SAP Introduces Enhancements to mySAP Supply Chain Management That Ensure Greater Visibility Across the Supply Chain Network

Business Wire, June 5, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAPPHIRE '02

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 5, 2002

Portal-Based Solution Delivers Total Supply Chain

Visibility That Ensures Easy and Complete Access

to Information Across Industry Processes

SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) today announced that it has further enhanced the industry-leading mySAP(TM) Supply Chain Management (mySAP SCM) by providing customers with the first and only solution that delivers total supply chain visibility. The latest enhancements to the visibility solution of mySAP SCM leverage the supply chain portal infrastructure, event management, performance management, partner content network, and hosting capabilities. This allows enterprises across the supply chain network to better adapt to changes through a consolidated view of inventory, events, plans, schedules, and performance indicators. The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE(R) '02, SAP's international e-business conference being held in Orlando, Fla., June 5-7.

"Supply chain inventory visibility systems enable enterprises not only to track and trace inventory globally on a line-item level, but also to receive alerts and proactively analyze options when events deviate from plans," said Karen Peterson, vice president and research director at Gartner, Inc. "Information visibility across the supply chain is enabled through the use of open communication architectures that integrate multiple applications and data sources."

The enhanced visibility of mySAP SCM utilizes the portal capability of the mySAP(TM) Technology platform to deliver two key benefits to customers: easier access to relevant information and quicker return on investment (ROI). (See related release, "SAP Ships Open Web Services Business Platform.") By leveraging a portal-based infrastructure, partners, suppliers, and customers can view meaningful supply chain information quickly and easily via a Web browser, leading to a more rapid ROI. Role-based access to the visibility portal provides users with a view of information that is relevant to them and their tasks, while, at the same time, providing a solution that makes it easier to integrate data sources and systems nearly seamlessly.

"As we adapt to a changing environment, we are moving to an information-based business. mySAP SCM provides the technology platform to deliver open visibility to our customers, our partners, and all of our operations. SAP allows us to expand our solutions as we continue to adapt to changing market conditions," said Cal Hart, vice president of Business Transformation at Canada Post. "We are also impressed by the flexibility of SAP's solution and the speed in which this solution was connected to our Web offerings, into our legacy environment, and to our mobile solution."

Through the world-class event management and supply chain analytics of mySAP SCM, the system alerts network participants to exceptions that impact cross-company processes and schedules. At the same time, the system measures how well the network performs against key business objectives and industry standards such as the SCOR model. This allows companies to track and analyze exceptions, monitor key performances, identify trends, and build what-if scenarios that help determine the costs and profitability of decisions. In doing so, they can identify root causes of real problems as early as possible and proactively correct them.

As part of this announcement, SAP also unveiled visibility scenarios from mySAP SCM. Given the lack of standards or an established data structure in logistics, SAP has developed visibility scenarios to provide industry-specific formats to capture and manage data across customers' business logistics networks, enabling faster deployment and time to market.

To further enhance the level of visibility enterprises are able to attain, SAP has also announced that mySAP SCM is now linked into existing content partner networks through an open interface. In doing so, SAP can speed implementations by leveraging linkages into existing content networks for major logistics service providers, such as the one established and maintained by Celarix, Inc. Celarix, a transportation content service provider, works with SAP to provide data aggregation and normalization and data quality management capabilities. The Celarix service is carrier-neutral and delivers complete, accurate, and timely information globally, across all transportation modes. With the Celarix service, mySAP SCM customers will accelerate time-to-benefit with access to high quality supply chain information. As these linkages are further developed, SAP customers will be able to gain increasingly quick and easy access to key partners.

"Today with supply chain schedules so tightly synchronized, it is common for a late delivery to shut down a production line," said Albrecht Diener, senior vice president of development for Supply Chain Management at SAP. "Manufacturers need to understand how unintended events impact plans and schedules. They also need to see across multiple supply sources for contingency planning. Therefore, effective visibility solutions must incorporate performance management capabilities to identify the root causes of supply chain breakdowns and recommend where to make corrections."