SECUDE and Siemens have agreed to enter into a partnership which combines the partners' know-how into a complimentary and collaborative strategy. The alignment of resources creates significant benefits for both partners and presents a win-win situation for SAP and their customers.

The intention is to capitalize on each others complimentary technologies and coordinate marketing and sales efforts on a global scale to service and support the market more efficiently and effectively. "The driver for this partnership is that the whole is more than the sum of its parts," states Doris Hermann, VP and General Manager, Security and Identity management, Siemens AG.

Siemens has successfully marketed and sold security solutions on a global scale. These solutions include an Identity and Access Management suite based on the Siemens DirX product family providing a standard-compliant, extremely reliable, scalable and highly-performing platform as well as certified and secure smart cards solutions.

SECUDE is an established leader in key and access management for over a decade with a suite of products on the same platform including Single Sign On, Key and Token Management, and managed encryption of file, folders, mail and various storage devices. SECUDE has been a strong IT-security partner of SAP for 10 years and is a leading provider of key and access management technologies for SEAGATE encrypted disk drives.

By combining SECUDE's core know how in "key management and Single Sign On technology" with the Siemens leading DirX technologies, customers can now rely on the partnership's global reach and the increased technical capabilities. The deep combined know how of SECUDE and Siemens offers solutions for corporate governance and compliance meeting the growing needs of SAP customers.

"We are very pleased to have the ability to utilize our existing partnership with Siemens and our complimentary security technologies to provide more value for SAP customers, a core value of our company," says Heiner Kromer, CEO of SECUDE IT Security.

"Moving towards service-oriented architectures, our customers need complete end to end security. Both SECUDE and Siemens represent a top notch security player in their respective markets, key and access management as well as identity management. The combined solution is a highly valuable advance and shows how our partners can provide integrated solutions which benefit our customers and at the same time offer a higher level of security," says Sachar Paulus, Chief Security Officer of SAP.

About SECUDE

SECUDE International AG is a market leader in the areas of authentication & authorization, encryption, data integrity and the management of digital identities, delivering a higher level of IT Security to organizations around the world. We offer solutions in single sign-on, role-based access control, and the security of documents, applications and transactions.

SECUDE is a member of IT SEC SWISS AG and was founded in 1996 out of a partnership between SAP AG and the Fraunhofer Institute in Darmstadt, Germany. This partnership resulted in the Secure Network Communication (SNC) module for SAP AG. Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, we have a worldwide customer base and offices in the USA, Germany, Netherlands, Spain and United Arab Emirates.

For further information, please consult www.secude.com

About Siemens

Siemens Medical Solutions (Med) is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry. The company is known for bringing together innovative medical technologies, healthcare information systems, management consulting, and support services, to help customers achieve tangible, sustainable, clinical and financial outcomes. From imaging systems for diagnosis, to therapy equipment for treatment, to patient monitors to hearing instruments and beyond, Siemens innovations contribute to the health and well-being of people across the globe, while improving operational efficiencies and optimizing workflow in hospitals, clinics, home health agencies, and doctors' offices. Employing approximately 33,000 people worldwide and operating in more than 120 countries, Siemens Medical Solutions reported sales of EUR 7.6 billion, orders of EUR 8.6 billion and Group profit of EUR 976 million for fiscal 2005 (September 30).

The IT security offering comprises products and solutions that ensure confidentiality, integrity, reliability and availability of information and data: Smartcard-enabled solutions, identity and access management and network and system security.

Further information is available at: www.siemens.com/medical.