WALLDORF, Germany, Dec. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Let's face it: today's business is connected and collaboration is key to supporting it. And the SAP® Jam™ social software platform is a leading force in driving it. With more than 15 million users, SAP Jam helps companies to evolve the way they work and invent new approaches for the work of tomorrow. Today, SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced that it has been named a leader in IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Social Networks 2014 Vendor Assessment*, as a result.

SAP Jam helps customers solve problems and drive results via its market-first "work patterns," pre-built processes that bring together the people, data and decision-making capabilities when and where people need them.

Take SAP Jam customer, Sharks Sports & Entertainment, Inc. A privately held corporation that owns and operates a number of sports properties, including the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League, the company implemented SAP Jam to improve employee collaboration, increase engagement and enhance understanding of common corporate goals. And within three months, user adoption was at 90 percent.

"SAP Jam has greatly increased our employee engagement on a day-to-day basis," said John Tortora, chief operating officer, Sharks Sports & Entertainment, Inc. "We're able to share key information and make better connections both inside and outside the organization."

Sharks Sports & Entertainment, Inc.'s improvement of employee collaboration is just the latest in a growing trend of businesses transforming collaboration through the use of social tools. According to the IDC MarketScape, "Enterprise social networks (ESNs), and more broadly, social workflow, can play a significant role in this [digital business] when thought of as both a platform and a social workflow embedded in business systems where users are getting work done."

SAP Jam's position as a leader in the 2014 IDC MarketScape report comes on the heels of the latest release of the application, which introduces several new capabilities to market, developed in co-innovation with almost 80 customers, including:   

• New user experience built for speed: A fresh, contemporary user experience designed to improve the velocity of work and to minimize ramp-up times for new users. With new participants inside and outside of an organization regularly joining new groups, this modern interface presents more information "above the fold," and makes it easier to get to the most common features such as posting questions or documents. It also enables faster finding through filters, delivers notifications organized by type and includes built-in training.
• Integrations and a new mobile app to enable collaboration where people work: SAP Jam now has new out-of-the box integrations with real-time presence and content management systems. In addition, a new SAP Jam mobile app for iOS was introduced, giving users access to SAP Jam while on the go.
• New engagement and group management capabilities to ensure maximum adoption: New engagement widgets for tag clouds, search and common actions as well as group management capabilities enable group administrators to keep content fresh, get users to the places they need to be and make it easy to change groups as the business needs change.

"Customers are increasingly looking to collaboration software when they seek transformative solutions to their toughest business challenges. This latest release combines sophisticated user experience design principles with our highly successful work patterns framework to transform how our customers connect with their employees, customers and partners, and participate in the networked economy," said Sameer Patel, senior vice president and general manager, Products and GTM Enterprise Collaboration and Social Software, SAP. "We're honored that our efforts have led the IDC MarketScape to recognize SAP Jam as a leader in the 2014 report."

For more information about the latest product features in SAP Jam, visit the blog post: "What's new in SAP Jam - New UI, CMIS integrations, Microsoft Lync presence and a lot more." Download an excerpt of the IDC MarketScape here.

View the latest video on SAP Jam: "What's Your Work Pattern? Transform The Way You Work With SAP Jam."

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

*Doc #252332, November 2014
About IDC MarketScape: IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT (information and communications technology) suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor's position within a given market. IDC MarketScape provides a clear framework in which the product and service offerings, capabilities and strategies, and current and future market success factors of IT and telecommunications vendors can be meaningfully compared. The framework also provides technology buyers with a 360-degree assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and prospective vendors.

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 263,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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