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SAP Enhances SAP(R) BusinessObjects(TM) Edge Solutions, Providing Small Businesses and Midsize Companies With Improved Visibility into Business Information and Insight to Any Business User

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 April 2009, 02:00 CDT

SAP(R) BusinessObjects(TM) Edge BI Software to Include Intuitive Data-Navigation Tool and Increased Support for Mixed IT Environments;

New Pre-Packaged SAP(R) BusinessObjects(TM) EPM Solutions are Tailored for Small and Midsize Companies

PALO ALTO, Calif. and WALLDORF, Germany, April 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the availability of enhancements to the SAP(R) BusinessObjects(TM) Edge solutions, including SAP(R) BusinessObjects(TM) Edge BI, its comprehensive business intelligence (BI) software for small businesses and midsize companies. Now midmarket companies will be able to use SAP(R) BusinessObjects(TM) Polestar software, a guided data navigation application that helps any business user to easily explore information and quickly answer important business questions via simple search. Following the launch of SAP(R) BusinessObjects(TM) XI 3.1 solutions last fall (see "Business Objects Announces Next Version of Industry's Most Complete and Unified Business Intelligence Platform"), SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI 3.1 also offers integration with data sources from a variety of vendors, including Oracle and Microsoft. Finally, packaged versions of SAP(R) BusinessObjects(TM) enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions will help small and midsize organizations create and execute more-informed business strategies and more efficiently perform planning, budgeting and consolidation.

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Given the current economic reality, small and midsize customers must have easy-to-access, accurate insight into their business performance information. Every employee must be vigilant to help ensure that customers are happy, products are delivered on time and profitably, and the sales team is on track to meet quarterly targets. The enhancements to SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI deliver information to business users, helping enable them to make better decisions. The newly packaged versions of EPM solutions also help them to develop smarter strategies and participate more fully and intelligently in driving their organization's success.

SAP BusinessObjects Polestar Delivers the Value of BI to Everyone

• With intuitive BI tools and increased support for customers using non-SAP applications, users gain better visibility into business information from across their organization--regardless of their skill level or IT system.
• Business users within organizations of any size need simpler, more intuitive BI tools that allow them to quickly search, explore and retrieve business information.
• With SAP BusinessObjects Polestar provided as part of SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI, now employees can use an easy-to-use keyword search to find information from any data source. This solution displays results like reports and easy-to-read dashboards, automatically creating visual representations of data, such as charts and graphs.
• SAP BusinessObjects Polestar has intuitive data exploration and visualization capabilities that let users drill down into a particular topic, like sales by region, by simply clicking on the report, data set or dashboard. No prior BI training or IT expertise is required.

Support for Heterogeneous IT Environments Improves Insight Across the Organization

• The majority of midsize customers have a mixed IT infrastructure based on software from SAP and other vendors.
• SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI 3.1 supports those customers with Oracle integration kits for the Oracle eBusiness Suite, as well as JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Siebel applications.
• Customers now have more flexibility and choice with the addition of SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI 3.1 support for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and SharePoint Server 2008, as well as an updated .NET development kit.

SAP BusinessObjects EPM Solutions Packaged for the Midmarket

• Responding to demand from partners and customers, select EPM solutions will be specially packaged and priced for small and midsize customers.
• SAP BusinessObjects Edge Strategy Management will help small and midsize customers improve performance and align execution with strategy by connecting goals, initiatives and metrics.
• SAP BusinessObjects Edge Planning and Consolidation helps these organizations to create, execute and monitor budgets that are aligned to financial plans and resources.

Supporting Quotes:

• "Midsize companies continue to purchase BI tools for a wide array of users who need to access and analyze data from sources across their organizations," said Brian McDonough, research manager for Business Analytics, IDC. "Vendors offering flexible tools that enable resource-constrained IT departments to meet ongoing change requests in a timely manner will appeal to this market segment. These tools must further provide access to actionable and trusted information and deliver it through more intuitive interfaces to ensure both business decision makers and IT are satisfied with the solution. With this announcement, SAP is taking further steps to meet midsize organizational requirements for BI technologies."
• "We have been a partner for more than a decade, and in that time we have provided BI training to more than 2,200 people from more than 600 organizations," said Dennis Kause, executive vice president, Idhasoft, Inc. "Our customers continue to show strong demand for SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI. Through BI consulting and assisting customers with the development of their BI deployment strategies, we've seen that clients have been eagerly anticipating the empowering capabilities of SAP BusinessObjects Polestar - which will empower them to quickly draw deeper insights and actionable information out of their vast body of business data. Integration with multiple data sources has also been a top priority for many customers with varying IT environments. The increased functionality in SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI 3.1 will enable clients to meet their overall BI deployment objectives of improving insight across the entire organization."
• "SAP has a complete set of BI and EPM solutions that are specifically engineered, packaged and priced for small businesses and midsize companies," said Jeff Stiles, senior vice president, SME marketing, SAP. "With our new SAP BusinessObjects Edge solutions, we will provide customers with unprecedented transparency so employees throughout the organization can make better decision, more quickly. With this knowledge, every business user can help to build a leaner, more efficient organization--the key to survival in today's climate. And, with the ability to more easily and effectively define strategies, plans and manage performance, our customers will be poised to move from simply reacting to economic challenges to positioning themselves for future success."

For more information, please attend the webcast, "The 3 Reasons SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI 3.1 is Important to Your Company."

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 82,000 customers in over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol "SAP."

The SAP(R) BusinessObjects(TM) portfolio transforms the way the world works by connecting people, information and businesses. With open, heterogeneous solutions in the areas of business intelligence; information management; governance, risk and compliance; and enterprise performance management, the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio enables organizations to close the gap between business strategy and execution.

For more information, visit www.sap.com.

(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning and related applications.

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 (C) 2009 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.

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: Scott Behles, SAP, +1 (917) 494-2009, scott.behles@sap.com, EDT Hilmar Schepp, SAP, +49 6227 7-46799, hilmar.schepp@sap.com, CET SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EDT press@sap.com Jeff Shadid, Burson-Marsteller, +1 (214) 224-8419, jeff.shadid@bm.com, CDT

SOURCE SAP AG

Source: PR Newswire

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