SAP TechEd '06 Opens Doors to More Innovation

by SAP AG

Rapidly-Growing Ecosystem Underscores Interest in SAP's Open, Standards-Based Platform and Enterprise Service-Oriented Architecture

SAP Empowers Its Ecosystem to Turn Enterprise SOA Innovations Into Superior Customer Value

SAP AG today announced that the European SAP(R) TechEd '06 conference opens its doors on October 18 in Amsterdam. Software developers, business process experts, consultants, IT managers and SAP partners from throughout the SAP ecosystem will join this unique forum to deepen their knowledge and build relationships. The event theme, "Empowering an Ecosystem of Innovation," reiterates SAP's commitment to execute on its enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) road map and to foster co-innovation across its customer base, partner organizations and SAP itself. Numerous events are designed to empower the more than 4,000 participants expected in Amsterdam.

In-depth lectures and hands-on workshops cover a wide range of technical and business topics. A major focus of the 250 educational sessions is on enterprise SOA and SAP NetWeaver(R), the open, standards-based platform for modeling, developing and implementing state-of-the-art business processes. Further topics include analytics, custom Java EE 5 development and mySAP(TM) ERP 2005 as the "go-to" release for SAP(R) R/3(R) customers.

SAP TechEd '06 Amsterdam also features a keynote presentation by Shai Agassi, president of the Product and Technology Group and member of the SAP Executive Board, on SAP's product strategy and how the company continues to focus on furthering innovation and simplifying solution consumption.

"Enterprise SOA opens the door to business innovation, and SAP has invited industry experts, customers and partners from around the world to bring their experience, agility and solutions to the table," said Agassi. "SAP TechEd fuels this process of mutual exchange, collaboration and education that is so essential for an ecosystem and for accelerating the innovation it brings to the industry."

In addition to the official SAP TechEd '06 agenda, further activities in Amsterdam are designed to empower the thousands of SAP developers, consultants, partners, enterprise architects and business process experts in attendance:

• Usability Test Center At the Usability Test Center, attendees can work directly with SAP product designers to further refine new and existing products.
• Enterprise Services (ES) Partner Summit SAP hosts a targeted one-day partner event on October 17 to continue to add partners to its vibrant ecosystem, and to enable them and existing partners to achieve greater levels of success with SAP. More than 17 different sessions focus on helping systems integrators (SIs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) build and accelerate their sales and development efforts. Session content ranges from SAP's strategy, industry approach and product road map; to enablement and go-to-market programs; to ways for customers and partners to fund, technically deploy and benefit from enterprise SOA.
• SAP Enterprise Architects Customer Council Meeting Also on October 17, a targeted meeting focuses on multiple topics relating to the role of the "enterprise architect," as well as highlighting the American SAP Users' Group's (ASUG) Enterprise Architecture special interest group (SIG).
• SAP Developer Network Day The SAP Developer Network (SDN) Day combines last year's successful "SDN Meets Labs" events with the SDN Clubhouse, blending the SDN virtual online community (at http://sdn.sap.com/ ) with live and in-person events to create a real-world SDN experience for conference delegates. SDN Day attendees will participate in networking, technical education, and hands-on demo sessions directed at developers and other technologists on October 17, the day before the SAP TechEd main program begins.

  SAP(R) TechEd '06 in Las Vegas, Tokyo, Amsterdam and Bangalore

  A total of more than 15,000 SAP customers, partners and technical community are convening at SAP(R) TechEd events in 2006. Their objective is to learn how to transform existing business processes and IT landscapes into an enterprise SOA blueprint. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, SAP's largest technical product education event of the year offers more than 900 hours of lecture-driven and hands-on sessions at each location. Following successful events in Las Vegas, Nevada, Sept. 12 - 15, and Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 5 - 6, SAP TechEd is being held in Amsterdam, Oct. 18 - 20 and Bangalore, India, Nov. 8 - 10, 2006. For more information on SAP TechEd '06 Amsterdam, please visit http://www.sapteched.com/emea/ or the global SAP TechEd Web site www.sapteched.com .