According to SAP PSA Adel Abed, who has many of his partners as followers, Twitter posts work because they deliver quick, timely, relevant updates in a medium they already use each day. But unlike consumer-oriented usage of Twitter, business-to-business tweets are more about quality than quantity. When I spoke with Abed recently, he told me that “partners don’t want another source of mass information. By following their PSAs’ tweets, they can access the information most relevant to their priorities when they need it.”

In fact, business-to-business usage of social media like Twitter continues to grow. Studies show that 80 percent of business-to-business marketers use Twitter to distribute content. Companies like SAP are finding that tweets promote a relaxed mindset, making partners and other audiences more receptive to messages and likelier to take action so everyone wastes less time. SAP Partners who follow their PSAs can check tweets at their convenience. Most important, tweets contain useful information that they care about like reminders about training and certification sessions, deadline alerts for product development, and other enablement programs. Partner feedback from the original pilot program bears out the positive response.

“With our PSA’s tweets, we are now able to find and follow many updates on one single platform…our PSA puts all the pieces together for us in one basket, and that is Twitter.”

“It is always a challenge to keep track of webinars and trainings and get directed to the right people. Twitter triggers us to click on the link and register for the event instantly.”

“Partners need a strong liaison to help them stay on top of new trends and solutions. Our PSA’s insights deliver it completely.”

“All of our email in-boxes are full, so private Twitter messages are a good alternative.”

“Having access to tweets on my mobile device means I can get immediate information with links to documents I can use right away even if I’m out of the office.”

Twitter posts can serve as a conversation starter or springboard to action, capturing partner attention and pointing them to further resources. However, as a public forum, Twitter does have limitations. PSAs are careful not to reveal sensitive pricing or other information that’s more appropriate for email, telephone, or in-person contact. Links to further information on the SAP Community Network Interactive Portal and sappartner.edge, the company’s dedicated partner website, are password protected.

Twitter’s greatest B2B strength may well be in its relationship-building power. For example, when an SAP partner tweeted their need for new employees, their SAP PSA connected them with SAP’s talent management solution. Partner tweets can also reveal progress in business plan timelines, along with how partners position their version of SAP’s solutions to their customers and within their portfolio. Like all social media, Twitter can be a powerful B2B tool if companies concentrate on sharing relevant information that partners cannot get anywhere else quickly for less time wasted and faster productivity. Now that’s a real business revelation.

Follow me @smgaler

This post originally appeared on SAP Business Trends.

NEW ORLEANS —

As a result of the joint development, SAP and Microsoft have incorporated manufacturing data and contextualized it with real-time enterprise data, and are delivering it through a flexible self-service analytical user experience into Office 365. Customers of both SAP and Microsoft can now realize new benefits to their systems, including:

• A simple, common and collaborative environment to visualize live-plant data
• Reduced total cost of ownership for IT to build and maintain standard reports or help maintain security and data integrity on individual or local copies of Excel spreadsheets
• Collaborative and common view of data across manufacturing locations
• Reduction in custom calculations and errors that are required to turn raw data into information by allowing IT to provide validated feeds of information directly to the Excel sheets

“Accessing real-time intelligence from the shop floor through a cloud service drives tremendous value to our joint customers,” said Mike Lackey, vice president, Manufacturing Solutions, SAP. “By co-innovating with our partner, Microsoft, we are able to deliver a familiar and collaborative environment to visualize live-plant data.”

“Our alliance with SAP in the manufacturing industry helps put the right information at the fingertips of users with modern tools such as Office 365, Windows 8 devices and Windows Azure,” said Caglayan Arkan, general manager, Worldwide Manufacturing & Resources Sector, Microsoft Corp. “Working together, we extend the reach of factory information to virtually any role, anywhere and on any device – through familiar and simple tools that enhance end users’ abilities to make faster, better decisions.”

For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

Media Contact:
Janice Edman, +1 (650) 223-4817, j.edman@sap.com, PDT

SAP is committed to empowering our retail customers with the solutions they need that will allow them to best serve their customers.  The store solutions we resell from GK Software are outstanding additions to our robust retail solution portfolio.  Working closely with our leading ecosystem of partners, we are delivering game-changing innovation to customers. GK Software is a key example of what makes our ecosystem such a success. Together with GK Software, we are delivering added value to retail customers, empowering them to achieve business efficiencies and to run better than ever.

“The store solutions supplied by GK Software enable genuine, end-to-end processes integrated with SAP solutions,” said Rainer Glaess, CEO, GK Software  “These solutions provided by GK Software and resold by SAP will be game-changing for our retail customers. For example, the new SAP Point-of-Sale by GK application based on the SAP HANA platform is the first to leverage this in-memory technology and it will provide our retail customers greater ability to service their customers. Following the success we have achieved with these solutions in Europe and Asia, we’re looking forward to continuing this successful course with SAP in North America.”

