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Dive into the future of enterprise data with the latest episode of Tech-Driven Business. Mustansir Saifuddin welcomes Shawn Brown, of SAP, for Part 1 of an in-depth exploration of the SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC). If you're navigating the complexities of data management and analytics within the SAP ecosystem, this episode is unmissable. Shawn breaks down the fundamental 'why' behind BDC, revealing how it's engineered to drastically reduce data preparation time, cut costs, and empower businesses to make faster, more accurate decisions. Tune in to understand how you can your team can take advantage of all that BDC offers to SAP customers looking to unlock true value from their data. With over two decades of experience in SAP solutions, Shawn Brown currently serves as Senior Director for SAP's Center of Excellence. Known for expertly identifying customer needs, Mr. Brown excels in presenting tailored solutions involving Business Technology Platform, Business Data Cloud, S4HANA, and Business AI. A proven leader in demand generation and partner relationship management, Mr. Brown has successfully driven initiatives that enhance customer experience and streamline cloud solution adoption. Renowned as a thought leader and strategist, Mr. Brown frequently shares insights with CIOs and business influencers, fostering strong, trust-based relationships across multiple industries. Connect with Us: LinkedIn: Shawn Brown: Mustansir Saifuddin: Innovative Solution Partners X: @Mmsaifuddin YouTube or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation. Episode Transcript [00:00:00] Mustansir Saifuddin: Welcome to Tech- Driven Business, brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. I'm honored to have Sean Brown of SAP join me to kick off an essential two part series to unpack a topic that's on every SAP user's mind. The Business Data Cloud or BDC. If you're looking to understand how BDC can transform your data landscape and drive real business value, you are in the right place. [00:00:32] . [00:00:32] Welcome to Tech- Driven Business, Shawn. How are you? [00:00:35] Shawn Brown: I am good. I'm good. Things are going well, staying busy. [00:00:38] Mustansir Saifuddin: That's awesome. That's awesome. So glad to have you on our show and I'm really excited for the topic that we are going to discuss today. You ready for it? [00:00:47] Shawn Brown: I am. I'm excited as well. [00:00:51] Mustansir Saifuddin: Yeah, so I, I know we had talked in the past a couple of times and right now , the hot topic everybody's talking about from SAP and in general is the whole idea, the concept, and now the actual product called Business Data Cloud and what it really means for SAP customers. I like to use this time to dig deeper into this conversation and have a better understanding of exactly what this brings, what kind of landscapes that are changing with this new product, and to expect, you know, if you're a customer interested into, in going forward with BDC. [00:01:28] Shawn Brown: -. [00:01:28] Sure. That sounds great. Yeah. [00:01:32] Mustansir Saifuddin: Awesome. Okay. So I think every time we, we have this new products, right? And SAP is really good about and talk, people talk about rebranding and all that. Let's talk about the why of why should SAP customers adopt BDC. What is different about BDC that SAP customers should be asking that question. [00:01:53] Why? [00:01:55] Shawn Brown: Yeah, this is, this is my favorite question to start. Anything in the space that is outside of packaged solutions, you know ERP, HR Supply Chain and, and the capabilities we have in those areas because the why is something that it, it should be the driver for everything. Right? And, and for BDC, I would say the first thing we wanna talk about is it's a, it's a new product. [00:02:24] But it's an evolution of everything that we've been doing for years. It's, it's capabilities that our customers already know about. And it's taking all of the capabilities that we have offered over the time that we've been, been in the data and analytics space. And it's the, I call it a next generation, right? [00:02:45] It's the next generation of what was. And so when we get into the why. I would say the first thing that we really gotta say is, is the reason for BDC is it is to short circuit the amount of time it takes to prepare from data to finally analytics and planning and all the steps in between, where we're often times organizations see it as this, this wheel that. [00:03:15] They start with the data that's in the source system. They're gonna extract a, transform it loaded profile it, catalog it you know, press governance on it. Maybe make it in, you know, in a marketplace setting. Organize it so that it can be easily digestible, create some standard analytics, and then now we can actually start analyzing it. [00:03:34] And the why is really about reducing the amount of time it takes to go around that whole wheel of, Data all the way around to analytics and planning and reduce the amount of prep time and increase the amount of analysis time. Because if we think about how much time a person gets to analyze the [00:04:00] data, let's say for example, and this is a, this is actually a number that is, has been verified with numerous customers and with, the analyst firms like Gartner and Forrester and TDWI is that it takes as much as 70% or more of the actual workload and investment to go from data to analytics. That's not, so that means the analytics is just 30% or less of the time. So if we think about how much each question costs. You have to add in all of that cost that even deliver up the analytical or, or deliver up the, the data in a way that it can be analyzed. [00:04:45] So BDCs goal is to shrink that time of preparation and actual delivery of data for the analyst purpose or for the AI purpose, or for any application purpose. Shrink it as much as possible so that, the questions that are asked are cheaper, and essentially we can ask more questions. We don't have to continue to reformat the data, deliver the data in a new way to get to the final answers that we're trying to seek. [00:05:20] So I would say savings and costs. Savings and money. More data, more, more analysis time. That's the why for BDC. [00:05:31] Mustansir Saifuddin: Yeah, it totally makes sense. I think one of the things that while you're talking about this that stuck out for me was, we always talk about time value, right? And, especially when it comes to analytics, It's such a critical part of any organization's path forward and the numbers that you're just sharing from Gartner and other resources, [00:05:51] where if the majority of the time is gone into the data collection, the data refinement, all that, there's no time left or a very minimal time for your analytics part, which makes it really difficult for organizations to make quick decisions. So I think what I'm hearing from you, the why: the time value becomes very important in this case. [00:06:13] Shawn Brown: Correct. Absolutely. [00:06:16] Mustansir Saifuddin: That's good because that kind of takes me into this conversation, like, Hey, benefits. When you have that, why understood, what are some of the benefits that BDC will provide to SAP customers who want to go on the journey? Because benefits is really the reason why it will make sense for them to move forward. [00:06:33] Shawn Brown: For sure, for sure. And this is the one that's always interesting for organizations because they're focused so much on the actual preparation of the data that oftentimes the benefits that they can glean from all of that effort are, are fleeting, so they look at the, the overall effort and they go, oh yeah, there's, there's a lot here that is really based on, on how much it took to get here. [00:07:01] And the faster we can deliver the capabilities for analysis purposes for any AI purposes, the faster we can make decisions. The faster we can adjust based on those decisions. And so when you think about the speed at which organizations operate, to be able to answer those questions faster is probably the number one benefit that you can get. [00:07:27] And then you also get into accuracy. What, what questions are we asking? And if we don't have to go through this rigorous effort of moving data from all of these source systems and joining it all back together, and then building all that business context. Data integrity, is that a, a concern? It is for most organizations, they're concerned about what this looks like at its end state. [00:07:57] And the other thing that still [00:08:00] exists in the world of business, especially in the analytics space, is the typical spread marked problem. Where people just take the data that they're looking for, they extract it out of whatever solution it's been delivered to them. Maybe it's cheap cloud storage on flat files, or maybe it's been all dumped into an ODS, an operational data store, and then they're accessing the data as they like. [00:08:26] If they don't understand the details of the data and the relationships that occur with the data, and they don't have the original business context that the data came from in its source system, then if they do extract it to whatever they like, then somebody can walk into a meeting with one version of the truth and another can walk in with another version of the truth. [00:08:48] They all can believe that they're accurate. They all can argue over why their version of truth is correct and the others is not. So the confidence in the data is the other thing. We take away a lot of those concerns, because when you have it coming from those source systems and the preparation of that data has been provided in this case by SAP, for SAP systems, at a minimum, you're going to have much more confidence that the data [00:09:17] is delivered to you in a way that respects all of the integrity that it came from. That the accuracy of the data is as accurate as it was entered into the business application upon which it was the source. So the speed of delivery, the accuracy of the data. These are, these are major advantages that you get with regards to using BDC versus [00:09:43] the, the older school, I'll call it older school 'cause I'm an old guy. The old days of Bill Inman and star schemas and relational database systems that we created. These massive data warehouses. It's an older school thought, and it was one that was born outta this idea that we had to get the data from those source systems because we couldn't query the source systems at runtime. [00:10:06] All those things contribute to, to today where we're curating the data for you. It's been curated by SAP from all SAP systems, so if you have any questions about the quality of the data, in that case, you then you should have questions about the quality of your data in its source. there's a bigger issue, so speed of delivery, accuracy of data. [00:10:32] Those are probably my, my two top benefits that customers are going to get out of this. [00:10:38] Mustansir Saifuddin: Absolutely. That makes total sense. I think one of the things that really stuck out for me was the whole concept of end-to-end governance . Does BDC do a better job? And how, is that integrated to this whole BDC realm of the different pieces that makes up BDC? How is data governance and security working within those parameters? [00:11:03] Shawn Brown: Yeah. So in BDC, you're getting role level security on all the data. At that point then you're asking questions like, where do I, how do my users access the data? What are they allowed to see? What are they not allowed to see? All those capabilities can be integrated into BDC. You, you can deliver all of those capabilities directly within BDC. [00:11:27] You start off by setting up some broader, who's the, who's the group? What systems are they accessing? So if I'm in finance and I'm looking at finance data, I probably have access to let's say S/4HANA as the backend system that is storing all this data. All the users within the finance team that have access to S/4HANA can have access to that space of data. [00:11:55] And I use that word space because this is a concept that, again, there's nothing [00:12:00] new. We've invited these concepts into our thinking a while ago, and now it's just another generation of what we're doing here. So that idea of a space is I can include the data that is necessary for a line of business hr, finance, supply chain, and that's what they can see. [00:12:20] And if I need to, all of the rest of the data is accessible through BDC. It's just a question of whether I want to provide the rights to access those other data sets to another line of business, for example. So if I said I wanted to join let's say expense information that's in Concur with employee information, that's in success factors, I can easily join those data sets [00:12:48] bring in forward, from one space to another. And decide at a row level and column level, what individual data set I need to join across groups