SAP Eases Pan-European Payments for Customers
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Enhancements to mySAP(TM) ERP to Help Customers Benefit from Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA)
Breaking Down of Banking Barriers to Boost Payment-Flow Transparency and Processing
WALLDORF, Germany, Oct. 9 -- SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) today announced it will provide enhancements to mySAP(TM) ERP to help businesses and banks worldwide reap the benefits of the upcoming Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) to increase the efficiency of cross-border electronic payments within Europe. Pursuing its accelerated innovation strategy to help customers take advantage of the newest technology and business process innovations, SAP will make these functional enhancements available to SAP customers as extensions to mySAP(TM) ERP 2005. (See September 12, 2006 press release, titled "SAP Delivers Innovation Without Disruption to mySAP(TM) ERP Customers.") The announcement was made on the eve of Sibos, the world's premier financial services event, being held in Sydney, Australia, October 9 - 13.
Although European Union (EU) member states in the "euro-zone" have a single currency, each domestic market within the union is still marked by complex and costly local payment infrastructures that prevent the free movement of international payments. The European Union cites studies estimating that transaction costs under the current system are equivalent to up to 2.5 to 3 percent of Europe's total gross domestic product (GDP)[1]. The SEPA initiative seeks to harmonize the conditions, rights and obligations for the more than 450 million citizens and all companies performing financial transactions in the 25 EU member states, the three European Economic Area countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and Switzerland. Effective January 1, 2008, standardized cross-border euro payments will become as quick, secure and cost-efficient as domestic payments within the 29 countries in SEPA.
The SEPA package from SAP will be designed to help companies meet the challenges of the SEPA framework as defined by the European Payment Council (EPC), improving straight-through processing and allowing increased transparency into payment flows. SAP plans to make the package available in mid-2007 for existing SAP customers that are current on SAP maintenance contracts and running SAP's enterprise resource planning (ERP) application, releases SAP® R/3® Enterprise or higher. The package is one of several planned enhancements tapping SAP's ERP and banking software functionality to help customers worldwide cut costs and streamline corporate banking processes. See today's related press release, titled "SAP and SWIFT to Drive Simplicity and Insight in Corporate Banking."
Standardization Increases Business Benefits
The SEPA package will enable more efficient and cost-effective cross- border payment processes by supporting the most important new ISO 20022 payment schemes as defined within the SEPA rule books of the EPC. SAP customers will be able to generate these messages directly from within their ERP system without having to implement additional middleware for data conversion. The software will be designed to support payment schemes including the newly created pan-European direct debit, the payment order and the bank statement message. In addition, SAP will deliver a bank mandate management component, which can be used by both corporations and banks to manage the entire life cycle of the debtor authorisations to initiate collections.
In further support of customers impacted by the SEPA initiative, SAP will provide additional functionality to mySAP ERP 2005 that will include SAP® Bank Relationship Management, an application to increase payment-flow transparency and compliance of corporate payment transactions. This component will also be able to accept and process the incoming ISO 20022 payment status report message and other message schemes. As SEPA foresees a new data transfer method for mass payments (SWIFT FileAct), SAP will also offer SAP® Integration Package for SWIFT, which provides seamless integration between mySAP(TM) ERP and the SWIFT infrastructure.
"SEPA's initiative to create a standardized payment infrastructure throughout Europe will have a similar impact as the introduction of the euro," said Thomas Balgheim, senior vice president, Financial Services, SAP AG. "It will change the way corporations and banks do business significantly. As part of SAP's release strategy to deliver innovation more quickly to customers, the enhancements to mySAP ERP will gear our customers to fully reap the business benefits created by SEPA, such as improved cash flow and cost reductions."
Sibos 2006, Sydney, Australia, October 9 - 13
Join SAP at Sibos 2006, the world's premier financial services event, to discover how banks can broaden their coverage of corporate clients' financial supply chains by leveraging straight-through processing and corporate-to-bank connectivity. Learn first hand how banks can transform payment processes (leveraging enterprise service-oriented architecture and SEPA) to align them with payments strategies.
[1] "Annex to the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Payment Services in the Internal Market, IMPACT ASSESSMENT," COM(2005) 603; December 2005
About SAP
SAP is the world's leading provider of business software*. Today, more than 34,600 customers in more than 120 countries run SAP® applications -- 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 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.
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