Another SAPPHIRE NOW and ASUG in the rearview mirror ... and I have the blisters on my feet to prove it. This year's event had a good blend of high-level big-impact news and tactical user-level information that should keep everyone in the ecosystem satisfied. At least for now. Here's a few notes.
On the big-bang news side of things, SAP made a few major announcements at SAPPHIRE NOW. They include:
SAP Business Suite on HANA is now Generally Available to customers. As Hasso Plattner said in his keynote, "It's no longer about HANA, but the applications on top of HANA."
Release of SAP Fiori, a collection of 25 apps that are focused on renewing the user experience for the most common business functions, such as workflow approvals, information lookups and self-service tasks. They're device-agnostic-- meaning they can be used on mobile devices and desktops using browsers that support HTML5. As CTO Vishal Sikka pointed out, Fiori means flower in Italian, and flowers are "the perfect blend of mathematics and design" in nature. (That imagery figured heavily in Sikka's portion of the keynote.)
Announcement that SAP HANA is "no longer a little girl" by Sikka. (Note to SAP communications: That "little girl" metaphor's getting a little...uncomfortable. Just sayin'.)
But in addition to the big-splash keynote news, there were demos galore on the show floor and SAP continues to do a great job of making its technology available to everyone interested, from customers to partners to analysts and media. (I think some folks in the ecosystem might be a bit spoiled by SAP's openness in this area -- not all companies do this).
And the ASUG sessions up on the South Concourse provided a plethora of customer experience presentations across a wide variety of topics. In addition to what I outlined here I caught sessions on super user programs, IT testing practices, experiences in the early adoption of SAP HANA, best practices in deploying RDS, and best practices in educating SAP user base, all led by real SAP customers who were very frank about their experiences.
And in addition to all of that, here's a few of my personal notes from the week:
SuccessFactors CEO Lars Dalgaard was not at the conference because his "superdad" passed away and he was back in Denmark with family sharing the LarsLuv where it was needed most this week. (I did like the video he provided that compared the "promises" he made on the SAPPHIRE NOW stage last year to the results today. Fact checking himself--nice touch.)
SAP is continuing to stick its toe in the B2C water, which will be interesting to watch in the future. Right now, it still feels like.. a toe in the water.
At the risk of sounding like a blue kool-aid addict, I really like the keynote progression at the event. Bill McDermott's sports-related keynote on Tuesday got things off to a fun start. Jim Hagemann Snabe's more product and strategy focused keynote on Wednesday gives the roadmap junkies what they're looking for. And Hasso Plattner's professorial presentation on Thursday transitioned to Vishal Sikka's always engaging talk has a really nice "flow" to it.
The annual press event Wednesday night at the Harley-Davidson factory had a great "vibe" to it as well, although the length of the bus ride out there did have more than a few of us paranoid press types wondering if we had got on the wrong bus and were heading to a bingo weekend in Boca or something.
Dark data is the new old buzzword. If you've been around a while, it's not new to you.
Twitter continues to grow in the ecosystem. If I'm going to continue to live tweet keynotes, I'm going to have to run my iPhone on HANA.
A couple years ago, the question in mobility was if the iPad was going to be an effective tool for business. Yeah, we have our answer now.
The Ariba crew gets the most “road warrior” points. Last week Ariba LIVE in DC. This week SAPPHIRE NOW in Orlando. Next week, Ariba LIVE in Berlin. These folks understand to grow a network you gotta rack up some frequent flyer miles, that’s for sure.
Well if it was customer benchmarking you were looking for, you got your iPad full today. The morning keynote hosted by SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott and his surprise guest host featured three unique SAP customers. (For more on that, check out Ken Murphy's review of it here).
After the keynote, the trio of SAP customers -- Under Armour, NBA, and the 49ers -- joined McDermott for a press conference where the customers elaborated a bit on what they hoped to get from their SAP solutions. Sports fans, they said, are now consuming these sports through data, as much as by watching the games. Fantasy sports, gambling, even apparel purchases are all driven by data. So providing more of that data to sports fans will only increase fan loytalty. Whether it's draft data or biometric data direct from the players, these companies are looking into new ways of using this data to increase customer (aka fan) engagement.
But the keynote panel was only the start of the customer best practices. The ASUG sessions over on the South Concourse were packed with useful case studies on a variety of topics. Aerospace firm Rockwell Collins described its user training strategy which included establishing a change management office in the company.
