SAP InnoJam Netherlands 2013

[Former Member]

Update: check out Leo van Hengel's blog on Winning SAP InnoJam Netherlands 2013!

SAP InnoJam Netherlands 2013 took place on June 14-15 at the SAP Netherlands office in 's-Hertogenbosch. A big thank you to all who attendeed! Special thanks to the Design Thinking coaches, technology experts and organizers from both VNSG and SAP, representants from AkzoNobel and of course Jan Penninkhof as our Master of Ceremonies.

Check out Myles Fenlon’s write-up of Day 1 and Day 2  and Ronald Konijnenburg’s impressions of his first community event as a SAP Mentor. All detailed info about the event is available here including all photos (thanks Mientje!). The final prototype presentations by our 6 teams are all in the video right below:

This was the third SAP InnoJam held here in the Netherlands, and it keeps getting better every year. So what is it that made this InnoJam special?

• Biggest InnoJam in the Netherlands ever. 60 people in total joined the event for two full days and the entire night in-between. The 45 participants came mostly from SAP customers and SAP partners, and for the first time we had students at SAP InnoJam Netherlands!
• Real challenges! SAP customer AkzoNobel not only prepared 6 challenges based on pain points experienced in their organization, but also made a number of interviewees available. They provided deep insights into the issues to be addressed and helped the participants better understand the challenges - all that in a very challenging time frame. AkzoNobel also provided real-life sales data which we loaded into HANA in support of the challenges. And of course two jury members: Pieter Schoehuijs, CIO, and Ria van Waes, Director Information Management. Thank you AkzoNobel! They were complemented in their judging duties by VNSG Managing Director Rob van der Marck.
• Students! This was the first time we had students participate in this InnoJam. Four students from both Fontys Hogeschool and Hogeschool van Amsterdam attended as participants and gave fresh, new insights to their teams. The students found the event very worthwhile and called it a real eye-opener on what it means to create software in the real world. The participation of the students was made possible through a collaboration with the University Alliances program of SAP.
• A great mix of developers and non-developers. InnoJam is not just about coding: the daytime hours of the first day are devoted to applying Design Thinking to brainstorm a solution to a real-life problem, which means anyone can join. Only in the evening of Day 1 does coding start, and even then there is still a lot for non-developers to do: designing a beautiful user experience or creating a demo story line that fits within the imparted 6-minute time limit for example
• Flawless demos all around. For the first time in the history of InnoJam in the Netherlands, all teams with no exception had a running prototype to demonstrate at the end of Day 2!

And the winner was… Team 1. Stay tuned for more detailed information on their demo. Let me just say as a teaser that their final demo scored very high on all three judging criteria: desirability, viability and feasibility!

2013 seems to be a great year for the Netherlands. Not only the re-opening of the Rijkmuseum or the coronation of a new king, but two SAP InnoJam in less than 6 months: SAP TechEd EMEA will take place in Amsterdam on Nov 5-7 and will be preceded by a TechEd InnoJam event on Nov 3-4!