or individuals, if you will. [00:13:06] Mustansir Saifuddin: I think that's super good because that's where a lot of the questions come in. You know, every time you do move your data from one environment to another environment that you need to have your own new set of governance and security and, it can be role level security or whatever else you wanna do, [00:13:21] you have to kind of redefine that. It seems like it's all built into the BDC portfolio. You're leveraging your source system objects and then be able to apply the same rules that you may have built in. [00:13:37] Shawn Brown: Yeah, the, the analogy I always liked was it's kind of like, and I don't know if they're really like this. I mean, maybe there are not. I just remember old movies that you'd have these Japanese styled homes and they were like, the walls that were almost paper thin, that you could, you almost felt like you could just push your hand right through the wall and just grab something that was in the other room. [00:13:57] I liken it a bit like that in terms of spaces. The spaces are separated in that way with a, a level of access that is very simple to provide when necessary, but distinctly in separate spaces, separate areas, so that that's the benefit. That's the simplicity of being able to access data from any LOB or any third party for that matter. [00:14:23] If you wanted to access that third party data in BDC to any other data that's in BDC as well, whether it's finance, hr, supply chain, whatever it may be, warehouse inventory, whatever it may be. [00:14:38] Mustansir Saifuddin: Totally. Now, since we talked about the benefits, let's look into the details. Like what steps are involved if someone wants to take on this journey and move to SAP BDC? [00:14:53] Shawn Brown: Much of that begins with where are they right now? Let's take a few different scenarios? if a customer is, let's say, already using some SAP solutions, I would say, let's go with the most rudimentary that has been around for a while now for SAP. Let's talk about, they're using HANA Enterprise. [00:15:09] They've, they've been taking a lot of data from their SAP systems and dropping it into HANA Enterprise on-prem. This is a natural next step to that on-premise approach where you said, all right, I, I don't necessarily wanna be in the position of housing systems like this myself and my own data centers. [00:15:28] I want to put them into the cloud. This is a simple transition , to take the data from a HANA Enterprise, drop it into BDC and start using that data in essentially what would be a component of BDC, Datasphere. But it's built on HANA Cloud. And HANA Cloud is built on the same technology that HANA Enterprise is built on that in terms of its capabilities, what it can do. [00:15:52] It's a natural transition for that case if you're talking about a customer that's already using let's say another old product from [00:16:00] SAP, BW. Right. BW has been a really challenging one for a lot of organizations because they've had such value and such benefit by using BW to access data in SAP with those BW extractors. [00:16:14] And in many cases, they've built a lot of and invested a lot in BW in the framework itself. Creating their own objects, creating their own cubes, creating asos, DSOs and so forth, depending on what versions of BW you're on. Not necessarily wanting to just abandon that investment. There's another great example of is, once you're, once you're at least BW 7.5 and above, we make it very simple for you to go ahead and take all of that in BW investment and move it directly into BDC in its format, in its same format as a BW environment. [00:16:54] BW for HANA, same thing, move it right into BDC, it would be in a cloud-based environment that way as well. And essentially all of those connections back to the source systems still persist. When we talk about how do we take advantage of the investments you have, that's where you say, all right, well, I can access them through the BDC framework in [00:17:16] BW that is now part of BDC and use it for whatever purpose I leave it in BW in that case, or I can start taking those particular assets that I have in BW and using the data product generator that is now part of BW embedded in BDC, I can then change those assets in BW to data products. Which is the lowest level form of data that we have in BDC, and in this case, just for those that may be listening and wondering, am I copying the data? [00:17:51] Yes . And we can come to this in a minute as to why you're copying the data, but we are copying the data from its source system, and we would be copying the data from BW as well, where we wanted to make it a data product in BDC. And we can talk about why that is in a minute. 'cause it's a shift. It, it's a bit of a shift in terms of what we've talked about in the past with regards to a whole play the data where it lies, federate versus materialize [00:18:18] that data in, what was Datasphere, which is now part of BDC. That idea of moving those assets from BW into BDC as data products, over time allows us to decommission those, those deployments of BW. So that's the benefit is, we now have a path for BW customers to migrate to BDC, [00:18:45] not give up those assets that they've created and leveraged for so many years in BDC, and then over time decommission BW altogether. Or, if you're really interested and you really like using BW, keep it. That's the other benefit of moving a BW 7.5 environment to BDC is, you're gonna get three more years of mainstream maintenance. [00:19:09] And for example, for BW/4HANA, we're pushing that end of life date all the way out to 2040. That's a long time that you can hold onto that BW environment if that's what you choose to do. But the benefit of BDC is that we're going to give you the mechanism to actually migrate it over and then as your backend systems, particularly like S4 changes, [00:19:31] you're gonna need to change a lot of what you're doing from a BW extraction anyway. Don't do it in BW anymore. Do it in BDC. Now, those are some of the SAP scenarios, but some of the ones that I get as well are, we already have a strategy with our SAP data. We're pulling it into S3 buckets. [00:19:55] Azure Data Factory, Snowflake , all of these third [00:20:00] party extraction destinations and why would I go ahead and use BDC in that case? And the reality is, you have to ask yourself this question where we started in the first place. How much time and energy are you spending going from data all the way around that wheel to analytics? [00:20:20] If you're like the typical organization and it's north of 70%, 80%, 90% as a CIO, I heard last week talking about this, 90% of their time is spent just moving data to get it prepared for analysis. How much do you want to continue to do that? And nobody likes to be looked at as a cost center. Everybody likes to be seen as somebody that is providing value to the organization. [00:20:50] If you're part of an organization and you are seen as a cost center, because the amount of energy it takes to get the data from where it sits to where it needs to be is exorbitant, nine tenths maybe of the overall cost of asking those questions. That's not a great place to be. If you can shrink that as much as possible, then you can actually live up to some of those things that everybody would like to say. [00:21:19] Like, data is the new gold, data is the new oil. The value of data is, is immeasurable. We can do so much with our business because of the data. We could be a data-driven organization. All of these things can become possible, but not so easy when nine tenths or eight tenths of the cost, it's just getting the data where it needs to be. [00:21:44] That's the big thing that needs to be focused on as it relates to some of these ideas that let's go ahead and do the, what I still call old school extract, transform, load, model, profile, catalog govern and, create all of the overhead that is necessary to actually deliver those analytics back to the organization. [00:22:07] And if, you're in a part of your organization where you think it's good enough for me to just extract all the data and drop it over here and let the business go have fun, that's another one where you're not providing additional value to the organization. [00:22:19] What the business community really wants is they want curated data that is business context aware, that is in a position to help them answer questions out of the box, push button. An actual software as a service. That's what we've got with BDC. So this idea that of you've already got a strategy in place, [00:22:44] it might be working right now because you did a ton of work to get you where you are. But here's the kicker. It's probably all going to change, maybe not next year, but maybe two years or three years, maybe the next time you do some major upgrade and we've become more efficient in terms of how we store the data in the business applications, or, [00:23:12] any of the other business applications that you use, they change their underlying architecture in how they are actually storing the data in those source systems. Guess what just changed with your data strategy? Potentially everything. And we have customers that this has happened to them. Where I've walked into a huge SAP customer and I had a conversation with him where I said, we're gonna go ahead, and this is before we had two separate entities of BDC and BTP. And I walked into this session with the customer and said, here's what we're gonna do. [00:23:43] We're gonna go ahead and tell you everything that we can do in the space of data and analytics and everything within the platform space. And the customer said, I don't think we really need to hear about your data and analytics strategy, because we're pretty well set on that. And I said, I want to talk to you about all these things and I need to talk to you [00:24:00] about this one as well. [00:24:01] This one's not negotiable. I need whoever's responsible for data and analytics to be in the room to discuss this. And that person did arrive and that person pretty much felt like they had everything figured out. They didn't wanna, engage in the conversation at all. Pretty much arms crossed throughout most of the most of the meeting. [00:24:19] And we finally got to a point where they said, all right, I can see that there's some benefits, you know, to how this works. But I'll tell you, they were on ECC on HANA. And so fast forward six months and they're negotiating the RISE opportunity with S4/HANA in a private cloud and RISE, and they now realize that everything needs to be changed. [00:24:50] It's good that we had this conversation with them about how you can access the SAP data through, at the time, Datasphere, which is now Business Data Cloud, because they now understand that for them to be able to get access to the data in the way they want, the fastest way they want, and for the fact that we're curating all that data for them, and then providing them out of the box insights with our insight apps. [00:25:14] This is pretty much a no brainer in their part. They knew that they had to explore it, and they knew they had to explore it for the SAP centric question, but also for the non SAP centric question where they want to pull smaller data sets to non SAP capabilities because we are gonna curate those scenarios through data products that will allow them to pull that data into those non SAP scenarios. [00:25:40] So this, these are some of the big plays, we've got that existing SAP solutions, we've got that non SAP centric approach. And then, ultimately, if you haven't got to the point that you're deciding what you're going to do or you haven't don't have a very mature data strategy, maybe you're a growing company, at some point you're going to need to go ahead and start asking those data and analytics questions. [00:26:05] Just know that it's very expensive, as I've said before, to move the data from one place to another, place it there, do all of those things that we've talked about in the past, and then deliver analytics, just pull it out of the box. The last comment I'll make is "that pull it out of the box" sometimes that's not as useful as we think it is. [00:26:25] If I said, you have to dig a hole, it's 10 feet deep and you started from ground level, you have 10 feet to dig. But if I gave you something that got you 50% of the way, I dug five feet for you, I dug six feet for you, would you rather just dig five more feet or four more feet, or would you just rather start from ground level and dig 10 feet on your own? [00:26:48] That's the value that we were trying to demonstrate through BDC. [00:26:53] Mustansir Saifuddin: Good explanation. And I think it is really clear that a lot of times conversations come up about SAP customers talking about their on-prem, their legacy systems and how they will benefit from BDC, but your examples went beyond HANA Enterprise to other non SAP solutions where customers have already been on the journey and they don't see the value at least at this