SAP Releases 28 New Versions of Best Practices Offerings for Midsize Enterprises

WALLDORF, Germany, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Further delivering on its commitment to meet the unique software deployment requirements of midsize enterprises, SAP AG today unveiled new versions of its fixed-scope, pre-defined packages of software and services. Based on mySAP(TM) ERP, the SAP(R) Best Practices offerings are available in 28 scenarios addressing the demands of midsize enterprises in industries as diverse as retail, utilities and the public sector. The preconfigured offerings are enhanced with new tools designed to help customers achieve faster implementation times and higher business flexibility while lowering risks.

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SAP Best Practices include a clear, step-by-step methodology; reusable documentation and complete preconfiguration settings that provide everything needed to run specific key processes "out of the box" with minimal installation effort. Combining SAP's business process expertise in serving the world's leading companies with the know-how of its channel partners, SAP Best Practices are designed to meet the resource, price and industry requirements of midsize enterprises while laying a scalable foundation for business growth.

The new portfolio of SAP Best Practices offers end-to-end business process scenarios for specific industries such as Warranty Processing with Returnable Parts for the automotive industry and Prototype Development for the high tech industry. Customers can use industry-specific SAP Best Practices in conjunction with cross-industry scenarios for customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM), such as Campaign Management, Engineer-to-Order and Supply Chain Performance Management. SAP Best Practices for business intelligence and enterprise portal round out the portfolio.

"To stay ahead of the competition, we cannot afford to suspend our businesses for lengthy implementations of products that are highly specialized and difficult to support -- or conversely, to deploy standard solutions that do not fit the needs of our industry," said Kian Macrae, managing director of Bandito's Chile Co., a family-owned consumer products company in Kew, Johannesburg, South Africa. "The SAP Best Practices offering provides us with solutions specially tailored for our industry and allows us to achieve a faster return, lower long-term costs and the ability to scale over the life of our business."

State-of-the-Art Software and Services for Partners and Customers

The software's installation is almost entirely automated, allowing SAP partners and customers to focus their efforts on more important project activities. New deployment tools for personalization and installation allow rapid installation and easy personalization. Solution configuration data can be quickly and consistently changed using a predefined and easy-to-use spreadsheet.

SAP partners can utilize SAP Best Practices to build micro-vertical mySAP(TM) All-in-One solution offerings that leverage their unique industry expertise and service capabilities. Midsize enterprises can choose from a broad micro-vertical portfolio of nearly 600 qualified mySAP All-in-One partner solutions, available in more than 50 countries and used by more than 6,700 customers.

"With these new versions of SAP Best Practices, we continue to address the distinct industry requirements and unique business characteristics of midsize enterprises," said Robert Viehmann, vice president, Global mySAP All-in-One Development, SAP AG. "By jointly building our SAP Best Practices portfolio in collaboration with our channel partners, we help our customers realize faster time to market, shorter implementation times and continuous business improvement."

For an overview of all industry- and cross industry-packages as well as language versions, please go to http://help.sap.com/bestpractices , select the "SAP Best Practices" tab, then "Industry Packages" or "Cross-Industry Packages."

About SAP

SAP is the world's leading provider of business software solutions*. Today, more than 28,200 customers in over 120 countries run more than 96,400 installations of SAP(R) software -- from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize enterprises 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.

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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: 800-872-1SAP (800-872-1727) For more information, press only: Jim Dever, 610-661-2161, james.dever@sap.com, EDT Astrid Polchen, +49-6227-7-47644, astrid.poelchen@sap.com, CET SAP Press Office, +49-6227-7-46315, CET; 610-661-3200, EDT; press@sap.com Karen Cleeve, Burson-Marsteller, 212-614-4554, karen_cleeve@nyc.bm.com, EDT Ulrike Raidl, +49-69-238-09-13, ulrike_raidl@de.bm.com, CET