Bring your snarkiest snark, enterprise wit, and burning questions for one more enterprise month in review for 2023. Join Jon Reed, Brian "Brain" Sommer and special guest Meg Bear for our picks of enterprise highs and lows. Note: if you believe in the mission of this show: free/uncensored independent enterprise content with no commercial model, then consider giving me a good rating and review. It's the best way to keep the show momentum going. I know it's tedious but help us beat the algorithm... Also, you can see the slides we refer to via the video show replay at youtube.com/jonathanwreed.
Sometimes, discussions go off the rails - in the best way possible. Earlier this fall, independent analyst Josh Greenbaum and ASUG CEO Geoff Scott joined Jon Reed to try to make sense of shift's in SAP's innovation/AI strategy - and the messaging around it. In this in-depth return, things get a bit heated.
We start off with a catch up from the last talk - and what we learned from events such as ASUG Tech Connect about SAP customer priorities - as SAP tech leaders contend with S/4HANA deadlines, AI confusion/opportunities, economic headwinds and more.
The conversation shifts to a discussion of the future of SAP tech events, particularly in North America. Should/will SAP TechEd return to Vegas? Where does ASUG Tech Connect fit in? How will SAP tech pros upskill for AI, BTP etc?
The final phase of the conversation, on SAP's innovation strategy, goes off the rails as Jon and Geoff take very different positions, and Josh finds himself in an unexpected role as mediator of sorts, and calmest voice in the room. Final note: the goal here was to surface a conversation that matters to SAP and its customers. All three of us agree that customers should own/claim their own innovation agenda - the questions center around how SAP should fit into that. No, we didn't resolve anything here, but did we find some common ground? We hope this debate gives customers motivation to press forward on their innovation strategy - and to engage in dialogue with SAP and user groups, be it ASUG or in other regions.
Podcast timeline summary:
2:00 - ASUG Tech Connect and customer priorities, including AI and clean core
30:00 - The future of SAP tech events
45:00 - The SAP innovation debate II
Prior September podcast discussion: https://jonerp.podbean.com/e/the-sap-innovation-debate-hashing-out-sap-s-rise-and-ai-plans-with-greenbaum-and-scott/
On July 20, 2023, during SAP's Q2 earnings call, SAP CEO Christian Klein made bold statements regarding the future of SAP innovation - in particular RISE, AI, and why SAP's close relationship with customers, including opt-in customer data, give SAP an AI advantage (and premium AI pricing). It is our view that these statements constitute a notable change/evolution in innovation strategy that warrant debate, user group dialogue - and discussion on how customers should track these issues.
Since Klein's earnings call statements, other executives inside of SAP have re-iterated and provided more context to these statements. These points are not necessarily firm policy yet, but are definitely messaging to look hard at. Since that time, along with my podcast guests Geoff Scott, CEO ASUG, and analyst Josh Greenbaum, we've had a chance to clarify these points and press questions. We don't have all the answers, and this is still unfolding, but we now have enough information to have an informed debate with our own views.
Some of the hottest issues, such as AI pricing, reflect a surging market that has not yet gelled around the value of AI and what that will look like for customers. These AI pricing/value issues are not unique to SAP, but warrant scrutiny nonetheless. We taped this podcast as a way of letting listeners know what we've learned so far, and to lay out the questions we can pursue across SAP events this fall, culminating in SAP TechEd India, virtual SAP TechEd, and ASUG TechConnect New Orleans, which occur across the same times in November.
Strong opinions are declared in this podcast but we do want to point out that SAP may yet shift and further clarify the policies we are debating. Those customers with specific questions should not treat this podcast as definitive, but contact SAP with open questions. We would also like to thank DSAG for providing their views, some of which are incorporated here. Also a thank you to our various contacts at SAP, who worked hard to get us the most current information that is publicly available.
They may not agree with our opinions, in fact we are pretty certain they will not, but we are much better informed due to SAP's efforts, and SAP's willingness to engage in an important community dialogue. Any inaccuracies will be corrected in the podcast description, but these topics are too important to wait for perfect information, some of which is likely to be tied to event announcements this fall, yet to be made public.
We expect to regroup with a shorter podcast later this fall to discuss what we learned at those events. Finally, we did cover, in brief, our initial takes on SAP's LeanIX acquisition, though we are out of time for a thorough review. This discussion relies almost entirely on published information in our prior blog posts, and in other news stories and transcripts:
DSAG: https://dsag.de/presse/on-premise-customers-cut-off-from-innovations/
Jon didn't think SAP TechEd put enough emphasis on DevOps and AIOps, so he set about to correct that, via a roundtable with John Appleby and Brenton O'Callahan of Avantra, and Martin Fischer of Neptune Software (Fischer is also the lead for DSAG's DevOps interest group). But is DevOps even relevant in an ERP context? And what about AIOps? How do we move beyond dashboards and observability? What do SAP customers need to move forward with effective automation? Has this issue been overlooked by SAP, and what kind of educational/project content is needed? What is the future of SAP Basis engineers in this context? Do they have one? Is DevSecOps even worth a mention? These are just some of the issues the guys get into during this "alternative SAP TechEd" session.
Show notes: the company mentioned by Martin for the DevOps session at SAP TechEd is Nuve.
At past SAP TechEds, Matthias Steiner and I would typically have spirited bar conversations, or yell at each other on the patio about the keynotes. For SAP TechEd 2021, thanks to Neptune Software's podcast series, we have an informal online version of the same. These are our initial reactions only, taped right after the day two developer keynote. Amongst the topics covered: SAP cloud adoption and RISE, low-code and no-code, role of smaller SAP partners, and of course the free tier developer announcement for SAP BTP. We also talk about whether sustainability resonates, and the future of SAP TechEd. Podcast provided to our channel with kind permission of Neptune Software.
Here we go - continuing with my "blogs that matter" editions of the hits/misses interactive video show, I'll be diving into the recent milestone blogs Gartner's Hank Barnes has published on enterprise buyers, via his own dialogue with Geoffrey Moore ("Crossing the Chasm"). Barnes and I will also revisit our debate on how informed today's enterprise buyer actually is, and how customers can make better buying decisions (or not). Bring your sharpest questions for the free for all chat, this will be a good 'un.
Yep, on this edition of Enterprise hits/misses radio, Josh Greenbaum and I will settle our differences on customer success. Bonnie Duncan Tinder of Raven Intel will join us to reveal her latest research on the problematic role of professional services partners in customer success initiatives. Join us for this live discussion and yes, your comments will be a big part of this. We'll hash out the problems and shine the light on those getting it done the right way. Reference post: Attention vendors - please stop the customer success hype train, unless you have these six proof points (You can get Josh's post here too).
The Enterprise hits and misses video show returns with a much-anticipated guest, John Belden of Upper Edge. Belden has outspoken field views on transformation - what works and where companies go wrong. We'll count them down and, as usual, field plenty of audience questions along the way. In a hits/misses exclusive, Belden also reveals new research on what leads to SI value erosion - a key obstacle to successful projects. If you believe in unfiltered/unsponsored enterprise content, consider giving this show a lovely review, thanks.
Yep, this is part two of the crossover show between my guest Brent Leary's show and my hits/mises video blowout. Brent will take data privacy, and what the data is showing re: enterprise data privacy. Since it's crossover time we'll also pick up on our hybrid events and video discussion, since Brent is the enterprise video master over on his "A few good minutes" show and more.
"The dangers of legacy SaaS" is a concept I have under development. Here's where Brian and I may differ - and why I brought up the problem of "legacy SaaS" in the first place. Yep, this is a solo flight from me, presenting my Legacy SaaS methodology - but there are some vocal audience members for back and forth. Come join the chat and say your piece.
Yep, Bonnie Tinder of Raven Intel makes her triumphant return - and she brings fresh data on project success (or not), via her HCM cloud project research. Let's hash this out - as usual, bring your best questions and astute observations :) This series is brought to you commercial-free by Jon Reed of http://www.diginomica.com. If you like the idea of unfiltered, non-commercial enterprise content, consider giving this a nice rating so Jon can beat the commercialized crud in the search algorithms.
In this "blogs that matter" edition of hits/misses video, we'll dig into several of CX gadfly Thomas Wieberneit's notable blog posts. Join this free-for-all as we talk about how NOT to manage your customer journeys, why we DON'T want a 360 degree view of the customer, and why "ecosystems" are not what they appear. Sound like fun? This series is brought to you commercial-free by Jon Reed of http://www.diginomica.com.
Is legacy SaaS a real thing? Join the debate as returning champ Brian Sommer riffs on Jon's argument with a SaaS 1.0 to SaaS 2.0 slide deck banter. Where are vendors getting stuck? And why does this matter to customers? Bring your sharp questions and BS filters as usual - this is the usual jugular participation Friday show. Note: to see the slides, check the video replay at youtube.com/jonathanwreed.
This Friday, Constellation's Nicole France and Liz Miller will crash my Enterprise hits/misses video show together. Join this audience participation free-for-all, which will kick off with discussion of Nicole's lightning rod blog post, It’s Time to Set the Record Straight on Customer Data Terminology. Can we get customer data right? Will cookieless life confound marketing teams, or compel organizations to (finally) adopt white hat tactcis to earn trust? Will this dynamic duo take over the show? Will I get a word in? We're about to find out...
This series is brought to you commercial-free by Jon Reed of http://www.diginomica.com. If you like the idea of unfiltered, non-commercial enterprise content, consider giving this a nice rating so Jon can beat the commercialized crud in the search algorithms. Thanks.
Join us for this action-packed free-for-all with the always-frank, buzzword-allergic Maureen Blandford. She'll be counting down her top reasons you will (or won't) transform - and how to bridge that gap. We'll talk about the deep need for change in sales/marketing, and, she may even share a special announcement or two.
Join for an all-in chat with Josh Greenbaum on his longstanding case for "extreme heterogeneity." And that gap between what vendors dream about (account control) versus what customers really need. And how so-called "customer success" initiatives trip on this, or not. Josh also kicks off the "blogs that matter" theme debut for the show...
In this April Fools edition - Brian Sommer and I used to criticize vendor ranking and evaluation firms. No longer - there's gold in them thar hills, and we're getting our piece. There's a role for you here too. Join us as we unveil a unique proprietary system to unlock the keys to successful enterprise software projects, powered by an algorithm that has intimidated even the most experienced data scientists we've shown it to. Note: you can check the slides from this one, including the trapezoid pic, on the youtube.com/jonathanwreed video replay.
This should be a good one, as Adam Mansfield counts down his top tips for cloud vendor negotiation, as we peel back the hype on SaaS software. Time to dig into how to achieve project success with cloud vendors - and the obstacles in the way. Mansfield will field your questions- we'll also poke deserved fun at what drives cloud buyers crazy.
Jon Reed of http://www.diginomica.com hashes out what he overlooked in the last episode with Brian Sommer deconstructing cloud ERP benefits. Time to hash out what we missed last week. Jon also shares how this stacks up with different models of enterprise transformation. SAP/HR expert Greg Robinette joins Jon later in the program to reflect on lessons from a major aerospace and defense ERP project.
Returning champ Brian Sommer rejoins the Enterprise hits and misses video show to talk cloud ERP project issues, benefits, and share project horror stories. Bring your questions and snarkitude. Note: if you want to see the slides as we talk through them, check the video replay at http://www.youtube.com/jonathanwreed.
Mathew Sweezey has some of the most provocative and well-researched views on topics I riff on and critique frequently. What is his message on how marketing needs to change - and how we should be serving customers via outcomes, not (necessarily) "experiences"? Special thanks to Sweezey for stepping up and allowing me to press him into some challenging topics around the myths of AI, flaws in employee experience rhetoric, and B2B versus B2C. It was an intense and revealing convo, one where I had no idea how much we would agree or disagree.
Retail analyst and consultant Jake Knowles of BJSS drops in for an interactive, audience-driven Q/A chat on the retail outlook for 2021. We'll take on retail debates like AI in retail, facial recognition and "employee experience" versus the Amazon approach to retail workers. Jake will share what he's learning from BJSS customers, what we've taken from the virtual NRF Big Show, and the challenges for retail transformation projects in 2021. Note - this podcast series is a labor of love, to do something different with in-depth, honest/interactive enterprise convos. If you like what I'm doing here, providing a rating and comment on a major podcast channel is a huge help to keep my momentum.
Supply chains have been severely tested - but what have we learned? What does a modern supply chain look like? Is a predictive supply chain viable? No one has pushed into these issues more than SCM expert and outstanding enterprise blogger Lora Cecere. This open discussion promises to be a classic.
In this audio-only edition of Jon's Enterprise hits and misses video show, Jon Reed of http://www.diginomica.com starts out on a solo flight rant/overview of his methods on B2B content strategy and critique of hyper-personalization. He hits on why this matters for individuals and enterprises. A key issue: marketing and sales need to change, and it's a culture problem more than a tech problem. 30 minutes in, returning champ Brian Sommer crashes the show to dig into the hilarious low points of B2B selling. The guys even run through Brian's worst-of-B2B-sales slide deck (note: you can enjoy this as audio only as Jon reads the slides, but if you want to see them, you can check the video replay at youtube.com/jonathanwreed).
In this audio-only version of Jon's Enterprise hits and misses radio show, Jon Reed is joined by champ Brian Sommer and unbridled audience chat - featuring diginomica colleague Den Howlett in dinner prep mode - as we try to get to the bottom of the factory of the future use case. We countdown the factory buzzword hype, talk supply chain disruptions, and discuss next steps manufacturers should be taking
In this audio-only version of Jon's Enterprise hits and misses video show, Jon puts Raven Intel's Bonnie Tinder on the hot seat to reveal her data on HR transformations in 2020 - what worked and what didn't. We'll countdown the top HCM project mistakes - and the characteristics of a successful HCM project. As usual, audience questions will carry the day.
The audience peppered Jon with questions on this edition of Enterprise hits and misses radio, his last show of the year - as he count down the worst project mistakes and shares the use case methodology he uses on diginomica. SHOW DISRUPTION: about 30 minutes in, Jon is joined by Brian Sommer and then Thomas Wieberneit. These practitioners also share their top enterprise software project lessons and mistakes, while fielding questions and acerbic commentary from the likes of Den Howlett, Mark Finnern, and more. (This is the audio replay of the show, you can see the video replay at youtube.com/jonathanwreed)
Next up on the Enterprise hits and misses video show, we'll countdown top IoT project misconceptions and project lessons with Mrinal Wadhwa, CTO and Head of Product, Ockam.io. You'll be able to pepper Mrinal with questions as we go, as many of you know he is always bringing new ideas and important takes. (This is the audio replay of the show, you can see the video replay at youtube.com/jonathanwreed).
Join our Enterprise hits and misses video show - a free-for-all, participatory chat and countdown with Vijay Vijayasankar. We'll countdown his favorite all time blog posts and we'll mock the worst predictions for 2021. (This is the audio replay of the show, you can see the video replay at youtube.com/jonathanwreed).
Brian Sommer makes his triumphant return to Enterprise hits and misses radio, as we count down overhyped HR tech buzzwords and field audience questions on HR projects and the future of work. Note: you can see the video version of this at youtube.com/jonathanwreed.
Let's hear Nicole's take on successful CX projects - and the buzzwords she hates. In this edition of Enterprise Hits and Misses radio, Jon also unveils a new format he'll use frequently - the whiffs and picks countdown. Plenty of audience questions factor into this one. Note: you can see the video version of this at youtube.com/jonathanwreed
Let's do a Friday free-for-all on skills development, especially the impact of AI and automation. Jon fields all your questions in the hot seat and share highlights of his prior thinking and research.
In Jon's video and podcast reboot, he talks to the man partially responsible. Brent Leary is a trailblazer in enterprise video and a driving force behind CRM Playaz. How does he pull off large scale events? Interactive chats? Let's chat him up..
In this thirty-minute podcast, Jon and Brian triumph over their last podcast's sound quality and compare notes on the new rules of enterprise software. Brian warns ERP vendors of the pitfalls of squeezing revenue with hardball tactics. Jon shares enterprise weaknesses on integration that could come back to haunt cloud-happy vendors. The guys grill vendors on their subpar virtual events, but also share success stories from vendors that are delivering for customers.
During this 15 minute podcast, Jon Reed is rejoined by podcast compadre Brian Sommer to hash out early IT spending data and first reactions to the economic impact of COVID-19. The guys talk about comparisons with past recessions, and how CFOS and CIOs are likely to respond. Fresh IT spending data from TrustRadius is considered, along with industry impacts. Note - given that the recording quality of this Zoom session was not ideal, we've cut kept this podcast to 15 minutes, but may release another installment in the talk later.