point. [00:27:20] But, after seeing the example you use, it's very logical for them to start thinking in those terms. Also saying, Hey, I simplify my landscape? Still get , if not same, at least, the value that whatever else that BDC brings to the table, like the whole AI capability, all of that can be leveraged by adopting this platform. On a personal note how do you stay on top of, you know, this changing technology world, and business at the same time. How you keep up with all this? [00:27:58] Shawn Brown: Yeah, as you [00:28:00] might imagine in the space of SAP, oftentimes it's hard enough just staying on top of all of the different options we have and different things that we have in terms of technology. So one of the ways that I like to keep up in, in the SAP space is called the BTP Talk podcast, which is a pretty good one. [00:28:18] It actually goes to a number of different you know, platform and data analytics related scenarios. Data skeptics is another pretty good podcast that I get a kick out of. There's another one I'm trying to think of that I use from time to time as well. [00:28:32] Analytics Power Hour. That's it. Yeah, the Analytics Power Hour is another good one. And, I've been paying attention to Tech-Driven Business as well too, so I like this one too. But, you know, the thing that I've been finding too is that, these days, things move so quickly and we think we know where we're going and then something comes along and, and change makes us change direction again. [00:28:53] And AI has probably been the biggest driver to that. The thing that I would say that that it's probably most interesting in terms of how I've changed how I operate is I actually ask AI to provide resources for me on particular topics. For example mid early last year there was a lot of talk about vector engines and knowledge graphs. [00:29:14] And the easiest thing I found to really kind of get a little bit more, versed on the topics was AI itself. I started asking for resources and, and I'll use for example, ChatGPT in some cases I like using Grok as well. From time to time they seem to provide a little bit different types of approaches and levels of interaction. [00:29:35] I kinda like how, grok will ask me follow up questions, which is pretty neat as well. But that's a great way to learn about topics that you are wanting to become more versed in or learning where the resources are to find those topics. So those, those are some of the things that I like to use. [00:29:58] Mustansir Saifuddin: Great list of ideas to kind of keep up with the changing, I mean, just everywhere around us. taking from AI to just carries to anything else. A lot of conversations going on so many different directions. How do you even keep up with them? So I'd like your suggestions, and I know we've talked about a lot of different things today. What is the one thing or one takeaway that you want to leave our listeners with? [00:30:24] Shawn Brown: Hmm, probably in, in the audience of that are responsible for data and analytics. If you're a CDAO, or an analyst or somebody that's responsible for enterprise wide analytics: I would focus on two things because these two things are probably the most important to the people that you serve, your business community. [00:30:50] Point number one is, they want analytics quickly. They want to be able to ask questions quickly. They don't wanna wait. They don't want to say this report, these data sets that you've provided me, they look really interesting, but I'd like to add this and this and this, and when can I have that? [00:31:12] If you can't say you can have that now, then you're taking too long. The other point is. We need to stop being looked at as a cost center. We need to stop being looked at as a place that is a necessary evil. We gotta ask questions of the system. We've gotta extract data everywhere and put it in someplace that we can start answering questions or even not even doing to the extent of actually providing the analytics out of the box. [00:31:40] Instead, we're just providing data sets for people to access. We need to be able to offer real value to the business community. Those are the ones that are footing the bill. Those are the ones that are actually paying for everything. So we need to be in a position to deliver it very quickly, [00:32:00] and it needs to not be expensive, and it needs to be accurate. [00:32:06] Mustansir Saifuddin: Absolutely [00:32:07] Shawn Brown: Those are the elements I think are the key takeaways. That's really the foundation of what we're doing with Business Data Cloud. That's the whole purpose behind it. [00:32:16] Mustansir Saifuddin: Absolutely great advice and a great way to sum up the session. It's been a great conversation. There's so much to gain from this product and, and direction, that SAP's taking. I'd like to thank you very much for joining us today in our show, and look forward to having further detailed conversation with you. [00:32:36] Shawn Brown: Thanks, I appreciate your time as well. [00:32:39] Mustansir Saifuddin: Thanks for listening to Tech-Driven Business, brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. We have covered the critical why behind BDC, the immense time and cost savings it promises, and the tangible benefits like enhanced speed and accuracy for SAP customers. Sean's key takeaway? Focus on delivering analytics quickly to your business community and strive to offer real accurate value moving away from being seen as just a cost center. [00:33:15] . We would love to hear from you. Continue the conversation by connecting with me on LinkedIn or X. Learn more about Innovative Solution Partners and schedule a free consultation by visiting isolutionpartners.com. Never miss a podcast by subscribing to our YouTube channel. Information is in the show notes.
HANA Cafe NL was invited to Amista's SPARK 2025 event. SPARK covered the roots of innovation with SAP Business One, ECC or S/4HANA public cloud as your foundation. TopicsPosition SAP Business One within SAP ecosystem (Marc Tiggeler)SAP Business One webclient for more efficient work (Lars Pelzer)Customer innovations using SAPBTP and SAP Business One (Coen Sanderink)Triggers to consider to move to S/4HANA (Cornee Boorsma)Enjoy!
SAP and Enterprise Trends Podcasts from Jon Reed (@jonerp) of diginomica.com
In a time-honored Sapphire 2025 tradition, I located an empty hallway and commandeered a couple of chairs to debrief on what we heard in Orlando. This time, with a new guest, Conor Riordan, Chair at UKISUG. Riordan brings a fascinating perspective to this conference review, as he's had a deep career in SAP IT leadership before moving over to the business side - and that's the gap that SAP (and all of us, really) still need to fully bridge. How well did SAP do? How did SAP's AI announcements stack up with UKISUG member data and priorities? Does Riordan agree with my take on the importance of public cloud ERP (formerly S/4HANA public cloud edition?). Are customers getting what they need to migrate and modernize? Is SAP's innovation strategy resonating? What has Riordan's team learned from their own dialogue with SAP? These are just some of the key topics we hit on, before we escaped to pack for the return.
In a time-honored Sapphire 2025 tradition, I located an empty hallway and commandeered a couple of chairs to debrief on what we heard in Orlando. This time, with a new guest, Conor Riordan, Chair at UKISUG. Riordan brings a fascinating perspective to this conference review, as he's had a deep career in SAP IT leadership before moving over to the business side - and that's the gap that SAP (and all of us, really) still need to fully bridge. How well did SAP do? How did SAP's AI announcements stack up with UKISUG member data and priorities? Does Riordan agree with my take on the importance of public cloud ERP (formerly S/4HANA public cloud edition?). Are customers getting what they need to migrate and modernize? Is SAP's innovation strategy resonating? What has Riordan's team learned from their own dialogue with SAP? These are just some of the key topics we hit on, before we escaped to pack for the return.
What does it take to go from running a cleaning business to founding a global recruitment firm? Leon Mitton shares how he launched Agnes Cole Consulting during COVID and is now using AI to drive scale and efficiency in a way few are even attempting.On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast, I'm joined by Leon Mitton, founder of Agnes Cole Consulting, a specialist SAP and S4 HANA recruitment firm based in the UK and operating globally.Leon started with no background in business and built everything from the ground up. In this episode, he opens up about his journey, the role of personal fulfilment in entrepreneurship, and how he's using AI to build a lean, high-performing business for the future.In this episode, we discussHow Leon went from cleaning homes to closing global recruitment dealsWhat it was like launching a company at the peak of COVIDWhy AI is the future of outbound and client engagement in recruitmentHis vision for creating a long-term legacy for his familyIf you're thinking about what recruitment could look like in five years or want to hear a story rooted in grit, innovation, and purpose, this episode is not to be missed.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Leon Mitton and Agnes Cole Consulting02:14 Leon's Journey: From Cleaning Business to Recruitment10:01 Navigating Recruitment During COVID-1912:29 The Transition to Entrepreneurship15:05 Establishing Agnes Cole Consulting17:12 Growth and Challenges in Year Two19:11 The Messy Middle: Managing a Growing Team24:28 Reflections on Business and Personal Fulfillment27:08 Creating a Legacy for Future Generations30:46 The Role of AI in Recruitment32:19 Intentional Parenting and Education Choices34:36 The Evolution of School Systems37:04 Communication Skills as a Superpower39:10 The Impact of Technology on Recruitment41:44 AI's Influence on Client Relationships46:18 Adapting to Change in Recruitment51:00 The Future of Recruitment and Business Structure55:23 Finding Joy in the Recruitment Journey01:01:20 Inspiring Others Through Personal Stories__________________________________________Episode Sponsor: AtlasYour memory isn't perfect. So Atlas remembers everything for you. Atlas is an end-to-end recruitment platform built for the AI generation. It automates your admin so you can focus on the business tasks that matter. How many conversations do you have every day? With clients. Candidates. Your team. Service providers.Now how many of those conversations can you recall with 100% accuracy? How many hours a week do you spend making notes to try and retain as much as possible? And how much is still getting lost along the way? Traditional CRM systems weren't built for the type of recruitment business you're running right now. They were built to rely on the structured, tagged, categorised, and formal data you could feed it. Manual processes that needed you to input specific information, based on specific questions and answers. But what about all the other conversations you're having every single day? Atlas isn't an ATS or a CRM. It's an Intelligent Business Platform that helps you perform 10X better than you could on your own. How? By removing all your low value tasks, acting as your perfect memory, and providing highly relevant recommendations to impact your performance. Learn more about the power of Atlas – and take advantage of the exclusive offer for The RAG listeners – by visiting https://recruitwithatlas.com/therag/ __________________________________________Episode...
I In this episode of Education Newscast, Christoph Haffner interviews Sven Denecken and Jan Musil, authors of the book "SAP Activate: Project Management for SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA." They discuss the book's basic concepts, emphasize the importance of project management strategies for SAP implementation projects, and share their experiences in applying the SAP Activate methodology. They highlight the value of structured approaches for effective SAP project management and explain why they chose to publish a physical book in a digital age, noting the potential for deeper engagement with complex topics. Christoph explores SAP Activate, described as a comprehensive guide for structuring projects and leveraging SAP's pre-configuration content, including its agile project execution. The book's structure incorporates comprehensive methodologies, agile project frameworks, and considerations for cloud versus on-premise implementations. They discuss the critical role of change management throughout the S/4HANA project lifecycle, focusing on stakeholder involvement and continuous learning. They provide real-world examples of successfully applying agile methods in implementations. The episode concludes with a discussion on hybrid deployments, AI, and the "Golden Rules" for S/4HANA implementations, and finally, the authors reveal their own narratives on learning and their current explorations.
