SAP Helps Germany’s Federal Employment Agency Get Future-Ready

Germany’s Largest Government Agency Selects SAP to Manage its Human Resources and Finance Processes More Efficiently.

SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, Germany’s Federal Employment Agency (BA), has selected SAP to manage its human resources and financial management systems. After a thorough review process, the BA decided to replace its legacy applications with SAP’s flagship enterprise resource planning application, SAP® ERP. With over 100,000 employees across 176 member agencies and 660 offices, the BA is Germany’s largest public agency. With the adoption of SAP® solutions, the BA expects to improve transparency and to create a future-ready infrastructure.

“We needed a reliable financial system to manage our budget of 41 billion euro to help us gain financial excellence across the agency,” said Klaus Vitt, CIO, BA. “We selected SAP because of its comprehensive solution portfolio, and because the software architecture is future-ready.”

Nearly all well-known software vendors and consulting firms participated in the Europe-wide procurement process; three of the original six companies were invited to submit an offer. After an intensive analysis, SAP was determined to provide the best solution and was awarded the contract. Implementation of the software began in early October 2008.

The BA will use SAP ERP, a core component of the SAP® Business Suite software, to support the agency’s accounting system and to streamline its human resources management. The industry-specific capabilities that SAP solutions provide meet the strict specifications that are required for public administrations. Together with the SAP NetWeaver® technology platform, SAP ERP serves as a solid business process platform that includes SAP enterprise modeling applications by IDS Scheer along with various additional products, including payroll and grants management. Together with a subcontractor, SAP will lead the implementation of the software. To ensure the successful completion of the integration process, all of the various implementation and roll-out stages will be managed from the BA headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany.

The BA is the largest supplier of employee services in the German market, responsible for job placement, career counseling and employer counseling; promoting vocational training and continuing education; providing employment opportunities for disabled people and resources and benefits for job creation and retention; and paying unemployment compensation and short-time working benefits. In addition, the BA conducts job-market and career research, provides job-market monitoring and maintains labor statistics. The agency also pays family benefits. The BA’s 2009 budget totals 41 billion euro.

“The BA serves a critical need in German society,” said Volker Merk, managing director, SAP Germany. “To fulfill its mission in a way that satisfies all social groups, the agency’s internal structures must be efficient and cost-effective. We are proud that SAP can make a significant contribution to this task through the implementation of our software solutions.”