SAP will resell GK’s solutions under the names SAP Point-of-Sale by GK, SAP Store Device Control by GK, SAP Offline Mobile Store by GK, SAP Label and Poster Printing by GK and SAP Open Scale Management by GK.

SAP AG has partnered with GK Software globally since 2011.  The introduction of these solutions into the North American market signifies another important step in the strategic partnership between GK Software AG and SAP AG.

Lori Mitchell-Keller is senior vice president and head of Global Retail Industry Business Unit at SAP.

PALO ALTO and WALLDORF  –  

Additionally, the premium edition of SAP HANA One, a new subscription-based 64GB instance of the leading SAP HANA platform for productive use and with enterprise support, will be available on VMware vCloud Suite and the new VMware vCloud Hybrid Service. This expanded relationship between VMware and SAP is expected to accelerate cloud adoption for customers deploying SAP solutions by enabling choice and lower TCO, delivered through a common platform built on VMware cloud infrastructure.

“The SAP ecosystem plays a vital role in helping our customers be best-run businesses,” said Bill McDermott, Co-CEO and Executive Board Member, SAP AG. “Today’s announcement with VMware is yet another example of how our collaboration with partners provides additional options for customers to deploy SAP solutions.”

Operated by VMware, vCloud Hybrid Service enables onsite and offsite IT environments to be not only connected and integrated with common management, but to run existing and new applications in the same way with enterprise scale without changes to the application. The new model is intended to allow customers to get the agility of running SAP solutions in a public cloud while using existing management tools and extending existing network and security infrastructure. This is expected to make the premium edition of SAP HANA One behave like a part of a customer’s existing data center by enabling customers to integrate on-premise ERP data with SAP HANA on VMware vCloud Hybrid Service.

“VMware’s mission is to radically simplify IT and enable customers to run any application where they choose without compromise,” said Pat Gelsinger, CEO, VMware. “We are pleased to expand our partnership with SAP to offer customers added choice for deploying core SAP solutions and SAP HANA in production cloud environments with the support of SAP and VMware behind them. VMware virtualization uniquely can provide consistency between private and public cloud environments, and together with SAP we can deliver enterprise-class solutions that help customers operate in the hybrid cloud world.”

Availability
SAP solutions running on VMware vCloud Hybrid Service are expected to be available in the United States in Q3 2013. SAP HANA running on VMware vCloud Suite for development and testing use is available now. In addition, SAP will provide production support for 64GB instances of SAP HANA with VMware Cloud Suite deployed in vCloud Hybrid Service. SAP and VMware intend to continue their strong collaboration and will work together to provide more virtual SAP HANA usage choices for customers.

About VMware
VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2012 revenues of $4.61 billion, VMware has more than 500,000 customers and 55,000 partners.  The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

For more information, press only:
Jason Loesche, +1 (484) 437 0015, j.loesche@sap.com, EDT
SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EDT; press@sap.com
Ken Lotich, +1 (650) 427 1911, klotich@vmware.com, PDT

“There is huge potential in harnessing the power of SAP HANA to help drive business growth and innovation for SAP, our partners and our customers,” said Dr. Vishal Sikka, member of the Executive Board of SAP AG, Technology & Innovation. “We are working hand-in-hand with our partners and they are fully energized by the truly limitless opportunities SAP HANA can provide. We are seeing some impressive results across all types of partners, in the new applications they are building and in the new areas of growth they are driving with SAP HANA. Together with our ecosystem, we are able to deliver transformational value to customers of all sizes and industries. These customers can benefit from the ability to invent and adopt innovations easily, gain results rapidly, grow sustainably and power their businesses with SAP HANA in ways not previously imagined.”

SAP HANA is the fastest-growing product in the company’s history. SAP is working closely and intensively with developers, independent software vendors (ISVs), systems integrators, software resellers and startups on every front with enablement tools and resources to tap into the power of SAP HANA. Enablement support is provided for SAP HANA, including the SAP Business One application, version for SAP HANA, SAP Business Suite software powered by SAP HANA and is planned for the recently announced SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud. This is helping to open new sales, service and business opportunities for the entire SAP ecosystem, which benefits customers in the ways outlined below.

Multiple Deployment Options Available for SAP HANA: On Premise, in the Cloud or Both
SAP HANA can now be deployed in a number of ways, offering customers the freedom of choice to leverage the power of SAP HANA on premise, in the cloud and via other business models, such as hosting, application management and outsourcing services. SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud will aim to provide organizations with a new way to fully tap into the transformational power of SAP HANA as a service. At SAPPHIRE NOW, SAP has announced the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud partner program, which intends to provide participants access to enablement, best practices and other resources that are expected to prepare them for success. Initial partners that have agreed to participate in the forthcoming program include Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, itelligence, Savvis and Virtustream. To learn more see: “Partner Quote Sheet: SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud Partner Program.”