WBSRocks: Business Growth with ERP and Digital Transformation
Send us a textEnsuring near-zero downtime for Fortune 100 companies handling millions of transactions requires a strategic approach that blends high-availability architectures, real-time failover mechanisms, and robust disaster recovery planning. Navigating the intricate ecosystem of SAP S/4HANA—where interconnected systems drive mission-critical operations—demands a deep understanding of integration patterns, middleware, and cloud optimizations. While SAP S/4HANA offers powerful in-memory computing and streamlined processes, its ability to support high-volume environments often hinges on complementary solutions like hyperscaler infrastructure, advanced caching mechanisms, and custom performance tuning. Successfully migrating ECC workloads to S/4HANA means addressing these complexities head-on, ensuring that scalability, resilience, and minimal disruption remain at the core of the transition strategy.In this episode, Sam Gupta engages in a LinkedIn live session with Steele Arbeeny, with SNP, to provide insights into SAP S/4 HANA best practices for high-volume industries.Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.
In our latest episode, Craig is joined on the SUGTalks podcast by Uwe Grigoleit, Senior Vice President of the Customer Evolution Program at SAP.Together, they discuss how the Customer Evolution Program has evolved over the past two years and how it helps SAP customers transition to S/4HANA and the cloud. They also explore how SAP is leveraging AI to streamline transformations and what businesses can do today to future-proof their SAP investments.To learn more about the UKISUG referral scheme, visit: https://www.sapusers.org/community-referral-schemeTo learn more about SAP's Customer Evolution Program you can visit: https://support.sap.com/en/offerings-programs/programs/customer-evolution.html
In this episode from AWS re:Invent 2024, Jon Myer sits down with Christopher from EPI-USE Services for AWS to discuss the critical SAP ECC end-of-support deadline in 2027 and end-of-life in 2030. Learn about the challenges organizations face in migrating to S/4HANA, the complexity of cloud transitions, and why this isn't just another lift-and-shift project. Christopher shares invaluable insights on preparing for this major transformation and why starting early is crucial. Key Takeaways:
In this episode from AWS re:Invent 2024, Jon Myer sits down with Christopher from EPI-USE Services for AWS to discuss the critical SAP ECC end-of-support deadline in 2027 and end-of-life in 2030. Learn about the challenges organizations face in migrating to S/4HANA, the complexity of cloud transitions, and why this isn't just another lift-and-shift project. Christopher shares invaluable insights on preparing for this major transformation and why starting early is crucial. Key Takeaways:
SAP and Enterprise Trends Podcasts from Jon Reed (@jonerp) of diginomica.com
I was unable to get Josh Greenbaum and Brian Dennett together for an on-the-ground podcast at ASUG Tech Connect in November, but the show provoked important talks on RISE, clean core, and why SAP projects need enterprise architects. Those topics aren't going away, so we got together virtually to make sense of what we learned - and what's next. With looming ERP deadlines on the one hand, and modernization/AI on the other, it's a crucial year for SAP. The role of the S/4HANA public cloud edition is in the middle of this also. That's plenty for this discussion, which starts out on a humorous note as the cities and shows blurred together for your host. Note: there are more podcasts from this show, including an ASUG collaboration on Enterprise Architects coming soon - and my on the ground taping with Jelena Perfiljeva of the Boring Enterprise Nerds on SAP developer issues, clean core debates and more: https://jonerp.podbean.com/e/asug-tech-connect-review-jelena-perfiljeva-of-boring-enterprise-nerds/
I was unable to get Josh Greenbaum and Brian Dennett together for an on-the-ground podcast at ASUG Tech Connect in November, but the show provoked important talks on RISE, clean core, and why SAP projects need enterprise architects. Those topics aren't going away, so we got together virtually to make sense of what we learned - and what's next. With looming ERP deadlines on the one hand, and modernization/AI on the other, it's a crucial year for SAP. The role of the S/4HANA public cloud edition is in the middle of this also. That's plenty for this discussion, which starts out on a humorous note as the cities and shows blurred together for your host. Note: there are more podcasts from this show, including an ASUG collaboration on Enterprise Architects coming soon - and my on the ground taping with Jelena Perfiljeva of the Boring Enterprise Nerds on SAP developer issues, clean core debates and more: https://jonerp.podbean.com/e/asug-tech-connect-review-jelena-perfiljeva-of-boring-enterprise-nerds/
In our latest episode Craig is joined by Cliff Saran, Technology Editor at Computer Weekly, and Gerren Mayne, host of the SAPCHAT podcast, at UKISUG Connect 2024. Together, they give their takes from the conference keynotes, including greater collaboration with SAP, the challenges of migrating to S/4HANA, and the critical importance of clean data in an AI-driven future. To learn more about the UKISUG referral scheme, visit: https://www.sapusers.org/community-referral-scheme
Es ist vielleicht die nächste Stufe der KI-Nutzung: Claude beantwortet ab sofort nicht mehr nur Fragen, sondern erledigt auf Wunsch den Job gleich selbst und übernimmt die Steuerung meines Rechners. Außerdem: SAP hat einige schon versprochenen KI-Funktionen verfügbar gemacht. Und es lohnt sich ein Blick auf die SAP Lizenzen unter S/4HANA.
In this What's Next with Aki Anastasiou interview, Accenture's Aadil Jappie explains why retailer need to implement a powerful cloud ERP system. Jappie is the SAP Retail Capability Lead for Accenture Africa and is a seasoned IT executive with over 20 years of experience. He excels at building and maintaining strong relationships with clients and stakeholders, and has worked with retailers from across South Africa, the UK, and Europe. In this What's Next interview, Jappie explains why retailers must move to a cloud ERP system – focusing on SAP S/4HANA as an example. He then outlines how Accenture helps its clients overcome their biggest operational challenges when transitioning to S/4HANA, while ensuring they make the installation as cost-efficient as possible. Jappie shares the recent innovations he's seen in the retail ERP space, too, and explains how these new technologies help retailers stay a step ahead of their competitors. He concludes the interview by unpacking the trends he expects to emerge in the ERP cloud industry.
Esta semana hablo con Óscar Valor, Director TIC en Blumaq y responsable de la delegación de AUSAPE de Levante, razón por la cual tiene contacto con muchos clientes. En la charla hablamos sobre la perspectiva que se les plantea a los clientes en un futuro ante la migración a S/4HANA, algo que muchos de ellos no quieren ni lo necesitan. Muchas de las cosas os sonarán familiares, ya que probablemente muchos de vosotros os encontréis en tesituras parecidas. Como siempre, lo mejor es escucharlo...
In our latest senior leader interview, Craig is joined by Amanda Gardiner, Customer Advisory Manager, UK&I for S/4HANA & BTP at SAP.Amanda shares how she ended up working at SAP, the challenges of being a good leader and the importance of attracting more women to work within the sector. To learn more about the UKISUG referral scheme, visit: https://www.sapusers.org/community-referral-scheme
In dieser besonderen Episode trifft "Behind the C" auf "Change by Design"! Zu Gast ist Markus Schweikardt, der Leiter der globalen IT bei Dr. Oetker. Seit 26 Jahren im Unternehmen tätig, teilt Herr Schweikardt seine wertvollen Erfahrungen und Erfolgsfaktoren im C-Level. Er spricht über die drei entscheidenden Erfolgsfaktoren im Top-Management und stellt ein herausragendes Projekt vor, das sich über zwei Jahre erstreckte und mehr als 600 Kolleginnen und Kollegen aus 28 Ländern einbezog: Die Implementierung von SAP S/4Hana. Schweikardt beleuchtet, welchen Ansatz er für die Implementierung von SAP S/4Hana bevorzugt – den Greenfield- oder den Brownfield-Ansatz. Erfahren Sie, warum es essenziell ist, ein derartiges Projekt als Business- und nicht nur als IT-Projekt zu betrachten, und wie effektives People Management zum Erfolg beiträgt. Herr Schweikardt spricht über die Herausforderungen bei der Festlegung von Terminen, Budget und Scope sowie die Bedeutung eines starken Teams und einer effektiven Kommunikation. Hören Sie diese Episode für einen tiefgehenden Einblick in die erfolgreiche SAP S/4Hana Transformation bei Dr. Oetker. Dieses Interview ist ideal für alle, die sich für IT-Projektmanagement und die Zukunft der Unternehmens-IT interessieren. Themen: - C-Level - IT - Projektmanagement Über Atreus – A Heidrick & Struggles Company Atreus garantiert die perfekte Interim-Ressource (m/w/d) für Missionen, die nur eine einzige Option erlauben: nachhaltigen Erfolg! Unser globales Netzwerk aus erfahrenen Managern auf Zeit zählt weltweit zu den besten. In engem Schulterschluss mit den Atreus Direktoren setzen unsere Interim Manager vor Ort Kräfte frei, die Ihr Unternehmen zukunftssicher auf das nächste Level katapultieren. ▶️ Besuchen Sie unsere Website: https://www.atreus.de/ ▶️ Interim Management: https://www.atreus.de/kompetenzen/service/interim-management/ ▶️ Für Interim Manager: https://www.atreus.de/interim-manager/ ▶️ LinkedIn-Profil von Markus Schweikardt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markus-schweikardt-517482114/ ▶️ Profil von Franz Kubbillum: https://www.atreus.de/team/franz-kubbillum/
SAP and Enterprise Trends Podcasts from Jon Reed (@jonerp) of diginomica.com
On the final afternoon of SAP Sapphire, Jon sat down with Brian Dennett for a sleep deprivation show review. Brian's SAP adventures have landed him with a partner that is expert on RISE and BTP, so it was the perfect time to dig into the pros and cons of RISE, where the value lies, and whether "clean core" is a crucial concept for SAP customers - or a marketing/commercial catch phrase. Also: what is the "BTP economy," and why should customers cast a wide net when it comes to their implementation partner moving forward? Jon also shares some of his customer feedback and surprises: including customer advocacy of the S/4HANA public cloud edition. We wrap with a brief chat about cynicism versus open-minded curiosity in the role of market analysis.
On the final afternoon of SAP Sapphire, Jon sat down with Brian Dennett for a sleep deprivation show review. Brian's SAP adventures have landed him with a partner that is expert on RISE and BTP, so it was the perfect time to dig into the pros and cons of RISE, where the value lies, and whether "clean core" is a crucial concept for SAP customers - or a marketing/commercial catch phrase. Also: what is the "BTP economy," and why should customers cast a wide net when it comes to their implementation partner moving forward? Jon also shares some of his customer feedback and surprises: including customer advocacy of the S/4HANA public cloud edition. We wrap with a brief chat about cynicism versus open-minded curiosity in the role of market analysis.
Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/555 Unlock the potential of a powerful tech alliance as we sit down with James Wood, the SAP virtuoso and CEO of Bowdark Consulting, who takes us through his personal voyage from the world of SAP to the innovative horizon of Microsoft Power Platform. Prepare to be enlightened by James's seasoned perspective on the strategic embrace of cloud-based systems, the significance of OData as a lingua franca for data exchange, and the transformative concept of a "clean core" in enhancing business agility. This episode isn't merely a discussion; it's a map to guide decision-makers and IT professionals through the intricacies of marrying the robustness of SAP with the flexibility of Power Platform.Navigating the complexities of integration is no mean feat, but with James's guidance, we confront the often intimidating landscape of SAP licensing audits and dispel common myths. This candid conversation peels back the layers of integration challenges, highlighting the criticality of SAP and Microsoft administrators working in concert to achieve seamless synergy. We'll also scrutinize the effects of multiplexing rules within an API-centric world and consider the evolving nature of SAP connectors. Insightful for SAP architects and IT experts alike, this chapter is your compass to balancing protocols and capitalizing on the fruits of integration.Our final exploration with James offers a deep dive into the pragmatic solutions for integrating SAP with Power Platform—where RFCs, BAPIs, and security protocols all come into play. The comparison between Microsoft's On-Premises Data Gateway and SAP's Cloud Connector serves as a beacon for IT veterans to navigate this new terrain. We also spotlight the bespoke connection framework tailored to fuse the best of Power Platform with SAP. For business leaders and IT teams facing the S4 HANA migration or seeking to mitigate IT backlogs through low-code platforms, this segment is a wellspring of invaluable insights and strategies.AgileXRM AgileXRm - The integrated BPM for Microsoft Power PlatformSupport the Show.If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening
In this episode of the Innovation Today Podcast, Spencer Beemiller from ServiceNow interviews Richard Motteram, Chief Digital Officer at Eviden, about ERP modernization. Richard discusses integrating modern SaaS platforms like ServiceNow with legacy ERP systems, highlighting the urgency due to SAP's 2027 S/4HANA migration mandate. He shares a case study on automating a payment remittance process using ServiceNow, resulting in significant time and cost savings. Richard emphasizes AI's role and suggests organizations conduct candidate assessments to optimize processes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode of the Innovation Today Podcast, Spencer Bemiller from ServiceNow interviews Abhi Joshi, Senior VP at NTT Data Services, about ERP modernization. Abhi discusses challenges with transitioning to SAP's S/4HANA, such as high costs and project timelines. He emphasizes using technologies like ServiceNow to streamline processes and enhance automation, sharing a case study from the medical devices sector. Abhi envisions enterprise-wide automation leveraging advanced technologies for digital transformation and improved customer experiences.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On this episode of Transform Talks, I am joined by Brigitte Michaud, the Senior Vice President of Business Transformation at Stada Group. Brigitte has a strong track record of designing and executing high-degree transformations in the end-to-end supply chain ecosystem. In this episode we discuss: How to identify and overcome potential pitfalls during your supply chain transformation. Key tactics for effective communication with leadership and creative approaches to change management structure. How to empower your team and leverage new tools like S/4HANA for real-time insights. …and much more. Listen to the full episode now and discover how to transform your supply chain by adopting a people-centric approach, while also utilising new and emerging tools and technologies as part of your transformation journey. Make sure to like and subscribe to Transform Talks to never miss the supply chain conversations that matter. ↓ FIND OUT ABOUT TFEST24 IN EUROPE ↓ The destination for supply chain transformation. Find out who else is attending below: https://lp.futureinsights.org/tfest24-homepage ↓ FOLLOW US ON LINKEDIN ↓ Maria Villablanca (Host) https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariavillablanca/ Transform Talks https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/transform-talks/ ↓ FIND US ONLINE ↓ https://futureinsights.org/ https://futureinsights.org/transform-talks/ Get more on-demand supply chain content https://sctvplus.com/pages/sctv-individual
In this week's episode, I speak with Mitch Ottoson from Third Stage Consulting Group, to discuss a client that has recently canceled their S/4HANA implementation. We unpack the reasons leading up to the decision, the failure points and some of the lessons learned. We will also touch on Joule AI in the public cloud edition of S/4HANA. CONTACT MY TEAM AND I: https://www.thirdstage-consulting.com/contact-us/ FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: contact@majortom-productions.com
Michael Lemashov, a seasoned SAP expert and Head of SAP Business Platform at JDC Group, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Bringing over two decades of experience in various SAP roles, Michael's insights illuminate the path for businesses navigating the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Our discussion takes a deep dive into the significance of 2027 for SAP ECC customers, marking a critical deadline for migration to S/4HANA or extending maintenance. Michael will explore the nuances of this deadline and its far-reaching implications for enterprises around the globe. He also tackles the typical challenges encountered in cloud migration, such as the lack of a clear strategy and the increased complexity of IT landscapes, which collectively contribute to the difficulties organizations face in this transition. A focal point of our conversation will be SAP Clean Core, a methodology designed to enhance flexibility and stability by reducing technical debt before cloud migrations. Michael will elaborate on how this approach, governed by four fundamental principles, is instrumental in preparing enterprises for a smoother transition to the cloud. We will also venture into a comprehensive overview of SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), where Michael will detail its suite of tools that amalgamate data, analytics, AI, automation, and more. He'll underscore how SAP BTP's integrated features can expedite innovation and streamline business processes, marking a significant leap in enterprise technology capabilities. Moreover, the role of JDC Group in this transformative era forms an essential part of our dialogue. Michael will discuss how JDC Group's BTP Development Services are aiding clients in navigating the complexities of cloud migration. He will shed light on their approach to reducing technical debt, making effective customization decisions, and guiding innovation initiatives, all while ensuring a seamless transition to the cloud.
In episode 2023 of our SAP on Azure video podcast we look back at 2023. And like in the previous 3 years again have Jürgen Thomas with us to revisit some of the highlight from 2023 -- and it is not only all about AI. Find all the links mentioned here: https://www.saponazurepodcast.de/episode173 Reach out to us for any feedback / questions: * Robert Boban: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rboban/ * Goran Condric: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gorancondric/ * Holger Bruchelt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holger-bruchelt/ #Microsoft #SAP #Azure #SAPonAzure #LookingBack #2023 ## Summary created by AI * SAP on Azure podcast: Holger, Robert, Goran and Juergen celebrated the success of the podcast and its 6000 subscribers. They also welcomed Juergen as a recurring guest. * Azure improvements in 2023: Juergen shared some of the highlights and challenges of Azure in 2023, such as the outages, the Mv3 series, the live migration, the premium storage v2, the automated test framework and the Azure Center for SAP Solutions. * SAP workload and integration: Juergen emphasized the importance of testing and optimizing the SAP workload on Azure, especially for S/4HANA and HANA. He also mentioned the need to support the integration of SAP with other Azure services and tools, such as AI, Teams, Sentinel and backup. * Outlook for 2024: Juergen expressed his excitement and optimism for the next year, where he expects more customer feedback, new scenarios, new technologies and new architectures. He also reminded the audience of the looming deadline for S/4HANA migration in 2027.
SAP and Enterprise Trends Podcasts from Jon Reed (@jonerp) of diginomica.com
Sometimes, discussions go off the rails - in the best way possible. Earlier this fall, independent analyst Josh Greenbaum and ASUG CEO Geoff Scott joined Jon Reed to try to make sense of shift's in SAP's innovation/AI strategy - and the messaging around it. In this in-depth return, things get a bit heated. We start off with a catch up from the last talk - and what we learned from events such as ASUG Tech Connect about SAP customer priorities - as SAP tech leaders contend with S/4HANA deadlines, AI confusion/opportunities, economic headwinds and more. The conversation shifts to a discussion of the future of SAP tech events, particularly in North America. Should/will SAP TechEd return to Vegas? Where does ASUG Tech Connect fit in? How will SAP tech pros upskill for AI, BTP etc? The final phase of the conversation, on SAP's innovation strategy, goes off the rails as Jon and Geoff take very different positions, and Josh finds himself in an unexpected role as mediator of sorts, and calmest voice in the room. Final note: the goal here was to surface a conversation that matters to SAP and its customers. All three of us agree that customers should own/claim their own innovation agenda - the questions center around how SAP should fit into that. No, we didn't resolve anything here, but did we find some common ground? We hope this debate gives customers motivation to press forward on their innovation strategy - and to engage in dialogue with SAP and user groups, be it ASUG or in other regions. Podcast timeline summary: 2:00 - ASUG Tech Connect and customer priorities, including AI and clean core 30:00 - The future of SAP tech events 45:00 - The SAP innovation debate II Prior September podcast discussion: https://jonerp.podbean.com/e/the-sap-innovation-debate-hashing-out-sap-s-rise-and-ai-plans-with-greenbaum-and-scott/
Sometimes, discussions go off the rails - in the best way possible. Earlier this fall, independent analyst Josh Greenbaum and ASUG CEO Geoff Scott joined Jon Reed to try to make sense of shift's in SAP's innovation/AI strategy - and the messaging around it. In this in-depth return, things get a bit heated. We start off with a catch up from the last talk - and what we learned from events such as ASUG Tech Connect about SAP customer priorities - as SAP tech leaders contend with S/4HANA deadlines, AI confusion/opportunities, economic headwinds and more. The conversation shifts to a discussion of the future of SAP tech events, particularly in North America. Should/will SAP TechEd return to Vegas? Where does ASUG Tech Connect fit in? How will SAP tech pros upskill for AI, BTP etc? The final phase of the conversation, on SAP's innovation strategy, goes off the rails as Jon and Geoff take very different positions, and Josh finds himself in an unexpected role as mediator of sorts, and calmest voice in the room. Final note: the goal here was to surface a conversation that matters to SAP and its customers. All three of us agree that customers should own/claim their own innovation agenda - the questions center around how SAP should fit into that. No, we didn't resolve anything here, but did we find some common ground? We hope this debate gives customers motivation to press forward on their innovation strategy - and to engage in dialogue with SAP and user groups, be it ASUG or in other regions. Podcast timeline summary: 2:00 - ASUG Tech Connect and customer priorities, including AI and clean core 30:00 - The future of SAP tech events 45:00 - The SAP innovation debate II Prior September podcast discussion: https://jonerp.podbean.com/e/the-sap-innovation-debate-hashing-out-sap-s-rise-and-ai-plans-with-greenbaum-and-scott/
In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Serrala's Rob Jackson, Principal Solutions Architect, and Jason Boyer, Jason Boyle, Chief Customer Success Officer at Neev, join host Keith Kirkpatrick Research Director, Enterprise Applications at The Futurum Group, to discuss the steps organizations should take to migrate their data to SAP's S/4HANA. The conversation focused specifically on developing a strategy based on whether a greenfield or brownfield migration is being conducted, the use of migration program checklists and data archiving strategies, and discussion on the available tools from Serrala to handle data archiving and migration.
