New SAP® Customer Services Network Features Enhanced Global Offerings to Help Businesses
Minimize Risk, Maximize Return on Investment and Contribute to Long-Term Value
Singapore — 2003 — SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the launch of the SAP® Customer Services Network, a new initiative offering easy and cohesive access to the comprehensive selection of SAP services. Created to improve the quality of services for SAP’s worldwide customer base, the SAP Customer Services Network will provide new and enhanced offerings, including services for increasing the quality in upgrades and risk management, global customer competence center programs, and benefit mapping. Additionally, as a key part of the initiative, SAP announced that it has completed the integration of all of its local and regional consulting units into a globally operated organization serving the entire spectrum of customers, to be known as SAP Consulting (formerly SAP Global Professional Services).
Drawing on the extensive expertise and global reach of SAP and its partners, SAP Customer Services Network helps customers strategically plan for, implement, operate, and continually improve solutions to maximize their return on investment, achieve lower total cost of ownership, and realize strategic business goals. SAP Customer Services Network offers coordinated access to a comprehensive scope of SAP services, including business mapping, consulting, custom development, education, hosting, ramp-up, and support to satisfy customer needs and ensure that they achieve the highest level of success.
“Businesses today are looking for more involvement from their software vendors and greater accountability for access to the right types of resources and expertise they require over the lifetime of their IT implementation,” said Yvonne Genovese, research VP, Gartner. “Solution providers that can offer well-coordinated support services covering the gamut of implementation needs earn themselves a space on the vendor short lists for customer projects of both today and tomorrow.”
SAP Customer Services Network
In addition to SAP Consulting, SAP Customer Services Network includes SAP Education, SAP Active Global Support, SAP Global Custom Development Services and SAP Hosting.
SAP Education is a global training network that helps customers get the best out of their organization, businesses and people when implementing mySAP™ Business Suite solutions. Through SAP Active Global Support, SAP helps customers manage technical risk, ensure technical robustness and exploit the full potential of any mySAP Business Suite solution. SAP Global Custom Development Services tailors solutions to meet a company’s special requirements, enabling them to maximize their technology investment, enhance their competitive advantage, and lower maintenance costs. SAP Hosting offers hosted solutions to help businesses lower risk and total cost of ownership, giving them the flexibility to scale their IT investments in line with their growth strategy.
SAP Customer Services Network customers in Asia Pacific include Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL, India), TVS Motor Company Limited (India), British American Tobacco (BAT, Malaysia), and Toyota Finance (New Zealand).
“SAP is a trusted innovator and advisor, helping enterprises around the world leverage leading technology and industry expertise to meet today’s business demands,” said Bob Armstrong, Senior Vice President, Consulting and Education, SAP Asia Pacific. “SAP Customer Services Network provides a long-term, one-stop engagement for companies in every phase of their solution lifecycle. By removing typical business and technology barriers, SAP Customer Services Network enables companies to reduce the total cost of ownership while driving business success.”
The SAP Customer Services Network includes members of SAP’s extensive global network of services partners. By more tightly aligning SAP’s service offerings with those of its partner organizations, the initiative provides customers with more convenient access to the full range of reliability, expertise, and support for SAP solutions.
“Increased involvement in the implementation and ongoing support of SAP software solutions by SAP and its partners help mitigate risk for customers and ensures they derive maximum value from their implementations,” said Miguel de Fontaney, Global SAP Alliance senior executive, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. “As part of the SAP Customer Services Network, CGEY now has a well-coordinated framework to continue offering businesses the expertise and business process knowledge to achieve their strategic business goals.”
Enhanced Service Offerings
The SAP Customer Services Network will offer enhanced services to meet specific customer needs. These include services for upgrades and risk management to help customers manage their solution life cycle and ensure successful upgrade paths. These services give customers the ability to upgrade more easily, without disruptions, to maintain their competitive edge and mitigate the risks associated with more complex real-time systems environments. SAP will also introduce a global customer competence center program designed to empower customers in developing the necessary in-house skills and resources to support their SAP environments. Under the program, SAP will work closely with customers to offer certification and recertification in a checklist of areas that includes support desk, contract administration, and information management.
To assist customers in identifying and understanding priorities, cost savings, and tangible business results, SAP Benefit Mapping provides effective methodologies to clearly demonstrate the business value of SAP solutions. The new service delivers expertise from SAP to ensure alignment of IT strategy with customer business needs, supporting more informed IT decision making. SAP Benefit Mapping will be available in Asia Pacific from the beginning of 2004.
SAP Consulting
A key part of the SAP Customer Services Network, SAP Consulting is the culmination of a year-long initiative to build a fully integrated, global consulting organization from units of the former SAP Global Professional Services Organization. As a globally integrated operating unit, SAP Consulting delivers significant benefits in consistency, quality, innovation, speed, and best practices to customers in all of SAP’s operating markets around the world. With the goal to improve customer satisfaction, the new organization leverages the expertise of nearly 10,000 SAP consultants and 180,000 partner consultants to offer global companies access to consistent best-in-class practices and standardized methodologies worldwide and regional companies the benefits of world-class best practices delivered locally.
“We are providing our customers with the expert and cohesive support resources they need to prepare for, execute, and maintain successful implementations,” said Bob Armstrong, Senior Vice President, Consulting and Education, SAP Asia Pacific. “The breadth of services and support offerings from SAP and its partners in the SAP Customer Services Network, together with the effectiveness of SAP’s software applications, provide customers with a total solution and set of tools that are unparalleled by other vendors.”
SAP Consulting provides SAP customers with seamlessly integrated business and solution consulting services to ensure the successful implementation of mySAP Business Suite solutions in all key industries in Asia Pacific. Among additional new offerings from SAP Consulting is the new unit to support the SAP NetWeaverTM technology platform, SAP’s industry-leading, open integration and application platform. The new SAP NetWeaver Global Practice Unit will focus on enhancing service offerings, building consultants skill sets, and overseeing the support of pilot customers.
