One-Fifth of Americans Unsatisfied with Claims Customer Service, Accenture and SAP Survey Finds

Majority of Consumers Want Ability to Check Status of their Claims Online

ORLANDO, Fla.; May 23, 2005 – One-fifth (20 percent) of Americans who have filed property or casualty claims during the past three years are not satisfied with the way their insurance companies handle their claims, according to results of a survey released today by Accenture and SAP. In addition, two-thirds (67 percent) of respondents said they think it is important for their insurance companies to provide the ability to check the status of claims online.

Consumers’ dissatisfaction regarding claims service significantly increased with the number of claims representatives they had to speak with during the course of their claims settlements. Survey respondents who spoke to three or more people at their insurance companies during the course of claims were nearly five times as likely to be dissatisfied with their claims experience as those who spoke to only one or two claims personnel – 49 percent versus 10 percent. Three-fourths (75 percent) of respondents said they would prefer to speak to only one person from their insurance companies about their claims.

Respondents with more complex claims experiences were more likely to negatively rate their claims experiences. Negative claims experience ratings were highest for claims that took more than 20 days to be resolved (40 percent compared with 20 percent overall); claims that resulted in recovery of less than half of their losses (28 percent); and claims that involved auto-related injuries (39 percent).

“Insurers need to continue to implement new automated claims technology to help further expedite the process and improve the customer experience,” said Michael Lucarini, a partner in Accenture’s Insurance practice. “The most significant opportunities to improve claims customer satisfaction are reducing the carrier-to-customer interactions required to handle high-frequency, low-severity claims and keeping the customer more informed on longer, more-complex claims.”

“Consumers are demanding easier and more efficient methods for filing their claims,” said Peter MacPherson, vice president, Insurance business unit, SAP America, Inc. “Innovative technology is crucial to help insurers meet growing customer demands for simpler claims filing processes. Insurers who leverage the Internet as a tool for consumers to manage their claims will gain a competitive advantage as well as reduce their operational expenses.”

Additional Survey Findings:

Accenture and SAP announced the results of the survey today at the 2005 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum in Orlando, Florida.

Survey Methodology
The survey, commissioned by Accenture and SAP, entailed querying 582 Americans 18 and older who filed property/casualty insurance claims in the past three years. The interviews were conducted online in April 2005.

Accenture and SAP Alliance
In September 2003, SAP and Accenture entered into an alliance for the Financial Services industry, offering banks and insurance providers a more effective and low risk way to transform and grow their business, through a dedicated joint development team and sales channel, integrated solutions and services, innovative delivery, and highly efficient implementation. With a 30-year history and experience delivering innovative business solutions for more than 1000 leading financial services institutions, Accenture and SAP work together to help insurers and banks achieve the vision of an open standards-based architecture.

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With more than 110,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$13.67 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2004. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About SAP
SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software solutions*. Today, more than 27,000 customers in over 120 countries run more than 91,500 installations of SAP® software—from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize businesses to enterprise-scale suite solutions for global organizations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver™ platform to drive innovation and enable business change, mySAP™ Business Suite solutions are helping enterprises around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. SAP industry solutions support the unique business processes of more than 25 industry segments, including high tech, retail, public sector and financial services. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol “SAP.” (Additional information at www.sap.com).

(*) SAP defines business software solutions as comprising enterprise resource planning and related software solutions such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, product life-cycle management and supplier relationship management.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could affect SAP’s future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

###

Press Office

+1 (610) 661 3200

press@sap.com

Marykate Reese

+1 (917) 452 8738

marykate.reese@accenture.com

Andrea Robillard

+1 (610) 661 4487

andrea.robillard@sap.com