INDUSTRY

SAP Introduces New Levels of Flexibility, Simplification and Rapid Deployment for Market-Leading Industry Solutions for Midsize Customers and Partners Who Serve Them: Delivering the value of enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) "by evolution" to midsize companies, SAP today introduced the next version of its SAP All-in-One solutions, with significant enhancements to provide midsize companies with greater agility in managing their businesses. Leveraging the power of mySAP ERP 2005 as a foundation of SAP's road map for enterprise SOA and customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities optimized for the midsize market, the solutions enable faster return on investment with a dramatically enhanced and more intuitive user experience, streamlined business scenarios, enhanced analytical reporting and integrated management of customer relationships. With the announcement, SAP also introduced programs and tools to make it easier for its worldwide network of channel partners to immediately evolve existing SAP All-in-One solutions and build new solutions to address additional industry segments. Available from SAP and its partner network, the next versions of SAP All- in-One solutions are part of SAP's increasing commitment to midsize companies. Along with the recent formation of its new global business unit to oversee its midsize enterprise business, the enhancements offer further proof of the unique ability of SAP and its partners to serve customers with solutions that combine award-winning "micro-vertical" capabilities with new levels of adaptability and simplicity in business management. Built upon mySAP ERP 2005 and SAP's leading CRM technology, the new version of SAP All-in-One allows partners to reduce complexity and allows partners and customers to adopt new innovations over time in an evolutionary way that minimizes costs and alleviates disruption to ongoing operations. "We are providing midsize companies and SAP's partners who serve them with an enhanced portfolio of solutions, proven industry best practices, and the tools to adopt new innovations easily and seamlessly over time," said Hans- Peter Klaey, president, Global SME, SAP AG. "The evolution of our SAP All-in- One offerings is a significant step as SAP and its partners deliver the beauty and simplicity of enterprise SOA to midsize companies across the globe." Proven Solutions Enable Agility, Best Practice Business Management Midsize companies increasingly look to IT for business solutions that enable them to adapt quickly, easily and cost effectively as their businesses grow over time. Already the choice of nearly 9,000 midsize companies, SAP All- in-One solutions delivered by SAP and its partners provide proven vertical- industry capabilities, configurability to meet changing business needs, and predictable cost of ownership. SAP will evolve its SAP All-in-One solutions to help customers achieve greater agility by building on mySAP ERP 2005 as a business process platform that enables scalability and integration with third-party applications and existing systems environments. With comprehensive functionality and the ability to rapidly configure new processes, the solutions help businesses adapt to meet fast-changing customer demand, as well as regulatory, financial and environmental, health and safety requirements. To be introduced worldwide throughout 2007, the solutions also will fully leverage the next wave of enhancements to SAP Best Practices-a global portfolio of proven industry and cross-industry business scenarios and documentation. SAP Best Practices offerings are based on the experience of SAP and its partners, gained from decades of serving industry-leading companies of all sizes. The enhancements range from preconfigured business scenarios, to new and improved deployment tools for faster implementation and additional coverage for countries and industries. Simplification, Role-Based Navigation Boost Usability Increasing customer value by facilitating user adoption and productivity, the new SAP All-in-One offerings will feature significant enhancements in usability. With a completely new and compelling, PC-like user interface and simplified navigation powered by the SAP NetWeaver platform, the offerings will provide role-based access to relevant user information, the ability to easily personalize applications, and easy-to-use help features. Improved Reporting for Business Insight The enhanced offerings also will provide integrated reporting capabilities, enabling 360-degree visibility of business operations through state-of-the-art business intelligence technologies that access information directly from the business processes and functions in the ERP system. The new reporting capabilities will enable greater flexibility in analyzing data and creating standard and ad hoc reports integrated with Microsoft Excel. CRM Optimized for Midsize Companies Delivering on SAP's unique ability to offer CRM as an integrated part of core business processes, the SAP All-in-One offerings also will provide capabilities to help midsize companies better target, acquire and maintain profitable customer relationships. The CRM capabilities optimized for midsize companies include account and contact management, activity management, lead management, campaign management, opportunity management and service ticket management. "The new SAP All-in-One solutions make the advances of SAP's platform and ERP software available in a proven, easy-to-acquire business solution, with industry best practices and cost-effective deployment for businesses of our size," said Andy Hastings, chief operations officer of Polyglass U.S.A. Inc., a leading producer of modified bitumen roofing. The company is utilizing a qualified SAP All-in-One partner solution, EDGE, from Technology Solutions Company (TSC). "Coupled with the business and solution knowledge that TSC brought to the table, we believe we are laying the foundation to leverage this next generation of ERP software and the innovations that will follow." A Solid Platform for Channel Partners The new SAP All-in-One offerings will enable partners to develop enhanced "microvertical" solutions to serve customers' industry-specific needs, and provide a platform to support repeatable development to expand their market coverage. Partners will have access to new tools and methodologies to more rapidly configure and deploy solutions, leading to lower development, sales, implementation and support costs. To help its partners adopt the new offerings, SAP will leverage its global network of SME Solution Centers to accelerate the development and delivery of new solutions. In addition, SAP today introduced a new program to enable its partners to quickly and efficiently bring their solutions and customers to the next version of the SAP All-in-One solutions. With tools and resources including upgrade road maps, checklists to facilitate migration, as well as educational materials and training and service offerings, the program uses the SAP PartnerEdge program to support partners in the adoption of new technology from SAP. Details on the program are available to SAP partners through the SAP Channel Partner Portal site at its Web site . "As an SAP All-in-One partner, we have built a successful practice providing midsize companies with industry-specific business management solutions based on SAP's market-leading ERP applications," said Herbert Vogel, CEO, itelligence AG. "New solutions and the upgrade program from SAP will leverage proven technology and allow us to easily adopt the new benefits to come through enhancement packages. We look forward to working with SAP in introducing the next generation of service-oriented solution innovations to our midsize customers." For more information about SAP All-in-One solutions, visit its Web site.