What a Long Strange Trip It's Been: SAP and Business Objects Reported by Analyst Firm as Market Leader in Two Major Segments of EPM

On my behalf of the many colleagues whom I have had the privilege to work with at SAP and Business Objects over the last three years, it is with great pride and enthusiasm that I share with you today the greatly-anticipated launch of Gartner’s CPM Suite Software market share for 2007 and IDC’s 2007 Business Analytics market share report which includes the Performance Management Tools and Applications market.

IDC announced that SAP and Business Objects have the fastest growing EPM business and lead in the Performance Management Tools and Applications market! (IDC’s term for EPM).

The Performance Management Tools and Applications market is the largest subset of the Business Analytics Software market, representing $15.4 billion out of the total $22.1 billion market. According to IDC, SAP's EPM market share grew by more than a full 4 percentage points. Additionally, SAP and Business Objects have the fastest growth of any competitor in the marketplace, more than tripling the growth of our largest competitor. These latest market share findings by IDC confirm that our differentiated, comprehensive EPM strategy and approach is resonating with customers.

In addition to IDC’s latest report, Gartner released its CPM Suite Software market share report and finds SAP and Business Objects is the fastest-growing EPM vendor, is taking share from all other vendors, and is statistically tied with the market leader.

• SAP and Business Objects is the fastest growing of the large CPM (Gartner’s term for EPM) vendors – SAP grew 31.2%, Oracle grew just 3.7%, the market grew 19%.
• SAP and Business Objects has moved from #4 in the CPM market a few years ago, to statistically-tied for #1.
• SAP and Business Objects’ market-share grew from 21.6% to 23.8%. (All vendors, with the exception of one, stayed relatively flat or declined).

What has been the secret to our success? We are the only vendor today that offers a complete vision and solution portfolio which unifies EPM, GRC, BI and Information Management. For example, SAP Strategy Management is integrated with SAP GRC Risk Management, allowing executives to plan and execute corporate strategy with an in-depth understanding of the underlying risks, which therefore helps them to make more informed, calculated, risk-aware decisions and better manage future performance.

SAP and Business Objects Reported by Analyst Firm as Market Leader in Two Major Segments of Enterprise Performance Management

SAP is Market Share Leader for Performance Management Applications and Business Objects for Performance Management Tools

SAN JOSE, Calif. and PARIS - November 19, 2008 - SAP (NYSE: SAP) and Business Objects, an SAP company, today announced that IDC has reported that each leads in one of the two major segments of the Performance Management Tools and Applications market based on software license and maintenance revenue. The aggregate Performance Management market represents $15.4 billion out of the total $22.1 billion Business Analytics Software market.

The market analysis, titled “Worldwide Business Analytics Software 2008–2012 Forecast and 2007 Vendor Shares,” found that SAP leads in performance management applications and Business Objects leads in the performance management tools market.1 Together these two segments comprise the broad market for performance management tools and applications. “The IDC data presented in our 2008 business analytics report finds that SAP and Business Objects each lead a major segment of the performance management market,” said Dan Vesset, vice president, Business Analytics Solutions, IDC. “The two companies have come together and are balancing the goals of remaining open for non-SAP customers while optimizing their solutions for the SAP platform. This openness and ability to satisfy all customers—along with the breadth of Business Objects and SAP’s enterprise performance management solutions—are catalysts for continued market growth.”

According to the IDC report, which evaluated the two companies separately in 2007 because they had not yet merged, SAP and Business Objects held 11.2 percent and 7.6 percent respectively of the total 2007 market share for performance management tools and applications. The report also found that SAP’s share of the performance management tools and application market grew at 19.3 percent, higher than the market as a whole.

IDC attributes SAP and Business Objects’ leadership to the following factors: “SAP continues to see strength in sales of its performance management applications across a diverse set of business processes. In addition, Business Objects showed continued strength in growing its business intelligence tools revenue in 2007. The company, acquired by SAP in the past year, contributed a significant install base, broad product portfolio, strong brand recognition and experienced development and marketing resources. Business Objects will expand SAP’s diversity and offers improved reach into the small and medium-sized business market segment with its Crystal Reports® software.”

“It is gratifying to see that SAP and Business Objects’ vision and execution have been validated by our customers, partners and one of the leading industry analyst firms,” said Sanjay Poonen, general manager and senior vice president, Performance Optimization Applications, Business Objects. “We have experienced rapid growth in the EPM market, catapulting us to the top position in the market, over competitors with outdated products. Our EPM portfolio expands beyond finance to provide end-to-end performance management capabilities across the organization to ensure both profitable and compliant business performance. SAP and Business Objects’ diversity of EPM offerings—combined with the leading business intelligence and governance, risk and compliance solutions, all with more modern, user-centric application design—puts us ahead of traditional vendors who possess harder-to-use, incomplete EPM solutions.”

