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Former Member
September 16, 2013 1 minute read

Global SAP Business Transformation Summit 2013

The Global SAP Business Transformation Summit took place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington DC from September 10-12, 2013.   This Summit was hosted by Business Transformation Services group (BTS), the Value Partnership community (VBS), and the SAP affiliated Business Transformation Academy (BTA).

Presentations at the Summit focused on the following key areas:

  • Accelerating Transformations
  • Improving Business Insights
  • Innovating Business Models
  • Enabling the Digital Enterprise for Competitive Advantage

This Summit was attended by about 200 participants from 40 countries around the world, including Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Nigeria, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, UK, Brazil, Argentina, Lichtenstein, among others. UA was also well represented by these faculty members:

  • Dr. Tunde Odusami, Widener University
  • Dr. Ephrem Eyob, Virginia State University
  • Maria V. Gamba*, The University of Findlay  (Maria’s attendance was on behalf of BTA and UA)

A very interactive part of this Summit is the World Cafe consisting of six different topics. Participants chose from these topics during the round table discussion:

  • Transformation Management
  • Innovation Management
  • Customer Centricity
  • Effective Knowledge Worker
  • Operational Excellence
  • IT Excellence.

The objectives of this well-organized Summit coordinated by teams and staff of Anand Eswaran (EVP, SAP Global Services), Dr. Axel Uhl (Head of SAP BTA), Lars Gollenia (Global Head o SAP BTS), and Sumithasri Eranti (Head of SAP VPS) are threefold: to promote an understanding of how strategic partnerships enable successful business transformation, to learn from best practices of business leaders, and to enhance a community of accomplished academics and corporate leaders who can learn from one another.   The Summit accomplished all that and more.

Specific details can be found via this link:

http://www.sapevents.edgesuite.net/SAP_Forum/business-transformation-summit-2013/pdfs/BT_Summit_Onsite_Guide_FINAL.PDF

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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      I attended the summit and thought the whole event (selected topics, speakers, and break-out sessions) was really good. The sessions on co- innovation, internet of things and management of mega-projects were thought provoking. Especially for me, since my background is investment and risk management. I have listed a few of the important notes I took away from the summit below.


      Innovations-

      • Know why you are innovating. There are good and bad innovations. A good innovation must fit into the strategic objectives of the firm
      • Be wary of innovations which require you to bet the firm.
      • Conduct cost -benefit analysis of in-sourcing versus outsourcing innovation.  It is probably better to buy a $10 toaster from Wal-Mart than to spend $300 building your own toaster.
      • Apply best practices from other professions. For example, apply a portfolio optimization approach to managing innovations.

      Internet of things

      • Fascinating conversation about how interconnection between internet-enabled devices will radically reshape our way of life and how we interact with the world around us.
      • There are more internet connected devices than people. Most of these devices do not communicate with each other right now.  What should we expect when these devices start talking to each other? How should businesses prepare for this change?

      Management of Mega-projects, their complexity and risk

      • Surprisingly, a typical IT project has relatively about the same risk of cost and schedule overrun as about a typical engineering project.
      • A black swan (outlier) IT project on the other hand has disproportionately higher risk than a black swan engineering project.
      • It is difficult to predict which IT project will turn out to be a black swan at the beginning, because they often share the similar characteristics as other IT projects.
      • You can control black swan risk by internalizing the heuristics of successful project managers and by maintaining project discipline when developing scope and integration.

      Hope this helps anyone unable to attend. I am definitely looking forward to the next summit.