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Neptune Orient Lines to Transform its IT Platform With SAP and Business Objects


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Leading Container Shipping and Logistics Group Standardizes on SAP Solutions to Address Industry Challenges and Optimize Business Processes

SHANGHAI - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) (SGX: NO3), one of the world’s largest container shipping, logistics and marine terminals groups, has selected SAP® solutions for the replacement of its financial systems. This is the first project under REMODEL, NOL’s business-driven IT transformation initiative that is designed to enhance NOL’s competitive advantage and support its growth through the consolidation of IT systems across the enterprise. NOL will implement solutions from SAP and Business Objects, an SAP company, to increase visibility, improve efficiencies, optimize business performance and better serve its customers in a highly competitive global environment. The announcement was made at SAP® TechEd 2008, being held in Shanghai, China, November 5–6.

Transportation companies are increasingly and strategically leveraging IT to help address key industry trends such as infrastructure congestion, rising fuel costs, increased customer demand, trade imbalances and supply chain security.

NOL will implement the SAP® ERP Financials solution to replace existing legacy financial systems and support enterprise reporting across its container shipping, logistics and terminals businesses.

Container shipping is NOL’s core business and its APL unit is among the world’s top 10 service providers. It operates a fleet of more than 120 vessels that cross the world’s oceans, supported by a global top 10 network of container terminals and value-added logistics services. This powerful combination enables NOL to transport freight across continents for its customers reliably and cost-effectively.

NOL will integrate the SAP NetWeaver® technology platform, which will provide the ability to standardize and streamline business processes on a common platform. NOL has also selected business intelligence (BI), enterprise performance management (EPM), and governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solutions from Business Objects. These solutions will provide NOL with the ability to continuously measure and monitor business performance, make decisions based on real-time information and close the gap between strategy and execution.

“The globalized economy has made efficient supply chain fulfillment a top priority for our customers,” said Ron Widdows, group president and chief executive, NOL Group. “Efficient IT has become a differentiating factor in our industry. Our strength hinges on our ability to move goods around the planet for our customers quickly, reliably and cost-effectively. SAP and Business Objects will help us meet these most critical business challenges.”

This initiative signals the beginning of a strategic relationship between NOL and SAP in deploying standardized business processes and best practices to help achieve 360-degree business visibility and enhance customer experience.

Staying Ahead of Competition
Customer demand changes constantly, resulting in the need for companies to collaborate with new suppliers, outsource production and operate a much more effective supply chain. In order to beat the competition and become more flexible and agile, companies must develop superior insight about market dynamics, receiving key information on customers, suppliers and partners in real time and on a single integrated platform.

SAP ERP Financials will enable financial excellence for NOL by providing enterprise-wide visibility, as well as transparency across all operations including procurement, financials and control.

Supported by the SAP NetWeaver® Master Data Management component, NOL’s capability to unify, synchronize, distribute and publish master data across its business will be enhanced. Consolidating master data dramatically improves search performance, giving NOL a complete picture of existing customer relationships, enabling accurate analysis to make better decisions and increasing response times to business requests through a centrally managed, reliable data management system.

In addition, Business Objects business intelligence solutions will provide NOL with a foundation of trustworthy data, enabling the company to more accurately analyze and report on data, easily prevent security and authorization risks, and quickly gain insight into cost drivers and their impact on profitability. By selecting the BusinessObjects™ XI 3.0 BI platform, NOL will be able to standardize and consolidate data reporting across all the business units in the enterprise. The BI platform will provide insight via user-friendly reports and dashboards, allowing any business user across NOL to get timely and accurate information in order to make better decisions.

NOL also selected EPM and GRC solutions from Business Objects, including the BusinessObjects™ Profitability and Cost Management and SAP® GRC Access Control applications. Based on trustworthy data provided by the Business Objects BI platform, these new solutions will help NOL more quickly produce trusted financial statements and secure access to critical business information.

“The transportation and logistics market is dynamic and extremely competitive,” said Geraldine McBride, president and CEO, SAP Asia Pacific Japan. “With SAP solutions, NOL will enable an integrated business process platform to standardize its operations and collaborate with its customers and partners in response to market changes with agility and speed. We are proud to be an integral part of NOL’s business transformation master plan, which aims to establish the company as the best-run business in the global logistics industry.”

About NOL
Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) is a Singapore-based global container shipping, terminals and logistics company. Its container shipping arm, APL, provides world-class container shipping services and intermodal operations supported by leading-edge IT and e-commerce. Its terminals unit has one of the world’s leading container terminal networks, with key gateway facilities in Asia and North America. Its logistics business, APL Logistics, provides international, end-to-end logistics services and solutions, employing the latest IT and data connectivity for maximum supply chain visibility and control. NOL Web site: www.nol.com.sg

SAP® TechEd 2008 in Las Vegas, Berlin, Shanghai and Bangalore
More than 16,000 SAP customers, partners and technical experts are convening at SAP® TechEd 2008 to learn how to transform existing business processes and IT landscapes and take advantage of the power and flexibility of service-oriented architecture. Celebrating its 12th anniversary, SAP’s largest ecosystem education event of the year offers more than 1,000 hours of lecture-driven and hands-on sessions. SAP TechEd 2008 was held in Las Vegas on September 8–12 and Berlin on October 14–16, and is being held in Shanghai on November 5–6 and Bangalore on November 12–14. For more information, please visit www.sapteched.com.

Note to editors:
Webcasts, announcements, media roundtables, keynote presentations and podcasts from SAP TechEd 2008 will be available in the event’s virtual newsroom at www.sapteched.com/china/08/en/News. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit www.sap-tv.com. From this newly launched site, you also can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via email links and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV. No registration is required. To preview and request broadcast-standard video digitally or by tape, log on to www.thenewsmarket.com/sap, where registration and video is free to the media.

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 approximately 76,000 customers (includes customers from the acquisition of Business Objects) 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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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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