By Sylvia Santelli

The rumors are all true, the SAP Services blog is moving to SAP Community Network (SCN) and we are thrilled! For us the question has always been, “How can we optimize the value we bring to our customers and to our online audience?”  We believe the answer is joining SCN.  Many of you are already there, but in case you are not, here are the top reasons to join us:

• Learn from the brightest from the SAP Ecosystem. There are over 1 million articles, documents and eLearning content on all SAP solutions and services.
• Solve problems by posting questions in the discussion forums or search past questions. 8.7 million entries have been made since 2003.
• Connect and grow your network with real SAP experts, over 2.5 million members from over 200 countries.
• Contribute through blogging, commenting, asking questions or answering them.
• Start building your online reputation!

*Thanks Gail Moody-Byrd for first compiling the list in this blog.

It’s free to sign up. Once you do you can really customize your experience by following topics and even signing up various newsletters.

 Follow Us on SCN

Stay up to date by visiting SAP Services here. Stay up to date by visiting Rapid Deployment Solutions here.

Celebrate the Ch-Ch-Changes!

When I started writing this blog I was thinking about the Ch-Ch-Changes that SAP Services is going through (for the better) as we move to SCN. So I invited good friend David Bowie to help me celebrate.

Ch-Ch-Changes

Thought it would be fun to crowd source songs on “Change”.  What songs remind you of change? Doesn’t have to be your favorite song, but any song that speaks about change—so they can join as we celebrate—add it in the comments.

You can also view this post on SCN here.

We are very proud that a number of these solutions will be showcased at SAPPHIRE NOW.

We invite you to learn more by visiting the microforums, theater presentations and demo pods where these solutions will be featured.  Also look for us at discussion tables and demo pods where you can interact with key experts who can help you understand how these solutions can help you increase operating efficiencies and realize greater value from your core SAP investments.

For more details or to add these sessions to your schedule, please go to the agenda builder.

Solutions applicable to Multiple industries

ASUG Presentation:  McKesson Uses Multiresource Scheduling to Push the Resource Deployment Envelope

• Location:  S320B
• May 14/Monday, 1:45 – 2:45pm
• Session ID: 2803
• SAP Contact: Joerg Brosowski

Microforum: Expand Your Reach with SAP Extended Learning Solution (SAP xLSO)

• Location: Business Analytics Campus, BA320
• May 14/Monday, 2:00 – 2:45pm
• Session ID: 8751
• SAP Host: Thomas Jenewein

ASUG Presentation: Spectra: New Tools for Managing the Full Fixed Asset Lifecycle

• Location:  S220G
• May 15/Tuesday, 4:15 – 5:15pm
• Session ID: 2609
• SAP Contact: Bret Strobo

 Demo Pods

• SAP Multiresource Scheduling (MRS), Run Better / EMC – David Kramp, Matt Emmert, Joerg Brosowski
• SAP Asset Retirement Obligation (ARO), Run Better – Tom Bourke, Bret Strobo
• SAP Asset Lifecycle Accounting (ALA), Run Better – Jeff Plachta, Bret Strobo
• SAP Application Interface Framework (AIF), Run Better – Ray Kowalski

Aerospace and Defense

ASUG Presentation: BOEING Couples Mobility with SAP’s Complex Assembly Manufacturing Solution

• Location:  S220E
• May 15/Tuesday, 1:45 – 2:45pm
• Session ID: 1007
• SAP Host: Frank Pfohl

Microforum: Complex Assembly in Aerospace Industries (featuring United Launch Alliance)

• Location: Run Better Campus, RB 155
• May 16/Wednesday, 3:00 – 3:45pm
• Session ID: 7155
• SAP Contact: Frank Pfohl

Demo Pods

• SAP Complex Assembly Manufacturing (CAMS), Run Better – Mike Edelen, Frank Pohl

Agriculture

Microforum: Transforming Agriculture through More Effective Contract Management

• Location: Run Better Campus, RB 141
• May 15/Tuesday, 11:00 – 11:45am
• Session ID: 7912
• SAP Host: Gabriele Weigel

Agribusiness Advisory Council

• Topic: SAP Agricultural Contract Management
• Hilton Orlando – Bay Hill Board Room
• May 15/Tuesday, 3:00 – 5:00pm
• SAP Host: Gabriele Weigel

Demo Pods

• SAP Agricultural Contract Management (ACM), Run Better – Gabriele Weigel

Consumer Products

Theater Presentation: Molson Coors Maximized Trade Fund Utilization to Drive Top and Bottom-Line Results

