SAP, IDS Scheer and Leading Universities to Pioneer Next-Generation Business Solutions

Companies Launch Joint Initiative to Drive Tomorrow’s Business Process Innovation by Strengthening Research Collaboration between Corporate and Academic Communities

BASEL, Switzerland - September 29, 2003 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and IDS Scheer today announced a global initiative designed to forge new levels of business process innovation by strengthening collaboration between the corporate and academic communities. The companies are founding the Institute for Business Process Innovation, a joint effort that will promote research into next-generation business solutions, better prepare tomorrow’s workforce and enable SAP and IDS Scheer to drive their customers’ success by applying the latest innovations to their market-leading software solutions. Leveraging each company’s long-standing relationships with leading academic institutions, the SAP and IDS Scheer collaboration will comprise research collaboration projects, executive education programs and a demonstration facility, and will span an international network of renowned universities that will establish “Centers of Excellence” for business process innovation -- including the University of New Orleans, George Mason University and Widener University in the United States; Ecole Polytechniques in Canada; and the Institute for Information Systems at the University of Saarbruecken in Germany. The announcement was made at the SAP Innovation Congress, being held in Basel, Switzerland, September 28-30.

“The Institute of Business Process Innovation extends the long-standing educational and business innovation partnership between SAP and IDS Scheer,” said Dan Pantaleo, vice president of SAP University Alliances. “Leveraging our established network of university and research partners, comprising the business and computer science communities’ most innovative minds, SAP and IDS Scheer will help our customers benefit from the latest innovations in business solutions to maintain competitive advantage and improve their bottom lines.”

To forge new areas of research, SAP and IDS Scheer will engage university-based thought leaders and proactively seek out and support collaborative projects. The companies will offer executive education workshops, seminars and programs on business process analysis, innovation and related topics to impart knowledge gained in research efforts. Initially, these educational programs will be offered at the SAP and IDS Scheer Americas corporate headquarters and will be presented by thought leaders from SAP, IDS Scheer, or their associates and affiliates.

Each of the universities is expected to promote business process modeling by incorporating such issues into its undergraduate and graduate curricula and by dedicating faculty and students to contribute to research efforts.

“As educators we need to prepare our students for the process-centric, collaborative business environment that has emerged as a key success factor for today’s organizations,” said Dr. Yvonne Lederer-Antonucci, Associate Professor at Widener University, Pennsylvania. “The Institute for Business Process Innovation enables our faculty to collaborate closely with companies and organizations to focus on process-centric business innovation, generating a wealth of resources for both classroom and research activities.”

“Students need to learn quickly how to integrate business applications and their underlying processes in order to identify the KPIs [key performance indicators] that correspond to the actual processes organizations use,” said Dr. Prof. Louis Lefebvre, University of Montreal. “Our lab is running both the SAP® R/3® application and the IDS Scheer’s ARIS Toolset for simulations in the health care sector and aluminum industry. Working with real organizational data to simulate different functions, our students gain essential hands-on experience building real-time business cockpits that manage processes and monitor them through KPIs.”

SAP will provide a demonstration site that will permit employees, customers and prospects of both companies to develop and analyze business process models using the IDS Scheer ARIS Toolset and drill down to determine matching SAP solutions.

“In today’s challenging economic environment, the potential for increasing revenue and profitability through improvements in business processes is reshaping the way companies do business,” said Dr. Mathias Kirchmer, CEO of IDS Scheer United States and Japan, member of the extended executive board, IDS Scheer AG. “The adoption of truly innovative approaches to managing business processes will help companies establish a powerful basis for driving future growth. With the Institute for Business Process Innovation, IDS Scheer and SAP are providing a catalyst for collaborative research to spur developments in this important field and will continue to present innovative business solutions to the market.”

“The combination of research and practice has always been extremely important throughout my years of experience in the field of business process management,” said Dr. August-Wilhelm Scheer, director of the Institute for Information Systems of the University of Saarbruecken, founder of IDS Scheer and member of the supervisory board of SAP AG. “Therefore, I very much welcome the joint initiative of IDS Scheer and SAP and am pleased to be part of this innovative venture.”

SAP Innovation Congress
The SAP Innovation Congress is an annual event that allows leading educators and globally recognized researchers to exchange ideas and information. This important event explores educational innovation and new directions in key areas of business and technology research. This year’s first SAP Innovation Congress was held in Miami, Florida, February 15-17; the second SAP Innovation Congress is being held in Basel, Switzerland, September 28-30.

About SAP
SAP is the world's leading provider of business software solutions. Through mySAP™ Business Suite, people in businesses around the globe are improving relationships with customers and partners, streamlining operations and achieving significant efficiencies throughout their supply chains. The unique core processes of various industries, from aerospace to utilities, are supported effectively by SAP’s 23 industry solution portfolios. Today, more than 20,000 companies in over 120 countries run more than 64,500 installations of SAP® software. With subsidiaries in over 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)

About IDS Scheer
IDS Scheer is the leading provider of business process management and IT solutions. With ARIS, the company offers a complete portfolio for “Business Process Excellence”. This includes methods, software and solutions for development, implementation, operation and evaluation of business processes. In the framework of the ARIS Process Platform the software solutions are integrated as in a technical as in a professional way. Tools are offered for every phase of the process lifecycle -- from design to implementation up to controlling. As part of the ARIS Process Platform with more than 40,000 licences ARIS Toolset is the world‘s best selling tool for process optimization.

IDS Scheer consultants support companies in their entirety from the development of the business strategy to the setting up of a process organization and the architecture of application to the implementation of modern application concepts. This includes E-business, Supply Chain Management, Customer Relationship Management and also Enterprise Application Integration. Following its acquisition of Groupe Expert and the regional companies Plaut CEE and Plaut North America, IDS Scheer lends greater emphasis to its focus on small and medium enterprises (SME) and is also able to offer IT & Hosting Services. For SMEs now there are successfully tried and tested tools available that will make rapid SAP introduction a reality also for enterprises of this size. For more information visit www.ids-scheer.com/us/.

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 Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2002 filed with the SEC on March 21, 2003. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

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