Hitachi High-Technologies Accelerates Global Trade Processes with SAP® Solutions

TOKYO, Japan - December 17, 2003 - Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation and SAP Japan Co., Ltd., a division of SAP AG (NYSE: SAP), today announced that Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation has deployed SAP® Global Trade Management (SAP GTM) to streamline processing of its international business transactions. Using SAP GTM to achieve faster, unified processing of the expenses settlements and sale and purchase agreements unique to the global trading industry, Hitachi High-Technologies expects a return on investment (ROI) of approximately one billion yen (US$ 9.2 million) within three years. A top global player in semiconductor process manufacturing, inspection and evaluation systems, Hitachi High-Technologies brought the SAP system into full operation in April, becoming the world's first company to adopt SAP GTM on an SAP® R/3® Enterprise platform.

SAP developed SAP GTM to help trading companies and other globally operating enterprises to handle their clients' international trade needs flexibly and speedily while complying with recent dramatic changes in the demands of the global trade market. The solution enables Hitachi High-Technologies to integrate the management of its supply chain from supplier to customer based on the prerequisites of large Japanese trading companies and centered around the sale transaction process"”a representative business model for trading companies.

A key feature of SAP GTM is its ability to deliver the trade-related information that is essential in making important business decisions in a format that is easier to manage. For example, SAP GTM provides new functions that enable the state of progress of procurement and sale of goods and the payment status of various costs to be processed, referenced, and updated using the same interface, and enable the process of each trade agreement to be managed. SAP GTM enables Hitachi High-Technologies to unify the processing of sale and purchase agreements unique to trading companies, and to process expenses settlements more efficiently.

Prior to installing SAP GTM, Hitachi High-Technologies rolled out SAP Business Intelligence (SAP BI), an SAP NetWeaverTM technology solution, as well as SAP R/3 components"”including sales and distribution, materials management, financial accounting and controlling"”at its head office and all its sales centers in Japan. The integrated SAP applications allow the entire trade process from agreement to settlement to be managed in a unified fashion, enabling real-time performance assessment, which is expected to lead to substantial improvements in business speed. The integration of SAP GTM to SAP BI will help the company better identify, integrate and analyze relevant business management information and harmonize data analysis from global and local viewpoints, enabling actionable insight to support collaborative decision-making. The company plans rollouts of SAP GTM to other companies in its group to further accelerate and consolidate its global trade processes.

The go-live with the latest SAP R/3 upgrade, SAP R/3 Enterprise, at Hitachi High-Technologies' Japanese subsidiary in April this year completes the company's global system construction. SAP solutions now form the ERP backbone across all operations"”including manufacturing, sales and service"”of the company's main centers worldwide. With the ERP backbone from SAP, the company gains streamlined paperless processes to effectively manage the broad range of unique business processes essential to trading companies, such as current profit and loss calculations and detailed expenses at the time of signing.

The speedy installation of the SAP system at Hitachi High-Technologies was achieved through the collaborative effort of Hitachi Ltd., Nissei Software, Inc., Hitachi Information Systems, Ltd., Marubeni Information Systems Co., Ltd. and SAP Japan. In addition, by utilizing the automatic document creation tool, RWD Info Pak ® for Asia, the time required to produce operation manuals was shortened, enabling system operation to start at an early stage.

SAP Global Trade Management
SAP Global Trade Management was developed as a solution for integrated management of the supply chain from supplier to customer, based on the prerequisites of large Japanese trading companies, and centered round the sale transaction process, a representative business model for trading companies. The solution integrates financial supply chain management capabilities for hedging financial risks and the SAP® Global Trade Services (SAP GTS) solution for customs processing and to ensure that legal regulations are observed. In recent years, SAP GTM has been introduced in restricted markets on a project basis. Now, however, in conjunction with the general launch of the Extension Set 1.10 for SAP R/3 Enterprise, global introduction of SAP GTM has begun. Although SAP GTM has been released as an industry solution for mySAP ERP, SAP Japan plans to develop it as a cross-industry solution that can also be used by enterprises that are not trading companies but have similar business models.

About Hitachi High-Technologies
Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation is a value-creating company that integrates design and manufacturing capabilities that make effective use of leading-edge technologies such as nano-tech, and trading-company capabilities that provide advanced global solution services. Through the far-reaching provision of products and systems in high-tech fields such as electronic device systems, life sciences, IT electronics, and advanced industrial materials, in Japan and overseas, Hitachi High-Technologies contributes both to people and to society.

About SAP Japan
SAP Japan, established in 1992, is the Japanese subsidiary of SAP AG, the world's leading provider of business software solutions. SAP® solutions are already used by more than 1,100 corporate groups in Japan alone, making far-reaching contributions to the IT progress, international competitiveness, and corporate value of Japanese businesses. (Additional information about SAP Japan is available at )

About SAP
SAP is the world's leading provider of business software solutions. Through mySAPâ„¢ Business Suite, people in businesses around the globe are improving relationships with customers and partners, streamlining operations, and achieving significant efficiencies throughout their supply chains. The unique core processes of various industries, from Aerospace to Utilities, are supported effectively by SAP's 23 industry solution portfolios. Today, more than 20,500 customers in over 120 countries run more than 67,500 installations of SAP® 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 )

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For customers interested in learning more about the products:
Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, +81-3-3504-7111, hht@nst.hitachi-hitec.com, http://www.hitachi-hitec.com
SAP Japan Co., Ltd., +81-3-3273-3233, webmaster.tyo@sap.com, http://www.sap.co.jp
SAP Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
United States Only: 1 (800) 872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727)

For more information, press only:
Toshiyuki Matsuo, Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, +81-3-3504-5174, matsuo-toshiyuki@nst.hitachi-hitec.com, JST
Mutsuko Miura, SAP Japan Co. Ltd, +81-3-3273-3102, mutsuko.miura@sap.com, JST