The rollout is planned for completion by the beginning of 2008. ULA also will be using the SAP GRC Access Control application, which helps companies manage governance, risk and compliance (GRC) with regulatory initiatives such as the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

United Launch Alliance of Denver, Colorado, was established as a joint venture between the Boeing Company of Chicago and Lockheed Martin Corporation of Bethesda, Maryland, on May 2, 2005. The alliance combined the Delta and Atlas rocket programs of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, respectively.

The alliance provides world-class space-launch services for the U.S. government at a lower cost by combining the two companies' assets, including mission management and support, engineering, vehicle production, test and launch operations and the expertise of the alliance's 4,000 employees, all of whom will be using SAP software solutions.

The joint venture officially began operating December 1, 2006 after a positive review by the Department of Defense and approval from the Federal Trade Commission and European Union.

ULA plans to merge the production of both Delta and Atlas launch vehicles into one central plant in Decatur, Alabama and all engineering into another central plant in Littleton, Colorado. The SAP solutions will be used across both ULA facilities.

ULA supports the diverse space-related missions of organizations including the Department of Defense, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

ULA needed a robust applications system and platform that would be fully operational in less than a year. The agreement comprises SAP Business Suite applications for customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), product life-cycle management (PLM) and supplier relationship management (SRM), in addition to enterprise portal, business intelligence, mobile business and marketplace capabilities.

In addition to being selected as the software solution and platform provider, SAP also will act as the prime integrator on the project.

"United Launch Alliance looks forward to working with SAP and implementing the system that will become the backbone of our entire enterprise," said Mike Greichen vice president of Transition. "We have a challenging period ahead of us to become totally separate from our member company systems by the end of 2008, and SAP will help us achieve that milestone."

SAP solutions for governance, risk and compliance (SAP solutions for GRC) represent a key growth area for the company. SAP's solutions in this area help customers by automating their end-to-end GRC processes, including corporate governance and oversight, risk management, and compliance management and reporting.

SAP's ability to manage GRC across the entire enterprise allows companies to evaluate their processes internally as well as extend them to partners, suppliers and customers, all running in a secure environment.

In addition to the public sector and aerospace and defense industries, SAP provides industry-specific GRC solutions for customers in diverse sectors, including automotive, banking, chemicals, oil and gas, high-tech and consumer- product industries.

"Our work with ULA is a prime example of 'co-innovation,' the ability of different companies and vendors to combine their expertise into something distinctly new and creative," said Patrick Bakey, president, SAP Public Services Americas, headquartered in Washington, D.C. "We are helping create a whole that is much greater, much more efficient than, the sum of its parts."

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