The Home Depot Partners With SAP to Accelerate the Company's Technology Strategy

The Home Depot Partners With SAP to Accelerate the Company's
Technology Strategy 


ATLANTA, May 18  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Home Depot(R) (NYSE:HD) today
announced a new partnership with SAP AG (NYE: SAP), the world's leading
provider of business software solutions, that reinforces the company's
commitment to technology innovation. The partnership is the next step in the
company's multi-year strategy to implement standardized systems and platforms
and build a robust IT infrastructure. The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE(R)
'05 Boston, SAP's international customer conference being held May 17-19.

The partnership will provide significant opportunity for The Home Depot to
utilize SAP's solutions to enhance its retail operations and support its other
growth businesses. Implementation of the new software solutions and platforms
will ultimately provide specialized merchandise assortments and promotions at
the individual store level, increase operational flexibility by providing a
common platform to grow the business, and significantly improve visibility and
efficiency throughout the supply chain.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030502/HOMEDEPOTLOGO )

"By leveraging the expertise and global leadership of SAP, we will accelerate
our ability to bring new solutions to our associates, and provide better
choices and services for our customers," said Bob DeRodes, executive vice
president and CIO at The Home Depot. "We want the very best technology
available to enhance our overall performance and provide a flexible platform to
support expansion in a variety of new formats."

To execute this strategy, The Home Depot will work with SAP to deploy an
enterprise suite of software products, based upon the SAP for Retail industry
solution portfolio, to enhance the company's merchandising and supply chain
activities. The Home Depot will become an SAP Global Alliance Account and will
serve as SAP's retail sector "lighthouse" account, enabling the two companies
to partner in the research and design phase of new capabilities to stay ahead
of marketplace demands and create unique, highly flexible applications.

"As the leading provider of business solutions to retail businesses here in the
North American market and globally, SAP is proud to work with The Home Depot to
enhance its capabilities to meet the current and future demands of the
marketplace," said Bill McDermott, president and CEO of SAP America and
corporate officer of SAP AG. "Our partnership with The Home Depot demonstrates
a joint commitment to industry-specific experience and solutions, enabling SAP
to support mission-critical processes in the retail industry."

This partnership continues a long line of technology investments recently made
by The Home Depot. The company is the first in the home improvement industry to
deploy self-checkout, with more than 1,000 stores equipped with
"do-it-yourself" checkout stands. Other initiatives include a range of
technology rollouts to enhance the customer experience and improve associate
productivity. During the last two years, The Home Depot has installed hundreds
of thousands of new devices in its stores, including cordless scan guns and
point-of-sale (POS) terminals, and completely revamped its store network and
wireless capabilities. In 2004, The Home Depot successfully implemented SAP's
Financial Solutions, improving the company's analytical capabilities by
streamlining its financial operations.

About The Home Depot

Founded in 1978, The Home Depot(R) is the world's largest home improvement
specialty retailer and the second largest retailer in the United States, with
fiscal 2004 sales of $73.1 billion. The company employs approximately 325,000
associates and has 1,913 stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto
Rico, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. The company recently announced the
creation of a business development operation for retail expansion into China.
The Home Depot has been recognized by Fortune as the No. 1 Most Admired
Specialty Retailer for 2005. Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE:HD) and is included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard &
Poor's 500 Index. HDG

About SAP for Retail

SAP for Retail is an industry solution portfolio that combines mySAP(TM)
Business Suite solutions with integrated retail applications to help companies
grow sales, reduce expenses and improve inventory productivity. With more than
400 customers using the SAP for Retail portfolio and 2,400 SAP customers in the
retail industry worldwide, SAP is the leading provider of business software
solutions for the retail industry. Supporting sophisticated processes such as
forecasting and replenishment, merchandise management, multisite workforce
deployment and point-of-sales data management, SAP for Retail enables retailers
to achieve real-time visibility into enterprise-wide performance, customer
demands and market trends. Built on the open and scalable SAP NetWeaver(TM)
platform, SAP for Retail enables retailers to integrate existing applications
and achieve business change more easily and cost effectively. (Additional
information at http://www.sap.com/retail/ )

About SAP

SAP is the world's leading provider of business software solutions*. Today,
more than 27,000 customers in over 120 countries run more than 91,500
installations of SAP(R) software - from distinct solutions addressing the needs
of small and midsize businesses to enterprise-scale suite solutions for global
organizations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver(TM) platform to drive innovation
and enable business change, mySAP(TM) Business Suite solutions are helping
enterprises around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner
collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business
operations. SAP industry solutions support the unique business processes of
more than 25 industry segments, including high tech, retail, public sector and
financial services. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is
listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE
under the symbol "SAP." (Additional information at http://www.sap.com/ )

(*) SAP defines business software solutions as comprising enterprise resource
planning and related software solutions such as supply chain management,
customer relationship management, product life-cycle management and supplier
relationship management.

The Home Depot - Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained herein, including those regarding net sales
growth, increases in comparable store sales, impact of cannibalization,
commodity price inflation and deflation, implementation of store initiatives,
net earnings performance, including depreciation expense and stock-based
compensation expense, store openings, capital allocation and expenditures, the
effect of adopting certain accounting standards, strategic direction and the
demand for our products and services, constitute "forward-looking statements"
as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
statements are based on currently available information and are based on our
current expectations and projections about future events. These statements are
subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from our historical experience and expectations. These risks and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to: economic conditions in North
America; changes in our cost structure; the availability of sourcing channels
consistent with our strategy of differentiation; conditions affecting new store
development; conditions affecting customer transactions and average ticket,
including, but not limited to, weather conditions; the success of our
technology initiatives in improving operations and customers' in-store
experience; our ability to identify and respond to evolving trends in
demographics and consumer preferences; the relative success of our expansion
strategy, including our ability to integrate acquisitions and create
appropriate distribution channels for key sales platforms; our ability to
attract, train and retain highly-qualified associates; the impact of new
accounting standards; and the impact of competition, decisions by management
related to possible asset impairments, regulation and litigation matters. Undue
reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking statements as they speak
only as of the date made. Additional information regarding these and other
risks and uncertainties is contained in our periodic filings with the SEC,
including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 30,
2005.

SAP - Forward-Looking Statements

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are
forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995.  Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate,"
"expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should"
and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to
identify such forward-looking statements.  SAP undertakes no obligation to
publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.  All forward-looking
statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially from expectations.  The factors that could
affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most
recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC.  Readers are cautioned
not to place undue reliance on these forward- looking statements, which speak
only as of their dates.

SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver and other SAP products
and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks
or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries
all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the
trademarks of their respective companies.  Data contained in this document
serve informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.

  For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:
   Global Customer Center: [phone]
   United States Only: 1 (800) 872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727)



During SAPPHIRE '05 Boston (from May 17 to 19), to speak with press contacts on
site, please call the SAP press room at [phone]. 

http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030502/HOMEDEPOTLOGO

http://photoarchive.ap.org/

DATASOURCE: The Home Depot



CONTACT:  Paula Smith of The Home Depot, [phone], or

 , EDT; or Steve Bauer, [phone], or

 , EDT, or Christine Kluter, [phone], or

, both of SAP, or SAP Press Office, [phone],

or  , EDT; or Bryan Nella, [phone], or

 , EDT, or Uwe Schaad, [phone], or

 , CET, both of Burson-Marsteller



Web site:  http://www.homedepot.com/

http://www.sap.com/

http://www.sap.com/retail

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