For optimal benefit from the on-premise power of SAP HANA, customers need the right hardware infrastructure to help speed innovation, run their business in real time,  achieve breakthrough results. Nine global technology partners have certified their solutions to run SAP HANA: Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Hitachi, Ltd., Huawei, IBM, NEC and VCE. See the latest announcements issued by SAP partners in support of SAP HANA: HP, Hitachi Data Systems and SUSE.

Developers and customers can also access SAP HANA as a service through hosting, application management and outsourcing services offered via private cloud environments by leading SAP partners. Pre-configured with SAP HANA, these environments make it possible to develop applications built for SAP HANA in the cloud, which can greatly increase development agility. SAP HANA One database service in the cloud – powered by Amazon Web Services and available on AWS Marketplace – is a full-featured, small instance of the SAP HANA platform in the public cloud, available for productive and commercial use.

Enabling Resellers to Drive Adoption; Supporting Sales, Pre-Sales and Consulting Services
SAP channel partners play a critical role in helping organizations of all sizes identify, purchase, implement and run the ideal solution to address their unique business needs. SAP has engaged with partners from day one in an effort to accelerate adoption of SAP HANA by small businesses and midsize enterprises, helping them to benefit from this disruptive and transformational solution. Dell has announced it is now an SAP channel partner and will resell SAP solutions including SAP HANA.

For services partners and consultants, SAP is providing enablement support, helping them to ramp-up experts in sales, presales and consulting services for all types of companies and organizations. By the end of the first quarter of 2013, nearly 4,000 partner consultants have been trained in SAP HANA and more than 1,300 sales and pre-sales personnel within partner organizations have been trained in SAP Business Suite powered SAP HANA to help accelerate adoption by customers. During the first quarter of 2013, more than 50 percent of sales of SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA were generated by SAP partners, which remain critical for SAP to fulfill the market demand for solutions based on SAP HANA. And according to IDC, the SAP partner ecosystem made US$4.2 billion in revenue related to in-memory database offerings from SAP in 2012*.

View announcements issued by the following services partners in support of SAP HANA during SAPPHIRE NOW: Bramasol, Clarkston Consulting, Hitachi Data Systems, iGate, Neoris, smartShift, Secure-24 and Worksoft. It is important to note that not all of the news announced by these systems integrators is about services offerings for SAP HANA. Many announcements are actually about new solution offerings built on SAP HANA, highlighting the transformation of business for customers as well as for partners.

Startup Community Thriving on SAP HANA
The SAP Startup Focus program, launched in 2012, is growing, with over 400 startups joining from 19 countries to create new applications and products based on SAP HANA. Liquid Analytics, a startup focus program participant, uses predictive analytics running on SAP HANA. This helps its sales reps to more quickly respond to customers’ needs on the go. The applications developed by Liquid Analytics on SAP HANA use advanced forecasting algorithms and past order history to auto-populate products and quantities due for restock. This enables sales reps to fulfill orders on the spot, helping ensure that a wholesaler’s products are in stock on a retailer’s shelves, which helps accelerate sales and increase customer satisfaction.

“It was quite easy to engage in the SAP Startup Focus program, as SAP was operating as a startup itself,” said Vish Canaran, CEO, Liquid Analytics. “From the day we joined, it took us just one week to begin to experience tangible benefits, including making valuable connections with the right people. We’re a product company that builds applications, and SAP HANA has now become our platform on which to build Liquid Decisions for the store distribution market. With SAP HANA, Liquid Decisions provides real-time restock, cross-sell, up-sell and goal-related product recommendations to sales professionals. The information provides greater benefits to customers, helping them make decisions on the fly with real-time information.”

Core Mobile Inc., also a participant in the SAP Startup Focus program, offers a smart assistant solution for investment bankers and physicians called Corey. By running on SAP HANA, Corey can provide only the relevant information needed in real time from enterprise financial applications correlated with real-time market feeds and social media for financial advisors. It also provides physicians with instant access to patient information from multiple clinical systems, which is made available in real time when a patient calls into his or her physician’s office.

As SAP increases its commitment to the startup community, it is also more than doubling its capital commitment to the SAP HANA Real Time Fund – from an original 2012 commitment of US$155 million to US$405 million – to further support entrepreneurs and startups worldwide as they build their businesses on SAP platform technologies, including SAP HANA. Managed by independent fund manager SAP Ventures, the SAP HANA Real-Time Fund is intended to continue to foster and support an ecosystem of entrepreneurs and fund managers focused on the development of real-time applications and leveraging the power of big data as a driver of business value.

