The Computerworld Honors program commemorates contributions made by both individuals and organizations to the positive social, political and economic betterment of society through the exceptional use of information technology.

"Each Laureate selected for this honor understands the importance of using one's resources and technical prowess to benefit one's fellow man," said Bob Carrigan, chairman of the Computerworld Honors Program 2008, Honors Program Chairmen’s Committee and president, IDG Communications.

This year, the following SAP public services projects were recognized by the committee:

• City of Hagen Virtual City Hall project: Hagen's Virtual City Hall is an example of a successful public-private partnership that significantly improves cross-agency government collaboration and constituent processes. A collaborative effort by the City of Hagen, the Institute of Cooperative Systems of the University of Hagen and SAP, Hagen's Virtual City Hall is an online portal designed to increase the speed with which constituent services are delivered. The portal was also developed to offer a blueprint for other cities and agencies across Europe desiring to establish similar environments for their citizens.
• Coordinated Medical Service of Switzerland (KSD): KSD represents all emergency organizations, such as emergency control centers, hospitals, police, fire brigade, executive staff, and the armed forces in Switzerland’s 26 administrative regions. It was originally set up to coordinate nationwide response to life-threatening events, such as epidemics, natural disasters, major accidents, and terrorist attacks. With the help of the SAP NetWeaver® technology platform, SAP partner Itelligence built for the KSD a centralized, Web-based information and operation system (IOS) that eases high-emergency situations by providing vital information and guidance to key decision makers in high-stress situations in which every second gained helps to save lives in a cost-efficient manner and on a national and international scale. Additionally, the system delivers a comprehensive, real-time picture of the number of emergency beds, medical facilities and specialist skills available at all the country's 220 major hospitals.
• Gauteng Shared Services Center: The province of Gauteng in South Africa believes government value should be defined from the citizen's perspective - the primary stakeholder and most important beneficiary of government services. It was this rationale that drove the development of the Gauteng Shared Services Centre (GSSC), which is focused on providing back-office transactional support services to deliver responsive, high-quality, consistent government services, achieve economies of scale, improve productivity and increase public value. Leveraging the SAP for Public Sector solution portfolio, the GSSC has delivered specific improvements in the daily working lives of the more than 120,000 Gauteng province employees, as well as the more than 10 million citizens that populate the province by easing the job function or every government employee and making it easier for citizens to do business with the government.
• United States Postal Service (USPS) HCE project: Representing the world's largest conversion of personnel information, the USPS Human Capital Enterprise (HCE) project leverages SAP technology to offer self-service HR features to its more than 700,000 employees around the globe—allowing postal employees to perform HR tasks when and where it is most convenient for them. Part of a larger transformation plan aimed at removing $5 billion in costs while positioning the organization for the future business requirements, HCE also includes the creation of an HR Shared Service Center to help automate and standardize more than 200 human resources business processes in the most efficient and cost effective way possible.
• Thoraxklinik of University Hospital of Heidelberg, Germany: Thoraxklinik-Heidelberg, an academic teaching hospital of the University of Heidelberg in Germany, is one of the leading thoracic diseases clinics in Europe. To help improve the quality of care to more than 5,000 yearly inpatients and roughly as many outpatients, Thoraxklinik-Heidelberg developed a service portal for physicians based on the SAP NetWeaver® Portal technology. The service portal eases information exchange between doctors, clinics, hospitals and other players along the healthcare value chain, allowing referring doctors to schedule patient hospitalizations and outpatient referrals over the Internet, as well as document treatments and display treatment results for their patients.

"Receipt of the Computerworld Honors Laureate Award is a significant endorsement of these public services organizations' revolutionary approach and outstanding technological vision," said Tom Shirk, president, SAP Global Public Services. "These SAP customers serve as models for all forward-thinking, public service organizations that seek to transform their service delivery and create a meaningful impact on society through the use of technology. We are very proud of our Computerworld Honors Laureates and are committed to helping them continue their tremendous success."

More detailed case studies outlining the visions and achievements of each of the above cited organizations, as well as other Laureates from the 2008 Computerworld Honors Collection is available at http://www.cwheroes.org, the official site of the Computerworld Honors Program.

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About Computerworld
Computerworld is the leading source of technology news and information for IT influencers worldwide. Computerworld's award-winning Web site (www.computerworld.com), weekly publication, focused conference series and custom research from the hub of the world’s largest (40+ edition) global IT media network. In the past five years alone, Computerworld has won more than 100 awards, including Folio Magazine's 2006 Gold EDDIE Award for the best technology/computing magazine, the 2004 and 2006 Magazine of the Year Award, and 2006 Best Overall Web Publication from the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE). In addition, in 2007 Computerworld's then editor in chief, Don Tennant, received the prestigious Timothy White Award from American Business Media. Computerworld leads the industry with an online audience of over 2 million unique, monthly visitors and a print audience of 1,222,000 readers each week (IntelliQuest CIMS Spring 2007).

About International Data Group (IDG)
International Data Group (IDG) is the world's leading technology media, events, and research company. IDG's online network includes more than 450 Web sites spanning business technology, consumer technology, digital entertainment, and video games worldwide. IDG publishes more than 300 magazines and newspapers in 85 countries including CIO, CSO, Computerworld, GamePro, InfoWorld, Macworld, Network World, and PC World. IDG's lead-generation service, IDG Connect, matches technology companies with an audience of engaged, high-quality IT professionals, influencers, and decision makers. IDG is a leading producer of more than 750 technology-related events including Macworld Conference & Expo, LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, Entertainment for All Expo (E for All), DEMO, and IDC Directions. IDC, a subsidiary of IDG, is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events. Over 900 IDC analysts in more than 90 countries provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends. Additional information about IDG, a privately held company, is available at idg.com. Note: All product and company names are trademarks of their respective companies.

About SAP® for Public Sector
The SAP® for Public Sector solution portfolio provides comprehensive solutions to help governments and public organizations improve economic viability and increase process efficiency and transparency while maximizing public value for the constituent. The solution portfolio is based on the open SAP NetWeaver® technology platform to support the integration of government business processes to help optimize limited resources, increase process efficiency and transparency, and support collaborative outcomes between two or more government agencies. (Additional information at http://www.sap.com/publicsector/)

About SAP
SAP is the world's leading provider of business software, offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. With more than 47,800 customers (excludes customers from the acquisition of Business Objects) in over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol "SAP". For more information, visit www.sap.com.