Last weekend, nine of us boarded an elevator at the Westin Hotel on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Together, as the leadership team of the ASUG Human Capital Management (HCM) Community, we had been working on developing the content to be presented at SAPPHIRE-ASUG Annual Conference. As the doors of the elevator slid shut, we looked around at each other and joked: "What if this elevator goes down with all of us on it..." Well, I know for sure that would put a real cramp in the HCM Tracks to be delivered at the Conference. But, moreover, it caused me to think about what I would do without this group of friends and colleagues.
No, I am not going to turn all mushy on you now (although I truly would miss each of these people tremendously). What I wonder about, though, is my ability to be a force for technological innovation without this group. If the elevator goes down, I'm not sure I would want to be the only survivor.
The ASUG HCM Community delivers education and encourages networking around solutions for -- you guessed it -- HR and Payroll. The community is the first stop for over 60% of SAP customers who have a development or support need with their deployment of SAP ERP for Human Capital Management (HCM). They are the first experts I turn to when I have an issue I want to solve.
That's hours and hours and hours of free -- yes free! -- consulting. Seriously.
When I wanted to know how to deploy ESS using SAP's Home Page Framework, I called an ASUG colleague. When I needed references on data copying tools and data loading tools, I asked questions of other ASUG members. When I wanted to know if someone else was experiencing the same issues with BSI TUBS, I found a group of them all expressing the same concern in our ASUG discussion forums.
And - here's a question for you: can the person who manages your licensing contract with SAP influence what SAP develops next or how they develop it? Probably not. But we can.
That's the power of this community. That's the strength that comes from social networking.
Don't kid yourself that this is all just about benefiting the customers. SAP is just as happy to hear from us as we are to hear from them. Have you heard of the influence model? The current version of Enterprise Compensation Management was developed totally with customer input from the Enterprise Compensation Influence Council. New features in self-service for time managment came from the input of an influence council.
So, from the Human Capital Management community, I'm here to ask "how can we help?" And to all of you, I'd like to know what you can do for me, too. I know pretty much about SAP's HCM solution. But I know very little about Workflow, less about Portals, and even less about BI. I can get the data INTO SAP. I need you to help me get it out. Point is: I can't be the only survivor on the island.
When we convene at the annual conference in May, we'll be sharing information on everything from "Payroll 101" and building an effective Organization Management structure to deploying full-blown integrated talent management. We'll be working with SAP on data privacy and mobile solutions. We'll see the results of our earlier input into compensation, time management and self-services. And we're pushing the conversation into increasingly technical areas. We want to understand what Business Objects will do for us...what we can do with the portal...how we can automate more. I need to understand what UWL does for me... how to get a dashboard and what's Xcelcius...what do I need to know about business server pages...and adobe forms...I have so many questions.
How about you? Do you want answers? Then become part of the discussion. Ask the questions. Offer what you know. I, for one, am looking forward to the dialog. AND the free consulting. 😉
Talk to me on Twitter: @sherryannemeyer