Additionally, SAP has taken the SAP HANA Marketplace to the next level, where individuals and enterprises can learn about, try and buy applications powered by SAP HANA, developed by and available from SAP, startups and ISVs. Integrated with the SAP Store, the SAP HANA Marketplace offers solutions not only for purchase but also a community where developers can exchange ideas and collaborate to develop new products. Solutions certified to run on SAP HANA in accordance with SAP integration standards earn the title “powered by SAP HANA.” As the portfolio of solutions in the marketplace grows, SAP plans to add additional functionality, such as RFP sourcing, developer and system integrator reviews, as well as infrastructure options for SAP HANA. View the following press releases issued by the first partners with solutions that are powered by SAP HANA: Choice, Pentland Firth and Tagetik.

A number of partners have signed OEM agreements with SAP — including Clockwork, PROS and Tagetik — to embed SAP HANA into their solutions. They are leveraging embedded analytics and the massive speed and scale of SAP HANA to help further unlock the power of their customers’ data and help enable optimized and innovative business processes. Please also see the following announcements issued by partners in support of SAP HANA from OpenText and Vendavo.

SAP HANA for Humanity Creates a Positive Difference
Building on collaboration with OEM partner Molecular Health to help enhance the quality of care for cancer patients, SAP has launched a program called SAP HANA for Humanity. Through this program, SAP is engaging with non-profit and governmental agencies to promote the use of SAP HANA to help solve pressing global problems related to issues such as climate change, healthcare and education. Organizations that SAP is engaging with through this program include BrightFunds.org, City of Boston, NSF Science and Technology Center for Coastal Margin Observation & Prediction, Stanford University and Water for People. Through the use of SAP HANA, SAP is teaming data scientists with high school students, helping them draw critical insights buried within large data sets. SAP is also engaging with high school students via the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), a nationwide network of free college-preparatory public charter schools that serve underserved communities across the U.S.

ISVs Deliver Creative Solutions on SAP HANA
The SAP HANA Cloud Applications Partner program provides the enablement tools, benefits and support to facilitate building high-quality, disruptive applications focused on specific business needs – quickly and cost-effectively. SAP HANA has become a new platform for ISVs to develop transformational and disruptive business and consumer applications that are designed to change the way companies innovate and run their business. Launched in 2012, the program has grown, with over 25 partners participating in the SAP HANA Cloud program.  Signavio, an SAP HANA Cloud Applications partner, offers Signavio Process Editor based on the SAP HANA Cloud platform. Customers using the solution have access to a professional process-modeling platform that helps keep software quality and data protection high. It is the first application to achieve SAP-certified integration with SAP HANA Cloud and is available on SAP Store.

For announcements, blog posts, videos and other coverage during SAPPHIRE NOW, visit the SAP Newsroom.

Source: *IDC Infographic, sponsored by SAP, Ecosystem Analytics & Big Data: Growth Opportunities for SAP Partners, May 2013

SAPPHIRE NOW
With SAPPHIRE NOW, SAP offers its customers, partners and prospects even more opportunities to engage in dialogue with peers, participants and thought leaders around the globe. Being held in Orlando, Florida, May 14-16, 2013, this enhanced, real-time event connects attendees on site with global participants through state-of-the-art broadcast studios and an online experience that incorporates the latest social media and community functionality. Whether on site or online, participants can gain insight as to how SAP is delivering on its product strategy and helping organizations around the world to run better. For more information, visit www.sapphirenow.com. Follow SAPPHIRE NOW on Twitter at @SAPPHIRENOW and visit the SAP Newsroom at www.news-sap.com.

Note to Editors:
Webcasts, announcements, media roundtables, keynote presentations and blog posts from SAPPHIRE NOW will be available in the SAP Newsroom at: www.news-sap.com. To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos. On this platform, you can find high-resolution material for your media channels. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit www.sap-tv.com. From this site, you can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via email links and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

For more information, press only:
Cindy McKendry, +1 503-231-7274, cindy.mckendry@sap.com, PDT
SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EDT; press@sap.com

ORLANDO

A test system, built from years of HP server technology innovations and optimized with the in-memory SAP HANA database for  SAP Business Suite, will be demonstrated for the first time at SAPPHIRE NOW, which is being held in Orlando, Fla., through today.

Unveiled last January, Project Kraken is a co-innovation effort between HP and SAP that focuses on SAP HANA, enabling customers to reduce the time required to rapidly transact, analyze and process large amounts of data within a single server.

Project Kraken’s goal is to provide customers additional choice in scalability for large, online transaction processing applications, with requirements for real-time analytical insights into this data. This allows organizations, including retailers, financial institutions, utilities and governments, another alternative to quickly detect patterns, analyze massive data volumes on the fly, and perform their operations quickly.

