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.

Note to editors:
For free video content about SAP, please log onto www.thenewsmarket.com/sap to preview and request video. You can receive broadcast-standard video digitally or by tape from this site. Registration 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)

For more information, press only:
Scott Behles, SAP, +1 (917) 494-2009, scott.behles@sap.com, PST
Rachel Allen, Burson-Marsteller, +1 (415) 591-4041, rachel.allen@bm.com, PST
SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EST; press@sap.com
Hilmar Schepp, +49 (6227) 7-46799, hilmar.schepp@sap.com, CET
Michael Baxter, Burson-Marsteller, +49 (0) 69 238 09-43, michael.baxter@bm.com, CET

Want to learn more? Contact SAP for more information.

SAP to Acquire Business Objects in Friendly Takeover; Combined Companies to Accelerate Leadership for Business User Applications

SAP to Acquire Business Objects in Friendly Takeover; Combined Companies to Accelerate Leadership for Business User Applications

Sunday October 7, 3:52 pm ET

SAP and Business Objects to offer the industry's most comprehensive portfolio of business performance and optimization solutions for Business Users for companies of all sizes

WALLDORF, Germany and PARIS, Oct. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP - News) and Business Objects S.A. (Nasdaq: BOBJ - News; Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 - BOB) today announced that the companies have reached an agreement that will bring together two of the information technology industry's leaders, resulting in an unmatched offering for Business Users, enabling timely and accurate decision-making. Under the terms and conditions of the tender offer agreement, SAP will make a cash offer of euro 42.00 per ordinary share and for American Depositary Shares (ADS) at the US$ equivalent based on the EUR/US$ exchange rate as of the settlement of the tender offers. The transaction volume taking into account the transaction costs will be slightly above euro 4.8 billion. The Business Objects board of directors has approved the tender offer agreement between the two companies and anticipates recommending the offer to its shareholders subject to fulfillment of certain regulatory requirements.

Together, SAP and Business Objects intend to offer high-value solutions for process- and business-oriented professionals. The solutions will be designed to enable companies to strengthen decision processes, increase customer value and create sustainable competitive advantage through real-time, multi-dimensional business intelligence. SAP and Business Objects believe that customers will gain significant business benefits through the combination of new, innovative offerings of enterprise-wide business intelligence solutions along with embedded analytics in transactional applications. Additionally, the joint partner ecosystems will be fueled by the industry's most powerful business process platform providing customers with the best enterprise information management platform available for SAP and non-SAP environments.

SAP is the world's leading provider of business software with more than 41,200 customers in more than 120 countries running SAP applications-from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize enterprises to suite offerings for global organizations. A key component of SAP's growth strategy is to significantly increase its revenues from new products including addressing the growing demands of Business Users.

"We are highly committed to the next generation of applications serving Business Users," said Henning Kagermann, CEO of SAP AG. "The combination of SAP and Business Objects in their respective domains will benefit customers, prospects, partners, employees and shareholders. At SAP, we are excited about the prospect of having Business Objects join the SAP Group."

"The acquisition of Business Objects is in keeping with SAP's stated strategy to double our addressable market by 2010 as announced in 2005," said Kagermann. "SAP will accelerate its growth in the Business User segment, while complementing the company's successful organic growth strategy. With the delivery of the first business process platform; the rapid adoption of our enterprise SOA platform, SAP NetWeaver; and the successful launch of the first complete on-demand business solution for midsized companies, SAP Business ByDesign, SAP can now take the opportunity to focus on the industry's next high-growth opportunity, by accelerating and enhancing our efforts for the Business User category," Kagermann, said.

Headquartered in Paris, France Business Objects is widely recognized as the pioneer of the business intelligence (BI) software category. Today, Business Objects is the world's leading BI software company with solutions spanning the information discovery and delivery, information management, analysis and performance management categories for more than 44,000 customers around the globe.

"Business Objects helps companies transform the way they work through the use of intelligent information," said Bernard Liautaud, Chairman and Founder of Business Objects. "The combination of Business Objects and SAP means that we can truly amplify the reach of Business Intelligence -- from the C-suite to Main Street. John Schwarz and I are excited to see the innovation and hard work of our employees and partners validated and soon extended by the portfolio, domain expertise and presence of SAP."

Transaction expected to be accretive to SAP's earnings per share on a U.S. GAAP basis in 2009 and beyond

SAP and Business Objects plan to exploit additional revenue opportunities and leverage potential synergies. Additional details regarding specific product, go-to-market and other executional details will be provided after the transaction is complete. Neither company intends to undertake significant restructuring as a result of the transaction.