1 Worldwide Business Analytics Software 2008 - 2012 Forecast and 2007 Vendor Shares, IDC #214904, November 2008

About Business Objects

Business Objects, an SAP company, transforms the way the world works by connecting people, information and businesses. With open, heterogeneous applications in the areas of governance, risk and compliance; enterprise performance management; and business intelligence, Business Objects enables organizations of all sizes worldwide to close the gap between business strategy and execution. Together with a strong and diverse partner network, Business Objects allows customers to optimize business performance across all major industries including banking, retail, consumer-packaged goods and public sector. Business Objects is committed to helping customers turn raw data into actionable decisions, regardless of their underlying database, operating system, applications or IT system.

For more information about Business Objects, visit: http://www.businessobjects.com/.
For more information about SAP, visit: http://www.sap.com/.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

Copyright © 2008 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. Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Crystal Decisions, Web Intelligence, Xcelsius and other Business Objects products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects S.A. in the United States and in several other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. 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 Business Objects products:

Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
United States Only: 1 (800) 872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727)

For more information, press only:

Scott Behles, SAP, +1 (917) 494-2009, scott.behles@sap.com, EST
SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EST; press@sap.com
Janina Buchholz, Burson-Marsteller, + 1 415-591-4081, janina.buchholz@bm.com, PST
Want to learn more? Contact the SAP sales office nearest you.

My chapter in the new book “From Strategy to Execution - Turning Accelerated Global Change into Opportunity”

In 2007, a few of us at SAP were asked to contribute to a book entitled “From Strategy to Execution - Turning Accelerated Global Change into Opportunity”. The abstract of the book is "At the intersection of disruptive and accelerated change in the environment with globalization, business leaders around the world are trying to embrace change and incorporate innovative business models in the basics of their businesses. While innovation in their products and services remains a priority, it is the focus on rethinking how customer value is developed and delivered, and rethinking the profit formula and the financial model, and finally making corresponding changes to the core resources that are coming under increasing emphasis. This book presents new and innovative ideas and approaches that are increasingly becoming a key to business success in a rapidly changing world."

One of the chapters in the book, “From Strategy Execution to Performance Management” summarizes a lot of thinking that informed what eventually became SAP’s CPM Strategy. It was co-written with Sanjay Poonen and Adam Thier, both of whom I have the privilege of working with at SAP in crafting the CPM strategy over the last two years and have more than three decades of experience in this space between them. You can buy the chapter by itself on-line by clicking here. It’s a quick read, and I would hope that anyone involved in the CPM space would find something of interest within it. I also highly recommend a chapter written by a some other SAP colleagues on “Agile Strategy Execution — Creating Strategic Alignment“ which discusses SAP’s own internal challenges around managing strategy and rolling it out to our employees.

Chapter Summary: The fundamental business goal remains constant: make a profit and return value to shareholders. The objective is straightforward: sell a product or a service to customers for more than it costs to produce and deliver it (profit = revenue — cost). Executing a strategy to achieve this objective in today’s unforgiving business environment is not nearly as straightforward. Global markets, intense competition, compliance constraints, disruptive technologies, and talent shortages are all pressuring companies to become more agile so that they can constantly adjust to a world of accelerated change. This condition of constant adjustment forces companies to embark on a non-stop cycle of strategy development, execution, measurement, and refinement. Companies that can effectively manage their performance within this steady cycle of change are well positioned for success; companies that can’t are likely to suffer a less fortunate fate.

Oracle Customers Select SAP Solutions for Enterprise Performance Management

It's been a crazy few months at SAP with the BOBJ acquisition but the dust is starting to settle. I'm glad to see my employer come out swinging since we don't do it often even when we have great reason to. In this case, it's pretty clear with over 100 Oracle Hyperion customers choosing SAP for their Performance Management needs in the last few months that the Hyperion acquisition isn't working out the way Oracle had hoped in their attempt to "surround" SAP. Apparently things are so bad on this front that our friends in Redwood Shores have had to slash their price list by a huge percentage to remain competitive. This is definitely a case where the best things in life are not free. Today's press release follows:

