ORLANDO, FL--(MARKET WIRE)--Jan 21, 2008 -- LOTUSPHERE -- Today, before 7,000 customers and partners at the annual Lotusphere conference, IBM (NYSE:IBM - News) and SAP AG (NYSE:SAP - News) announced plans to deliver their first joint software product codenamed "Atlantic" that will integrate IBM Lotus Notes software with SAP Business Suite. The combined efforts to create "Atlantic" will result in a new style of applications that present information and data in the context of users familiar with the Lotus Notes desktop. This will make it easier for users to do their jobs and greatly enhance the return on investment that companies have made in their SAP applications.
Providing workers with access to critical business information in this intuitive, easy-to-use interface will enable timely, more informed business decisions. All types of employees can benefit from increased business analysis, information capabilities and the power to run their business operations directly from their Lotus Notes desktop.
"We're creating a richer collaboration environment," said Michael Rhodin, general manager, IBM Lotus Software. "Businesses are looking to find better ways to collaborate and manage their business processes. This IBM-SAP solution addresses both challenges in one seamless package for millions of users."
IBM Lotus and SAP have thousands of mutual customers who have been asking for the functionality that "Atlantic" software will provide. The majority of IBM's top 100 customers also use SAP solutions.
"SAP and IBM Lotus are strategic partners to The Coca-Cola Company," said Jean Michel-Ares, CIO, Coca-Cola Company. "Our IT goal is to help our people to be more responsive, productive and effective, and SAP and IBM Lotus have helped us get closer to that goal. The partnership between IBM Lotus, SAP and The Coca-Cola Company promises to deliver additional value to our associates and improve the tools they use every day."
"Lotus has been an innovator in collaboration for 20 years. This agreement is great example of how SAP enables our customers to empower their users by providing easy access to SAP business processes and data through productivity tools and user interfaces of their choice," said Vishal Sikka, CTO, SAP. "Furthermore, it reaffirms the strong commitment we have to our partnership with IBM."
For more than 35 years, IBM and SAP have collaborated to bring joint customers cutting-edge solutions to improve business efficiency at more than 13,000 client sites for their millions of users. Currently planned for inclusion in the first release of project "Atlantic" is support for SAP workflows, reporting and analytics, and the use of roles from within the Lotus Notes client. In addition, tools are planned to be included to provide the ability to extend and adapt these roles and capabilities, as well as leverage additional collaborative and offline capabilities inherent in Lotus Notes and Domino products. The initial release is planned to ship in the fourth quarter of 2008 and will be sold by both companies.
If customization of the product is required, IBM Global Business Services will be available to provide consulting and perform services. SAP practitioners, other global and regional systems integrators will also be enabled to customize "Atlantic" software to meet demand.
SAP Business Suite is a comprehensive family of adaptive business applications, providing best-in-class functionality built for complete integration, industry-specific capability, unlimited scalability, and easy collaboration over the Internet. Individually, SAP Business Suite applications customers manage their most critical business processes. Collectively, they form a tightly integrated suite that adds value to every facet of large and small organizations, including banks, hospitals, retail establishments, government agencies and a variety of other businesses, and their external value chains.
IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8 enterprise collaboration software was developed with input from more than 25,000 customers. Lotus Notes 8 software transforms the inbox into an integrated workspace. It brings together email, calendar, instant messaging, productivity tools like Lotus Symphony, collaborative applications, and the ability to build and deploy customer business or third-party applications, including help desk, customer relationship management, sales force, discussion forms and blogs.
Lotus Notes and Domino products have had approximately 135 million licensed users worldwide. Companies of all sizes, industries and technology lineages are embracing the latest version as the most comprehensive and versatile open collaboration platform they've used.
For more information on "Atlantic," visit www.ibm.com/software/lotus/notes/atlantic. For more information on Lotus Notes and Domino products, visit www.ibm.com/lotus/nd8.
For more information on SAP Business Suite, please visit: http://www.sap.com/usa/solutions/business-suite/index.epx
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