In episode 170 of our SAP on Azure video podcast we talk about new capacity pools with Azure NetApp Files. Then we continue a discussion that we stared over a year ago -- the DMO for SAP. At that time we had a very cool session with Mathias Klein from SAP and Taka Hoshino from Microsoft on the new Database Migration Option for Azure. At that time we presented a whitepaper, that outlined the steps to simplify the conversion and make DMO to Azure happen. We also briefly talked about potential next steps and how all the prerequisite checks could be included in an automated process. Today we have Mathias back on our channel to provide us with the latest news on DMO to Azure. Find all the links mentioned here: https://www.saponazurepodcast.de/episode170 Reach out to us for any feedback / questions: * Robert Boban: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rboban/ * Goran Condric: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gorancondric/ * Holger Bruchelt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holger-bruchelt/ #Microsoft #SAP #Azure #SAPonAzure ## Summary created by AI Key Topics: * DMO to Azure update: Matthias Klein from SAP presented the latest news on the DMO to Azure procedure, which is now generally available and allows customers to migrate and convert their ERP systems to S4 HANA on Azure in one step. * Production ready deployment on Azure: Holger and Goran praised the work of the CAL team, which enables customers to deploy S4 HANA systems on Azure with high availability and best practices using the cloud appliance library. * Benefits of DMOVE 2 S4: Matthias explained the advantages of using the DMOVE 2 S4 option, which reduces the downtime, simplifies the process, and leverages the standard DMO features of the software update manager. * End-to-end demo: Matthias showed a video demo of how the DMOVE 2 S4 procedure works, starting from the maintenance planner, running the pre-checks, deploying the target system, installing the additional application server, and running the software update manager. * Next steps and resources: Matthias announced that he will publish a blog post with more details and links to the technical white paper, the production ready deployment guide, and the SAP help portal. He also invited customers to try out the procedure and provide feedback.
SAP and Enterprise Trends Podcasts from Jon Reed (@jonerp) of diginomica.com
On the last day of the first ASUG Tech Connect in New Orleans, Jon sat down with Josh Greenbaum to make sense of what just happened. What was on the agenda of the SAP tech leaders present? Was the show a success? If so - why? How did the interest in AI compare to the interest in S/4HANA? We discuss our own session with customers, what we learned in our pursuits - including Greenbaum's six week SAP show tour. Jon brings up the issue of the clean core, and Greenbaum shares why our talk with Juergen Mueller wound up in discussing new possibilities for RISE - as a process evaluation and landscape management solution. Would that fly? Greenbaum connects the Signavio and Cloud ALM dots, and we head out.
On the last day of the first ASUG Tech Connect in New Orleans, Jon sat down with Josh Greenbaum to make sense of what just happened. What was on the agenda of the SAP tech leaders present? Was the show a success? If so - why? How did the interest in AI compare to the interest in S/4HANA? We discuss our own session with customers, what we learned in our pursuits - including Greenbaum's six week SAP show tour. Jon brings up the issue of the clean core, and Greenbaum shares why our talk with Juergen Mueller wound up in discussing new possibilities for RISE - as a process evaluation and landscape management solution. Would that fly? Greenbaum connects the Signavio and Cloud ALM dots, and we head out.
Hablamos de SAP con Alessandro Sabidussi, que trabaja en SAP, formando parte de un equipo global que facilita a los partners el camino a la innovación, de la mano de S/4HANA Cloud. ¿Sólo cloud? No, ya veremos que hay otras opciones… y el por qué de ese empeño en que todo sea cloud. Revisamos conceptos como HANA, S/4HANA (cloud pública y privada, any premise/on-premise), RISE, GROW… y creo que pueden ser muy aclaratorias. No deja ninguna pregunta sin respuesta y en ningún momento se sale por la tangente, algo muy de agradecer, ya que sabemos que no siempre es así. Hablamos también de la importancia de la gestión del cambio y de que muchas veces nos empeñamos en que todo el mundo haga algo, cuando a lo mejor es suficiente con que lo haga sólo un pequeño porcentaje… y los demás vendrán detrás. Como siempre, lo mejor es escucharlo...
In episode 152 of our SAP on Azure video podcast we talk about AzAcSnap support for DB2 on Azure NetApp Files, Microsoft Azure Boost Preview, reCAP 2023 Videos, Microsoft Inspire, Microsoft Learn AI Skills Challenge, Public Preview of OData API type in Azure API Management and SAP Business One - A discussion with Rainer Zinow from SAP. Then Frank Jentsch and Martin Pankraz join us to talk about Steampunk, or the SAP Business Technology Platform ABAP Environment. About 4 years ago Harald Kuck, Head of ABAP Platform, published a blog post on Steampunk and since then it is used by lots of customers to build extensions using the ABAP Cloud model either via Embedded Steampunk directly on the S/4HANA system or via the Business Technology Platform. Find all the links mentioned here: https://www.saponazurepodcast.de/episode152 Reach out to us for any feedback / questions: * Robert Boban: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rboban/ * Goran Condric: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gorancondric/ * Holger Bruchelt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holger-bruchelt/ #Microsoft #SAP #Azure #SAPonAzure #ABAP #Steampunk
S/4HANA is a force multiplier: S/4HANA is part of the "next generation of ERP," meaning its intelligent, sustainable, and collaborative. The product is truly a "model A suite of applications," leveraging the best ERP systems have to offer. The company ensures the time-to-market for the product is quick, offers great value to users, and is an overall end-to-end product for customers.Industry-specific business networks: With the S/4HANA Cloud, SAP is able to go beyond helping individual companies adopt industry-specific solutions, and rather, extend these capabilities across entire industries. The notion of connectivity that is embedded in the product makes it a differentiator.Generative AI to enhance productivity: SAP systems are used for the most critical business decisions. When integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI into its products, SAP offers the highest level of trust, responsibility, and reliability in its outcomes.
Hablamos de SAP con Javier Mediavilla, responsable del grupo de trabajo de Sector Público en AUSAPE; un chico de Cantabria que se vino a estudiar a Madrid hace unos años y finalmente se ha quedado por aquí, vinculado al mundo universitario y, de rebote, a SAP. Hablamos de las ventajas y desventajas de un software a medida frente a un ERP, de cómo hay que ir adaptándose a las normas que van surgiendo, no siempre con el tiempo mínimo necesario para ponerlas en marcha… A la hora de hablar de la evolución de SAP, tiene la sensación de que la parte de Sector Público no va a la misma velocidad, a pesar de que en España está implantado en muchas administraciones y organismos. Tiene claro que no quieren ir a la nube, ni siquiera a S/4HANA, porque el producto que tienen es estable y, además, no les salen los números. Algo que, por lo que cuenta, no es un caso aislado entre los miembros del grupo de trabajo… por lo que esperan que SAP termine ofreciéndoles una opción en la que todos se sientan cómodos. Hablamos de la falta de talento y del poco atractivo de SAP para los jóvenes universitarios, a pesar de las distintas iniciativas que hay en marcha. Como siempre, lo mejor es escucharlo...
Hablamos de SAP con Philipp Nell, alguien a quien conocí personalmente en un evento hace unos años, aunque llevaba años siguiéndolo en redes. Desde entonces, nos hemos visto varias veces y puedo decir que estamos en la misma onda. Es decir, llevamos un tiempo con esto de SAP más que suficiente como para saber que no todo es cómo te lo cuentan, especialmente las primeras versiones, pero a su vez que no hay por qué desconfiar de todo… incluso, como él dice, esto de SAP puede llegar a ser divertido. Él comenzó su aventura en todo esto, en la sede central de SAP en Walldorf, de la mano de los ingenieros que desarrollaban el producto y desde entonces ha ido viendo la evolución de las distintas herramientas. Habla de la importancia de estar al tanto de las novedades que van saliendo y plantea una posibilidad interesante: intentar “revender” S/4HANA. Nos descubre cosas como que en HANA las cosas no van más rápido por sí solas… y nos aclara ciertos conceptos sobre términos como BW, BW/4, HANA, SAC, Datasphere… Como siempre, lo mejor es escucharlo...
Hablamos de SAP con Rafa Merlo, alguien a quien conozco desde hace años, con quien no he trabajado nunca directamente, aunque sí he ido siguiendo su trayectoria y hemos coincidido en algún evento o hemos compartido algún cliente. Tiene claro que las empresas tienen que evolucionar… pero tienen que querer. En su caso, habla con conocimiento de causa y con la tranquilidad de que en su empresa ya están en S/4HANA. Hablamos, cómo no, de la falta de gente y sale el tema de las nuevas generaciones, que tienen intereses, inquietudes y actitudes que a veces no son exactamente igual que los de sus “mayores”… Nos cuenta qué es eso de DevOps y cómo encaja esto dentro del mundo SAP. Salen términos como: Git, CI/CD, Kyma, Kubernetes, Docker… Tranquilos, hijos del ABAP, que os damos alguna pista para poneros al día. También sale un tema del que seguro que no habéis escuchado hablar en los últimos meses: Inteligencia Artificial y ChatGPT. Como siempre, lo mejor es escucharlo...
