New functionality offers improved data security and support for distributed networks; SAP begins second phase of AS/400 platform rollout; SAP enhances R/3; Broadens R/3 capabilities and platform support

Business Wire, March 14, 1996

HANOVER, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 14, 1996--At the 1996 CeBIT Computer Fair in Hanover, Germany, SAP AG announced today it has added a number of enhancements and new capabilities to its R/3(TM) suite of client/server business applications.

The new R/3 features announced offer substantially greater flexibility, openness and enterprise integration to meet customers' rapidly changing business needs and processes.

Specifically for R/3, SAP is announcing a new security interface that allows customers to link a wide variety of third-party security products and mechanisms to R/3, a full-featured version of R/3 release 3.0 for laptop computers, and expansion of its phased rollout of the R/3 application suite on the IBM(R) AS/400(R) Advanced Series of business computers.

"The new functionality and integration capabilities we're announcing today add significantly to R/3's robustness and ability to meet customers' changing business needs and enterprise systems," said Paul Wahl, CEO of SAP America. "We are continuing to invest heavily to provide both R/2 and R/3 customers with the capabilities they need to maintain our platforms as their long-term enterprisewide solution."

New Interface Bolsters R/3 Security

For R/3 customers needing a highly secure application environment, SAP will provide an open interface that allows customers to link R/3 to security products from a variety of third-party vendors. The interface -- an implementation of the standard Generic Security Services API (GSS API) developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) -- allows customers to select and integrate security products that match their particular business needs.

Specifically, this SAP and GSS API security interface will allow customers to control user access to individual applications and deploy a variety of data-encryption mechanisms. SAP plans to support all common enterprise information-security products and initially expects to support the Kerberos and SecuDE security protocols. SAP expects the SAP and GSS-API interface for R/3 release 3.0 to be available during the fourth quarter of 1996.

R/3 Optimized for Laptop Computers

To assist SAP consultants and sales staff in presenting R/3 and its functionality to customers, SAP will offer a full-featured version of R/3 release 3.0 optimized for laptop computers. The R/3 International Demonstration and Education System (IDES) suite includes new tools that allow consultants to configure and change its settings quickly to meet specific demands.

In addition, the R/3 IDES client is self-contained on an Intel(R)-based laptop computer and operates effectively without requiring connection to a central server via telephone or network. SAP will install R/3 release 3.0 on Compaq(R) LTE(R) 5200 laptops, which feature more than 1.35 GB of hard disk storage and 64 MB of RAM. The R/3 IDES client will run on the Microsoft(R) Windows NT(R) version 3.51 operating system and either the Oracle7 release 7.2 or Microsoft SQL Server(TM) version 6.0 relational database-management systems.

SAP Commences Second Phase of R/3

After rollout capping a successful pilot phase in which R/3 was installed on IBM AS/400 business systems at five pilot sites, SAP and IBM began delivering R/3 to an additional 45 AS/400 customers around the world. The companies implementing R/3 on AS/400 Advanced Series systems in this second, controlled availability phase include a number of small to medium-sized firms.

Starting this month, SAP System Resellers, SAP's partners for medium-sized companies, will also begin including some of their customers in the second rollout phase.

The R/3 applications deployed on the AS/400s at the pilot sites represent a diverse variety of industries, countries and application sizes, ranging from a $7-billion manufacturer to a city zoo with 15 concurrent users.

SAP and IBM received highly positive feedback from the pilot customers, particularly with respect to the power, ease of use and low overhead of R/3 on the AS/400 systems. The five pilot sites were Stanley Works (United States), Wella AG (Germany), Nylstar (Italy), Bayer AG (Germany), and the Taronga Zoo (Australia), which has already moved from pilot phase to live production.

SAP Offers New Functionality for R/2 Customers

For SAP R/2 release 6.0 customers who process large transaction volumes, SAP AG is offering several new functions for R/2's BASIS component. These new features, which include support for parallel multiple update programs and around-the-clock system operation, significantly improve transaction throughput by allowing R/2 to perform more operations simultaneously and by maximizing the system's availability for transaction-processing operations.

For R/2 release 5.0 customers wishing to migrate to the R/3 system, SAP will offer a new migration package free of charge. This package is based on R/2 5.0 applications and includes programs for exporting, transporting and importing data and data structures from R/2 to R/3 environments, greatly simplifying time, labor and costs associated with this application platform change.