My previous blog CRM @ Teched 2010 Las Vegas discussed how those of us interested in SAP CRM could find content at SAP Teched 2010 Las Vegas. After attending SAP Teched last week, let’s take a look how my expectations for CRM content were met.
CRM @ Teched 2010 Las Vegas Recap Part 1
Part #2: CRM in the expected places
Part #3: Personal CRM @ teched
Part #2: CRM in the expected places
CRM in the expected places
CD268 Integrate SAP WEB UI 7.0 and data from ERP 6.0
CD127 Into to Sybase Mobile Sales for SAP CRM
CD169 Hands on with Sybase Mobile Sales for SAP CRM
EIM205 General Mills Data Services with SAP CRM 7.0 SFA Experience
CRM Community Lounge
CD268: CRM 7.0EHP1 freakshow
My first educational session that attended at Teched was a hands-on session with SAP CRM. It was showing us how to integrate ERP sales orders in the CRM webclient UI. The idea here is you don’t need save a sales order in CRM from the CRM webclient UI, but rather save it directly in ERP. It’s a great class but there were several problems that turned it into a CRM freakshow
- A lot of folks wanted a business/technical overview of the product. There should have been a beginner one hour lecture only class on the topic
- The lead instructor was not a true CRM technical person. Don’t get me wrong he knew this particular topic well, but they did not have the general CRM knowledge to help make up for lack of a introductory course
- Our hands-on exercise was not technically feasible or setup right. Multiple assignment sets in a CRM system are bad thing. Missing repository components to display the final result and not using multiple configurations for students were some of the problems. The more basic problems such as our end users not being assigned a business role were more annoying than anything.
The only cool part of the class was the fact is was on a SAP CRM 7.0 EHP1 system. I’m surprised SAP did not offer any other SAP CRM technical classes on new Webclient UI framework features in that release. I was able to peak into IMG and see what could have been if innovations 2010 did not become innovations 2011.
If asked what I would have done to make the class better:
Offer an introductory lecture only session
Have the primary lead instructor be a true full-time CRM technical person that lives and breathes with the solution full-time for the past several years
Use multiple CRM systems installed locally on the laptop for the exercises or modify the central training system to handle multiple students.
CD127: How do I fill out that PO for an iPad?
Every time I have seen Sybase Mobile Sales solution for SAP CRM up until this session, I had a firm belief that it was designed to help hardware partners sell more boxes. I never really understand why they had to have all the extra pieces in the landscape to sell the solution. This was the first time after seeing mobility solutions for the past two years that explained the need. Our instructor did a great job of anticipating and staying ahead of our technical questions about the solution. I was impressed with the design and product in general.
It also didn’t hurt the cool demos with the mobile device and the though of working with SAP CRM via iPad made the solution even cooler. If the execution on delivering the solution can match the current design we have a winner and SAP will get a great ROI on their very large purchase from earlier this year.
CD169: People might think I want to be a Netweaver Admin
A hands-on session with Sybase Mobile Sales for SAP CRM sounding promising even though it was four hours long. I must admit I was hoping to learn how to extend the solution, but instead it turned into a hard-core sysadmin session on how to install the solution. I was still happy about the solution, but this was the type of session that separated those willing to go beyond their normal roles from those wanted to stay in their narrow space. Our instructor was a trooper and I think the class when for about two or three hours without a break.
The beauty of this session is that I realized the basic setup of the solution once you have hardware setup would no longer be a several week ordeal. Instead we had our small classroom system talking to a mobile phone simulator in three hours. It was cool to see opportunities and activities from CRM flowing back and forth to the mobile phone simulator. Some folks in my class were complaining about this being beyond what they do, but then you miss the point of teched. The ability to attend a class that’s outside of your day-to-day role and learn something is what makes it great. I now have a better appreciation of work involved in setting up a mobile solution from actually getting a chance to do it myself.
EIM205: The pied piper of XIF sees the dream fulfilled
Quality data in CRM is a favorite pain point for most people who support CRM systems. I mean your marketing or sales department goes out and gets a huge list of potential customers, how do you make sure those get in the system without turning the system into a giant garbage dump of data. I found out in this session that a tool from Business Objects could be used to facilitate marketing and sales type data loads into CRM. What was interesting was that the technique chosen was not even officially supported yet. The other great part of this is that the XIF-idoc for CRM was being to help facilitate the data loads.
For those of you old-timers on SCN, my first blog on SCN was about The specified item was not found.. I also used to answer a ton of questions on the CRM General Framework forum about XIF for data loads. I like to call myself the pied piper of XIF, because on SCN before I started posting about it, people were toiling in the dark ages of updating data via specific function modules for every segment. It was great to see a technical feature that I have personally promoted end up being shown as a key part of a solution in teched lecture.
CRM Community Lounge: Screaming Monkeys and CRM systems
First off I was not disappointed by those who attended. In fact It was great to see some old and new faces. However given the attendance levels in the other CRM related classes I attended, I was expecting more participation. I could have announced this session in the CRM classes that I attended, but that would have been rude. We had a good discussion surrounding how I felt the CRM community was progressing, CRM upgrades and general areas of interests. At the end two screaming monkeys were handed out, one to each company who attended the session.
As Linus says to Charlie Brown in the great pumpkin: “Just wait till next year Charlie Brown, you will see”. So even though the next teched is 300 days away, I’m going to ask every person in the CRM community who will be attending teched to meet up next year. Perhaps I need to configure some marketing campaigns in CRM to drive up attendance ;).
Conclusion
Where I expected to find SAP CRM content I was not disappointed. Even though some of sessions did not turn out as planned, I honestly could say that for some with a CRM focus like myself, there was enough CRM related content to keep me busy and happy. I think for SAP Teched next year, I would love to see following items added:
Lecture Course on 7.0 EHP1 technical enhancements
Hands-on session on creating new BOL model components
Hands-on session on creating WebUI components from scratch
Hands-on session on 7.0 EHP1 technical enhancements
Hands-on session extending the Sybase Mobile Sales Solution for SAP CRM
