SAP Ushers In New Era for Business Process Management

ORLANDO, Fla., May 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SAP AG today announced plans for the release of SAP NetWeaver(R) Business Process Management and SAP NetWeaver(R) Business Rules Management. The addition of these planned capabilities will further establish SAP NetWeaver as the strategic platform of choice for customers that execute a service-oriented architecture (SOA) strategy. The new tools from SAP are aimed to provide the business process flexibility needed to enable customers to turn strategic business insight into real-world execution. A vital part of SAP's robust platform offering, SAP NetWeaver allows IT organizations to drive more value by providing the agility to quickly respond to requests from the business for new or adapted business processes. The addition of the planned capabilities will enable business process experts to design, model and immediately execute new or adapted business processes without having to develop code. The SAP NetWeaver technology platform and its full set of capabilities allows companies to accelerate the consolidation of their IT landscapes, enabling them to enjoy new levels of the business process flexibility used to drive innovation and competitive advantage. The announcement was made at the co-located events SAPPHIRE(R) 2008 Orlando, SAP's international customer conference, and the ASUG (America's SAP Users' Group) Annual Conference, both being held in Orlando, Florida, May 4-7.

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"The planned addition of business process management tools to the SAP NetWeaver technology platform will further establish SAP NetWeaver as the platform of choice for companies committed to a strategic approach to IT," said Klaus Kreplin, corporate officer and member of the Executive Council, head of SAP NetWeaver Technology, SAP AG. "The SAP NetWeaver technology platform and SAP's leading end-to-end business processes provide a consolidated IT landscape outfitted with the best tools to enable innovation, ultimately leading to differentiation and a competitive edge for our customers. SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management will be another innovative offering to further enable users to make changes that are aligned with business needs and ultimately drive business success."

Essential Components Enable Optimized Process Development and Execution

SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management, developed at SAP under the codename "Project Galaxy," is part of SAP NetWeaver(R) Composition Environment and is planned to feature three major capabilities:

-- The process composer -- to model business processes based on the business process modeling notation (BPMN) standard and integrated into the Eclipse development framework together with a rules composer tool for modeling of business rules. -- The process server -- based on Java EE, to directly execute these process models, without requiring brittle translation steps between model and code ("round tripping") -- The process desk -- the process participants' interface to their assigned tasks, allowing interaction with the running process instances and other participants by means of forms, interactive screens and collaboration tasks

"Automation of complex, user-facing processes spanning various enterprise systems is a key requirement of every major project at Colgate," said Bora Uran, director, application architecture, Colgate. "SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management will offer an integrated modeling and execution environment that will improve the quality of interaction between business process experts and IT developers. With the addition of business process management, SAP NetWeaver is a more powerful and flexible platform on which to build composite applications that will increase the utilization of assets in our complete IT landscape."

Simplification, Rules Management and Immediate Execution Enable Differentiation and Innovation

For organizations looking to utilize technology to drive differentiation in the marketplace, business process management is a major factor in success. Many business processes are standardized across departments, regions and organizations. Business processes that differentiate a company from its competitors are highly customized and typically need to be changed or edited frequently to meet business needs. Creating unique, customized business processes to improve business performance and increased efficiencies is best achieved when companies combine the right mix of standardized, end-to-end core processes with flexible innovative tools that enable the creation of new processes that can be immediately executed and reused across the enterprise.

SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management is planned to provide customers a standardized, unified environment for the implementation and management of complex, multifaceted business processes focusing on four cornerstones:

-- Unified modeling -- In an Eclipse-based tooling environment, business process experts throughout the organization will be able to access a single version of a business process and edit and make changes without the danger of losing details in translation. -- Business rules management -- Built on Yasu Technologies' Quickrules technology acquired by SAP in 2007, SAP NetWeaver Business Rules Management, combined with SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management, is intended to provide the ability to refine rules by editing decision tables to directly impact the execution of composite processes -- all in a single user interface with no need to switch back and forth between tools, reducing errors. -- Immediate execution speeds time to value -- SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management will allow IT departments to accelerate implementation of innovative business processes and composite applications that in turn can result in value for the business. -- Built-in efficiencies via Enterprise Services Repository -- The Enterprise Services Repository of SAP NetWeaver enables users to easily track and identify ready-made process steps of SAP and non-SAP applications for reuse throughout the enterprise in the development of new business processes.

"As business process management is increasingly adopted by organizations as an important management practice, they're constantly looking for ways to better support process execution across people and applications," said Janelle B. Hill, research vice president, Gartner. "Integrated composition technologies, as part of a business process platform, are required to accelerate the successful management of agile business processes."

Further Strengthening the SAP NetWeaver Technology Platform

SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management and SAP NetWeaver Business Rules Management are planned to be available to ramp-up customers in Q3 2008 with general availability within the SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment enhancement package 1 expected in early 2009. SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management further delivers on the SAP NetWeaver innovation road map (see April 24, 2007 press release titled, "SAP Unveils Road Map for Next Wave of SAP NetWeaver Innovations"). In the past year, SAP NetWeaver demonstrated increased adoption rates with more than 38,700 total SAP NetWeaver deployments and more than 100 percent revenue growth for 2007.

Business Process Expert Community Enables Business Process Management Collaboration

The design and modeling of differentiating business processes is unique to each company. However, the ability to access intelligence and best practices from a pool of experts in similar industries or organizations serves to further speed time to value for customers. Launched in late 2006 as part of the SAP community network, the SAP Business Process Expert community now totals more than 350,000 members sharing best practices across 28 special interest communities organized by 18 industries, business process management best practices, and solutions such as customer relationship management and governance, risk and compliance.

Within the community, SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management users can interact with peers around enterprise SOA and business process design, access resources and learning opportunities, and accelerate usage of business process management tools. Business Process Expert community members also collaborate and address issues and trends facing IT organizations, work together on definitions and implementations of new and cross-industry processes, and accelerate discussions around emerging topics and issues among fellow customers, partners and SAP.

SAPPHIRE(R) 2008 Orlando and SAPPHIRE(R) 2008 Berlin

More than 15,000 customers, partners and technical experts are convening at SAPPHIRE 2008 to discover how SAP and its thriving partner ecosystem are delivering IT solutions that create value beyond the four walls of the enterprise, to create "business beyond boundaries." SAP's premier educational and networking event, SAPPHIRE is the one occasion where senior executives, business managers, and decision-makers can come together every year to explore how innovative business solutions foster long-term, profitable growth. SAPPHIRE(R) 2008 is being held in Orlando, Florida, May 4-7, and in Berlin, Germany, May 19-21, 2008. For more information, please visit http://www.sap.com/sapphire.

Based on the success of last year's events, SAP and the Americas' SAP Users' Group (ASUG) are co-locating their premier events in Orlando, where the 2008 ASUG Annual Conference takes place May 4-7.

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 47,800 customers (excludes customers from the acquisition of Business Objects) 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 http://www.sap.com/)

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

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