On-Demand Solution from SAP Connects Headquarters and Subsidiaries

ORLANDO, Fla., May 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterprises running SAP® Business Suite software in their headquarters have shown strong interest in equipping their subsidiaries with the SAP® Business ByDesign™ solution. Today, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) announced that customers such as The Dow Chemical Company and Nokia have deployed SAP Business ByDesign at their subsidiaries SAFECHEM and Nokia Tej. SAP now offers a full portfolio approach for subsidiaries with SAP® Business One, SAP Business ByDesign and SAP® Business All-in-One. The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE® NOW, being held in Orlando, Florida, May 15-18, 2011.

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SAFECHEM, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, has been operating in Europe since 1992 and recently formed SAFECHEM™ North America LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company. SAFECHEM is a true start-up company in North America that needed to establish a financial system to manage the business transactions following U.S. GAAP, including sales and use tax reporting. As the company prepares for growth, the cloud platform from SAP Business ByDesign enables flexible management of company operations while delivering fast time to value. SAFECHEM was able to start up financial operations in only six weeks and has achieved financial consolidation with Dow Chemical's system. The company also has room to expand as the business grows.

"Our experience working with SAP and SAP Services on installing and implementing SAP Business ByDesign within six weeks was quite satisfying," said Dennis Strahl, financial systems architect, The Dow Chemical Company. "The solution is one we feel we can successfully deploy to other future subsidiary businesses."

SAP manages mission-critical business processes within the company's entire business network. Strong out-of-the-box integration capabilities provide tight integration between headquarters and subsidiaries while ensuring orchestration between on-demand and on-premise solutions. Organizations benefit from not needing to invest in local infrastructure, which makes SAP Business ByDesign an attractive solution for subsidiaries that are too small for a traditional on-premise enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

Nokia Tej is a mobile order and information management solution company for the fragmented supply chain that helps companies handle orders and other related information securely by using basic mobile phones. Previously used in-house software had created visibility challenges, and Nokia Tej needed to align processes and metrics to shorten the sales cycle, increase win rates and help ensure accountability. By deploying customer relationship management (CRM) functionality in SAP Business ByDesign, Nokia Tej was able to gain visibility into its prospects and reduce record duplication. The solution also enables Nokia Tej to better manage leads, sales opportunities and customer records while providing opportunities for expansion beyond the CRM functionality as business needs change.

"Nokia Tej plays an integral role in Nokia's strategy to expand in the services business for enterprise and SMB, and it was evident that the process for the leads and opportunity management has to be streamlined to enhance our ability to react to sales opportunities," said Chand Malu, head, Nokia Tej Program. "SAP Business ByDesign allowed us to quickly get the CRM capabilities that we needed to drive the success of our business through optimizing our lead generation and management process and enabling accountability at the user level."

With feature pack 2.6, SAP offers the first integration scenario for financial consolidation, master data synchronization and purchasing. With the next version, feature pack 3.0, SAP plans to deliver more ERP integration scenarios for logistics. SAP sees a strong focus on using SAP Business ByDesign for sales and distribution offices, as well as service and project offices of large organizations. In addition, companies receive built-in compliance for secure operations between headquarter and subsidiary to achieve greater transparency.

Currently SAP has several customers that support their subsidiaries with SAP Business ByDesign. In addition, SAP is working with partners such as Accenture in the subsidiary space, and working with customers such as Dharma, an investment financed by Shell in India.

"We see growing demand for companies to provide their subsidiaries with innovative solutions and low-cost functionality that does not conflict with their headquarters," said Eric Duffaut, president, Global Ecosystem and Channels, SAP, who leads SAP Business ByDesign Go to Market. "Following the success of SAP Business One and SAP Business All-in-One, we are focusing on leveraging SAP Business ByDesign to fulfill customer demand for solutions that are tightly integrated into business networks of suppliers, partners or customers. With this, customers can achieve full compliance, greater transparency, low TCO and a fast rollout."

For announcements, blog posts, videos and other coverage during the event series, visit the SAPPHIRE NOW newsroom.

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 on site 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 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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