SAP Recognized as Thought Leader

by Angelika Pfahler

SAP Wins Two HR Outsourcing Association Awards for 'Technology Provider of the Year 2007' and 'Person of the Year 2007'

The Human Resources Outsourcing Association (HROA), a leading association focused on promoting advancements in human resources transformation, has recognized SAP AG for its thought leadership in the global arena of business process outsourcing (BPO). Nominated for three of fourteen award categories, SAP was awarded top honors for "Technology Provider of the Year" and "Person of the Year." SAP Business Process Outsourcing enables BPO providers to deliver industry-leading services based on SAP's best-in-class solutions, which, deployed in a cost-effective and standard way, enable companies to gain sustainable benefit by reducing costs, lowering risks and improving process quality when outsourcing human resources, procurement or other non-core business processes.

SAP was honored as "Technology Provider of the Year" for driving standardization of technologies for outsourced human capital management (HCM) solutions, empowering BPO service providers and enabling end-customers to achieve new levels of return on investment from human resource outsourcing at lower risk. The "Technology Provider of the Year" award was presented by the association for the first time in recognition of the growing importance of technology decisions in HR BPO.

As "Person of the Year" in HRO, the association acknowledged Christian Baader, vice president, Business Process Outsourcing, SAP AG, for his role in promoting the sustainability and reliability of HRO solutions. In the face of growing questions about profitability amongst service providers, Baader has spearheaded SAP's efforts to demonstrate that, with the proper deployment of technology, companies can improve service, decrease costs and make money -- which helps the viability of the entire HR BPO industry.

"The ongoing constructive discussions with our partners and industry observers have been pivotal in shaping SAP's thinking about the role of technology as HRO decision making is coming of age," said Christian Baader. "It is really thanks to them that we have been able to effectively and successfully fulfill our role as enablers, to the benefit of our joint customers."

The HROA is committed to promoting advancements in human resources transformation, for instance by education and promotion of best practices to the HRO industry. Nominations and voting for these prestigious industry awards were conducted by members of the HROA, including HRO clients, leading HRO providers, and advisors as well as academic institutions. SAP Business Process Outsourcing already received the "Special Award" of the HROA Europe in 2006.