SAP(R) Business One 8.8 Beckons New Era of Software for Small Businesses

HANNOVER, Germany, March 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) announced a new release of the SAP® Business One application that accelerates time-to-value, facilitates business adaptability and increases ease-of-use and affordability based on strong co-innovation with SAP partners for small and midsize companies. With thousands of customers in over 80 countries, SAP Business One is designed to enable small business owners to effectively manage their entire business and future growth. The new 8.8 release of SAP Business One includes new innovations and advancements in the areas of functionality, performance and user experience that will improve customers' usability and productivity.  For example, with embedded analytics from the SAP® Business Objects™ portfolio, customers can increase transparency of business operations and improve decision-making. The new release also offers enhanced business network connectivity that enables customers' to quickly and affordably integrate their business partners in the ecosystems, local subsidiaries or branch offices with headquarters running the enterprise resource planning (ERP) application SAP® ERP. The announcement was made at the CeBIT trade fair, being held in Hannover, Germany, March 2-6.

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SAP Business One 8.8 has been in ramp-up since August 2009 and is planned to be generally available at the end of April 2010. Already, more than 150 customers are experiencing the benefits of the new release, including C&T Network Systems (Germany), Crayola (Costa Rica), Lifepark (Germany), Glowmac Lighting Pvt. Ltd (India), Interadapt Sistemas (Brazil), Orga-Buro (France), Reynolds Logistics (UK), Schulp Vruchtensappen (Netherlands), Skytek Telecomunicazioni Srl (Italy), Solis Import (Panama), SPM Instruments (USA) and Vet's Sheet Metal Ltd (Canada).

"We produce optically unusual and very individual bikes, which we sell mainly through 19 online shops with integration to SAP Business One and a network of resellers throughout Europe; a delivery time of 12 days from order to delivery is very important," said Manuel Ostner, managing director, PG Trade & Sales GmbH. "SAP Business One was known to us as one of the best products for these requirements. Since its introduction, we have all orders and inventory in one single system, so we are informed in time about missing parts and have no loss of production anymore. SAP Business One includes everything we need. We can also process new ideas right away."

The new SAP Business One release accommodates the continuous demands of the changing market by including an upgrade wizard that is simple and straightforward, reducing customer's downtime to a minimum. In addition, the new release integrates to partner applications and business services. Based on the flexible business platform of SAP Business One, small businesses can quickly start with core business management applications and add additional capabilities over time with easy-to-consume business applications from SAP partners. In the future, customers will be able to more easily extend their solutions with cloud-based applications, mash-ups and mobile integration.

"Innovative solutions whet the appetite, especially if you get benefits at the same time," said German Mayr, managing director, Part Business Solutions GmbH. "During a presentation of SAP Business One we already saw the iPhone integration with SAP Business One. This was ultimately the impetus for the switch to the new version. While others may have taken the last days of last year as leisure time, PART used the time to migrate our operations to SAP Business One 8.8. The upgrade went smoothly in a very short time. Meanwhile, not only are our ERP processes running on the new platform, but we have also integrated the archive system. It saves time and money when your software helps drive business decisions -- and on top of that, is easy to use."

Additional enhancements in the latest release of SAP Business One include:

• Universal code base for 40 countries, supporting different time zones and helping to ensure compliance with standard legal requirements;
• Data archiving to reduce operational cost in growing businesses;
• A remote support platform for SAP Business One, with embedded product life-cycle support that assists customers and partners in proactive issue diagnostics and resolution and system reliability;
• DATEV interface for payroll accounting in Germany;
• Integration to on-demand Web services such as eShops, based on country availability, to reach out to new market segments.

SAP partners are finding that the new release of SAP Business One is making it easier to service their vast array of clients and allowing solution partners to rapidly extend the core solution to meet unique, industry-specific processes and changing needs. SAP Business One 8.8 is able to accommodate customers' unique needs, whether for brick and mortar, online operations or hybrid business models that need powerful e-commerce connectivity as well as more traditional business management proficiency. In addition, the solution can be quickly implemented. Among partners participating in the ramp-up were Asecom, Vision33, SAND Technologies Limited, and Navigator Business Solutions. SAP and its partners intend to deliver additional innovations for SAP Business One throughout 2010, such as integrated Web 2.0 capabilities and social networking, mobile integration, extended collaboration and integration of cloud-based applications.

"As a SAP Business One solution partner we drive strong co-innovation with SAP to accelerate product innovation for the benefit of customers," said Manuel Grenacher, CEO, coresystems ag. "SAP has an extremely flexible, sustainable development platform and quality standards to deliver added-value applications for customers. This is a fantastic opportunity to grow our own business in a volume market."

"The innovations to SAP Business One stand to revolutionize the way small businesses owners manage their businesses," said Robert Viehmann, head of SAP Business One development worldwide. "With SAP Business One 8.8, we enter into a new era of business software for small enterprises. Small businesses must become empowered to adapt their business models rapidly with a flexible IT platform that adapts to business changes instantaneously. Today, business software allows company owners and managers to accelerate decision making based on true real time insight. Additionally, business software should be more consumable to provide ease of use for users living in today's web world."

Viehmann speaks about the new features within the SAP Business One 8.8 application in the video accessible here. To read how the new release of SAP Business One is making it easier for SAP partners to service their vast array of clients, please see "Addendum: SAP® Business One 8.8 Beckons New Era of Software for Small Businesses." To see the innovations to SAP Business One 8.8 at CeBIT, visit the SAP SME booth A4 in hall 5; the SAP World Tour in halls 19 and 20; and the OS XP Pavilion. SAP partners at CeBIT will also be exhibiting the new release.

Next Major Event: SAPPHIRE® 2010

SAPPHIRE® 2010, SAP's premier customer conference and networking event, will be held simultaneously in Orlando, Florida, and Frankfurt, Germany, May 17-19, 2010. This year, SAP will utilize several new, unique, and compelling experiences online and at the events to share SAP insights and innovations, and connect customers and partners around the world. As in past years, SAPPHIRE offers the opportunity to meet top SAP customers, partners and executives for in depth discussions, and to experience the latest solutions being offered for today's business needs.  For more information about the Orlando show, visit www.sapandasug.com; for the Frankfurt event, visit www.sap.com/sapphire/emea.

About SAP® Business One

SAP® Business One is a single solution that integrates the entire business across financials, sales, customer relationships, inventory and operations. It is best-fit for small businesses that have outgrown their accounting-only systems and are looking to streamline business operations with an integrated, on-premise solution. With SAP Business One, small businesses can streamline end-to-end operations, get instant and complete information and accelerate profitable growth. SAP Business One offers over 550 add-on solutions, many industry-specific, that can extend the core functionalities of SAP Business One to meet specific business processes and fast-changing needs. Since 2007 SAP has doubled its SAP Business One customer base. Available in over 80 countries and in 26 different languages, SAP Business One is sold and supported through the extensive network of authorized SAP channel partners, and is trusted by thousands of customers worldwide. Additional information is available at www.sap.com/smallbusiness.

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 95,000 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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