Leading Research Firm Declares SAP Ecosystem an Economy of Its Own
Leading Research Firm Declares SAP Ecosystem an Economy of Its Own
LAS VEGAS, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In the strongest evidence yet that its ecosystem strategy is delivering real value to customers, partners and developers, SAP AG today announced that IDC has declared the SAP ecosystem a thriving economy in its own right. According to the report(1), "the recent rise of SAP as the leading enterprise applications vendor across multiple customer and product categories has created a booming economy whereby an increasing number of developers and resellers are jockeying for the attention of the market leader and its installed base of more than 41,000 customers." The announcement was made at SAP(R) TechEd '07, the physical gathering for SAP's customer-focused ecosystem, being held this week in Las Vegas, Nevada, Oct. 1 - 5, 2007.
SAP Ecosystem in Action
The tremendous velocity of/the SAP ecosystem has ushered in a new era of collaborative innovation and grassroots support for enterprise SOA. With thousands of partners worldwide, thriving communities of innovation and industry-leading solution co-innovation initiatives, SAP is at the forefront of driving innovation through a customer-focused ecosystem.
"Every single day, in every region of the world, the SAP ecosystem brings together SAP, thousands of customers, partners, communities of developers and business process experts to co-innovate industry-leading solutions, access resources and share best practices to further the value of the business process platform in a dynamic ecosystem of business networks," said Zia Yusuf, executive vice president, Global Ecosystem and Partner Group, SAP AG. "SAP TechEd embodies the great community work that takes place online globally throughout the year. It is energizing to see how everyone benefits from the collaboration and co-innovation enabled by our thriving ecosystem."
Thriving Communities of Innovation
A driving force behind the vibrancy of the SAP ecosystem is its "communities of innovation," four robust networks of developers, customers and partners, conceived and enabled by SAP, who collaborate in the following ways:
-- SAP Developer Network -- www.sdn.sap.com -- climbed from 600,000 to over 900,000 members in one year. Members represent 120 countries and 100 territories worldwide. The average response time for questions posted to forums is less than 20 minutes; over 5,000 contributions to the forums are posted daily. More than 1,000 bloggers, an expert wiki, download center, e-learning and video sections, and thousands of technical articles drive more than one-half million unique visitors each month to the SAP Developer Network. Recognizing top contributors who demonstrate exceptional community spirit, engagement and the open and collaborative sharing of SAP expertise, SAP is launching an annual program of "community mentors" who will receive early access to SAP(R) software, be invited to special "mentor only" events and online forums and will be asked to participate in product development boards to provide direction and input. A complete list of winners is available at www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/7133 -- Business Process Expert Community -- www.bpx.sap.com -- achieved the 200,000-member milestone, just one year after its official launch. The community boasts 13 industry-specific forums as well as a business process expert skills and education section. Members of this community are prime candidates to leverage the power of a business process platform to compose processes that enhance their own companies' and customers' strategic business advantage. -- Industry Value Networks -- www.ivn.sap.com -- continue to thrive across 13 industries including aerospace and defense, automotive, banking, chemicals, consumer products, mill products: forest and paper, high-tech, mining, oil and gas, public sector, retail, travel and transportation services and utilities. Industry Value Networks bring together committed groups of customers, partners and SAP to focus on priority industry needs and to collaborate and co-innovate on the creation of solutions. -- Enterprise Services Community -- www.esc.sap.com -- has over 200 members and 20 active community definition groups. The Enterprise Services Community enable customers, partners and SAP to form collaborative groups focused to co-define enterprise service specifications for business process platforms in an IP-safe environment.
SAP Opens Its First Co-Innovation Lab
In July 2007 SAP opened its first Co-Innovation Lab in Palo Alto, California, which initiated a number of solution co-innovation projects with the founding sponsors of the lab: HP, Intel, NetApp and Cisco, and with other partners such as Questra, Wonderware, F5 Networks and Citrix. The SAP Co- Innovation Lab hosted a series of community education events on topics such as virtualization strategies, network optimization for enterprise SOA and provisioning of enterprise services by partners. One lab project led to a new SAP certification for networking products, which has so far resulted in network vendor certifications completed by F5, Citrix and Cisco.
