ORLANDO —

To empower line-of-business users, SAP delivers the most comprehensive portfolio of line-of-business cloud applications with more than 29 million users for four focus areas: People, Customer, Money and Supplier. The portfolio includes solutions from SAP companies Ariba and SuccessFactors as well as the SAP Cloud for Customer (formerly SAP Customer OnDemand), SAP Cloud for Financials (formerly SAP Financials OnDemand) and SAP Business ByDesign solutions.

“Cloud solutions from SAP provide us with the velocity we need to listen to and engage with our customers like never before,” said Krissy Espindola, knowledge management and social customer support, T-Mobile. “We’ve tried other solutions on the market, and we chose SAP for its superior product, faster implementation and delightful user experience.”

SAP HANA Cloud Platform enables a holistic strategy for integration. Using prepackaged integration flows, customers can leverage best-practice templates to extend their on-premise SAP software investments with line-of-business cloud applications and best-of-breed third-party applications. Customers can benefit from the reduction of implementation time and total cost of ownership, as well as peace of mind knowing that SAP monitors, supports and manages technology upgrades.

“We live in an era where slow kills companies fast,” said Lars Dalgaard, member of the Executive Board of SAP AG and CEO of SuccessFactors. “We know that the move to the cloud must be a thoughtful evolution that allows customers to leverage their current investments. We are offering a strategy for our customers to help them execute business with the velocity they need by engaging their people, customers and suppliers to execute at scale. We now have the most complete set of offerings in the world to solve business objectives, in virtually every industry, and use case.”

Design and ease-of-use are key to user adoption and today SAP announced the latest innovations to its line-of-business cloud applications.

PEOPLE
SuccessFactors: Accelerating Workforce Performance and Business Execution
Companies not only need to improve HR efficiency, they also need to improve how they attract, engage and retain their workforce. Key innovations benefit customers by:

• SuccessFactors Employee Central: Expanding global capabilities and addressing local business needs in 29 new countries, bringing the total number of dedicated country versions to 51. In addition, SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll is extending support to Japan and Russia, bringing the total to 22 countries for the payroll solution.
• SuccessFactors Onboarding: Laying the foundation for productive and engaged employees, the solution provides step-by-step guidance for the hiring manager, socialization capabilities and rich employee profile functionality.
• SuccessFactors Learning: Offering a redesigned learning homepage featuring customizable tile-based user interface with content tiles, thumbnail images and course descriptions and a combined catalog search. This provides an enhanced user experience, support for faster time to learning completion, improved employee engagement and self-development.

For details around the latest update and links to product demos, see: “Fact Sheet: SuccessFactors BizX Suite.”

CUSTOMER
SAP Cloud for Customer: More Impactful Customer Engagement
SAP has more than doubled the customer base for SAP Cloud for Customer quarter-over-quarter for each of the past five quarters. SAP Cloud for Customer provides the underlying technology for cloud solutions designed for marketing, sales and service organizations: SAP Cloud for Sales, SAP Cloud for Service and SAP Cloud for Social Engagement solutions as well as the SAP Social Media Analytics application by NetBase. Key innovations benefit customers by:

• Redesigning the SAP Cloud for Customer user experience by co-innovating with SAP customers is more than just being sleek. The solution mirrors the way marketing, sales and service professionals work today. It arms users with the right messages and the right answers to help customer-facing teams guide customers through their entire journey from prospect to promoter.
• Resolving customer issues faster by creating new quotes and sales orders from service tickets. Applying fast and flexible integration with the enterprise resource planning (ERP) application SAP ERP, SAP Cloud for Customer provides the underlying technology for sales, service and marketing cloud solutions at a low cost and in short timeframes.
• Transforming relevant customer conversations into service tickets no matter where customer communication happens – e-mail, phone, Web self-service portals, social media or chat – with the SAP Cloud for Service and SAP Cloud for Social Engagement solutions. An updated call-to-resolution process, with tighter computer telephony integration can increase agent productivity by helping ensure that customer service agents are provided with complete account and contact information. SAP Cloud for Service, through native integration with SAP HANA Cloud Portal, support site option, now supports product registrations as well as business-to-consumer scenarios for end users.

For details around the latest update and links to product demos, see: “Fact Sheet: SAP Cloud for Customer.”