The prototype system, optimized with 16 Intel® Xeon® processor E7 family (codenamed Ivy Bridge-EX) central processing units (CPUs) and 12 terabytes of memory, has been engineered specifically for complex, data-intensive workloads. These include supply chain, customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and data analysis. HP and SAP chose Intel processors because of the company’s leading-edge technology that enables customers to improve system performance.

The solution leverages years of engineering and design across HP’s enterprise server business for customers that need the very highest levels of performance and availability, and where minutes of downtime can mean millions of dollars lost.

With this solution, customers can consolidate multiple online transaction processing (OLTP) and online analytic processing (OLAP) databases into one vertically scalable server with improved performance. This will further the capabilities of SAP HANA, providing real-time analytics on transactional data, eliminating the need to spend time and resources moving data between environments.

“The combination of our best technologies—SAP HANA with HP Converged Infrastructure—revolutionizes in-memory computing to redefine the speed at which market leaders will soon operate, to speed transactions to a matter of seconds,” said Bill Veghte, chief operating officer, HP. “With the collaboration of HP and SAP, organizations can consolidate online transaction and analytic processing into one place and perform real-time analytics at never-before-imagined speeds, while competitors continue to move data between multiple environments to access meaningful insights at a far slower pace.”

HP, leveraging decades of engineering expertise of mission-critical systems, and SAP, with a focus on design of business-critical database solutions, are working together to create a marketable solution capable of scaling to the highest levels of memory within a single server for speeding business operations.

“With Project Kraken, HP and SAP are illustrating how customers can achieve a step jump in performance, while adding simplicity in the management of the environment,” said Vishal Sikka, member, Executive Board, SAP AG Technology and Innovation., “It shows how large enterprises can confidently run their enterprise applications, including SAP Business Suite, with growing quantities of data in shorter windows of time. This offering will fundamentally and forever change the database market.”

SAPPHIRE NOW
With SAPPHIRE NOW, SAP offers its customers, partners and prospects even more opportunities to engage in dialogue with peers, participants and thought leaders around the globe. Being held in Orlando, Fla., May 14-16, 2013, this enhanced, real-time event connects attendees on site with global participants through state-of-the-art broadcast studios and an online experience that incorporates the latest social media and community functionality. Whether on-site or online, participants can gain insight as to how SAP is delivering on its product strategy and helping organizations around the world to run better. For more information, visit www.sapphirenow.com.

Note to Editors: Webcasts, announcements, media roundtables, keynote presentations and blog posts from SAPPHIRE NOW will be available in the SAP Newsroom at: www.news-sap.com. To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos. On this platform, you can find high-resolution material for your media channels. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit www.sap-tv.com. From this site, you can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via email links and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

About HP
HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

Editorial contacts
Dayna Fried, HP
+1 949 422 7426
dayna.fried@hp.com

Chase Skinner, HP
+310 228 7929
chase.skinner@hp.com

Jason Loesche, SAP
+ 484 437 00 15
j.loesche@sap.com

www.hp.com/go/newsroom

ORLANDO —

Accenture
“Accenture is pleased to become a part of the SAP ecosystem for SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud. We believe that SAP HANA is a game changer for our clients, and offering the effectiveness of a private cloud combined with the power of SAP HANA will help enable us to bring more value to our clients quicker. This fits right in our sweet spot, given our private and public cloud offerings for SAP solutions and highlighted by our receipt of a 2013 SAP Pinnacle award as the Cloud Co-Innovation Partner of the Year.” – Eric Renouard, global lead, SAP Technology, Accenture

Deloitte
“Many companies — Deloitte included — have already invested in their futures with SAP HANA. As market adoption continues, SAP HANA in the cloud is an important new deployment option. We are pleased to participate in the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud partner program.  We expect to provide more options for our clients as they deploy SAP HANA to address their critical business needs.” – Craig Hodgetts, global leader, SAP Practice and Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP.

IBM
“As part of our long-standing partnership with SAP, IBM expects that the combination of IBM’s broad portfolio of cloud analytics products and solutions, combined with the introduction of the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud will lead to a much faster and broader market adoption of cloud analytics by our mutual customers. Cloud-based analytics continue to drive a major transformation for clients around the world in delivering critical insight directly to business users.” – Jim Comfort, general manager of IBM SmartCloud Services.

itelligence
“Many itelligence customers have already embraced the benefits of the SAP HANA platform, but because one size does not fit all, they demand multiple deployment options. By joining the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud partner program, we anticipate that we will be able to offer customers ‘freedom of choice’ in designing the real-time, in-memory computing solution that’s right for them. We expect this to allow us to operate more effectively as a strategic advisor and help our customers to leverage the power of SAP HANA.” – Mark Mueller, chief innovation officer, itelligence

Savvis
“SAP HANA is designed to give businesses the powerful, real-time analytics capabilities to facilitate their success. Together with SAP, we empower these organizations with the global hosting infrastructure and long-time industry expertise to help them realize even faster time to market, lower total ownership costs and innovative performance for competing effectively.” – Jeff Von Deylen, president, Savvis, a CenturyLink company.

