Leading Companies Improve Product Innovation with SAP
Kimberly-Clark Corporation and Kaeser Kompressoren Enhance Ability to Introduce Innovative New Products
WALLDORF, Germany - November 03, 2004 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that major SAP customers"”including Kimberly-Clark Corporation, global manufacturer of health and hygiene products, and Kaeser Kompressoren, one of the world's largest suppliers of air systems"”will drive product innovation and help bring new products to market more quickly by implementing SAP's framework for new product development and introduction (NPDI). SAP's NPDI framework draws key functionalities from SAP's enterprise resource planning and business suite solutions as well as its new breed of composite applications.
According to a March 2004 Deloitte Research study titled "Mastering Innovation,"¯ manufacturers now rank new products as their primary source of revenue growth. However, studies show that more than 75 percent of new consumer goods product launches fail and less than one-third of manufacturers believe that their NPDI process is under control. Recognizing this business need, SAP has drawn together best-practice functionalities to help companies introduce their products more efficiently and at lower cost.
SAP's NPDI framework improves the management and execution of the entire NPDI process, from opportunity to market launch. The framework comprises five basic capabilities: product innovation management, project management, product development, production and distribution ramp-up as well as marketing capabilities. Product innovation management capabilities help companies more readily identify market opportunities, generate ideas and concepts, and select the most promising projects to pursue. Project management capabilities help keep NPDI projects on schedule and make optimal use of valuable human and financial resources. Product development capabilities simplify the process of transforming concepts into fully defined products. Production and distribution ramp-up capabilities help ensure that new products are optimally introduced into the supply chain and manufacturing processes while marketing capabilities help ensure that these are synchronized with the market launch.
Together with SAP, Kaeser Kompressoren is establishing an innovation process that will support the successful design and global marketability of its products, services and complete systems for the generation, treatment and delivery of compressed air.
"A critical aspect of our product development processes is efficiently managing the flow of ideas from our operations across multiple countries and turning these into reality,"¯ said Falko Lameter, chief information officer, Kaeser Kompressoren. "At the same time, we're facing increasingly shorter product life cycles and more specific local needs, demanding the highest level of speed, effectiveness and market insight across this global innovation process. With SAP, we've gained a platform that builds on our existing IT investment and delivers powerful new capabilities to more cost-effectively develop and market the products and services that are in the highest demand by our customers around the world."¯
Recently identified as a leading innovator in a report* published in Business Week magazine, global manufacturer of health and hygiene products Kimberly-Clark places its focus on product innovation.
"Cost leadership does not sustain competitive advantage"”continuous innovation does,"¯ said Cheryl A. Perkins, senior vice president and chief technical officer, Kimberly-Clark. "In response to shortening product lifecycles, Kimberly-Clark is collaborating with SAP to introduce improved capabilities for idea and portfolio management which will increase speed-to-market for strategically important new products."¯
SAP's framework leverages functionality from mySAPā„¢ ERP and other mySAPā„¢ Business Suite solutions as well as SAP xAppsā„¢ packaged composite applications, all powered by the SAP NetWeaverā„¢ platform.
SAP xAppā„¢ Product Definition (SAP xPD) and SAP xAppā„¢ Resource and Portfolio Management (SAP xRPM) will allow companies to identify opportunities and generate ideas and concepts while managing their development portfolio within the context of business strategy and resource constraints.
Business intelligence capabilities support NPDI, enabling management to gain visibility into key operational and cost metrics. SAP's NPDI framework also leverages role-based portals.
"Business pressure to improve product innovation is pushing investment in higher order applications,"¯ cites an AMR Research Alert by Kevin O'Marah on September 28, 2004. "Those vendors that have taken the time to build enough domain expertise and process understanding "¦ will be the winners."¯ O'Marah notes that SAP is "ahead of the game,"¯ and SAP's support for the NPDI process "incorporates extensive customer input and builds on the ERP backbone."¯
"On the one hand it has become increasingly important for companies to be able to quickly turn innovation into viable products, but it is of at least equal importance that they be able to efficiently launch new products into a global market,"¯ said Claus Heinrich, member of the executive board, SAP AG. "mySAP Business Suite solutions and SAP xApps powered by SAP NetWeaver enable companies to run an end-to-end NPDI process to achieve a significant impact to a company's business by driving time-to-value, time-to-market and time-to-volume."¯
* "The Search for Tomorrow,"¯ Business Week, October 11, 2004
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.
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