SAP Unveils Internet-Enabled Business Solution for Mining Companies; SAP Mining Solution Builds Upon Experience With More Than 115 Customers.

SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 31, 1999--

Today at its SAPPHIRE(R) '99 Singapore customer conference, SAP AG (NYSE:SAP), the leading provider of inter-enterprise software solutions, announced the SAP(TM) Mining(TM) solution.

SAP Mining provides an end-to-end business software solution that links the sales, operational planning, production and enterprise management processes of mining companies and extends these processes across the Internet through mySAP.com(TM), the SAP Internet business strategy.

SAP is working with key mining companies worldwide to continually develop and deliver a solution that meets highly specialized needs in production planning, exploration, processing, asset management, maintenance scheduling and production data analysis. More than 115 mining companies already run their operations on SAP software for enterprisewide integration of business performance information, higher productivity from shared services, more accurate tracking and reporting of production costs, and improved operational planning capabilities. Several of the industry's largest companies have joined the new SAP Industry Advisory Council for Mining, which will convene during the SAPPHIRE '99 Singapore conference. In the second quarter of next year, SAP will further enhance the SAP Mining solution with additional industry-specific functionality for bulk transportation handling, concentrate pricing and other processes.

"SAP is deeply committed to providing a new level of support for the unique business processes and requirements of mining companies," said Les Hayman, president and CEO of SAP Asia Pacific. "SAP Mining leverages the global collaboration opportunities of mySAP.com to help mining customers carve inefficiencies out of the production process and maximize their return on assets."

Mining Industry Challenges

The capital-intensive business of mining puts pressure on companies to automate production processes, expand to new markets, increase return on investments, and comply with a complex array of environmental regulations at multiple sites across international boundaries. Mining operations require planning at each step of the process, from extracting and distributing the ore to setting prices, maintaining assets and managing production budgets. These companies stake their profits and survival on an ability to sustain optimal levels of material throughput while minimizing intermediate stockpiles and driving down costs.

"To stay competitive on a global level, our company must continually find new ways to streamline production, process orders faster, and gain a better understanding of supply and demand planning," said Einar Vikingur, group manager of information at WMC Resources Ltd., one of the largest mineral and metal companies in Australia. "SAP enables us to pursue these challenges by providing comprehensive support tools for our business processes and integration with our other information systems. Also, SAP is working closely with companies like ours on developing new and improved functionality for this industry."

The SAP Mining Solution

SAP Mining provides a total solution for companies involved in extracting and processing minerals and metals, including solid fuels such as coal. SAP has collaborated with mining customers, partners and industry experts to identify the most crucial categories of business processes for the industry. These business processes are defined in the SAP Mining Solution Map Edition 1999, which can be found on the SAP Web site at http://www.sap.com.

The SAP Mining solution supports business processes such as capacity planning, production scheduling, contract-based product pricing, bulk materials transportation handling and Internet-enabled production data capturing. In addition, the solution will include environment, health and safety functionality to further address companies' regulatory compliance and employee-protection needs. Built on the SAP R/3(R) application suite and the open Internet-Business Framework architecture, the solution also leverages other components including SAP Business Information Warehouse(TM) (SAP BW(TM)) and SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer(TM) (SAP APO(TM)). SAP Mining will provide tight integration with third-party software for other mining-specific processes such as mine planning and production physicals capture.

"To meet our business goals of global expansion, continuous improvements in operational efficiency and increased productivity, we needed to totally redesign our legacy IT environment," said Willem van Vuuren, manager of business information for Iscor Ltd., the largest steelmaker in Africa. "We rely on SAP to support our growing operations with truly integrated, flexible software solutions that deliver information in real time, support effective decision-making across the organization, and help us capitalize on e-business opportunities."

mySAP.com Extends Mining Companies' Reach Across Internet

The mySAP.com Internet business strategy addresses the modern challenges mining businesses face in the Internet age. Through the mySAP.com Marketplace, an open electronic business hub at http://www.mysap.com, mining companies will be able to collaborate across business processes, conduct commerce, access personalized content and interact in professional communities.

The mySAP.com Workplace provides a single, integrated, Web-based access point for the SAP Mining solution as well as other software and information necessary to perform a specific job within a company. Open and flexible, the mySAP.com Workplace can be easily and quickly extended to embrace legacy, corporate intranet and Internet applications as well as others from within and beyond the enterprise. SAP also will provide mining-specific mySAP.com business scenarios, which bring together SAP software, non-SAP applications and Internet services according to specific user roles within a company. These business scenarios will optimize collaboration for the mining industry in areas such as supply chain planning, production scheduling, procurement and customer service.

With the mySAP.com Web-based application-hosting environment, companies can evaluate the SAP Mining solution online and configure it to their specific needs before purchasing it. Customers can then choose to implement their solution in a hosted environment from SAP or one of its partners, and have the option of hosting the operation of their solution with certified SAP Application Service Provider partners. SAP application hosting is well-suited to the unique needs of smaller, remotely located mining operations that want a lower upfront investment in hardware and software as well as reduced maintenance responsibilities.

About SAP

As the market leader of inter-enterprise software solutions, SAP is leveraging its strength in industry-focused business software and the world's largest enterprise software customer base to deliver mySAP.com. mySAP.com provides an open collaborative business environment of personalized solutions on demand. This enables companies of all sizes and industries to fully engage their employees, customers and partners to capitalize upon the new Internet economy.

mySAP.com allows people to harness the power of the Internet to work smarter, better and faster by optimizing supply chains, managing strategic relationships, reducing time to market, sharing virtual information, and increasing productivity and shareholder value.

SAP is listed on several exchanges including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol "SAP." The SAP World Wide Web site can be found at http://www.sap.com.

SAP, SAP Mining, SAPPHIRE, mySAP.com, R/3, SAP Business Information Warehouse, SAP BW, SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer, SAP APO and all SAP product and service names herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG. Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. (c) Copyright 1999, SAP AG