Neusoft and SAP Build up Strategic Alliance

Local and foreign giants join hands to enhance the progress

of Chinese enterprise informatization

On April 2, the signature ceremony and press conference entitled Neusoft and SAP join hands to enhance the progress of Chinese enterprise informatization was held in Beijing, announcing the strategic alliance between Neusoft Group, the most outstanding solution provider in China, and SAP, the largest global enterprise management software and collaborative business solution provider.

This program covers a full cooperation between the two companies in such areas as talent education and training, technology and solutions, and consulting services, which are involved in the process of enterprise informatization, aiming at enhancingthe progress of enterprise informatization in China.

This strategic alliance between Neusoft Group and SAP has been established in the hope of providing enterprises of all sizes and in all industries with targeted and customized solutions, and with outstanding technology and product advantages, consulting capability and rich experience in the area of the enterprise informatization of SAP, and the leading position in the area of IT staff education and training, exact understanding of domestic customers, as well as the marketing service network covering the whole country, and localized services of Neusoft Group.

Hence, the cooperation of the two giants will drive dramatically enterprise informatization construction and development in China.

Over the two decades after the reform and opening policy was adopted, the economy in China has been developing vigorously, and China is becoming the global digital product manufacturing base and the locomotive of world economic development. With China s entry into the WTO, enterprises in China are faced with severe global competition, which makes industrialization through informatization an important strategy for the government and enterprises to improve their competitive status. As Wu Bangguo, Chairman of NPC, stated, "enterprise informatization construction must be strongly stressed, in order to build up the management strength of the enterprises for the global competition. This is an important measure to improve management, and an integral part in the implementation of the management innovation. There is also a need for enterprises to gain an ability to join the international competition.

In his discussion of the significance of this strategic cooperation, Mr. Klaus Zimmer, President of SAP Greater China, says that this cooperation between the two giants will greatly enhance the progress of dynamic enterprise informatization construction in China. By expanding and deepening full cooperation with outstanding solution providers in China, SAP emphasizes once again its commitment: to provide local enterprises in China with the best and most suitable management solution by integrating advanced management knowledge in the world with the actual situation in China.

Mr. Daniel Huang, Executive Vice President of SAP Greater China, said "as the largest solution provider in China, Neusoft Group has gained remarkable technology and experience for the past ten years in enterprise informatization construction, and has become a valuable resource in driving China s enterprise informatization construction.

SAP thinks that SAP and Neusoft will complement each other to build up an overall value chain of the enterprise informatization. Neusoft enjoys a competitive advantage in such areas as IT staff education and training, customer demand understanding, integration between technology and solution, and ongoing local services, while SAP remains competitive in the areas of technology research and development, and project implementation and consulting.

Such complementary advantages of both parities, therefore, will provide a more competitive solution to the Chinese enterprises."

At the press conference, Mr. Liu Jiren, Chairman and President of Neusoft Group commented that "China enterprises are facing a historical transition period. How to select right enterprise management software with the right budget, and how to select the right provider as the partner of enterprise informatization construction has become a stringent issue for China s enterprise informatization."

As Liu Jiren says, whether China s enterprise informatization can be implemented smoothly depends on whether the IT providers provide the technology and resources from the angle of the sustainable development of customers, and whether they consider seriously the system practicability and maintainability so as to create value for customers.

In terms of all this, Neusoft has been working hard on the understanding of the demand of China s enterprise informatization, focusing on providing personalized solutions to sensitive businesses of the enterprises to extract a common goal, while gaining the wide recognition of customers. A transition from business to management, and from survival to development is the demand of the enterprise informatization and also the direction of the solution development.

The cooperation between Neusoft and SAP is set up in the hope of combining advantages in respect of the technology and implementation experience, to provide an advanced, scalable, affordable and value added solution to the customers in China.

Mr. Fang Fahe, CTO of Neusoft, says that SAP is the best enterprise management software provider in the world. The advanced technology and experience gained by SAP through its services for 19,300 enterprises, especially Fortune 500 enterprises of the world over the past 30 years, will provide a firm basis for building the enterprise management informatization solution suitable for the China market.

It is believed that the cooperation between Neusoft and SAP involves three aspects. The first one is informatization staff education. The successful implementation of the informatization project requires not only advanced enterprise management software and quality service, but also a large number of outstanding implementation and consulting staff.

