PHYSICS

SAP AG today announced that Tyson Foods, Inc. has selected mySAP Business Suite as the backbone technology platform to complete the integration of its operating units, adopt "best practice" business processes and optimize efficiency across its operations. The project will provide Tyson team members with a common view, platform and standard process for managing customer relationships, improving visibility and accuracy in procurement and inventory management and managing all financial information across the company for more consistent reporting. In addition, SAP and Tyson Foods will work together to further enhance a catch weight management application for tracking variations and assessing value between product orders and shipments. The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE '04, SAP's international customer conference being held in New Orleans, Louisiana, May 11 - 13. Based on the SAP NetWeaver(TM) integration and application platform, mySAP Business Suite gives Tyson Foods a solid technology foundation to speed the integration and realize the benefits of its acquisition of IBP, Inc. In the future, with tools such as SAP(R) Master Data Management, Tyson will have the ability to harmonize data across diverse IT landscapes and applications and more rapidly solve problems created by differences among product, customer and vendor information across multiple systems. The decision to deploy mySAP Business Suite follows the successful deployment of SAP's human resources solution to manage payroll and other functions for the combined organization's more than 110,000 team members. Under the agreement, Tyson Foods, Inc. will implement a full range of solutions from mySAP Business Suite in a phased rollout among approximately 6,000 power users. Ultimately, the rollout will extend to all Tyson team members. "To achieve our goals for the integrated Tyson organization and take the relationship between business strategy, benefits and the supporting technology to the next level, we have selected SAP as the technology foundation that will standardize our operating units on best practice business processes across the organization," said Jeri Dunn, CIO, Tyson Foods, Inc. "By choosing to implement a single, integrated technology platform from SAP, we can more rapidly achieve the benefits of the combined organization and provide Tyson with a strategic and competitive advantage going forward." With SAP(R) Trade Promotion Management, Tyson Foods, Inc. will have a closed-loop, integrated approach to improve the management of promotional spending, more effectively plan promotions with retailers and analyze promotions on key performance indicators such as total trade expenditures, profit impact and incremental return on investment. Leveraging SAP's order fulfillment, supply chain management, strategic enterprise management and business intelligence solutions, mySAP(TM) Customer Relationship Management (mySAP CRM) ties together a seamless, end-to-end trade promotion management process that extends its value across the entire enterprise and to business partners. With the financials solutions from SAP, Tyson Foods will have the ability to process and interpret financial and business data, handle financial transactions and manage profitability, business performance and growth. It enables company-wide control and integration of financial and business information essential to strategic and operational decision-making and will enable Tyson Foods to track financial accounting data within an international framework of multiple companies, languages, currencies and books of accounts. With mySAP(TM) Supplier Relationship Management (mySAP SRM) as its global purchasing platform for sourcing and procurement, Tyson will have an in-house strategic sourcing function to capture quick, significant and sustainable cost savings without recurring expenses for managed services or systems integration. Using a common platform for sourcing and procurement will help ensure higher contract compliance and better spend visibility across all operating units within Tyson. As part of the agreement, Tyson Foods will work with SAP in further enhancing catch weight management applications for the consumer products industry in capturing the value in measurements of incoming orders, which are placed by the case, and outgoing shipments, which are measured in pounds and ounces. This effort leverages the resources of two of the world's foremost consumer products and technology leaders to solve a key area of revenue capture for the industry. "This significant expansion of SAP's relationship with Tyson Foods shows SAP's unique ability to establish early success working with our customers and to deliver increased value over time," said Bill McDermott, CEO and president, SAP America, Inc. "SAP is teaming with our customers -- many of whom are global industry leaders -- to maximize efficiency for consumer products companies and to develop innovative new applications that address key areas of revenue growth, customer satisfaction and operational excellence."