SAP Mentors hosting the first functional SAP Inside Track in São Paulo (July 2nd, 2016)

The latest SAP Inside Track event on the 2nd of July organized by the local SAP Mentors in Sao Paulo was the first of its kind to be covering only functional topics – whereas it focused on technical topics in the previous editions – and it turned out to be a great success counting more than 400 registrations and allowing around 130 participants to take part in the event.

As it was the first event of this kind I was attending, and the first event in the role as a Fellow for the SAP Mentors Program for Latin America, I appreciated getting to know the SAP Mentors on the spot and being able to assist some of the great speeches. Having a consulting background in the SAP Consumer Products area I especially appreciated being able to attend the sessions for S/4HANA and SAP Fiori and getting in touch with participants after to exchange experiences and get to know about current opportunities in Brazil.

SAP Inside Tracks (SITs) have a long history with SAP and have primarily been organized by the SAP Mentors with the aim to share SAP solutions and innovatinos with the larger SAP community, who are not able to attend events like SAPPHIRENOW or TechEd for example. SITs have an informal character, allowing everyone interested to take part, fostering the individual exchange of expertise, ideas and contacts. In Brazil we are coutning on eight SAP Mentors of which five are located in Sao Paulo and also assisted the event. The SAP Mentors in Sao Paulo are Raquel Pereira da CunhaRaquel, Bruno Lucattelli, Marcelo Ramos, Marlo Simon and Marssel Vilaça, all of them also participated in the SIT by giving speeches.

The event covered different, strategical and market relevant SAP topics and solutions starting with an introduction into Digital Transformation and its effects on Business Transformations given by SAP Mentor Marlo Simon. Owing to the size of the event the agenda was divided into two auditoriums to allow the participants to choose between speeches: Such as a guideline and best practice approach to implementing SAP Fiori by SAP Mentor Bruno Lucattelli to speeches around S/4HANA, such as simple Finance by SAP Mentor Marcelo Ramos.

Among these sessions the event also offered enough time and room to bring the SAP community closer together. Participants came from a variety of external firms, ranging from consulting to partners, freelancers and also long-term participants that have been assisting SITs for more than five years. Honoring for the SAP Mentors and the 15 volunteers that organized the event was that not only attendees from Sao Paulo came but also participants from other states of Brazil, who came only for the event or even for giving a speech. Also the feedback covered during and after the event confirmed the organizer´s approach that a functional SIT is being received as very insightful and valuable to the SAP community, and should be continued in and outside of Brazil.

Aside from the lively sessions I took 15 minutes of the Mentor´s time to capture their experience with the SAP Inside Track events, how the events have evolved over time and where they see the technical and functional SITs in the future – in Brazil an Latin America overall (subtitles in English):

As a last remark it was impressive for me to see the impact the SAP Inside Track Sao Paulo has for the SAP community and SAP as well. All of the participants are well connected and especially the SAP Mentors with their strong social network presence and long-term SAP network engagement allow for the event to be a great success.

I am looking forward to expanding the reach of the SAP Inside Track events in Latin America together with the SAP Mentors and by this leveraging networks and increasing engagements of the SAP community with SAP solutions and innvations. Check out this link SAP Inside Track if you would like to know more about the SAP Inside Tracks in general, and check out this blog How to host an SAP Inside Track! Easy step-by-step guide to build a community! to find a guideline with the required steps and contacts if you would like to organize a SIT yourself.