Vienna City Administration Waltzes with SAP


VIENNA, Austria, May 14 -- SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) today kicked off its international customer conference SAPPHIRE® '07 in Vienna with the announcement that the Vienna City Administration selected SAP® ERP to create a more cost effective and efficient financial management system. The Vienna City Administration, hosting one of the largest computer networks in Europe that connects more than 30,000 employees to serve 1.7 million residents, will use SAP NetWeaver® Process Integration as the foundation for the City's electronic billing system. This accounting modernization project is the latest in the Vienna City Administration's relationship with SAP, which goes back to 1999. SAPPHIRE '07 Vienna will bring together SAP customers and partners from throughout the world in Austria's capital from May 14-16 to present how they utilize and benefit from SAP applications to do "business at the speed of change."

"After a thorough evaluation, we selected SAP as it provides us with the tools to move full-steam into the digital age by replacing our labor-intensive batch processing towards an automated accounting system," said Bernd Wunschek, SAP development strategist, City of Vienna. "Processes that historically take a whole day being handled by two people are orchestrated by a centralized Web- based system which determines and posts updates automatically."

After introducing SAP software for its controlling, materials management, and sales and distribution operations in 1999, the Vienna City Administration decided to utilize SAP® ERP Financials for the introduction of a citywide paperless financial management system that provides superior asset management and a centralized overview of its partners' receivables and payments. Crucial to the flow of revenue and expenditures throughout government, Vienna's financial management system is estimated to currently process more than 1,600,000 invoices per year. Vienna plans to gradually transition the majority of the city's supplier billings to this SAP installation.

SAP NetWeaver® is the uniform technology platform on which the Vienna City Administration is basing its standardized, optimized administrative processes. SAP NetWeaver Process Integration, an evolution of SAP NetWeaver® Exchange Infrastructure, manages the overall process of the automatic distribution and administration of suppliers' billings. Suppliers can connect to the city's electronic accounting system via a Web portal, featuring an easy-to-use graphical user interface. The SAP software supports the provision of different billing formats and its content-based routing allows easy identification of the billing recipient. The software validates the signatures and archives the invoices based on pre-determined criteria. The accounting department developed a quality assurance system that verifies execution logs by selected staff members.

"As SAP and thousands of our customers gather in Vienna for our annual SAPPHIRE conference, we are thrilled that our host city continues to select SAP to leverage IT to maximize public value by reducing costs and providing better service to its residents," said Tom Shirk, president, SAP Global Public Services. "We are honored to be part of the city's move towards a value-based administration system, the first stepping stone to a truly transformed government."

About SAP for Public Sector

SAP for Public Sector provides comprehensive solutions to help governments and public organizations improve economic viability and increase process efficiency and transparency while better serving the needs of the public. With more than 1,320 customers in 70 countries, SAP is the leading provider of enterprise business solutions to the public sector.
(Additional information at www.sap.com/solutions/industry/publicsector/)

About SAP

SAP is the world's leading provider of business software*. Today, more than 39,400 customers in more than 120 countries run SAP® applications-from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small businesses and midsize companies 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 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.

Webcasts, keynotes, presentations and podcasts from SAPPHIRE '07 Vienna will be available as of Monday, May 14 at sapsapphire.com/emea2007/replays.epx. To review the announcements, keynote presentations and other content from SAPPHIRE '07 Atlanta, held in Atlanta, Georgia, April 22-25, visit SAPPHIRE '07 Atlanta Online, sapsapphire.com/usa2007/podcast.epx and sapsapphire.com/usa2007/webcastsandreplays.epx. Broadcast-standard video content about SAP is available at www.thenewsmarket.com/sap. Registration on the site and video is free to the media.

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: Alicia Lenze, +49 (6227) 7-40445, alicia.lenze@sap.com, EDT, or SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET, +1 (610) 661-3200, EDT, press@sap.com, both of SAP; or Siobhan Lyons, +1 (202) 530-4721, siobhan.lyons@bm.com, EDT, or Sven Kahn, +49 69 238 09-24, sven.kahn@bm.com, CET, both of Burson-Marsteller, for SAP AG; or During SAPPHIRE (from May 14 to 16), to speak with press contacts on site, please dial the SAP press room, ++49 6227 7 74069

Web site: www.sap.com/
http://www.sap.com/solutions/industry/publicsector/

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