Today was fun, just won myself the best music composition #SAPTechEd #SCNotties musical award, its never been so much fun rocking #SCN with the other @SAPMentors.
Met great folks like Tom Matys, Natascha, Sylvia, Aslan, John ERP, Mark Finnern, Greg Myers,Mark Yolton, Chip Rodgers and all the other @SAPMentors in person, I wish I could have made it to Bangalore which happens to be my hometown and more importantly SAP Labs office is like a mile away from Home, nevertheless am sure that being tunes via #Social is almost like being there. Witnessed how close @aslann gets you to the sessions its like being there in person !!!!!
Wanted to blog everyday on a relevant procurement topic out of the SAP TechEd scene, but so many great people, so many discussions, so many mentor meetings, go us all vexed, so here are all the spill-over from #SAPTechEd Las Vegas 2011 from my shop
Now keeping the fun aside, am delving straight into a SAP Procurement case study that defines my stint as a Subject Matter Expert tapping the maximum out of what #LinkedIn offers.
This is a case study of how I have leveraged the LinkedIn Groups feature to get the maximum traction for applications under the SAP Procurement Solution portfolio.
Topic:Building a Linked-in group from scratch and engaging the SAP Procurement User community to collaborate mainstream.
Product Line:SAP Sourcing and SAP Contract Lifecycle Management (formerly frictionless commerce)
Strategy: Crowdsourcing -> Collaboration -> Evangelize (How I created the SAP Sourcing and CLM group on Linked in and helped integrate the SCN and twitter engines to close-loop the users to collaborate and contribute across these platforms)
LinkedIn Group Name:SAP Sourcing (formerly Frictionless commerce) & SAP CLM (Contract Life Cycle Management
URL to access group:http://www.linkedin.com/groups/SAP-Sourcing-formerly-Frictionless-commerce-1512897?home=&gid=1512897...
Background
- SAP acquired Frictionless Commerce in 2006 and Re-branded it SAP E-Sourcing and defined an all new categorization inside the application called xCLM (xApp Contract Lifecycle management), today the xBranding is gone and now its called SAP Sourcing and SAP CLM waving itself with On-Demand and On-premise versions, customers are really thrilled to use the product and the success of the releases after releases speak for the success footprint and the life-cycle of the product that has emerged.
- I was one of the very first lucky ones to get an access to a Sand-box to actually understand what came with the product, what are its differences with SAP SRM and how it fits into the SAP Procurement Solution portfolio.
- In the very beginning, there was a lot of questions and the clarifications were provided inside a newly created forum called SAP ESourcing, I continued to make people aware contributing on that forum, questions were basic around inception and understanding of the product. Users started engaging on that forum and started discussing more message driven content and technical threads, over a period its evolved and is now highly sustainable with the user community
- A new page dedicated to the SAP Sourcing BPX Community was launched last year http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/bpx/sourcingand I was introduced to Daniel Wroblewski, Stephen Muratore and Cherry Laura and worked out a strategy to help feature the content related to Sourcing and SRM on the front page and tie the #LinkedIn Group very closely with the SCN BPX Page and the official twitter handle for SAP Procurement portfolio (@SAP_Procurement)
- So Stephen Muratore / Daniel and I work on a monthly schedule to ensure that there is a forecast of content that’s coming in from my-side which is clustered around SAP Procurement suite (SRM, Sourcing, CLM, SRM MDM Catalog, SOX, SUS, SRM MDM Catalog, SAP SPM, Supplier InfoNet)
- The summary is to actually utilize the crowd-sourcing and the outreach from other platforms to drive content into SCN and BPX and the success story of how a group created on linkedin.com can actually take evangelizing approaches to the next level
To cut the long story short, this blog aims at looking at the group SAP Sourcing (formerly Frictionless commerce) & SAP CLM (Contract Life Cycle Management
Lets see what we do in this group as snapshots and some metrics
SNAPSHOTS OF WHAT HAPPENS IN THE GROUP
Discussions – The best Sourcing and Procurement discussions in the world of @Sap Procurement happens here and its driven by great minds inside the LI Group, we crowd source to arrive at tangible solutions to real-business issues that are current challenges to customers and partners and indirectly help SAP product management.
Also All blogs that are posted typically under the SDN Category “Procurement and SRM” are RSS fed into this stream so that there is connectivity between the sequels, if any.
Requests to Join – Everyday we incept more than 3 users knocking our doors
Integrating with twitter @Sap_Procurement – one push feature helps us push the thread as a tweet into SAP
Cross-Linking and Hosting – the BPX Sourcing group moderators help feature the posts in and out of this group on the home page to ensure the traffic tours to the right spot
Job Hosting – Recruitment agencies and head-hunters post the jobs to get niche talent on the SAP SRM solution platforms
See below some illustrative of what we do on a daily basis
Summary
- Learn more from us on how to maximize a strategy on usage of LinkedIn groups and cross-reference SAP Content so that the SCN community gets maximum out of everything discussed in disparate platforms
- Keep yourself up-to-date with what’s happening around the world of SAP’s Procurement offering and collaborate
- This is a pure Crowdsourcing area, so ensure that you also contribute to some pain areas that stand out today
- Share some success stories and collaborate with users that really could get a split second solution with your dope coming in as “valuable comments”
- Collaborate-Share-Gain these are the 3 simple steps to help our group reach its goal
Flash News from the #SAPAnalytics and #SAP Procurement shop
Fortnight back, we just tweeted about the release of the SAP BusinessObjects Data Enrichment and Classification product going GA, the features and processes supported are mentioned below, follow the twitter handle @SAP_Procurement @tridipchakra to hear more on the #SAP #SupplierInfoNet release in the near future:
Features and product inclusions for the SAP BusinessObjects Data Enrichment and Classification product :
· Data collection – Ensure a complete and accurate aggregation of spend from multiple, disparate systems including SAP and non-SAP sources.
· Enrichment – Improve leverage and decision making by normalizing the supply base and supplements it with additional information from trusted sources.
· Classification – Ensure a consistent and complete understanding of purchasing activity by organizing spend transactions by what was purchased within a goods and services hierarchy.
· Revision – Achieve greater accuracy and continuous improvement by incorporating subject matter expertise into the process.
Let us know what you areas you want to hear more and share your LinkedIn Group success story.
In the blogs to follow, stay tuned for the blog on how to use the “idea Place for SAP Sourcing” which is on its way to be soon available, we will also host a link on the BPX Sourcing Homepage for you to spill your beans.
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