MUMBAI, INDIA: SAP AG and Satyam Computer Services Ltd. have announced a new partnership to help businesses accelerate co-innovation and improve their return on investment. Under a new agreement, Satyam has become an SAP global services partner to help Fortune 1000 companies worldwide to reliably and rapidly implement SAP solutions and transform business processes. The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE 2008, SAP's international customer conference, being held in Orlando, Florida, May 4–7.

Satyam joins a select group of large consultancies in the "SAP Global Partner – Services" program. As an SAP global services partner, Satyam will further invest in joint marketing resources and strategic planning to support the growth with SAP and serve customers worldwide. The partnership is wholly focused on enhancing value for customer investments in SAP solutions. Satyam has one of the largest SAP practices globally and plans to expand from 5,000 to 6,800 SAP consultants by the end of this year.

"This agreement represents an important milestone for Satyam to be included in this prestigious group of SAP partners," said Manish Mehta, director and senior vice president and global head, SAP/Testing Practices, Satyam. "This SAP partnership status is a testimony to Satyam's commitment and expertise in delivering SAP solutions. We will continue to invest in and grow our already significant SAP business, not only in established markets, but in emerging ones such as the Middle East and Eastern Europe. An example of this is our commitment to have a sizeable pool of consultants trained in SAP value engineering approaches during 2008 to further augment our business transformation services to clients."

SAP will leverage Satyam's deep industry-specific knowledge and technology expertise in creating vertical solutions for customers across various industries. Satyam's strategic investments are in developing composite solutions with an SAP focus on domains such as the automotive, retail, banking, telecom and oil and gas industries.

As announced in March 2008, Satyam signed as one of the first accredited strategic partners for SAP in the Middle East and North Africa region.

"SAP is pleased to take its relationship with Satyam to the next level by making it a global services partner," said Manfred Heil, senior vice president, Global Ecosystem and Partner Group, SAP. "Satyam has a strong track record of transforming customers' business processes together with SAP, and will help extend the value of our customer-focused ecosystem."

SAPPHIRE® 2008 Orlando and SAPPHIRE® 2008 Berlin

More than 15,000 customers, partners and technical experts are convening at SAPPHIRE 2008 to discover how SAP and its thriving partner ecosystem are delivering IT solutions that create value beyond the four walls of the enterprise, to create "business beyond boundaries." SAP's premier educational and networking event, SAPPHIRE is the one occasion where senior executives, business managers, and decision-makers can come together every year to explore how innovative business solutions foster long-term, profitable growth. SAPPHIRE 2008 is being held in Orlando, Florida, May 4-7, and in Berlin, Germany, May 19-21, 2008.

Based on the success of last year's events, SAP and the Americas' SAP Users' Group (ASUG) are co-locating their premier events in Orlando, where the 2008 ASUG Annual Conference takes place May 4-7.

Source: Agencies