Entegris' Helen Frericks outlined the proper care and feeding for a successful super user program, providing a six-point plan to rebuilding your super user program. "Super users are often the first to get hired by other companies," she said. "Some don't get used after go-live and get bored and don't volunteer the next time around."
Dutch brewing giant Heineken provided a detailed look at its SAP testing strategy in another session, providing seven testing principles it used to standardize its programs.
The ASUG keynote wrapped up the day and author Seth Godin provided his very unique take on...human behavior? It was an engaging and active presentation to end an engaging and active day.
In this interview recorded live at GRC 2013, Steve Biskie of High Water Advisors provides his take on the newly released SAP Fraud Management application powered by SAP HANA, which was unveiled at GRC 2013. Biskie also gives his advice on who in the organization should review the SAP instance in preparation for an audit and how to use SAP solutions to detect SOD violations before an auditor does. To find out more about GRC 2013 in Amsterdam in June, visit this site.
Anyone involved in the SAP world has no doubt heard a lot and has probably been talking a lot about SAP HANA, SAP's in-memory solution. With SAPPHIRE NOW coming up there's sure to be even more news about the latest innovations fueled by SAP HANA, and rightfully so. I'm not going to take down any kittens here, but SAP HANA really is that innovative of a technology with direct benefits to a number of business processes and industries.
The next step for you, the SAP customer, is to determine how this technology applies to your business and processes. There's a LOT of information out there about SAP HANA, and while I'm all for more information, I also know information overload can lead to avoidance.
But when you really get down to it, to effectively evaluate any technology, there are three perspectives you really need to get beyond those of your own company.
The vendor's perspective. You need to understand how the vendor describes the technology, its value, and evaluate the vendor's commitment to the technology.
The customer's perspective. There is perhaps no better way to find out if a technology is right for you than benchmarking with some current users of the technology.
An independent third-party's perspective. You need a knowledgeable person with no skin in the game to give you the no-holds-barred perspective on a technology.
Finding and gathering those perspectives for SAP HANA might be a lot of work for the average SAP customer. To make it easier for SAP customers to get the full 360-degree view of SAP HANA the editors of SAPinsider and insiderPROFILES have teamed up to compile an entire issue dedicated to SAP HANA and provide all three of those perspectives in one package.
To provide the vendor's perspective, Steve Lucas, Executive Vice President of Database and Technology, starts off by describing the progression of SAP HANA from inception to its current state. On the other end of the spectrum, Irfan Khan, CTO of the Database & Technology division, provides an inside look at SAP's future plans for SAP HANA.
"Where will this path take SAP HANA next?" Khan proposes in his article. "As the volume and diversity of data collected and analyzed continue to expand, data center space will become an issue for many of the most forward-thinking companies. SAP has prepared for increasingly limited space by o ffering applications powered by SAP HANA in the cloud."
To supplement those perspectives, Dan Kearnan, Senior Director of Marketing for SAP HANA, provides a detailed breakdown of the most current SAP HANA use cases (see an exclusive interview with Kearnan below) while Ron Wessels, Senior Director, outlines the SAP Startup Focus program and how it’s fueling the future of SAP HANA.
But while vendor perspectives are important, real-world customer experience is what really tells the story of a technology. To provide that perspective, this issue includes case studies from companies in a wide swath of industries and experience levels. From early adopters of SAP HANA including Medtronic and Surgutneftegas, to more recent implementors such as WeissBeerger, The Globe and Mail, Eby-Brown, ARI, and Colgate-Palmolive.
And who better to provide the independent analyst's perspective than Joshua Greenbaum. True to form, Greenbaum provides an extremely well-informed perspective on SAP's in-memory journey and value, as only he can.
Like any technology, SAP HANA is going to change, grow, and find new applications as creative users and developers get more access. This special edition provides a snapshot in time, detailing the growth of SAP HANA and how it is being used today while providing a sneak peek at where SAP HANA may go next.
Bonus for Insider Learning Network members! Watch this exclusive interview with Dan Kearnan of SAP recorded live at BI 2013 in Las Vegas. Kearnan candidly discusses adoption rates, misconceptions and implementation tips for SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA.
In this interview from the sidelines of GRC 2013, Kurt Hollis of Deloitte Consulting provides advice for optimizing the sizing and improvement of your SAP GRC 10 environment. From rule sets to profiles and workflows for Access Control and Process Control, Hollis provides expert suggestions for GRC administrators.