Virtustream
“The release of the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud will provide customers with multiple deployment options for SAP HANA: on premise, in the cloud or in a hybrid model. Going forward, running mission-critical SAP ERP, SAP CRM, SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse and new and unprecedented applications powered by SAP HANA will be possible in either deployment option. Together with SAP we are committed to providing our customers with immediate value resulting from innovative offerings.” – Rodney Rogers, chairman and CEO, Virtustream

For more information, visit sap.com/entcloud and the SAP Newsroom.

SAPPHIRE NOW
With SAPPHIRE NOW, SAP offers its customers, partners and prospects even more opportunities to engage in dialogue with peers, participants and thought leaders around the globe. Being held in Orlando, Florida, May 14-16, 2013, this enhanced, real-time event connects attendees on site with global participants through state-of-the-art broadcast studios and an online experience that incorporates the latest social media and community functionality. Whether on site or online, participants can gain insight as to how SAP is delivering on its product strategy and helping organizations around the world to run better. For more information, visit www.sapphirenow.com. Follow SAPPHIRE NOW on Twitter at @SAPPHIRENOW and visit the SAP Newsroom at www.news-sap.com.

For more information, press only:
Cindy McKendry, +1 503-231-7274, cindy.mckendry@sap.com, PDT
SAP Press Office, +49 6227 7-46315, CET; +1 610 661-3200, EST; press@sap.com

ORLANDO 

“SAP is leading the way in partnering with some of the most successful startup companies in the mobile market today,” said Sanjay Poonen, president, Mobile Division, SAP. “In working with Mocana, one of the fastest-growing privately-held security platform providers in the world, we plan to bring a new, innovative best-of-breed solution to our customers. This announcement helps reaffirm our commitment to be at the forefront of enterprise mobile app security and to provide customers with the highest level of viability, management and security available today.”

SAP is focused on comprehensively addressing and simplifying all aspects of enterprise mobility for its customers. The SAP Mobile Secure portfolio addresses the many complexities experienced by any enterprise deploying a mobile solution or strategy. Adding SAP Mobile App Protection to this portfolio helps organizations speed mobile initiatives by automating app security without having to write any code. Once an application is wrapped, SAP Afaria is designed to deploy and manage the application, ensuring corporate data in an app is protected, even outside of the enterprise. Customers may also customize a range of policies including authentication, FIPS 140-2 encryption and per-app VPN to help comprehensively protect data for different users and contexts.

“Mobile security is of paramount importance to Intel,” said David Flanagan, managing director, Intel Capital. “Intel is working on mobile technologies to transform the way the enterprises do business. We believe that the partnership between these two leading companies, SAP and Mocana, can help enable innovative solutions for highly secure, mobile deployments within the enterprise.”

“App enablement is a growing market cutting across key B2C, B2B and B2E organizations,” said Stephen Drake, program vice president, Mobility Enterprise Research, IDC. “Solutions such as those from SAP’s end-to-end mobile portfolio and Mocana’s app wrapping technology are expected to help enterprises accelerate the deployment of game-changing mobile applications that are designed to leverage sensitive corporate information and services.”

“Our partnership with SAP helps cement Mocana as the market’s leading app security solution, a solution that helps enterprises deploy and manage the ‘long tail’ of specialized apps they use every day,” said Adrian Turner, CEO, Mocana. “Whether it’s application development, device management, scalable app distribution or now application security, SAP continues to see what matters most for enterprise mobility ahead of the rest.”

For announcements, blog posts, videos and other coverage during SAPPHIRE NOW, visit the SAP Newsroom.

SAPPHIRE NOW
With SAPPHIRE NOW, SAP offers its customers, partners and prospects even more opportunities to engage in dialogue with peers, participants and thought leaders around the globe. Being held in Orlando, Florida, May 14-16, 2013, this enhanced, real-time event connects attendees on site with global participants through state-of-the-art broadcast studios and an online experience that incorporates the latest social media and community functionality. Whether on site or online, participants can gain insight as to how SAP is delivering on its product strategy and helping organizations around the world to run better. For more information, visit www.sapphirenow.com. Follow SAPPHIRE NOW on Twitter at @SAPPHIRENOW and visit the SAP Newsroom at www.news-sap.com.

