Update: Great comment by Jim Spath: ... the dates, times and speakers may change, so conference attendees should check the Agenda Builder and on-site updates for current news.
I am listing here only the SAP NetWeaver sessions, there are currently 33 Influence Sessions in total. One more reason to check the Agenda Builder.
If you like to influence SAP NetWeaver Development, and I know you do ;-), please join the ASUG NetWeaver Influence Council and Strategy Sessions at the ASUG Conference in May.
Being around SAP for a while I remember the early days of ASUG. Lots of effort went into polling all members creating feature lists and voting on them. After they were tallied the ASUG leadership went to Walldorf, back then 98% of all development was done in Walldorf, to present the request of the customers using our software.
The unfortunate thing was, the timing was totally off, development for the next release was just closed, and it took forever for theses requests to get taken care off. Frustrating for everyone involved.
We scratched our heads, went back to the drawing board and out come the Influence Councils. When development is ready for input the community is pinged, first via conference calls and then face to face meetings, usually when practitioners come together anyhow. Like at the ASUG conference early May. We have been doing that for many years now.
If you are interested in improving for example the Business Process Management functionality please join Thomas Volmering and Wulff-Heinrich Knapp on May 7th.
Here is the whole SAP NetWeaver program:
| Influence Council | Speakers | Date/Time |
| Business Process Management | Thomas Volmering & Wulff-Heinrich Knapp | May 7, 2008 @11:30-12:30 |
| Composite Applications with SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment | Joav Bally & Amir Rubin | May 6, 2008 @3:30-5:00 |
| Enabling people to work "their way": Introducing the SAP NW Business Client | Smadar Ludomirski & Brian McKellar | May 6, 2008 @3:30-5:00 |
| Enterprise Data Warehousing | Ingo Brenckmann & Josh Djupstrom | May 6, 2008 @07:30-09:00 |
| Enterprise Query, Reporting, and Analysis | Ingo Brenckmann | May 5, 2008 @09:30-10:30 |
| Master Data Management: A Central Component in SAP's Business Process Platform | Michael Boettcher & Aaron Mahimainathan | May 5, 2008 @2:15-4:45 |
| Mobile Technologies SIG/Customer Roundtable/Mobilizing Business Processes | Jim Spath & Jan Fetzer,
& Louenas Hamdi | May 6, 2008 @11:00-12:30 |
| Planning and Financial Performance Management (FPM) | Adam Their & Brian Wood | May 5, 2008 @11:00-12:00 |
| SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Search | Markus Fath | May 6, 2008 @07:30-09:00 |
| Influence Council Update: User Interaction Strategy in SAP NetWeaver and UI Technology | Filip Misovski | May 5, 2008 @3:45-4:45 |
| SAP NW Portal Influence Council - Enhancements and Future Directions | Guy Bavly & Eran Schaffer | May 5, 2008 @2:15-4:45 |
| Security and Identity Management | Torgeir Pedersen | May 6, 2008 @3:30-4:30 |
| SOA Design Time Governance with ES Registry and ES Repository (ESR+R) | Vikas Chandra & Holger Mack | May 6, 2008 @11:00-12:30 |
| User Interaction Strategy in SAP NetWeaver and UI Technology | Filip Misovski & Yariv Zur | May 7, 2008 @09:00-11:30 |
| SAP NetWeaver Lifecycle Management Roadmap | Franz-Josef Fritz | May 6, 2008 @08:00 - 09:00 |
In addition we are also offering:
Strategy Sessions
Meet one-on-one with the SAP NetWeaver Product Definition team to discuss specific business needs, validate and give feedback on the current solution planning, and directly influence the SAP NetWeaver Solution Strategy. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to impact SAP NetWeaver, the technology foundation that powers SAP solutions. To register for the SAP NetWeaver Strategy Sessions, please send an email to the following email address [SAPNetWeaver.PM@sap.com ], and indicate which session you are interested in, and would like to attend, date and time, your name and contact information. (Cell phone especially important to be able to reach you during the event.)
| Topics | Monday, May 5 | Tuesday, May 6 | Wednesday, May 7 |
| "I just created my first composite application" Creating very light composite applications by end users in the enterprise world; vision or fantasy? | 4-6pm | 8-10am | None |
| Business Intelligence : Reporting & Data Warehousing | 2-4pm | 4-6pm | None |
| Craigslist for IT building blocks and services - Sharing services, reusable IT building blocks and full synergies between different users and different organizations. | 10-Noon | Noon-2pm | None |
| End User Interaction and UI channels | 10-Noon | 8-10am | None |
| Enterprise Search | 10-Noon | 10-Noon | 8-10am |
| ESB Goes Information Bus | 2-4pm | 2-4pm | None |
| Identity management roadmap | 4-6pm | 8-10am | 8-10am |
| Lifecycle management - Linking Business processes to IT | 2-4pm | 4-6pm | 10-Noon |
| Mobile Application Platform | Noon-2pm | 2-4pm | None |
| Planning & Corporate Performance Management (CPM) | 4-6pm | 10-Noon | None |
| Process-Centric Master Data Management | 8-10am | Noon-2pm | 10-Noon |
| SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Portal | None | Noon-2pm | 8-10am |
| SOA Security Management | 8-10am & Noon - 2pm | 2-4pm | None |
| Towards Ubiquitous Enterprise Content Management Services | 8-10am | 4-6pm | 10-Noon |
| Visual Composer, Model Driven UI and Mashups: | Noon-2pm | 10-Noon | None |
These are unique opportunities for you. The people that decide which feature or function of your favorite SAP NetWeaver application should be developed next will be there in listening mode. They will give you their undivided attention. Please make good use of that opportunity, I know I would if I where you.
