What does it mean to be a HANA Center of Excellence (HCOE)?

[Former Member]

I recently began developing a strategy for HANA Center of Excellence which had an overall objective, a goal, a purpose and like any good story teller I tried to take the audience on a journey which had a beginning a middle and a end which summarized what I thought was a well thought out reason. However, whilst I was engrossed in telling the story and how it all made sense I was challenged on what I meant by the term ‘Center of Excellence’. So here I am on a Saturday afternoon trying to recount the story in the context of HCoE and I would welcome your thoughts/ comments.

The purpose of a HCoE should be to Promote collaboration between technical communities, both internally and with the customer. It wouldn't exclusively mean a one stop shop for customers to come and play with the wonderful toys at its disposal and it also doesn't mean a breeding ground for techies to learn new skills; however it should exemplifies a collaboration of the two. Our customers bring their ideas of what they need and the techies bring their raw knowledge and skill. Together the collaboration of ideas would give birth to produce something unique – the adoption of HANA.

Leading the adoption of SAP HANA would bring into context what our communities, customer and technical teams, would want to collaborate around, in a COE. It could mean delivering quality projects with our customers thereby underpinning our position as thought leaders in SAP HANA moving forward. It could also mean being recognized not just for collaborative selling or customer satisfaction but a combination of all factors that deliver a highly successful outcome for our customers, partners and us alike.

Another key aspect of HCOE is providing an environment to allow the Incubation of those ideas that will allow a qualitative delivery of projects i.e. Prototypes, Demos and Proofs-of-Concept applications across a wide range of industries, where those ideas take shape and promote increased collaboration.

It’s essential to continually, Host and Support, nourish those ideas and collaboration; whether built on Native and Suite of Applications in order that those solutions evolve. The evolution of ideas would provide a source of critique but also will provide a platform to showcase collaborative Excellence.

In my next blog I hope to talk about what are the 'enablers' in becoming a HANA Center of Excellence.