Read the excerpt here of Dr. Berg’s conversation,  we he addresses the skills gap that is driving his new three-part BI Seminar and how rapid application development can be of special benefit to dashboard projects.

You can listen to the entire podcast -- including his take on the roadmap for Design Studio, and his takeaways from SAPPHIRE NOW -- available for download (registration required) at SAPinsider Resources page.

Dave Hannon, SAPinsider:  This is Dave Hannon from SAPinsider. Joining me today is Dr. Berg of Comerit, a well-known personality here on Insider Learning Network.

First off, Dr. Berg, welcome and congratulations on the release of the second edition of your SAP HANA book, co authored with IBM’s Penny Silvia. I know it was well received at this year’s SAPPHIRE NOW show, so congratulations on that.

Dr. Bjarne Berg, Comerit: Thank you.

Dave: In addition to the new book, Dr. Berg is presenting at BI 2013 , giving a two-part session on dashboard best practices. One of the topics Dr. Berg touches on is rapid application development.

Can you define rapid application development for folks who may not be familiar with that concept and specifically how it applies to dashboard creation?

Dr. Berg: Rapid application development is really the preferred method to do dashboard creation because, frankly, people don’t really know what they want until they see it.

A lot of people have a very strong belief that they kind of know what they want, they can write a functional spec in the traditional way. But in reality, when they see the dashboard for the first time, is when they reserve the right to change it.

We strongly prefer a rapid application development, where we basically build multiple prototypes, show it to them, get a feedback, and do multiple sessions of user acceptance testing – instead of having one at the end of the development. It’s a much better result by using that.

Dave:  I also want to ask you a about talent.

Do you think most IT organizations have the right talent in place to leverage dashboards? Or is this an area that companies need to focus on more as new solutions become available?

Dr. Berg: This is a huge gap.

Right now, I’m also teaching, so I teach the standard SAP classes in dashboarding, and what we have here is the gap between the IT department, the standard SAP processes  and the BI self-service model, where the organizations really need talents, like authoring roles -- people with the ability to build quick dashboards, put it together, and then share it across their business units. That is a huge gap.

So this fall, we’re getting together with SAPinsider to produce four BI Seminars. This is a three-day training class which is not focusing on the IT side, but the business user and the power user teams, and getting them up to speed — because there’s a skills gap right now where all these skills in Webi and Dashboarding and Analysis really reside in the IT organization. It hasn’t really permeated really deep into the BI self-service model of the business.

So there’s a gap here, and with SAPinsider, we’re putting together this BI Seminar. We have to plug that gap. It’s been IT that’s been laying back, saying “we have all these cool tools,” and then IT wants to develop this, while business is lagging behind the whole model of the BI self-service.

For the full interview, visit the SAPinsider Resources page.  

Werner covered topics he also touched on in his GRC 2013 Amsterdam session: how to re-think your approach to an integrated GRC solution suite, the latest on Risk Management functionality in 10.0 and 10.1 , advice on where and when to automate  risk management, and the business case for an integrated GRC suite. To find out more about Werner's sessions at GRC 2013, visit www.grc2013.com

Listen to the full podcast in our archives, or read our edited transcript here:

Dave Hannon, SAPinsider: Hello, this is Dave Hannon with SAPinsider. Joining me now is Werner van Haelst. He is the joint managing director of Integrc and a presenter at SAPinsider’s GRC 2013 conference in Amsterdam. Welcome, Werner!

Werner van Haelst, Integrc: Thank you very much.

Dave: Werner, one of your presentations at GRC 2013 focuses on integrating SAP GRC solutions. I know that’s an area you’re an expert in. I wanted to start our discussion there. What do you see as the benefits of the integrated IT platform from a risk management perspective?

Werner: Thank you for the question. Let’s talk about integrating the platform from a risk management perspective.

If you look at the different components into GRC, if you talk about risk management, the focus is mainly of course on managing risks, where process control is focused on managing your internal controls. And next to that of course, we have access control, which is focusing on the access risk itself and multiple access controls.