• Location: Run Better South Theater
• May 14/Monday, 1:30 – 1:50pm
• Session ID: 7977
• SAP Contact: Timo Wagenblatt

Demo Theater: SAP Trade Promotion Optimization Application for Consumer Products

• Location: Run Better South Demo Theater
• May 14/Monday, 2:30 – 2:50pm
• Session ID: 7589
• SAP Host: Timo Wagenblatt

ASUG Presentation: Apparel and Footwear Solution Development Update and Roadmap

• Location:  S330G
• May 15/Tuesday, 4:15 – 5:15pm
• Session ID: 3009
• SAP Contact: Thorsten Hapke (with Cole Haan)

Demo Theater: SAP Trade Promotion Optimization Application for Consumer Products

• Location: Run Better South Demo Theater
• May 16/Wednesday, 2:30 – 2:50pm
• Session ID: 7589
• SAP Host: Timo Wagenblatt

Demo Pods

• SAP Trade Promotion Management (TPO), Run Better – Greg McNitt, Timo Wagenblatt

HIgh tech

Microforum: How IBM Configures Complex Solutions

• Location: Run Better Campus, RB 141
• May 16/Wednesday, 2:00 – 2:45pm
• Session ID: 7913
• SAP Host: Steve Lenz

Demo Pods

• SAP Solution Sales Configuration (SSC), Run Better – Steve Lenz

PUBLIC SECTOR

ASUG Presentation: Santa Clara County – Implementing SAP Public Budget Formulation and SAP Business Objects Reporting

• Location:  S330A
• May 14/Monday, 3:00 – 4:00pm
• Session ID: 3204
• SAP Contact: Christian Fuellgraf

Microforum: Improve Fiscal Stability and Accountability with Public Budget Formulation (featuring Santa Clara County)

• Location: Run Better Campus, RB109
• May 15/Tuesday, 4:00 – 4:45pm
• Session ID: 7205
• Staff Contact: Christian Fuellgraf

Demo Pods

• SAP Public Budget Formulation (PBF), EMC – Tami Becker, Christian Fuellgraf

Real Estate

Demo Pod

• SAP Common Area Maintenance Expense Recovery (CAM RE), Run Better – B4 Consulting

Utilities

ASUG Presentation: Pre-Pay Solutions for Utilities (featuring Texas Utilities aka TXU)

• Location: S322
• May 16/Wednesday, 1:45 – 2:45pm
• Session ID: 3312
• Staff Contact: James Piacentino

While you are at the event, keep an eye out for Dirk Wodtke, who is responsible for the SAP Mobility Design Center, and Ted Petrenko, who is on or our architects.  Both Ted and Dirk will be available to meet with you and answer questions.

And before SAPPHIRE NOW, watch this video to learn what the SAP Mobility Design Center is all about!

Microforum: Innovating With Enterprise Mobility In Professional Services

• Location: Mobile Campus, MB 432
• May 14/Monday, 10:30 – 11:15am
• Session ID: 7747
• SAP Contact: Joerg Brosowski

For details or to add to your agenda, go to agenda builder

Demo Theater: Creating User-Centric Mobile Apps

• Location: Mobile Demo Theater
• May 14/Monday, 1:00 -1:20pm
• Session ID: 7865
• SAP Host: Dirk Wodtke

Demo Theater: Enabling Enterprise Mobility: Consumer Products and Wholesale Distribution

• Location: Mobile Demo Theater
• May 14/Monday, 2:30 -2:50pm
• Session ID: 7849
• SAP Host: Chris Wiesen

ASUG Presentation: SAP Expertise Finder Mobile Application for Professional Services Industry

• Location:  S322
• May 15/Tuesday, 1:45 – 2:45pm
• Session ID: 3307
• SAP Host: Joerg Brosowski

For details or to add to your agenda, go to agenda builder

Microforum: Innovating with Enterprise Mobility in Professional Services

• Location: Mobile Campus, MB 431
• May 15/Tuesday, 2:00 – 2:45pm
• Session ID: 7747
• SAP Contact: Joerg Brosowski

For details or to add to your agenda, go to agenda builder

Microforum: Building Custom Mobile Apps Quickly, Securely, and Cost-effectively

• Location: Mobile Campus, MB 429
• May 16/Wednesday, 11:00 – 11:45am
• Session ID: 7685
• SAP Contact: Dirk Wodtke

