Accenture and SAP Announce Strategic Relationship to Develop and Deploy New Mobility Solutions

ORLANDO, Fla., May 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced their plans to jointly develop and manage the deployment of new enterprise mobility solutions leveraging Sybase® Unwired Platform coupled with Accenture Mobility Services enterprise mobility offerings. Development efforts will initially focus on three industries — oil and gas, utilities and consumer products, with plans to expand into other industries. The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE® NOW, being held in Orlando, Florida, May 15-18, 2011.

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"We see tremendous growth opportunities in the enterprise mobility space and SAP is a key partner to help us pave the way to this rapidly expanding market," said Kevin Campbell, group chief executive, Technology growth platform, Accenture. "We look forward to deepening our relationship with SAP and sharpening our combined focus to develop innovative new managed mobility solutions."

"Today's announcement expands on the longstanding relationship and strong foundation that Accenture, SAP and Sybase have built over the years," said John Chen, chairman and CEO of Sybase, an SAP company. "Accenture offers extensive mobility experience and comprehensive offerings from ready-to-deploy mobile apps to managed mobility and consulting services. With mobility playing such a central role in the way people live, communicate and transact. Together, we feel that we are in an ideal position to help transform the way businesses are run."

Enterprise managed mobility allows large companies to integrate mobile devices such as smartphones into existing SAP® applications as a service, enabling information access and business transactions from outside the walls of the enterprise — executed with little complexity, minimal setup time and no infrastructure requirements at a low cost.

Accenture and SAP intend to enter into an agreement to build differentiated solutions that draw on the breadth and depth of mobility capabilities that the companies have developed by working together since 2000. Pre-packaged mobility solutions are available to provide the market with ideas on how to reap the value of enterprise mobility.  The strategic relationship also calls for the companies to develop a structured "go-to-market" model aimed at promoting collaboration between their sales teams. Additionally, Accenture will expand their already substantial SUP-trained architect and developer workforce to meet rapidly growing market demand.

"We already work together to serve a significant number of clients, and we both have a strategic focus on mobility and a long history of jointly implementing mobile solutions," said Mark Willford, global managing director of  SAP business, Accenture. "These factors will allow us to hit the ground running as we strive to create value for our joint clients."

The two companies will leverage existing Accenture Mobility Services offerings and have already built solutions that include:

• Mobility Consulting Services for Enterprise Strategy: Delivers a client-unique actionable plan and roadmap to leverage mobile technology to focus on increasing productivity, reducing costs and increasing revenues
• Mobility Software Services for Application Development: Combines innovative commercial and custom applications and Sybase Unwired Platform for organizations to deploy secure and easy-to-manage mobile functionality
• Mobility Business Integration Services for Field Force Transformation: Helps companies transform their field force by bringing technician-focused tools to the field and reengineering frontline office practices to increase productivity, improve customer service, create new revenue streams through service and more.
• Mobility Managed Services for Mobile Application and Device Management: Provides customers with a company-specific application catalog, device security and mobile device management capabilities — remotely, over the air as a hosted location. Customers can select the desired catalog configuration and security policies for their enterprise users.

SAPPHIRE® NOW

With SAPPHIRE® NOW, SAP offers its customers, partners and prospects even more opportunities to engage in dialogue with peers, participants and thought leaders around the globe. Being held in Orlando, Florida, May 15-18, 2011, this enhanced, real-time event connects attendees on site with global participants through state-of-the-art broadcast studios and an online experience that incorporates the latest social media and community functionality. Whether onsite or online, participants can gain insight as to how SAP is delivering on its product strategy and helping organizations around the world to run better. For more information, visit www.sapphirenow.com. Follow SAPPHIRE NOW on Twitter at @SAPPHIRENOW and visit the event newsroom at www.sapphirenow.news-sap.com.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 215,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world's most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$21.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2010. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

Accenture is focused on enabling its clients to achieve breakthrough growth throughout the rapidly changing mobile ecosystem.  The Accenture Mobility Services group offers five mobility services including consulting, software services – applications, software services – devices and platforms, managed services, and business integration services.  These are designed to help organizations embrace business to employee (B2E), business to consumer (B2C), business to business (B2B), and machine to machine (M2M) business opportunities.  Accenture offers mobility and embedded software services across a wide range of industries and platforms including Symbian, WinMo (Microsoft Windows® Mobile), Windows Phone, Android™, Blackberry®, iOS®, Java™, Linux, and Meego™.

About SAP

As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 170,000 customers (includes customers from the acquisition of Sybase) to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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For more information, press only:
Evan Welsh, SAP, +1 (610) 203-9742, [email protected], EDT
SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EDT; [email protected]
Ed Trapasso, Accenture, [email protected], (O) +1-917-452-3555, (M) +1-914-843-5796

During SAPPHIRE NOW (from May 15 to 18), to speak with press contacts on site, please dial the SAP press room: +1 (610) 661-0469.

SOURCE SAP AG