"Citrix has been working closely with the SAP Co-Innovation Lab to develop blueprints for our networking and virtualization technologies that help customers optimize their infrastructure for enterprise SOA," said Wes Wasson, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Citrix Systems. "The lab is a great accelerator in helping customers maximize the benefits they can achieve with the right application delivery strategy in place."
SAP Drives Interoperability and Promotes Openness of the Ecosystem
Since SAP customers and partners benefit from increased openness and interoperability via compliance with industry standards, the SAP Industry Standards Group participates actively in the standards community. SAP helps define industry standards for SOA, business process management and modeling, as well as vertical markets.
Current involvements include:
-- Core Internet and Web Services Infrastructure: OASIS, W3C, WS-I
-- Specific Technology Domains: OSGi
-- Java Technology and Open Source: Eclipse, Java Community Process
-- Business Process Management and Modeling: OMG
-- Business Standards: UN/CEFACT, OAGi and many focused industry-specific
efforts
SAP Co-Innovates to Ensure Trusted-Partner Solutions
The SAP ecosystem puts the customer at the center and leverages the expertise of a network of software solution, technology and service partners -- all supporting a common IT platform -- to promote a new level of collaboration for accelerated innovation, communication and delivery of end-to-end solutions to meet industry-specific, customer needs.
-- SAP-endorsed business solutions that are complementary to SAP software
offerings are developed in accordance with SAP development guidelines,
provide additional choices and flexibility for businesses running SAP
software, and are powered by the SAP NetWeaver(R) platform. Reflexis
recently became the latest company with an endorsed business solution,
adding to a list that includes Callidus, Conformia, MCA, Meridium,
OpenText, OR Soft, PROLOGA, Questra, Ruleburst, SmartOps, SPSS,
StreamServe, TechniData, VitalSpring, Wonderware and zetVisions.
-- This week at Adobe MAX 2007, SAP will demonstrate a proof-of-concept
version of the SAP(R) xApp(TM) Spend Analytics (SAP xSA) package, an
SAP application to be deployed on Adobe(R) AIR(TM), a cross-operating
system application runtime from Adobe that enables developers to use
Web technologies to extend rich Internet applications (RIAs) to the
desktop. The new SAP xSA will help companies measure and analyze their
spending patterns.
-- Tata Consultancy Services has teamed with SAP to establish a "Perfect
Plant" center of excellence in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. The
Perfect Plant center of excellence will showcase SAP(R) manufacturing
applications, partner composite applications and ISV software solutions
working together in a simulated plant environment.
In a recent report(2) issued earlier this year by Stephen Graham, group vice president Software Business Strategies at IDC, Graham points out that "customer-focused ecosystems are win-win-win initiatives. The value of these networks is very compelling for all participants: vendors, partners, and customers. Vendors interested in developing customer-focused ecosystems should look to innovators, such as SAP, for insights into and best practices associated with these networks."
SAP(R) TechEd '07 in Las Vegas, Munich, Shanghai and Bangalore
More than 15,000 SAP customers, partners and technical experts are convening at SAP(R) TechEd '07 to learn how to transform existing business processes and IT landscapes and take advantage of the power and flexibility of enterprise service-oriented architecture. Celebrating its 11th anniversary, SAP's largest ecosystem education event of the year offers more than 1,000 hours of lecture-driven and hands-on sessions. SAP TechEd is being held in Las Vegas on October 1-5, Munich on October 17-19, Shanghai on November 6-7 and Bangalore on November 28-30. For more information, please visit www.sapteched.com.
About SAP
SAP is the world's leading provider of business software*. More than 41,200 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 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.
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) 2007 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.
1. Pang, Albert, September 26, 2007. "SAP Ecosystem Becomes A Booming
Economy." IDC.
2. Graham, Stephen and Tiley, Julie, July 2007. "SAP Drives Alliance
Innovation through Customer-focused Ecosystems." IDC
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Gary E. Smith
SOA Enterprise Architect
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