For details or to add to your agenda, go to agenda builder

Microforum: The New Mobile Solution on Boeing’s Shop Floor

• Location: Run Better Campus, RB 155
• May 16/Wednesday, 2:00 – 2:45pm
• Session ID: 7972
• SAP Contact: Frank Pfohl (with Boeing)

For details or to add to your agenda, go to agenda builder

Panel Discussion: BYOD: Managing Personal Mobile Devices in Your Enterprise (featuring Fossil)

• Location: Mobile Campus
• May 16/Wednesday, 2:00 -2:30pm
• Session ID: 7536
• SAP Host: Mike Golz

Discussion Table: Use Custom Development Services to Support Enterprise Mobility

• Location: Mobile Campus, MB 418
• During show floor hours
• Session ID: MB 418
• SAP Contact: Dirk Wodtke, Ted Petrenko

From the SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions Lounge we will also conduct multi-stop, informal guided campus tours on several rapid-deployment solution topic areas to help streamline your rapid deployment agenda. They will include a short orientation followed by two or more of the following: a stop in a campus to participate in a relevant customer presentation, a stop in a campus for a matching demo or discussion at a pod or discussion table, a stop in a campus at a test-drive table, and where applicable, a stop in the ecosystem area at a partner booth.

Topic areas include:

• SAP HANA
• Analytics
• Mobile
• Line-of-business applications
• Data migration (SAP ERP, SAP ERP HCM, and SAP CRM, as well as migration of SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse to SAP HANA)

One other activity I would like to bring to your attention is the “Meet our Customer” video booth.  We are asking customers who are in all phases of their rapid deployment implementation to allow us to capture their story in a simple walk-in video booth format.  It is a simple self-run process and just takes a couple of minutes to complete a professionally generated video.

Please let your account executive know if you are interested in a personal meeting, a tour, or recording a video on your rapid-deployment solutions experience – or simply come to the SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions Lounge and we will be happy to assist you in any way.

I look forward to meeting you in Orlando!

Regards,

Steven Birdsall
SVP and General Manager
SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions

Last week I attended Forrester’s CIO & Enterprise Architecture Forum 2012 in Las Vegas. Forrester made a very good point there: “Organizations that want to achieve their goals must constantly innovate, be extremely adaptable to changing market needs, and deliver efficiencies and cost control to compete in a global economy.” For sure that’s a challenge but check out our latest support innovations and you will see how SAP can help you reach this goal. Forrester also stated that “consumers expect firms to make them the center of their strategies, with mobile social media as their weapon.” Roger that! So anytime, please feel free to comment on my blogs if you for instance need any additional info on what’s going on at the conference or how our support offerings can really help you.

I’m traveling quite a bit these days. So the past three days I spent at the Technology Services World 2012 Best Practices conference in Santa Clara, California. A nice highlight from today was that SAP has won the 2012 TSIA Vision Award in the Services Practitioner category! Kudos to Jan Musil (SAP Delivery Operations) who did the presentation and outpaced Hewlett-Packard which was the other finalist.

Here’s also a picture of Jan receiving the award on behalf of SAP. After this full-blown service & support consumption at the TSIA conference I can hardly wait any longer for SAPPHIRE NOW and ASUG Annual Conference to start. So please bring it on! …Ok just a few more days before Lance Armstrong (how great is that!?) and the ASUG fellows will rock the show and kick off the event…

Link to previous blogs:

SAPPHIRE NOW – SUPPORT LATER!?

SAPPHIRE NOW – Ta-dahhhh for the SAP Active Global Support Center

SAPPHIRE NOW – What’s cooking at the SAP Active Global Support Center?

Benjamin Wilk is part of SAP’s global Maintenance Go-To-Market organization.

Brought to you by SAP Services

Introducing Cloud-based Quick Start for SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions

Among the many benefits of cloud computing is faster time-to-market, and enabling IT to partner with the business in order to accelerate innovation.  On the business side, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) point solutions are increasingly popular as they offer easy implementations and the convenience of on-demand, web-based features. Cloud-based software vendors are well known for quick development cycles, offering new features and updates in response to customer feedback within just days or weeks compared to the longer development cycles of traditional licensed software.

From an IT perspective, moving to the cloud can introduce new challenges and complexities, such as the daunting task of managing a hybrid environment, including multiple cloud applications/platforms alongside existing business critical on-premise systems, databases and infrastructure. Pressure from the business side has increased significantly in recent years to move projects to the cloud in order to complete IT projects in less time with fewer resources while still maintaining high levels of data security and compliance.

