Kumud Singh – SCN Member of the Month September 2012

The TechEd season is about to start and this month I picked a member who is doing a great job building a strong network within the community and participating in events – whether small (Inside Tracks) or big (TechEd). Kumud Singh is the SCN Member of the Month for September 2012.

When you engage on SCN, you create relationships that will help you build your network in the SAP world, establish your reputation, and give opportunities for in-person interaction.

Look at Kumud’s picture. Don’t you want to meet her and talk to her? Her smile is so engaging that I thought I knew her before I spoke with her on the phone. Kumud truly likes engaging with people and this is what motivates her. She has managed to establish relationships that are not restricted to a geographical zone. I hope I get to meet her one day!

Kumud, can you tell us a bit about yourself, where you live, who you work for, and other things you would like to share with the community (hobbies, fun facts)?

I work for NTT DATA, Bangalore. I started my career with HCM Adapter, then my work led me to learn and work with the insurance module and then banking modules. I am now back in the HCM area with Time Management and Payment Processing. Hobbies include blogging, reading books, being on SCN, exploring places, doing fun activities whenever and wherever possible 🙂 . I am a social media enthusiast who is passionate about emerging technologies such as HANA and Design Thinking. I try to think “design” and “innovation” wherever possible. Recently I learned more about Sustainability and I started applying it in my life.

Note from Laure: When I hear Design Thinking, I think of Hasso Plattner and his HPI (Hasso Plattner Institute), and experts like Heike van Geel and Deepa Iyer. Both ladies live in Palo Alto, CA – I know them personally – and are charming. I’m sure they are thrilled to be mentioned next to Hasso’s name in this blog ;-). Kumud met Heike on SCN but she didn’t know Deepa and if I managed to make a connection here, I am very happy.

When did you become a member of SCN and what brought you to this community?

A colleague of mine introduced me to SCN for solving an issue via posting it in the discussion forums. However, I became a user early 2011 after I gained interest in reading blogs. Michelle Crapo provided me with a lot of impetus to participate in the community. Gradually I started contributing in the wiki, the forums, and I started writing blogs and documents. This in turn added to my confidence. 🙂

How does SCN help you in your daily activities?

SCN has brought many ‘like-minded’ people in my circle and I am thankful to SCN for that. By sharing content on SCN, I don’t need to carry learning documents with me, they are available in the appropriate SCN space for handy use. I like how people like Michelle Crapo encourage other members to contribute, they motivated and inspired me when I needed it. Also, meeting people in person when I know them virtually makes things move faster. I was given a chance to speak at the SAP Inside Track Bangalore in 2011 and it gave me more confidence. Participating in such events provides me with a platform to check my skills and remain up-to-date on different technical topics I have worked on. Reading blogs on SCN also helps me learn about the new stuff and be apprised of what is going on in the SAP world. Reading what is going on in the forums also provides me with a different perspective to tackle a challenge.

I log in daily, it’s a must! It keeps me engaged and motivated in my working hours.

Note from Laure: Kumud’s session at the Inside Track Bangalore was about being active in social media channels. Check out the replay.

How do you find the time to contribute to SCN?
It’s about making time. Once I have realized importance of sharing and participating with the community, time gets managed on its own. Being active helps me do my work faster and efficiently. To share one’s experience, one has to understand the topic better. One has to be precise and all these further enhance the presentation skills of the individual. Contributing in the wiki taught me to be crisp and present content precisely and in a structured manner. Wiki moderators such as Mauricio Ghem and xMoshe Naveh (Old Acct) helped me provide quality contributions.

What do you like most about the community in general?

Great and amazing people. Knowing people like Tammy Powlas, The specified item was not found., Susan Keohan is absolutely thrilling and motivational to me. Best knowledge is being shared in a great way. It is a platform for sharing my knowledge with the best people. I also like Anjan Paul’s work in the Workflow space.

In addition to ABAP and HCM, what are the other areas of SCN that you follow and like to get updates from?

SAP HANA, SAP Business Workflow, SAP StreamWork, SAP for mobile, Social Media and Social Networks, SAP Inside Tracks.

If a new member came to you and asked for your advice on how to be an active and respected member of SCN, what would you say?

I have been doing this for quite a while now 😆 . My session last year at SIT was about my experience of being on SCN and the participants asked many questions. I generally advise them to start contributing what they have learned in their current project and remain open to feedback. This can help them in further presentations. Answering questions can further help them grow in their areas of work.

Is there an SCN member you admire (OK… you can name a few)?

There are many! Tammy Powlas that I met on Twitter, Marilyn Pratt: a true figure who really boosts people and brings out the best of them. Susan Keohan the workflow goddess (ok, it’s me Laure who added this).

Michelle Crapo who is a true mentor in the original sense, Matthias Steiner who knew I would have good things to share one day 😉

Gregory Misiorek, Jan Penninkhof,Fred Verheul, Thorsten Franz, Abhisek Patnaik, Dipankar Saha, Alvaro Tejada Galindo, David Hull, Vinod Kumar Puttaswamy and Jim Spath.

They all motivate me, everyone should know them.

Easy question: Mac or Windows?

Windows originally. Now I recently got an iPad and I love the user experience.

Note from Laure: Here I told her that getting a MacBook is the next step but she should be careful: Once she’s on Mac she won’t be able to go back to Windows 😉

Are you on Twitter?

Yes, my ID is @singhkumud.

Every month, a member of the SAP Community Network is recognized for exemplary behavior: sharing knowledge with peers, being helpful and taking on additional tasks to support community engagement. See the list of previous SCN Members of the Month.