MONEY
SAP Cloud for Financials: Increasing Speed and Accuracy With New Global, Mobile and Integration Capabilities
Whether companies are identifying new business opportunities, reacting to market dynamics or providing insights into financial performance, they need an integrated, mobile-enabled financial management solution that supports complex requirements. Key innovations benefit customers by:

• Minimizing the burden of managing a global business with three additional country versions: Austria, Denmark and New Zealand now supporting global and local financial reporting and taxation standards, for 14 countries.
• Delivering a complete end-to-end solution for order-to-cash, procure-to-pay and electronic payment processing created by integrating with third-party systems. The solution helps streamline administrative work and provides rich accounting audit trails to help simplify compliance.
• Reducing the cost and effort of managing electronic bank integrations for transmitting payment information, enabling quick and easy communication with all their banks and business partners.

For details around the latest update and links to product demos, see: “Fact Sheet: SAP Cloud for Financials.”

SAP Cloud for Travel: Powers Seamless Expense Management, Simplified Reporting and New Analytics
Companies can cut travel costs and complexity while increasing compliance and employee productivity through analytics and increased transparency. Key innovations benefit customers by decreasing the number of manual corrections needed by increasing the image quality of receipts on mobile devices, which improves the accuracy of data recognition. Customers can now make expense reporting a quick, paperless process by taking photos of their receipts with mobile devices and attaching them to expense reports at any time, from any location.

For details around the latest update and links to product demos, see: “Fact Sheet: SAP Cloud for Travel.”

SAP Business ByDesign: More Functionality for Professional Services, Distribution and Subsidiaries
The solution combines all the benefits of business applications today while helping reduce demands on IT. Key innovations benefit customers by:

• Identifying milestone billings in projects helps service organizations better manage their cash flow and collections process.
• Enabling payment terms and discounting help improve sales contracts for higher competitiveness. Batch management capabilities in logistics extend the selection of products based on expiration dates and shelf lives to maximize product value.
• Adding new country versions for Japan and New Zealand. Enhanced localization kit supports rapid deployment of company-specific localizations that can be used across other companies

For details around the latest update and links to product demos, see: “Fact Sheet: SAP Business ByDesign.”

SUPPLIER
Ariba Cloud Applications: Driving New Levels of Productivity and Profits
Ariba offers industry-leading cloud-based procurement and invoicing applications with the world’s largest Web-based trading community. The company recently announced several updates to its cloud applications portfolio designed to help buyers and sellers achieve new levels of productivity and profits. Key innovations benefit customers:

• Ariba Services Procurement: Adding new features such as contractor on/off boarding, improved time sheets, light industrial collaboration and vendor tiering allow companies to better manage their statement of work (SOW) and temporary labor spend using a network-centric approach.
• Services Invoicing: Expanding features enable customers to manage more complex and estimate-based services spend by providing needed capabilities such as service entry sheets, contract compliance and workflow.
• Ariba Spend Analytics: Leveraging more than 15 years of transactional, relationship and community-generated information accessible on the Ariba Network to gain new, real-time insights that enable them to make better decisions. And through integration with the SAP HANA Cloud Platform, they can get this information to the right people in the right places faster than ever and transform their businesses.

BUSINESS NETWORK
Ariba Network: Delivering Advanced Collaborative Tools and Community-Based insights
The Ariba Network not only removes the hassles and costs of enterprise collaboration but also delivers unique capabilities and insights that are only available in a true, open networked model. Key innovations benefit customers by:

• Integrating Ariba’s on-demand sourcing and procurement solutions and Ariba Discovery™, so that buyers connected to the Ariba Network can quickly discover and qualify new sources of supply for one-off, time-sensitive or hard-to-find purchases.
• Delivering network-derived intelligence and community-generated content directly into the context of specific business processes and use cases through Ariba Recommendations, so that companies can make more informed decisions at the point of transaction or activity.

SAP has also released a rapid-deployment solution to make it fast and simple for customers running the SAP Business One application to rapidly integrate with the Ariba Network and reap the benefits that it provides.

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 e-mail links and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 238,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

For more information, press only:
Daniella Klopocki, +1 (650) 762-4410, daniella.klopocki@sap.com, PDT
SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EDT; press@sap.com

ORLANDO  —

“John Deere focuses each day on innovation, serving customers with breakthrough technology that enhances their productivity,” said Derek Dyer, director, Global SAP Services, Deere and Company. “As the first customer that went live with SAP ERP powered by SAP HANA, we aspire to improve our capability to make quicker decisions on design data, to gain real time insights on very large volumes of live data, and to see significant performance improvement in our new product introduction process. With these aspirations met, our next objective is to drive additional mission-critical processes in real time, provide self-service mobile connectivity to our business users and derive new business and IT value.”

