SAP Forms Americas Unit to Deliver Customer Value and Boost Growth

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa., Jan. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SAP AG today announced a number of organizational changes that will enhance the company's ability to deliver value to customers in North America and Latin America and accelerate its growth in these regions.

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The SAP North America (U.S. and Canada) and SAP Latin America (South America, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean) business units will merge to form one organization, SAP Americas, led by Bill McDermott, 44, who previously headed the company's North America business.

Since McDermott joined SAP in October 2002, the company in the United States has delivered 13 consecutive quarters of significant market share gains, revenue growth and customer satisfaction improvements. SAP's fast- growing North America region will be merged with a Latin America region that has nearly doubled its software revenue in the past three years and built a base of more than 2,000 customers.

"Our North America business is one of the growth engines for SAP and for the entire business software industry," said Leo Apotheker, president of SAP's Customer Solutions & Operations (CSO) organization and an SAP executive board member. "Combining these regions enables us to maximize our resources and replicate best practices to deliver exceptional value to customers on both continents, while accelerating our growth."

Strengthened Focus on Public Services

One of McDermott's top priorities is to extend SAP's leadership in the U.S. public sector, a key growth industry for the company. To that end, he announced the appointment of IT industry leader Rand Blazer, 55, as president and general manager of SAP Public Services, Inc.

According to McDermott, "SAP strives to continually improve our service and support to our customer base. We were inspired by Rand's laser-focus approach and dedication to client service. Over the past few years, Rand has been a great advocate of SAP and our work helping public services organizations transform the way they do business. His business acumen and leadership will deepen our footprint in the U.S. public services market."

In his new position, Blazer will be responsible for the company's sales and field operations for the public sector, including the Department of Defense, federal civilian agencies, homeland security, state and local governments, defense and security firms, K-12 and higher education institutions in the United States.

Blazer will succeed Steve Peck, 45, who will take on new senior executive responsibilities at SAP Americas, leading its Alliances division and reporting directly to McDermott. In this role, Peck will continue to grow and manage strategic relationships with SAP's partner and systems integrator community, with a focus on accelerating customer success. During his tenure as president of SAP Public Services, Peck was instrumental in helping SAP significantly increase its client roster to more than 2,800 public services customers, including the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Postal Service, establish partnerships with more than 100 defense and security customers, including the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and enhance its thought leadership position in the public sector.

Said Blazer, "I'm excited to join SAP's winning team and take the good work, which Steve Peck and the organization have done, to the next level. We will help SAP's public sector clients in the United States transform the way they operate by providing industry-leading business software."

During his 27-year tenure with BearingPoint (formerly KPMG), one of the world's largest consulting and systems integration firms, Blazer earned a reputation as being an innovative visionary. He redefined the consulting industry by separating the consulting business from its tax and audit parent to operate independently. His pioneering vision and entrepreneurial leadership led BearingPoint to become the first of the Big Five consulting firms to undergo this business transformation.

Under his leadership as chairman and CEO, Blazer led the company's market- leading double-digit growth for business consulting and system integration services and increased revenues from $800 million to more than $3.4 billion. Much of the company's success was in the public sector area of the business, which Blazer helped build and establish. Blazer focused much of his time at BearingPoint on delivering sustainable value and industry-specific solutions to clients. As part of his efforts to improve client service, Blazer implemented the "Client for Life" management culture that led to a 96 percent retention rate of top customers.

Prior to his career in IT, Blazer served as a captain in the U.S. Army. He earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of Kentucky and a bachelor's degree in economics from McDaniel College in Maryland.

Additional Executive Appointments

SAP also announced the appointment of three other executives to key roles in the company:

-- Jose Duarte, 37, will become regional managing director of SAP Latin America. Duarte, a 13-year SAP veteran, most recently served as the regional managing director of Southwest EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). Prior to that, he was managing director of SAP Spain and SAP Portugal. -- Raul Vejar, 46, who previously headed the Latin America organization and substantially grew SAP's business in the region, will move into another senior executive position at SAP. -- Carlos Chou, 44, will assume the newly created role of senior vice president of Mendocino -- the first product, jointly developed by SAP and Microsoft, that will link SAP process functionality directly to Microsoft(R) Office applications. Building on his previous role heading the North America Alliances organization, Chou will be responsible for driving customer adoption and success for Mendocino. About SAP

SAP is the world's leading provider of business software solutions.* Today, more than 29,800 customers in over 120 countries run more than 100,600 installations of SAP(R) software -- from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize businesses to suite solutions for global organizations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver(R) platform to drive innovation and enable business change, mySAP(TM) Business Suite solutions are helping enterprises around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. SAP industry solutions support the unique business processes of more than 25 industry segments, including high tech, retail, public sector and financial services. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol "SAP." (Additional information at http://www.sap.com/ )

(*) SAP defines business software solutions as comprising enterprise resource planning and related software solutions such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, product life-cycle management and supplier relationship management.

About SAP Public Services

SAP Public Services, Inc., is a subsidiary of SAP America, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of SAP AG, the world's leading provider of business software solutions. Through mySAP(TM) Business Suite, public sector agencies around the globe are improving relationships with citizens, securing the homeland, streamlining operations, and achieving significant efficiencies throughout their supply chains. The unique core public sector processes are supported effectively by SAP for Public Sector, an industry-specific solution designed to meet the needs of federal, state and local agencies.

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.

NOTE: 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, media only, about: SAP Americas: Steve Bauer, SAP, +1 (610) 661-3951, steve.bauer@sap.com, EST SAP Public Services: Bonnie Rothenstein, SAP, +1 (610) 661-8867, bonnie.rothenstein@sap.com, EST SAP Latin America: Meghan Englund, SAP, +1 (610) 661-2757, meghan.englund@sap.com, EST SAP Press Office: +1 (610) 661-3200, press@sap.com, EST