SAP Delivers on Customer Relationship Management Vision; New Release of mySAP CRM Expands Collaboration and Analytical Capabilities

Business Wire, April 23, 2001

Business Editors/Technology Writers

LISBON, Portugal--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 23, 2001

Today at its international e-business conference, SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) delivered the new release of mySAP(TM) Customer Relationship Management (mySAP CRM).

The comprehensive mySAP CRM suite offers companies the ability to better serve their customers, while further improving their own business processes to extend value throughout the organization.

mySAP CRM is the only solution that allows companies to manage, synchronize and coordinate the activities of sales, marketing and customer services on a collaborative e-business platform for all types of business partners. It can also work seamlessly in both SAP and non-SAP environments.

"The new release of mySAP CRM continues to deliver on the SAP vision, enabling CRM to be the cornerstone of every e-business strategy," said Carol Burch, senior vice president, Global CRM, SAP AG. "mySAP CRM provides businesses with the advantages that will enable them to improve their bottom line and develop, retain and enhance profitable customer relationships."

mySAP CRM Offers Competitive Advantage

By utilizing innovative CRM workplaces, based on the recently announced SAP Portals, Inc., businesses can now have easy access to a complete view of their customers' behavior. With the ability to mine customer data, mySAP CRM provides an unmatched 360-degree view of the customer including data from both internal systems as well as external market and survey information. The portal-based mySAP CRM solution offers additional business scenarios and new role-based workplaces specifically designed to enable service and marketing personnel to view and manage the business-critical information they need to better serve their customers and achieve their business goals.

mySAP CRM also offers expanded communication channels to improve customer service. By leveraging Web chat, e-mail and call-me-back features combined with universal routing, companies are better able to service their customers' needs while reducing cost of service. By year's end, SAP will ship expanded interaction center functionality.

In addition, the analytical capabilities of mySAP CRM enable businesses to fully integrate all knowledge about their customers into their customer information hub, allowing all employees to manage interactions and processes with their customers more effectively. The efficiency of customer interaction, and therefore the quality of overall customer satisfaction, is improved through the consistent use of metrics. For example, mySAP CRM analytics allows a chief customer officer to segment customers by key figures, such as customer profitability or the strength of the customer relationship, in order to better determine go-to-market strategies, as well as make better marketing, sales and service decisions.

"Without proper integration throughout an entire e-business suite, companies can end up with fragmented customer data, duplicated sales efforts and uncoordinated campaigns, all of which contribute to increased customer dissatisfaction, decreased retention, lost time-to-market and potentially lower customer acquisition rates," said Ruediger Spies, director of consulting and principal at META Group.

mySAP CRM Delivers Greater Flexibility and Improved Business Processes

SAP is also including a flexible application framework for a wide array of mobile and handheld devices providing access to mobile scenarios, whether online or offline, for CRM and other business functionality. Offline capabilities will enable a more efficient work force, providing streamlined activities that will save time in business processes. For example, a field service force will have the ability to access technical and customer data to read and update information, both online and offline, from handheld devices.

Sydkraft AB, the leading utility provider of Sweden, is implementing mySAP Mobile business scenarios for its field service organization as part of the company's efforts to increase efficiencies and better serve its customers.

"We are expecting a fast ROI from the benefits that mySAP CRM will enable us to achieve, with integration between all our business applications and a heightened ability to meet customer needs while improving our business processes," said Sofia Goransson, project manager, Sydkraft AB. "SAP has shown remarkable responsiveness to our specific requirements and is helping us achieve our business goals."

About SAP

SAP is the world's leading provider of e-business software solutions. Through the mySAP.com(R) e-business platform, people in businesses around the globe are improving relationships with customers and partners, streamlining operations, and achieving significant efficiencies throughout their supply chains. Today, more than 13,000 companies in over 100 countries run more than 30,000 installations of SAP(R) software. With subsidiaries in over 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol "SAP." (Additional information at http://www.sap.com)