Core SAP Business Suite applications powered by SAP HANA with industry extensions, available across SAP’s 25 industry verticals, accelerate processes such as promotion management for retail and consumer product companies, material planning for high-tech firms and spare parts management for auto manufacturers.

“Bringing the power of SAP HANA to mission-critical applications in the industries is just the first wave of incredible innovation we are delivering to our SAP Business Suite customers,” said Dr. Vishal Sikka, member of the Executive Board of SAP AG, Technology and Innovation. “The business transformation of joining the transactional world and analytical worlds is underway and with SAP HANA as the next-generation platform, the opportunities are endless.”

Breakthrough advantages of SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA for customers in all industries include:

• Smarter business models connecting real-time business insight and business transactions for innovative product and service offerings and operational models
• Broad variety of business scenarios, including marketing analysis, financial close, receivables management, consumer and social sentiment analysis, as well as the most used operational reporting and analytics, all specifically optimized to deliver the highest value to customers
• Simpler business interactions allowing business partners and consumers to integrate social media and unstructured data in a single system

Announced last week, SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud is also intended to offer a new option for customers to deploy SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA.

SAP and partners are helping customers plan, run and optimize implementation projects with rapid-deployment solutions that help save cost, accelerate deployment and minimize project risks. The SAP Solution Explorer tool helps customers identify relevant business scenarios and an initial selection of solution capabilities powered by SAP HANA. SAP customers and partners have embraced SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA: more than 130 customer shipments and more than 170 partner shipments reflect strong momentum and indicate a positive market reception since the initial launch.

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

Media Contacts:
Janice Edman, +1 650 223 4817, j.edman@sap.com, PDT
Cathrin von Osten, +49 171 3363695, cathrin.von.osten@sap.com, CET

That involves innovating to do more with less. Running better can save firms three times what less efficient companies spend on finance costs, stated Narachewski, the vice president of Solution Management for LoB Finance. And it can result in 76 percent higher operating margins.

Representatives from satisfied customers Coca-Cola, ConAgra and Deloitte joined Narachewski on stage to share their stories.

Deloitte wanted to be more quick and nimble when responding to clients, customers and vendors. The New York-based professional services firm turned to SAP HANA, SAP Business Objects and other SAP solutions to solve several problems:

• Multiple points of contact for customers scattered across many formats
• Financial processes that ran for way too long
• Tax complications resulting from traveling employees

A bespoke SAP HANA solution solved the first problem, delivering every point of contact within a few milliseconds. Financial processes that once took up to six hours now execute in real time. Deloitte once had to estimate taxes based on a subset of its traveling population, but today can compare T&E for the entire firm for two weeks in less than one minute.

“It’s become so much more than a standard database,” Deloitte IT Leader Chris Dinkel said at SAPPHIRE NOW’s Finance Keynote on Tuesday. “There are so many functionalities, and they all work.”

Follow Derek on Twitter: @DKlobucher

This post originally appeared on SAP Business Trends.

Thankfully, we have companies like Harley-Davidson to show us the way. While Harley-Davidson still clings to old school manufacturing values, they’ve also taken a hairpin turn into a modern age of processing efficiency that makes competitors eat their dust.

I’ve written about Harley-Davidson before, so I am familiar with their undying devotion to customer centricity. But here at SAP’s SAPPHIRE NOW event in Orlando, I’m hearing more about their amazing transformation story and I am nothing short of impressed by the company’s “all in” mentality to run like never before.

At the heart of this go-for-broke transformation strategy is the Global Manufacturing Enterprise Resource Planning (GME) initiative, which kicked off in October 2009. Ultimately, GME will help Harley-Davison inspire every customer, according to Dave Cotteleer, vice president and CIO of Harley-Davidson. “We want to deliver unique customer experiences to bring more people into the family,” he said during the SAP SAPPHIRE NOW Forum keynote session called “Improve Performance in Manufacturing, R&D and Sustainability.”

Here are other key facts that comprise GME:

• Multi-year strategic initiative led by Business Process Transformation Group
• Using SAP technology, GME delivered consistency to people, processes, data and systems across Harley-Davidson
• Standardized and simplified numerous business processes, changing the way they work
• Provided improved visibility and accuracy of data, better reporting and a clearer picture of the business

Dave Magee, General Manager for Harley-Davidson’s York manufacturing facility, shared impressive “before and after” GME results, some of which include the following:

Sounds like Harley-Davidson is on the right track. What do you think? Sound off in the comments section below.