If I asked you what percent of companies that implement business intelligence solutions admit that they have no strategy in place for the use of those solutions, what would you guess? (Answer will come later in this blog post).
While conducting a recent project for insiderRESEARCH about the adoption of business intelligence solutions, I learned that a surprising (at least surprising to me) number of organizations implement BI without a formal strategy and others without a formal training program. The not-so-surprising result is that many companies say their BI users don't have the skills required to make the most of BI solutions and they struggle with user adoption, despite increasing numbers of companies implementing BI.
I know what you're thinking right now. You might be thinking "Who are those messed up companies? Glad I don't work THERE!" But the truth is (insert ominous tones) it could be your company (insert sudden flash of organ music).
It IS scary. This research showed there is a disconnect at many companies between what's going on in the back and the front end of the organization when it comes to business intelligence. If you're in the IT organization you may well be up to your eyeballs in or recently completed an SAP BusinessObjects implementation (and plenty of you are according to our survey). That's a lot of work. You guys are doing a good job, the research shows, at migrating to BOBJ, evaluating and implementing solutions, and at the technical integration steps. It's all coming together nicely on the back end.
But many business users or organizatins still aren't clear on how to use these new solutions in their daily processes. Or put another way, the right use cases aren't being identified early enough at these organizations to drive adoption and training.
If you're in the IT organization, you might find that hard to understand, but here's the thing -- you probably LIKE new technology. In fact, I know you do. I sit next to you at conference sessions and notice you perking up for the demos of the new solutions. But the average business user is the opposite. They need to know why they should use this new system and possibly change a decade-old process waaay BEFORE they even log on to this new system.
"But Dave, how can I help? I really don't interface with business users very often."
Well, I'd argue that it's in your best interest and everyone's best interest to change that, or at least make the most of whatever interaction you have with business users. Because the adoption and success rate of any IT project has a a big impact on 1. the business 2. the perception of the IT organization 3. maybe even on the budget for the IT organization.
So at the very least, asking the questions about user training strategy, about use case and business drivers while you're working with business-side contacts is worth the effort. (Take it from a guy who asks questions for a living, I'm a firm believer that asking seemingly obvious questions can sometimes produce less-than-obvious answers--or no answer at all.)
Because more than half of you -- yes more than half -- said you don't think your users have the skills to make the most of the BI solutions you're implementing and more than a third of you said user understanding and adoption was the biggest challenge to expanding BI initiatives.
And now, as promised, I'll tell you that 15% of organizations using business intelligence say they don't have a formal strategy in place for its use, including some very mature users. Surprised? Maybe not? As always, I welcome your comments.
For the SAP ecosystem, the 2013 conference and tradeshow season is in full swing. Here at SAPinsider, we just wrapped up our third batch of co-located conferences in Las Vegas and we're gearing up for our European SCM/CRM, HR, and BI/FIN/GRC/Admin events in Prague and Amsterdam. In between, many of us will shoot down to that little shindig in Orlando, the SAPPHIRE Now and ASUG annual conference in May.
I'm getting frequent flier miles just thinking about it. Whether you're an SAP employee, customer, partner, or influencer, you've probably bought a plane ticket somewhere in the past couple months.
But for those of you who couldn't make it to our US-based events this spring (or even those that could but couldn't catch the keynote presentations -- they were, after all, bright and early in Las Vegas) we've done you a favor and posted the keynote presentations here on the Insider Learning Network. Access to these keynote videos is free for all members of the Insider Learning Network.
Click here to watch the SCM 2013 keynote "Ready … Set ... Reinvent —Your Business Now and for the Future" featuring Steve Lucas, EVP and GM, SAP Database & Technology, SAP
Click here to watch the HR 2013 keynote "The Digital Transformation of People Management" featuring Debra D’Agostino, Editorial Director of Thought Leadership for Oxford Economics, and David Ludlow, SAP Group Vice President for Line of Business Solutions – HR
And as a reminder, if you did attend any of these events in person, you can download all of the presentation slides here on the Insider Learning Network. Just login and click on the "conference materials" button on the right.
For those of you who didn't spend your college years reading essays by dead guys, here's a little tidbit about one of the most heralded American writers: While Henry David Thoreau is best known for his work Walden, writting while living in the Walden Woods, the drivers behind that work are really applicable to the IT organization today. You see, even back in the mid-1800s, Henry thought life was getting too complicated and he was hell bent on simplifying life at all turns (hence the hermit gig).
