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The SAP community network is an active community of customers, partners, employees and other experts who are allowed to collaborate through interactive blogs, wikis and forums. Members of this network receive access to information about SAP and related business and other trusted resources.

 

As announced, the new community network offerings of SAP includes; additional Business Process Expert communities dedicated to understanding International Financial Reporting Standards, implementing SAP Business Suite 7 software and added support for the recently announced PlaNet Finance partnership.

 

This announcement has helped the company continue its investment and also expand its involvement in social media.

 

Moreover, SAP is said to now serve as an OpenID provider. With the introduction of the SAP community network's OpenID, members can use Single Identity managed by OpenID foundation to access multiple Web sites with one sign-on. Members can use the same identity to log onto different sites, which simplifies the overall experience by eliminating the need to remember multiple passwords and user names. These members no longer need to register for new accounts as the service will automatically log users into participating Web sites, as well as authenticate and confirm that the sites are trusted, noted the company official.

 

The current enhancement allows members now to provide feedback on additional resources, such as whitepapers, Webinars, blogs and e-learnings.

 

The Business Process Expert community which is added now is an online network that connects SAP customers, partners and community members by offering a unique forum and repository for knowledge that focuses on a wide variety of SAP-related topics. New additions include the International Financial Reporting Standards and SAP Business Suite 7 user communities, where members can post and respond to inquiries, share articles and documents, and contribute to blogs about their experiences relevant to IFRS and SAP Business Suite 7.

 

Additionally, the SAP EcoHub site is said to now contain information about SAP partners and the services they offer to help implement IFRS.

 

The new SAP Business Suite 7 community offers a forum for users of the next-generation software suite that helps businesses optimize their performance and reduce IT costs.

 

Earlier SAP had singed an agreement with PlaNet Finance, an international non-profit organization that provides support services to microfinance institutions in some of the poorest regions of the world, for launching a new community initiative that allows the company to encourage active contribution by the community and help under-served markets. Once goals of 3,000 active contributors are reached for 2009, SAP has plans to contribute EUR 200,000 toward programs managed through its partner PlaNet Finance.

 

"SAP's communities of innovation harness the collective knowledge and power of developers, partners, customers, business process experts and others to help customers maximize their technology investments," said Mark Yolton, senior vice president, SAP Community Network, SAP AG, in a statement.