Hitch a ride with me on Twitter @TClark01

This post originally appeared on SAP Business Trends.

ORLANDO —

The SAP for Sports & Entertainment solution portfolio is designed to add value and new experiences for everyone, from ardent concert fans to the most intense sports fanatics. Examples include:

• Professional sports franchises can enhance their talent selection process through innovative scouting solutions.
• Leagues can engage fan bases through enhanced statistical insights and fantasy initiatives. Fans can be immersed in the game-day experience and hold a two-way dialogue with their teams.
• Players and teams can maximize their on-field performance by drawing on big data capabilities.
• Media can gain more access to information that will enrich storytelling, while major events, venues and concert promoters can better streamline their logistical and revenue operations.

At SAPPHIRE NOW today, SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott was joined on stage by Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of Under Armour, Inc.; Adam Silver, incoming commissioner and former chief operating officer of the National Basketball Association; and Jed York, CEO of the San Francisco 49ers.

“The sports and entertainment industry understands what it takes to turn consumers into passionate fans of the brand,” said McDermott. “The world-class organizations represented on stage at SAPPHIRE NOW today – and many more across the world – are embracing the value that breakthrough technologies such as SAP HANA, the SAP Cloud portfolio and advanced CRM and ticketing can bring to the fan experience. We expect that our 25th and newest industry vertical will touch literally billions of people who love concerts, entertainment and sports, and help give them an unprecedented level of enjoyment and attachment.”

Kevin Plank of Under Armour has worked with SAP for more than a decade to research, develop, manufacture and distribute Under Armour products: “As a company that is built on speed and innovation, we are constantly working to improve the consumer experience and the platform that SAP delivers throughout our business helps to refine our process, allowing us to innovate with products such as the new Armour 39. That ability to help brands capture a multitude of real-time data and expedite communication is exactly how SAP can elevate the sports and entertainment industries and enable all of us to best utilize the most advanced technologies. We believe this is the true ‘game changer.’”

“The sports world mirrors the very dynamic shift in today’s global business environment,” said York, of the San Francisco 49ers. “As managers of teams and clubs, we need to make significant brand and strategy changes quickly while simultaneously minimizing risk. The use of analytics, combined with the ability to reach and hear from fans on their mobile devices in real time, can offer enormous benefits for everyone.”

“NBA fans’ passion for our game is amplified by deep game data and player statistics,” said Silver. “SAP has created the definitive tool on NBA.com for accessing our rich history and up-to-the-minute game results.”

Market estimates for the sports and entertainment industries are, to say the least, enormous. According to data from the U.S. Commerce Department, spending on these — including facilities management, agents for artists, athletes and entertainers, and professional sports teams and clubs — topped $68 billion annually in the United States for the last five years.

In addition to sports, SAP counts numerous entertainment organizations as customers, including Cirque du Soleil, Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) and Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment LLC This year, SAP acquired Ticket-Web GMBH & Co. KG, a provider of ticketing solutions and niche CRM tools for concerts and sports events.

Transforming the Sports and Entertainment Industry
SAP already boasts several sporting solutions and partnerships, including:

• SAP partnered with the NBA in July 2012 on a multiyear technology and marketing venture. Fans and the media were able to get interactive access to virtually unlimited amounts of official NBA statistics and analysis, including every official box score in NBA history. (Insert Link)
• In October 2012, the NFL and SAP announced a multiyear technology and marketing partnership, where the NFL will adopt on-demand technology from SAP for its proprietary NFL.com Fantasy Football offering. SAP also deployed custom analytics to develop an interactive dashboard for fans to participate in the NFL.com 2012 Fantasy Player of the Year Award.
• SAP joined EMC in October 2012 in signing on as Cornerstone Partners at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The N.Y. Jets and N.Y. Giants said they will use SAP and EMC technology to introduce a new level of fan interaction and activation throughout the entire building.
• SAP is a Founding Partner of the San Francisco 49ers’ new Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The team will use SAP’s expertise in big data analytics, mobile and real-time systems in all digital touch points, including 49ers.com, Twitter and Facebook to help create enhanced relationships with its loyal fan base.
• In March 2013, SAP announced the launch of the SAP Scouting solution, an enterprise offering that helps enable sports franchises to improve their ability to identify, assess and recruit the talent that can fuel their teams’ on-field success.

