In Atlanta, The Varsity Restaurant asks thousands of times per day, “What’ll Ya Have?” How often have you heard SAP ask you what you wanted? What do you customize? What is missing from the solution? What features do most customers need? When the application was developed in the last century many of the new technologies which support in memory computing, analytics or mobile apps did not exist. Now that they do, what feedback could you provide to influence the new requirements?
I have participated in SAP influence sessions through the Customer Connect programs, User Group Influence and more. In previous sessions I was not always pleased with the delivery of the solution. SAP delivered the requirements, but you were forced to upgrade to receive the benefits. With the latest customer influence initiatives I have seen enhancements delivered much quicker.
For the recent GRC Access Control Influence sessions, SAP delivered some enhancements in just a few months through SAP notes. The requirements were restricted to only a few objects and could be applied easily. Other requirements touched a greater number of objects or interfaces and due to complexity were delivered with the next support pack. The requirements with the most complexity both in development scope and object updates were added to future enhancement packs and/or releases.
SAP currently has 79 focus areas where they are asking “What’ll Ya Have?” These topics range from technical, to many of the most current cutting edge technologies. What about taking your existing workflows mobile with limited development? Or how would you improve the SAP help content and search functionality? Or how would you improve analytics for multiple SAP applications.
I hope you took the opportunity to volunteer your time and input. If you missed it but want to be informed when future sessions occur, send an email to cei@sap.com requesting to be included on future announcements. If you reviewed the focus areas but feel there are areas where multiple customers would participate in providing requirements, it may be a good time to engage SAP with a Customer Influence Council. Installed SAP customers can work through their local user groups to kick-off the Influence process. In the United States you can send an e-mail to influence@asug.com to find out about existing or new influence opportunities.
