SAP Opens New Fast Lanes to Help Companies Run Better

WALLDORF, Germany, April 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- To strike a balance between line-of-business demands for quick results and the IT department's requirement for low-risk solutions, companies worldwide are turning to rapid-deployment solutions from SAP AG (NYSE: SAP). Customers including Integria Healthcare, alfanar, Cecofar and Vitrea have realized time-to-value in less than 12 weeks from SAP® Rapid Deployment solutions. Building on that success, SAP today announced the availability of further affordable and easily deployed offerings specifically designed to address the most pressing business needs of finance, human resources (HR), IT, marketing, manufacturing, sales, service, supply chain and sustainable operations.

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Initially available in North America and German-speaking countries, the rapid-deployment solutions are now available worldwide. SAP will continue to introduce on a regular basis further affordable, fixed-scope solutions addressing customers' critical business needs.

"Companies are under pressure to significantly improve their business practices, and they are looking for business solutions that can quickly deliver a better user experience and rich functionality," said Joshua Greenbaum, principal, Enterprise Applications Consulting. "These solutions must also integrate with their existing applications portfolios while addressing specific business requirements. On-premise solutions targeting specific line-of-business needs are an important option, particularly if they can deliver the ingredients necessary to improve business functionality. The result is a user base that is more satisfied with their jobs and a company that can better meet its business goals and improve overall operations."

Integria Healthcare Goes Mobile in Eight Weeks With SAP® CRM Rapid-Deployment Solution

Based in Australia, Integria Healthcare is a manufacturer, wholesaler and distributor of natural healthcare products to retailers and health practitioners. The company has been steadily increasing revenue across its key markets, including Australia and New Zealand, but needed to modernize and mobilize its sales processes to support further growth and expansion into new geographies such as the United States and Canada.

Integria needed a user-friendly, inexpensive browser-based solution that could be deployed quickly to provide better visibility into sales and customer information, as well as enable its sales teams to plan call cycles and handle complaints on the go. Working with Oxygen, an SAP partner, Integria selected the SAP® Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) rapid-deployment solution, which is now deployed on Apple® iPad®, giving sales representatives easy access to customer information while traveling. As a result, its sales force quickly transitioned from manually writing orders to having easy access to customer and sales information while on the road.

"We expect to reap big efficiencies around call cycle planning and complaints handling," said Damien Wilson-Brown, sales manager, Western Australia, Integria Healthcare. "This will increase our face time with customers and therefore improve sales overall."

Available Now, More Fixed-Price, Easy-to-Implement Solutions Pave a Flexible Path Forward

Companies are seeking future-proof IT investments that both address today's line-of-business issues and are flexible enough to evolve as priorities shift. Rapid-deployment solutions underscore SAP's commitment to delivering continuous value to its customers by providing an easy way to tackle specific business issues with software, predefined services and pre-configured content at a predefined price.

Announced last year, the initial portfolio of rapid-deployment solutions included offerings for sales, service, marketing, business portfolio management and supplier relationship management. Apart from a number of updates and enhancements to available rapid-deployment solutions, SAP has introduced an additional 15 distinct offerings as part of its quarterly release cycle. These offerings allow customers to address a variety of areas, such as:

• Finance, sales and procurement functions can look to improve the performance of their core operations by increasing process efficiency, agility and visibility while at the same time reducing risk with the SAP® BusinessObjects™ Spend Performance Management, SAP® Business Objects™ Sales and Operations Planning and SAP® Treasury and Risk Management rapid-deployment solutions.
• IT departments can streamline processes, including incident and problem management, change and service asset management, knowledge management and financial management, with the SAP® IT Service Desk Operation rapid-deployment solution.
• Manufacturers must coordinate activities across many distributed plants as well as integrate various systems and applications across global operations. SAP® Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (SAP MII) rapid-deployment solution for batch manufacturing, SAP® MII rapid-deployment solution for energy analysis and SAP® Portfolio and Project Management rapid-deployment solution for portfolio monitoring can help improve product development and on-time delivery, increase return on assets, adhere to regulatory and compliance edicts and record global energy use and costs.
• Sales teams have access to accurate and consistent customer activity and history with the SAP NetWeaver® Master Data Management rapid-deployment solution for customer data integration. The Sybase Mobile Sales rapid-deployment solution for SAP CRM provides sales representatives access to essential customer information on mobile devices, enabling rapid responses to inquiries wherever and whenever.
• Supply chain managers look to increase efficiency and effectiveness of key processes. With SAP® Supply Network Collaboration (SAP SNC) rapid-deployment solution for customer collaboration and SAP® Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) rapid-deployment solution and, companies can streamline and automate activities as well as lower supply chain and logistics costs.
• Organizations are focused on becoming more sustainable by addressing environmental, health and safety management (EHS) concerns. The SAP® EHS Management rapid-deployment solution for environmental compliance analytics, the SAP® EHS Management rapid-deployment solution for health and safety analytics and the SAP® EHS Management rapid-deployment solution for product safety and stewardship analytics are now available to help meet companies' urgent sustainability goals.
• The SAP® ERP rapid-deployment solution for the employee and manager portal helps HR departments empower employees to view, create and maintain their HR and work-related information, and gives managers the ability to review employee information profiles, evaluate talent and initiate HR transactions.

"Given the strong adoption of rapid-deployment solutions, we are accelerating the expansion of our portfolio, giving customers around the globe a steady stream of possibilities to drive continuous value, long-term viability and success," said Robert Viehmann, senior vice president, Solution Assembly and Packaging, SAP AG. "The latest releases of rapid-deployment solutions are a living proof that we do this at the speed the market demands — quarter after quarter, thereby making the strength of our software, combined with fixed pricing, industry-leading services and support an emerging default to provide affordable solutions that quickly turn into tangible value."

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 109,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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