Leading the sports and entertainment industry globally is Steve Peck, senior vice president of Global Strategic Industries at SAP.

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

About the San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers, owned by Denise and John York, currently play in the NFC West division and have won five Super Bowl trophies including Super Bowl XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV and XXIX. The franchise also has six conference championships and 19 divisional championships and was the first major league professional sports team to be based in San Francisco over 60 years ago. Please visit www.49ers.com and follow the 49ers on Facebook and Twitter @49ers.

About the NBA.com
NBA.com, launched in 1995, is the official destination for the National Basketball Association and averages more than 42 million page views per day, more than half of which originate from outside of North America. Consistently ranked among the top sports Internet sites, NBA.com is a part of NBA Digital, the NBA’s extensive cross-platform of digital assets jointly managed by the NBA and Turner Sports. Along with NBA.com, the robust offering includes NBA TV, NBA.com, NBA LEAGUE PASS, NBA LEAGUE PASS Broadband, NBA Mobile, NBADLEAGUE.com and WNBA.com.

About Under Armour, Inc.
Under Armour (NYSE: UA) is a leading developer, marketer, and distributor of branded performance apparel, footwear, and accessories. The Company’s products are sold worldwide and worn by athletes at all levels, from youth to professional, on playing fields around the globe. The Under Armour global headquarters is in Baltimore, Maryland. For further information, please visit the Company’s website at www.ua.com.

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:
Andy Kendzie, +1 (202) 312-3919, andy.kendzie@sap.com, EDT

Jim Dever, +1 (610) 661-2161, james.dever@sap.com, EDT

Daniel Reinhardt, +49 6227 7-40201, daniel.reinhardt@sap.com, CET

SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EDT; press@sap.com

WALLDORF—

“Drawn-out IT implementations significantly hamper enterprises right out the gate so it is not surprising to see many CIOs factoring in time and complexity when choosing a technology supplier,” said Tobias Ortwein, senior vice president, project services and SAP services markets, Pierre Audoin Consultants. “SAP hits this sweet spot by providing a fully packaged deployment right out the box with room for customization.”

Through the simplified experience, enterprise customers can jumpstart their implementations with a fully-realized and tested, pre-assembled solution in days. A complete solution can be launched on premise or temporarily hosted in the cloud before go-live, accommodating customer requirements. SICK AG used the simplified rapid-deployment solution experience in its “SAP going global” initiative.

“A pre-assembled rapid-deployment solution gave us a very good head start for adopting the SAP solutions we needed,” said Carsten Trapp, CIO and member of the Management Board, SICK AG. “Based on our requirements, we were able to get our hands on a tried, tested and well-documented solution that will now help finalizing our implementation project. This rapid-deployment solution saved as quite some time right from the beginning.”

The simplified rapid-deployment solution experience from SAP involves four steps for implementing the latest IT innovations with enhanced speed, reduced risks and lower costs:

• Explore: Customers begin by using the SAP Solution Explorer site, www.sap.com/solutionexplorer, providing a full menu of solutions, capabilities and related rapid-deployment options.
• Select: Customers define their implementation by selecting individual components and the scope of work. Through a built-in solution configurator they can mix and match solutions, picking the functionality that best fit their business requirements. Each selection comes with a detailed outline of implementation requirements or customers can pick from a list of recommended packages.
• Deploy: Customers receive a fully assembled SAP rapid-deployment solution containing best practices for jumpstarting their implementation, all pre-installed, pre-configured and integrated. The addition of an enhanced version of ASAP methodology to the SAP Solution Manager application management solution provides a guided methodology that builds on the principles of a packaged implementation and connects the previous stages. Using SAP Solution Manager and the selected business scope customers can easily fine-tune their solution to accommodate for delta requirements and complete remaining implementation issues.
• Run: To close the loop, business scope information is reused to serve as the common foundation for business process monitoring or to help ensure efficient service delivery. The synthesis of content, tools and methodology consequently materializes in a visible difference at each stage across the lifecycle

“SAP now offers one of the fastest routes for deploying new innovations in enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management powered by the SAP HANA platform,” said Bernd Welz, senior vice president and global head, Solution & Knowledge Packaging, SAP. “Enterprise fears about the time, costs and uncertainty that go with implementing new technology are alleviated through an assembled-to-order IT stack that is proven and provides a solid foundation to jump-start the fine tuning, integration and data migration process.”

