SAP Community Member Interview: Jun Wu

Volunteering one’s time to engage in a community has many rewards. It’s a place to learn, share, contribute, influence, build an expert reputation, and grow one’s network.

Given the evolving realities of virtual and hybrid work environments, having an interconnected approach to problem solving, knowledge sharing, purpose and passion has short- and longer-term value.

In today’s digital “Experience Economy”, taking the time to invest in technology, skills, and best practices helps IT and business leaders achieve more successful outcomes.

For Jun Wu, a leading SAP Community contributor, with hands on work experiences with market leaders including Levi Strauss & Co., Bank of America, HP, IBM, and Capgemini, and now as an SAP Technology Senior Consultant, he has developed a daily routine to answer and comment on posts around a variety of topics including SAPUI5, SAP Fiori, SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry environment, and SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence.

Enjoyed catching up with Jun from his home office in Columbus, Indiana.

Laura Schmitz (LS): Hi Jun! Your career has gone full circle, joining SAP early in your career as a Solution Developer and as part of SAP Labs China. Then, you worked for customers (e.g., Levi Strauss & Co., Bank of America) and top global strategic SAP partners. As a Technology Senior Consultant at SAP, you have many experiences to share. If you could go back to your younger self before starting this journey, what advice would you give to help achieve the most impactful lessons learned?

Jun Wu (JW): Hi Laura! I have been in the SAP ecosystem for 17+ years. It has been a wonderful journey: learning new knowledge, hard work, countless flights and meetings, fun times and go-lives. If I could rewind my life back 17 years, I would do the following to make the journey a bit smoother.

1. Stay close to core SAP technology and follow trends.
   • I have been doing a lot of user interface (UI) stuff throughout my career. Technology for the UI world is changing every few months.
2. Find a niche area (e.g., SAP Transportation Management, Extended Warehouse Management, Agricultural Contract Management) and make yourself equipped with both function and technical knowledge. It will make you very competitive.
3. Learn and perfect soft skills (e.g., communication, negotiation, persuasion). Those skills may help to solve the problem better than the technology does.

LS: How did you get involved with the SAP Community?

JW: I witnessed the evolution of the SAP Community (SDN à SCN à SAP Community). Initially I was just looking for help, and it did serve the purpose. I was amazed at how active and collaborative the users were (and are) within the Community, which really inspired me. Later I found that it’s not just for requesting for help – it’s a place to learn, share, contribute, influence, and build your network. It continues to be an essential part of my growth.

LS: While you have expertise in many business and IT areas, clearly you have special interests, both as a solution architect and with the user experience (UX) (e.g., SAPUI5, SAP Fiori), including a variety of certifications and continuous learning. What is it about the UX world in particular that interests you?

JW: In this digital “Experience Economy,” the impact of UX is very high. UX is front line – it represents an organization or group’s brand and gives users a first impression. Quality UX makes it a joy for users to work with the respective solution and increase the loyalty. It provides a positive contribution to the overall business success.

LS: What inspires you to provide answers, insights, and workarounds related to the SAP UX, SAP Business Process Management, OData, and related technology? Given your busy day and responsibilities, how do you find the time to contribute?

JW: I’m definitely inspired by the people in the Community who share their findings, code, best practices, and solutions without any reservation. Their dedication makes the road for any newcomers a smoother one.

Answering questions is in my daily routine. I usually do it at the beginning of the day or during my break time of the day. I saved a shortcut to the SAPUI5 space in the browser, which conveniently loads all the questions in that area. It is really a satisfaction to see the SAP puzzle get solved.

LS: You are recognized both for your community actions (seen and unseen) and with a variety of accomplishments (“badges”) during your SAP Community journey. Here’s a few of them…

	Swift Solver III: The first to provide an answer to a question, within the time frame of 5 hours, for a total of 50 times.
	Master Solver: You contribute answers in SAP Community, day and night. Even more of your answers (almost 100) are accepted.
	SAP Community Fan: Show your commitment to the SAP Community. Perform at least one of the following activities every day, for 5 days (e.g., blog, comment, question, or answer, etc.).

What suggestions would you share with other Community members who want to contribute and provide a measure of leadership?

JW: For me, contributing to the Community is not just helping others, it also helps and improves yourself. You will gain more experience and it will make you better prepared for upcoming challenges.

It’s a two-way street between contributors and users. As practitioners and experts, both new and advanced, we can all help each other perform better. By taking a small amount of time each day, week, or month, a user can make a positive impact on the community – one step at a time.

LS: As you look ahead to SAP TechEd and your work with SAP customers, are there any new emerging technologies or trends that you are intrigued by and perhaps eager to learn about?

JW: For the last couple of years, I was mainly working on SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) based full-stack development both on-premise and cloud environment. My next adventure will be with SAP ABAP on SAP BTP.

I am involved in a project to build an ABAP RESTful Programming Model (RAP) application. It is a very interesting scenario, in that the RAP object will be serving as middleware to retrieve business data from on-premise CRM, SAP ECC at runtime and combine it with local persisted data to show it on the SAP Fiori screen. Users will do business transactions based on the data presented.

It will be exciting to work with organizations to help them increase efficiencies and help them become enterprise-ready.

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Check out Jun Wu’s content, answers, and comments on his community profile. Feel free to leave a comment below.

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