SAP AG is collaborating with SunGard, a vendor of software for financial services, higher education and the public sector, to address the regulatory compliance needs of banks. The two companies are joining to deploy service-oriented architecture (SOA) in order to reduce complexity, lower costs and derive benefits from operating on an integrated platform. Their first offering will be a joint asset liability management product. SunGard's BancWare application allows for asset and liability management, budgeting and planning, and various other processes related to compliance. SAP also announced that it is working with Microsoft to accelerate customer adoption of the latter's SQL Server 2005, and optimize the application for the SAP Business Suite. The arrangement will ease the transition by customers to SQL Server 2005, while capitalizing on the benefits of SOA. SAP and Microsoft have further agreed to set up a joint lab in Walldorf, Germany to optimize the SAP Business Suite on the SQL Server 2005. In yet another SAP development, the company has released the SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment, based on Java EE 5, a new set of standards-based and integration composition tools. NetWeaver CE, which is also used for the development and deployment of composite applications, will be available for a 30-day free trial download on SAP Developer Network (sdn.sap.com) starting in May.
SAP and SunGard: http://www.sap.com
SAP and Microsoft: http://www.sap.com
NetWeaver CE: http://www.sap.com