Belarusbank Replaces Decentralized Banking System with SAP

MINSK, Republic of Belarus, Sept. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SAP AG today announced that Belarusbank, one of the top fifty financial institutions in Central and Eastern Europe, has selected the SAP for Banking solution portfolio to centralize and optimize its business processes. The integrated SAP solution set is slated to replace the bank's decentralized, automated banking system of multiple IT applications, underlining an increasing shift in the global financial services sector toward industry- specific, standard software.

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According to a July 2006 Gartner report titled Banks and Core Banking Vendors Tap SOA for Business Growth and Efficiency, "More large banks are abandoning the 'build-it-yourself' approach for back-office production systems and, instead, are purchasing component-based software systems. This growing trend of core banking renewal is driven by the reduction of the high costs of customized application maintenance and the commoditized functionality of banking back-office operations during the past five to seven years."

Belarusbank's existing systems were hampering its ability to achieve the strategic objective of strengthening its international and local presence. Belarusbank's management decided that this objective would be achievable only with a banking system that could effectively transition their decentralized systems into a single integrated platform.

"IT solutions in the banking industry today are the essential part of a bank's strategy," said Mr. Vladimir Novik, deputy to the chairman of the board, JSSB Belarusbank. "Belarusbank is the leader of the Belarus banking market and should become the example for other Belarus-based banks in every respect, including the modern banking business processes and solutions."

Belarusbank's decision to select SAP for Banking was based on the software's capabilities to help the bank control its customer database, integrate its large branch network and manage its more than 100 banking services and products. Using the flexibility of the SAP NetWeaver(R) platform and leveraging the banking industry-specific functionality of SAP for Banking, the Belarusbank expects to achieve:

* Improved efficiency of all the bank's business processes * Quicker time-to-market of products and product enhancements * Increased customer satisfaction through improved customer responsiveness * Optimized customer database management and processing * Overall consistency through the standardization of business processes * Sophisticated reporting capabilities that are in accordance with management and regulatory requirements

"Leading banks such as Belarusbank are seeing the value of an integrated platform approach to truly streamline their banking processes while improving their presence in the marketplace," said Thomas Balgheim, senior vice president, Financial Services, SAP AG. "Faced with a challenging and ever- changing environment, Belarusbank and an increasing number of its peers are tapping the benefits of deep industry expertise and cutting-edge technology from SAP."

About SAP for Banking

SAP for Banking is a solution portfolio that combines mySAP(TM) Business Suite applications and tailored functionality to meet the unique demands of financial institutions. With more than 600 customers in 60 countries worldwide, SAP for Banking provides an integrated set of tools and automated processes to manage every aspect of the front- and back-office banking environment -- from high-volume transactional banking processes and customer relationship management to financial accounting, cost controlling and profitability and risk analysis. Based on the open architecture of the SAP NetWeaver(R) integration and application platform, SAP for Banking helps companies expertly manage transactions and relationships across the institution to quickly identify and exploit market opportunities and easily tailor new products to the specific needs of individual customers. (Additional information at http://www.sap.com/banking )

About SAP

SAP is the world's leading provider of business software*. Today, more than 34,600 customers in more than 120 countries run SAP(R) applications -- from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize enterprises to suite offerings for global organizations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver(R) platform to drive innovation and enable business change, SAP software helps enterprises of all sizes around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. SAP solution portfolios support the unique business processes of more than 25 industries, including high tech, retail, financial services, healthcare and the public sector. 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 as comprising enterprise resource planning and related applications such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, product life-cycle management and supplier relationship management.

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