SAP Enhances Support Experience to Lead Customers to the Cloud

WALLDORF, Germany, April 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) is making it easier than ever for companies to tap into the agility and innovation of the cloud and drive innovation based on the SAP HANA® platform, to take their business to new levels. The company today announced it will expand and enhance its support program across all products and solutions to ease the customers' journey to the cloud via the SAP® ONE Support program. Designed for flexibility and simplification of the customer experience, the program will help to deliver a harmonized and integrated support experience to companies of all sizes and across all deployment scenarios. This is intended to help enable customers transitioning to the SAP® Cloud powered by SAP HANA at their own pace, driving innovation while leveraging existing on-premise investments. With SAP ONE Support, companies would be able to focus on business value creation based on SAP Cloud powered by SAP HANA, and leave process orchestration to their provider.

"By building on and expanding the SAP support program via SAP ONE Support, we can remove complexity and add the flexibility and simplicity of the SAP Cloud tailored to the individual needs of our customers," said Gerhard Oswald, member of the Executive Board of SAP AG, Scale, Quality & Support. "It will be easier than ever for our customers to mix public cloud applications and services, private cloud managed services and on-premise technology according to their needs allowing enhanced and accelerated business outcomes. The SAP Cloud powered by SAP HANA creates a new set of opportunities for customers."

SAP ONE Support provides a single access point regardless of technology, deployment method or SAP solution, aiming to enable a seamless delivery and support experience across business process scenarios, including mission-critical support. Additionally, customer interactions with SAP are simplified through a single touchpoint or the full landscape of solutions, creating a unified experience across multiple-channels and co-innovation with customers. With this, SAP is anticipating leveraging and expanding its experience through new and innovative engagement models, including a universal free phone number, "Call 1 SAP," planned for launch during the second quarter of 2014.

Support Levels and Premium Services
SAP ONE Support is not a separate support offering; it does not involve extra costs and will be delivered through the existing SAP® Enterprise Support offering. SAP ONE Support includes and expands the experience of SAP Enterprise Support that customers already benefit from today. For SAP companies SuccessFactors and Ariba, a comparable support level is currently already delivered embedded in the subscription.

Customers can also supplement the baseline offering with premium support engagements, SAP® ActiveEmbedded and SAP® MaxAttention™ services. Through end-to-end coverage via SAP Enterprise Support and an optionally unified engagement model through SAP ActiveEmbedded and SAP MaxAttention across all solutions, SAP will deliver a consistent support experience and value across all its solutions, regardless of the deployment model. For example, engagements of SAP ActiveEmbedded and SAP MaxAttention for on-premise solutions can easily be supplemented by SuccessFactors or Ariba premium support engagements for cloud solutions.

The SAP® Standard Support offering remains in place for on-premise solutions and will continue to provide basic support services to keep SAP solutions running and to maintain system operations and availability. SAP Enterprise Support continues to be the recommended support level for customers transitioning to the SAP Cloud powered by SAP HANA, while SAP Enterprise Support drives innovation and reliability in hybrid scenarios, especially in mission-critical processes.

Start of an Evolution
SAP is focused on optimizing the support experience of its customers to help them realize the full value of their solutions and drive unprecedented outcomes. Enhancements to the SAP portfolio of support offerings introduced with the SAP ONE Support program will consist of several steps throughout 2014 and beyond. Immediately available elements include an aligned and integrated incident management process and integrated mission critical support for a customer's end-to-end solution, including hybrid scenarios and landscapes.

"As more enterprises integrate on-premise installations and cloud initiatives into hybrid IT environments, managing and coordinating support across multiple solutions can significantly increase the complexity of IT operations," said Elaina Stergiades, research manager, IDC. "IT organizations are looking for support providers that can simplify and unify interaction with and access to support resources. Programs like SAP ONE Support, with a focus on comprehensive support delivery, can help customers integrate cloud technology, reduce complexity in daily operations and maximize their IT investments."

The first set of proof points will be showcased at the SAP ONE Support Center and SAP MaxAttention Lounge on-site at SAPPHIRE® NOW, being held June 3-5, 2014, in Orlando, Florida. To learn more, visit: www.sapsupport.info/onesupport.

For more information, visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

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 258,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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SOURCE SAP AG