The vexing problem of IoT security is slowing IoT adoption and creating waves of sensational headlines, from insecure smart homes to industrial IoT concerns. Mrinal Wadhwa and his team at Ockam has an ambitious plan to address this, but how? Via open source for one. As a follow up to last year's dignomica podcast with Ockam and Den Howlett, this new podcast shares how Wadhwa's thinking has evolved. In a nutshell: "Decoupling the secure channel protocol from the transport layer protocols removes complexity, minimizes the attack surface and can enable us to build end-to-end secure and private systems." This in-depth talk breaks that concept down in real-world terms. Wadhwa explains why this is a potential IoT security breakthrough. The guys also revisit their blockchain debates, and how Wadhwa sees blockchain fitting into IoT security going forward. An invitation for others to get involved with Ockam's open source pursuits at https://github.com/ockam-network is also included.
Continuing with their NRF 2020 on-site retail review, Jake Knowles of BJSS and Jon Reed of diginomica.com share their show highs and lows. They also talk about some retail upstarts to watch - and how some of the less glamorous innovations in logistical areas like last-mile delivery could prove crucial as retailers try to differentiate against Amazon. Jon talks about his debate with the CEO of Happy or Not, and Knowles weighs in on the missing link in Retail CX - the happy and empowered store employee. Knowles also brings up the impact of sustainability and diversity - another standout from this year's show.
After their prior podcast from Controlling 2019 on Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Jon and Kent Bettisworth move into his views on revenue recognition. How much progress have SAP/ERP customers made? What are the obstacles still ahead? They also discuss the latest regulatory timelines, and how SAP customers are approaching RAR (SAP's revenue recognition functionality). The guys hash out what Kent learned on the ground at this year's show. Before wrapping, they also discuss the degree of S/4HANA adoption at the conference, and what SAP customers are weighing when it comes to S/4HANA upgrades.
Picking up after their podcast on the future of identity, Jon gets into blockchain with noted enterprise blockchain critic Steve Wilson. Live from Constellation Connected Enterprise 2019, Jon and Steve talk about the peak of blockchain hype in 2016, and how his views have evolved since his notorious 2016 post, Blockchain: almost everything you read is wrong. The guys cover the issues with enterprise blockchains, from industry use cases to immutability to the viability of consensus. Jon also pulls Steve into settling a diginomica reader controversy over his views. Finally, Steve explains why he is skeptical about blockchain for IoT security. He also shares the blockchain use cases he *does* like.
After several years of misadventures, Jon finally gets Tricia Wang of Sudden Compass in the podcast hot seat at Constellation Connected Enterprise 2019. After hitting on show highlights, the two dive into Wang's outspoken views on the failure of big data, the profound limitations of quantifiable data, and why an ethnographic pursuit of data is the missing link. Wang and Reed turns their attention to the overhyped CX market, hitting on the problematic gap between being "data-driven" and insight driven. More data is actually leading to less insight. That's Wang's core point - customer data can drive business growth, but only if you know how to use it. Wang shares project experiences and business model examples to illustrate how companies are getting stuck. As for getting unstuck, Wang reveals some of the Sudden Compass methodology for getting customers on a better approach to analytics - a method that is about to be open sourced. Their partnership with Google, and Wang's obsession with avaiation and automation, rounds out the picture as the podcast wraps.
In the first of his two part podcast series with Constellation's Steve Wilson, Jon asks Steve to explain the thinking behind his provocative blog post, Identity is dead. That leads into a discussion of the problem of regulating data brokers, and the ongoing issue with identity management in the enterprise. Steve critiques new approaches, including facial recognition. This discussion sets up a soon-to-be-released part two, on Steve's skeptical take on enterprise blockchains. At Steve says, "We need to keep plugging away at this because there's, they're brokering our data every single day now. So we need to figure out solutions."
Live from Controlling 2019, Jon talks with Kent Bettisworth, expert SAP consultant, about the research he's done into the relevance of robotic process automation (RPA) for auditors. Kent explains the RPA use cases that are emerging, but also the risk and downsides of RPA, and the problem auditors have with "black boxes." This topic is relevant to RPA or AI/ML projects who must also get past the risk/compliance/security threshold of the auditing team. Kent grounded his research in SAP's approach to RPA via Leonardo, but this conversation extends beyond the SAP domain.
After her customer keynote at SAP Controlling 2019, Barb Rojas of the Discovery Channel gives listeners her view on IT - business alignment in the cloud era. How do you balance business enthusiasm for cloud with proper governance? How do you drive/support business change in an SAP environment? Jon also asks Barb about how her Discovery Communications teams approaches robotic process automation, as well as Tier 2 ERP during Discovery's global expansions. They also take analytics challenges as data becomes central to Discovery's business model shifts. Finally, during this Ada Lovelace women in tech day taping, Barb shares a few reflections on her own approach to leadership.
In part two of their talk on the dilemmas of the modern enterprise buyer, Jon Reed and Hank Barnes of Gartner dive right into Barnes' latest research on reaching enterprise buyers, and the strengths and flaws of reaching buyers with content. Other surprising Gartner data is discussed, including the surprising role of vendor responsiveness and why that is overlooked. The guys also hit on peer reviews and the problem of attempting to game buyers with positive reviews. The conversation is framed with this question: how we can serve buyers better, and reduce the amount of flawed and troubled projects? The final section includes advice for customers on navigating buying complexity.
This podcast references recent blog posts by Hank Barnes.
In part one of his first-ever podcast with Hank Barnes of Gartner, Reed and Barnes revisit their multi-year dialogue on the dilemmas of the modern enterprise buyer. Barnes has fresh research on modern buyers, including unsettling updates on project failures and buyer complacency. He also has fresh buzzwords for Jon to call out and break down, including "continuous buying" and "continuous customer behaviors." The guys also debate just how informed the modern buyer is, with Barnes landing on the side that "informed buyer" is aspirational at best. They both agree the vendors lack control - but still need to engage, but on new terms driven by customer needs.
This podcast references recent blog posts by Hank Barnes.
During Jon's latest trip to Boston, he crashed the new offices of UpperEdge, an independent enterprise and IT advisory firm with strong views on the potent topics of digital transformation and getting value of out cloud. During this unscripted, 45 minute dialogue, Jon talks with UpperEdge's John Belden and Adam Mansfield about the problem of digital transformation in the real world. The guys shift into cloud issues, and why customers are wary that SaaS can be just another form of lock-in, with the same licensing headaches. The conversation wraps with a freewheeling review of the latest cloud news, from Salesforce acquiring Tableau to Google Cloud's ups and downs in its enterprise push. The Bruins game seven loss the night before is almost totally avoided, but not quite.
As PowerPlex 2019 - the Plex Manufacturing Cloud user conference - kicks off, Jon Reed and Brian Sommer claim a quiet spot for an in-depth talk on why he finally wrote a book - Digital with Impact. After pressing Brian on why he entered the overhyped book area of digital transformation, Jon and Brian turn their attention to the exercises in the book. What has Brian learned by using these these exercises on project sites? How can you use Digital with Impact as a workbook to spur the cultural change needed to make digital stick? Brian also shares his recent chat with Geoffrey Moore as they contrasted their views on digital change. The guys also get into how to balance the challenge of a long term transformation with the quicker wins needed to ensure buy-in. One key theme? Overcoming the quicksand of technical debt. Note: Den Howlett has also authored a book review of digital impact on diginomica.com.
Taping outside this year with a fountain percolating behind them, Jon Reed of diginomica talks with Dick Hirsch about why Sapphire Now felt different this year. Hirsch talks about SAP's changing views on the cloud and their relationship with hyperscalers like AWS, Google Cloud and Azure. The guys hit on some big themes of a show with little hard news but many big storylines, from the impact of Qualtrics to why integration and master data are becoming huge topics for SAP its user groups. Issues from S/4HANA to indirect access and licensing news to the activist investor backdrop are discussed.
During this first-ever sit down with Joe McKendrick, live from the MariaDB user conference, Jon talks with Joe about his recent articles on the impact of DevOps, agile, and digital transformation on IT - and the obstacles in the path. The guys talk about Joe's recent ZDNet articles and why over-hyped technologies like AI and machine learning fall short without a concerted change effort. Jon keeps his potshots about ZDNet's autoplay videos to a minimum as the guys move into a discussion of the new IT professional, and the rare combination of skills that the best IT pros need today. Note: original podcast file edit by Den Howlett.
In Jon's first ever podcast from NRF's retail "Big Show," Jon sits down with Joachim Klein of ThreeKit, where the two overcome NRF sounds to break down the key trends of the show, before the podcast is finally vanquished by a vacuum cleaner. The guys discuss the next-gen tech at the show, including robotics, facial recognition, and virtual fashion assistants, before digging into the problem of personalization and the opportunities retailers have if they can conquer their data problems. Klein then shares ThreeKit's go-to-market plan, and why these seasoned retail executives have banded together and put skin in the game. Their goal: bring augmented reality, visual commerce, and 3D product configuration into the same platform. End note: apologies for the background noise, the quietest place we could find at NRF was not terribly quiet, even with lavalier mics. SOUND UPDATE: my colleague Den Howlett has edited out as much background noise as possible in this new mix.
"Up to 2/3 of all enterprise software projects fail to deliver their expected value. Will your project be one of them?" That's the basis for Jon's first-ever podcast with analyst and ProQ founder Josh Greenbaum. On some hidden bean bag chairs in the basement of SAP TechEd, the guys discuss the multiple ways that enterprise projects can fail or underperform, and why early interventions can change outcomes. Greenbaum explains why ProQ's approach, by providing a way of measuring teamwork and project health, can have impact. The guys also talk about other efforts to disrupt and improve the consulting industry, including Raven Intel. Note: while this was taped at SAP TechEd, SAP is not the topical focus on this podcast. Check Jon's recent TechEd wraps for your SAP analysis fix. Bonus: the guys are interrupted at the 22:00 mark by disruptive window tape measurers.
In the third and final podcast in this special series from SAP TechEd Barcelona 2018, Den Howlett of diginomica talks to cloud expert and diginomica contributor Dick Hirsch review the takeaways from Barcelona, and assess the progress SAP has made with cloud models. The guys discuss how well SAP fleshed out the "intelligent enterprise." SAP's challenges with developer engagement in a more open/cloud model is also covered. Also check for Den's analysis of SAP TechEd Barcelona on diginomica.com. You'll find Jon's prior TechEd Vegas reviews and use cases there as well.
In the second podcast in this special three part series from SAP TechEd Barcelona 2018, Den Howlett of diginomica talks to SAP's Craig Cmehil about important developments in the SAP ecosystem - and the changes made to the Mentor program. Cmehil talks about the challenges the SAP Mentor will face and his goal of fostering engagement with SAP executives. The guys also hit on the community space at TechEd and the hands-on opportunities intended to push the growth of new skills. Also check for Den's analysis of SAP TechEd Barcelona on diginomica.com. You'll find Jon's prior TechEd Vegas reviews and use cases there as well.
In the first podcast in this special three part series from SAP TechEd Barcelona 2018, Den Howlett of diginomica talks to SAP's DJ Adams about about how the ABAP community can access and learn new ways to innovate on the SAP Cloud Platform. The guys hit on SAP tutorials and UI development - with Fiori, and beyond into headless development. They discuss SAP's evolution to a more open platform - and the work still to be done. Also check for Den's analysis of SAP TechEd Barcelona on diginomica.com. You'll find Jon's prior TechEd Vegas reviews and use cases there as well.
In an SAP TechEd special, Jon Reed is joined by SAP Mentor Graham Robinson in the lost Vegas corridors to hash out what they learned behind the scenes - and how that stacks up with SAP's news announcements. Graham, who is an independent consultant and expert SAP developer, has plenty to say about SAP's ABAP PaaS announcement, and how ABAP on the SAP Cloud Platform impacts developers and customers. The guys also hash out the "serverless ERP" annnouncement, and how ERP functions as a service could play into running the SAP Cloud Platform at scale. The highs and the lows of the show are covered, including the keynote, and a surprise challenge to Jon by SAP CTO Björn Goerke in response to his diginomica show review. The guys reflect on SAP's change in community leadership - and the future of TechEd as SAP attempts to turn community into an edge again, after some down years.
What if HR customers had a way of assessing the quality of the partners servicing their implementations? Would less projects run into budget and scope problems - or outright failure. Well, now they do, thanks to the upstarts at Raven Intel. During "HR tech week" in Las Vegas, at SuccessConnect 2018, Jon sat down with Bonnie Tinder and Michele of Raven Intel on the day of their official launch to dig into the motivations behind their mission - and business model. To coincide with their launch, Raven Intel released a study of 100 initial SAP customers and their experiences with consulting partners and HR vendors. Jon asks Bonnie and Michelle about the lessons they took from their study, and how troubled HR tech projects can become better HR tech projects. Bonnie and Michele explain why their approach is different than the big vendor peer review sites that are picking up steam. Jon also asks about the challenges they may face as they get customers to evaluate major consulting partners that aren't used to being publicly evaluated. Sidenote: Bonnie and Michele are childhood friends who have always wanted to work together - now they get their chance. Bonnie speaks first on the podcast.
In their first online talk in several years, Jon Reed of www.diginomica.com is reunited with one of his old school guests for a fresh talk on the problem of hiring data science skills - and what to do about it. Vijayasankar details the types of data science skills that a data science team needs, and where the hiring gaps are. There's plenty of advice for individuals on how to fill those gaps. The guys also hit on the problem of algorithmic bias, and issues of diversity in data science. Note: this is the audio-only version of this chat. You can catch the video version on Jon's youtube: youtube.com/jonathanwreed.
In this impromptu/underground recording with the implausible Esteban Kolsky, the guys grab some time as Salesforce Connections to discuss the future of the enterprise. Two Kolsky blog posts are up for consideration, one on his enterprise software priorities, the other on AI misconceptions. Since this taping is at a CX event, the guys also get into the epic problem of delivering a halfway-decent customer experience across channels. Doing their best with Jon's backup recording, Jon also takes the chance to ask Esteban the burning question: why are you such a grouchy *!*. That leads into a discussion of the vital role of the enterprise idealist/curmudgeon, or, gadfly. At the end of the thirty minute chat, the meaning of the "implausible" Esteban Kolsky is revealed. Producer's note: this had to be taped on the backup of Jon's backup recorder, but hopefully the listening experience was improved decently for you during production.
In their second podcast from Sapphire Now 2018, Jon Reed and guest Brian Dennett move on from SAPpy talk to discuss Brian's startup, Enable AI, and why they are taking a practical approach to AI as augmented intelligence. Brian shares his view on why AI and ML are getting market traction, and the customer problems that Enable AI is tackling. Brian also advises on how companies should get started with "AI," and why data scientists are not necessarily required. Though this is not an SAP-focused podcast, the guys briefly touch on how customer-focused AI projects tie into a C/4HANA and Leonardo context at one point or another.
In Jon's annual Sapphire Now event review, he has a new guest, Brian Dennett of Enable AI, who was also part of the SAP blogger program coverage. Jon and Brian hash out the messages of the show, including the "intelligent enterprise" messaging and whether the Leonardo aspects actually made sense this year. They discuss Brian's pick for the sleeper announcement of the show, Master Data Management as a service, and why it matters. The guys share their findings from their often-spirited blogger sessions; Brian explains why has a philosophical difference with SAP on their "AI" approach. The guys wrap by giving their letter grades for the show, and Jon airs a couple of SAP gripes. Note: this recording was made on Jon's backup recording rig due to a microphone failure.
On the second day of ASUG Annual Conference and Sapphire Now 2018, Jon Reed caught up with ASUG CEO Geoff Scott to get his reactions to SAP's "intelligent enterprise" strategy. Scott shares his view of the conference highlights from an ASUG view. The guys talk about the challenges SAP vowed to address, including the longstanding problem of integration - a challenge heightened with the numerous cloud products. They discuss the role of user groups in project success (or not). Note: due to time limitations the guys do not get into a licensing discussion in this video - however look for more SAP licensing (and indirect licensing) content on diginomica.com, and also ASUG.com.
In this interactive live discussion from Western Mass Podcamp 2018, Jon shares his views on researching the so-called informed buyer, and why marketing and sales must change. Participants from the session share their own challenges, and Jon hits on the dynamics of winning (and sustaining) attention, and why topic authority and opt-in audiences are essential. He explains why social media is useless without content, and why content is useless without a clear business identity. The role of subscription and curation is discussed. (Jon did a related session that continues these themes with a look at the power of immersive creativity; look out for that podcast soon).
