Recap | Hybrid SAP Financials Forum, DE edition (March 20 – 22, 2023) | EN edition starting soon!

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After a successful, hybrid event last year, the SAP Financials Forum reopened its doors in Walldorf, Germany and virtually on March 20-22, 2023. More than 130 participants from German-speaking countries were able to learn more about the latest innovations in SAP Financials.  

The program featured three days full of more than 18 different expert talks, two customer presentations, two evening events, insights into digital learning and many opportunities to network with participants and SAP experts. Read more in this report. 

Sustainability as a starting point

The event was kicked-off by the organizers Christoph Rendel, Cem Uysal and Magnus Metzler. All virtual participants could follow the launch of the event in high quality supported by professional camera and light technology.
Moving on to the opening keynote Lutz Trescher, Sustainability Lead at SAP, talked about sustainability from a finance perspective. He explained how sustainability reporting can be implemented using SAP and how the Office of the CFO comes into play in this area.

A colorful bouquet of more than 18 expert talks

The core of the forum consisted of several parallel lecture blocks, allowing participants to build their own agenda. SAP experts presented various hot topics from the SAP Financials area in 75 to 90-minute expert talks that combined theoretical overviews, system demos, and Q&A sessions. As the following overview shows, the 2023 event again offered a particularly colorful mix of topics on the program.

Customers’ view on SAP S/4HANA migration projects

What do customers experience when migrating to SAP S/4HANA in Finance? What challenges do they have to overcome and what tips can they give other customers?

Ingo Lippe from Volkswagen Financial Services and Oliver Kemler and Tobias Siglhofer from BMW Group provided insights into their migration projects and answered numerous questions that came from the audience on-site and virtually. Two very exciting insights from a customer’s external perspective, which supplemented the presentations from SAP internal experts!

Digital Learning at SAP

The way people learn in the enterprise world is transforming into flexible and digitized offerings tailored to the role and needs of users. SAP Product Learning also aims at providing customers, partners and employees with tailored learning opportunities for their SAP solutions.

In this context, Timo Schuette, Head of SAP Product Learning CoE, kicked-off the third event day with a strategy presentation about the flexible learning offerings at SAP, which are available free of charge by reaching the new learning platform (learning.sap.com).

Following this, Christoph Rendel, Anton Belousov, Robert Lehman, and Marlies Pattison illustrated what these innovations mean for Finance, and highlighted the specific learning offerings that already exist on the platform and are yet to come.

Two hybrid “Meet the Expert” session

Particular attention was paid again this year to allowing enough room for open exchange and networking between participants and SAP experts.
In addition to the coffee breaks, two hybrid “Meet the Expert” sessions of 30 minutes each were on the program which provided the opportunity to discuss open questions with the speakers. These sessions took place at various standing tables in the training center equipped with hybrid technology, giving all virtual participants the chance to take part in all discussions.

A great format and opportunity for all participants and speakers to exchange.

Evening events in a double pack

A successful, interactive round of the days was formed by the evening event on Tuesday, during which the participants could opt for a dinner at the Sap Guest House (“Cloud44”) in Walldorf or for an exciting, virtual “Escape Room” game.
Overall, we look back on three informative days full of exciting learning opportunities and lively personal exchanges, and we are already looking forward to the next events.

Next events

• English, half-day event (WENFIT): We gladly invite you to our English-speaking SAP Financials Forum from April 24 to 26, 2023 where we present selected topics in a half-day virtual format. For more information and to sign-up, check out this blogpost.
• German Forum (WDEFIT): You can already save the date for next year’s event which takes place on March 18-20, 2024 (Appointment blocker). More information will follow as of Fall 2023.

Author | Images | contact person
Magnus Metzler (SAP), magnus.metzler@sap.com