Integration is driven by the need for real-time information:

• Data volumes are increasing exponentially. Scalability is essential if companies are to handle this flood of information.
• The time available to update and analyze data is dwindling, and decision-making cycles becoming ever shorter. Companies demand real-time information, and expect IT environments to support comprehensive analysis in real time.
• Databases and applications are becoming increasingly distributed, and integration increasingly complex. Companies and public-sector organizations such as government agencies and universities need to open up more and more internal systems to customers and partners, and to place more and more processes online. And new data sources are being added all the time.
• To keep costs in check, existing IT infrastructures need to remain in place, but with real-time access for all key internal and external users. Links need to be forged between standalone systems and silos of information.

Against this background, IT infrastructures must be capable of adapting to changing requirements, of integrating legacy and new systems, and of protecting investment.

The Executive Board´s answer to this paradigm shift was to restructure the Company’s operations around two clearly defined core business segments:

• Enterprise Transaction Systems (ETS): data management and backup for mainframe environments.
• XML Business Integration.

The Enterprise Transaction Systems Business Line (core products: Adabas and Natural) serves the strong customer base established during a long track record of successfully improving capacity utilization and boosting productivity for mainframe environments. ETS helps to increase the useful lifetime of legacy systems through modernization, performance optimization, and functionality enhancements, such as Web technologies.

XML Business Integration (core products: EntireX Communicator, EntireX Mediator and Tamino) provides a platform for the seamless integration of diverse applications and systems. The intelligent use of XML technologies increases productivity and return on assets.

Added value for customers
Our new business lines’ offerings are designed to protect customer investments in legacy infrastructures, applications and databases. At the same time, they give customers enterprise-wide, realtime access to all resources, improving internal communications, data transparency, and productivity. This rapidly accelerates business processes and leads to a tangible decrease in costs.

Corporate culture and expertise providing competitive differentiation
It is not enough to simply bring IT systems in line with changing requirements; corporate culture must also be flexible and adaptable. Change management, innovation and speed are more than just buzzwords: they are the essential prerequisites of fully understanding customer requirements and of responding appropriately, and they are essential for success in hotly contested global markets. Software AG has chosen a corporate culture that is built on flexible, team-oriented structures, with responsibility for all business decisions. We leverage the quality of our solutions and the expertise of our employees to the benefit of our customers – laying the foundations for sustainable, long-term partnership.

Cross-border collaboration and teamwork
The Software AG corporate culture and structure have a distinct international feel. Our teams draw on talent from many different departments and even many different countries. We identify complementary services, such as consulting, project management and integration products, and combine them to build new solutions. Our R&D work is geared to the real-life needs of the market, and our development engineers are directly involved in major customer projects.

Our new strategic orientation targets three key areas:

• Market positioning as a highly innovative technology and project partner for systems integration, modernization and optimization,
• Consolidation of our status as leading global player for enterprise transaction systems and XML business integration software,
• Increase in shareholder value by sustainably securing and expanding business volumes, and boosting cash flow and profitability.

Software AG’s new, improved performance is based on a strategy that focuses on our strengths, on the outstanding expertise of our employees, on competitive products, and on our global presence. This helps customers establish IT infrastructures with access to information in real time, and enables them to seize the opportunities presented to them. Together, these factors will help us successfully exploit our full growth potential and ensure an exciting, profitable future for Software AG.

Karl-Heinz Streibich
Chief Executive Officer