SAP customers process roughly 50% of the world's GDP through its systems annually. Flexibility, interconnectivity, analytics and usability are key capabilities that companies need to succeed in today's competitive marketplace. Mr. Agassi illustrates SAP's strategy for enabling the "in-time enterprise" which can rapidly adapt to market demands and increase the velocity of events throughout business networks.

Shai Agassi is a member of the Executive Board of SAP AG. He is responsible for SAP's overall technology strategy and execution. In this leadership position he oversees the development of the integration and application platform SAP NetWeaver, SAP xApps, packaged composite applications mySAP SRM, and Business One. Before his appointment to the SAP Executive Board, Agassi was CEO of SAP Portals and later of the combined company SAP Markets and SAP Portals, which previously operated as a fully owned subsidiary of SAP AG. He was appointed to the SAP Executive Board in 2002. Together with the head of the Application Platform & Architecture (AP&A) group, Peter Zencke, Agassi co-leads the Suite Architecture Team, which aligns the software architecture across all SAP solutions.

Software entrepreneur Shai Agassi founded TopTier Software (originally called Quicksoft Development) in Israel in 1992 and later moved the company's headquarters to California. Agassi served the company in various capacities including chairman, chief technology officer, and then CEO. He was directly involved in all critical phases of the company's development, including its strategic plan, technical direction and financing, management of two acquisitions, and negotiation of OEM agreements with companies such as SAP, Baan, and Microsoft. TopTier was a leading enterprise portal vendor when SAP acquired the company in April 2001.

In addition to TopTier Software, Agassi founded several other companies, including Quicksoft Ltd., a leading multimedia software localization and distribution company in the Israeli market, and Quicksoft Media, a multimedia production company that ceased operations in 1995.

Agassi graduated with honors from Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, where he received a bachelor's degree in computer science.

This presentation was recorded at Accelerating Change 2004, November 5-7, 2004. Check here for the complete Accelerating Change archives.