Typically, in a top-down approach, you would start from a risk management perspective and then top-down, you go to process control and access control.

Actually, however, what we see in the practice is that most companies follow a bottom-up approach. That is more like starting with access control, then the next step is process control, and at the end, they go back to risk management.

In both approaches, the top-down and the bottom-up approach, it’s important that in the end, you have an integrated solution.

Because all three components working in a silo is not an optimized situation.

You would like to have an integrated solution because it delivers synergy, and that synergy results in a scenario where your entire internal control frameworkcan be implemented and is well supported by restricting day-to-day internal controls. This is very important to understand that these three components can work on their own. But the ultimate benefit is when they are integrated and I’ll explain a little bit more about it later on, how this integration could work.

Dave: Another one of your presentations provides a deep dive in the SAP GRC Risk Management solution.

How does that solution integrate specifically with the other GRC solutions? What sort of data do they share and how can they all combine to drive a more holistic risk strategy?

Werner: If you talk about integration, then especially, the master data is a specific part of the solution --  where data is shared, where this data can be used by different components.

So if you look into master data, a typical example is when you talk about the organization. The organizational structure can be shared between process control risk management as well as the access control. Some of that organization data can be shared, but also, you have the option to actually use it only for a specific component. Compared to the old ECC way of explaining it, we called it the A and the B segments. So, the A segment is shared, and the B segment is organization-specific.

On the other hand, we have controls that can be shared between process controls and access controls of course.

The risk catalogue is a third example. This can be used by both process controls and risk management, where also part of the risks, say the main part of the risks — the header data as you want to call it — can be used by both and risk management can actually add some more attributes to the risk data. So you see, especially the master data, there is data that is shared among the different components. It’s clear that the more modules you use, the more optimal ways you can make use of the shared data.

We talk about integration between the components, especially from a process point of view, then Process Control and Risk Management, they definitely integrate.

For example, Risk Management can use existing SAP GRC process controls as a risk response. So if in Risk Management, you define certain risks, and you would like to have a risk response, you can use the ones that are also in Process Controls. Vice versa, Rrisk Management can also propose new controls that can be used in Process Controls.

So, if you identify a risk in Risk Management and you want to define and mitigate a control in Risk Management, then you can use that control as well in Process Control. And of course, in Process Control, you can set up the process to evaluate this proposed control that in the end can be used in both, let’s say, GRC modules.

Finally, risk management can also use process control evaluation results. So there are definitely a number of areas where you see integration from a data point of view, as well as from a process point of view between the different modules.

Dave: What other suggestions do you have for organizations looking to make risk assessment, risk management, more automated or more efficient in their organizations?

Werner: If you look at, for example, at customers nowadays, if they do risk management, typically, companies use emails, telephone, and Excel spreadsheets to send out surveys to ask for risk proposals.

If you compare that to what SAP Risk Management can deliver, then I think it’s very clear that more automation will definitely bring more efficiency in this process.

Think about the fact that you have automated workflows in risk management, with  Adobe Interactive Forms, you have notifications, automated reporting, alerts, all of those automated tools and functionality you have, will definitely improve your efficiency related to risk management. Especially Adobe Interactive Forms, I want to mention, is a very interesting and powerful tool that will help users to enable them to be more involved in risk management.

Finally also, centralized reporting capabilities across the whole year-end data is a very powerful tool which is available for end users.

Dave: You’ve got a lot of experience with SAP GRC Risk Management. Are there any features or functionalities in that solution that you think are underutilized or something that users might not be aware of?

Werner: In my personal opinion, even Risk Management, as such, is underutilized. There is so much powerful functionality available, where many companies don’t realize what it is capable of.

As I mentioned in the beginning, most companies start with a traditional approach from Access Control to Process Control and then go to Risk Management. Well, it would be better to do it top-down. So in that way, overall Risk Management is more underutilized.