SAP, as a global enterprise software company delivers solutions across all environments, including on-premise, private cloud (through our certified partners), SaaS and mobile. Quickly unleashing higher business value for customers through innovations and expertise is an important focus for us, as well as helping customers to continue building an enterprise landscape that is secure, flexible and integrated.

We encourage businesses to leverage the cloud when it makes business sense – and have introduced the ability to jumpstart IT projects on the SAP private cloud. SAP Services continues to work closely with customers to ensure that IT is able to rise to the aforementioned challenges and to develop a Cloud strategy that makes sense for their business. With a cloud-based quick start for rapid-deployment solutions, SAP Services helps you get up and running quickly with preassembled software, hosting in a private cloud environment, with logistics services to move your software to its final infrastructure- whether in the cloud or on-premise. To further accelerate the process, the software is set up in a virtual sandbox so you can fine-tune your solution and see it in action with your enterprise data.  Essentially, you can test and validate the solution with real data, make headway on your project and deliver a fully baked solution to your business before you have finalized your infrastructure.

Read the press release announcing cloud-based quick start for rapid deployment solutions

For those going to SAPPHIRE NOW be sure to add this session to your agenda to learn more:

Rapid Deployment in the Cloud: An Innovative Delivery Model

This discussion focuses on how SAP is integrating the cloud with its rapid-deployment solutions through a cloud-based quick start. Hear about customers who have reaped the benefits of this innovative pre-assembly approach, and learn whether it is right for you.

Session: 7963

Add to my Agenda Builder

And, if you have questions about optimizing SAP HANA for your company’s unique needs, look for Sebastian Speck  while you are at the event.  Sebastian is the SAP Custom Development guru on SAP HANA.  You can catch him at the microforums and he is available for customer meetings during the event.

Microforum: Hear How Customers Run Predictive Analytics Solutions on SAP HANA 

• Location: Business Analytics Campus, BA321
• May 14/Monday, 1:00 – 1:45pm
• Session ID: 7514
• SAP Host: Sebastian Speck, David Ginsberg

For details or to add to your agenda, go to agenda builder

Microforum: Hear How Customers Run Predictive Analytics Solutions on SAP HANA

• Location: Business Analytics Campus, BA321
• May 15/Tuesday, 1:00 – 1:45pm
• Session ID: 7514
• SAP Host: Sebastian Speck, David Ginsberg

For details or to add to your agenda, go to agenda builder

Theater Presentation: Make Analyzing the Impossible Possible With SAP HANA

• Location: Database & Technology Theater
• May 15/Tuesday, 2:00 – 2:20pm
• Session ID: 7786
• SAP Contact: Chris Curtis

For details or to add to your agenda, go to agenda builder

Microforum: Putting SAP HANA to Work – Real-World Customer Business Cases (featuring Delta)

• Location: Database & Technology Campus, DT 220
• May 15/Tuesday, 3:00 – 3:45pm
• Session ID: 8825
• SAP Host: Sebastian Speck For details or to add to your agenda, go to agenda builder

Broadcast Center: Panel Discussion Revolutionizing the Customer Experience with SAP HANA (featuring Delta)

• Location: Broadcast Center 2
• May 15/Tuesday, 2:00 – 2:20pm
• Session ID: 9195
• SAP Contact: Sebastian Speck

Microforum:  Harness Predictive Analytics and SAP HANA for Sales Analysis and Insight

• Location: Business Analytics Campus, BA320
• May 15/Tuesday, 4:00 – 4:45pm
• Session ID: 7517
• SAP Contact: Sebastian Speck, David Ginsberg

For details or to add to your agenda, go to agenda builder

Microforum: Harness Predictive Analytics and SAP HANA for Sales Analysis and Insight

• Location: Business Analytics Campus, BA321
• May 16/Wednesday, 1:00 – 1:45pm
• Session ID: 7517
• SAP Contact: Sebastian Speck, David Ginsberg

For details or to add to your agenda, go to agenda builder

Discussion Table: Speed Time to Value For SAP HANA With Expert Help From SAP  

• Location: Data & Technology Campus, DT224
• During show floor hours Monday & Wednesday
• Session ID: DT224
• SAP Contact: Sebastian Speck

By Grace Boremann, Jesper Behr, Elana Varon

Core banking systems—many of them four decades old and counting—still work, and as the adage goes, if they ain’t broke, why fix them? Especially since the risks of ripping them out—considering all the code that’s been layered in there over the years to keep them current—seem higher than the benefits of having a modern system.