Note to Editors:
Webcasts, announcements, media roundtables, keynote presentations and blog posts from SAPPHIRE NOW will be available in the SAP Newsroom at: www.news-sap.com. To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos. On this platform, you can find high-resolution material for your media channels. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit www.sap-tv.com. From this site, you can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via email links and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

About Mocana
Launched in 2004 and recognized by the World Economic Forum as a 2012 Technology Pioneer, Mocana unlocks the mobile enterprise and simplifies wide-scale deployments by securing apps automatically, in seconds. The company’s Mobile Application Protection (MAP) app-shielding solution mitigates the complexities of mobile management, while freeing developers from lengthy and expensive security coding. Mocana is the global app security expert, counting five of the top seven Android handset makers as customers, with deep expertise born from a decade of experience securing embedded devices across the Internet of Things; from medical devices to aerospace and defense, from smart grid to industrial automation. For more information, visit www.mocana.com.

For more information, press only:
Jason Loesche, SAP, +1 (484) 437 0015, j.loesche@sap.com, EDT
SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EDT; press@sap.com

Media and analyst contact:
Patrick Corman, Corman Communications, LLC, +1 (650) 326-9648, patrick@cormancom.com

Company Contacts:
Kurt Stammberger, CISSP, VP Market Development, Mocana, kstammberger@mocana.com, Twitter: @wurtis

ORLANDO —

“Gartner has seen indications that cloud-based offerings are finally evolving to address the emerging needs of mobile users to access data and systems more complex than simple messaging,” said Phil Redman, vice president Distinguished Analyst for Gartner. “The cloud model provides natural synergies with the solutions needed for mobile device management (MDM). Scalable and elastic delivery of IT capabilities is the foundation of the cloud computing value proposition.”

MDM and Security With Built-In Analytics: New Solution Expands Mobile Secure Capabilities
SAP Afaria, cloud edition, addresses the demand for a convenient, reliable and low-cost solution that empowers IT departments of any size to manage and secure both corporate-liable and personally-owned devices, providing a way to manage security risk with or without any prior SAP infrastructure. Bundled with this offering, analytic dashboards from the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio provide customers with instant insight into device compliance and usage. SAP Afaria, cloud edition, delivers a highly scalable cloud-based mobile device management solution and is now available on Android, iOS and Windows Phone 8. A 30-day free trial is available at www.sapmobilesecure.com.

“Enterprises are using AWS for every imaginable use case, and it’s been exciting to see the acceleration of SAP applications being run on AWS,” said Andy Jassy, senior vice president, AWS. “Powering SAP Afaria, cloud edition, on AWS is a natural extension of the strong and expanding relationship we have with SAP, as we work together to help enterprises manage their mobile devices in a scalable, low-cost and robust fashion.”

“The enterprise managed mobility market has needed a highly affordable, scalable cloud-based enterprise mobile device management solution,” said Fernando Alvarez, senior vice president and Mobile Solutions Global Service Line Leader, Capgemini Group. “It is a pleasure to partner with SAP to offer an enterprise mobile device management solution in the cloud. SAP Afaria, cloud edition, is a game-changer and provides Capgemini with an industry-leading MDM solution on the cloud which our clients can benefit from immediately at a very competitive cost.”

Security for Device, Content and Apps
With the constant introduction of new devices in the market, the variety of mobile operating systems and the influx of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs for employees, enterprise-level security is top-of-mind for many companies. The SAP Mobile Secure portfolio addresses these security challenges by enabling security of the device, apps and content for today’s most popular mobile devices, including iOS, Windows and Android devices.

“Cyber security is increasingly a board room priority, and as such, iron-clad mobile security is job one for all CIOs and CISOs to execute their mobile strategy,” said Sanjay Poonen, president of Technology Solutions and the Mobile Division, SAP. “With SAP Mobile Secure, we want to make it easy for CIOs to bring comprehensive mobile security to all layers of their mobile infrastructure at the lowest TCO possible. The SAP Mobile Secure solution portfolio is integrated with the SAP Mobile Platform, allowing developers to build in security at the right time. SAP Mobile Secure is designed to scale to millions of devices and even support large-scale ‘Internet of Things’ use cases. SAP has a strong heritage in security and we are excited to bring our assets and expertise to the mobile market.”

SAP solutions in the SAP Mobile Secure portfolio include:

• Device security and app management: SAP Afaria is the trusted and highly scalable solution to manage and secure deployments of mobile devices and apps for any size of company — in the cloud or on-premise. The latest release of SAP Afaria now includes support for Windows Phone 8.
• App security and management: SAP today also announced a partnership with leading mobile security vendor Mocana. The SAP Mobile App Protection solution by Mocana helps organizations accelerate mobile app security. App-wrapping technology enables enterprises to quickly secure existing corporate and third-party applications without having to write any code. In addition, SAP Store offers a white-label mobile app distribution storefront, including secure distribution of internally developed and purchased third-party apps.
• Content security: SAP launched the SAP Mobile Documents solution earlier this year, designed for enterprise deployments where collaboration, security and control of business content are critical. Users can access, view and collaborate on personal and corporate content, in an easy-to-use, native mobile app.