In their Barcelona tradition, Jon Reed of diginomica and SAP Mentor and cloud expert Dick Hirsch review the news, debates, and questions from SAP TechEd Barcelona 2017. They break down what they learned on Leonardo, along with questions about how SAP got away from process expertise in their positioning. Separating hype from reality includes a review of SAP's blockchain pursuits, and why cloud requires a different level of pricing transparency. The guys also hit on SAP's multi-cloud ambitions, including the Google partnership, and Jon reveals what he learned - or didn't - on the Android SDK possibility in the future.
In this live podcast from Constellation Research's Connected Enterprise 2017, Jon talks with the Teamability team about why team building is hard - and the unique method they bring. With the occasional bird chirping during our outdoor taping session, CEO Dr. Janice Presser and COO Mark Talaba share field examples and explain why the science of team building goes far beyond "good" and "bad" teams.
Jon also gets into his own experience being tested by Teamability, what he learned, and the three podcasters kick around the ups and downs of teams until it's time for Mark's Uber to the airport - then Jon issues the ultimate Teamability challenge. Dr. Janice Presser is also the author of the new book @Dr. Janice - Timing isn't Everyhing. Teaming is.
In this in-depth conversation with Paul Ovigele of ERPfixers, Ovigele gives an frank look at his goal of using an Uber-like platform to provide SAP customers with a new option to get their questions answered. Jon Reed of diginomica.com talks with Ovigele about the challenges ERPfixers has faced during a live sit down at SAP Controlling 2017. They also discuss the need for consulting to change - just like cloud has changed software business models. Jon also gets Ovigele's answers to reader questions from a diginomica piece on ERPfixers - and the guys kick around the potential of the platform, for SAP and beyond, until they run out of time.
In this live podcast, taped on-site at Controlling 2017 the week before SAP TechEd, Jon Reed of diginomica talks with Julien Delvant of Bluefin Solutions about how his team approaches S/4HANA from a business case perspective. The guys also contrast the views on HANA from the SAP finance pros at this show versus the technical SAP crowd at SAP TechEd. They debate the role of Leonardo and how the SAP customers at this show view S/4HANA. Julien also shares Bluefin's progress developing a business case for S/4HANA.
In this edited version of his Western Mass Podcamp 2017 session, Growing your business with content, Jon talks about the power of content and the impact of the digital economy on how content is consumed. The key question: how can you use content to win business by earning trust, opt-ins, and audiences? Session participants, including Claudia Gere, chime in here and there and pose questions. Note: there are a few swear words on this podcast so it's not safe for certain workplaces. Also check the itunes channel for the full podcast archives.
In part two of their live taping at Enterprise UX 2017, Jon Reed of diginomica.com talks with Sam Yen of SAP about their UX overhaul and the integral role design thinking plays in Leonardo - including project delivery. Yen also gives a glimpse into Hasso Plattner's passion for design and how this impacts SAP's UX challenges ahead. Also check the itunes channel for the full podcast archives.
In this impromptu. on-site podcast, Jon Reed of diginomica talks with Sam Yen of SAP about his keynote on driving organizational change through design. In this first of two podcasts with Reed and Yen, the guys hit on issues like the (relative) maturity of enterprise UX, and the big themes from Enterprise UX 2017, including breaking down silos. Yen critiques incremental innovation and makes the case for organization-wide design culture. Yen also gives his advice for non-designers who want to bring a design mentality to their work - and why that matters. In part two of their podcast, the guys will take a harder look at SAP's UX approach and get Yen's Leonardo/UX status report.
In their traditional post-Sapphire Now live recording, Jon and Dick once again grab an empty meeting room, but this time, they are - fittingly enough - disrupted. But the taping goes on, as Jon and Dick talk through the major themes of the show, kicking off with the diginomica.com story Dick published before Sapphire Now 2017 on multi-cloud that caused a stir. The guys hit on Sap Cloud Platform and Cloud Foundry, debate whether S/4HANA Cloud was overlooked, and break down Leonardo. Dick also gets into SAP Hybris, microservices, and the guys talk about the SaaS standardization dilemma for customers. They also explain why they chose NOT to talk indirect access.
In the audio-only version of this informal video hangout from Mark Finnern's departed treehouse, Finnern reflects with Jon Reed of diginomica on what he learned at SAP in the early days of building enterprise tribes. Now a consultant, Finnern explains why companies should be passionate about communities - not just for customers, but for competitive edge. Finnern also makes his case playfulness as a way of energizing companies and breaking down silos. The guys also discuss Finnern's keys to a successful enterprise communities, and where companies run into trouble. They move into the tricky territory of KPIs, and measuring the results of community investments. The podcast closes with Finnern's take on how SAP has handled community - and the SAP Mentors - after his departure.
In this shorter companion podcast to their longer IoT chat, Jon and Mrinal Wadhwa of Fybr discuss SAP's Internet of Things strategy. Wadhwa explains why he stayed away from SAP involvement for a few years, and why SAP's current IoT strategy has brought him back. He shares what he learned in Barcelona, and the guys touch on where SAP goes from here. As in the last podcast, there is a touch of wind in the background, but mostly the sound is good - though you'll hear Jon's business cards getting blown away at one point.
In this live podcast from SAP TechEd Barcelona, Jon finally gets his schedule aligned with Mrinal Wadhwa of Fybr, which has a very interesting IoT play underway. The guys talk about Wadhwa's career shifts, before moving to a deeper talk on Internet of Things use cases. Wadhwa shares customer projects with cities, and how those projects are designed and funded.
The guys discuss what the IoT value is underneath the hype, and wrap with some words on IoT security. There is a bit of wind noise at the beginning as the guys taped outside, but otherwise this should be a good listen. Note: though this podcast was taped at an SAP show, there is not much SAP talk in this podcast. The guys delved into SAP's IoT plays in a shorter, companion podcast.
In this SAP TechEd 2016 Barcelona review podcast, Jon Reed talks with cloud and DevOps expert and SAP Mentor Dick Hirsch about his reactions. The guys break down the high points of their meetings, with a look at digital transformation, Hybris and micro-services, IoT, and progress with SAP's Apple iOS development partnership. They also explore the question: why isn't there more DevOps at SAP TechEd? The impact of DevOps and pros/cons of micro-services are other topics the guys explore from their outdoor - though slightly chilly - poolside taping.
In this brief instant reaction podcast, Jon talks with SAP Mentor and developer Graham Robinson about his reaction to Bernd Leukert's SAP TechEd keynote. Graham also lays out the developer questions for SAP TechEd he is looking to get answered.
At the Acucmatica analyst day, Jon Reed sat down with world class event troublemaker Brian Sommer not long after blowing a fuse. Jon sees if he can get Brian worked up again as the guys review current issues in HR tech, with the HR tech event season about to hit. The guys hit on problems in HR analytics and recruiting in this fairly short but spicy conversation.
In this live conference wrap, taped on SuccessConnect day two, Jon Reed and SuccessFactors consultant Jarret Pazahanick kick around the key themes of the conference and provide a gut check. Pazahanick is known for his pesky questions, but this review catches Pazahanick in an upbeat mood. Pazahanick explains why his views on SuccessFactors have shifted, and the guys hit on multiple themes of the conference, including diversity and business without bias, Intelligent Services. mobile UX and more. The guys hit on under-reported news, keynote reviews, and Pazahanick detailed his biggest concerns going forward. Jon does manage to get Pazahanick in a feisty mood regarding ASUG's announcement of their "Partner Place" program for evaluating SAP consulting partners.
Jon Reed and Vinnie Mirchandani have their differences when it comes to the outlook for robotics and jobs. At Inforum 2016, they sat down for a podcast taping where Vinnie explained the motivations behind his soon-to-be-released book and why he is optimistic about robotics and how workers can find new ways of working with tech and alongside the robots of the future. Vinnie made his case for why alarmists aren't helping us and the guys do some back and forth over the responsibilities of workers and employers and our educational system for adapting to the changes that automation brings.
In the second of their seat-of-the-pants Inforum 2016 podcasts, Jon and Brian Sommer discuss the radical future of finance, based on Brian's recent posts on radical EPM on diginomica.com. Brian makes his case for why big data threatens spreadsheet culture, and how robotics is changing the finance profession. He brings in real world examples on social media sentiment analysis, and why finance people and CIOs have to get on the same page. The guys wrap with a preview of Brian's piece on how the airlines can redeem the customer experience with applied analytics - the topic of a recent multi-part series, "The Right Stuff" - now up on diginomica.com. Listeners who make it to the end get to sample Brian's Rodney Dangerfield "no respect" impersonation, dedicated to frequent flyers everywhere
In this informal video hangout, Jon Reed of http://www.diginomica.com talks with SuccessFactors consultants/experts Jarret Pazahanick and Luke Marson to get their views on Sapphire Now and ASUG 2016, and the key questions customers raised. The guys dig into the future of SAP HCM in an S/4HANA world, and also break down the open questions on S/4HANA that customers are asking. Because of the critical issues on private versus public clouds and what this means to customers, Jon has added an 8 minute audio postscript with additional comments and clarifications from SAP Mentor Dick Hirsch.
In part two of their informal video hangout, Jon Reed of diginomica.com, Jarret Pazahanick and Luke Marson shift their focus to cloud HCM in the field. Using their recent podcast with Steve Bogner's SAP HCM Insighs as a starting point, Jarret and Luke talk about bad versus good practices in SuccessFactors consulting. the guys hit on the demand for SuccessFactors skills, the need for independent experts, and they hit the always-hot issue of SAP certification. Note: part one of this video chat, on S/4HANA and HCM, will be released soon.
At the day one LiveWorx keynotes, Internet of Things security was an overlooked topic. Jon set about to correct that by sitting down with Volker Gerstenberger and Tomi Ronkainen of Giesecke & Devrient, a firm with a deep history of security - everything from bank notes to, now, the IoT. The guys talk about the thorny security issues raised by IoT, and how they can be addressed during the design process. Autonomous/smart cars are one hacking controversy the guys cover. They also discuss the tensions between airtight security and great UX, and what they tell end customers about security preparedness.
In this now-infamous reunion shoot, the five dudes/miscreants/wayward travelers are reunited for a rehash of the events of Sapphire Now Orlando 2016. Harald, Jon, Den, Vijay and John all have new gigs or roles since the were last together, but the goal remains the same - a frank breakdown of what they've learned and heard. The guys review the keynotes, discuss the viability of S/4HANA at this juncture, and evaluate SAP's customer-first intentions. Digital moves such as Digital Customer Insight also get the rundown. This audio is pulled from a video shoot - you can read extensive Sapphire Now/ASUG 2016 coverage on diginomica.com.
During this candid interview with ASUG CEO Geoff Scott, Jon gets the skinny on ASUG's latest collaboration with DSAG - a position paper on digital transformation that is a key issue for SAP customers. Scott shares the story on how the collaboration came about, and Jon presses to find out if ASUG endorses S/4HANA and SAP's view of S/4HANA as the digital core. Taped live in Orlando the day before ASUG Annual Conference and Sapphire Now, Scott shares his goals for the show and beyond. He also gives the view on ASUG's surprise acquisition of the U.S. division of The Eventful Group. This is the audio of a video shoot - you can check the companion analysis Jon wrote of this shoot on diginomica.com.
During this live interview, taped in the midst of a bustling Consensus 2016, Steemit co-founder Ned Scott gives Jon the inside view on the creation of Steemit, and their unique approach to rewarding/paying content creators and curators through their blockchain-based platform. He also announces the launch of Steemit.com. Ned talks about Steemit's different asset classes, including Steem dollars, and how they've sparked their launch with a Slack-based community. The guys also get into the failure of existing networks to compensate content creators, and create a civil environment for discourse. Jon also vows to jump off a bridge it companies like Steemit can't build new media models as viable alternatives to living on Facebook.
Following their annual tradition, Jon Reed and Dick Hirsch steal an empty room - or in this case, a (mostly) empty hallway - for a review of the news and events of Sapphire Now and the ASUG Annual Conference, 2016. Hirsch shares his investigations, and the guys compare notes on topics such as the HANA Cloud Platform, the SAP-iOS partnership, and S/4HANA clarifications. The guys discuss S/4HANA's viability as a digital core, SAP's cloud positioning, and how attendees reacted. Customer feedback to SAP on integration, a big theme of the conference, is addressed. This podcast leans on the technical side, which was surprising given Sapphire Now is a business conference - but even Hasso Plattner's final day keynote had an in-depth S/4HANA migration demo.
During this live taping at Collision 2016, Jon talks with "User researcher, artist, and digital anthropologist" Caroline Sinders about the intersection of UX design and machine learning. Sinders shares key points from her Collision talk on design for consent, and whether online harassment can be reduced via design. Sinders gives her assessment of Facebook's chatbots and explains why calling such chatbots "AI" is inaccurate. Finally, Sinders sets the record straight on the panel controversy at SXSW and what conference organizers should learn from that brouhaha.
In this frank/informal chat, recorded live at Collision 2016 in New Orleans, Mike Janke, Co-founder and Chairman of Silent Circle, shares his field views on enterprise security, starting with the advice and wake-up calls he gives to customers. Janke also gives a blunt take on the FBI vs Apple encryption controversy. The issue of user experience design versus security is addressed. The guys wrap with some reflection from Janke on his prior work as a Navy SEAL, and what he learned about risk that carries over into his work with Silent Circle.
Live from Advocamp 2016, Jon Reed catches Joseph Jaffe in a spirited mood after his keynote, "Using your brand to create an army of zealots." This frank/informal chat debates the pros/cons of brand zealotry, with Jaffe explaining why politicians like Trump and Obama have changed the marketing discourse. Jon worries this groundswell marketing has a dark side - Jaffe responds. Jaffe also hits on key concepts from his last book Z.E.R.O., which explore the futility of broadcast advertising. The guys also kick around the viability of customer advocates and advocate-driven marketing - a key theme of Influitive's Advocamp event.
With a soothing fountain providing Zen vibes in the background, Jon talks to fellow diginomica contributor Brian Sommer about enterprise buyers and digital change - Live from the Acumatica Summit 2016. Brian shares some recent digital turbulence and stories of how companies are losing the plot. He also reflects on recent projects to discuss what enterprise buyers need. The guys then hit on why sales and marketing is too often out of step with today's enterprise buyer. Note: part two of this podcast gets into specifics on Acumatica's cloud ERP play.
In this completely unscripted chat with Brian Solis, author of a new book on experience design, Jon asks Brian about whether experience design can be a reality given the data silos and culture issues that prevent this from happening. Brian shares his research and provides a view on why user and customer experience can - and must - change. Jon aired out a number of cynical views on customer experience. Brian's answers included starting points for customers on this new "experience architecture."
During this informal, on-site podcast taping in Boston, Jon Reed of diginomica.com talks with three members of the Onapsis team (Alex, Alex, and Dave) about what "white hat hacking" means for today's enterprise. The guys also talk about how Onapsis identifies ERP security breaches, and how they work with Oracle and SAP to make sure those companies have appropriate patches before taking security issues public.
In a special edition of "Jon and Den's digital dump," Jon and Den of diginomica.com break down three days of SAP TechEd Las Vegas. The guys assess the keynotes, the pros and cons of SAP's S/4HANA strategy, and whether the "digital core" approach is going to work. Will the "customer engagement" play work against CRM rivals? The guys also kick around SAP's progress on developer engagement, and give a final review.
In the longer, "director's cut" version of this SAP TechEd 2015 on-site podcast, Jon Reed and Dick Hirsch kick around the main conference takeaways and the S/4HANA challenge. Dick shares the main themes he was investigating and the latest on the SAP HANA Cloud Platform. SAP's open source initiatives, particularly Cloud Foundry via Hybris YaaS (Hybris as s service), are covered. The guys also set up the themes, particularly around S/4HANA, to look for in Barcelona. SAP's approach to bloggers/communications is also reviewed.
Jon went on-site to Conversocial's NYC headquarters for an informal chat with Conversocial CEO Joshua March about the viability of social channels for customer service. March shares what his company has been up to since he and Jon first corresponded and they were a "cool vendor" to watch. Jon shares his social service beefs and March talks about how social customer service shouldn't just be lip service, but lead all the way to resolution. March also speaks to CRM integration, always an issue when you pursue a specialized product.
In this extended, director's cut edition, live from SAP Controlling 2015, Jon talks with SAP Mentor Julien Delvat about the buzz behind predictive, and the guys explore some new HANA use cases Julien is working on in the S4/HANA context. They also talk about changing customer views on HANA at the conference.
Gary Cokins, internationally-recognized expert and author in EPM and predictive analytics, gives Jon some straight talk on analytics after his keynote at the Controlling 2015 conference. Cokins explains the rise of EPM, and the challenges CFOs are facing. Using memorable phrases like "management by embarrassment," Cokins peels behind predictive hype and explains the role of technology, not as a cure-all, but as an enabler.
