SAP on Thursday reported it has begun shipping the latest version of mySAP ERP a month early. The enterprise-resource-planning application had been scheduled to ship worldwide at the end of March.

MySAP ERP is designed to help companies collaborate with partners outside their four walls, such as customers and suppliers. The features include access to enterprise portals where users can receive custom information and embedded analytics that let companies analyze, in real time, data housed in the application's business information warehouse.

Since the third quarter of 2004, more than 1,000 mySAP ERP contracts have been signed, 70% of which are midmarket companies with annual revenue of less than $1 billion, according to Ian Kimbell, VP of strategy and business development for mySAP ERP.

The application also is ready to accept information from radio-frequency identification technology. "We've produced a module within mySAP ERP that can read or write information to and from RFID tags," he says. "The information that is being written on to the tag is in the SAP system. In contrast, the data being read from readers and transmitted into your logistics system enables companies to automate processes."

MySAP ERP helps customers take a services-oriented approach to software architecture. The application is built on the SAP NetWeaver technology platform to provide cross-functional business processes, giving businesses the flexibility to sense and respond to market changes and continuously align their operations with market demands.

Separately, SAP also disclosed on Thursday a joint effort with Intel that the two say will help companies overcome common hurdles as they create implement RFID. The companies say the joint agreement introduces a new RFID concept: enabling companies to integrate RFID data directly into back-end systems.

The partnership will focus on data exchanges between readers and business applications, making it easier for businesses to feed RFID data directly into enterprise systems, such as SAP's supply-chain-management software. The two companies also say they will work with partners, such as device-management companies, so that businesses can more easily administer, monitor, and manage all their different RFID devices.

Intel will supply the necessary systems architecture to deliver a device manager through the SAP NetWeaver platform. Companies can implement the solution on any Intel-based RFID back-end hardware such as servers and front-end hardware such as desktops, notebooks, and RFID readers, regardless of provider. In addition, Intel will provide access for customers to its RFID Lab in Munich and provide support through the Intel Solution Service organization.