LAS VEGAS, Oct. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Two of the leading architects from SAP AG -- Peter Zencke, member of the SAP Executive Board, and Vishal Sikka, chief technology officer -- spoke today about business networks as the new primary source of business differentiation, and the impact this new business trend will have on architecture, applications, customers and SAP's community. Zencke emphasized the continuous and accelerated innovation and standardization SAP is delivering via the industry's first true business process platform, first delivered in SAP's leading ERP solution, that has now been expanded to service-enable all applications across SAP(R) Business Suite. Sikka challenged developers to play a major role in their companies' business network transformation and leverage the latest advances in the SAP technology platform to innovate for their company's success via new capabilities in SAP NetWeaver(R). Zencke and Sikka spoke to a capacity crowd of 6,000 at SAP(R) TechEd '07, being held in Las Vegas, Nevada, Oct. 1 - 5, 2007.

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Peter Zencke -- Enterprise SOA Established Across the Entire SAP Portfolio

Peter Zencke kicked off the 11th annual SAP TechEd event by walking developers through business network transformation, a business trend first identified and embraced by SAP CEO Henning Kagermann in his keynote address to SAPPHIRE(R) attendees in Atlanta in April, 2007. Presenting an opportunity for companies to leverage the power of co-innovation for competitive advantage, business network transformation comes from the optimization of a company's network of employees, suppliers, customers, partners and distributors -- to maximize both competitive advantage through accelerated innovation and the productivity of non-differentiating tasks.

Underscoring the role that a strong, open platform plays in enabling business network transformation, Zencke highlighted SAP's successful completion of its enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) roadmap with the 2007 delivery of the industry's first true business process platform. Building on the success and rapid adoption of the latest version of SAP's market-leading ERP solution, Zencke outlined for developers the successful service enablement of the full portfolio of solutions from SAP. The business process platform from SAP uniquely combines the ability to standardize and create business processes on one common platform, along with providing the tools for the composition and integration of enterprise services, and implementing business functionality as enterprise services based on open standards. Zencke said that today, SAP's platform is an enabler of innovation that is producing measurable business results as he highlighted companies that have solved real-world business challenges (see Oct. 2, 2007 press release titled, "SAP Customers Demonstrate Accelerated Innovation on the SAP Platform"). Since SAP and its ecosystem are committed to foster an open environment and share information freely, there is an unprecedented level of collaboration happening today that is providing rapid innovation and cost benefits to customers.

Zencke highlighted the role played by SAP NetWeaver as the common technology platform enabling enterprise SOA -- that is enriched by standardized, ready-to-execute enterprise services co-defined by SAP's ecosystem, establishing a common language of business. Zencke encouraged developers at the conference to leverage the resulting business process platform strategically. In addition to the integration capabilities of the platform across SAP and non-SAP systems and its use as the foundational platform for all SAP Business Suite applications, Zencke highlighted the power of composition via SAP NetWeaver, and how developers could easily leverage the lean consumption of enterprise services to differentiate their companies.

Also highlighted in the opening keynote was the role played by SAP NetWeaver, which serves as the underlying platform not only for all of the applications that make up SAP Business Suite but also for SAP's recently announced on-demand offering for the midmarket, SAP(R) Business ByDesign(TM). The extensions to SAP NetWeaver in the latest version are available to SAP Business Suite customers to be leveraged for innovation as add-ons without changing the foundation of the existing applications. Zencke also discussed how the principles of how to first model and then develop new processes learned in the effort to bring SAP Business ByDesign from concept to completion will influence development techniques applied to SAP Business Suite.

Declaring that flexibility and innovation in an enterprise SOA world will not come solely from SAP, Zencke praised the rapid maturity of the SAP ecosystem, and, in particular, the expansive and impressive growth of the developer communities. Highlighting the remarkable expansion of the SAP Developer Network (SDN) community, Zencke challenged the SAP TechEd audience to immerse themselves in the power of their peers and leverage SDN to the fullest. He also praised the growth of the community dedicated to the increasing role of business process experts inside companies.

"In order to truly support a business's ability to differentiate among competitors, an IT infrastructure must offer both a solid foundation and a flexible enterprise SOA environment that allows for the development of new applications," said Zencke. "That foundation is SAP's business process platform, which is here today! Developers, customers and partners have been asking for a technology infrastructure and an application platform combined in one that lets them easily create composite applications to differentiate their companies in the market. At the same time, SAP has outlined a road map to allow for a continuous and accelerated stream of innovation, whether that innovation is delivered by SAP in its applications, co-innovated with partners or created by companies by their development organizations. SAP TechEd is the physical manifestation of the global SAP ecosystem, and we applaud the individual and community contributions that have unleased a new wave of IT and business innovation around the world."

Vishal Sikka -- Unleash the Power of Innovation with Enterprise SOA

For business network transformation to occur, Vishal Sikka told SAP TechEd attendees that IT must provide a flexible, adaptable and ever-evolving infrastructure that allows continuous improvement without disruption to core processes. Key to this infrastructure is enterprise SOA and the ability of developers and IT professionals to leverage, service and govern these architectures, while continuing to innovate on top.

Emphasizing that open technology like the SAP platform is a pre-requisite of business network transformation, Sikka introduced the SAP TechEd audience to the latest enhancement to the company's platform -- SAP NetWeaver(R) Composition Environment (see Oct. 2, 2007 press releases titled, "SAP Delivers New Capabilities for SAP NetWeaver To Power Accelerated Business Innovation"). Providing a robust, open and scalable development platform, Sikka explained how SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment can help developers create fast innovation in a model-driven, open standards-based environment with full lifecycle support and governance, and how such an environment is available to the audience today.

Pointing out that using enterprise services alone is not enough, Sikka urged the SAP TechEd audience to begin to recognize the need for IT governance of the world of SOA. Discussing the Enterprise Services Repository in SAP NetWeaver, Sikka outlined the requirement to capture business semantics, methods and models in addition to service definitions. And, as an additional challenge to the audience, Sikka reminded developers of the need for skills training for IT professionals, of having the necessary tools and methodologies that will enable evolution and innovation, and for engaging the SAP Global Support backbone to ensure end-to-end solution operations success. Sikka emphasized that today's developer must also balance the needs for governance of the SOA world, the realities of lifecycle, complete solution support and the increasing requirements for business process management.

"Today's IT professionals have to overcome the classic tradeoffs between flexibility, optimization and integrity to create real innovation and business value," said Sikka. "Simple technology alone won't get this done -- although a solid, open platform is the primary requirement. Today's developers must have the skills and ability to demonstrate the value of enterprise SOA investments and be able to rapidly close the gap between IT and business requirements."

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.