SAP’s other co-CEO, Jim Snabe, took over the keynote reins on Tuesday morning at Sapphire Now and ASUG Annual Conference 2012. The speech was a short, revealing history lesson that told the technology story of where we (and SAP) have come from and are today. The big news related to SAP’s embrace of the cloud, with Snabe predicting that “in five years, everything will be the cloud.” You read that right. Of course, “everything” is a very broad term, and long-time on-premise Business Suite customers might be wondering: “Really?”... Read more


Service to others. If there was one theme that stood out from Monday morning’s keynotes at ASUG Annual Conference and Sapphire Now, then it was the selfless idea that serving others is not just a “nice thing to do” but a moral obligation for those in attendance. That view was put forth, first, by ASUG Board Chairman Anthony Bosco—winding down his tenure as chairman, Bosco talked about his “labor of love” and his time spent on the ASUG board leadership team serving the organization. The CIO of Day & Zimmermann discussed the results—“the... Read more


ASUG Annual Conference and Sapphire Now 2012 are finally here, and we’ve got you covered here at ASUG News. There’s one site you should definitely check out during and after the event: ASUGonline.com. There you’ll be able to watch all the keynotes—hear from ASUG CEO Bridgette Chambers, Chairman Anthony Bosco and Vice Chairman Michael Stoko, as well as an inspirational speech by Lance Armstrong and all the SAP executive keynotes live from Orlando, Florida. In the ASUG News Broadcast Studio, which is sponsored by Optimal Solutions, we’ve... Read more


ASUG Annual Conference and Sapphire Now are just around the corner—can’t wait for all those “wheels up, headed to Orlando” travel tweets this weekend. Seriously though, while there were plenty of #ASUG2012 and #SapphireNow posts and previews to read this week, there was also the curious post about SAP and Indirect Access: Is SAP Taking Advantage of Its Customers? It was written by Dave Blake, CEO of the UpperEdge consultancy, which aims to help companies better negotiate with their vendors. The gist of the post: SAP may be stepping up enforcement... Read more


“Whatever your 100% looks like, give it.” Those words belong to seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and keynote speaker at this year’s ASUG Annual Conference. I love the simple honesty and self-reflection that lies behind that quote. The necessity of giving 100% or 110% to succeed is nothing new. We’ve all heard that. But giving a 100% or more of what? The truth is, each individual has different capabilities and different capacities for success. Recognizing that, understanding the unique nature, and even limits of our capabilities,... Read more


Do you know who your Solution Manager is at SAP? You should. SAP Solution Managers act like general managers of the product set, defining product strategy, driving initial market entry for their product or portfolio, and collaborating with customers to define uses cases for future product enhancements. In addition, the Solution Manager works closely with the Center of Excellence and the field to accelerate and enable solutions sales. As a general manager for his or her product business, the Solution Manager analyzes and understands the competitor’s... Read more


Sapphire Now and ASUG Annual Conference kicks off in less than a week in Orlando (on May 14, to be precise). In an interview with ASUGNews.com, SAP Chief Marketing Officer Jonathan Becher offered an overview of what’s new at Sapphire Now this year, provided some suggestions on how attendees could get more out of their time, and also gave his perspective on the unique partnership that exists between ASUG and SAP at this conference. Whether you’re already registered or still on the fence (um, you should go), here are the top 10 things to know... Read more


Today is Star Wars day (May the 4th be with you as well), and as much as one can try to resist giving into the dark side of overhyping the emerging Database Wars between SAP and Oracle, I’m going to have to give in today—especially after the HANA-Exalytics battles waged by leaders on both sides this week. The most recent disturbance began with a presentation (pdf) given by Oracle’s Thomas Kurian that offered many claims about HANA’s capabilities and cost. SAP marshaled its Knights of the SAP Republic in response—blog posts from CTO Vishal... Read more


ASUG Annual Conference 2012 kicks off in less than ten days in Orlando. Once again, the event is co-located with SAP’s Sapphire Now extravaganza. While SAP delivers the innovation buzz on what’s next in accordance with its world domination master plan—all taking place in the SAP campuses throughout the massive show floor—ASUG is busy making sense of it all with real-world customer-to-customer experiences in breakout session rooms throughout the Orange County Convention Center. Up on the big stages they may talk the talk, but in the ASUG... Read more


Editor’s Note: Each month in 2012, ASUGNews will focus on covering topics relevant to ASUG’s most active communities. In April, we focused on topics and news related to enterprise asset management (EAM). According to Achim Krüger, VP of EAM Solutions at SAP, the most pressing issues for the enterprise asset management community today are: user experience, asset information management, mobility, visualization, and the combination of analytics and HANA. That is, of course, a daunting list for any ASUG community or SAP customer to tackle. But... Read more