In the directors cut edition, Jon Reed of diginomica digs into the SuccessConnect 2015 show with outspoken SuccessFactors consultant Jarret Pazahanick. The show wrap finds Pazahanick suprisingly upbeat, but there are still key issues to discuss regarding consulting, certification, customer support, and sharing and measuring benchmarks.
In the extended "directors cut" edition, Jon Reed of diginomica.com talks with James Sinclair of Enterprise Jungle live at SuccessConnect 2015. The guys chat on the value of cloud platforms, and specifically extensibility on SuccessFactors. The talk focuses on building apps on the HANA Cloud Platform (HCP) and why that has such an impact on customers. Then the guys shift to challenges SAP faces on HCP adoption, and what changes are underfoot to address them.
Sherryanne Meyer and Chris Paine join Jon Reed of diginomica.com to hash out the latest SAP HCM developments, with an eye towards the S/4 HANA future. The focus of this informal chat is customer and partner reactions and views; Meyer discusses her new role as ASUG HCM customer advocate.
In what has become an annual tradition, Jon and Dick Hirsch took over an abandoned room prior to Dick's plane flight to do the long-form/relaxed review of Sapphire Now/ASUG. Dick shares his cloud and S/4 HANA learnings, and both guys give a behind the scenes view of the challenges SAP is facing and what customers were saying. Keynote reviews are also included. Not covered in the podcast: Dick's daughter is VERY mad at him for missing the Jennifer Lopez concert!
In the "director's cut" edition of Jon's live Mobile World Congress wrap with diginomica colleague Derek du Preez, the guys review the MWC frenzy from an enterprisey point of view, and then review SAP's IoT strategy before moving on to a general talk on digital media disruptions, the state of reporting, and a bit on diginomica's own goals.
Is the show taking on a new level of enterprise relevance? Derek also shares his Internet of Things show research, and how he approaches this show from an enterprise journalists' perspective - not any easy thing to do, given the amount of media babble about the latest smart phones.
After day two of Everett McKay's UX Design Essentials course in Atlanta, Jon sat down live with Everett to find out how a developer like himself transformed into a UX instructor - and why UX matters. In this sixteen minute chat, the guys also talk about why intuitive design is a useless cliche (but not a useless concept), why all software has a personality, and why design concepts like forgiveness can change UX for the better. Everett also shares his view on why UX is gaining momentum in the enterprise.
In this live podcast recording from the New York Stock Exchange, Jon Reed and John Appleby discuss the highs and lows from SAP's S4HANA announcement event, billed as the most important SAP product announcement in 23 years.
In part two of their content strategy video discussion, Michael Brenner of NewsCred joins Jon Reed of diginomica.com to dig deeper - into a frank look at the impact of content on marketing, the role of marketing tech and personalization, and the challenges facing the modern CMO. Note: part one of this podcast, which hits on why Michael is betting his career on content marketing, is featured on Jon's new "Busting the Omnichannel" podcast series.
In the longer second part of the SAP cloud shoot, Jon returns with SAP cloud expert Dick Hirsch to do a deeper dive into SAP cloud for those who want the nuances. The bulk of the talk follows Dick's recent blogs and how his TechEd/d-code insights unfolded. The guys also dig into the surprising persistence of ByDesign, and SAP's cloud platform and open source Cloud Foundry forays.
Fresh off the TechEd/d-code events, Jon chats with SAP cloud expert Dick Hirsch about how he sees the SAP cloud at this juncture. This video is intended for those who want an overview of the SAP cloud with some context on "S-Innovations" as well - the so-called "Simple Suite". A second, longer companion podcast, "Hashing the SAP cloud," digs deeper into the nuances of SAP's cloud strategy.
Is customer experience a fantasy, or an achievable goal? At Argyle's Digital Marketing Leadership event in Boston, Jon pushed his skeptical view on customer experience with CX expert Howard Beader of SDL. Jon and Howard kick around the lessons (and poll results) from the marketers/CMOs in attendance, and talk about how data fits into the customer experience challenge. Jon also pushes the issue of the difficult marketing-IT relationship and Beader shares his own view on the role of IT as marketing shifts to cloud
In this 47 minute highlight replay from a live interactive Crowd Chat, hosts Dennis Howlett and Vinnie Mirchandani explore and debate the issues raised by Mirchandani's new book, SAP Nation: A Runaway Economy.
This event replay was prepared for this podcast feed by Den Howlett and Jon Reed, two of the co-founders of diginomica.com. You can review the text-based Crowd Chat discussion here: https://www.crowdchat.net/SAPNation
Note: there are a few minor audio glitches on the file due to international bandwidth, but I think you'll find this discussion is well worth a few blips.
In this audio combo of two diginomica video shoots, Jon first talks with Ray Wang about the future of digital and whether the Chief Digital Officer is a BS idea, or a pressing need. Then, Jon shifts gears to talk to Brain Sommer about the future of selling and why selling is changing profoundly. The guys also kick around the impact of media on selling - "stop putting, and start blogging."
In this "best of" audio from Jon and Den's SAP TechEd and d-code filming collection, Den, Jon, and the always-quotable SAP Mentor Graham Robinson sit down for a review of a hectic and important week for SAP's first "post-Vishal" technology conference.
In this informal evening chat taped on on a Google Hangout, Jon Reed of diginomica chats with Frank Scavo of Strativa about services industry disruption. First, the guys dig into "punching above your weight as a services firm" and Frank shares how his firm has been able to have success even against the biggest services firms. The guys then turn their attention to the value of independent advisory on enterprise software projects, and why it matters.
In this very informal evening chat, Jon caught up with the inimitable Dick Hirsch to share what cloudy SAP insights they learned from their meetings and backchannel digging at Sapphire Now and ASUG 2014. Dick also shares what he's learned since the show, and the guys look to the future with cloud and developer topics, plus suite-versus-platform and other questions unanswered.
UPDATE: here's the link to slides that go with this audio on slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/jonerp/digging-into-hana-roi-and-biz-case-analysis
In this informal but focused talk, Jon Reed talks through a HANA business case methodology with Tony Guetersloh of TekLink. The guys review how to move beyond HANA "speed hype" to build a project finance use case - informed by process owners. There will be a companion audio slideshare version released with the slides. Jon has no financial relationship with TekLink, this was just for fun because the content was worth a hard look.
In this informal chat, Jon talks with SAP SFSF cloud consultants Jyoti Sharma and Luke Marson about why customers are moving to the HCM cloud, why cloud consulting requires a different approach and value prop, and the do's and don'ts of successful SFSF Employeee Central implementations. A brief ASUG/Sapphire preview and SAP executive changes wraps the podcast.
In this (very) informal discussion, John Appleby and Jon Reed reflect on their 30 minute blogger conversation with Bill McDermott on the future of SAP and the departure of Vishal Sikka. (Den Howlett blogged about the call, as did John). During the podcast, John and Jon pull out the main themes from the call, and look ahead to the challenges SAP must tackle at ASUG/Sapphire - including cloud, HANA, and the field issues customers are facing, which may not be solved via HANA or cloud talk.
In this informal HANA 2014 on-site chat, Jon talks with SAP Mentor Julien Delvat about the view on HANA from a financials/functional perspective, and what customers are telling him during his Orlando jaunts and conference presentations. The guys also talke about how firms can punch above their weight with the right use of experts and content.
In this very informal sit down, Jon and John talk about SAP HANA Insider Day 1, HANA's level of maturity, apps, and how John hacks through new SAP software. Different HANA use cases are covered, including those John sees in the field. There is some debate about BW on HANA as a starting point, and HANA as tech versus biz. Plus: John's selfie obsession.
In this frank, hopefully constructive, and informal conversation on ERP project failure and it's disturbing persistence, Jon Reed talks to Michael Doane about the problem and what solutions have a chance at closing the failure gap. There is a particular focus on the impact of independent advisors and how business benefits are quantified.
In this informal hangout session, Jon talks Hana Cloud Platform from the SuccessFactors side, with SAP HCM all pros and Mentors Chris Paine and Luke Marson. The guys talk about the potential of the HCP and also the issues SAP and partners need to overcome. The show wraps with a review of SAP's latest HCP announcements.
In the audio track from from this informal video hangout, Jon Reed of diginomica.com gets the real deal on SAP Fiori and SAP developer engagement with SAP Mentors Graham Robinson and Ethan Jewett. The guys talk about why developer engagement matters to enterprise software companies, and do a gut check on where SAP stands compared to their last report card 15 months ago.
In this informal Hangout on Air (audio replay) Jon Reed of diginomica.com (@jonerp) reviews new data on CIO disruptions with Sina Moatamed, cloud practictioner and blogger. The guys hit on everything from security to whether big data is overhyped, and how overworked CIOs and IT Managers can have business impact and (address skills challenges) before they face irrelevancy. The video replay of this talk is available on Jon's YouTube channel: /jonathanwreed.
In this informal evening discussion, Jon Reed talks all things BI with Derek Loranca in a buzzword-free environment.. Derek shares the story of his company's BI transitions as well as his own evolution to a BI architect in a changing market. The video version of this talk is running on Jon's YouTube channel, direct link: http://youtu.be/zpm7Q4tLEjs.
In this impromptu and unscripted discussion, Jon talks with John Appleby and Ethan Jewett about the argument for open sourcing SAP UI5. The discussion hits on key issues with user experience and developer ecosystems that are suddenly center stage not only for SAP, for for most enterprise software vendors. There is a video version of this discussion on Jon's YouTube channel.
For the final edition of his "lost podcast series," Jon shares a frank summer podcast with Jarret that hits on themes of HCM lessons, blogging eithics, why independents matter, and some SAP HCM shop talk.
Jon has an in-depth talk with Sina Moutamed on the future of the cloud CIO and the real world impact of cloud. This is connected to a diginomica.com feature already published.
In the first of his "lost podcast" series, Jon talks devops and cloud disruptions on sys admins with Chris Kernaghan, SAP Mentor and outspoken/out-in-front devops dude. This is connected to a diginomica.com interview, and there is also a video version of this talk on jon's youtube channel..
This is the audio from an informal video hangout with John Appleby of Bluefin Solutions to talk about the HANA realities on John's current project and what HANA use cases are moving the needle with customers. The guys also hash out the strengths of HANA and what might be around the corner with HANA-as-platform. John also fesses up to why he missed SAP TechEd Las Vegas.
Jon hits the TechEd Expert lounge floor for his annual freewheeling talk on whether social media is BS - or has actual value for SAP professionals. Special guests include Joshua Fletcher, Karin Tillotson and Phil Loewen. WARNING: NSFW starting at 10 minute mark (PG-13)
In this live-without-a-net, slide-free discussion, Jon fields live TechEd questions and addresses the key skills issues facing SAP professionals. Karin Tillotson and John Moy chime in.
Jon and HCM ninja SAP Mentor Mentor Martin Gillet review recent HR events, and dig into Martin's passionate views on training, talent, and SAP certification. Shoutouts to SAP HCM kung fu artists Chris Paine, Sharon Newton, Luke Marson, Jarret Pazahanick and more are included.
During this non-controversial ByDesign discussion, Leo shares with Jon the insights he has on the ground at SAP TechEd. The focus is on practical considerations, cloud platform and roadmap topics, rather than a deconstruction of the current ByDesign news and how it was handled.
At the end of SAP TechEd 2013 day two, Jon sat down with SAP Mentor and intrepid blogger Dick Hirsch to kick around the day's events and make sense of SAP's HANA, cloud, and PaaS directions.
Jon and Chris kick around their SAP TechEd day one experiences and open questions over the course of a half hour of banter, critique and kudos.
During this 60 minute podcast, you'll hear SAP Mentors and bloggers Vijay Vijayasankar, John Appleby, and Vitality Rudnytskiy talk HANA as only they can.
The result? An hour long talk that goes into detail on emerging skills in BusinessObjects, HANA and Business ByDesign, as well as how core skills like ABAP development are evolving.
During this thirty minute podcast, Natascha grills John on SAP Enterprise Mobility. Buzzwords are defined as we dig into everything from the impact of consumer technology to Project Gateway to the implications of HTML 5. Those listeners who make it towards the end of the podcast will be treated to some comic relief as once again a cellular caller (John) drops off a podcast on Enterprise Mobility, proving once and for all that "Always Connected" is a modern myth.
Judson is an ideal interviewee for my JonERP podcast series because of his background in on-premis ERP, in his case, PeopleSoft. During the podcast, Judson speaks to the skills transitions he needed to make and what SAP professionals interested in ByDesign work are up against in terms of skills evolution. Judson also shares his views on how SAP can improve ByDesign from here, and why the upcoming Software Development Kit (SDK) interests him from a customer's perspective.
I ask the guys what separates a mediocre SAP BI consultant from an outstanding one. We talk about whether there are functional BI roles emerging, and why BI is becoming a skill that all SAP professionals need to reckon with. Is BI the "holy grail" of value realization for ERP projects? And is in-memory for real? Vijay and Kevin have answers to all these questions.
To better understand the problems with the current SAP consulting model and the changes that are afoot, in this edition of The ERP Lounge, I invited three pioneers of new models to join me in a frank discussion. The result of our international teleconference was a 70 minute podcast that takes a hard look at the problems and offers up solutions that forge new ground for both consultants and SAP customers.
In this twenty-five minute podcast, Jon and Mike touch on the following topics:
- How today's SAP market compares with other down cycles Mike has seen during his fifteen years in the SAP field, including comparisons to the pre-Y2K and the post-9/11 markets.
- The relevance of analytics to today's SAP implementations, and why ERP customers expect more from SAP now than transactional efficiency. The SAP Business Suite is full of systems (CRM, SRM) etc with data that must be cleaned and managed before it can be utilized. leveraged.
At the time of the podcast taping, Puneet had just returned from giving a presentation entlitled "The Business Process Imperative" with Global BPX Head Marco ten Vaanholt at TechEd Berlin. He also shared plans to head out to TechEd Bangalore to deliver a similar talk. Having done this presentation at TechEd Las Vegas as well, Puneet's views on this podcast are informed by his recent SAP Community experiences. The result is a focused conversation on how project teams and individuals should approach "BPX skills innovation" during challenging economic times.
Picking up where the last podcast on SAP training left off, Jon and Tom jump right into the topic of SAP online training:
- Tom goes back to the beginning: 2-3 years ago, Tom began to get more and more requests for online SAP training. In the past, there were very few options, and while sending folks to the SAP Academy can be very effective, it's not always an affordable option when you are continuously tweaking people's job roles. Meanwhile, the project documentation is useful to a degree but is not really the perfect training tool ("you can't learn SAP from a few screen prints and a PowerPoint presentation.")
The podcast begins with an overview of Tom Michael's background and his role with Michael Management's SAP training and consulting practice. In addition to Michael Management's consulting work in Asset Management, Project Systems, Investment Management, and related areas, Michael Management has become one of the largest online SAP training sites today. As Tom explains, this was an organic process where clients asked Michael Management about the training side of their implementations and Michael Management began rolling out more and more online SAP training courses.
In this first podcast in their "All About SAP Training Series," Jon and Tom dive into the hot topic of breaking into SAP. Michael reviews some of the free options available online, such as SAP's own help documentation which covers basic functionality. Then there are useful SAP books that can further the education process on an affordable basis. But documentation can only take you so far, so what are the other options?
In the first section of this thirty five minute podcast, we get into what a "BPX Community Evangelist" is all about and why authentic conversations are so much more powerful than "marketing messages."
For the first time ever, Jon speaks in-depth with a senior functional consultant, Samantha Gammill, President of Osiris ERP Consulting, about her pursuit of the "SAP BPX skill set."
In this podcast, we get the story of why a certified MM/PP functional consultant with a broad SAP background and 14 years of SAP consulting experience decided to pursue the BPX skill set, how she went about doing it, and what the reactions of her team members were to this skills transition.
During the podcast, Samantha talks about her efforts to move into her role as "future functional business process expert." In the process, she gives listeners a view into her approach to self-education. Samantha funded her own attendance at the TechEd 2008 Las Vegas BPX Community Day, and brought what she learned about that day back to her team.
Also included: strategy advice for employers deploying SAP applications, and career advice for IT professionals building SAP careers over the next two years.
Kicked off by Demir Barlas of SearchSAP.com, this podcast begins with David Foote's overview of his latest SAP skills findings, including what's hottest in 2008. Jon Reed of JonERP.com weighs in toward the end of this podcast, asking David several questions about how SAP professionals should apply his findings to their own skills transitions.