For example, in an 1848 letter, Thoreau wrote: "When the mathematician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all incumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms. So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real."
Now take that last sentence and substitute "your company's IT infrastructure" for "problems of life" and re-read it. "Distinguish the necessary and the real." It's admittedly a long way to go to make a point, but I feel good that I'm putting that minor in literature to good use!
The idea of simplifying your IT landscape is winning converts from finance to IT, from consultants to vendors. No matter how big or small your organization you've likely seen new IT solutions or configurations introduced for a niche, specific purpose. And while their value might be justified in that moment, when they are added to a growing pile of other niche IT solutions, the value vs. cost/maintenance equation weighs heavily on the scales. To Henry's point -- if you continue to accumulate without discarding anything the complexity increases quickly. And when you start building customized solutions the complexity ramps up even more quickly. How often have you heard this: "Well, I'm not sure why that system is configured that way because the person who built it left the company five years ago..." (Too much customization = CIO going to live in the woods).
"But Dave, my IT infrastructure is so complex, I don't know where to begin! What do I do?"
Last week the Boston Consulting Group put out a useful report on this topic listing six levers you can pull for "reining in IT complexity." And while they didn't quote a single transcendentalist, BCG's first point is increase visibility so that cost vs. business value tradeoff can be made clearly. Other recommendations include reducing not only unnecessary applications but also unnecessary configurations. Ahh..Henry would be beaming.
"But Dave, we run SAP so it has to be complex, right?"
Well yes and no. I don't think anyone will tell you any ERP system is a simple IT solution. The business needs it serves are too great. But at the same time, there are steps to take to simplify your SAP landscape. In fact, one of SAP's major focus areas right now -- SAP HANA -- not only speeds things up, but it simplifies the IT administration by reducing the number of layers in an enterprise technology stack.
Sam Sliman, president of SAP partner Optimal Solutions, puts it this way in a recent blog post: "A truly great SAP-based architecture should banish complexity to the extent possible in order to minimize TCO and lay down a reliable backbone for an organization. This is why every SAP customer should be paying close attention to SAP HANA. In a very real way, HANA has the potential to dramatically simplify enterprise architecture, reinforce stability and generate big savings as a result."
There are many other sound bites from SAP exectuives, customers and partners conveying similar sentiments about SAP HANA and I heard plenty of them at BI 2013 last week. So while it's not THE benefit of SAP HANA, it's definitely something to put in the "pros" column if you're evaluating SAP HANA for your business.
Lastly, I'd just emphasize that simplifying your IT infrastructure requires a true commitment. It's not a short-term, low-hanging-fruit kind of project, but a long-term methodology -- a way of life, so to speak. Sort of like going to live in the woods alone. (And yes, I'm sure some other literature minor here in Boston is going to point out that Henry's cabin was only about 1/2 mile from his mother's house in downtown Concord, but I couldn't resist the metaphor).
Got simplification tips or resources of your own? Post them here.
As I wrap up the last day of the SAPinsider Financials, GRC, BI and Admin conferences, I'm reflecting on an interesting point. While most of my notes from the sessions are dominated by phrases like "planning to move to BI 4.0" or "needed solution to gain deeper visibility into invoices" every once in a while I come across a note referring to the "human factors" of an IT project in one way or another. And it reminds me (and hopefully you) that in the middle of all the IT we've heard about this week--and there were plenty of screen shots, demos, roadmaps--at the end of it all, the goal of all this IT is to help a human being in front of a screen (end user) perform a function.
For example, during the Financials 2013 keynote, just after the solution map, but before the demos got rolling, speaker Joel Bernstein reminded attendees about the intersection of IT and human beings when he said, "I cannot underestimate the importance of change management." A very human concern for IT organizations.
During her Financials 2013 session on implementing SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, Kathy Calvert of PepsiCo took time to emphasize the importance of identifying a BPC owner in the organization who is equally comfortable talking with IT and finance. Our ability to communicate is, of course, one of the things that makes humans human, isn't it?
In a GRC 2013 session this morning, PwC's Jonathan Levitt discussed best practices for using Emergency Access Management (or Firefighter as you might call it) and you know what--it's all about humans. Which human (user) should have access to what functionality and for which scenario. In fact, Levitt used a decidedly human metaphor to get his point across. "An effective Firefighter strategy is like making a stew--you need all the right ingredients or it won't taste right," he said.
