SAP® Application Visualization Software by iRise Accelerates Solution Design by Improving Communication Between Business Users and IT Departments

WALLDORF, Germany and EL SEGUNDO, Calif., May 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Capitalizing on overwhelming market adoption of business software visualization as a strategy to accelerate time to value, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and iRise, the global leader in enterprise visualization solutions, today announced that they have signed a worldwide reseller agreement. Through this agreement, the companies will set a new standard for enhancing the validation of business requirements and improving the efficiency of communication between business users and IT departments on projects involving implementation of SAP® solutions.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110126/AQ34470LOGO)

The SAP® Application Visualization software by iRise, now a solution extension offered by SAP is designed to improve time to value for customers. It empowers stakeholders to develop and validate business requirements and it bridges the communication gap between business users and IT departments early in the project lifecycle. The ability to convert business requirements into visualizations during the SAP solution design phase can accelerate the validation of the business blueprint and project realization. Paired with frequent and early design reviews, visualizations can reduce costly change orders and rework during the build and test phases of a project.

"We recently piloted the iRise solution across a range of initiatives within National Grid, including programs involving SAP solutions," said David Lister, global CIO for National Grid. "The reaction from both business and IS users was overwhelmingly positive in regards to the value delivered by the visualization functionality provided. As a result of this pilot testing, we have decided to adopt the iRise solution as a standard tool across our Global Solution Delivery organization for all projects, and, in particular, as an important accelerator for our deployments of SAP solutions."

Accelerating Solution Design for Customers During Business Blueprint Phase Using ASAP Methodology

SAP customers across all industries are under tremendous pressure to deliver business-critical, high-quality SAP solutions faster, with reduced risks and lower costs. Without the ability to visualize the solution, business stakeholders and development teams are often challenged to interpret and understand business requirements and validate what users really need.

"Dynamic competitive demand in an economy that remains volatile means that for companies leveraging SAP solutions, they must be quickly adaptive to changing business needs," said Melinda Ballou, program director for IDC's Application lifecycle Management and Executive Strategies service. "Our research indicates that application visualization can enable effective coordination with regards to requirements across teams, leading to more successful software deployments."

As a response to provide customers flexibility, lean implementations and a value-based approach, SAP recently enhanced its longstanding ASAP methodology, enabling more harmonized implementation processes. ASAP provides a flexible, holistic approach that not only guides users through the implementation of SAP products but also covers the operational aspects of a solution. ASAP supports multiple types of lifecycles, including value, business process, project and application lifecycle management. It also leverages an iterative solution demo approach, in particular during the business blueprint phase, to validate the solution design early and frequently. The solution demo approach is based on two key ASAP techniques: use of SAP solutions in a "live" environment to proof the concept and use of a visualization tool to proof design elements. Both of these techniques provide customers with a level of comfort, demonstrating that business requirements are understood and that they can be transformed into a value-adding solution.

"Visualization enables project teams and customers to see how their planned SAP solution will look, feel and interact without having to code or deploy production systems. It is quickly becoming a best practice for all SAP implementations," said Ross Wainwright, vice president of Services for North America, SAP. "Seeing SAP solution implementations come to life early in the project lifecycle will provide tremendous value for our customers. Now they can experience the value of their implementations of SAP solutions faster than ever through the use of SAP Application Visualization by iRise."

SAP Application Visualization transforms the blueprinting process by empowering implementation teams to create visuals of end-to-end solutions and functional gaps. Implementations of all SAP solutions can be enhanced through visualization, including the SAP® Supplier Relationship Management and SAP® Customer Relationship Management applications, the enterprise resource planning (ERP) application SAP® ERP and the SAP® ERP Human Capital Management solution, as well as solutions from the SAP® BusinessObjects™ portfolio. Custom front-ends to SAP solutions can also be easily visualized, including rich Internet applications and mobile solutions. As a result, experiencing end-to-end integrated business processes and scenarios becomes possible during the early stages of solution design.

"Visualization is an absolute game changer when it comes to improving the way business software is designed and delivered," said Emmet B. Keeffe III, CEO and co-founder, iRise. "SAP is the largest and most successful supplier of business software in the world. Through this global reseller agreement, SAP is now going to make visualization available to organizations that are looking to adopt industry best practices. Our vision is that all software will be visualized by 2020 as a best practice and our relationship with SAP will accelerate the realization of this vision."

About iRise

iRise is the world's leading provider of enterprise visualization software for business applications. Visualization has become a critical competitive advantage for businesses to more effectively communicate their needs to technology teams and give everyone involved the ability to interact with and fully experience applications before they are built. Companies of all sizes like General Motors, UPS, FedEx, Haworth, Manpower, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and hundreds of others use iRise to "test drive" their applications before building, which accelerates time to market, improves customer experience, and drives cost down. At iRise, our vision is that by 2020, all business software will be visualized before being built, the same way that every car, airplane, and building is visualized today. Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., iRise is backed by Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, and Deutsche Bank, and has sales offices across North America and in London.

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.

iRise is a registered trademark of iRise. All other companies and products mentioned are trademarks and property of their respective owners.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

Copyright © 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

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.

Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:
Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
United States Only: 1 (800) 872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727)

For more information, press only:
SAP:
Janice Edman, +1 (650) 223-4817, [email protected], PDT
Hilmar Schepp, +49 160 889 65 31, [email protected], CET
SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EDT; [email protected]
iRise:
Mitch Bishop, +1 (415) 772-0830, [email protected], PDT

SOURCE SAP AG