Yet the risk/benefit equation is finally tipping toward the new. Here’s why: Those core banking systems are like a 50 year-old furnace in a rambling building where new additions keep being added on. At some point, unless the furnace is replaced, somebody in the building is going to get frostbite.

Nothing lasts forever
Today, it’s retail banking customers feeling the chill and banging on the ceiling for more heat. They are fed up with waiting two or three days for their transactions to clear. Meanwhile innovating new products and services for customers have become cumbersome, expensive, and, at some point, will simply become impossible as existing systems continue to fall behind new technologies like cloud. By not modernizing, banks face four big risks:

• Higher costs. Legacy applications cost more to run. Old core banking applications often embody hard-wired business processes, which may include manual tasks. Maintaining such processes hampers banks from reducing operating expenses, particularly in their branch networks.
• More outages. Aging systems crash more and produce more errors, damaging banks’ reputation with customers. Market research firm IDC Financial Insights predicts operational outages will become more frequent in 2012, requiring banks to layer crisis management strategies on top of their business continuity plans in order to counter angry customer reactions.
• Dwindling expertise. The staff who built and know how to maintain those 20,-  30- or even 40-year-old applications have begun to retire. Rehiring them, or training younger workers (assuming banks can find anyone who wants to learn old programming languages and system architectures) will also cost extra.
• Competitive disadvantage. Building and integrating new capabilities, whether an online loan application or mobile check deposits, into legacy back-office systems is more complex than assembling them from standards-based, resuable services. Banks with old systems can’t respond as quickly to customer demands for new banking products as can rivals which don’t have to contend with decades-old core systems. What’s more, according to IDC, those back-office systems may not be able to handle real-time data streams from social media and mobile channels.

Bankers can feel these issues bearing down on them, but still balk at the cost, risk and stress of a massive IT transformation. At some point, however, failure to ditch the legacy systems becomes folly. Banks can keep putting off modernization while they wither away. Or they can start taking steps to build an infrastructure for the future.

Craft a transformation story
To justify a core IT transformation, bank leaders need a good story—one that fits the vision the organization has for its future. Consider two narratives:

• Become super-efficient. Most banks have already wrung all the efficiencies they can from their old systems but still seek more. A study published by Efma cites cost management as the top priority, second only to risk mangement. A modern IT infrastructure can improve operating efficiency.
• Use customer experience to drive revenue. In the 2011 World Retail Banking report, Cap Gemini, Unicredit Group and Efma concluded that although retail branches deliver 80 percent of sales for banks today, banks can’t afford to sustain their current branch networks over time—the bricks and mortar are just to expensive to maintain. If banks are to avoid having to close branches, they have to rethink them to deliver an integrated online and in-person experience for customers. Indeed, Efma found that higher-performing banks (those with a better than median cost to income ratio) are more likely to be managed according to customer segment and channel, rather than by product line or geography. It should follow that banks that optimize each channel for what it does best, and then integrate those channels in ways that make it easy for customers to engage with their bankers, will emerge as winners.

Do these narratives sound convincing to you? Or will banks wait even longer to transform themselves?

Grace Bormann is Global Sales Operations Banking Delivery Hub & Partner Manager Banking Services with 20+ years in the IT industry.

Jesper Behr is a consultant in the Industry Solution Management Banking division of SAP focusing on the current discussions in retail banking, ranging from channel to back-office. He has 20 years’ experience in the banking industry.

Elana Varon is a freelance writer and editor specializing in technology, leadership and business innovation.

Brought to you by SAP Services

First things first, let me begin by promoting one interesting session that my colleague Luis Colmenares has made me aware of. There is one session on “SAP Operations Efficiency” (Session ID 1611) where you can learn how the SAP customer CEMEX has become more efficient by becoming an Advance Certified Customer Center of Expertise and by adopting the Run SAP Like a Factory methodology. Once again, there’s no better source than hearing directly from our clients how they leveraged SAP’s services to become a better business. So please join this presentation to receive first-hand info on lessons learned and best practices.