Both parties agree, therefore, that to provide China s enterprises with a large number of professional staff through training and practice is an important part of this cooperation, and something that differentiates itself from other similar cooperation projects. The two companies plan to build an SAP training center at Neusoft IT Institute in Dalian, which will be the ninth Chinese college supported by the SAP Seed Plan .

As an active player and supporter of China s knowledge innovation project, SAP started its Seed Plan in 1996. In this program, SAP cooperated with the colleges and universities of higher education and scientific research institutes in China to study China s enterprise management and develop future enterprise management talent.

At present, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University, Tongji University, Southwest Financial University, Shanghai University, Jinan University, Guangzhou Science and Technology University and China Entrepreneur Association have joined this program.

Wen Tao, Vice President of Neusoft Group and Dean of Neusoft Institute of Information Technologysays this training center is equipped with advanced computer devices and teaching supplies, and has bee supplied with SAP software system, courseware, course systems and materials, in order that the teachers and students of the institute might learn and practice SAP software knowledge, and provide complete enterprise informatization training for the customers of both parties.

Neusoft Institute of Information Technologyagrees to incorporate related SAP software courses into its teaching plan as elective courses. The student can then select enterprise informatization as a major. The institute selects some students from the junior grade to major in SAP courses, adopting the curriculum provided by SAP.

SAP will provide practical training support for them. The students finish their graduation thesis under the joint guidance of SAP and the institute, to become professional staff in enterprise informatization. Neusoft Institute of Information Technologyplans to educate 500 undergraduates in the informatization major in the first year, and this figure will be increased year per year, up to thousands of professional staffs in the informatization by 2006.

To select an international partner like SAP to introduce international leading IT knowledge and implement a curriculum that meets international standards is reflected by the objective of the institute to develop international talent; to customize SAP software knowledge learning and practice and provide a large number professional staffs for China s enterprise informatization construction is represented by the objective of the institute to develop practical and personalized talent; and to build SAP Training Center is the result of the international, practical and personalized talent development objective of Neusoft Institute of Information Technology.

This training center will be the largest education development base of professional enterprise informatization talent in China.

Unlike previous cooperation projects, for this cooperation, Neusoft Institute of Information Technology is a professional IT institute with the backing of Neusoft Group, and the objective is to develop practical talent that is in urgent need in the industry. The R&D centers of Neusoft Group across the whole country themselves will be capacious bases for the students to learn and practice.

The cooperation between the school and enterprise can form a positive interactive environment, and the education and industry can promote and integrate with each other. The cooperation between the institute and SAP also represents this concept, in the hope of allowing students to become practical talents, that understand the industry technology and are familiar with enterprise management and operation when they are in the school, and initiating seamless integration between the talent and the industry.

The institute is committed to developing a large number of SAP enterprise informatization consultant engineers and technical engineers, as well as the talents understanding SAP technology to lead the application of the enterprise informatization technology in China.

Second, as for joint building of the enterprise informatization solution, Neusoft and SAP will build the enterprise solution suitable for the actual demand of China s enterprises and industry users by combining technical advantages of SAP in the enterprise management software with the Neusoft's advantages in industry application, based on existing products and solutions of both parties.

Both of them plan to undertake essential R&D initiatives in the area of SMB management informatization first, to launch SMB solution targeting China s market; and then, both parties will extend the initiatives to include industries such as telecommunications, electric power, social insurance, education, financing, securities, communication, medical, and manufacturing, providing excellent solutions for the informatization construction of more industries.

Both parties will take feasible actions to ensure practical cooperation and resource input in the areas of new product R&D, new technology application, technical training, consulting service, professional staff education, etc.

Thirdly, with regard to ongoing local services, both parties agree that the key to gaining the recognition from customers the cooperation is whether the customer can be provided with an ongoing complete local service. Therefore, the principle of this cooperation is to provide complete enterprise informatization solutions and value added services based on the management software of both parties using the countrywide marketing service network of Neusoft.

The companies recognize that practical cooperation between two parties in the enterprise management software, industry solutions, value added services, consulting services and after-sale services will be an important task to implement this principle.

The companies plan to join hands to undertake large scale of education and training activities in the leading cities of China including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Shenyang from May to September, in order to demonstrate the technology, solutions and services of both parties to the enterprises of the whole country.

Talking of China s enterprise informatization market, both parties agree that enterprises in China are facing a more challenging market environment with China s entry into the WTO, as management and informatization have been considered important weapons for enterprises to win in the severe competition. They hope to provide suitable solutions and services to more users in China through power-power cooperation, jointly contributing much to China s informatization construction.