Adobe Interactive Forms is moving forward as new functionality. And if you look a little bit more into the detail of the functional features that SAP has brought to us in the latest version that’s coming up — version 10.1 — there are a number of innovations that are worth mentioning from a Risk Management perspective is the enablement for ISO 31000 terminology support. Let’s think about ad hoc risk escalation functionality. The introduction of HANA is interesting because it can help us for key risk indicators that will bring us alerts.  

I’ll give you a practical example. If you have a project and your company running and that project has a certain budget, let’s say 100,000 euro, and you want to have an indication at the moment that the budget has been used for 80%. You want indication or an alert that you’ve reached that status.

Then, you can imagine, that’s a simple example that that alert will help you in managing the risk of that project. If you have many projects with lots of data, then those KRIs can become more complex. And HANA will definitely help us in a risk management perspective to identify those key KRIs and produce them more easily. Also, doing impact calculation based on KRIs can improve.

Overall functionality in 10.1 that is interesting to mention is the fact that there are entry pages coming in and side panels, which makes it more easy for the end user to use the solution. And finally, the whole ODP enablement, which  makes it much easier from a reporting point of view to use Risk Management. So definitely there are interesting functionalities coming up in 10.1, apart from all the ones that are already there in 10.0.

Dave: Last, I wanted to ask if you have any advice for a CIO that’s trying to sell their executive board on the value of GRC solutions to the business.

Are there still challenges in getting non-IT folks to understand the connection between these solutions and reductions in risk?

Werner: That’s an interesting question. I would say there are definitely challenges there.

As I mentioned before, I don’t think companies use Risk Management to the maximum value that it could bring. There’s a lot to do about clear communication, explaining what functionality and what can add value. It’s important of course to build the business case and make it very clear to C-level where this risk management can help and can add value.

One thing that is important to note is that external stakeholders also are more risk aware, so they ask for more explanations on how the company is behaving from a risk management perspective.

So, companies need to give more insight and have to show that they are risk aware and how they manage risk. Either it can be strategic risks, technical risks, or operational risks. There’s definitely a tendency coming from external stakeholders as well. That helps a bit. But there is still a challenge to bring this to the right level. Current economic times are not always very helpful in this area.

Finally, to include that we should try to think in efficiency and effective results, what can we bring. How many controls can you automate, how can you automate the risk management process, how can you use surveys to gather information. How can we go into a single source of truth, company-wide, that can help you manage your controls and risk in a better way.

Just to make it practical, I would say start to think big. Think about the end game you want to play from a risk management perspective. Think big and maybe start small if that helps.

Dave: To find out more about Werner’s presentations at GRC 2013 in Amsterdam, June 11-13, you can go to grc2013.com. Werner van Haelst, joint managing director of Integrc, thank you for joining us today.

Werner: Thank you. My pleasure.

More from GRC 2013

Integrc’s Tracey Rust on SAP GRC Process Control

Research: Reducing risk in your IT infrastructure

GRC 2013 speaker Simon Persin on Access Control and ensuring compliance in your GRC system

SAP GRC 10.0 upgrade misconceptions from James Roeske

Auditing your SAP GRC systems: Q&A with Turnkey Consulting’s Marc Jackson

Integrc

In advance of Tracey's session at GRC 2013 conference in Amsterdam, this Q&A covering topics such as Process Control implementation planning, how to avoid data migration issues, use of Adobe forms, performance and change management, ensuring correct filter values, optimizing dashboards, and more.

You can read the full text of the Q&A in Insider Learning Network's Compliance Forum, or read our edited transcript here. 

Matt Moore: Welcome, everyone, and thanks for joining us today.

Today, Integrc's Principal Consultant Tracey Rust is joining us to take your questions on SAP Process Control. Most recently, Tracey's role has focused on controls design and automation, and she has led a global transformation program to implement SAP Access and Process Control.

Tracey will be presenting a session dedicated to SAP Process Control at the upcoming GRC 2013 conference in Amsterdam.

Welcome, Tracey, and thank you very much for taking the time for today's Forum!

Tracey Rust, Integrc: Hi all and welcome to the session.