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

Media Contacts:
Martin Gwisdalla, SAP, +49 (6227) 7-67275, martin.gwisdalla@sap.com, CET
Anthony Suarez, Burson-Marsteller, +1 (212) 614-4331, anthony.suarez@bm.com, EDT

The expanded offering from SAP for A&D will also help original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) improve their aftermarket services. These services usually net higher profits than hardware, making them especially appealing to OEMs, according to Christopher MacLuckie, a solution manager with the A&D Business Unit of SAP Labs.

Players in this high-flying market must enhance their product lifecycle and asset management processes in order to stay competitive. And to keep the revenue soaring in, they must boost their win rates in the increasingly vicious business of bidding for contracts.

Aerial Combat
The battle to boost win rates can be as vicious as air-to-air dogfighting. Aerospace giant EADS won its bid to build the U.S. Air Force’s KC-45 aerial refueling tanker in 2008, which sparked a lengthy and contentious challenge by its contract rival Boeing. Boeing won the rematch in 2011, delaying EADS’ plans to build a manufacturing complex outside Mobile, Ala.

EADS subsidiary Airbus broke ground on its Brookley Aeroplex last month. Keeping the feud alive, Boeing publicized further development of a South Carolina facility the following day.

Air Superiority
“Competition in this space is fierce, so providing superior customer service can be a huge differentiator,” MacLuckie said in a statement. “By integrating the latest technology into their aftermarket service processes, OEMs gain real-time insights into customer information and equipment status, enabling them to respond faster and improve service levels.”

SAP’s expanded A&D solution portfolio will help OEMs push the envelope and win in the aftermarket by:

• Improving customer service: SAP 360 Customer powered by HANA offers the latest customer relationship management functionality combined with in-memory technology to make sense of Big Data.
• Increasing productivity: SAP technology in enterprise mobility and visualization can help increase operational efficiency by supporting process workers with real-time, contextual data that leverages the latest advances in 3-D visualization.
• Improving equipment utilization: SAP Predictive Analysis software combines predictive functions with the in-memory technology of SAP HANA, enabling OEMs to mine and analyze their maintenance data easily and quickly.

Now We’re Cooking with Jet Fuel
SAP’s A&D customers will demonstrate how they use these innovative technologies to boost their profitability in the aftermarket services business at SAPPHIRE NOW, May 14 to 16 in Orlando. They can create their own experience for the conference — and you can build your own agenda here.

Follow Derek on Twitter: @Dklobucher

Related Media:
“SAP for Aerospace & Defense” in SAP.com
“Airbus Breaks Ground in U.S. as Boeing Expands” in Aviation International News
“American Eurocopter: Meeting Government Regulations for Asset Management” in SAP.com

This post originally appeared on SAP Business Trends.

How Sustainable is your Supply Chain?
This tragedy again raises the question: How can we have better visibility into supply chains to improve consumer confidence moving forward? To this end, the International Trade Center is introducing  a standards map to bring all these apparel companies together, to see what standards everyone is using, and where they stand against their peers.

In a recent blog I wrote on the horsemeat scandal in Europe (see Horses for Main Courses) and the importance of protecting the supply chain through improved traceability.  The reality is that we as consumers are always looking for low cost at high quality, and in this environment manufacturers are always looking for ways to reduce the manufacturing and logistics costs. The question is, “at what cost” from a sustainable supply chain perspective?

Consumers are beginning to demand information on how and where the products we buy are made? And, what are the working conditions? Linkages to such tragedies are detrimental to revenue and brand perception.Transparency and traceability across the entire supply chain is a must in today’s connected environment — where any hint of scandal is visible to all consumers at the click of a button.

As a final note, the average pay for the nearly 4 million Bangladeshi garment workers is only $37 a month. This is less than the average price of a shirt in a local mall in the US!

You can follow me on twitter @howellsrichard

This post originally appeared on SAP Business Trends.

WALLDORF —

“Aftermarket services typically offer higher profit margins than the sale of capital equipment and therefore OEMs are increasingly looking for ways to tap into this potential,” said Christopher MacLuckie, solution manager, Aerospace and Defense Business Unit, SAP Labs. “However, the competition in this space is fierce, so providing superior customer service can be a huge differentiator. By integrating the latest technology into their aftermarket service processes, OEMs gain real-time insights into customer information and equipment status, enabling them to respond faster and improve service levels.”

