New Innovations in SAP® StreamWork™ Support Vision for On Premise, On Demand and On Device, Bringing More Choices to Business and IT

WALLDORF, Germany, Dec. 6, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Executing on its strategic vision to extend the availability of SAP product offerings on premise, on demand and on device, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today unveiled new innovations for the SAP® StreamWork™ application that provide business and IT with valuable new choices. SAP StreamWork, enterprise edition, leverages proven Novell technology to bridge the gap between people's demands for easy-to-use, quickly available software and access to enterprise information, and IT's challenge in delivering enterprise data to cloud applications securely. And to further help people drive goal-oriented, collaborative work in familiar ways, SAP StreamWork is now available via the Google Apps Marketplace, Google's online storefront for third-party applications that integrates with Google Apps™; this enables users to log on to SAP StreamWork directly from their Google Apps account. Additionally, mobile workers will soon be able to make sound decisions on the go — anyplace and anywhere — by downloading the mobile SAP StreamWork application for BlackBerry® smartphones from the SAP® Service Marketplace.

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Since its official launch, people from thousands of cities around the globe have been using the SAP StreamWork application to collaborate, drive decisions and produce meaningful results.

"SAP StreamWork is a collaborative decision making (CDM) application, which is an emerging market category defined by Gartner that allows business people to define a problem, find the right information and expertise, discuss an issue, brainstorm and evaluate options, and agree on a course of action," said Rita Sallam, Gartner Research Director. "CDM platforms capture the decision process, inputs and assumptions so that decision-makers can later analyze whether or not a decision was a good one – and why – and identify best practices. CDM solutions, including SAP StreamWork, include some social software capabilities but are complementary to social software platforms."

"SAP StreamWork shows how we're delivering on our promise to innovate across all three areas: on premise, on demand and on device," said David Meyer, senior vice president, On-Demand, Productivity and Sustainability Solutions, SAP. "People need to drive their decisions with the right information and the right people. Since companies already rely on SAP solutions to manage their business data and business processes, we're in the leading position to deliver on this vision."

With SAP StreamWork, corporate information can be brought to users via activity streams (feeds) or by direct integrations with other applications, enabling easy monitoring of work activities, people and events, and quick notification to users of changes in the business for rapid response. It not only provides people with the ability to work the way they want to, but it also offers IT departments enterprise-class features and controls to expertly manage integration, security, auditing and rollback.

Customers can experience the benefits today with integration for the SAP® Product Lifecycle Management application, for example, and with upcoming integrations planned for the SAP® Customer Relationship Management and SAP® BusinessObjects™ Strategy Management applications. Also planned is a social-intelligence component so that people can start leveraging the power of social networks in a business context. For example, SAP anticipates with added social intelligence they will be able to search and explore connections to discover subject matter experts and recommend relevant content.

"The true innovative potential of SAP StreamWork to bridge the on-premise and on-demand worlds is found in its enterprise edition," said Richard Hirsch, senior consultant, Siemens IT Solutions and Services. "It facilitates a much deeper integration between on premise and on demand in which performance and security are the underlying requirements. Through this technology — and the new feeds API with its support of the activity streams standard — SAP has the potential to unlock the substantial experience that's stored in SAP Business Suite business processes, and integrate that knowledge with the collaborative decision-making environment, which is the strength of SAP StreamWork."

To gain an IT administrator perspective of SAP StreamWork, enterprise edition, you can watch a short YouTube video by clicking here.

Novell Technology Provides Secure Foundation for Robust Enterprise Edition

SAP StreamWork, enterprise edition, adds a new virtual appliance to securely integrate the cloud-based application with a company's on-premise business systems. Available today, it leverages SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server and SUSE® Appliance Toolkit from Novell to deliver advanced security and enterprise-system integration, helping drive rapid implementation on premise and easy remote management. People can work across different companies and pull in enterprise data residing on different sources right into their SAP StreamWork activities — all in a proven, secure environment IT specialists can trust.

"Market trends, such as cloud computing, are revolutionizing the way businesses package, distribute and utilize software," said Markus Rex, senior vice president and general manager of Open Platform Solutions at Novell. "Through the SUSE Appliance Program, SAP is adapting SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to create a fully-supported, SUSE-powered virtual appliance for SAP StreamWork, enterprise edition. This offering is available anytime, anywhere, and provides SAP customers with expanded access to its business-critical collaboration platform from any device. We are pleased to expand our strategic partnership with SAP to address these new market opportunities."

Integration With Google Apps, Availability on BlackBerry Smartphones, to Bring SAP StreamWork to More People in More Familiar Ways

To extend its reach and value to the more than 30 million users of Google Apps, SAP StreamWork is now available via the Google Apps Marketplace. This availability includes new integrations with Google Apps, which brings simple, powerful communication and collaboration tools to organizations, so that people can work and share information seamlessly between their SAP StreamWork activities and Google Apps. The Google Apps Marketplace makes it easy for more than 3 million Google Apps businesses to discover, purchase and deploy integrated business applications and related professional services. By integrating with user account and application data stored in Google Apps, these cloud applications provide a simpler user experience, increase business efficiency and help reduce administrative overhead. To learn more about these new integrations, register for the Tuesday, Dec. 14, webinar, " Optimizing Business Processes with the Google Apps Marketplace," by visiting: http://webcasts.techrepublic.com.com/abstract.aspx?docid=2350019.

In addition, SAP teams have listened to user feedback and are making mobility a reality so that users can stay up to date and keep collaborating across teams to drive activities forward, even when on the go. Soon, SAP StreamWork also will be available as a mobile application for BlackBerry smartphones, downloadable via the SAP Service Marketplace. (For news on availability, follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.) Users will be able to create and manage SAP StreamWork activities from their mobile application, as well as leverage features like e-mail, camera and file uploads from their BlackBerry smartphones. They also will be able to place a phone call, send an e-mail from a participant's profile, download participant information to their device's address book, and download SAP StreamWork action items to their to-do lists.

For screenshot images and a video of these new innovations in SAP StreamWork, visit the Business Analytics newsroom. Follow SAP StreamWork on Twitter at @SAPStreamWork.

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 more than 105,000 customers 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, business intelligence, and related applications.

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