Matt Moore: I do have one question to start things off -- a business question before we get into more details about filter values, reporting and data:

In your GRC 2013 session, you cover typical use cases for Process Control. For those evaluating this solution, where in the business do you see PC now? Any tips for preparing for a new implementation?

Tracey Rust: The key areas are to consider the GRC maturity of the client and assess the degree of automation that can be offered -- the aim being to reduce the burden and cost of manual-based tests. This not only increases assurance but also helps offer cost reductions in control management.

Matt Moore: Can you elaborate a bit on GRC maturity and what specifically to consider?

Tracey Rust: When I say GRC maturity, I refer to the maturity of the business approach to their control and risk matrix. In some cases a client may have a very mature RACM that has taken years to refine, and we must not lose sight of that investment. Hence the automation of the manual activities can be focused on this as a starting point. Once these automated controls are in place you can then look to extend the breadth of the framework further.

In other situations, the client may be just at the start of their GRC journey. The use of the solution and its design can help them refine their RACM and take it to the next level.

M.S. Hein: Tracey, good morning.

Can you give a few tips on preparing for -- or avoiding -- data migration issues with Process Control? Thanks.

Tracey Rust: Assuming when you refer to migration you mean across the GRC landscape, then the main thing is to think ahead.

The data within PC is moved using three different tools: CLM, ABAP Transport, and manual. CLM and ABAP transports provide a controlled mechanism for migrating the data across the GRC landscape. Manual changes, of course, are more difficult to manage. I would always ensure that within the migration a full data validation and sign-off by the client/auditor is in place.

Matt Moore: With all the automation that comes with Process Control, user adoption is still critical to take you through to remediation. Can you share a couple of your best practices for optimizing dashboards and forms for the managers who need to respond to alerts? Is this where Adobe Interactive Forms can be used?

Tracey Rust: When it comes to dashboards then my recommendation it to invest the time in gathering your requirements. Make sure you really understand what each setting means. Sometime people focus too much on how it looks rather than what goes in it.

In relation to Adobe forms, the standard form covers a wide area of Survey assessments, manual test plans, and elements of Risk Management. As a result, the form can look a little complex for the user. Tailoring the form to suit the client is a good solution, but do so with caution to ensure that you are not removing things that will be needed in the future.

The use of the interactive forms opens up a whole new approach to the controls solution. No longer do you ask a senior Finance Director/Risk Manager to log on to a system. They can just complete their responses in a form that arrives via their email.

Currently this functionality does not exist with the continuous monitoring area of the system.

HeraleenBowers: Is there any documentation about best practices to integrate GRC Process Control with GRC Access Control?  Our implementations are currently separate, but we may get an opportunity to integrate them in the future, and we are wondering how to best get them working together to improve our return on investment.

Tracey Rust: There is a document that covers the details of how the AC and PC elements of the system integrate. I am not aware that this is specifically a best practice document, more of an overview of the options. There are some key points that you should always look for. The top 3 being: Organizational Structures, Connectors, and Controls.

Dave Hannon: Tracey,

Thanks for taking our questions today. I have two questions (at opposite ends of the spectrum).

First, are there any common tips or practices for improving the technical performance of Process Control? Sizing suggestions or version/integration concerns?

Secondly, when I hear "automation" I immediately think change management. Do you have any suggestions on areas that organizations might want to pay particularly close attention to -- in terms of org change management -- when increasing the automation in PC?

Thanks,

Dave

Tracey Rust: Hi,

In relation to technical performance, then we always start with the SAP sizing guide and take it from there. This is within the Basis area of expertise.

You may find that you experience communication issues for some controls, however these tend to be when a data set is very large. The key here being to schedule the control more frequently.

Yes, automation and change management are linked. I would always recommend a set of automated controls that are designed to ensure your GRC PC system stays in line with any changes to the connected ECC systems. For example, if within PC you have selected certain company codes as within scope of your controls, you must ensure you can flag if these filters need updating if a new company code is created. Automated controls can be set to do this.

