Cisco and SAP Announce Industry-First Holistic Solution That Helps Customers Manage Compliance and Predict Risks

Industry Leaders Team to Market Network-Embedded Governance, Risk and Compliance Management Solutions Providing Customers Comprehensive View of Enterprise Risks

SAN JOSE / PALO ALTO, Calif. - Sept. 6, 2006 - Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) and SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) announced today that they have entered into a joint marketing agreement for the United States and Canada that will address governance, risk and compliance (GRC) business processes and IT control issues across the entire IT infrastructure-from the network layer all the way through the application layer. The joint effort will help further enhance the effectiveness of SAP® solutions for GRC by taking advantage of the access and identity intelligence resident across Cisco’s Service Oriented Architected Network Architecture (SONA). The marketing agreement encompasses collaboration in sales and marketing activities as well as advanced service offerings. The agreement takes advantage of the companies’ complementary visions of enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA) via Cisco SONA Services for GRC to support successful customer implementations in a wide-variety of enterprise use cases.

Through this collaboration, SAP and Cisco are addressing the worldwide information management for the compliance market, which AMR Research predicts will become nearly a $28 billion market in 2007. Together Cisco and SAP are addressing two of the largest compliance challenges that companies face today: keeping up with the mandates associated with regulatory compliance and developing a sustainable process for managing risk across an entire company. These challenges have placed a tremendous financial and resource burden on companies around the world.

SAP and Cisco are collaborating by providing complementary solutions that offer new levels of IT management and controls between Cisco SONA and the three new applications in the portfolio of SAP solutions for GRC: SAP GRC Repository, SAP GRC Process Control and SAP GRC Risk Management. (See related announcement at www.sap.com/company/press/press.aspx?pressID=6674.)

The intelligent SONA services embedded in Cisco’s networking solutions include: Application Oriented Networking, Unified Communications, security, mobility and identity services. To support SONA-based GRC software platforms, Cisco offers network architecture design, implementation and operation services based on a life-cycle approach and the customer’s specific needs. The Cisco Lifecycle Services approach defines the critical set of activities required to help enterprise SAP GRC customers successfully deploy, operate and optimize Cisco SONA-based infrastructures.

“Customers are requesting that companies collaborate more to deliver systems that work together seamlessly,” said Charles H. Giancarlo, chief development officer for Cisco Systems. “Cisco is working closely with SAP to deliver more network-based intelligence and bring more business value to our enterprise customers through integrated network services. We are partnering with SAP because we recognize the value of converging business and IT controls into a single GRC environment based on two industry-leading, complimentary architectures-enterprise service-oriented architecture and Cisco SONA.”

“The combination of SAP’s leading position in enterprise software and GRC applications and Cisco’s expertise in IT infrastructure means that we are the two best qualified vendors to deliver a complete solution the spans the governance, risk and compliance market,” said Shai Agassi, president of the Product and Technology Group and executive board member, SAP AG. “The coming together of two industry leaders to provide an end-to-end offering is what customers are asking for in order to successfully tackle the enormous challenges associated with GRC. Working with Cisco is the logical choice to develop a foundation for a new class of network-embedded GRC that optimizes the accuracy and predictability of risks throughout the customer’s business.”

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

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.

Cisco, Cisco Systems, and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.

Copyright © 2006 SAP AG. All rights reserved.
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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.

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