MADRID, Nov. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced product developments that help people across organizations easily incorporate powerful analytics into their day-to-day work. The new developments greatly extend the reach and usability of analytics among professionals. The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE® NOW + SAP® TechEd, being held as a co-located event in Madrid from November 8-10.

Easier and Faster Decision-Making and Problem Solving With No Training Required

The SAP® StreamWork™ application transforms the way people work, and lightweight, fast and simple analytics are planned to strengthen the collaborative decision-making process. With no training required to use these planned capabilities, analytics tools can be placed into the hands of people who have never used them before. Planned features intend to allow companies to collectively analyze data directly in SAP StreamWork, including accessing information stored in SAP HANA™, for rapid retrieval and analysis of data necessary for business-critical decisions.

Enabling Business in the Moment With New Mobile Apps

New mobile apps from the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio help people across organizations incorporate business analytics into their day-to-day work on a variety of devices.

Available on the Apple iTunes Store, SAP® BusinessObjects™ Mobile software provides instant access to favorite business intelligence reports, metrics and real-time business data. Interactive and stunning new visualizations helping users analyze key metrics and discover data trends while connected or disconnected. In addition, the SAP® Strategy Management mobile app, also available on iTunes, enables executives to collaborate on key initiatives while away from the office. With the ability to manage daily activities through threaded discussions related to initiatives and KPIs, users can respond promptly to critical alerts, review timelines and budget status and review and analyze organizational performance.

Global risk and compliance solutions from SAP help make risk management, regulatory compliance and safe, productive operations a standard and a consistent practice. New mobile governance, risk and compliance (GRC) apps empower the mobile workforce by delivering more consumable information and processes enabling users to protect value and optimize organizational performance on mobile devices. The SAP® GRC Access Approver mobile app facilitates review, time-sensitive approvals and operation-critical access requests for managers, allowing authorized employees to gain access to systems and continue their work in a timely manner. With the SAP® GRC Policy Survey mobile app, sales managers can keep track of the latest policy changes within their organization and complete policy-related surveys. For more information on how mobilizing employees can empower them on-the-go, see: "SAP and Sybase Launch Next Wave of Mobile Apps That Transform Key Industries and Lines of Business."

Line-of-Business and Industry-Specific Analytic Applications Speed Time to Value

SAP also announced an increasing portfolio of line-of-business and industry-specific SAP BusinessObjects analytic applications that address task-specific business issues. The latest analytic applications for procurement give organizations greater visibility into their supply chains and help them minimize supplier risk. Now generally available, the 3.0 release of the SAP® BusinessObjects™ Spend Performance Management analytic application, the SAP® BusinessObjects™ Data Enrichment and Classification OnDemand solution and the Supplier InfoNet solution help customers identify opportunities in which they can save, improve the reliability of their data and set KPIs to become more effective and efficient in their overall procurement performance.

Helping customers target specific supply chain and manufacturing needs, the SAP® BusinessObjects™ Supply Chain Performance Management analytic application boosts supply chain efficiency by providing end-to-end visibility, focusing on metrics, synchronizing demand and supply, and improving supply chain risk management. With the SAP® BusinessObjects™ Sales and Operations Planning analytic application, companies can optimize asset performance and reduce cost with capabilities that help improve planning, forecasting and continuous monitoring of assets.

Continuing its focus on helping companies solve specific industry pain points, the new SAP® BusinessObjects™ Trade Promotion Effectiveness Analysis analytic application provides the capability to analyze post-promotion performance to refine and target promotions ensuring they are effective and profitable.

Additionally, the new SAP® CRM rapid-deployment solution for analytics provides sales, service and marketing teams a holistic view across organization to make fact-based decisions with integrated customer insights. Rapid-deployment solutions from SAP are comprised of fixed-price, predefined software that helps customers target specific business issues quickly and affordably.

"With business analytics, we are combining emerging technologies to fundamentally shift the way people engage with information," said Steve Lucas, general manager, Business Analytics, SAP. "SAP is delivering an experience that is so easy, intuitive, accessible and relevant that users don't know how they did their jobs before. People are able to access the information and insights they need within the context of their day-to-day work, have the flexibility to collaborate around it and can tap into the collective knowledge of their business networks. It's a new way of working, and our customers are reporting incredible results."

Customers Recognize the Power and Ease-of-Use of Business Analytics from SAP

Based in South Africa, Allied Electronics Corporation Limited (Altron) needed to analyze information from its more than 150 companies. The company was already using SAP software to successfully conduct its consolidated financial statement filings across these entities, but its executives wanted to use the data to conduct analyses and make decisions regarding investments in new projects. This meant tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) and conducting "what-if" scenarios, for example, on what would happen if exchange rates or other variables changed. To address this need, Altron chose the new 4.0 release of BI solutions. With the 4.0 release immediately available both on the desktop and mobile device, Altron's team can access information from wherever they happen to be, meeting the needs of its frequently out-of-the-office executives, who need to receive results and perform analysis from mobile devices. To learn more, see: "Video: Altron Selects 4.0 Release of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Solutions."

"What we gained was an incredibly powerful tool that enables executives to find the answers they need without relying on the IT department," said Alex Smith, chief financial officer, Altron. "The moment we gave the executives access to better analyzed information, the entire conversation changed. Previously, executives would need days before major meetings to prepare reports. With their tools from SAP, they know they can be asked a question during the meeting and give an answer quickly and accurately. With these same tools, available on their iPads, this information is now available to them everywhere."

To hear more from Lucas on the biggest technology trends driving the need for business analytics, see: "The Insatiable Demand for Business Analytics." To learn more about how an SAP customer can use analytics on a mobile device to improve the level of dialog with their customers and clients, see: "Deloitte Runs Better With SAP." For announcements, blog posts, videos and other coverage during SAPPHIRE NOW and SAP TechEd Madrid, visit the Events newsroom.

SAPPHIRE® NOW + SAP® TechEd Madrid

In 2011, SAP brings together its largest ecosystem education event series with its premier customer conference for a co-located event being held in Madrid, Spain, from November 8-10. With SAPPHIRE® NOW, SAP offers its customers, partners and prospects even more opportunities to engage in dialogue with peers, participants and thought leaders around the globe, and can gain insight as to how SAP is delivering on its product strategy and helping organizations around the world to run better. SAP® TechEd brings IT managers, software developers, administrators, and business process experts together for a look under the hood of today's business motors: the latest advances in in-memory and mobile technologies, and in on-premise, on-demand, and on-device applications from SAP and more. Follow on Twitter at @SAPTechEd and @SAPPHIRENOW, and join the conversation at #SAPTechEd and #SAPPHIRENOW.

About SAP

As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 176,000 customers (includes customers from the acquisition of Sybase) to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit 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 "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 © 2011 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.