Remember, monitoring by exception means they run in the background and only send something to the user if an issue is identified.

Mark Bridges: Dave,

For sizing have a look at the following:

Sizing guide SAP GRC 10.0 (Access Control and Process Control) service.sap.com/sizing. Once on the web page then in the menus on the left hand side open “Sizing Guidelines --> Analytics" to find the documents.

You will need an SAP Service Marketplace ID to be able to access this area.

The only version/integration you need to take into account is if you are looking to run GRC 10.0 with an existing Access Control v5.3 that will communicate to the same ECC systems. There are specific patch levels for the plug-in that are applied to the ECC systems to ensure they can co-exist.

Ken Murphy: Hi Tracey, how does Process Control help assess IT preventive controls and IT dependent controls?

Thanks,

Ken

Tracey Rust: Hi Ken,

That's a big question. I could write for hours!

The main value is the ability to monitor by exception. The controls, once in place, are scheduled based upon a timetable (or ad hoc if needed), but only when an issue is identified would the owner need to take corrective action. All the time assurance data is being collected.

This allows you to expand the breadth and frequency of your control testing.

The largest initial impact tends to be in the areas of Procure to Pay or Record to Report (also Finance to Manage) process areas, but controls can cover the whole breadth of the business processes.

My suggestion is to make sure you understand the key risks you are addressing and focus the control automation in those areas.

Bette Ferris: Hi Tracey,

I understand that setting the right filter controls is a key step. Can you give a few pointers on setting up and checking filter values to ensure that they are correct? And do you have a recommendation on reviewing values on a regular basis?

Thank you,

Bette

Tracey Rust: Hi,

The use of filter values is key. They define the scope of your control tests and can be very effective if the supporting ECC systems have been in place for some time and have some old data or configuration that is not used but still in the system.

The only standard way to check these is to do so manually, and it can be difficult and time consuming to do this. As a result we developed our own tool to extract these values to allow for validation.

I would also suggest a set of automated controls are in place to monitor anything used within a filter value. So, for example, in PTP you may filter on purchase document types. If this is the case you need to know if someone creates a new one in the supporting ECC system.

Rather than having a dependency on a manual change management process, you can monitor this using an automated control that shows an exception when a new purchase document type is created. This is then the trigger that is used to update the filter in GRC PC -- of course, assuming the change in the ECC system, etc., has been approved.

Matt Moore: Thanks to all who posted questions and followed the discussion!

A full summary of all the questions will be available here in the Compliance Forum. And, of course, I invite you to our annual GRC 2013 conference in Amsterdam, starting June 11. Tracey will be presenting her session on SAP Process Control and regulatory control. It is sure to be an excellent session, and attendees will be able to take home a recorded demo of SAP Process Control and a controls dashboard to share back at the office.

You can also check out our full list of Process Control-related sessions here.

And finally, thank you to Tracey Rust and the team at Integrc for participating today. Tracey, thanks especially to you for all the great advice. We'll see you in Amsterdam!

MY homework includes reading everyone's SAPPHIRE "watch list". Yes, there are questions of cloud, HANA, pricing, BI and HR roadmaps (and look out for payroll,  says Jeremy Masters). SAPexperts asked questions around mobility, and we had a really entertaining conversation, as always, with Jon Reed. (Roadmap, shmoadmap, says Jon. He wants to talk integration.) 

But, time's up! Now I just want to know which sportstars will be joining Bill McDermott on Day 1.  And for those of us back in the office, we can still follow the action. (Jon Reed shared some great Twitter tips, and Scott Wallask says just follow Tammy Powlas - good advice).

SAPinsider and Insider Learning Network together are doing our part. We're live streaming the three SAP executive keynotes, plus a handful of 20-30 minute sessions: Steve Lucas on database solutions; a BI panel with Jason Rose hosting e-Bay and others; and Sherryanne Myer on HR Renewal, among others.

Here is the lineup, times, and links. Sit back for a keynote or session, and follow @sapinsider and @iln4sap for reminders, too...

