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SAP Customers Execute Business Strategy with Solution for Portfolio Management


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World Leader in Digital Video Technologies, Thomson, Leverages SAP® xApp™ Resource and Portfolio Management Across Its Enterprise

WALLDORF, Germany - August 31, 2006 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced global availability of the latest version of SAP® xApp™ Resource and Portfolio Management (SAP xRPM), a composite application that helps companies align projects and services with corporate objectives for increased business agility. Working across a company’s existing IT environment, the application provides a consolidated view into enterprise-wide business portfolios and delivers new capabilities that help organizations better prioritize allocation of resources—including people, equipment and budgets—in support of key business initiatives. More than 170 customers globally—among them Thomson, a world leader in digital video technologies—are leveraging SAP xRPM to drive efficiencies in strategic and operational portfolio management across their organizations.

SAP xRPM allows companies to automatically achieve greater transparency into projects and operations across the enterprise and to identify and assign the right talent, equipment and financial backing to initiatives that best support business goals. Leveraging this composite application, companies can evaluate scenarios and conduct project comparisons to identify the most optimal use of resources. SAP xRPM also enables cross-functional business processes and supports greater insight into operations management.

“Enterprise resources are very costly to allocate passively or ‘on the fly,’” said Matt Light, Research Director, Gartner. “Utilizing automated tools, integrated with an enterprise systems framework, can significantly improve a company’s ability to maximize the value of the portfolio by providing visibility, alignment with business priorities and optimized allocation of enterprise investments.”

Rapid Customer Adoption of SAP xRPM
Among the more than 170 customers worldwide that have deployed SAP xRPM is Thomson. Headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, Thomson deployed SAP xRPM to allow for greater visibility into its overall portfolio of projects across different divisions and to enable more efficient exchange of business information between division employees.

“For the first time, we have a budget on a per project basis,” said Bernard Waltsburger, director, Technology Division, Thomson. “In the past, research topics would be listed with no resources or funds allocated to a defined scope. Now research topics are identified and listed as a project with beginning and end dates and expected deliverables. This is a big change for us that will improve our overall operations with help from SAP xRPM. So far, approximately 170 projects are being managed in SAP xRPM at Thomson with an additional 200 planned to be added in the next six months.”

Single Enterprise Solution for Multiple Scenarios
The latest version of SAP xRPM offers new capabilities allowing companies to utilize a single application for portfolio management across different functional groups in the organization. Users are empowered to best prioritize resource allocation by “scoring” portfolio items based on aggregation of both qualitative and quantitative criteria, such as risk, feasibility and commercial value. SAP xRPM also provides new specialized templates and configurations that deliver support for operational groups including new product development, IT, enterprise asset management and Six Sigma. For example, the application now supports best practices and methodologies such as CMMi and ITIL for IT and Stage GateTM and Spiral UpTM for new product development. Flexible portfolio hierarchies are also available in the enhanced offering, allowing users to group portfolio items into strategic buckets. This provides greater flexibility in managing collections of projects, services, products, assets and applications in support of business drivers.

Built on the SAP NetWeaver® platform, SAP xRPM can work as a modular composite application that leverages a company’s existing heterogeneous IT environment of disparate human resource, financial, project management and desktop systems. Pre-built integration between SAP and non-SAP applications speeds up implementation times and reduces total cost of ownership (TCO) while allowing for easy project monitoring and resource planning. SAP xRPM also leverages SAP NetWeaver® Business Intelligence to produce intuitive graphical reports detailing project cost information, financial forecasts and other key performance indicators.

Growing Family of SAP xApps
SAP xRPM is a member of the growing family of SAP xApps, composite applications designed to support business innovation and allow companies to be more flexible in responding to changing business conditions. More than 150 SAP xApps will be available by the end of the year, and will leverage enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) to deliver process automation and lower TCO across existing IT investments.

“SAP continues to lead the market with the creation and delivery of flexible solutions that support continuous business innovation,” said Sudipta Bhattacharya, senior vice president of Solution Management, Product and Technology Group, SAP Labs. “The launch of this enhanced SAP xApp further demonstrates our commitment to delivering easy-to-deploy composite applications that support specific business processes critical to the success of leading corporations worldwide. SAP xRPM works across a company’s existing IT environment supporting lower TCO while driving new value out of their portfolio to best reflect organizational objectives.”

About SAP
SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software*. Today, more than 34,600 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)

(*) 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 © 2006 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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