SAP helps A&D OEMs win in the aftermarket by:

• Improving customer service: Using the SAP 360 Customer solution powered by SAP HANA, OEMs can take advantage of the latest customer relationship management functionality combined with in-memory technology to make sense of “big data.” They can solve customer issues faster and smarter, ultimately streamlining service operations. In addition, SAP partner HCL delivers iMRO, a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) solution endorsed by SAP and an add-on to the SAP Enterprise Asset Management (SAP EAM) solution. Complementing each other, iMRO and SAP EAM provide end-to-end support for the repair services business, from planning and engineering to work scoping and execution. Companies benefit through higher asset utilization and fewer un-forecasted flight schedule interruptions.
• Increasing productivity: SAP technology in enterprise mobility and visualization can help OEMs reach a new level of operational efficiency by supporting process workers with real-time, contextual data that leverages the latest advances in 3-D visualization. Customer service activities supported by 3-D visual aids can improve understanding and help ensure consistency. In maintenance operations, for example, giving 3-D animated work instructions to technicians allows them to perform repair procedures with speed and accuracy, helping reduce turnaround times and improve asset availability.
• Improving equipment utilization: SAP Predictive Analysis software combines predictive functions with the in-memory technology of SAP HANA, enabling OEMs to mine and analyze their maintenance data easily and quickly. This allows them to better anticipate potential equipment failures and drive more strategic planning of maintenance operations.

Customers will demonstrate how they are using innovative technologies from the SAP for A&D solution portfolio to boost their profitability in the aftermarket services business at SAPPHIRE NOW, being held May 14-16 in Orlando, Florida. HCL will be onsite at booth 351 with more information on iMRO.

To learn more, visit the SAP for Aerospace & Defense page on sap.com. For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews and @SAPAerospace.

Media Contact:
Kate McNeel, +1 (484) 624-2256, k.mcneel@sap.com, CDT

This past winter, I took the plunge by attending an eight-week social media course offered by the International Association of Business Communications (IABC). Here are the highs and lows based on my experience.

First the pros:

Location, location, location: I had an entire week to decide the best time to watch the videotaped lecture in my home office. Scheduling an uninterrupted couple of hours was a breeze, guaranteeing my full attention despite a busy workload.

Multi-modal content delivery: Each self-study session was a learning-friendly blend of instructor narration, embedded videos, and self-paced reading. I deliberately took the 10-question quiz immediately at the end of each lesson which helped keep me focused. Grade: 100% on 95% of the quizzes. (I still disagree with the answer on the one question I was told I got wrong.)

As for the cons:

Interactivity: Not so much. With over one hundred participants from around the world online for each session, classroom intimacy was shall we, different. It’s not that the facilitators didn’t do their best to encourage phone and online participation. There’s just no substitute for a group of people getting together weekly in the same room to explore new topics together.

Personalization:Facebook and Google Plus sites allowed attendees to pose questions or share observations which the instructors answered. Unfortunately, minus the nuances of non-verbal cues, digital communication is still more transactional than anything else. After submitting a couple of queries that were glibly answered but provided no real insights (Me: How can I increase the number of Twitter followers? Instructor: Be interesting), I gave up.

Usable content from Live Lectures: No doubt employing the concept of crowd sourcing, the instructors moderated what was essentially a free-for-all for every live lecture, inviting participants to share their thoughts and questions. Unfortunately, it didn’t hold my attention or encourage me to participate. Why not go multi-modal during live lectures too? In a recent study conducted by psychology researchers at Harvard University, student attendees in online video lectures that were tested during regular breaks scored highest on a final cumulative test, took more notes, and stayed more focused, reporting their minds strayed less often.

Overall, it was an excellent learning experience from which I’ve drawn two main conclusions. First, don’t try to boil the ocean. Focused “how-to” course content is likeliest to be learned and retained by employees with numerous other responsibilities. Second, offer live lectures with the optimal blend of structure and openness to keep a large group of virtual strangers engaged. My company, SAP, has just announced open registration for its MOOC offering, “Introduction to Software Development on HANA,” as part of its comprehensive training and education portfolio. Each combines the best practices of classroom learning—weekly homework, self-tests, a final exam—with online student collaboration and engagement, including easily digestible video and real-time discussions with classmates and instructors. Virtually speaking, this could be one of the next learning frontiers for software developers everywhere.

This post originally appeared on SAP Business Trends.