In episode 135 of our SAP on Azure video podcast we talk about Protecting your Rise and S/4HANA application layer with MS Sentinel today and the certified Microsoft Sentinel 1.0 connector for SAP, Microsoft Azure Applications for Neptune DXP, a new ebook on modernizing SAP on the Microsoft Cloud, updates to the SAP Collaborative ERP with Share to Microsoft Teams, and an upcoming reCAP event which will also look at Cosmos DB integration. Then we Robert will talk about a "refresh day" which should remind customers and partners to revisit their cloud implementations with SAP on Azure. The Microsoft Assessments, like the Azure Well-Architected assessment can be a good starting point for this. https://www.saponazurepodcast.de/episode135 Reach out to us for any feedback / questions: * Robert Boban: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rboban/ * Goran Condric: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gorancondric/ * Holger Bruchelt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holger-bruchelt/ #Microsoft #SAP #Azure #SAPonAzure
In episode 132 of our SAP on Azure video podcast we talk about how customers and partners can develop integration. Recently we had a great workshop with DSAG, the German Speaking SAP Usergroup, and 50 customers and partners. Based on an S/4HANA 2022 system we developed an integration using events in Microsoft Teams, showed how to load data in Excel, create a simple Bot and also build a small app in Microsoft Word to fetch data from SAP. Together with Karl Kessler and Harish Bokkasam from SAP and Martin Pankraz and Bart Delanghe from Microsoft, we take a closer look at the workshop and how you can do it on your own. https://www.saponazurepodcast.de/episode132 Reach out to us for any feedback / questions: * Robert Boban: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rboban/ * Goran Condric: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gorancondric/ * Holger Bruchelt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holger-bruchelt/ #Microsoft #SAP #Azure #SAPonAzure #Integration #Teams #Office #Excel
On this episode of Altitude, Woody looks into the challenges and opportunities that come with moving business-critical applications, like SAP S/4HANA, to the cloud with his guest, Luke Bockelmann, Principal Solutions Engineer at Aviatrix.The conversation discusses the "Innovator's Dilemma" and how traditional networking companies are too focused on competing in their own industry to find the resources or time to innovate in the cloud space. They dive into why SAP decided to innovate and move S/4HANA to the cloud and how this migration to the cloud impacts IT teams. Woody and Luke discuss requirements for cloud networking and infrastructure teams to build an optimal architecture and framework for SAP cloud migration.Altitude: The Unsung Heroes of Cloud Transformation is brought to you by Aviatrix. To learn more about how NASA, Toyota, Raytheon, and many more have succeeded in multicloud networking, visit aviatrix.com
Hoy hablo con Mario de Felipe, alguien a quien conocía de una charla que dio hace unos años en el SIT Barcelona y desde entonces le he ido siguiendo en redes. Es especialmente activo en LinkedIn, donde escribe unos artículos que no tienen desperdicio, analizando algunos de los aspectos más relevantes del mercado en ese momento, aportando su opinión particular, de una forma clara y fundamentada. Se define como padre de 3, obsesionado con el deporte y la nutrición, a lo que dedica 2 horas diarias y en el resto de las 22, hace otras cosas… entre ellas, trabajar. Mario empezó en SAP por voluntad propia, a diferencia de muchos de los que han pasado por aquí y parece que no le ha ido mal. Hablamos de cloud, del 2027, de RISE, de la dichosa transformación digital… y no sólo desde el punto de vista tecnológico, hablamos también de negocio. ¿Tengo que migrar a S/4HANA o me puedo quedar cómo estoy? ¿Qué opciones tengo a la hora de irme al cloud con SAP? ¿Puedo seguir on-premise? ¿Qué es eso de RISE? ¿Y qué pasa con mis licencias? Como siempre, lo mejor es escucharlo...
In this episode of Tech-Driven Business, Mustansir Saifuddin continues the conversation with Matt Florian of Comerit on how enterprises can leverage hybrid cloud data warehouse solutions. Matt shares the value of hybrid solutions, how to approach creating a hybrid solution, and lessons he's learned along the way. His key takeaway: focus on flexibility and resiliency in your data architecture so you can create data products that can answer multiple questions. Matt has more than 25 years of leadership in data and enterprise architecture in numerous industries. He has successfully delivered enterprise data transformation projects for government, telecommunication, retail, manufacturing, and financial services sectors. Matt began consulting focusing on data warehousing in telecommunication for national providers. Over the course of his career has consulted for Oracle, IBM, and Unisys across many industries. His leadership, experience, and clarity of technical topics earned him the trust of client executive leadership. Matt's talent to develop and lead teams is the key to his successful delivery of projects for clients. Connect with Us: LinkedIn: Matt Florian Mustansir Saifuddin Innovative Solution Partners Twitter: @Mmsaifuddin YouTube or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation. Episode Transcript [00:00:03.010] - Mustansir Saifuddin Welcome to Tech-Driven Business. Brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. In this second episode of a multipart series, I welcome back Matt Florian of Comerit. Listen in as Matt and I discuss the value of hybrid cloud data warehouse solutions, including how to approach creating one, and lessons learned along the way. It's more than about just getting it in place. [00:00:35.510] - Mustansir Saifuddin Hello, Matt. Welcome to Tech-Driven Business. How are you, man? [00:00:39.130] - Matt Florian I'm doing very well Mustansir. How are you, sir? [00:00:42.860] - Mustansir Saifuddin Another beautiful day. Hey, thank you for our first conversation when we started off this whole cloud data warehouse topic, and I'd like to continue our discussion on this topic. And I think one area that I feel a lot of conversations are happening is the hybrid environment. So I thought we should talk about that in today's session and wanted to get your take on that. [00:01:15.190] - Matt Florian Oh, absolutely. It's a very common conversation that goes on with clients nowadays and trying to figure out what is it that they really want to go do and how much risk they want to carry on it. You'll hear hybrid pop up there every time. So I think one of the biggest problems they have is what the heck does hybrid need? [00:01:34.090] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, I hear you, and I think this will be really helpful, especially with your experience. And when you look at across the board, doesn't matter what industry you're in, it seems like customers are not ready to make that jump. Right. They are looking at ways to either extend their environments into a way that they can sustain in the short term and then plan for the long term. [00:02:01.710] - Matt Florian Right. [00:02:01.930] - Mustansir Saifuddin So this conversation would be very beneficial. [00:02:05.820] - Matt Florian I completely agree. [00:02:08.890] - Mustansir Saifuddin All right, so let's start with this. Let's start with a very basic thing. I think I would like to have my listeners get an understanding of when we talk about hybrid. What do you really mean and why hybrid? I think those two questions I like to start with. [00:02:24.580] - Matt Florian Sure. You think of hybrid. Hybrid's about taking two options that are very similar to each other. They have overlapping functionality and saying. [00:02:40.720] - Matt Florian I want the safety and security of what I've been doing, but I want to start dabbling into another way to do it. And we see that a lot with SAP customers who have a lot of security inside of being inside of BW, and then maybe they want to dabble over into cloud computing with Snowflake. And how do you do that? There's different ways that looks at you. Same thing we said, like the security of SAC, but maybe I want to use Power Bi or Sigma or something like that and balance it out, but don't extend their risk and just jump and go do it. So SAP customers don't tend to be risk heavy. They like to avert it as much as possible. [00:03:32.590] - Mustansir Saifuddin Absolutely. And that makes sense, right? Especially when you have big landscapes and you want to manage your environment, what's the best way to do it? Right? So I guess I heard two things right, and I'm talking about benefits. It seems like you want to avoid risk as much as possible. At the same time try out new technology. Are there any other benefits that you see from your viewpoint when you take a hybrid approach? [00:04:01.310] - Matt Florian So the hybrid is a benefit to using hybrid is that you get to focus on a particular use case that is of value and benefit to you. And I often see customers go down that hybrid because they want to go and have more flexibility to blend SAP data with other third party data and do it just easier. And so they'll go down this hybrid approach because, well, let's face it, BW does a lot of analytics well and don't break what's really working well for you. On the other hand, wanting to know your organic growth against other metrics that come from Salesforce or other CRMs or from Google Analytics, that's a whole other dimension. And that's hybrid really can help bridge that and be able to answer some questions that SAP doesn't answer easily. [00:05:04.990] - Mustansir Saifuddin Absolutely, I think so. You use the SAP reference over here, right? So I guess I'll come from that angle now. So I'm an SAP customer. Why would I want to think about a hybrid solution? And I believe you kind of dabbled into the answer, but give some examples that you can think of where an SAP customer would like to go the route of hybrid. [00:05:31.390] - Matt Florian So a couple of immediate use cases where hybrid can come into play and really help out is let's go with archiving and being able to look at archived data along with live data. Archiving into a cloud database is one option for archiving either a system that you've migrated off and you did a brownfield implementation. So you have historical data sitting in one place and all your new data building up in another. S/4HANA sitting over here, and you want to bring that together. Well, hybrid is a good option for bringing and looking at historical data along with your current transactions. So that's one area that you may want to go and dabble in. Another good use case is that you really want to implement machine learning and AI, and you want to watch streams of data and you want to train data models for machine learning. Well, that's a hybrid approach gives just a wide open ecosystem of tools that you can use for machine learning and AI, and it would really be beneficial. Again, just easier, for sure. [00:06:57.240] - Mustansir Saifuddin No, I like your examples. I think kind of puts things in perspective, right? I mean, especially like I said, if things are working, you don't want to break it. At the same time, how can I bring in new ideas, new technology, or new approaches to make my environment easier to maintain and maybe more future proof as far as where I want to go in the long run, right? [00:07:20.060] - Matt Florian Right. Absolutely. [00:07:23.360] - Mustansir Saifuddin That's great. So I think let's talk about when we are on that journey, especially folks who are maybe just starting or like to go this direction when we look at from a good practices point of view. Do you have any suggestions or ideas as far as timelines for keeping the hybrid environment? [00:07:48.860] - Matt Florian For keeping or building? What does it take to do? Is that what you're thinking? [00:07:55.610] - Mustansir Saifuddin So I'm thinking two ways, right. One, is a lot of times the question come up, right? If I want to go the hybrid route, what is the best way to do it? Do I have a strategy? Timline strategy like I'm going to sunset the system in a certain time frame versus going maybe a one shot approach. I'm going to shut down this existing environment and then move completely into cloud. But I feel like hybrid is becoming a lot more common practice these days. So what would be a good timeline as far as a use case that we can apply in this situation? [00:08:40.290] - Matt Florian Sure. So we'll go back to that migrating to S/4HANA as an example. If you're going to migrate to S/4HANA and you are going to go with a brownfield or even greenfield strategy on migrating over to that from a homegrown point of sale system to different ERP coming in, whatever it is. That's a great time to go and make that decision of, I'm going to do this hybrid and start the work even before your migration for your S/4HANA and start bringing that information in and building a common, unified model. That would be the place to start. A lot of companies begin that work way too late, and they're trying to play catch up and they want to have unified data