Masayuki Sekihara is the SCN Member of the Month for December 2014. He is based in Tokyo, Japan, where he works as a product expert in SAP’s Customer Experience group, which is a part of SAP’s Products & Innovation development organization.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself, where you live, what you do at SAP, and other things you would like to share with the community (hobbies, fun facts)?

I’m a product expert in the customer experience group which is a part of SAP’s Products & Innovation development organization. Our group rolls out new solutions and gets feedback from customers and provide that feedback into the development team.  I’m based in Tokyo and support customers in the world as a back office.

Outside of work, I am a basketball coach for children with autism every weekend in the Special Olympics NPO organization.  I have skills how to teach small steps to autistic children.

I was the initial SAP CSR ambassador in SAP Japan. I conducted a “Job Shadow” program and had a class at high school.

Job shadow program

Basketball on Saturdays

When did you become a member of SCN and which areas are you most active in?
My SCN profile says 2012 but I actually joined the initial “SDN” community many years ago. I have worked for SAP for 19 years. Previously, I was active in the Workflow and SRM spaces. More recently, I’m active in SAP for Mobile and UI Development Toolkit for HTML5 Developer Center.

As an SAP employee, you seem to contribute above and beyond your “day job.” What motivates you to share your expertise? And how do you find the time to contribute so actively on SCN?

I try to spend 30 minutes supporting SCN every morning, like an email check. I started posting on SDN to get practice writing English every day.

Your passion for Fiori comes through in your posts. What are you hearing from customers and partners about the new user experience?
We have gotten good feedback from customers, partners and also SAP internals. I have been involved in Fiori projects from version 0 about 2 years ago.  Fiori was the name for an initial set of 25 apps, but now “Fiori” is a generic term for “UX” for SAP business solutions.

What motivated you to become an expert in SAP’s products and technologies, and how did you get started?
I enjoy getting my hands dirty and trying new things by myself.  I challenge myself to embrace a new role or solution every 2 or 3 years. I did Basis consulting, technical presales, SRM procurement consulting, and product management in my 19 year SAP career.

2013 President’s Award

Pumped up

If a new member came to you and asked for your advice on how to be an active and respected member of SCN, what would you say?
I think there is enough advice for new members, so my advice is for consultants who work in non-English countries. SCN is a good source to find information and ask questions. Those who are not comfortable with reading and writing in English, please try to jump in on SCN. You do not need to write long English sentences. You can add screenshots and paste technical error messages. You will find how valuable SCN is.

Is there an SCN member you admire (OK… you can name a few)? And for what reason?
I would say thank you to Michael Appleby who is a SCN moderator for several areas. He does tagging activities every day and guides members to use the discussion groups correctly. Fiori is wide topic including UX, SAPUI5, Gateway, Mobile, Business Suite and more.  We mainly use the “Mobile” space for Fiori, so tagging helps to surface related information in cross areas. His tagging activities don’t result in points, so this is a good chance to say thank you.

Easy question: Mac/iOS or Windows? Or Android?
Windows in office. iPad at home.

Are you on Twitter?
No.

Note from Caroleigh: Typically we focus SCN Member of the Month recognition on SCN members who are not SAP employees  (although we have made other exceptions).  As we close 2014, we thought it was fitting to make another exception for Masayuki, who shares so generously, embodying the SCN’s spirit of sharing and engagement, above and beyond his role at SAP. Thank you Masa!

Every month, a member of the SAP Community Network is recognized for exemplary behavior: sharing knowledge with peers, being helpful and taking on additional tasks to support community engagement. See the list of previous SCN Member of The Month Hall of Fame.