The three of us take a closer look at the intersection between the corporate "Green Movement" and eSOA, and how these converging technologies are having a beneficial impact on the bottom line, while charting a better course for global energy consumption. Paul and Krishna also explain how SAP professionals can get more involved in the Green/eSOA space - a potentially great way to mix skills expansion with purposeful work.
During this podcast, Robert explains how SAP customers can achieve a greater value from SAP support by maximizing the use of Solution Manager, RunSAP, and end-to-end process optimization. He also talks about the skills needed by project teams (and individual consultants) if they want to take advantage of these emerging post-go-live opportunities.
During the interview, Kent talks about the differences between the classic Basis skill set and the emerging "NetWeaver Engineer" skill set. He goes into the specifics of the tools that SAP technical professionals need to master in order to remain marketable instead of becoming obsolete. Drawing on his own experience, Kent explains how project teams should approach building NetWeaver and eSOA skills sets internally. Kent also talks about how the business process orientation of SAP is impacting all SAP skill sets, and most importantly, how SAP professionals can educate themselves for these transitions - in particular by leverage the SDN and BPX communities.
During the podcast, Jon poses the "hot button" SAP certification topics that he always wanted to ask, including Sue's take on the relevance of SAP certification to hiring managers, and the value of SAP certification for those trying to break into SAP. Sue also explains the new three-tiered SAP certification program, the latest efforts to make SAP certification exames more location-accessible, and what's coming up for SAP certification at TechEd 2008.
By the time the podcast is over, Jon and Demir get Sue's take on many of the questions JonERP.com readers have posed about SAP certification - including Sue's news that more than 80 percent of SAP hiring managers surveyed say that certification factors heavily into their hiring decisions.
In this thirty-five minute podcast, Jim addresses some of the major themes of ASUG/Sapphire 2008 from the vantage point of how SAP's technology impacts the user community. An active blogger on the SAP Developer Network, Jim is also an SAP mentor, as well as an ASUG conference planner.
Join Jon and Jim as they peel back the conference hype and look at the issues that mattered to SAP users.
Topics covered in this podcast include:
- Jim's SAP's background and his current role at Black and Decker.
- The Business Objects acquisition and Jim's views on how the Business Objects purchase is impcating SAP customers. Jim discusses the importance of SAP customers developing a new Business Intelligence Roadmap that incorporates BO, and what ASUG is doing to help with that.
- The "SAP for the BlackBerry" announcement, Jim's own involvement with the ASUG Mobile Technology sessions and why he believes SAP needs to expand its focus beyond the BlackBerry to other mobile devices, in keeping with its platform-agnostic approach.
- Jim's take on the lessons learned from Sapphire/ASUG co-location and how companies can take better advantage of co-location when they send their user teams to these shows.
- Jon expresses his skepticism about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for big businesses, and Jim explains how his background in environmental engineering has given him a different take on CSR. He talks about his research on SAP CSR and how there may be some positive eco-friendly changes in SAP's own production processes that are possible.
It fits in with his goal of fostering transparency in business and supporting SAP in its commitment to greater transparency. Jim also takes pride in Black and Decker's own commitment to socially responsible business, and after the podcast, Jim sent along a link to Black and Decker's corporate citizenship practices.
- Jim's experiences as a blogger on SDN, how it has impacted his career growth, and his advice for those who are just getting involved in SDN and may be a little shy about starting their own blogs.
Jim talks about how writing publicly means learning how to handle and incorporate criticism, and how SDN/BPX leaders like Marilyn Pratt encouraged his own emergence as a blogger.
- Jim's take on the BPX Community Day and how social media is impacting the SAP professional. He talks about how Black and Decker has been very supportive of his efforts to involve himself in the SAP community, and speaks to the tensions some companies and managers may have around the question of "is this social media stuff you're doing wasting our time or helping our bottom line."
Black and Decker sees how the community involvement of employees like Jim pays off. Not all companies feel that way yet, but things are changing.
- On the BPX Community Day panel, the question of "how do you find time to interact online?" came up. Jim shares his secret to beating the time crunch: getting up a half hour early each day to blog.
Kent is a senior Project Systems snd Fixed Asset consultant whose company also offers SAP System Access in conjunction with Michael Management. After you listen to this podcast, you will understand why Kent is one of Jon's "go to" people when it comes to analyzing SAP skills trends and staying ahead of the skills curve.
During this back-and-forth discussion, Jon asks Kent for his reaction to the SAP keynotes and the trends Kent noticed in terms of SAP-for-the-BlackBerry, Business by Design, Role-Based Portals and beyond, and the emphasis on personalization and useability of SAP - not always SAP's strongest aspect historically. A major focus of the podcast is a closer look at the so-called "SAP Skills Shortage" and how SAP professionals should respond.
Topics covered in this podcast include:
- Kent's take on the keynotes, and why he was struck by Hasso Plattner's emphasis not only on Role-Based Portals but even more personalized user experiences, leveraging the technology being developed for Business By Design. Kent also talks about the SAP-for-the-BlackBerry announcement and which parts of the enterprise should be most impacted.
- Jon asks Kent for the key trends driving SAP staffing, and Kent explains that at the conference and in his own client work, the major driver is still core upgrades as well as merger and acquisition implementation activity.
Kent does make a distinction between the type of SAP consulting activity we see today versus what we saw in the mid-90s. He talks about the focus on technical upgrades, but that his clients are also doing functional enhancements in targeted areas. Business Intelligence is also a factor now.
- The so-called "SAP Skills Shortage" was a major talking point at the SAP press conference. Jon asks Kent for his view, and Kent agrees that the skills shortage is not so much across the board as targeted in specialized areas of higher demand.
He also thinks that part of the issue is that SAP customers have a harder time leveraging the skills of less-experienced SAP folks (under five years). Kent shares some ideas around a mentoring structure that would allow clients to take better advantage of less experience talent in conjunction with senior mentors such as Kent.
- Jon asks for Kent's take on how specialized an SAP consultant needs to be in order to be successful, and gets Kent's take on a situation where his work was balanced on a project by another expert in the product costing area.
- Kent delves into the Project Systems area of specialization, and related skills in Fixed Assets and Portfolio Management. He shares the latest trends in Project Systems consulting in areas related to capital management, revenue, and investment management.
Kent also tells Jon what the value is in the xRPM xApp and how it fits into the landscape of SAP functionality. xRPM is different from classic PS work in that it involves more technical skills in BI and Portals work in order to implement it.
- The talk then moved into a discussion of how SAP system access can help a consultant get a better feel for these emerging areas in PS and Investment Management, as well as other new areas of SAP. Jon and Kent talk about how the SAP ecosystem can be a great source of self-education for the SAP professional in transition.
- Last but not least, the last segment of the podcast gets into Jon and Kent's debate about the Business Process Expert skill set. Kent has maintained that the best SAP consultants have always had a business process focus.
But Kent also agrees that today's BPX world has new communities (like the BPX community) and new tools to master. Kent talks about how he always saw the value of business process management expertise, whether it was Six Sigma or Total Quality Management.
- Jon and Kent talk about the pieces Jon has done on SAP configuration skills and whether they are going away anytime soon. Jon and Kent talk about the ideal skill set for the SAP consultant - a combination of focused specialization in a marketable niche with a broader (but related) business process and industry expertise.
In this podcast, hosted by SearchSAP.com, Jon Reed interviews David Foote of Foote Partners and gets David's views on the extent of the SAP skills gap, which skills are in demand (and which are not), the value of certification, and other SAP skills trends after Sapphire 2008.
The so-called "SAP skills gap" was one of the biggest topics of discussion at Sapphire again this year. David Foote was at the center of this discussion, asking SAP executives about the extent of the skills gap and how they plan to respond.
During the podcast, David details his concerns about SAP's ability to meet the skills demand caused in particular by midmarket expansion. He also gives provides insight into how larger economic trends impact SAP skills demand, and he also tells us why the best SAP professionals have a narrow, rather than a broad, skills focus.
During the discussion, Jon also gets David's take on how SAP project teams can attract (and retain) the best SAP talent. David shares how the data he gathers at Foote Partners ties into the overall trends he observes in terms of the value of IT certifications.
The limitations of certification when it comes to measuring the emerging "business process expert" skill set are also discussed.
In terms of which SAP skills are most in demand, David cites the following areas as trending towards "hot":
SAP ERP 6.0 upgrade skills (Financials, HCM, Materials Management)
NetWeaver Master Data Management (MDM)
NetWeaver Application Server
NetWeaver Business Intelligence (BI)
Areas that are getting a bit colder in Foote Partner's latest findings (which are issued quarterly):
ABAP Development
Payroll
NetWeaver Process Integration (PI, formerly XI)
Sales and Distribution (SD)
By the time you're done listening to this thirty minute podcast, you'll have an excellent feel for how Foote Partners views the skills trends in the SAP marketplace, and how SAP professionals can best respond to these skills trends.
SAP HR is changing from a back office product to a strategically important "HCM" solution that includes cutting edge Talent Management components. But what does that mean for the SAP HR professional? What skills are in demand now?
In his role at B2B Workforce, Ralph has the opportunity to see firsthand which areas of HR are hot, and which are not as hot. In this thirty minute podcast, Ralph shares with Jon the specific areas of SAP HR that are heating up, and what he looks for in the HR/HCM consultants he and his team place on B2B Workforce projects.
During this thirty five minute podcast, Thomas gives his view on what SAP Logistics consultants need to know in order to keep pace with SAP. A major focus of the podcast is on the role of the independent SAP consultant on project teams, and Thomas' recommendations for success as an independent.
In this frank look at the challenges of independent consulting, Thomas explains how he has found a way to thrive as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) on SAP projects, balancing his relationships with the end client and the outside consulting partner.
Jon asked Thomas about a number of "hot button" topics in the SAP development space, including the innovations of the CE environment and the modeling tools needed for eSOA-driven development, the impact of outsourcing and how to make your skills "outsourcing proof," why ABAP development is alive and well, and how's SAP's SDN and BPX communities are affecting how SAP professionals interact with SAP and enhance their skill sets.
In this thirty-three minute interview, hosted by Jon Franke of SearchSAP.com, "the two Jons" and Thomas cover the following topics:
- Thomas' role at SAP Labs and how his NetWeaver Product Management team is involved with the rollout of the NetWeaver product line and the interaction with SAP users at events and seminars.
- Why the online communities have had such an effect on SAP development and how knowledge about SAP products and skills trends is disseminated.
- Jon asks Thomas to explain why his presentation on "Updating Your ABAP Skills to NetWeaver 7.0" has been so well received at SAP conferences, and what the key adjustments a 4.6 SAP developer has to make to be effective in NetWeaver 7.x and eSOA environments. Thomas points out that one key aspect of the "SAP developer of the future" is simply mastering object-oriented programming and ABAP Objects - something you can get started on even while working on 4.x projects.
- Frequently, Jon his from readers who ask him "is ABAP dead?" Thomas puts these fears to rest once and for all by explaining that ABAP is still very much a part of the NetWeaver development environment. He describes some of the situations where ABAP is more useful and some where Java-based tools are more relevant. ABAP works best for powering high-volume, core transactions and Java is ideal for "edge programming" where SAP is extending its functionality via Enterprise Services. But ABAP can be "opened up" as well, and many new SAP components are built partially or fully in ABAP.
- The impact of offshoring - Thomas gives his take on which SAP projects are better suited for outsourcing and which development projects are more effective to have in-house. Thomas doesn't believe that it makes sense to outsource all SAP development projects, and he goes on to describe some of the ways that SAP programmers can make their skills "outsourcing proof": don't build a "wall" between you and the rest of the team, keep up on your knowledge, stay visible, and become known as the person who learns the latest SAP technical tools and shares them with others.
- Thomas shares the highlights of the SAP Composition Environment (CE), including the integration between CE and the Enterprise Services Repository (ESR), Visual Composer, Guided Procedures, and the other bells and whistles of this EE 5 environment.
- What is the makeup of the ideal SAP project team? Thomas puts on his CIO hat and talks about the kinds of people he would put on his SAP technical project team. More than anything, he'd be looking for self-starters who aggressively educate themselves through their involvement with SDN and other learning communities. He'd want to see a mixture of Internet, Java, and ABAP skills on the team, but more important than specific tools is an SAP technical team that can adapt to the pace of innovation.
- In terms of "soft" business skills, Thomas places a high value on those who get outside their cubicles and interact with the project team, making an effort to transfer knowledge to other team members. Thomas believes that you can't get away with being a "cubicle coder," anymore. If you aren't needed on site, then you run the risk of being outsourced. One way to differentiate yourself is to know enough about the business to be able to help business users define their requirements and what they want to accomplish technically.
- Thomas explains why the latest batch of modeling tools are catching on and why modeling is having such an impact on SAP development. There are two types of modeling tools: those that help business users model processes on a higher level without needing to program (Visual Programmers), and those that help programmers reduce repetitive programming tasks (Web Dynpro for Java being one example, and other modeling tools added to the NetWeaver Developer Studio and the ABAP Workbench being other examples).
- Jon asks Thomas about SAP's eSOA strategy and how it is impacting development. Thomas agrees that eSOA will allow companies to build Enterprise Services using the language and platform of their choice, but he also notes that SAP is building some of the best SOA development and consumption tools on the market.
- Jon Franke of SearchSAP asks Thomas about how business users can get more involved in these trends, and Thomas points out the BPX community, and how business users can get involved in a variety of ways, including through BPX's industry vertical communities.
- Jon points out that Thomas' "Update Your ABAP Skills to NetWeaver 7.0" seminar is available on the Virtual TechEd '07 track on SDN (for a fee), and Thomas shares the forward schedule for when this workshop will be held next.
- Thomas wraps the podcast with a compelling argument to avoid career panic in the face of new SAP technologies. He makes the point that SAP developers should follow their passions, and when you are the best at what you do, that's an excellent way "outsource-proof" your skills.
In this twenty-seven minute podcast, Jon and Peter cover a range of NetWeaver BI topics, including:
- The role of Traxion consulting in the BI market and their focus on BI knowledge transfer.
- The changing terminology of BW and BI and the transition from BW 3.5 to BI 7.0.
- Jon asks Peter why the NetWeaver BI market is so hot right now. Peter explains that in a recent survey, 40 percent of all CIOs cited BI projects as their number one priority. Part of the issue is the explosion of data for all SAP customers, and they want to stay on top of this data to improve decision making based on facts. Also, because of Sarbanes-Oxley, companies installed BW and now they are looking for more ways of leveraging the data.
- Part of the growth of BI is about the transition between ERP as a transaction-based system and the new role of ERP has a decision-making platform to extend reporting and business intelligence to users and executives. How to pull the ERP data out and use it has become a top corporate priority.
- Peter explains the keys to BI training and bringing an internal team up to speed, to leave them in a better position after external consultants have left. Peter talks about the importance of custom SAP training with heavy hands-on involvement, and why it can be so much more effective than a standard "out of the box" training.
- Jon asks Peter how SAP teams can overcome user resistance to job changes brought on by BI and how to get them excited about the new technology. Peter talks about the importance of getting management on board to improve buy-in of the system, and to recognize that there will be user resistance if SAP users are not brought into the loop with the changes that are pending.
- Jon's theory is that BI is not just for specialists anymore. BI is a skill that all consultants can and should incorporate into their SAP skill set. Peter agrees, and talks about the how all R/3 and ECC consultants can add value to their clients by understanding the NetWeaver stack, and BI specifically, and how the ECC environment connects to the OLAP environment, in SAP Financials and many other areas. And you can also get a great niche in BI by including a functional focus with those skills.
- Peter gives his take on the kinds of skills you want to have on a well-rounded BI team. A solid understanding of data modeling and data warehousing is key. ABAP is still important, and ABAP for BI is valuable also for writing user exits and function modules for BI. Even in the age of Web Reporting and the Java stack, ABAP is still relevant. HTML and Javascript are also useful for advanced programming and inserting code into the Web Application Designer. Peter also recommends Visual Composer skills, and Web Dynpro skills, as well as Object-Oriented programming skills.
- Peter comments about some of the tools that are emerging in the BI space, including Visual Composer and Web Dynpro, as well as other tools that are extending the out-of-the-box functionality, including customized reports and better presentation options that also increase user buy-in through a better interface. Peter says that with the latest WebDynpro and Visual Composer presentation options, you can almost trick users into not realizing they are using SAP because it's so intuitive.
- Jon asks Peter about BI implementation scenarios and common mistakes to avoid. Peter talks about companies spending insufficient time on design, planning, and user buy-in during the initial project stages. Understanding the company's user requirements is important to be able to identify the limitations of the system and plan accordingly.
