SAP Deepens Value to Midsize Companies by Adding 60 Offerings to its Family of SAP® Best Practices


New SAP Best Practices Offerings Strengthen Foundation for SAP(R) All-in-One Solutions and Expand Portfolio for Midsize Companies

WALLDORF, Germany, Aug. 6 / / -- SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) today announced that it is adding 60 SAP(R) Best Practices offerings to deepen its industry- and geographic market-specific support for midsize companies. Designed for SAP(R) All-in-One solutions, SAP Best Practices offerings include "out of the box" integrated business processes, methodologies and documentation to help companies expedite solution implementation and improve operational excellence. The 60 new offerings include 23 industry and cross-industry versions across 37 countries. They will help companies in these segments draw on the proven expertise of SAP and its customer and partner ecosystem.

SAP Best Practices offerings enable customers to benefit from SAP's more than 35 years of industry leadership in business applications. The new offerings allow companies to increase the speed and efficiency of implementations as well as the ability to focus on competitive differentiation by starting with preconfigured industry best practices out of the box. The new offerings cover business process scenarios for specific industries such as process manufacturing, consumer products and professional services and are further available in specialized country versions to support customers in all operating regions of SAP.

Combining SAP business process expertise in serving the world's leading companies with the know-how of SAP All-in-One channel partners, SAP Best Practices offerings meet the resource, price and industry requirements of midsize companies while laying a scalable foundation for business growth. Together with SAP(R) ERP, the offerings provide the business foundation that SAP All-in-One partners further enhance with their unique industry expertise and services to create qualified SAP All-in-One solutions. Midsize companies can choose from a broad micro-vertical portfolio of over 650 qualified SAP All-in-One partner solutions available in more than 50 countries.

"Based on its industry-leading ERP application, SAP Best Practices offerings combine with SAP All-in-One to provide us with a solid enterprise foundation upon which we can easily infuse our expertise and build new solutions," said Lars Landwehrkamp, CEO, All for One. "We work directly with customers to swiftly implement SAP software, enabling them to leverage newfound processes to address pressing business challenges and secure additional solution value."

Further flexibility is built into the new offerings by leveraging the latest release of SAP ERP and the SAP NetWeaver(R) platform. Based on enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) technology, the new version of SAP ERP enables growing businesses around the world to quickly deploy SAP ERP while lowering operating risks and providing the flexibility to fine-tune and tailor to a customer's specific requirements.

More than 9,600 SAP All-in-One customers around the world leverage SAP Best Practices to experience faster deployment and return on their investment. A manufacturer and distributor of ready-to-eat cuisine, Sinaloa, Mexico-based Productos Chata selected SAP All-in-One to improve financials and customer service through strengthened reporting and enhanced integration between sales and purchasing. By leveraging a country-specific SAP Best Practices offering to ease the deployment process, the consumer products company accelerated its implementation and the adoption of new business processes, avoiding the disruption of its complex supply and distribution channels.

"As a growing company, we required a solution that could be deployed quickly, but was also highly specialized to fit our business needs," said Raul Achoy, IT Manager, Productos Chata. "The SAP Best Practices offering enabled our SAP All-in-One solution to directly support both consumer products scenarios and Mexican business requirements, saving us valuable time through preconfigured business processes that we didn't have to customize."

Headquartered in Boynton Beach, Florida and managing the largest supply and installation of brick pavers in the United States, the Royal Construction Group spent considerable time evaluating ERP systems. Augmenting a difficult decision were the burgeoning divisions managed by Royal Construction Group including cultured stone and rock face, precast, retaining walls and heavy exterior timbers and interior carpentry. Royal Construction Group selected SAP All-in-One to streamline financial, procurement and sales processes across divisions and provide more visibility into projects and schedules as well as forecasting procurement requirements and booked revenue. Working with partner Global Enterprise Management Solutions (GEMS), a practice within global technology services provider EDS, the Royal Construction Group leveraged SAP Best Practices to fully automate the entire project cycle, from sales order to cash receipt, and implement efficient web-based portal technology for remote, real-time field operations management.

"Since our business model requires quick, efficient transactions to support a wide range of time-sensitive construction projects, software implementations must take hold quickly while leaving us at full operational capacity," said Michael Goldburg, CFO, Royal Construction Group. "SAP and GEMS provided a tailored plan that applied construction industry best practices to rapidly install the solution. Our streamlined sales and financial processes have allowed us to improve material procurement and maintain challenging delivery schedules that ultimately improve our customer service and competitive advantage."

"The SAP Best Practices offerings address the process requirements and unique business characteristics of midsize companies operating in dozens of industries around the world," said Hans-Peter Klaey, president, SME, SAP AG. "Through continued collaboration with our channel partners, we will develop and deliver innovative SAP Best Practices offerings that help our customers realize shorter, more predictable and affordable implementations and increased operational flexibility."

About SAP

SAP is the world's leading provider of business software*. More than 41,200 customers in more than 120 countries run SAP(R) applications -- from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize enterprises to suite offerings for global organizations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver(R) platform to drive innovation and enable business change, SAP software helps enterprises of all sizes around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. SAP solution portfolios support the unique business processes of more than 25 industries, including high tech, retail, financial services, healthcare and the public sector. 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." (Additional information at http://www.sap.com/)

(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning and related applications such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, product life-cycle management and supplier relationship management.

Copyright (C) 2007 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)

Source: SAP AG

CONTACT: Global Customer Center, +49-180-534-34-24, or United States Only, 1-800-872-1727, or Jim Dever, +1-610-661-2161, james.dever@sap.com, or Astrid Polchen, +49-6227-7-47644, astrid.poelchen@sap.com, all of SAP AG

Web site: http://www.sap.com/
http://www.thenewsmarket.com/

All Topics