Software AG: Europe's Silicon Valley - Delivering Sustainable Economic Growth is the Agenda

DARMSTADT, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Europe's largest software cluster held its third annual forum in Darmstadt, near Frankfurt, on August 25th. The Software Cluster Forum brought together over 400 delegates, including Europe’s largest software companies such as SAP AG and Software AG, leading representatives from the Federal and Hessen State Governments as well as speakers from education and science. Central to the agenda was “software innovation for the digital enterprise”: how today’s enterprise software must deliver sustainable economic development, increasing productivity and growth, while minimizing resource consumption. The forum also focused on other resource issues affecting both the German and European software industries. These include improving access to venture capital for startups, guaranteeing the availability of highly qualified software engineers in the immediate future and how small to medium software companies can use the cluster to accelerate their growth.

“Software Cluster“, Europe’s largest software cluster, won the German Federal Government’s “Cluster of Excellence”

“A prosperous software industry is fundamental to the future economic success of Europe. The significance of this Forum has to be seen in this context” said Software AG CEO, Karl-Heinz Streibich. “Today we are focusing on educating an additional 5,000 highly qualified software engineers over the next five years and easing the access to venture capital for startup companies. This demonstrates that the software industry is taking the initiative in ensuring its own success. I also acknowledge the significant support we receive from our universities and both regional and national Government.”

Germany’s Rhein-Main-Neckar region is Europe’s largest software cluster with €12.5 billion in software-related revenues in 2009. There are over 5,000 software companies in the region. With €2.4 billion in revenues for 2009, the Paris region is ranked second ahead of London.

“Our focus today is on the Rhein-Main-Neckar region but the issues we are addressing are relevant across the whole of the industry”, said Cluster spokesman Prof. Dr. Lutz Heuser. “The strength of the software industry is a pan-European issue and must be addressed at a European level. The software industry must be a major source of Europe’s future prosperity. In the Rhein-Main-Neckar region we have a history of producing enterprise software and that remains our focus. But we are fully open to international cooperation, on a global basis, in further developing this strategic industry”.

The term “emergent software” stands for a new category of distributed, innovative information systems that evolve across companies from the interaction of individual components and services on the Internet and thus have a higher-quality performance capability. This is expected to significantly increase value creation in the application industries. Emergent software dynamically adapts to the requirements of the market and of the business environment, supports complex and dynamic enterprise networks, and enables innovative services in the markets of the future Internet. This will enable software manufacturers in the “Software Cluster” to achieve a major competitive edge compared to traditionally organized, static software solutions for enterprises.

In January, the “Software Cluster“, Europe’s largest software cluster, won the German Federal Government’s “Cluster of Excellence” competition. The cluster is considered as Europe’s “Silicon Valley” and extends across the centers Darmstadt (Software AG), Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Saarbrücken (IDS Scheer AG), and Walldorf (SAP AG).

As a result more than 80 researchers will work on the enterprise software of the future in the upcoming years. A total of more than €30 million will be invested during the first phase with the overall investment volume of the cluster projects expected to reach €80 million.

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About Software AG (FWB:SOW)

Software AG is the global leader in business process excellence. Our 40 years of innovation include the invention of the first high-performance transactional database, Adabas; the first business process analysis platform, ARIS; and the first B2B server and SOA-based integration platform, webMethods.

We are unique in offering the world’s only end-to-end – and easiest to use – business process management (BPM) solutions, with the lowest total cost of ownership. Our industry-leading brands, ARIS, webMethods, Adabas, Natural and IDS Scheer Consulting, represent a unique portfolio for: process strategy, design, integration and control; SOA-based integration and data management; process-driven SAP implementation; and strategic process consulting and services.

Software AG had revenues of €847 million in 2009 and has more than 6,000 employees serving 10,000 enterprise and public institution customers across 70 countries. Our comprehensive software and services solutions allow companies to continuously achieve their business results faster. The company is headquartered in Germany and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (TecDAX, ISIN DE 0003304002 / SOW).

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