- Peter talks about the real ROI takeaways from a successful NetWeaver BI project. Peter shares the example of a project where they were able to identify 7 million dollars in unbilled revenue as a result of the BI tools. Peter also finds that a good BI project helps an SAP customer develop much clearer benchmarks and metrics for everyone understanding the keys to business success in their industry.
- In terms of a real-life example of a KPI, Peter describes previous clients who did not know who their most profitable customers were, and how the BI implementation helped them to identify who those customers were. Or, alternately, a company that figured out that some of their products were too expensive based on the analysis of the raw materials through BI reports.
- Jon asks Peter to talk about upgrade lessons to NetWeaver BI 7.0. Peter talks about the importance, once again, of pre-project planning, and what bugs you might run into during the conversion. Internal knowledge, training, and change management all play a role.
Steve also talks about how ASUG is impacting SAP's product evolution and he shares his vision for ASUG in 2008 and beyond.
During this thirty-five minute podcast, Jon and Steve touch on key topics such as:
- How Jon first met Steve at SAPPHIRE/ASUG 2007, and right after they met, someone spilled a drink on Steve. Jon begins the podcast by telling Steve he hopes that this initial spill is not permanently associated with talking with Jon. Jon talks about how ASUG has evolved from a "small thorn in SAP's side" to a "true collaborative" partner, and one of the most powerful software users groups in the world.
- Steve talks about how he initially got involved in ASUG with his first event he attended in 2002, why he is so impressed by the passion of the SAP community, and how his role at ASUG evolved until the opportunity to become ASUG's first CEO emerged this fall.
- Jon asks Steve about his progress on developing an ASUG strategy for the coming year, and Steve shares his vision of redefining what a software user group can be. Steve's goal is to reach the point where ASUG is at the center of the SAP ecosystem. Steve talks about how the 50,000 plus ASUG members have had a major impact on SAP's product development through ASUG's expanding group of Influence Councils.
- Jon tells Steve that at TechEd, he ran into a number of SAP customers who were still confused about NetWeaver, eSOA, and how to leverage to eSOA technology to get a true return on investment. He asks Steve to explain how ASUG can help customers sort through their eSOA confusion and come up with a solid roadmap. Steve talks about the way that SOA technology has evolved, and the power of the eSOA architecture due to the loose coupling and the potential to involve customers and suppliers through exposed services. Steve talks about two of ASUG's new SIGs (Special Interest Groups) dedicated to eSOA: one focused on Enterprise Architects, and one on eSOA, and how those SIGs allow ASUG to gather and relay key feedback and influence SAP's approach to eSOA.
- Steve asks JonERP.com readers for feedback on whether it would be helpful to offer regional workshops on getting started with eSOA and developing an eSOA roadmap, and if so, what regions and cities would be best for the sessions.
- ASUG regularly conducts "Voice of the Customer" surveys to identify the key "pain points" SAP users are facing in both functional and technical areas. Steve tells us that the key pain points SAP customers are facing are: 1. upgrades, 2. eSOA and 3. how to get the most out of their existing SAP investment. Steve talks about the upcoming "SAP upgrade symposiums" that will help ASUG members network with other members who are in the same situation or are further along.
- Jon tells Steve that these three pain points correspond well with the results of his own informal survey at TechEd, where he grouped SAP customers into three separate mindsets: the early eSOA adopters, those who were looking seriously at eSOA, and those customers who were much more focused on getting the most out of their existing SAP R/3 systems and distrusted the hype around the new eSOA functionality. Jon asked Steve how ASUG can meet the needs of members with such different agendas, and Steve talked about the different roles ASUG can play depending on the version numbers the member is running on, and that ASUG can do something for all of its members no matter what version of SAP they are on. However, Steve acknowledges that it can be hard to get SAP to make changes to releases that are a number of years old.
- As an example of another way that ASUG can help SAP users, Steve talks about ASUG's new "Best Practices in HCM" report, which gathers HR-related data from SAP customers and puts it into an "actionable" form that ASUG members can utilize, knowing that the data in the report was based on the "best practices" of companies with deep experience managing SAP HCM projects.
- Jon talks about how at TechEd 2007, he ran into a number of SAP customers who were frustrated by the challenge of finding the right consultants for their projects at the right price. As a result, they were focused more than ever on building a good internal team. Jon asked Steve what the training options might for companies looking to recruit and retain their own SAP talent, and how ASUG could help. Steve responded by saying that while formal training is important, that there is sometimes even more value in the simple process of networking at ASUG events and online. Being able to interact with customers in the same situation as you, or perhaps further along enough to share "best practices," is one of the biggest benefits of ASUG. Steve explains that ASUG's goal is to help provide its members with more resources so they are not as dependent on consultants who take the expertise with them when they leave, or cost a pretty penny to keep around.
- Unable to stump Steve with any hard questions, Jon has one more curve ball ready: Jon asks Steve about the new Business By Design (BBD) customers, and how ASUG plans to support this type of smaller customer, one that might have a very different kind of training need. Steve explained that ASUG will soon be running on BBD, and that ASUG is working with SAP to define the kind of support and member services the BBD customer will need. He envisions a combination of virtual support and in-person seminars and conferences.
- Steve closes the podcast by sharing his goals for ASUG for 2008, including improved ASUG.com web functionality and ease of use, increasing involvement of ASUG Associate Members (vendors, suppliers, etc), and the continued goal of bringing ASUG into the center of the SAP Ecosystem.
- Jon and Steve confirm that the way to get more details on items such as the ASUG HCM report, or to learn more about becoming an ASUG member, is to visit ASUG.com.
Sit in with Jon and Kent as they discuss Kent's keys to attracting and retaining SAP talent, how SAP developers can stay relevant on projects and reduce the risk of being outsourced, and how Kent's project team has developed a different way of obtaining "buy in" for eSOA projects, building support "from the bottom up." Kent also talks about the tools SAP professionals need to master to stay relevant, and how his project finds the right mix between outside consultants and internal training.
During this thirty five minute podcast, Jon and Kent cover topics such as:
- How Kent's fifteen year SAP career has evolved into his current role as an Enterprise Architect, and how he has pursued the TOGAF certification and other components of his skill set.
- The importance of the TOGAF SOA architecture and how it applies to the SAP world, in terms of architectural solutions that solve SAP business problems. Kent explains how the TOGAF framework was incorporated into SAP's Enterprise Architecture Framework, and how he was involved in the earlier stages of this process while working for SAP.
- Why ABAP Developers and SAP Java Programmers need to think about becoming SAP Software Engineers, and why SAP Basis Experts should focus on becoming SAP Enterprise Architects.
- The current NetWeaver product suite, including NetWeaver Portals, and how eSOA skills fit into a broader NetWeaver competency.
- How the line is blurring between technical and functional approaches, and the role "offshoring" can play in this process of staffing projects. Kent also notes the communication issues involved in outsourcing that can impact which projects are appropriate for offshoring and which are better handled in house.
- Fresh back from a conference session on attracting and retaining SAP talent, Kent talks about the three keys to building (and keeping) a great project team: provide a well-thought career path for your team members; 2. don't hold back on training your people with the latest SAP skills even if it means you might lose some of them to the SAP job market; 3. adopt a mentality of continuous training.
- Kent also reports that the hardest skills to find, according to the SAP customers at the conference, were: 1. NetWeaver Administrators, and 2. Enterprise Architects. Java developers and ABAP programmers were easier to hire on the open market. Kent mentioned that the consulting firms don't even have many folks that know NetWeaver and Enterprise SOA well. Kent said that many of these firms turn to outsourcing to fill their project needs.
- Jon asks Kent to elaborate on the role outsourcing plays on SAP projects, and asked him to talk about how SAP professionals can make themselves less vulnerable to outsourcing. Kent explains that mastering data modeling and business modeling tools, and emphasizing strategy and architecture was the key to becoming more outsourcing-proof.
- Kent talks about his current SAP project, and how his team has developed a unique approach to building momentum for eSOA projects by working on projects from the "bottom up." Kent talked about how there is natural resistance to eSOA from both high level IT executives and business executives. He explained how his team is gaining support one project at a time by focusing on projects that have a "wow factor" and a tangible business benefit.
- Kent provides an overview of his current SAP environment, and how they are working on eSOA with plans to involve NetWeaver CE, ESR, and NetWeaver PI. He talked about how his team can get projects done within a $50,000 budget and having composite apps up and running in a six week to two month period. Kent's team is using this approach to solve business "pain points" and to develop their own eSOA roadmap.
- Jon asks Kent to explain to listeners how he identifies which areas are the best candidates for early eSOA projects. He lists the main factors that are ideal for eSOA projects: simplification, consolidation, and building new services and composites. Kent talks about which projects can have a "wow" type of impact, such as service-enabling inventory lookups, getting data to customers more effectively, and making user-friendly interfaces for in store employees for quick training and ramp up.
- Jon and Kent go more in-depth into a discussion of the future of SAP development and the future of SAP technical skill sets. Kent talks about the importance of mastering new process modeling tools like Aris for NetWeaver, which is now tied into the ESR. He tells us that it's not yet possible for business process experts to model all their own code without the help of a developer, but this kind of model-driven programming is becoming closer to reality. Kent mentions other hot tools that SAP professionals should know, such as Web Dynpro, Adobe Forms, Solution Manager, and Aris
.
- Kent highlights the keys his project has used to build a quality internal team and strike a good balance with outside consulting support. He talks about the importance of hiring manager-level folks who are "SAP rock stars," which in turn allows for a more savvy use of SAP implementation partners. Kent says that for the next phase of his project, they are looking to bring in less consultants and train more people internally.
- In closing, Kent talks about how the successful SAP professional understands that technology changes all the time, and that if you view paradigm changes as a threat, you should get out of this particular field, because there is always change. The point is to apply the right forward-thinking mindset towards skills acquisition. In terms of adding real value to SAP customers and keeping your skills in demand, Kent says that the key is to develop a deep understanding of NetWeaver and the ability to help SAP customers harness that technology and break through their NetWeaver confusion. If you can do that, says Kent, you can "write your own check."
In this frank discussion, Ori acknowledges that SAP faces a significant skills gap that needs to be addressed for NetWeaver to realize its promise.
Ori then analyzes the skills gap, explains how SAP plans to address it, and most importantly, highlights the skills needed for NetWeaver and SAP eSOA project success.
This is the first podcast we know of where a high-ranking SAP executive goes beyond talk of the skills gap and the "NetWeaver jobs of the future" to detail the specific "next phase" skills and roles that SAP professionals can pursue, not in the future, but right now.
Ori also announces a new plan for SAP certification that will be unveiled at TechEd '07 in Las Vegas.
In this twenty-five minute interview, Jon and Ori cover a series of critical topics, including:
- How Ori broke into SAP and how his SAP career has evolved into his current NetWeaver leadership role.
- The significance of SAP Enterprise SOA (eSOA) and why it impacts every SAP product.
- The estimated "SAP skills gap" of 20,000 SAP professionals and how SAP intends to fill it. Ori explains the importance of "the SAP ecosystem" to filling these gaps and how consultants can anticpiate where SAP is going next.
- Ori's take on the four new SAP roles that are emerging on project sites, and his assessment of the skills required for each of the four: NetWeaver Systems Admin, Enterprise Architect, and Business Process Expert and NetWeaver Developer (Enterprise Services Developer).
- Ori explains why the NetWeaver era means the "end of the functional silos" and why SAP skills will be business process driven from here on out.
During the podcast, Marco describes his work with the SAP BPX community, and how BPX is working collectively to help define the skill set that SAP professionals will need to stay relevant on both the functional and technical side.
Jon asked Marco to be on this podcast because during TechEd 2007, Marco's presentation on becoming an SAP Business Process Expert (BPE) provided the most practical "next steps" for how an SAP consultant can evolve their skills that Jon had yet seen.
Marco came through on this podcast with an excellent overview of how the SAP market is changing, how BPX is supporting the SAP skills transition, and what consultants can do to keep their skills in line with the market.
By the time the podcast is over, there is a clearer sense of how the SAP professional of today can involve themselves in the BPX community, honing their own skills while also contributing to SAP's product evolution.
In this thirty-one minute interview, hosted by Jon Franke of SearchSAP, Jon and Marco talk about the following points:
- How Marco got involved with SAP and how he wound up in his current role as the Global Director of the BPX community.
- The origins of the SAP BPX community in 2006, and how it has achieved phenomenal growth (200,000 + members) through a grassroots approach to community building. Marco also shares the vision of BPX, the emergence of the industry forums, and the "horizontal and vertical" areas of BPX built around SAP's Business Suite, core ERP, and GRC products.
- Marco explains why the BPX community has been so compelling to SAP professionals, by tapping into their desire to evolve into BPE (Business Process Expert) consultants and be better prepared for the eSOA era.
- Marco also describes how the collaborative BPX community has also helped SAP partners reduce the "cost of ownership" around educating their consultants about eSOA. SAP customers have also turned to SAP BPX to help support their employees working on the SAP "Business Process Platform."
- The SAP BPX community also influences SAP through its product management cycle. Marco explains how the SAP BPX world can serve as a feedback channel to SAP and also support the launch of new product initiatives going forward.
- Jon asks Marco about the importance of the Business Process Expert (BPE), and why this person is going to be so important to the SAP implementations of the future. Marco shares the BPX community definition of the BPE: "This business process expert has both the business knowledge and IT savvy to make business process innovation happen in real time, by adapting, composing and executing business processes, using best practices, composition software, and enterprise services."
- Marco explains that while there are many different definitions of BPEs, they most commonly describe themselves as having "one foot in IT, and one foot in business." Marco highlights the range of job roles that fit in under the Business Process Expert "umbrella role."
- Jon brings up one of the most riveting aspects of Marco's TechEd presentation on becoming a BPE: the argument that both ABAP jobs and core functional configuration jobs are going to go away. Marco clarifies this point, and reframes the discussion to step back from the "shock value" of Jon's statement. Marco explains that ABAP and configuration jobs are not going to go away, but that it's important for all SAP professionals to acquire composition skills, especially technical consultants.
- Marco talks about the evolving SAP Composition Environment (CE) and why both technical and functional SAP professionals will want to get experience with the CE going forward. He also hones in on the importance of "soft skills" and provides concrete examples of the types of "soft skills" that will be crucial, including industry expertise.
- Marco emphasizes the importance of process modeling skills, and he mentions some of the modeling tools of today (Visio, Visual Composer, ARIS for NetWeaver) and tomorrow that both technical and functional SAP folks will want to get a handle on.
- Jon and Marco agree that the "alarmist" view that the current SAP job roles are going away is not the right mindset. The right attitude is to make a commitment to transforming your skill set along with SAP.
- Marco talks about other key skills of the "BPXer," including Business Process Management (BPM) methodology know-how and BPM tools like Six Sigma. He tells us why Web 2.0 and community-building skills are so important for the BPE, using blogging, wikis, and collaborative forums to "evangelize" your solutions throughout a global project.
- Jon and Marco talk about how SAP professionals now have access to free resources to self-education. Since cost for training is not a barrier, it's more of a mindset shift: (1) getting access to new SAP technical information, and (2) joining communities like BPX to share "best practices" and lessons learned.
- Marco makes some distinctions between sharing processes at "process level zero" versus "process level three," and why there is a difference between collaborating on "commoditized processes" versus working on more "disruptive" or strategic (level three) areas. This latter type of collaboration would likely take place in a closed area and shared with the broader community as appropriate.
- Jon asks Marco about how today's "SAP functional configuration expert" and "SAP application consultant" of the present needs to evolve to become a BPE. Marco explains how the CE and other Business Process Platform modeling tools will change the relationship between functional and technical teams. He also talks about eSOA, and how, alongside the Enterprise Architect, the functional specialist will be working with SAP eSOA resources like the Enterprise Services Repository.
- Jon Franke asks Marco about how to improve your soft skills, and Marco gives a "big picture" response that starts with how you carry yourself on client sites and work with executives and project teams, and goes on to include various areas of formal and informal education such as organizational change management, process modeling tools, Web 2.0 technologies, and Enterprise SOA.
- Jon tries to put Marco on the spot by asking him to explain how the "disruptive innovation" he is advocating can exist alongside of SAP's customer message of "innovation without disruption." Marco explains that there is not a contradiction because the kind of innovation he is advocating takes place in a closed environment that does not involve disrupting the transactional system.
- Marco also explains that the distinction between commodity processes and strategic processes comes into play when understanding the cycle of disruptive innovation. He uses the example of Nike's product rollouts and the cycle of innovation in the mobile technology space to describe the difference.
- Marco issues a formal invitation for all listeners to get involved with the SAP BPX community. There is a robust "getting started" area to get new members involved quickly with the issues and projects that the BPX community is tackling. Marco also highlights the SAP upgrades area within SAP BPX as a great resource for project teams.
