SOW Software AG

Software AG (FWB:SOW) today said the UK Government is right to conduct an efficiency review of IT spending and hopes that “efficiency” is indeed the focus. The company cites a recent World Economic Forum report that shows the UK as a global leader in the quality, relevance and usefulness of eGovernment services but lags in 52nd position globally in driving government efficiency through IT. The review should include the scale and scope of public sector IT projects, the efficiency of government procurement policies and the extent to which existing IT assets and investments are re-used in future projects. There are immediate gains to be made in cost cutting exercises but this is dwarfed by the returns that could be made in a new approach to public sector IT investments.

Jim Close, Senior Vice President at Software AG UK, says, “There are many great examples of the public sector getting it fully right, such as the real-time biometric checks for visa applications. This cut the overall time required for clearing standard visa applications to around 2 hours, from days, and the project was delivered nearly 60% under budget, £45.5 million rather than £121.7m. This shows what can be achieved with focused projects utilising the existing IT infrastructure”

This move to targeted, more manageable change, was signalled by the Health minister Simon Burns’s announcement to scrap the National Health Service's centralised £12.7bn National Programme for IT (NPfIT) last Thursday in favour of a more locally-led plural system of procurement.

The current government’s approach is based on genuine pragmatism. Large projects do not necessarily deliver large efficiency gains and the track record of delivery to time and budget in both the private and public sectors is littered with failure.

The latest developments in software technology and project management facilitate an incremental approach to system development delivering value every step of the way. This modern architectural approach re-uses and augments existing IT assets to deliver what government, like industry, needs – optimised processes, real efficiency gains and a clear return on investment.

“This is exactly the approach needed to deliver higher returns on public sector IT investments”, added Close. “And is fully in line with the Government’s goal of awarding 25% of public sector IT contracts to SMEs. The centralised and planned economic approach has never worked. This will.”

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About Software AG

Software AG is the global leader in business process excellence. Our 40 years of innovation include the invention of the first high-performance transactional database, Adabas; the first business process analysis platform, ARIS; and the first B2B server and SOA-based integration platform, webMethods.

We are unique in offering the world’s only end-to-end – and easiest to use – business process management (BPM) solutions, with the lowest total cost of ownership. Our industry-leading brands, ARIS, webMethods, Adabas, Natural and IDS Scheer Consulting, represent a unique portfolio for: process strategy, design, integration and control; SOA-based integration and data management; process-driven SAP implementation; and strategic process consulting and services.

Software AG had revenues of €847 million in 2009 and has more than 6,000 employees serving 10,000 enterprise and public institution customers across 70 countries. Our comprehensive software and services solutions allow companies to continuously achieve their business results faster. The company is headquartered in Germany and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (TecDAX, ISIN DE 0003304002 / SOW).

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Software AG | Uhlandstraße 12 | 64297 Darmstadt | Germany

Detailed press information about Software AG including a picture and multimedia database are available at:

www.softwareag.com/de/press

1 Worldwide ranking according to World Economic Report, 2010 - http://www.weforum.org/documents/GITR10/index.html

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