TUESDAY, MAY 14

9-10:30am ET: KEYNOTE with Bill McDermoot & Bob Calderoni
Watch live on SAPinsider

Customers, Fans, and a Better-Run World -- Find out more
by Bill McDermott, Co-CEO SAP
Networked Innovation: How Business Networks Are Driving the Next Wave of Productivity and Insights
by Bob Calderoni, CEO, Ariba, Inc., and Member of Global Managing Board, SAP AG

11-11:30am ET: PANEL with SAP's Jason Rose
Watch live on the BI Network

Drive Business Value Using the Latest Business Intelligence Solutions
Speakers: Bob Russo, Maidenform Brands, Inc.
Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, e-Bay

1-1:20pm ET: SESSION with Steve Lucas
Watch live on SAPinsider

Transform Business with Database and Technology Solutions
by Steve Lucas, General Mgr, Global Database and Technology, SAP

4-4:20pm ET: SESSION with Sherryanne Meyer
Watch live in the HR forum

Deliver a Renewed HR Experience
by Sherryanne Meyer, Mgr, IT HR, Air Products and Chemicals Inc.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 15

9-10:30am ET: KEYNOTE with Jim Hagemann Snabe 
Watch live on SAPinsider

Innovation, the Unfair Advantage
by Jim Hagemann Snabe, Co-CEO SAP

3-3:20pm ET: SESSION with NuVasive's Quentin Hurst & SAP's James Naftel
Watch live on our IT Forum

Lay a Foundation for Success with Enterprise Mobility Management
by Quentin Hurst, Director, Business Systems Applications, NuVasive
and James Naftel, Sr Dir, Platform Solution Management, SAP

THURSDAY, MAY 16

8:30-10:30am ET: KEYNOTE with Hasso Plattner & Vishal Sikka
Watch live on SAPinsider

SAP HANA Changes Everything!

12-12:20pm ET: SESSION with Sealed Air Corp.'s Rajesh Mahajan
Watch live on the CRM Network

Sealed Air Corp. Adopts SAP CRM Strategy to Keep
Pace with Changing Market

All session descriptions are on the SAPPHIRE NOW Agenda page.

Enjoy! I'll be getting my cup of coffee soon.  Maybe I can fit in a manicure while catching up on SAP's procurement strategy...

-- Kristine Erickson, Managing Editor, Insider Learning Network

In this podcast, SAP Mentor and independent analyst Jon Reed (JonERP.com) spoke with SAPinsider's Ken Murphy about what's top of mind for him heading into SAPPHIRE NOW in Orlando starting May 14.

Sure, Jon wants to see HANA customer stories, and more about cloud,  Ariba, and the new HANA-Sybase platform. He shares his opinion on the musial guests, and gives his take on the keynotes. Asked about how SAP can clear up customers' roadmap questions? "I'm not a huge roadmaps guy," he says, and tells us what he's really looking for instead from SAP. Great stuff from Jon Reed.

You can listen to the full discussion in the original podcast, or read the edited transcript here:

Ken Murphy: Hi everyone, this is Ken Murphy with SAPinsider and Insider Learning Network. With SAPPHIRE NOW and ASUG annual conference approaching, we are pleased to be joined by SAP Mentor and independent analyst Jon Reed of JonERP.com, who has agreed to give us a sneak preview of what he is expecting to see in Orlando.

Welcome to the podcast, Jon.

Jon Reed:  Ken, pleasure to be here.

Murphy:  Before we begin, I want to get to, I guess, the most important information first: Just how many times have you been to SAPPHIRE?

Reed: Ken, I don’t have a count ready for you offhand, but I can tell you I did lose count at 10. So, that gives you some idea.

Murphy: So, you know your way around.

Reed: I don’t want to date myself any further than that.

Murphy:  In addition to HANA, there are questions on HR – on-premise vs. cloud, for example – and some ongoing questions about BI and BusinessObjects tools selection. Are there any specific roadmap questions that you’re looking for SAP to address at SAPPHIRE NOW?

