The first Jumpstart Day session of the SAP Insider BPM2008 event in Vegas this week featured Column 2 author, analyst and blogger Sandy Kemsley .
Jumpstart day is similar in concept to the pre-conference day we host at SAP TechEd and Sapphire but the content segments are only two in number and each are three hours in duration.
Sandy's three hour session included: definitions of BPM and BPMM - Business Process Maturity Model.
Her session started by attempting to create order around the confusion of BPM-related terms. Participants found this quite instructive.
Three info packed hours further covered subjects such as understanding the range of process types in an organization, tips like: "Don't let the requirements become the design", warning around spending too much time modeling the "as is" state, and in addition there were some fair assessments of SAP Netweaver BPM technology. It seemed there was a clear understanding that many "required" features of SAP Netweaver BPM are delayed until future versions. What was outlined for participants was that there is a more strategic integration with SAP ERP and a common process layer for modeling BPM and ERP. There was also an additional pronouncement that the goal of the product was to become the BPM of choice for SAP customers rather than vying for the best of breed BPM designation. What I further understood from the session was that Sandy Kemsley liked the SAP NetWeaver BPM data mapping capability which although not inherently different from what you would see in other systems, was still highlighted as providing good capabilities.
I heard a great deal of positive feedback around this first jumpstart session and although some described it as "drinking from the firehouse" it provided a very good initiation into the BPM topic and a great kickoff for this "all things BPM" week.
Sandy was much quicker than I to summarize the second jumpstart of the day, which was lead by our own Ann Rosenberg and in which I participated. I was a bit slower in returning the compliment and giving coverage to her kick-off session, and since she more than adequately described ours, I shall link to her blog entry. Her response to Ann's session can be found here: http://www.column2.com/2008/11/sap-tools-for-process-definition-modeling-and-management/ .
This evening we met up informally and I was able to capture a brief video clip of her which I promptly uploaded to flickr. Slow to blog, quick to shoot.
