SAP Customers Execute Business Strategy with Solution for Portfolio Management

SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced global availability of the latest version of SAP® xApp™ Resource and Portfolio Management (SAP xRPM), a composite application that helps companies align projects and services with corporate objectives for increased business agility. Working across a company’s existing IT environment, the application provides a consolidated view into enterprise-wide business portfolios and delivers new capabilities that help organizations better prioritize allocation of resources—including people, equipment and budgets—in support of key business initiatives. More than 170 customers globally—among them Thomson, a world leader in digital video technologies—are leveraging SAP xRPM to drive efficiencies in strategic and operational portfolio management across their organizations.

SAP xRPM allows companies to automatically achieve greater transparency into projects and operations across the enterprise and to identify and assign the right talent, equipment and financial backing to initiatives that best support business goals. Leveraging this composite application, companies can evaluate scenarios and conduct project comparisons to identify the most optimal use of resources. SAP xRPM also enables cross-functional business processes and supports greater insight into operations management.

“Enterprise resources are very costly to allocate passively or ‘on the fly,’” said Matt Light, Research Director, Gartner. “Utilizing automated tools, integrated with an enterprise systems framework, can significantly improve a company’s ability to maximize the value of the portfolio by providing visibility, alignment with business priorities and optimized allocation of enterprise investments.”

Rapid Customer Adoption of SAP xRPM
Among the more than 170 customers worldwide that have deployed SAP xRPM is Thomson. Headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, Thomson deployed SAP xRPM to allow for greater visibility into its overall portfolio of projects across different divisions and to enable more efficient exchange of business information between division employees.

“For the first time, we have a budget on a per project basis,” said Bernard Waltsburger, director, Technology Division, Thomson. “In the past, research topics would be listed with no resources or funds allocated to a defined scope. Now research topics are identified and listed as a project with beginning and end dates and expected deliverables. This is a big change for us that will improve our overall operations with help from SAP xRPM. So far, approximately 170 projects are being managed in SAP xRPM at Thomson with an additional 200 planned to be added in the next six months.”

Single Enterprise Solution for Multiple Scenarios
The latest version of SAP xRPM offers new capabilities allowing companies to utilize a single application for portfolio management across different functional groups in the organization. Users are empowered to best prioritize resource allocation by “scoring” portfolio items based on aggregation of both qualitative and quantitative criteria, such as risk, feasibility and commercial value. SAP xRPM also provides new specialized templates and configurations that deliver support for operational groups including new product development, IT, enterprise asset management and Six Sigma. For example, the application now supports best practices and methodologies such as CMMi and ITIL for IT and Stage GateTM and Spiral UpTM for new product development. Flexible portfolio hierarchies are also available in the enhanced offering, allowing users to group portfolio items into strategic buckets. This provides greater flexibility in managing collections of projects, services, products, assets and applications in support of business drivers.

Built on the SAP NetWeaver® platform, SAP xRPM can work as a modular composite application that leverages a company’s existing heterogeneous IT environment of disparate human resource, financial, project management and desktop systems. Pre-built integration between SAP and non-SAP applications speeds up implementation times and reduces total cost of ownership (TCO) while allowing for easy project monitoring and resource planning. SAP xRPM also leverages SAP NetWeaver® Business Intelligence to produce intuitive graphical reports detailing project cost information, financial forecasts and other key performance indicators.

Growing Family of SAP xApps
SAP xRPM is a member of the growing family of SAP xApps, composite applications designed to support business innovation and allow companies to be more flexible in responding to changing business conditions. More than 150 SAP xApps will be available by the end of the year, and will leverage enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) to deliver process automation and lower TCO across existing IT investments.

“SAP continues to lead the market with the creation and delivery of flexible solutions that support continuous business innovation,” said Sudipta Bhattacharya, senior vice president of Solution Management, Product and Technology Group, SAP Labs. “The launch of this enhanced SAP xApp further demonstrates our commitment to delivering easy-to-deploy composite applications that support specific business processes critical to the success of leading corporations worldwide. SAP xRPM works across a company’s existing IT environment supporting lower TCO while driving new value out of their portfolio to best reflect organizational objectives.”