Now let’s focus on the microforum sessions that I briefly mentioned in my last blog. At the SAP Active Global Support Center (located at the Database & Technology Campus) we will run 15 sessions giving you the opportunity to listen and to also directly interact with our support experts. So what’s cooking? Let’s get down to the facts. Actually there will be 11 different microforum presentations but some of them are available at multiple dates:

• 8900      Gaining Business Value with SAP Support Services: An Overview
• 8933      Expert-to-Expert Learning with SAP Enterprise Support Academy
• 8934      Remove the Barriers to Innovation with SAP ActiveEmbedded Services
• 8935      ITIL-Compliant Service Management with SAP Solution Manager
• 8936      Become a Best-Run Business with SAP Enterprise Support
• 8937      Using SAP Enterprise Support to Protect and Enhance SAP Business Analytics
• 8938      Peak Performance at Peak Hours: How Support Keeps a Retail Customer Online
• 9114      Streamline SAP HANA Implementations with Application Lifecycle Management
• 9021      Orchestrate Your Applications with SAP Solution Manager
• 9022      Adding Value to SAP Solution Manager with New Management Dashboards
• 9115      HP and Run SAP: Driving Value with Application Lifecycle Management

Wah-wah-wait a second!? Quite an extensive list and quite some heavy stuff? So what to pick? What would I recommend that you just really have to join? That’s a tough one. It’s like asking me what’s my favorite Michael Bolton song: I sort of like ‘em all.

But if you really want me to choose just one session I would pick #8934 where our SVP Greg Pike focuses on SAP ActiveEmbedded, a new premium offering that helps you accelerate adoption of game-changing technologies. But I promise, I myself will also make sure to attend ALL the other microforum sessions!

In short: Attend at least one microforum session at the SAP Active Global Support Center – 45 minutes that are worth it!

Link to previous blogs:

SAPPHIRE NOW – SUPPORT LATER!?

SAPPHIRE NOW – Ta-dahhhh for the SAP Active Global Support Center

Benjamin Wilk is part of SAP’s global Maintenance Go-To-Market organization.

Brought to you by SAP Services

A Red Thread of My 20 Years Working With/For SAP

Sometimes Less Is Actually More: The Power of Integration
Back when I started focusing on SAP Services in the mid-2000’s, we had a standalone, dedicated campus just for SAP Services. Then, an interesting thing happened – the SAP Services campus was replaced by an integrated presence, with the services content, expertise, sessions etc. included across all the areas within the SAPPHIRE event, and sessions were included within the ASUG curriculum when that event was co-located with SAPPHIRE. I was reminded of my early days doing Internet business solutions marketing at DEC back in the mid-1990’s — back then we had dedicated Internet campaigns, specific events, etc. all about “catching the wave” of the Internet. Then it became part of the DNA and fabric of everything we did, and the standalone focus disappeared. A similar thing has happened to Services at SAP – we are now, more than ever, “one team” and an “integration first” mindset prevails in everything we do.

Run Better Than Ever: The SAPPHIRE NOW Run Better Campus
So, as we embark upon SAPPHIRE NOW 2012 in Orlando, I am totally excited about this event, my 11th SAPPHIRE while at SAP. Watch me below where I discuss what we hope to do at the event and list some of the key things to look out for.

I am very fortunate to be part of the Run Better Campus staff, and this area covers a large part of the massive SAPPHIRE NOW show floor as one of the five campuses at SAPPHIRE NOW. The focus of the Run Better Campus is to help our customers to run better, like never before, and the content, sessions and demonstrations include applications, analytics, mobile, and cloud, database and technology, and more. We’ve got a great lineup of SAP Services experts, customer speakers across sessions, microforums, discussion tables, and more. Check out the Agenda Builder on the SAPPHIRE NOW and ASUG 2012 web site and you can build a customized view, including what’s happening in a specific campus. Besides helping customers navigate the SAPPHIRE NOW experience, I will also be providing reporting and insights from my vantage point in the Run Better Campus throughout SAPPHIRE NOW. I will be adding commentary to my BLOG as well as sending out “Tweets”, so be sure to monitor the #SAPPHIRENOW hashtag during the event. And on a personal note, I am looking forward to Lance Armstrong’s opening keynote, the usual incredible presentations from Bill McDermott, Hasso Plattner, and the SAP executives; and finally, Van Halen closing out the event Wednesday evening is going to rock. It will be awesome!

Fred Isbell
Senior Director, SAP Services Marketing North America Marketing
Twitter fmisbell – be sure to monitor #SAPPHIRENOW as well as #RUNBETTER and #SAPSERVICES
Follow SAPSERVICES on Twitter for up to the minute updates live from SAPPHIRE NOW