The closing of the transaction is expected within the first quarter of 2008. On that basis SAP expects the transaction to be accretive to SAP's earnings per share on a U.S. GAAP basis in 2009 and beyond; however, due to acquisition-related one-time effects in 2008 SAP expects the transaction to be dilutive by mid single digits euro cents to SAP's 2008 earnings per share on a U.S. GAAP basis.

Business Objects to Operate Stand-Alone; Companies to Share Executives, Resources
The two companies announced that Business Objects will operate as a stand- alone business as part of the SAP Group. Business Objects customers will continue to benefit from open, broad and integrated business intelligence solutions -- independent of databases and applications - while also gaining the advantage of application alignment for business analytics. Business Objects will significantly enhance its Business Intelligence portfolio scope and capacity with SAP people, know-how and networks.

SAP said that the expertise and solutions from Business Objects would be complimentary to offerings SAP already provides for Business Users -- including, for example, category leadership in Governance, Risk and Compliance; business intelligence in the SAP platform; as well as corporate performance management capabilities - including those recently added through tuck-in acquisitions from OutlookSoft and Pilot Software.

When the transaction is complete, John Schwarz will continue as the CEO of the Business Objects entity and is expected to become a member of the SAP Executive Board. Doug Merritt, Corporate Officer, Business User, SAP, will then join the Business Objects entity and report to John Schwarz. Subject to the closing, SAP's Supervisory Board intends to propose to elect Business Object founder Bernard Liautaud to the SAP Supervisory board at the company's next shareholders meeting. Until that time, Liautaud will have an advisory role to Henning Kagermann on aspects of strategy and integration.

Tender Offer Details and Disclosure Information

The transaction is to take the form of a tender offer under French law and a parallel tender offer under US law for all Business Objects shares and all American Depositary Shares representing Business Objects ordinary shares (the "ADS"), as well as all convertible bonds issued by Business Objects (the "Convertible Bonds") and all warrants issued by Business Objects (the "Warrants"). The price to be offered per convertible bond will be euro 50.65. Under the terms and conditions of the tender offer agreement, SAP will make a cash offer of euro 42.00 per ordinary share and for American Depositary Shares (ADS) at the US$ equivalent based on the EUR/US$ exchange rate as of the settlement of the tender offers.

The offers will only be opened for acceptances once the French stock exchange authority, the Autorite des marches financiers (AMF), and the French Finance Ministry have granted their respective clearances. The offers will be subject to the following conditions: (i) Business Objects securities tendered in the offers represent at least 50.01 % of all voting rights on a fully diluted basis and (ii) receipt of EU and US antitrust approvals.

The complete offer documents in accordance with French and US law will be submitted, together with further details of the offer, to the French financial services authority, Autorite des marches financiers (AMF), and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Goldman Sachs acts as financial advisor to Business Objects; Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. acts as financial advisor to SAP.

Additional Information

The tender offer for the outstanding ordinary shares, the Convertible Bonds and the warrants of Business Objects has not yet commenced. This press release is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell any Business Objects securities. The solicitation and the offer to buy ordinary shares of Business Objects, the Convertible Bonds and the warrants will be made only pursuant to an offer to purchase and related materials that SAP and its subsidiary intend to file with the SEC on Schedule TO. Business Objects also intends to file a solicitation/recommendation statement on Schedule 14D-9 with respect to the tender offer.

Business Objects stockholders and other investors should read the Tender Offer Statement on Schedule TO, the Schedule 14D-9 as well as the Note d'Information and the Note en Reponse to be filed by SAP carefully because these documents will contain important information, including the terms and conditions of the tender offer.

Business Objects stockholders and other investors will be able to obtain copies of these tender offer materials and any other documents filed with the AMF from the AMF's website (amf-france.org) or with the SEC at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov, in both cases without charge. Materials filed by SAP may be obtained for free at SAP's web site, www.sap.com. Materials filed by Business Objects may be obtained for free at Business Objects' web site, www.businessobjects.com.

Stockholders and other investors are urged to read carefully all tender offer materials prior to making any decisions with respect to the tender offer.

