Top Agenda Items for SAPPHIRE ‘08

By Sam Sliman
President, Optimal Solutions Integration

Times are charged for SAP, the customer community and partner ecosystem, and this year’s ASUG + SAPPHIRE conference in Orlando is certain to be action packed. Last year more than 15,000 attendees converged at the premier SAP educational and networking conference. This year’s event is shaping up to be just as big, if not bigger. As is always the case with ASUG + SAPPHIRE, the buzz is palpable. But as is also the case with ASUG + SAPPHIRE, much important work will get done.

There’s so much happening in the SAP world today that it’s tough to narrow down the most pressing agenda items for ASUG + SAPPHIRE, but here goes…

1. SAP continuing education

First and foremost, ASUG + SAPPHIRE is an educational event. It affords perhaps the best opportunity for SAP customers (and SAP partners) to get hands-on experience and in-depth training for any specific SAP software application. There are over 700 educational and information tracks covering a broad array of product and business subjects scheduled this year. Attendees that build an agenda prior to the event focused sharply on their most immediate educational needs and most pressing business challenges will come away most productive.

Taking in a keynote speech or two is always interesting, but seeking out and attending an SAP-customer led session -- particularly if the customer is speaking to challenges or issues confronting your company or organization -- is a more beneficial use of your time.

2. SAP roadmap review

SAP Business Suite applications have evolved considerably over the past few years, with the transition of Business Suite applications to the NetWeaver SOA platform standing out as perhaps the most significant change. Though well underway, the learning curve for NetWeaver, composite applications (xApps) and services-based architecture remains steep for many SAP customers. Careful study and understanding of SAP’s enterprise SOA vision and roadmap is essential to driving business process innovation and maximizing the value of SAP investments.

In addition, much remains to be learned about SAP’s roadmap for rationalizing products acquired from Business Objects, as well as those acquired from other vendors -- Pilot Software, Virsa Systems, etc. On this front, there will be great interest in SAP’s newly enhanced suite of integrated financial performance management (FPM) and governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solutions. (As well as the growing host of BI and performance management applications SAP groups under the rubric of enterprise performance management (EPM)). SAP’s ‘assault on the office of the CFO’ should draw considerable attention among SAP customers who are well advised to use this year’s conference to bone up on how SAP’s FPM and GRC combination can be a knockout for their CFO.

3. SAP upgrade action plans

Last year SAP CEO Henning Kagermann went on record stating that he expects 75% of SAP's then 36,000 ERP customers to upgrade to SAP ERP (06) by mid-2008, a huge jump from the 2,547 live implementations in 2007 -- which is itself a bump up from the 225 customer implementations in 2006.

With the 2009 deadline for moving from extended maintenance to costly customer-specific maintenance looming for many SAP R/3 customers, and with the capabilities of the NetWeaver-based SAP ERP now well proven, the time is ripe for a tidal wave of SAP R/3 customers to kick their upgrade plans into action.

To be sure, much of the work done at ASUG + SAPPHIRE 2008 will revolve around upgrades, creating a tremendous opportunity for exhibiting SAP consulting firms with deep upgrade expertise and proven upgrade credentials.

4. SAP Mid-market push

SAP’s heightened focus on the middle market is crystal clear. Concurrent with the high-profile launch last year of its on-demand Business ByDesign solution, SAP publicly declared its ambitious goal of growing its customer count from 39,000 to 100,000 by 2010. Achieving this goal hinges heavily on SAP’s ability to further penetrate the bourgeoning SME market, which in turn hinges heavily on the SAP partner ecosystem’s success in driving high-volume sales in the mid-market segment.

Media and industry analysts are expecting a mid-market progress report from SAP, and you can be sure that SAP will deliver dazzling numbers and customer case studies illustrating how SAP is being cost-effectively deployed by a growing number of mid-market companies.

In connection with this, there is certain to be much SAP partner ecosystem news coming out of ASUG + SAPPHIRE, as the posers are separated from the true players committed to partnering with SAP in its quest for middle-market domination.