- Jon wraps the podcast by talking about the shifting trends in SAP employment, and how it's easy to end this podcast because the next step is to sign up with SAP BPX and get further involved in your SAP skills transformation.
As a technical visionary who has watched SAP's product line evolve for many years, Krishna has a knack for breaking down SAP technology in simple and precise terms. Jon turned to Krishna to help sort through what was real and what was hype at TechEd 2007.
The goal of the podcast was to place the events of TechEd 2007 in the context of SAP's "Enterprise SOA" technology stack. SAP is clearly staking its future on eSOA, but what does that mean to the SAP project team and the SAP consultant?
Is eSOA just hype and if it's for real, what consulting skills will be needed to succeed in the "eSOA era"? And how will SAP's Business Objects acquisition, which occurred immediately following Tech Ed, affect these trends and the future of SAP overall?
In this thirty-six minute interview, Jon and Krishna cover these issues and more, including:
- The focus of Enterprise Horizons and the specifics of Krishna's SAP background.
- Krishna's take on the main themes of Tech Ed 2007, such as: the emphasis on BI and analytics, the surprising level of emphasis on eSOA over SAP's core business functionality, and the obvious absence of Shai Agassi.
- Why SAP has shifted its focus from emphasizing exposing its core apps as eSOA services as opposed to looking at the core business processes such as order fulfillment, financials, and supply chain management. Krishna explains that was what missing was a clear demonstration by SAP on the business value and return on investment of eSOA.
- The Business Objects acquisition, which took place after TechEd and which to some degree dwarfed all of the TechEd news announcements. Krishna shares his thoughts on the BO purchase, including the challenge of integrating the BO code base into SAP, and why the BO acquisition is of "monumental importance" to eSOA. Krishna explains that this will accelerate the trend of exposing analytics as services and leveraging connections to outside partners.
- The SAP BBD (Business By Design) announcement, and why Krishna has a cautious take on Software as a Service (SaaS). Krishna also explains why this current evolution of SaaS may be more successful than the previous ASP models due to the impact of the "Internet Cloud." Krishna also describes how a BBD customer might be able to expose a service through an "on demand" platform, and why eSOA is integral to an on-demand solution.
- Krishna gives his perspective on why the evolution to a "Business Process Consultant" is important to SAP, and why he thinks that the distinction between functional and technical SAP professionals was always a false dichotomy. Krishna tells us why the ideal SAP consultant has always had a functional and technical skills combination.
- Krishna then details what skills functional and technical consultants need to pursue in order to remain relevant to the SAP software of the future. Krishna talks about the end of the silo functional consultant, and why functional consultants need to understand the Internet touch points of service enablement. Krishna also talks about how Business Intelligence and NetWeaver fit into the technical skills picture. Soon, the technical consultant will have to learn to talk business or "become a dinosaur." There is time to act, however, as Krishna believes this will be a "slow metamorphosis."
- Jon asks Krishna about how the SAP customer base should perceive eSOA, given that SAP often hypes its new solutions to the point that customers can become jaded. Krishna has a provocative viewpoint on this: he believe that when it comes to transactional ERP systems, service enablement and SOA is indeed overhyped, almost to the degree of the dotcom hype. Then, Krishna explains why the real payoff for eSOA is through analytics, and that this is where the real eSOA payoff will be.
- Krishna tells us how best-of-breed Internet content "mashups" are the real "killer app" of the eSOA era, and how they can be tied back into ERP-based analytical applications.
- Jon asks Krishna if you truly have to invest in the latest SAP releases and all the expenses and organizational change involved in moving to eSOA, or if you can get started on earlier releases. Krishna explains that SAP customers can dabble in eSOA at almost any point, because it's really just "RFC on steroids," but that to truly build an effective eSOA landscape and consume and publish a range of services, you will eventually need to be running NetWeaver and ERP 5.0/6.0 and beyond.
- In the final segment of the podcast, Jon asks Krishna to use his company's product to illustrate a very important point: how companies can tie in best-of-breed Internet content providers into their BW/BI analytics engine in order to get a powerful visual grasp of key business planning and ROI functions. Jon tells Krishna that Home Depot, one of the most advanced SAP eSOA customers, has used a similar "mashup solution" to take advantage of BI/BW data and content from third parties that would be cost-prohibitive to develop internally.
- Jon asks Krishna about the minimum requirements needed to use a product like his company offers, and we learn that the minimum requirements are simply BW 3.x onward, in a nutshell. This is an example of how there might be a different enterprise services roadmap, that would focus on Business Intelligence, and then leverage that data and mash it up - without worrying about the cost and challenge of service-enabling core ERP transactions.
- Krishna provides a "market demographics" example of how an eSOA service could be "mashed up" for real business value.
- Jon asks Krishna to illustrate why these visually oriented "spatial analytics" can provide a much more powerful business case for eSOA that executives can understand and grasp much more quickly than a detailed white paper. He asks Krishna about the example of using demographic mashups to analyze which neighborhoods are viable for a retail store expansion. As Krishna says, this is the "true power of eSOA," beyond the hype.
In this podcast, Jon ties together the themes he covered throughout SAP TechEd '07. Recorded right on the spot in conference rooms and hotel lobbies, Jon's TechEd podcast series puts the technology trends of TechEd '07 in the context of the skills SAP professionals will need to succeed.
For the Day 4 podcast, Jon breaks down his "instant reactions" to technical themes such as eSOA, mashups, Web 2.0, BI, and becoming a Business Process Expert, and he comments on the SAP skills gap in these areas and how they will be filled.
Topics in this part of the podcast include:
- Which SAP skills sets are becoming commoditized and what the skills growth areas are.
- A view of the "SAP skills of the future" but also a consideration of the skills needs of the present, and how SAP consultants should balance the two.
- Why Jon is changing his stance from consultants needing to have an 80/20 technical-functional mix (one way or the other) to a 50/50 skills mix, which Jon thinks might be the ideal in the future.
- Jon's reflections on the workshop on "Becoming a Business Process Expert" (BPE) and the tools that technical and functional consultants can pursue to becoming a BPE.
- Jon explains why he divides SAP customers into three distinct groups and what he sees as the project priorities of each group
- The different versions of NetWeaver that are coming out, and the conflicting information that SAP representatives gave Jon at TechEd about when certain releases and features were becoming available. Jon talks about the pending release of NetWeaver 7.1, and the questions about when SAP PI (Process Integration), Enterprise Services Repository (ESR), and NetWeaver CE (Composition Environment).
- Jon covers why ABAP is not dead, and talks about the different conversations he had with folks from SAP Labs about how ABAP fits into SAP's NetWeaver plans. Jon gives his take on why ABAP is still part of SAP's plans, based on facts such as: the ABAP Workbench is still part of NetWeaver, that the PI component is partially built on ABAP, and that while the CE does not have ABAP, there are many ABAP-related tools still supported in NetWeaver, such as WebDynpro for ABAP and MDM for ABAP.
- Jon talks about the different SAP modeling tools that are going to change the nature of SAP development and give business users a greater opportunity to get involved in development using visual modeling tools like Visual Composer, Aris for NetWeaver, and the upcoming SAP Eclipse Development tool. Jon talks about why he thinks this new generation of modeling tools is a big deal, and finally gives some teeth to the "extend the enterprise" ERP movement which actually began in the late '90s, but did not have the technical capabilities to really support it.
- Jon wraps his four part podcast series on TechEd with a review of the conference as a whole and the bottom line implications for SAP professionals.
As always, Jon tries to not only identify the key technical trends, but to move the conversation into the question of skills - who will fill these new SAP roles, and what types of backgrounds will they need?
Jon asked SAP executives these questions. Listen to the podcast series to find out the answers he was given and what he thought of those answers.
Day 3 of the podcast series is Jon's review of his attempts to get SAP product reps on the same page with the exact release dates of NetWeaver 7.1 and what functionality will be included in each incarnation.
Jon found more mixed messages than agreement, but he was able to learn some information about the upcoming NetWeaver 7.1 components (PI, ESR, CE) and what their release dates are likely to be. He also asked a lot of questions about the future of ABAP, and found out the ABAP is indeed included in a number of NetWeaver components, and so is far from dead.
Jon talks about the innovations he encountered on Day 3 in the NetWeaver BI space, including the integration of Web 2.0 mashups using SAP BI and best-of-breed content providers. Jon shares some of the tools needed to do this work that might be worth adding to the skill set including MDX and the BI XMLA connector. He also talks about the power of Visual Composer as proven in the hands-on demonstrations he attended in this area.
Fresh off an evening at a hosted bar event where the best conversations always happen, Jon shares what he learned from the SAP customers at the event about where they were at with their implementations and whether they viewed eSOA as real or hype. Jon talked about the kinds of skills these companies are hiring, how much they train internally and the challenges they face hiring consultants on the open market.
Towards the end of the Day 3 wrap, Jon explains his new belief that there are really three types of SAP customers right now: eSOA leaders, eSOA followers, and those who could care less. Jon talks about the challenges a market faces when customers have such different needs.
As always, Jon tries to not only identify the key technical trends, but to move the conversation into the question of skills - who will fill these new SAP roles, and what types of backgrounds will they need?
Jon asked SAP executives these questions. Listen to the podcast series to find out the answers he was given and what he thought of those answers.
For the Day 2 podcast, the longest day of TechEd and the longest podcast in the series, Jon reacts to the executive keynotes and closed interview sessions he attended.
Editor's note: In the Day 2 podcast, Jon expresses some confusion that some attendees had about SAP Business By Design (BBD) and whether it was replacing A1S or was a separate product. It was later confirmed that BBD is in fact the same product as A1S, which is known as BBD going forward.
Reactions to Day 2 include:
- Responses to the keynote by Peter Zencke and friends, including the surprising emphasis on BBD as a big news item of the day.
- Jon talks about how this whole idea of "business network transformation" is really the same "extending the enterprise" talk SAP vendors have been pushing since the '90s, but that eSOA may finally give some technical teeth to the vision.
- Jon covers the latest SAP product innovations pushed during the keynote, including the SAP switch framework, the ES Workplace on SDN, and the ESR (Enterprise Services Repository). He also talks about the modeling tools that were demonstrated and the potential impact of the new Visual Composer, the new CE (Composition Environment), and the Eclipse development environment. Jon also notes the surprising lack of BI talk during the keynote, except for the BI Accelerator.
- Jon shares his reaction to the press conference after the keynote, where he posed the question of how the skills gap acknowledged by Peter Zencke was going to be filled. The executives on the panel noted an immediate demand for SAP Enterprise Architects and Business Process Experts. Jon gives his take on what he thought of these answers.
- Peter Zencke talked about how SAP customers are using SDN for training, and Jon notes the emphasis SAP is giving on training that goes beyond the classroom.
- Fresh back from his interview session with SAP CTO Vishal Sikka, Jon shares Vishal's take on SAP as a development platform, and whether he thinks ABAP is dead. Jon explains why Vishal thinks core functional and technical SAP skills will become commoditized. He shares Vishal's memorable quote on eSOA: "eSOA is a way to explain to management what APIs are." (Vishal was basically noting the eSOA simplifies the integration discussion in a way that management can understand and appreciate as a business case.
-Jon also talks about Vishal's point that "service-enabling" the entire SAP product line is a complex undertaking. For example, the Financials area of SAP is a high-stakes area that can get an executive in a jail cell if the right regulatory and compliance procedures (SAP GRC) are not followed. Jon explains why Vishal still believes in the power of eSOA despite these security challenges.
- Jon wraps the Day 2 podcast with reflections on a presentation from Cardinal Health on hands-on SAP eSOA lessons. Jon notes that the speaker, Brent Stutz of Cardinal Health, makes a good summary of "lessons learned" from eSOA, including doing the work of defining who owns the data. Jon also notes the point made during the session that SAP developed its Enterprise Services roadmap by taking the TOGAF industry standard SOA roadmap and adding some business processes to it.
As always, Jon tries to not only identify the key technical trends, but to move the conversation into the question of skills - who will fill these new SAP roles, and what types of backgrounds will they need?
Jon asked SAP executives these questions. Listen to the podcast series to find out the answers he was given and what he thought of those answers.
For the Day 2 podcast, the longest day of TechEd and the longest podcast in the series, Jon reacts to the executive keynotes and closed interview sessions he attended.
Editor's note: In the Day 2 podcast, Jon expresses some confusion that some attendees had about SAP Business By Design (BBD) and whether it was replacing A1S or was a separate product. It was later confirmed that BBD is in fact the same product as A1S, which is known as BBD going forward.
Reactions to Day 2 include:
- Responses to the keynote by Peter Zencke and friends, including the surprising emphasis on BBD as a big news item of the day.
- Jon talks about how this whole idea of "business network transformation" is really the same "extending the enterprise" talk SAP vendors have been pushing since the '90s, but that eSOA may finally give some technical teeth to the vision.
- Jon covers the latest SAP product innovations pushed during the keynote, including the SAP switch framework, the ES Workplace on SDN, and the ESR (Enterprise Services Repository). He also talks about the modeling tools that were demonstrated and the potential impact of the new Visual Composer, the new CE (Composition Environment), and the Eclipse development environment. Jon also notes the surprising lack of BI talk during the keynote, except for the BI Accelerator.
- Jon shares his reaction to the press conference after the keynote, where he posed the question of how the skills gap acknowledged by Peter Zencke was going to be filled. The executives on the panel noted an immediate demand for SAP Enterprise Architects and Business Process Experts. Jon gives his take on what he thought of these answers.
- Peter Zencke talked about how SAP customers are using SDN for training, and Jon notes the emphasis SAP is giving on training that goes beyond the classroom.
- Fresh back from his interview session with SAP CTO Vishal Sikka, Jon shares Vishal's take on SAP as a development platform, and whether he thinks ABAP is dead. Jon explains why Vishal thinks core functional and technical SAP skills will become commoditized. He shares Vishal's memorable quote on eSOA: "eSOA is a way to explain to management what APIs are." (Vishal was basically noting the eSOA simplifies the integration discussion in a way that management can understand and appreciate as a business case.
-Jon also talks about Vishal's point that "service-enabling" the entire SAP product line is a complex undertaking. For example, the Financials area of SAP is a high-stakes area that can get an executive in a jail cell if the right regulatory and compliance procedures (SAP GRC) are not followed. Jon explains why Vishal still believes in the power of eSOA despite these security challenges.
- Jon wraps the Day 2 podcast with reflections on a presentation from Cardinal Health on hands-on SAP eSOA lessons. Jon notes that the speaker, Brent Stutz of Cardinal Health, makes a good summary of "lessons learned" from eSOA, including doing the work of defining who owns the data. Jon also notes the point made during the session that SAP developed its Enterprise Services roadmap by taking the TOGAF industry standard SOA roadmap and adding some business processes to it.
For the Day 1 podcast, Jon gives his take on "Community Day" as well as his reaction to the guest keynote by Web 2.0 superhero Tim O' Reilly.
Topics in the day one podcast include:
- Jon's reaction to the Community Day session on "eSOA in Action." Jon talks about the different groups of SAP customers and their different reactions to the eSOA material. He also notes the new eSOA skills certifications SAP will be providing in the areas of Business Expert, Technical Expert, Developer, and Enterprise Architect.
- The general reaction to O'Reilly's keynote and the impact of Web 2.0 on the SAP world. Jon talks about how SAP has responded to Web 2.0 by creating "communities of innovation." He also explains O'Reilly's view that companies who don't get on board with Web 2.0 are going to be left behind. The importance of business intelligence and data as an asset and a "barrier to entry" are also covered.
During the podcast, Rohana gives us the inside take on the ERP 6.0 upgrade cycle, lessons learned from global rollouts, the new GL, and many other vital topics to SAP consultants.
Rohana has an opinionated and well-formed take on the SAP market, and his different takes on the future of SAP outsourcing and the impact of NetWeaver are worth hearing. Rohana also touches on the keys to being a successful SAP consultant, and he provides a memorable look at why cultural issues are so important to address on global SAP projects.
In this thirty minute interview, Jon and Rohana touch on many key topics, including:
- Rohana's upcoming talks on "Successful SAP Global Rollouts: Jump Start" and "Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most Out of SAPNet" that he will be presenting at the co-hosted Managing Your SAP Projects 2007 and Global SAP Environments 2007 conferences from October 22-24 at the Miami Beach convention center.
- How Rohana made his move into SAP and how his consulting role has evolved into his current position.
- Why Rohana made the unusual choice of committing himself to multi-year projects and what he sees as the advantages to working on projects over multiple years. Rohana talks about the way that he has become a more well-rounded consultant through long-term projects, and he explains one of the biggest benefits of a long-term consulting role: being nominated to handle more complex and "mission critical" projects.
