My Three Days in Big D

I always found those stories in the airline magazine, “three days in (pick your city)” a wonderful way to escape from the confines of the airplane and entertain a future vacation spot. So, I was thrilled to experience my own “Three Days in Dallas” at the SAP Retail Forum where 350 attendees were able to rise above the day-to-day operations of the business and focus on future possibilities in a dynamic venue with world-class keynote speakers. 

Celebrating our customers’ success and hearing their voices echo over the three days validated for me why we do what we do at SAP and in Retail.  This forum was not only about past successes, but also challenged in looking to future possibilities and how SAP innovations  can help retailers achieve their business strategies.  I was honored to represent a passionate Global Retail team and in joining the extremely talented colleagues from SAP North America under the leadership of Michael Schulze who was a most gracious host! 

There are too many highlights to mention and not enough room to include.  But pressed to name a few, I have to include the great turnout at Monday’s Food for Orphan program, bagging 20,000 meals destined to those in need.  The twelve Retail Impact and Innovation Awards emphasize the importance we place on the success of our customers: we measure our success by their performance in reaching their business objectives.  Our partners and sponsors for the event are an amazing and dedicated group of retail and technology experts geared to delivering innovations to our customers around the world.  I was pleased with the response to new solution announcements made at the Forum: SAP Precision Retailing, and SAP Planning for Retail rapid deployment solution. Lastly, the opportunity to hear directly from so many customers and partners about their experience with our solutions and to be able to validate with them that our future solutions will continue to support their growth strategies.

All in all, it was a fabulous experience with customers, prospects, partners, analysts and press, and colleagues collaborating on the future and participating in an intense celebration of a win-win-win approach of doing business in the most dynamic industry in the world! 

I can’t wait to see how Michael and his team top this in 2013!