Deals with Palm and Compaq also announced as business landscape dramatically changes
Sydney, 19 June, 2001..SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) - The world's third largest software firm yesterday announced a ground
breaking alliance with IBM which will establish SAP as the world's leading supplier of e-business solutions. Announcing
the deal at the company's annual SAPPHIRE event in Orlando, Florida, the news was coupled with additional announcements
about alliances with Compaq and Palm.
Hasso Plattner, CEO, co-chairman and co-founder of SAP AG said, "We probably didn't realise how much more opportunity we
could have if we reached out and work together with other systems. We have learned this now."
Australian SAP MD and CEO, Chris Bennett said today, "In Australia and NZ, SAP maintains a market share of over
forty-two per cent, including half of the BRW Top 50. This recent news announced in Orlando will have far-reaching
consequences for our customers, as the new-improved synergies between SAP and IBM will mean we can deliver even better
competitor advantage for them."
"In particular," he added, "in a vast continent like Australia, new mobility products from Palm and SAP will bring huge
benefits for companies with large field-based workforces. Business down-under will see much better times ahead after
today."
What follows is a digest of the most important announcements from SAPPHIRE Orlando 2001. For further information, please
contact Jennifer Roach on 02 9935 4845 or 0418 269 730 or email her at jennifer.roach@sap.com
IBM and SAP Portals
IBM and SAP yesterday announced that the two companies will significantly expand their global alliance to include closer
integration of their customer solutions. IBM has agreed to license and integrate further with Enterprise Portals
solutions from SAP subsidiary, SAP Portals; while SAP
will utilise IBM WebSphere Middleware ? its key Portal Server software. The combination of the two ? fully integrated
and supported ? is a considerable bonus for both companies' customers looking for a best-of-breed enterprise Portal
solution.
The synergy between the two companies is already immense, with 5,000 IBM
consultants helping to implement SAP projects in 1,900 companies worldwide. SAP activity is one of the biggest
partner-driven earners for IBM. Steve Mills, senior VP and group executive of IBM Software Group, said "This alliance
between SAP and IBM brings the benefits of e-business to more customers in more industries than ever before. IBM and SAP
deliver strong value to customers who prefer an integrated offering from two of the top
providers in the industry."
Both companies agree that this major development is in response to growing market demand for integrated and bespoke
products rather than rival 'one-size-fits-all' approaches to e-business. Efficient exploitation of
the internet for business is finally a reality.
SAP and Palm
In a world more and more dominated by a need for wireless capability, the announcement of close integration between Palm
and SAP is going to bring
significant benefit for SAP-customers with large field-forces. Also announced at Orlando, SAP and Palm have collaborated
to provide end-to-end enterprise mobility solutions based on the mySAP e-business platform and
the Palm OS.
The coming together of these two market leaders means that enterprises can extend their corporate domain to the field.
Mobile workers will be able to access customer relationship management, supply chain management and product life cycle
management applications as well as mySAP enterprise Portal functionality, all over their Palm-based, hand held PDA
devices.
Palm CEO, Carl Yankowski, said, "Together, we are fulfilling the promise of access to mission-critical corporate
information on the go."
SAP and Compa
qThe largest mySAP Product Lifecycle Management program was also announced yesterday, with Compaq's 10,000-stong global
workforce and partnership base set to benefit from mySAP PLM collaborative design and engineering technology. Leveraging
the technology will deliver enormous customer advantage to Compaq as ability to satisfy its customers needs increases
dramatically.
"With mySAP PLM, Compaq will gain the collaborative technology and knowledge-management capabilities required to resolve
business challenges and compete globally," said Don Borgal, director of Global Product information management at Compaq.
"SAP provides us with end-to-end management of the entire product lifecycle ? from vision, to design, to customer
delivery."
SAP Vision endorsed globally
SAP is the hinge that is bringing such huge advantage to all of these organisations, either as a partner or as a
solution provider. In this one day, the industry has taken a new turn for the better, with SAP leading the way in terms
of vision. Analyst Theo Kitz at Merck Fink & Co told the BBC, "I think the most important partnership is with IBM. SAP is really developing into a world leader in
software."
On the day's news, the market saw SAP's share price increasing 2.8% to close at 171.30 euros on the Frankfurt exchange.
Ordinary shares gained 3.32%.
-ends-