Reed: That’s a funny question, because I think you hit on the ones that SAP is most likely to touch on. And to give SAP some credit, I think they have made some progress on all of those.  I think we also want to hear even a little more on the combined kind of HANA-Sybase real-time platform portfolio.

But, I’m not a huge roadmaps guy, for a couple reasons I can explain.

The one roadmap I’m particularly interested in -- and that I would think customers are particularly interested in -- is more about an integration roadmap overall.

I think one of the aspects of SAP’s hybrid cloud approach is this ability to plug in different pieces of software which may or may not be provided by SAP, or may be from different SAP business units. So integration’s becoming a really important piece of the puzzle.

SAP for quite some time now has, in the guise of NetWeaver and NetWeaver PI, offered some heavy-duty integration to some of its largest customers.  But I’m looking for a bolder, more aggressive integration strategy going forward that includes things like integration as a service. So I don’t expect some kind of full roadmap yet, but I really want to hear more about this.

It seems to me SAP’s in a great position to help its customers with integrating this diverse range of software that’s cropping up in enterprises, some of which is proliferating in business users and line of business decisions. At the same time, SAP could also drop the ball on that issue and provide a lot of openings for other vendor or customer dissatisfaction -- which nobody wants.

So I’ll be watching for that.

Murphy: With a new HANA book and a new HANA magazine that will be unveiled at the show, and plenty of sessions on the topic (HANA, that is), it looks like in-memory will continue to be a big focus for SAP, as it was last year.

Where do you see SAP taking those discussions around HANA, and do you think there’s anything specific  about HANA that folks should take notice of this year?

Reed:  I think it’s interesting. SAP’s obviously going to be pretty aggressive about Business Suite on HANA at SAPPHIRE and trying to make clear to customers what some of the options and use cases are. It was announced in January, but that’s going to be a big piece.

One of the challenges SAP has is that HANA is more than just a database, and customers want to understand the use cases for HANA.

This could actually include using HANA as a platform to build real-time applications, or maybe purchase such applications from partners, and so SAP’s got a little bit of a challenge trying to help customers understand the different possibilities with HANA.  I’d be disappointed if SAP only talked about database replacement, because I just don’t feel that a lot of SAP customers are going to be in the mood to do kind of a database rip-and-replace.  

But once you get into industry-specific use cases where you can really see customers using real-time information and real-time computation power from HANA in new ways to break into new markets, that kind of stuff gets really interesting.  

So, I would guess that we’re going to hear about both, but it will be interesting to see if SAP can get across dimensions that make sense to customers because every customer’s a little bit different.

One of my hopes is that SAP will not just be talking about futuristic stuff with the Business Suite, but will actually have some customers – they have a lot of BW on HANA customers that have gone live now. Hopefully we’ll hear from some of those, and start to hear from a customer perspective what the real perceived benefits are. So I’m going to really be looking for that.

Murphy:  SAPPHIRE is a huge event. With so much going on, what would you recommend for those back at the office looking to monitor what’s happening in Orlando? Any social channels that you’ll be following during the show or that you recommend?

And how do you see SAP using social and its online presence to expand its reach for this conference?

Reed: That’s a really good one. Obviously, SAP’s going to be broadcasting a lot of the conference virtually, so if you go to the SAPPHIRE NOW website, or the ASUG 2013 website, you’ll have links to the live broadcasts of keynotes, for example, that are going to be shared online.

One thing that’s happening, of course, is that we no longer consume live events just as events; we’re consuming a kind of running stream of commentary. So news and conversation are kind of getting mixed, and to some extent that makes it really hard; it’s an attention-span trial to track all these different feeds.

But the other thing is it kind of gives you a real-time gut-check on what’s happening, and so for me I like to follow Twitter conversations about what’s happening -- especially with keynotes. If you’re on the ground at events, it can be useful because you can find out late-breaking schedule changes and stuff like that.

If you’re not at the event, watching the Twitter stream in particular can really help you get a handle on what’s happening at the conference.