Press Conferences in Frankfurt and Paris

SAP and Business Objects senior management will host parallel joint press conferences in two locations to discuss the transaction:

in Frankfurt on Monday, October 8th at 3pm CET, 9am EST, and 6am PST (location: Japan-Center, Conference Center, 1st floor, Taunustor 2, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany, http://www.taunustor.de/); dial in number: +1 480 629-9564 (US), +44 207 190 1596 (UK), +49 695 8999 0701 (Germany). Replay number: +1 303 590-3030 (US), +44 207 154 2833 (UK); Replay passcode: 3792655. The Frankfurt press conference will be webcast at www.sap.com/press,

in Paris on Monday, October 8th at 3pm CET, 9am EST, and 6am PST (location: Hotel de Meurice, Paris); dial in number: +1 334 323 6201 (US), +44 207 162 0025 (UK), +33 17099 3208 (France). The Paris press conference will be webcast at http://wcc.webeventservices.com/view/wl/r.htm?e=95765&s=1&k=7CFDD62292014C7EA5B7220DD5D79C66&cb=genesys

Investor and Financial Analyst Conference Call

The press conferences will be followed by a joint investor and financial analyst conference call at 4 pm CET, 10 am EST and 7 am PST (Dial in number: +1 480 293-1744 (US), +44 207 190 1232 (UK), +49 695 8999 0706 (Germany)). Replay number: +1 303 590-3030 (US), +44 207 154 2833 (UK), Replay passcode: 3792656.

The financial analyst conference call will be webcast at www.sap.com/investor

About SAP

SAP is the world's leading provider of business software*. More than 41,200 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)

About Business Objects

Business Objects has been a pioneer in business intelligence (BI) since the dawn of the category. Today, as the world's leading BI software company, Business Objects transforms the way the world works through intelligent information. The company helps illuminate understanding and decision-making at more than 44,000 organizations around the globe. Through a combination of innovative technology, global consulting and education services, and the industry's strongest and most diverse partner network, Business Objects enables companies of all sizes to make transformative business decisions based on intelligent, accurate, and timely information. Business Objects has dual headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and Paris, France. The company's stock is traded on both the Nasdaq (BOBJ) and Euronext Paris (ISIN: FR0004026250 - BOB) stock exchanges. More information about Business Objects can be found at www.businessobjects.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning the parties' ability to close the transaction and the expected closing date of the transaction, the anticipated recommendation by the Business Objects Board of the transaction to shareholders, the anticipated benefits and synergies of the proposed transaction, anticipated future combined operations, products and services, and the anticipated role of Business Objects, its key executives and its employees within SAP following the closing of the transaction. Actual events or results may differ materially from those described in this release due to a number of risks and uncertainties. These potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the outcome of regulatory reviews of the proposed transaction, the ability of the parties to complete the transaction (including SAP's ability to tender successfully for at least 50.01% of all voting rights on a fully diluted basis), the impact on minority shareholders who do not tender into the offer, the failure to retain key Business Objects employees, customer and partner uncertainty regarding the anticipated benefits of the transaction, the failure of SAP and Business Objects to achieve the anticipated synergies of the proposed transaction and other risks detailed in Business Objects' SEC filings, including those discussed in Business Objects' quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2007, which is on file with the SEC and available at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Business Objects is not obligated to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this document.

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. Statements regarding the expected date of closing of the tender offer, and expected integration, growth and improved customer service benefits are forward-looking statements and are subject to risks and uncertainties including among others: uncertainties as to the timing of the tender offer, the satisfaction of closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals, whether certain industry segments will grow as anticipated, the competitive environment among providers of software solutions, and difficulties encountered in integrating companies and technologies. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

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.

For more information, press only:

Herbert Heitmann, SAP, +49 (6227) 7-61137, herbert.heitmann@sap.com, CET
Christoph Liedtke, SAP, +49 6227 7-50383, christoph.liedtke@sap.com, CET
Frank Hartmann, SAP, +49 (6227) 7-42548, f.hartmann@sap.com, CET
Marge Breya, Business Objects, +1 408 953-6092, marge.breya@businessobjects.com, PST
Philippe Laguerre, Business Objects, +1 33 (1) 41 25 38 15, plaguerre@businessobjects.com, EST

For more information, financial analysts only:
Stefan Gruber, SAP, +49 (6227) 7-44872, investor@sap.com, CET
Martin Cohen, SAP, +1 (212) 653-9619, investor@sap.com, EST
Edouard Lasalle, Business Objects, +33 (1) 41 25 24 33, edouard.lassalle@businessobjects.com, CET
Nina Camara, Business Objects, +1 (408) 953-6138, nina.camara@businessobjects.com, PST

Note to Editors

Broadcast-standard video content about SAP is available at www.thenewsmarket.com/sap. Registration on the site and video is free to the media.

(*) 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.

