I had just sat down with my lunch plate at SAP’s plush Palo Alto cafeteria this past week, when an old acquaintance, Bob, joined me to catch up. When the topic of SAPPHIRE NOW came up, he kind of looked quizzically at me and asked – “Neetin, why the name “Run Better” for a campus? I have never heard of such a campus name ever at a SAPPHIRE NOW before.” I said “Well, the name of the campus is chosen to retain the strong connection with SAP’s “Run Better” brand and the slick TV ad campaign that you see on all the networks. It clarifies our focus on people, not just technology. We want to demonstrate how SAP helps individuals run better in their Line of Business (LoB) within a specific industry.”
“Aha, I see” said Bob, “But what’s the content in the Run Better campus?” I looked at my plate and saw the spicy enchilada that I was going to devour and said “Bob, the Run Better campus is just like this whole enchilada that you see here.”
Intrigued, Bob asked – “What do you mean?” I said pointing at my enchilada, “Just like the tortilla in here, we have rolled all the 5 market categories of Applications, Analytics, Mobile, Cloud and Database & Technology together into this one campus and have added rich spice or context for every industry and LoB that we cover at SAP.” I added, “This convergence will enable every attendee representing their company; industry, and LoB to consume the essential information in a simpler way and get a rich taste of how all the relevant solutions of the entire SAP portfolio can help them run better and win bigger. We expect every attendee, whether onsite or via virtual channel, to make the Run Better campus their first stop!”
After the enchilada analogy, I spent the next 5 minutes walking Bob through the finer details of the Run Better campus and the compelling content my colleagues have pulled together for all our expected guests at the event. Bob, a veteran of 10 plus SAPPHIREs left extremely satisfied, having gotten an early taste of the whole SAP enchilada!
After I gobbled my lunch down, I thought about my conversation with Bob and realized there must be many others like Bob who must be wondering the same about the Run Better campus.
So, here are the details.
Run Better campus as your first stop: Team SAP has been hard at work to provide rich contextualized information for your industry and LoB. You’ll have the opportunity to learn from SAP experts as well as practitioners and industry leaders on how they have been able to drive real business value using SAP solutions. Additionally, you can see how the new SAP innovations fit in with your objectives and can provide you that extra edge or competitive advantage to win bigger. The Test Drive area in the Run Better campus is where attendees can experience solutions first hand much like in an Apple Store - providing a clearer path into other campuses, namely, Analytics, Mobile, Cloud, and Database & Technology.
Get an interactive experience: You’ll be able to participate in Q&A sessions following theater presentations and discussion panels; demo pods, micro-forum discussions, and hear about the latest best practices directly from experts and customers who have done it successfully. There are also scheduled product demonstrations conducted at set times to help you plan your time better.
Explore compelling content at all areas of the campus: Each area showcases an end-to-end story highlighting relevant SAP and partner solutions (software, services, and ecosystem) targeting specific industries and LoBs.
- Design Great Products – targeted for Manufacturing industries; R&D, Engineering LoBs
- Manage Assets – targeted for Manufacturing industries; Enterprise Asset Management LoBs
- Manage Manufacturing Operations Excellence– targeted for Manufacturing industries; ManufacturingLoBs
- Grow Sustainably – targeted for Manufacturing industries; Sustainability LoB
- Optimize Supply Chain and Procurement – targeted for Manufacturing, Transportation & Logistics, Oil and Gas, Consumer Products, Retail, Wholesale Distribution industries; Supply Chain, Procurement LoBs
- Deliver Exceptional Customer Experiences – targeted for Utilities, Telco, Media, Prof. Services, Engineering, Construction and Ops, Higher Ed and Research, Retail and Wholesale, Banking and Insurance industries; Sales, Marketing, Service LoBs
- Manage Finance and IT – targeted for all industries; Finance, IT LoBs
- Showcase Industries – targeted for Retail, Banking , Public Sector; Consumer Products; Healthcare with Life Sciences, Telecommunications, High Tech industries; All LoBs
- Manage Human Capital for Optimal Business Performance – targeted for all industries; HR LoB
- Test-Drive Area – targeted for all industries and LoBs. Aligned with Analytics; Mobile; Cloud; Database & Technology campuses. The Test Drive area is expanded and provides an attendee to “play” and experience a wide array of SAP products.
And oh yeah, Run Better campus is the largest of all the campuses at SAPPHIRE NOW. Make it your home base and enjoy the whole SAP enchilada!
Hopefully, this has been a good primer for you to maximize your experience of SAPPHIRE NOW conference in Orlando, May 14-16th, 2012. Personalize your event experience with the Agenda Builder and identify key Run Better campus sessions that address your business challenges. In the meantime, follow me on Twitter at @neetin_datar as we continue to share additional information leading up to the event.
Related blogs:
http://scn.sap.com/community/scm/blog/2012/03/29/how-a-supply-chain-executive-can-run-better-faster-...
Neetin Datar is the Social Media Ambassador for the Run Better campus at SAPPHIRE NOW annual conference and is the Senior Director of Industry Marketing for Wholesale Distribution at SAP. His enterprise software experience spans ERP, E-commerce, Global Trade, GRC, Warehouse Management and Distribution markets. He has been with SAP since 1994 and is passionate about technology and its use by distributors to run better.
