SAP and Kieler Woche Bring the Excitement of Sailing to the World

SAP NEWSBYTE - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced its continued premium sponsorship of the world’s largest sailing event, the Kieler Woche (Kiel Week), to be held June 16-24, 2012, off the shores of Kiel, Germany. Partnering with Kieler Woche since 2010, SAP delivers solutions that enhance the spectator experience as well as provide sailors with tools to gain greater insight into sailing tactics.

“Real-time race information available on device and on demand allows us to engage with an international audience and provides spectators with the freedom to interact and experience the action from anywhere in the world,” said Stefan Lacher, head of Technology for the SAP Sailing Program. “For many, trying to understand what happens out on the water is not easy. Information about which team is ahead, gaining, or losing ground is usually only available at the rounding of the racing buoys or at the finish line. Through partnering with GPS tracking suppliers as well as 2- and 3-D visualization partners, SAP has developed tools to analyze GPS data collected from the boats together with integrated wind measurements from sensors on the race course.”

As part of the 2011 Kieler Woche TV broadcast, SAP developed a sailing analytics leader board that displayed the position of every competitor at any time along with live race information such as average speeds, distance travelled, estimated time of arrival at the next mark rounding, gaps to leader and gains and losses per leg. Commentators could access the latest race data with the click of a button to gain unprecedented insight into who triumphed and how they did it. Additionally, through a user research project with a design thinking approach, SAP gained a better understanding of what spectators and sailors expect from an international sailing event. The outcome provided valuable insight into how the company will be able to further enhance the experience for 2012 to support the international broadcast and event platform.

With approximately 3 million visitors, the Kieler Woche is also the largest summer festival in Northern Europe. Throughout the course of the event, over 1,700 events on different topics will take place on land and more than 5,000 yachtsmen from 50 countries will participate in more than 400 planned regatta starts on 10 race courses. To learn more about the event, visit the Kieler Woche Web site. For more information on SAP sponsorships, visit www.sapsponsorships.com. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.