I just got out of a BI 2013 session on 3M's move to BI 4.0 and sure enough, that move was heavily driven by two user requests: "Users were demanding more analytics and mobile access," said speaker Jeffrey Robinson. And 3M might know more about humans than most companies. Robinson said every person on the planet touches a 3M product every day. (And their IT organization, by the way, plans to have 60,000 humans/users up and running on BI 4.0 before it's all done).
And speaking of humans, thanks to all the humans (presenters and experts) that stopped by the SAPinsider booth to sit for interviews on camera. We'll be posting those interviews in coming weeks across our various web sites (SAPexperts, SAPinisder, insiderPROFILES and here on the Insider Learning Network) so check back.
And a big congrats to all of the humans (my colleagues) on the SAPinsider staff for producing such a great event(s) here at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It's not always easy to focus on business in Las Vegas for a number of very human reasons. In fact, as I write this blog at 11 a.m., there's house music thumping and a crowd of humans (partyers) dancing and drinking at the pool below. But our conference team is like a keenly-focused, well-oiled machine from top to bottom.
Lastly, I hope all of you humans (attendees) have gotten what you came for here at Finacials, GRC, BI and Admin. From the many discussions I've had with attendees and presenters, it seems you have.
Now if you'll excuse me, after a week straight here in the conference center (conferece decathalon personal best achieved, for those keeping track), it's time to go do what humans do here in Las Vegas--wander the strip for a few hours aimlessly.
We're heading into the third full day of conference sessions here at the SAPinsider Financials, GRC, BI and Admin 2013 conferences, and I've already heard a number of great case study presentations from a wide range of industries addressing a variety of SAP solutions. (Kudos to SAPinsider conference producers here Bridget Kotelly, Allison Martin, and rookie of the year Matt Moore.) Some of the case studies focus on more technical tips and include demos and screen shots, while others dive into the business case and user training strategies.
Here's a quick-hit look at some of the ones I've caught already:
How PepsiCo went global with BPC: Speaker Kathy Calvert described how PepsiCo worked with partner TekLink to add BPC to its ERP implementation project late in the game, which turned out well, but presented some challenges. "It was hard because we on the BPC team had to sort of guess what the foundation layer was going to look like," she said, adding. "I'd recommend waiting for the ERP to be in place before putting in BPC on top of it." One of the most important lessons learned from the project, Calvert said, was defining a BPC owner or lead in your organization. "It should be a business person that can talk IT. I can teach a finance person the IT language, but I can't do it the other way around."
Johnson Controls streamlines accounts payable: Speakers Sreenadh Kundurthy of JCI and Brian Shannon of Dolphin addressed JCI's move to a centralized, shared services model to optimize the accounts payable process in its European division. The project goals focused on gaining control and visibility while reducing cycle time and risk in processing more than 2.5 million invoices a year. "Keystrokes matter when you're talking about 2.5 million invoices," Kundurthy said. Working with Dolphin, JCI used optical character recognition to digitize its invoices. One of the crucial steps was to have the purchasing team work with suppliers on submitting invoices in a format that could be easily read by the OCR solution. By integrating solutions from several SAP partners, JCI's invoice approvers can now see the invoices and approve them without having to go into SAP, while vendors can also view and track their invoices through a vendor portal.
Great West Financials on cost center accounting optimization: Speaker Aileen Tynan provided a very detailed look at the functionality and screens the longtime SAP user (2003) is leveraging to streamline its cost center accounting. She provided some very useful functionality tips for attendees.
Financials and GRC keynote: Not all of the customer case study information can in breakout sessions. During the Financials and GRC keynote on Wednesday, Joel Bernstein, CFO of SAP North America, brought two customers onto the stage to share their experiences. Scott Waller of energy giant Royal Dutch Shell detailed his company's finance transformation, driving innovation from the higher levels down into the functions. "We use data to identify where control points can be used to avoid risk," he said. UnderArmour's Jordan Lichtenberg described how his company is using SAP Business Planning and Consolidation and Xcelsius dashboards to analyze customer profitability. They key in driving adoption for this project, he said, is using a "value" message instead of a "control" message in rolling it out.
Even SAP's risk management guru Bruce McCuaig provided some case study information of his own including how serving as a volunteer fire fighter in Texas educated him about risk management. (Sorry--you had to be there for that one).
If you can't be here in Las Vegas, be sure to follow the action on Twitter using hash tags #FINANCIALS2013 #BI2013 #GRC2013 and #ADMIN2013.