You start to feel a part of things because you can ask questions of people who are on the ground and not feel as isolated. So for example, if you ping me on Twitter during the show I’ll try to get your question answered -- I think a lot of people share that mentality -- so that part is pretty cool.

The only thing I would issue a bit of a caution about is that my experiences at these event hashtags on Twitter are getting pretty polluted. For example, if you go search twitter.com and type in the hashtag “ASUG 2013” you might get a more focused conversation, but the SAPPHIRE NOW hashtag especially (and to some extent the ASUG hashtag) gets kind of bogged down. It is sometimes a little difficult to really track the stuff you’re interested in.

So a couple ways of combating that is to follow some individuals, either in a HootSuite-type program where you can track them individually, or to trim them into a list.

Another really cool thing you can do, even just on search.twitter.com, is not only to type in a hashtag but also a keyword. Type in “ASUG 2013” but also “HANA”, and you might be able to get some of the chatter on HANA from more of a customer and ASUG perspective.

That’s just an example of how you can start to slice and dice things a little around areas you’re interested in. You can even do it for a topic that might not be as full of hype as HANA, something like Workflow, for example, if that’s a focus area for you.

By monitoring conversations around topics of interest, and that will help save you a bit from this barrage of noise that comes down the channel, when  and you start to wonder, “Am I getting good information, or is this for a place for people to market stuff that isn’t relevant?” So, you do have to plan ahead a little bit on how you’re going to filter and sort this information.

MURPHY: As we approach the show, are there any other predictions from you as far as surprises in store for attendees? Anything special that people should be on the lookout for?

REED: Well, you know there’s actually some pretty interesting stuff.  One is that Bob Calderoni, the CEO of Ariba, is participating in the keynote on the first day along with Bill McDermott. We haven’t heard from Calderoni on the keynote stage before yet, so that’s going to be really interesting. Ariba is going to play an important role, I think, in how SAP’s future unfolds with its business networks and such.

And then we have an ASUG keynote that night that includes a guest keynote by Seth Godin, who’s a best-selling author around marketing topics.  My opinion is that Seth can be kind of hit-or-miss; I’m not one of those people that worship him as a guru. But especially if he figures out how to tie his thinking around differentiation and brands into the kind of stuff that SAP and SAP customers are dealing with, that could end up being a really good keynote, so we’ll have to see.

And then finally on the second day, Wednesday, Lars Dalgaard, SuccessFactors CEO, is also going to be on the keynote. We actually haven’t heard from him for awhile for various reasons; he had some family matters to attend to and some other things. I’ve been told he’s very active behind-the-scenes, but this is really a chance to hear from him.

And between those keynotes, maybe we’ll get to really piece together more of where SAP is going with cloud. Although customers may not be as concerned about this today, if I’m an SAP customer I do want to feel confident in SAP’s cloud strategy going forward. We just really haven’t heard much about that this year --  it’s been “HANA, HANA, HANA, HANA.” And of course HANA does tie into cloud, but we want to understand that better. SAPPHIRE is going to be a really good opportunity to get a gut-check on that.

I don’t know if I can comment on the music event, because the lineup is a bit out of my -- how can I put this? --  my musical comfort zone. But Alan Jackson has sold 60 million records, so I guess I have something to learn from him. But I don’t know how that’s going to go, because I’m not familiar with that lineup.

Murphy: Well, Bonnie Raitt can play a pretty mean guitar herself, so…

REED: Yeah, Bonnie Raitt’s going to come through. So as long as Bonnie Raitt’s on-stage things should be okay, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen that night, to be honest with you.

Murphy:  I’ve been speaking with SAP Mentor and independent analyst Jon Reed about the upcoming SAPPHIRE NOW and ASUG conference in Orlando. Jon, thanks for joining us, and enjoy your time at SAPPHIRE, which we know will be at least your 11^th event.

REED: At least my 11^th! I look forward to seeing your WIS Pubs team down there, too.

Murphy:  Thanks again, Jon.