Retail Café Chain Au Bon Pain Takes Fresh Approach with SAP

Leading Midsize Bakery Chain Transforms Business Processes to Support Growth Strategy and Enable Continuous Innovation

BOSTON - September 19, 2006 - SAP America Inc., a subsidiary of SAP AG (NYSE: SAP), today announced that ABP Corporation, doing business as Au Bon Pain, the Boston-based chain of cafés, has selected mySAP™ ERP to build a scalable business process and IT foundation for future growth. Joining a growing number of midsize retailers that are choosing SAP over Oracle to drive competitive advantage, Au Bon Pain will replace multiple enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems with the newest release of mySAP ERP to provide accurate, real-time information, end-to-end processes and Web-accessible services to employees and management across cafés and franchisees.

Founded in 1978 at Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Au Bon Pain operates more than 200 bakery cafés in the United States and Asia. The SAP rollout will underpin the company’s evolving business model and efforts to foster further growth, adapt to changing market dynamics, enter new markets and outpace larger competitors.

“In today’s environment, food retailers must be able to do more with less and quickly respond to market changes,” said Tim Oliveri, chief financial officer, Au Bon Pain. “SAP has demonstrated a commitment to our business and ability to give Au Bon Pain a holistic view to manage our operations with a solution that fits the resource and deployment requirement of a company of our size. We are confident the single, integrated solution will offer us a leading edge for many years, and provide the platform that supports the future growth of our business.”

Integration of Core Retail Functions
Slated for full deployment in spring 2007, the SAP rollout will integrate core operations from the storefront to the corporate back-office, providing better insight into sales performance, workforce management, human resources and financials. Au Bon Pain also aims to deploy mySAP ERP to support electronic procurement, invoicing, sales order management and documentation of internal controls for Sarbanes-Oxley. Previously, data was scattered across the organization in paper form or in several disparate legacy systems.

Supporting Growth While Improving Agility and Efficiency
The new capabilities will support Au Bon Pain’s growth plans: executives will have the opportunity to quickly evaluate and analyze sales data to plan for café redesign, determine new food items for the menu, expand in relevant geographic locations and generate new concepts for stores such as the Bistro, a high-end restaurant in Boston.

In addition, the bakery chain will take advantage of SAP’s centrally-managed, Web-enabled workforce management application. The software enables retail managers to gain flexibility and control over business processes and allows corporate management to take more ownership of schedule planning and execution, helping managers devote more time to assist customers and coach employees. For instance, a manager will have the tools to create optimum employee schedules using sales and traffic data and align workforce scheduling strategy with corporate goals, customer expectations and the needs of employees.

By consolidating information onto a single platform, the company aims to empower management to make faster and more informed decisions, reducing financial cycle times from weeks to days.

“With more than thirty years experience and expertise from relationships with more than 3,500 retailers worldwide, SAP understands how to help midsize retailers such as Au Bon Pain gain a strategic and competitive advantage going forward,” said Jim McMurray, senior vice president, Retail, SAP America Inc. “SAP is teaming with our retail customers of all sizes to maximize efficiency and to address key areas of revenue growth, customer satisfaction and operational excellence.”

About Au Bon Pain
Au Bon Pain is a leading bakery café chain with 232 cafés internationally and system-wide sales of approximately $245 million. In the United States there are 192 cafés in 23 states. The menu includes distinctive breads and pastries baked fresh on the premises as well as specialty soups, sandwiches, salads, coffees and other café beverages. Au Bon Pain’s 113 company cafés are concentrated in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. Franchisees currently operate 79 domestic locations and 40 units in South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan.

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 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.

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Evan Welsh

SAP America Inc.

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