We will listen to our users. It’s a phrase that Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe have emphasized as their top priority again and again since they took over as SAP’s co-CEOs early last year. As the Chief Executive of the world’s largest user group of SAP professionals, ASUG, I appreciate the passion that a leader feels when making such a promise to customers. I also understand the responsibility that comes with making such a promise. ASUG has made it a key theme in our Influence and Advocacy programs, to ensure that our members benefit from all that “listening to our customers” means in today’s fast- paced marketplace.

In many respects, Bill and Jim have shown ASUG that they are delivering on that promise.  For instance, ASUG members are participating in SAP’s Customer Advisory Council, a project through which SAP will cull best practices for improving the total cost of ownership of running its software.  In turn, SAP’s work with our SAP BusinessObjects members and has resulted in a pledge for enhanced support and better product roadmaps for non-SAP and SAP users alike.

ASUG has always been one of SAP’s first lines of communication with its customers. So how can we ensure that SAP not only listens, but actually hears us?

This year, we mark our 20^th anniversary. To celebrate, we’re launching a host of new improvements and initiatives geared toward enhancing the ASUG experience, and making sure you see real results.

I submit that it is time that ASUG sets the tone for our ongoing dialogue with SAP. In that spirit, I am pleased to introduce ASUGnews.com. Here you’ll find timely, relevant, industry-specific coverage and analysis of SAP news and related IT-trends. Through articles, blogs and videos, we’ll tell you where SAP’s going, what your peers are doing, and help you determine the right next steps for your organization. We’ll highlight customer successes, and shed light on projects that didn’t go so well. In all, you will be more aware and informed after visiting this new site.

Now, some members may be wondering what happens to ASUG.com. It remains ASUG’s premiere educational resource – the hub of peer, partner and SAP webcasts and other resources and forums for members to help solve each other’s problems.  ASUGnews.com is simply a place where we will lend relevance to the issues that span all of us, and provide value for the entire SAP ecosystem.

Consider this, we are not simply launching an online magazine. I encourage you to see this as an online source of information and connection to the SAP influencers, as well as a commitment to providing a balanced approach to private and public content. You know this; ASUG.com has a wealth of customer focused content that has been the source for solving complex customer questions for nearly two decades. It seems only appropriate that as we endeavor to fill the next 20 years with rich content and collaboration, we expand the venue and share some of that information and discussion in a public environment.

As if the launch of an online magazine wasn’t enough, I am proud and pleased to introduce you to ASUG’s own dedicated contributors to the new site, Thomas Wailgum and Courtney Bjorlin. Of course you know these names, Thomas and Courtney are world-class journalists that have enriched readers across our globe by providing informative, objective, and insightful information and analysis for many years. I am so proud to welcome them to the ASUG family.

Thomas, formerly of CIO.com, brings more than 15 years of experience covering technology to ASUG.  Courtney, formerly of SearchSAP.com, brings nearly a decade of reporting experience.  They are award-winning reporters who understand the SAP ecosystem, and I am thrilled to have them leading ASUGnews.com.

With more than 85,000 members and 2,000 member companies, ASUG’s strength lies in our members, and the diversity of their experiences. ASUGnews.com reporters will rely on that wealth of experience to surface and bring context to the biggest SAP issues of the day, which helps ensure that SAP’s most connected customers stay even better connected. The entire SAP ecosystem benefits from members having better information, and better influence.

I invite all of you to tune in to ASUGnews regularly to stay “in the know”.

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1 Comment for ASUG News: It’s All About You

Paul Kurchina

I just saw the ASUG News announcement on ASUG.com this morning and heard about it last night from a few ASUG VIP’s.

ASUG News looks great, very professional. Well done

I look forward to hearing more great future stories on our ASUG Communities in Community Corner editions of ASUG News.

I see from ASUG News that you have added Thomas Wailgum and Courtney Bjorlin to your ASUG HQ team. Congratulations, their backgrounds seem quite impressive and should definitely enhance the quality of ASUG Content

ASUG in it 20th year is definitely evolving quite rapidly to be more than just a traditional usergroup in many new areas.

All this best

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