Unified Cloud Portfolio to Empower Faster, Simpler Innovation
SAP today also announced a unified cloud portfolio to offer more flexibility and choice across the broad spectrum of cloud-based solutions, which will combine the proven breadth of enterprise solutions from SAP with the simplicity of cloud powered by the SAP HANA platform for real-time business.

To learn more about SAP Mobile Secure, visit www.sapmobilesecure.com. For announcements, blog posts, videos and other coverage during SAPPHIRE NOW, visit the SAP Newsroom.

SAPPHIRE NOW
With SAPPHIRE NOW, SAP offers its customers, partners and prospects even more opportunities to engage in dialogue with peers, participants and thought leaders around the globe. Being held in Orlando, Florida, May 14-16, 2013, this enhanced, real-time event connects attendees on site with global participants through state-of-the-art broadcast studios and an online experience that incorporates the latest social media and community functionality. Whether on site or online, participants can gain insight as to how SAP is delivering on its product strategy and helping organizations around the world to run better. For more information, visit www.sapphirenow.com. Follow SAPPHIRE NOW on Twitter at @SAPPHIRENOW and visit the SAP Newsroom at www.news-sap.com.

Note to Editors:
Webcasts, announcements, media roundtables, keynote presentations and blog posts from SAPPHIRE NOW will be available in the SAP Newsroom at: www.news-sap.com. To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos. On this platform, you can find high-resolution material for your media channels. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit www.sap-tv.com. From this site, you can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via email links and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

For more information, press only:
Amisha Gandhi, +1 (415) 341-7101, amisha.gandhi@sap.com, PDT
Scott Malinowski, +1 (617) 538-6297, scott.malinowski@sap.com, EDT
Jason Loesche, +1 (484) 437 0015, j.loesche@sap.com, EDT
SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EDT; press@sap.com

WALLDORF —

“SAP continues to invest and innovate in the enterprise apps store by delivering new, cutting-edge solutions across analytics, mobile, cloud and database and technology to our customers in just a few simple clicks,” said Dan Maloney, global vice president, eChannels, SAP. “SAP Store delivers the familiarity and seamless user experience of a consumer app store while taking advantage of SAP’s rich history in enterprise software and our innate understanding of the corporate buyer.”

Recent enhancements to SAP Store include:

• Expanded solutions and services portfolio for all market categories: Since November 2012, SAP has added over 200 solutions from SAP and partners to SAP Store, making it easier for customers to find any application they need by industry, line of business or company size. New solutions include the SAP EMR Unwired mobile app, SAP Lumira software, SAP Sybase PowerDesigner software and myOrders by ExpertIG. SAP Store now offers more than 2,100 solutions from SAP and over 1,000 partners.
• New features for seamless purchasing and selling: In catering to how customers and partners do business online, SAP Store now allows select partner applications to be purchased via Paypal, new self-service capabilities for partners to build a best-in-class online storefront and delivering insight partners need to manage their business effectively and an updated myAccount giving customers unparalleled insight into their SAP Store activity.
• Social commerce: SAP also announced that it will leverage Bazaarvoice to further accentuate the volume and quality of product reviews for solutions on SAP Store. With its unique expertise, Bazaarvoice helps channel authentic, consumer-generated branded content into all the places that influence purchase decisions.
• Simplified and accelerated reselling for the SAP Business One application: Customers and partners around the world can now easily buy and resell SAP Business One on SAP Store.
• Additional country versions: Further expanding its global reach, SAP Store is now available in 10 additional countries, for a total of 26 countries supported. The new countries are Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

Next Major Event: SAPPHIRE NOW
With SAPPHIRE NOW, SAP offers its customers, partners and prospects even more opportunities to engage in dialogue with peers, participants and thought leaders around the globe. Being held in Orlando, Florida, May 14-16, 2013, this enhanced, real-time event connects attendees on site with global participants through state-of-the-art broadcast studios and an online experience that incorporates the latest social media and community functionality. Whether on site or online, participants can gain insight as to how SAP is delivering on its product strategy and helping organizations around the world to run better. For more information, visit www.sapphirenow.com. Follow SAPPHIRE NOW on Twitter at @SAPPHIRENOW and visit the SAP Newsroom at www.news-sap.com.

Media Contact:
Jason Loesche, +1 (484) 437-0015, j.loesche@sap.com, EDT