What’s It Like Directing SAP Global Security? Hear It From Lutz Bartsch

One of the coolest things I get to do in my role is interview our many fascinating colleagues. They may live in different places and have different roles & responsibilities, but all of them have unique stories to share and doing their part to help the world run better and improve people’s lives.

Recently, I met with Lutz Bartsch, Director Awareness & Enablement, SAP Global Security. He had a great story to share about his Life at SAP experience so we eagerly agreed to collaborate.

Adam: So Lutz, I understand you lead the Awareness & Enablement team with SAP Global Security. Can you tell me a little more about that?

Lutz: Well, we have two main duties:

1) To drive global security awareness. In that aspect, we touch all 94,989+ SAP employees with the mandatory Information Security fundamentals training once per year but more importantly, we drive the Security culture at SAP with continuous activities under the umbrella of the Protect SAP! Brand. This includes the “Security Tip of the Month” campaigns with posters & blogs, yearly Security surveys, events for Cybersecurity month every October, the Security Escape room game, and more. I hope you came across some of them as well!

2) To drive the SAP Cloud Secure brand, securely delivering SAP Cloud solutions across different Cloud lines of business. With the Cloud Information Security Awareness (CISA) function, we collaborate with all customer-facing functions for Cloud Security awareness. We enable the teams to position SAP Cloud Secure and use it as a Sales Tool. This enables PreSales (department in SAP that identifies, understands, and defines customer needs to develop and maintain a successful relationship) to analyze the security level and support Legal in contract negotiations. Finally, we assist the Support and Renewals team by providing evidence around the customers’ due-diligence.

Adam: Wow, your team is vital in ensuring SAP’s culture of security is prioritized. Considering how important your department is to SAP and its customers, how do you collaborate with other teams?

Lutz: Our job role requires continuous interaction with other teams within not only SGS but all of SAP. We regularly cooperate with Corporate Compliance, Global and Field Legal, Regional Contracting, Global Communications, Global Procurement, Data Protection & Privacy, and Government relations. Furthermore, we work very closely with Sales on all levels from regional & global management to Sales Specialists, PreSales experts, Customer Engagement Executives, and Support Security experts, as well as Product Mangers, Solution Architects and Cloud LoB Security Officers in Operations.

Adam: Are you all conducting your activities out of one place?

Lutz: Actually, my team is globally distributed from India to California. We have 50/50 gender diversity and consist of various ethnic origins, age ranges (from new talents to 60+) and possess very different skill profiles.

Adam: And where do you work?

Lutz: I work 100% from home in the Düsseldorf area. I am very happy that SAP allows this even though the nearest office location is only 15km away. This gives me the freedom to work when needed but take time off for a great work-life balance.

Adam: How do you spend your time outside of work?

Lutz: Outside my office hours, I enjoy time with my wife and our dogs. Because of my flexible working options, I can spend time with them during the day as well.

We conduct man trailing – teaching dogs to look for a (missing) person through pursuing the scent that the person has left behind. The dogs enjoy this a lot and so we continued and have now reached a professional level. Since June 2016, we received combat readiness and we are approved by the regional police as official man trailers. We are regularly called to support searches to prevent the risk of death for the missing person. This might be lost children, adults that require medicine on a regular basis, people with risk of suicide, or elderly people suffering from dementia.

Adam: It really sounds like safety and security are true passions of yours! You really are looking out for a lot of people in your professional and personal lives!

Lutz: Yes. In agreement with my SAP manger, I support the local police if an emergency arises and my business appointments permit accordingly.

Adam: How have you been able to combine or learn from your experiences in safety & security both at the police force and SAP?

Lutz: Supporting the police in emergencies teaches me a lot, which I actively bring to my work at SAP as well. It teaches me to set the right priorities, take the lead, understand the importance of communication, focus on what is necessary for a successful task completion, and how to deal with misfortune. The development of these skills has now allowed me to lead search engagements – including the coordination of police officers, talk to loved-ones in desperation, and engage with other teams with different expertise for the best possible outcome. Bringing these skills back to SAP helps me manage my team, collaborate with others, see things from different perspectives, and focus on the best possible outcome.

Adam: As the security landscape is always evolving, how do you and your team at SAP stay up-to-date to ensure you deliver the best solutions?

Lutz: We have to deal with the continuous development of the security thread landscape. This means constantly being aware of the innovation we at SAP are doing in our solutions as well as the software that comes from acquired solutions. Because this environment is so dynamic, every day is a day of learning within the team – most of it not being formal learning but more an adoption of change. Which keeps things exciting.

Adam: This constant need to adjust to what is current sounds like a fine line between delivering quality solutions that don’t soon go out-of-date.

Lutz: In this environment, there is always a lot of pressure to assure compliance, on one hand, and to support Cloud deal closings without risks to SAP, on the other hand.

At SAP, we’re helping the world run better and improve people’s lives. Thank you, Lutz, for making a difference and positive impact!

To learn more about SAP Global Security, please visit SAP Cloud Trust Center.

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