Oracle Customers Select SAP Solutions for Enterprise Performance Management

Growing Number of Companies Turn to SAP to Optimize Business Performance and Manage Governance, Risk and Compliance

WALLDORF, Germany - February 26, 2008 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced success in its efforts to help customers add value to their IT investments by moving from other vendors’ applications to more comprehensive enterprise performance management (EPM) and governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solutions from SAP. These solutions work together to further enhance business performance and help companies build a reputation for reliable, compliant and sustainable operations. SAP reported that over the past several months more than 100 customers worldwide purchased SAP® solutions for enterprise performance management with the intention to replace Hyperion solutions from Oracle. Among those customers are: Ballast Nedam N.V., Foundation Coal, KPN Telecom B.V., Rezidor SAS, Sandvik AB, Skandia Informasjonsteknologi AS and TPG Headoffice BV. SAP also reported that it expanded market presence by selling SAP® solutions for GRC into new accounts including Chevron.

Unlike solutions from other vendors, which provide only partial insight and require ongoing customer investments in integration, SAP offers customers a comprehensive set of EPM and GRC solutions that empower organizations to address critical issues facing today’s office of the CFO. The portfolio of SAP solutions for enterprise performance management unifies the full range of financial and operational processes in a single stack, arming finance professionals with capabilities such as strategy, profitability, cost and planning management. In addition, customers are turning to SAP because the company offers EPM solutions that are unified with SAP solutions for GRC. These applications help customers to build stakeholder confidence through improved executive oversight, risk detection and monitoring, and more effective controls over key business processes. The combination of EPM and GRC solutions allows SAP customers to improve financial performance while better managing risk and ensuring corporate accountability.

Responding to customer demand to work with fewer vendors and provide finance professionals with a complete, unified view of their business, SAP has invested in and expanded its EPM product portfolio, for example, by adding new capabilities resulting from the acquisition of OutlookSoft. Furthermore, the acquisition of Business Objects by SAP means customers will further benefit from the leading business intelligence platform and EPM solutions – which ensure all EPM activities are based on a single, accurate version of the truth – from a single vendor.

“The SAP Business Planning and Consolidation application helped The Rezidor Hotel Group to cope with the ever increasing need for timely and more detailed financial oversight,” said Alain Wouters, manager, Group Accounting, The Rezidor Hotel Group. “Events such as our recent IPO and new financial demands, such as customer sustainability reporting for improved accountability to our clients, have added to the workload and could not have been supported with previous software. With SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, we can take a more unified approach to performance management.”

SAP customers also benefit from industry-leading innovation in SAP solutions for enterprise performance management, including unrivaled usability and features to enhance user productivity. For example, SAP® Business Planning and Consolidation allows for easy interchange with Microsoft Office and the Web, offering customers an easy-to-use interface that benefits business users regardless of technical skills. In addition, the application allows finance departments to independently maintain their enterprise performance management solutions – decreasing their reliance on IT staff for customization and upkeep. Because SAP solutions for enterprise performance management deliver such user-friendly features, customers can deploy them more broadly and increase the value of their IT investment.

“Existing solutions for performance management were built with the finance department of the 1990s in mind – with a patchwork of products, on old architectures, a rear-view approach to budgeting, and no links to the actual business processes,” said Sanjay Poonen, senior vice president and general manager of Enterprise Performance Management, Business Objects, an SAP company. “With continued investment and innovation in SAP solutions for enterprise performance management, we can offer modern CFOs a more compelling value proposition, especially when customers pair EPM solutions with our GRC offerings. We have seen a strong, positive response by customers, as demonstrated by the strong success SAP had during the second half of 2007. Customers value a more complete EPM and GRC solution offering, and, most importantly, a trusted solution provider. These are the attributes that account for SAP’s strong momentum in this market.”

About Business Objects

As an independent business unit within SAP, Business Objects transforms the way the world works by connecting people, information and businesses. Together with one of the industry’s strongest and most diverse partner networks, the company delivers business performance optimization to customers worldwide across all major industries, including financial services, retail, consumer-packaged goods, healthcare and public sector. With open, heterogeneous applications in the areas of governance, risk and compliance; enterprise performance management; and business intelligence; and through global consulting and education services, Business Objects enables organizations of all sizes around the globe to close the loop between business strategy and execution.

About SAP

SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software*. Today, more than 46,100 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® technology 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.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

Copyright © 2008 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.

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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)

For more information, press only:
Scott Behles, SAP, +1 (917) 494-2009, scott.behles@sap.com, PST
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SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EST; press@sap.com
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