  Subscribe | What's New
Please Tell 
Your Friends about DSSResources.COM Copyright © 1995-2021 by D. J. Power (see his home page). DSSResources.COMsm was maintained by Daniel J. Power. See disclaimer and privacy statement.