SAP Fosters Collaboration and Education Among Its Growing Business Process Expert Community

BERLIN, May 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SAP AG today announced new incentives for the more than 350,000 members of its Business Process Expert community (http://www.bpx.sap.com/), which has more than tripled its size since 2007. The community is a collaborative online environment where members can share business process solutions, organizational expertise and best-practices to increase business agility. The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE(R) 2008, SAP's international customer conference, being held May 19-21 in Berlin, Germany.

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The Business Process Expert community -- consisting of business analysts, project managers, business process architects, application consultants and other business process professionals -- continues to expand rapidly. Over recent months, several new interest areas have been released to the community, such as:

-- Enhancement packages for the SAP(R) Business Suite family of business applications -- A dedicated space that fosters collaboration and best-practices for customer relationship management (CRM) implementations and the development of CRM solutions -- A community-authored book to equip aspiring Business Process Expert community members with tools and recipes for success -- Expanded industry forums to bring innovative collaboration tools to new markets

SAP has rolled out a collaborative wiki area to co-create enhancement packages for its flagship enterprise resource planning (ERP) application, SAP(R) ERP, including an enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) starter kit for the members of the Business Process Expert SOA community. The enhancement packages will provide the community with a first-hand look into important roll-out information on new SAP Business Suite offerings. The community will also be invited to contribute feedback about the packages on wikis, blogs and forums, which will be incorporated into existing and future enhancement-package updates.

The SAP(R) Customer Relationship Management (SAP(R) CRM) Business Process Expert community is one of the first solution areas to actively engage the community for input on product development. Traditionally, product managers have used a one-way "push" model to communicate launches and update products. Today, SAP CRM managers are using the community to engage customers and partners in a "push-pull" or collaborative development model. Using Web 2.0 tools such as crowd sourcing, viral networking and video blogging, SAP invites actionable feedback from members before product launches and throughout the CRM product lifecycle.

The SAP community-written book, Sophisticated Empathy, will provide details on how the Business Process Expert community members can help their organizations succeed. Members have contributed the factors for success in the book, the first-ever of its kind. It is co-edited by Dan Woods, former chief technology officer of TheStreet.com and Capital Thinking, and Marco ten Vaanholt, SAP's head of the Business Process Expert community. The foreword has been written by Zia Yusuf, executive vice president, SAP Ecosystem and Partner Group. The book contains 150 pages of helpful information about the value and benefits of business process best-practices, as well as practical advice and examples on how to gain competitive advantage from business process excellence and innovation.

The formation of two new additional industry communities -- professional services and transportation and logistics -- brings the total number of industry-focused community forums to 18. These important additions illustrate leadership and continued momentum from SAP's growing use of Web 2.0 approaches to co-develop industry solutions with industry leaders, which are tailored to address their specific business challenges.

Three case studies in the aerospace & defense, oil & gas and public sector communities capture the value of the various communities at SAPPHIRE 2008 Berlin, along with:

-- A showcase of Business Process Expert community and corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagements, featuring James Farrar, vice president, CSR, SAP, discussing issues including how the community can help to reduce individuals' carbon footprints. -- A showcase of online and Web 2.0 Business Process Expert community assets as well as community presentations, solution demonstrations and live blogging from the event by community members. SAPPHIRE(R) 2008 Orlando and SAPPHIRE(R) 2008 Berlin

More than 15,000 customers, partners and technical experts are convening at SAPPHIRE 2008 to discover how SAP and its thriving partner ecosystem are delivering IT solutions that create value beyond the four walls of the enterprise, to create "business beyond boundaries." SAP's premier educational and networking event, SAPPHIRE is the one occasion where senior executives, business managers, and decision-makers can come together every year to explore how innovative business solutions foster long-term, profitable growth. SAPPHIRE(R) 2008 was held in Orlando, Florida, May 4-7, and is being held in Berlin, Germany, May 19-21, 2008. For more information, please visit http://www.sap.com/sapphire.

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For customers interested in learning more about SAP products: Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24 United States Only: 1 (800) 872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727) Contacts: Iris Eidling, SAP, +49 (6227) 7-65797, iris.eidling@sap.com, CET Maria Cubeta, Burson-Marsteller, +1 (415) 591-4070, maria.cubeta@bm.com, PDT