September 12, 2016

Accenture and SAP Redesign Fashion Management, Helping Retailers Accelerate Visibility and Integration across Retail and Wholesale Channels

Collaboration launched to extended fashion management capabilities in SAP S/4HANA®

NEW YORK and WALLDORF, Germany; Sept. 12, 2016 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and SAP (NYSE: SAP) launched an initiative to extend SAP’s current fashion management capabilities to a next-generation fashion management solution that will be designed to accelerate the digital transformation journey for fashion, accessory and luxury retail brands. The announcement comes after both companies announced in January a comprehensive program of ongoing collaboration on the core development and go-to-market for SAP S/4HANA®.

Accenture will help bring this vision to life in an in-memory edition of the solution, which plans to enable vertical integration across retail, wholesale and manufacturing channels.

“SAP and Accenture bring a culture of co-innovation to the table that has allowed us to collectively innovate and accelerate our development road map. The new solutions we are creating show a committed investment in our clients’ future success,” said Achim Schneider, global head, Retail Industry Business Unit, SAP.

The next-generation fashion management solution aims to take advantage of the technology capabilities of SAP S/4HANA, the flexibility of cloud services and Accenture’s deep retail industry knowledge. It is expected to help retailers build omnichannel solutions that manage inventory requirements more easily and effectively, and accelerate time-to-value to enable a customer-centric business. Retailers should be able to simultaneously view and manage retail, wholesale and manufacturing channels, allowing them to analyze and direct where and how products are stocked based on specific business rules.

“Retail demands speed – whether interacting with customers, bringing new products to market, expanding into new geographies, integrating merged companies or driving operational efficiencies. Working to extend SAP S/4HANA to the fashion industry is the first of many planned actions in our collaboration,” said Jill Standish, Senior Managing Director of Retail at Accenture. “Together, we combine the best thinking, IP and experts at all levels, including development, go-to-market, customer support and outcomes. With our access to the platform code for SAP S/4HANA and our deep retail delivery capabilities, we are well-positioned to help retailers drive the most business value from SAP solutions and meet the unique needs of their industry now and in the future.”

In addition to building out core components, Accenture is working with SAP to create proprietary product extensions. With the help of Accenture, the next-generation fashion management solution from SAP will offer a truly vertical solution via end-to-end scenario integration across the extended retail supply chain. SAP S/4HANA enables game-changing new processes such as multichannel material requirements planning and order allocation with the ability to simulate scenarios that allow fashion organizations to effectively and efficiently run their businesses.

About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions – underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With more than 375,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device — SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable approximately 320,000 business and public sector customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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Contacts:

Julie Bennink
Accenture
+ 1 312 693 7301
julie.l.bennink@accenture.com

Aleks Vujanic
Accenture
+ 44 7500 974 814
aleks.vujanic@accenture.com

Jason Loesche
SAP
+ 1 484 437 0015
j.loesche@sap.com

Stacy Ries
SAP
+ 1 484 619 0411
stacy.ries@sap.com