Product and Service Portfolio
In 2007, we again brought various new and enhanced solutions to market in all four core areas of our product portfolio – enterprise applications and industry solutions, platform, software for small businesses and midsize companies, and offerings for business users. For more information about our new and enhanced applications and solutions, see the Development News section.
Partner Ecosystem Grows
In 2007, we continued to forge development alliances and projects that we believe will help shape our future. Examples include:
- With U.S. company Cisco Systems, Inc., we are jointly developing a new breed of business solutions that can transform how applications and networks interact. The new solutions are designed to encourage agility in business networks of customers, partners, suppliers, and employees across geographically dispersed, heterogeneous business and IT landscapes.
- With UK banking software specialist Misys, we announced an agreement to deliver integrated solutions for international trade finance. The solution, which is based on Misys BankFusion, will run with key SAP components on the SAP NetWeaver technology platform. This will enable banks to choose a broad set of solutions from one source, helping them reduce IT infrastructure complexity.
- We also announced a collaborative project with Belgian software makers Callataÿ & Wouters to provide a solution for the banking industry. Together, we are offering a core banking solution for midsize banks to build a business process platform combining the Thaler banking product from Callataÿ & Wouters with SAP software and technology.
- We announced plans to collaborate on enterprise SOA for banking with SunGard Data Systems Inc., a leading IT and software vendor for financial services providers and public sector organizations. The first offering will be a joint asset liability management solution for the financial services provider segment. The new collaboration supports business process platforms for banks, uniting the strengths of SAP applications with those of Sun-Gard’s BancWare.
- SAP and TechniData AG together developed integrated software to help chemicals companies address the complex tasks required by the newly enacted European Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) legislation. This SAP REACH Compliance application is delivered as an extension to the existing SAP Environment, Health & Safety (SAP EH&S) application and adds to our portfolio of GRC solutions. We are also creating an executive advisory council to increase GRC collaboration with partners and customers.
- We extended our reseller agreement with Vistex, Inc., a U.S. software vendor. We agreed to resell Vistex payback and chargeback management solutions worldwide. Vistex solutions help distributors and manufacturers in several industries – such as consumer products, food services, life sciences, and retail – automate and streamline their pricing and rebate processes.
- We entered into an alliance with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) with the aim of bringing together CSC’s core banking system with SAP’s technology and applications. Together, we are focusing on providing banks with the flexibility they need, with greater productivity, streamlined business process integration, and consolidated platforms.
- We announced midyear that we would resell and market Visiprise manufacturing process management software under the name SAP Manufacturing Execution by Visiprise. It supports complex manufacturing processes with functions for route enforcement, traceability, and shop floor quality management.
- We entered into a global reseller agreement with Canadian company Nakisa, Inc. Together, the two companies integrated Nakisa’s organizational and talent management visualization capabilities to enhance and extend the SAP ERP Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM) solution. The Nakisa capabilities help organizations view, update, and analyze their talent inventory and the availability of potential successors in key positions.
Acquisitions Enrich Product Portfolio
In 2007, we continued our announced policy of organic growth complemented by acquisitions aimed at enriching our product portfolio in terms of both technology and functions. We acquired five companies by buying their equity and we acquired the material assets of two other companies.
- In February, we acquired Pilot Software, a privately owned California company that makes strategy management software. Worldwide, 150 customers were using the software at the time of acquisition, for example in the retail and financial services industries and in the public sector. The Pilot Software acquisition broadens our analytic applications offering. Pilot Software solutions address executive requirements for tools to fully measure, evaluate, and manage corporate performance.
- In May, we acquired Wicom Communications Ltd., a leading, privately held provider of all-Internet Protocol contact center and enterprise communications software. The acquisition will enable SAP to offer companies the ability to better integrate communications technologies and business systems so they can provide more effective customer-facing services on all channels. The Wicom solution helps our customers streamline the integration of disparate hardware and software components while allowing for central management and reporting of dispersed resources and processes. Customer service, marketing, finance, and sales and distribution departments can be better linked – and all customer-facing personnel, wherever they are located, see the same data and information. It supports standard Web service-based integration with SAP CRM.
- Also in May, we acquired MaXware, a privately held provider of identity management software in Norway. At the time of acquisition, MaXware had around 300 customers worldwide in a diverse range of industries, such as technology, manufacturing, defense, energy, healthcare, financial services, and the public sector. The MaXware solutions complement the identity management functions on the SAP NetWeaver technology platform. It gives companies with heterogeneous IT landscapes an integrated platform for working across systems and across business processes to manage identities and ensure security in real time. By combining MaXware’s proven and easy-to-configure identity management solution with SAP’s business applications and the SAP NetWeaver technology platform, we can offer identity management software that increases agility of business units when managing employee identities – including managing identities across company boundaries with customers, channel partners, or suppliers. We also offer a strong solution in the related field of GRC access control.
- In June, we acquired OutlookSoft Corporation, a privately held U.S. software vendor. This was a specialist company making financial and strategy performance measurement solutions, and the acquisition extends our portfolio of solutions to help chief financial officers (CFOs) manage corporate performance, risk, and financial value chains. The OutlookSoft solution offers end-to-end guidance through financial business processes, integrated predictive analytics, and a rich library of ready-to-use corporate performance management methods and procedures. The applications leverage Web 2.0 technologies for ease of use. A broad palette of functions simplifies collaboration across the enterprise.
- In October, we acquired selected material assets of one of our exclusive partners of long standing, SAP Arabia LLC – notably all of that company’s customer license and maintenance contracts, its rights under distributorship agreements, and its trademarks. We have already opened office locations in Dubai and Saudi Arabia as part of our global expansion.
- We acquired the assets of Yasu Technologies, a privately owned company headquartered in India and a leader in business rules management systems, in October. We intend to embed Yasu Technologies solutions in our SAP NetWeaver technology platform as part of SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment. This provides the business rules infrastructure to help companies move their strategies forward. Partners would be able to integrate the solution directly into their offerings.
- In October, we announced that we had agreed to make an offer for all of the stock of Business Objects for a purchase price of €42.00 per common share. For the Business Objects American depositary receipts (ADRs), we offered the U.S. dollar equivalent based on the euro to dollar exchange rate at the time of settlement. The overall cost of the deal including expenses is expected to be a little more than €4.8 billion. Together, SAP and Business Objects intend to offer high-value business and process solutions for business users. We completed the takeover of Business Objects in early 2008. For more information about our acquisition of Business Objects, see the Business in the New Year: Early news section.
- In November, we acquired Silk Europe, a privately held software company based in Belgium. Silk is an Outlook-Soft reseller in the Netherlands and Belgium.
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