- Lessons Rohana has learned from global SAP rollouts, and why the "human side of SAP implementations" is crucial to project success. Rohana shares an example of a cultural issue that flared up on his project and how his team resolved the problem and got a diverse, multi-country team on the SAP page.
- Rohana's experiences upgrading to ERP 6.0, and why he thinks that the overall upgrade process to ERP 6.0 is not as difficult as some make it out to be. Rohana compares the 6.0 upgrade to other SAP moves of the past, including from 3.x to 4.x and from 4.x to 4.7.
- The impact of SAP's New GL and why it is a significant functional enhancement.
- The significance of grasping the overall business processes that SAP addresses, and why understanding the integration points between SAP modules is so important to SAP consulting.
- How Rohana defines the ideal SAP consulting skill set, and why he thinks an 80/20 mix between technical and functional skills is more marketable than a 50/50 SAP "techno-functional" skills mix.
- Why ABAP programming know-how is important - even to SAP functional consultants.
- Jon asks Rohana why he thinks there could be an outsourcing backlash, and Rohana provides an overview of economic and labor supply issues in India that could make outsourcing more expensive and less appealing than in-house options.
- Rohana explains why he thinks NetWeaver is a bit overhyped in today's market and why many software companies, including SAP, push new functionality for marketing purposes while the real work remains focused on existing releases, and in SAP's case, in core functional processes rather than hot new eSOA technology.
Pat has one of the most compelling takes on the potential of BI to transform the enterprise. Listen in as Jon and Pat go through the evolution of the BW product from the earliest releases to NetWeaver BI.
Along the way, Pat shares the reasons that BW projects fail and the tactics needed to make them a success. Pat goes into detail regarding the skills consultants need to be successful in the SAP BI market and how they might break into BI from a range of technical backgrounds.
In this forty minute look at BI consulting trends, Jon and Pat cover key topics such as:
- How Pat broke into SAP and found his way into BW consulting roles.
- How SAP managed to move beyond the criticism from data warehouse experts, who initially viewed BW as a "joke." How SAP made BW a quality product with a proven value to SAP customers.
- Pat highlights how the work companies had to do with early releases of BW, building ETL, Extractors, and InfoCubes, has changed. Now BW is a fully-loaded product with plenty of business content.
- The current applications of BI 7.0, from web reporting to faster analytical environments, from Integrated Planning to Enterprise Data Management.
- Why BI was important to SAP's push to move beyond a transactional system to an "intelligent" program that allowed companies to leverage their ERP data for better reporting and decision-making.
- The keys to a successful BI implementation, which include: assessing your information requirements, understanding where the data needs fall within your organization, smart use of blueprinting, and quality documentation.
- Why the "siloed" BW implementation approach didn't work, and why the BI "enterprise-wide" data management approach is much more effective.
- Pat's take on why most successful BW consultants come from technical backgrounds, and how functional consultants can be effective in their work dealing with the BI team.
- Pat explains why he thinks the convergence of functional and technical SAP skills sets is not the ideal skill set for BI work, and why technical folks are generally better suited to BW project roles.
- How data warehousing experts can fit into BW/BI projects, and the range of SAP technical skills that are applicable to BI projects. Pat also describes the kind of ABAP knowledge needed to be effective in BW. Jon gives his take on the ideal technical/functional skills mix for SAP consultants.
- How the SAP ecosystem makes products like BI easier to implement than SAP projects used to be.
- The impact of NetWeaver on BI, and how BI have moved beyond basic BEx reporting to web-based reporting. How Portals, iViews and SAP MDM tie together to improve the user experience in BI.
- Why eSOA is an "enabling technology" that will allow SAP customers to innovate in ways that will help SAP customers to think in terms of business strategy and not in terms of their technical releases (R/3, BW, etc.)
- Whether BI is effective in more diverse environments where non-SAP data is a key part of a company's data management challenge. How companies can structure their BI data integration around the SAP Financials functionality when SAP Financials serves as the system of record.
- The future of information management in SAP, and why the underlying "source system" that a company's data is on will no longer be the defining factor. Pat explains why this shift allows NetWeaver to flip the "source system" approach on its head and allows business users to define their processes without worrying about which systems their data resides in.
- How Pat balances his own career between practice lead functions and hands-on work, and why it's important to him to remain involved on the technical side of SAP.
Co-sponsored by B2B Workforce, this podcast takes a closer look at why SAP Retail consulting is picking up steam and the skills that companies need to achieve success in their SAP Retail implementations.
Jon also asks Suresh to give his perspective on why SAP’s Retail solution has become so successful after a rocky start. Suresh shares with JonERP.com members the "best practices" he has seen on multiple SAP Retail installations.
In this thirty minute interview, Jon and Suresh cover key topics including:
- How Suresh got his start in SAP and how he was able to break into SAP Retail consulting in the late ‘90s.
- How SAP Retail triumphed over its rocky beginnings through developing industry best practices. Suresh’s "keys to successful SAP retail implementations," including the importance of quality resources, master data, user interfaces, application integration, and best practice reviews.
- The main consulting roles on SAP Retail projects and the skills consultants need to have to make a contribution to Retail projects. Factors such as retail industry experience, SAP Retail solution skills, finance, procurement, and Retail ABAP are considered. Suresh notes the various "entry points" into SAP Retail consulting.
- Jon gets Suresh’s take on why there is more emphasis on industry-specific SAP skills by hiring managers than ever before, why companies are emphasizing this point, and why there is a tension between what companies are looking for and the availability of qualified consultants.
- Why an industry focus has helped Suresh to succeed as an SAP consultant.
- How Enterprise SOA and NetWeaver are impacting SAP Retail consulting, including issues pertaining to BI, Portals, and reporting.
- The importance of quality master data for SAP Retail installations and how SAP’s own Master Data Management (MDM) solution might fit into a Retail solution environment, and whether you must have MDM installed to have an effective SAP Retail installation.
- What skills Suresh is looking to acquire next and why the RFID skill set is compelling to him in the context of his retail specialization.
- What "scommerce" is and why Suresh is excited about its potential in the SAP marketplace in terms of visibility and point-of-sale solutions.
- Given that there are limited training and certification opportunities in SAP Retail, what are the entry points into SAP Retail consulting and how can consultants get involved? Suresh answers that question and explains how retail experts without SAP background can also break into the field.
Hosted by Jon Franke of Search SAP, this podcast is a straight-talking review of the "human side" of Abiomed's SAP implementation.
Listen in as Jon Reed asks Dan Lubin how Abiomed managed to implement SAP in 28 weeks, overcoming team burnout and hitting all their milestones.
In this thirty minute interview, "the two Jons" and Dan cover key topics such as:
- The scope of Abiomed's SAP implementation and how this Danvers, MA company leverages SAP for its international medical device business.
- The winning formula Abiomed used to staff its SAP project, and how it combined external consultants with internal team members.
- Why offshore resources are important for Abiomed and other midsize companies to fill skills gaps on their SAP project, and how Abiomed used an onshore/offshore mix to meet their "blended rate" cost targets.
- Why the typical functional consultant tends to have too narrow a skill set for Abiomed's project and what the skills profile of their ideal functional consultant looks like. The importance of understanding the integration points between modules is emphasized.
- How users honestly responded to the new SAP environment and what Abiomed did to ensure that users were on board with a more standardized and structured approach to handling their business processes via SAP.
- What the Abiomed team did to overcome burnout and help users get through the most labor-intensive parts of the implementation cycle.
- What types of SAP full time employees were recruited to the project and what kinds of expertise they brought with them that rounded out the Abiomed team in areas such as security, validation, and testing.
- The "lessons learned" from the SAP implementation and why internal investment in project management is crucial. The results of following (and not following) SAP best practices, the impact of training and why the mundane but vital task of user documentation is of critical importance.
- Tips for success: Dan clarifies the difference between knowledge transfer and training and explains how to approach both from the standpoint of managing a budget and making sure that knowledge transfer is an organic result of a well-run implementation.
- Would Dan implement SAP again? Dan clarifies a quote Jon cited from SAPPHIRE, challenging Jon on its accuracy, and explains why he would absolutely do the SAP implementation over again and why Abiomed has gained so much from its SAP install and the user community "ecosystem." Dan closes by noting the anticipation for the pending Abiomed European implementation.
On these last two days, Jon talked with a number of industry insiders and SAP executives and consolidated what he learned onto this podcast wrap.
A couple of major highlights included the backgrounds needed for consulting success in BI and RF/RFID, and the emerging NetWeaver "jobs roles of the future."
Highlights from Jon's uncensored and unscripted conference reactions included:
- Jon's reaction to the key themes of the big SAPPHIRE keynotes, including the shift from "disruptive innovators" to "innovation without disruption."
- Jon documents which SAP terms are in and more notably, which SAP terms are on the way out. Terms on the way out include: ABAP, Basis, and R/3, but also more surprising departures such as XI, mySAP, and ESA.
- Jon tracks the hot consulting areas emphasized during the conference, including emerging activity in the retail industry as well as xApps and selective SOA implementations.
- Jon's detailed review of a NetWeaver executive's review of the SAP job roles of the future. Jon describes the roles of "Composer," "Consolidator," "Repository Keeper," and "SAP Developer," and notes the skills and backgrounds that will be necessary to move into each of these new roles.
- Jon documents a couple more public admissions by SAP executives of pending skills shortages and Jon speculates on whether the skills gap is as big for SOA as the skills gap once was between mainframe and client-server technologies.
- Jon details the emerging RFID consulting role and the kinds of skills profiles that will find success on an SAP RFID implementation.
- Jon looks more closely at BI consulting and which types of functional and technical SAP consultants will succeed in BI and BW consulting going forward.
- Jon describes a rapid mySAP ERP 2005 xApp implementation, how it was accomplished and what kind of skills were needed to complete it.
- Jon also predicts how long the SAP upgrade wave will boost consulting and when we will return to a "winners and losers" consulting market like we had for most of this decade before the upgrade wave hit.
- Finally, Jon wraps the podcast with another review of the hottest areas of SAP going forward (BI, Retail, SOA, functional and technical skills convergence, and HR and FI (but not classic back office HR and FI).
Editor's Note: at the 6:25 time stamp mark on this podcast, Jon Reed says that SAP now uses PI as the abbreviation for "Process Industries." In this context, he actually meant "Process Integration," the replacement for SAP XI.
On Day 1, Jon conducted numerous interviews with SAP product managers. He also sat in on several press briefings including a CIO panel of SAP customers.
Jon reported back his insights from each event, and took an honest look at how the latest developments will impact consulting demand.
Highlights from Jon's uncensored and unscripted conference reactions included:
- Why mid-market companies are looking at outsourcing and why they find that some SAP consultants are too specialized for their needs.
- How SOA has evolved from a "good idea" to a product that SAP's partners can truly sell and therefore truly endorse.
- Why "On Demand" Solutions like CRM On Demand are not as appealing to mid-market companies as one would think.
- The significance of leveraging "unstructured" data and how partnerships like Duet are focused on this area.
- Which SAP consulting areas seemed hot based on the day's interviews and why (hot areas included CRM, SOA, and BW/BI).
- Why functional and technical skill sets are converging.
- A NetWeaver executive who admits on the record that there are not enough of the "new wave" of techno-functional NetWeaver consultants to meet customer needs. Jobs like Composer and Repository Keeper may not have emerged yet, but the demand for those skill sets has.
- The need for consultants with more industry-specific know-how and more business process knowledge (and why the BPX community is a factor here).
- The problematic Microsoft partnership...all smiles at SAPPHIRE, but what happens when Microsoft wins a bunch of SMB business from SAP? Will Microsoft partnership ever deteriorate like the Oracle partnership has?
In this podcast interview with ASUG President Rod Masney, SAP Career Expert Jon Reed talks to Rod about this year's combined ASUG/SAPPHIRE conference. He also asks Rod about the biggest challenges SAP users are facing and how ASUG impacts SAP's product evolution.
In this 23 minute podcast, Rod speaks about these topics and more, including:
- How to get the most out of the upcoming ASUG/SAPPHIRE conference: Rod shares his thoughts on the advantages of the combined format and how attendees can benefit.
- The biggest challenges SAP users are facing: Jon asks Rod what he's learned from ASUG's own user surveys and discussions.
- How ASUG is helping SAP customers address upgrade issues: Upgrades can be massive projects with plenty of misfires. Learn how ASUG is helping customers share information and lessons learned.
- Making sense of SAP lingo and version releases: Jon wants to know if Rod can clear up the confusion regarding version releases. Rod explains how SAP is settling on mySAP 2005 as its foundation release.
- The evolution of Web Services and SOA: from hype to actual case studies: Is SOA the real deal or just "brochureware"? Rod shares his take.
- Debunking the myth that SAP only serves the needs of large companies: SAP's push into the mid-market is discussed.
- How SAP users are impacting the direction of SAP through Influence Councils: ASUG has had a huge impact on SAP's own software in recent years. Find out why.
Along with Jon, Michael is the co-author of The SAP Consultant Handbook, and his recently updated SAP Blue Book has become the industry standard for all business readers looking to get a handle on SAP.
In this in-depth, 45 minute interview, Jon and Michael sit down for a frank look at a changing SAP market full of new opportunities but plenty of challenges.
During this "state of the industry" discussion, Jon asks Michael for his take on a number of key questions facing SAP professionals, including:
- How the SAP market rebounded, and what factors contributed to SAP's market surge.
- Michael's work at Performance Monitor and why Performance Monitor is uniquely positioned to monitor SAP (and Oracle) consulting trends.
- Why Michael updated the SAP Blue Book and what has changed in the SAP market since his first edition.
- The drivers that will push the SAP market forward in the next five years.
- What key skills SAP consultants are lacking now and what skills they will need to add to stay competitive.
- Why "offshoring" has had such a big impact on SAP consulting and why Michael thinks that "ABAP is dead" as a good consulting niche.
- Why Michael is a bit skeptical of "Business Intelligence" hype.
- How SAP and Oracle are positioning themselves as they battle for the mid-market.
- The importance of choosing skills over rates.
Jon and Brian move beyond the NetWeaver hype for an in-depth look at which skills are hot and which are not. Brian's take on the SAP market has influenced many SAP consultants. Check out this podcast and find out why.
Jon and Brian cover themes such as:
- Are the core functional consultants having the last laugh? Why is work shifting away from the previously-titled "New Dimensions" products like APO, SEM, and CRM?
- What are the hottest areas in SAP consulting now, and how are upgrades fueling the consulting demand and the types of opportunities available?
- Why is there so much confusion about SAP product names and version numbers? How do the NetWeaver and mySAP release numbers match up? Which components fit into the new ECC (Enterprise Core) releases?
- Are companies getting the message and upgrading to 6.0, or are they also upgrading to other SPA releases? Which versions of SAP are most marketable for consultants?
- Get Brian's take on why SAP consultants should choose skills over rates. Find out how the elite consultants he knows stay in demand.
- Is ABAP programming "dead" as a career path? Brian offers his take on the type of SAP programmer who can succeed in today's outsourcing-heavy market.
- Find out why Brian thinks that functional consultants need to move beyond configuration skills. Hear Brian's view on why business process and industry knowledge matters more than ever.
- NetWeaver isn't just impacting technical consultants. Brian shares how NetWeaver is changing functional SAP consulting.
- Hear why Business Intelligence is here to stay, and why functional consultants should also be adding BI and BW skills to their profile.
The focus of the podcast is an in-depth look at the changing SAP job market. Jon's portion of the interview begins at the three minute mark. During the 15 minute discussion, Jon comments on:
- How the SAP job market has evolved since the year 2000 and how SAP has overcome the challenges it has faced since Y2K.
- How SAP triumphed over the best-of-breed market in CRM and other area and why that's good news for SAP consultants.
- Why the era of "enforced upgrades" should be a good one for SAP professionals and why software markets are at their healthiest when there is a carrot (new functionality) and a stick (fees for extended maintenance).
- The potential impact of SOA and Web Services and how consultants can anticipate these technology trends.
- Why the "death of ABAP" is premature and why SAP is still invested in the future of ABAP.
- What the "SAP Programmer of the Future" will look like.
- What the impact of outsourcing will be on technical (and functional) areas of SAP.
- Why RFID hasn't taken off as an SAP consulting niche and how consultants can position themselves in this emerging area.
- The impact of CRM On-Demand Solutions and whether there will be a good consulting niche in this area.
- Why Sarbanes-Oxley and "Compliance Consulting" has not been especially popular, and how SAP consultants can incorporate compliance and regulatory skills into their skill sets.
