SAP Delivers on mySAP.com™ Internet Vision at SAPPHIRE® '99
Personalized, Collaborative Solutions on Demand
PHILADELPHIA -- Sept. 14, 1999 -- Today at the annual SAP America SAPPHIRE® '99 customer conference, SAP AG (NYSE ADR: SAP), the leading provider of inter-enterprise software solutions, and its customers demonstrated mySAP.com™ , an open collaborative business environment of personalized solutions on demand. mySAP.com offers companies with seamless end-to-end integration of SAP and non-SAP solutions, originating at the point of customer contact and extending throughout the business operation to provide the total e-business environment. mySAP.com is available to first customers now.
Speaking to a sold-out audience of over 14,000 customers and prospects, industry leaders and partners, SAP AG Co-Chairman and CEO Hasso Plattner pledged: "Just as you counted on SAP to provide a holistic view of the enterprise, with mySAP.com you can now count on us in the Internet age to provide a holistic view of entire markets, including the required collaboration between companies and industries. The power of mySAP.com comes from the combination of all its elements."
mySAP.com comprises four key elements (see separate press releases):
- The mySAP.com Marketplace, an open electronic business-to-business hub that enables inter-company relationships for buying, selling and communicating
- The mySAP.com Workplace, an enterprise portal that provides users with a personalized, Web-browser-based work environment that offers everything they need to do their jobs
- mySAP.com business scenarios, which enable collaborative, role-based, business-to-business and business-to-consumer solutions through SAP™ and third-party software applications
- Web-based application hosting, which provides a quick, cost-effective delivery mechanism for companies to adopt the full range of mySAP.com solutions
With the advent of the Internet and to achieve optimal value, companies have moved from intra-company integration to virtual integration. This requires end-to-end process integration: intra-enterprise (front-end and back-end), inter-enterprise (collaboration between multiple company systems), and across industries and communities. SAP is delivering on the vision of virtual integration with mySAP.com.
"The totality of mySAP.com solutions clearly demonstrates that SAP understands the business requirements brought about by the Web," said Harry Tse, analyst for The Yankee Group. "The long-sought grail of enterprise computing is true back-end to front-end integration. This is really the definition of e-business. SAP has shown that it understands what it takes to achieve this goal and is actively delivering on this vision."
Since May, when SAP unveiled its Internet business strategy, the company has laid the groundwork for mySAP.com by delivering across-the-board usability improvements and full Web-accessibility through the EnjoySAP™ release of its enterprise application software, SAP R/3® Release 4.6 (see related press release). mySAP.com software solutions are built on the open SAP Internet-Business Framework, which provides a Web-standards-based, flexible and open infrastructure for all mySAP.com solutions. Other new technologies include Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based Web messaging and WebFlow technology. Solutions on demand are the hallmark of mySAP.com, which delivers reliable and scalable software solutions -- in real time.
mySAP.com enables companies to transform their operations into e-businesses that take full advantage of the Internet. Stephens, Inc., an investment-banking firm, recently published a report on the business impact of the Internet. It states: "Ultimately, we think the defining characteristics of a business rest in the back-end operations and not the front. With this in mind, there is tremendous difference between a company that is e-commerce-enabled and a true
e-business. An e-business is fully integrated, front- to back-end, and capable of running online transactions through the business 'hands-off.' Conversely, e-commerce is the process of moving a business online without total integration. The extent to which an organization can harness the efficiencies of technology is likely to determine its future." The complete text of the report can be viewed at http://www.stephens.com/research/industries/internet%20commerce/index.html.
Pricing and Availability
The primary pricing model continues to be role-based, per named user. Existing licenses for SAP solutions can be converted to mySAP.com licenses. mySAP.com is available to first customers now and will continue to roll out over the next two quarters.
About SAP
As the market leader of inter-enterprise software solutions, SAP is leveraging its strength in industry-focused business software and the world's largest enterprise software customer base to deliver mySAP.com. mySAP.com provides an open collaborative business environment of personalized solutions on demand. This enables companies of all sizes and industries to fully engage their employees, customers and partners to capitalize upon the new Internet economy. mySAP.com allows people to harness the power of the Internet to work smarter, better and faster by optimizing supply chains, managing strategic relationships, reducing time to market, sharing virtual information, and increasing productivity and shareholder value.
SAP is listed on several exchanges including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol "SAP." The SAP World Wide Web site can be found at http://www.sap.com.
