SAP Brings 21st-Century Customer Service to Healthcare

WALLDORF, Germany, May 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the launch of the SAP® Patient Relationship Management solution, designed to help healthcare providers compete for increasingly assertive, knowledgeable and price-sensitive patients. With technology-driven advances in customer service transforming most industries, patients are demanding the same control over their healthcare experience. Healthcare IT leaders are addressing multiple challenges in treatment and payment, but patients have not typically enjoyed the visibility and responsiveness they now see in their relationships with retailers or financial institutions. SAP Patient Relationship Management closes the healthcare service quality gap, by putting the patient at the center of individualized care and supporting a treatment experience rooted in customer service.

According to Gartner, "healthcare delivery organization CIOs are now faced with a new type of patient who expects to be treated like a valued customer."* A customer-centric culture is critical for healthcare providers seeking to protect and grow revenues in an increasingly competitive environment. Once nearly immune from consumer pressures, the healthcare industry — in all countries, regardless of the regulatory or delivery setting — must now earn the business of consumers who shop around and cross international borders to obtain the best value for money. Today, healthcare purchase decisions mimic those in every other industry, and are driven by more than cost alone. Treatment decisions are also shaped by peer and network feedback on social media and on overall consumer experience, most evident in developments such as the rise of medical tourism.

Designed in this context, SAP Patient Relationship Management is an integrated offering, combining the best-practice patient administration and billing functionality of the SAP® Patient Management application with the proven service functionality in the SAP® Customer Relationship Management application. With SAP Patient Relationship Management, healthcare providers can maintain a holistic view of each patient to tailor treatment decisions and offerings. The solution also provides embedded analytics to support continuous service improvement, cementing consumer loyalty over the long term.

"While it will always rightfully have a unique role, the healthcare industry's business practices and imperatives are converging with those in other industries, a process driven largely by technology," said Martin Kopp, vice president, head of Industry Business Solutions for Healthcare Providers, SAP. "With SAP Patient Relationship Management, patients will be more active participants in treatment, leading to better health outcomes, and providers will better manage their finances, strengthening the healthcare system for all."

SAP Patient Relationship Management helps streamline the patient experience along the continuum of care and embedded analytics provide performance measurement. Healthcare providers can track their performance and, guided by the solution, take the lead in patient relationships or with conditions where they have proven especially successful. Provider call center staff can enhance the patient experience through immediate response, personalized interaction and speedy resolution. Additional benefits of SAP Patient Relationship Management include:

• A one-stop online interaction center with mobile functionality for patients, as they expect in other consumer experiences
• Optimized staff and resource utilization rates through insight into forecast demand and availability
• Ongoing patient relationship management, creating better patient experiences that may yield new revenue opportunities as an additional benefit
• Social media analyses that assist with the design and marketing of treatment offerings based on online trends

For more information, visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

*"A Superior Patient Experience Is a Meaningful Measure of Care Quality," Barry Runyon, Gartner, February 13, 2014

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 more than 258,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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.

© 2014 SAP AG. All rights reserved.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and other countries. Please see http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx#trademark for additional trademark information and notices.

For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:
Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
United States Only: 1 (800) 872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727)

For more information, press only:
Mat Small, +1 (510) 684-3552, [email protected], PDT
SAP News Center press room; [email protected]

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SOURCE SAP AG

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