SAP adding e-procurement software firm

In an attempt to make its e-procurement solutions more robust and appealing

to federal customers, SAP Public Sector and Education Inc. is acquiring

Procurement Automation Institute Inc., the company announced Thursday.

PAI's automated procurement package, IPRO, is used by more than 20 federal,

state and local government customers. The IPRO software features a customized

"knowledgebase" to deal with government agencies' unique purchasing policies

and procedures.

"PAI has been a complimentary software partner of ours for about a year

and a half," Tom Shirk, president of SAP Public Sector and Education, said

at the company's e-government symposium in Washington, D.C., Thursday. "This

allows us to add contract management to mySAP.com...with the goal of one

procurement solution with a government twist."

The mySAP Workplace business platform is the company's "outside-in"

approach to the government space, Shirk said. State governments, including

SAP's largest state customer — Pennsylvania, and its 90,000 users — are

adopting mySAP Workplace for services ranging from financial management,

logistics and human resources to customer relationship management and integration

with non-SAP components.

PAI is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Digital Systems International Corp.,

an e-government solutions firm based in Arlington, Va. The company's federal

customers include the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education and

State, the U.S. Postal Service and NASA.

SAP is expected to complete its acquisition of PAI by the end of the

year.