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.
Source: SAP AG

SAP launches Business Process Expert Community for Corporate Performance Management (CPM)!

Dear citizens of the Corporate Performance Management world,

Welcome to the new Corporate Performance Management area on BPX at https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/bpx-cpm! SAP has made significant recent investments in the Corporate Performance Management space with our acquisitions of Pilot Software and OutlookSoft and reseller agreement with Acorn Systems, and interest in these solutions is exploding. With these moves, it was crucial for us to develop an open community for everyone to participate, and the BPX Community for Corporate Performance Management is open in more ways than one. It is open to those offering new ideas on product deployment, new developments, and innovations and it is open to those looking for new answers to their questions. It doesn’t matter if you are a customer, partner, or an SAP employee, you can find a wealth of information here: tips and tricks, demos, FAQs, how-to-guides, and collaborative forums. We provide the platform, but the community belongs to YOU and is for YOU to shape and make your own.

With this in mind, I would like to invite you to send your ideas, tell us your opinions, and share your practical experience to make this the most vibrant on-line community of CPM practitioners in the world. It's easy to submit your articles or write blogs for this area, too! While those of us from SAP will be frequently contributing to this site, ultimately, it is YOU who can provide the most value to your fellow BPX community members based on YOUR experience. If you need help, or have suggestions for improving this area, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be more than happy to assist you!

I am certain that you will find this to be a valuable resource and look forward to working with all of you to make the CPM area in BPX and the corresponding forums both vibrant and successful!

Best Regards,

Nenshad Bardoliwalla
Vice President Solution Management
Corporate Performance Management Products

Informatica Strikes OEM Agreement With SAP AG

SAP has long been accused of being "closed" and "proprietary" with many facets of our technology including our Business Intelligence and Performance Management capabilities. The statement I always used to hear before I joined SAP is that NetWeaver BI was "only good for SAP data". It never quite made sense to me, at least the way it was phrased, because SAP data is no different than non-SAP data. Our software runs on the most common relational database technologies including Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM's offerings, and uses tables, fields, and standard data types just like any other packaged software product. And sure enough, when I got here, it became readily apparent that, as much as we would like customers to be "all SAP", nobody here thinks this is realistic!

Our market research has proven that companies increasingly rely on SAP NetWeaver as the integration platform even across highly heterogeneous environments. For example, today there are already 70% of SAP NetWeaver BI customers integrating between 25% - 40% of non-SAP data, in many cases even up to 70% of the data being sourced outside of SAP systems. That being said, there are a lot of innovations that a company dedicated to data integration with a track record of excellence can really add that augment our core capabilities. Therefore, we are really happy to announce this partnership with Informatica, who has always provided fantastic data integration capabilities and has long been recognized as a market leader in this space. The added capabilities will further the flexibility for data integration while considerably lowering cost of integration, specifically in the case of integration of heterogeneous information infrastructures.

With a combination of our existing BI technology with tens of thousands of installations, new innovations like Business Intelligence Accelerator, and key capabilities being augmented by market-leading partners like Informatica, I am certain we will continue to observe the dramatic uptick in customer deployments that we are seeing today.

You can read the press release below:

Informatica Strikes OEM Agreement With SAP AG
Leading Enterprise Software Vendor Will Embed Cornerstone Informatica Products Into Key Software Offerings


REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 23, 2007—Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ: INFA), a leading provider of data integration software, today announced that it has entered into an OEM relationship with SAP AG (NYSE:SAP), the world's leading provider of business software.
Under the terms of this OEM agreement, SAP will embed Informatica's market-leading PowerCenter, PowerExchange and Metadata Manager software into SAP® performance management and analytic applications and the SAP NetWeaver® platform for master data management and business intelligence. By incorporating Informatica's products into its applications, SAP will now be able to offer customers the ability to better integrate and track data from non-SAP, third-party and legacy systems.

"With the continually increasing fragmentation of corporate data, there is more need than ever before to integrate, transform and manage corporate information effectively," said Paul Hoffman, executive vice president, Informatica Corp. "Our OEM relationship with SAP will help ensure that customers have access to Informatica's best-in-class software to connect their business data – regardless of the source – into their SAP business applications."

"This agreement with Informatica will enhance and extend SAP's business solutions and allow our customers to access this best-in-class technology to further SAP's goal: driving unparalleled visibility and management across an enterprise," said Nimish Mehta, senior vice president, Enterprise Information Management, SAP. "With this agreement, both our existing and new customers will benefit as Informatica and SAP work closely together to deliver world-class enterprise software to an ever-increasing customer base."