SAP and LinkedIn Team Up to Connect Community Members

New Offering Will Connect Member Profiles on the Communities of SAP and LinkedIn for Social and Professional Networking Opportunities

PHOENIX, Ariz. - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and LinkedIn have joined forces to deliver more business networking value to members of both LinkedIn and SAP® Community Network online communities. Business professionals and technical experts who are members of the online networking sites can now benefit by prominently highlighting sought-after SAP skills and experience in their profiles and by interacting with clients looking to meet the ongoing demand for SAP professionals. The SAP® Community Bio application on LinkedIn is the first of many offerings to come from the relationship announced in October 2008, when SAP Ventures, a division of SAP AG, invested in LinkedIn Corporation. The announcement was made at SAP® TechEd 2009, the company’s largest ecosystem education event, being held October 13-16 in Phoenix, Arizona.

According to recent studies by the Foote Partners, LLC, a management consultancy and independent IT research firm, professionals with SAP skills continue to be highly sought-after in the IT field and the current recession has had minimal impact on the need for these resources. Locating qualified professionals with SAP product and implementation expertise can be a challenge for many SAP customers, consultants and partner organizations. Tapping LinkedIn as the world’s largest professional social network, with a membership of over 49 million professionals in more than 170 industries and 200 countries, and SAP Community Network communities, with over 1.7 million members globally, companies can easily locate professionals with the required SAP skills. IT decision-makers have always been a large and highly active group on LinkedIn and many are also members of SAP Community Network with valuable SAP product and implementation experience. SAP Community Bio on LinkedIn will provide an easy way for these decision-makers to quickly locate and qualify SAP experts, developers and service providers worldwide.

“The ability to find and leverage the right business connections is an invaluable asset in today’s global economy,” said Ellen Levy, vice president of Corporate Development & Strategy, LinkedIn. “As the world’s largest professional network, LinkedIn helps people market their skills around the world so they can find new business opportunities and partners. Our collaboration with SAP will create a faster connection between SAP experts and their target customers.”

Jointly developed by SAP and LinkedIn, the SAP Community Bio application will enable members to link their LinkedIn and SAP Community Network profiles. This dual-community connection will allow LinkedIn members to have their profiles automatically updated to reflect their credentials on SAP Community Network, including key metrics that reflect participation and expertise contributed within the community network. The information displayed in SAP Community Bio will indicate SAP Community Network membership status, areas and topics of expertise, and active contributor status such as latest blogs and expert forum answers. The application will also identify members that are SAP mentors, individuals that are considered highly active and reliable members of SAP Community Network online communities.

“Integration of information across social networks and business networks can drive tremendous value to individuals and companies around the world,” said Mark Yolton, senior vice president, SAP Community Network, SAP AG. “Connecting qualified, talented individuals with SAP skills to jobs in the global marketplace further complements and strengthens the SAP ecosystem and we are pleased to launch this initial collaboration between SAP and LinkedIn.”

Extending the SAP Ecosystem Using Social Networking to Support Recruiting
SAP and LinkedIn also announced in August 2009 another resource to address the ongoing challenges small and midsize partners have recruiting and hiring skilled workers (see “SAP Connects Midmarket Channel Partners to LinkedIn to Support Recruiting Efforts”). The companies announced a marketing agreement that will support the recruiting efforts of SAP channel partners in the small and midsize enterprise (SME) market by providing access to LinkedIn’s recruiting functionality via a specially designed offering, giving these partners access to SAP professionals on LinkedIn who are interested in employment opportunities.

Also, SAP recently announced the addition of a career center on SAP Community Network (see “New Career Center Uses Social Media to Make Finding SAP Experts and Jobs Easier”). The career center uses the power of the more than 1.7 million community members to facilitate SAP-specific job and talent searches by combining an online job board with social media tools, including an interactive forum. The new community network career center can help companies overcome the challenge of finding qualified resources by focusing on positions that are SAP-centric and facilitating targeted recruitment of qualified people quickly and efficiently. The career center also allows job seekers to find new opportunities and market their SAP skills to prospective employers in the collaborative environment of SAP Community Network communities.

SAP® TechEd 2009 in Phoenix, Vienna, Shanghai and Bangalore
More than 12,000 SAP customers, partners and technical experts are convening at SAP® TechEd 2009, the company’s largest ecosystem education event, to gain the inspiration and skills needed to maximize impact on their organizations at a time when companies need both skilled professionals and agile, efficient IT solutions that can efficiently adapt to change. In its 13th year, SAP TechEd 2009 is being held in Phoenix on October 13-16, and will be held in Vienna on October 27-29, Shanghai on November 11-12 and Bangalore on November 18-20. For more information, please visit www.sapteched.com. Join the conversation via Twitter at #sapteched09.

Note to editors:
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About SAP
SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software(*), offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. With more than 89,000 customers in over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol “SAP.” For more information, visit www.sap.com.

(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning and related applications.

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