SAP Helps Customers Comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Public Companies Including E.ON and THQ, Inc. Use Financial Reporting and Compliance Management from SAP's ERP Suite to Help Meet Section 404 Deadlines
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - November 09, 2004 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that SAP® software is helping companies meet Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 financial reporting deadlines. Globally operating energy-service provider E.ON and California-based video game maker THQ, Inc. are among international companies using SAP's financial reporting and compliance management applications to help them comply with the latest Sarbanes-Oxley Act mandate, which compels certain public companies to meet Section 404 requirements by November 15, 2004. The announcement was made at the Association of Financial Professionals (AFP) Conference, being held in San Diego, California, November 7 "“ 9.
SAP® software for managing compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act works with the data analysis, reporting, financial consolidation and risk management capabilities in mySAPā„¢ ERP to provide a complete, integrated solution for ongoing Sarbanes-Oxley-compliant accounting, reporting and compliance process management. SAP customers are using these key components of mySAP ERP to help them manage internal controls in order to facilitate their compliance with Section 404, a major provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, requiring that management report annually on the effectiveness of internal controls for financial reporting and that external auditors confirm management's assessment.
"In today's business environment, customers have to justify every IT dollar they spend, and they are investing in areas of strategic importance such as corporate compliance,"¯ said Jim Hagemann Snabe, chief operating officer, Financial & Public Services, SAP AG. "SAP has the most complete, integrated corporate governance solution on the market today, and regulatory compliance is one of the reasons why our ERP suite is our strongest selling software."¯
E.ON
"With more than 100 organizational units and more than 1000 users involved in the assessments of internal controls in our Section 404 project, we rely on the stability and scalability of SAP software to meet our reporting deadlines,"¯ said Michael Hoefer, head of IT-Audit 2, E.ON Audit Services, responsible manager for the SAP implementation at E.ON, the world's largest investor-owned energy service provider.
THQ, Inc.
"We have found SAP's solution for management of internal controls to be a useful system that provides a logical structure for organizing our Sarbanes-Oxley documentation,"¯ said Al Hunt, director of Internal Audit at THQ, Inc, a leading global developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software. "The most important benefit for us has been that control and process assessments and testing and sign-off activities are scheduled and workflow tasks are automatically sent to each responsible person."¯
SAP's Offerings for Managing Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance
SAP software for managing compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is part of mySAP ERP and also can be implemented as an add-on to SAP R/3®. The software provides an integrated set of tools and technology that help organizations improve their internal control testing projects for ongoing compliance with the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act as well as an expanding array of regulations and standards such as France's Loi de SĆ©curitĆ© FinanciĆØre LSF, or the Netherland's Tabaksblat.
The SAP software's key components are designed to improve and streamline the auditing process, internal controls management and "whistle blowing"¯ procedures. The software's audit information system provides easy access to key reporting controls, such as segregation of duties to reduce employee error and fraud and reconciliation of discrepancies between sub-ledgers and general ledgers. The results of these reporting controls can be documented in the management of internal controls application, which leverages the workflow capabilities of the SAP NetWeaverā„¢ platform to support a proven, internal-controls review and problem-resolution process, significantly reducing administrative costs related to compliance. "Whistle blowing"¯ functionality enables employees to anonymously report accounting irregularities, a Sarbanes-Oxley Section 301 requirement.
About SAP
SAP is the world's leading provider of business software solutions*. Today, more than 24,450 customers in over 120 countries run more than 84,000 installations of SAP® software"”from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize businesses to enterprise-scale suite solutions for global organizations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaverā„¢ platform to drive innovation and enable business change, mySAPā„¢ Business Suite solutions are helping enterprises around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. SAP industry solutions support the unique business processes of more than 25 industry segments, including high tech, retail, public sector and financial services. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol "SAP."¯ (Additional information at )
(*) SAP defines business software solutions as consisting of enterprise resource planning and related software solutions such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, product lifecycle management and supplier relationship management.
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate,"¯ "believe,"¯ "estimate,"¯ "expect,"¯ "forecast,"¯ "intend,"¯ "may,"¯ "plan,"¯ "project,"¯ "predict,"¯ "should"¯ and "will"¯ and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2003 filed with the SEC on March 23, 2004. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates
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