at day one, but they don't because they didn't put in that work early enough to say, how am I going to unify my data? And there are strategies to do it, but you need to think it from the very beginning so that you have a solid strategy to make it happen. The other approach is if you're, let's say, you're going to incrementally go and build out your hybrid. In that case, you start with a very high impact use case, something that a lot of people would go and jump on and want to use, and oftentimes it's going to be directly related to sales. [00:10:16.690] - Matt Florian That's something that's driving top line growth and wanting to tie that to other third party. Start with a very foundational use case that you can build from and then build the processes out around that. That just builds. It just naturally grows from there. [00:10:38.810] - Mustansir Saifuddin For sure. You kind of touched upon two topics over here, and I like to jump a little bit deeper into this one idea that you just shared. Like, when I'm going the hybrid route, what should be the focus from an implementation perspective, when you go in the hybrid approach, what are some of the things that you should keep in mind? [00:11:08.210] - Matt Florian Well, you should keep in mind first what's your point of reference is going to be in that hybrid. By point of reference, the hybrid system needs to have something to anchor itself to. For instance, if you're going in and you're going to build out again, I'm going to go back to the SAP. If you're building S/4HANA out, your point of reference is that S/4HANA model and then blending processes into that S/4HANA model. So S/4HANA becomes that anchor, and then you're building out a hybrid model that is SAP plus Salesforce, SAP plus HubSpot plus Google Analytics plus Legacy. But that's your foundation. If you can keep yourself focused on a foundation topic, then you'll be successful. If you go in without that focus, then the lack of clarity creates easily, will create chaos in your hybrid, and then you'll have a high risk of your perception of failure because it didn't answer the set of questions. [00:12:29.510] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, I think that's an interesting insight, what you just shared. Because I think it seems like in order for you to keep your hybrid environment, I'm looking at how to be successful in this approach. [00:12:47.140] - Mustansir Saifuddin It seems like if you anchor yourself with a certain system as a starting point, it allows you or it gives you the flexibility to build it out versus going it all out and try to do too many things at the same time will set you up for failure. That's how I'm reading into that. [00:13:05.650] - Matt Florian It will. If you build out based upon your process areas of the business, and you build out the models from that and connect them, then you have a hybrid environment that is able to answer a whole breadth of questions because they're tied. There's a logical story being told by the data. If you don't have that focus, then the data can't tell a story. And you want that data to tell a story. And all of it has story, and some of that story is from archives, from prior implementations. But it has a story to tell. And in order to do that, you have to give it context and focus. And that's why you need to start this way. You need to keep that something to ground it. [00:13:58.860] - Mustansir Saifuddin I think, for sure. And I think one of the things, one of the takeaways that I see from this conversation is the fact that a lot of customers may have, depending on the industry, you may have a different set of challenges where you want to use this approach. There are certain things that are working in your current environment. You want to keep that as is. But there are other things that you want to bring in multiple data sets. And you take this approach of going to Snowflake using this multiple data set approach. But having an anchor system in the middle try to leverage that as a starting point. Right? [00:14:37.210] - Matt Florian Yeah. Because really your anchor is if you think about it another way, your anchor is your process. What is your process today? And that is your anchor. The process is supported by a system of some sort, whatever it may be, but the process is the anchor. And using that as the point lets you go and have your insights and understanding about what it is that you're attempting to achieve. [00:15:08.140] - Mustansir Saifuddin That kind of takes me to this question which I always ask as one key takeaway. Right. And today's conversation is in a way fairly broad, but I like to keep it controlled and in a way that makes sense for someone who is looking this route. So what would be the one thing that you would share with them as far as if they are thinking of hybrid or they're already on a journey to hybrid? What are some of the key takeaways that you want them to leave the session? [00:15:41.140] - Matt Florian If you're thinking about go to hybrid and working that way, it's not going to be just focused on what that process is, but architecturally from a data perspective is that think of that hybrid in the approach of creating data products that can answer many questions. Don't try to just answer one. Build an architecture that lets you use that hybrid data as Lego blocks to build and answer other questions. Because if you try to just focus on answering a question, then you're losing other valuable insights that you can gather by blending more data. That's what your hybrid is going to do. You're going to blend data together and you have to architect with intent so that you can answer more questions and have flexibility. [00:16:39.860] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, I like your way of thinking, especially when you are looking at the future state. A lot of times folks want to take a narrow approach of getting things done, but that may not be the right answer, right. [00:16:54.790] - Matt Florian It's not just about getting it done. It's about architecting for the future and for your resiliency. And there are many models, many approaches, methodologies that let you architect for resiliency. And when you go down this path, that should be a guiding principle of what that hybrid is built off of, is modeled and architected for that resiliency so that you can answer many questions and be more agile in your answering your questions to the business and respond to changing economic and market conditions. [00:17:35.660] - Mustansir Saifuddin Great, thank you. This is really helpful. [00:17:43.910] - Mustansir Saifuddin Thanks for listening to Tech-Driven Business brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. Matt shared some valuable information on hybrid cloud data warehouse solutions. His main takeaway: focus on a data architecture perspective so your data can tell a story and answer multiple questions. It's not about just getting it done. We would love to hear from you. Continue the conversation by connecting with me on LinkedIn or Twitter. Learn more about Innovative Solution Partners and schedule a free consultation by visiting isolutionpartners.com. Never miss a podcast by subscribing to our YouTube channel. Information is in the show notes.
In this next episode of Tech-Driven Business, Mustansir Saifuddin continues the conversation with Hau Ngo of Summerlin Analytics to discuss what enterprises should consider when choosing a tool like SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). They cover everything from system landscape, data sources, visuals, security, and cost considerations. His key takeaway: look at how an analytics tool fits into your business, timeline, and total cost of ownership. Hau is an SAP Analytics Architect and an early adopter of SAP Analytics Cloud. In 2017, he helped a technology company in California consolidate global sales reporting across 7 different ERP systems. This effort culminated in one executive dashboard that displayed real-time information, eliminating weeks of manual coordination and data wrangling. Subsequently, Hau has presented his work at conferences such as SAPPHIRE 2019 in Orlando Florida, and has gone onward to help additional customers streamline their reporting processes and visualize the key company metrics. His experience with SAP Analytics Cloud extends to customers with various systems such as SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, BW/4HANA, and S/4HANA. Connect with Us: LinkedIn: Hau Ngo, Mustansir Saifuddin, Innovative Solution Partners Twitter: @Mmsaifuddin YouTube or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation. Episode Transcript [00:00:05.170] - Mustansir Saifuddin Welcome to Tech-Driven Business. Brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. In this episode, I welcome back Hau Ngo of Summerlin Analytics. Listen in as he shares key points to consider when choosing an analytics tool like SAP Analytics Cloud or SAC. [00:00:27.750] - Mustansir Saifuddin Hello, how are you, man? [00:00:29.530] - Hau Ngo I'm doing well, Mustansir how are you doing? [00:00:32.610] - Mustansir Saifuddin Doing well. Welcome to Tech-Driven Business again. [00:00:36.030] - Hau Ngo I'm good to be here. Thanks for having me. [00:00:38.470] - Mustansir Saifuddin Awesome. Hey, so I know we've been kind of talking about different topics so far, and today I would like to kind of zoom in into this very important point where a lot of customers, when we talk about considering SAC as their cloud analytics tool of choice. What are some of the considerations they should take into account? That's how I'm thinking we can dig a little bit deeper, at least from a cloud analytics point of view. [00:01:11.490] - Hau Ngo Yeah. So it really depends on what their system landscape looks like, if they have the legacy ECC or S/4, or maybe they have a BW or HANA Data Warehouse. So all those decisions sort of come into play. And I don't think a lot of customers are aware that SAC Analytics Cloud as a tool has different functionality depending on what you have on the back- end. So we can talk about that in this episode. [00:01:43.230] - Mustansir Saifuddin Absolutely. And I think that kind of is a good segue to what I was alluding to earlier. When we talk system landscapes, it means a lot of different things depending on who you're asking. In this example, I'll use the system landscape, especially from a data source point of view. Especially when we're talking about creating models in SAC and those visuals, how does that come into play when you're dealing with, let's say, for example, an ECC source system or an S/4 for that matter, or compared to a non-SAP source, what are some of the things that you should take into account when creating your SAC models? [00:02:30.070] - Hau Ngo Oh, sure. So one thing SAP does really well is they market their tool in terms of features and benefits and everything you can do from a Dashboarding perspective. I think the inherent problem, though, is SAP has such a large product matrix that it's hard to say, does this feature work here versus another one? So if you're using the legacy ECC as a source, there's really nothing you can do in terms of getting around it. You have to have some sort of data warehouse because SAP Analytics Cloud works best with a proper data warehouse. But if you happen to have an S/4 system, you can connect your dashboarding tool directly to S/4. And I was going to say on my first project in late 2017-2018, the integration between the front-end Analytics Cloud and all the back-end system weren't fully fleshed out or developed at that time. But if you were to fast forward to today, you're almost looking at feature parity for all the different systems. Before, it used to be that we have to import the data into the tenant, into the cloud tenant first, to have everything in terms of all the functionality, all the utility of the tool. [00:03:46.820] - Hau Ngo But now a lot of that feature set is rolled out to BW, to the HANA data warehouse, of course, data warehouse, cloud, and now even S/4. So there are differences now, but they're getting much less and smaller between the different systems. [00:04:04.770] - Mustansir Saifuddin That's good to know, because especially you see, a lot of customers have a mixed bag of systems and depending on whatever source system they are using, it seems like the tool itself is capable of consuming that data, right. In a way that is, from a user standpoint, it doesn't really matter what is the source, it's just the visuals. And the tool itself can mask that from them, right? [00:04:34.680] - Hau Ngo Yes, absolutely. And then I think in certain cases, I think my current client now we're exploring even a use case, a dual use case where some reports come from their BW system that we're initiating, and then a different set of reports come from S/4. But the UI, the interface is still SAC, so to the user is transparent, but depending on the use case, it could come from a data warehouse or their transactional system. [00:05:03.690] - Mustansir Saifuddin Right. And I think that kind of brings up this point. Right? The lines are getting blurry when it comes to the data itself. Right. It is real time information versus data stored in a warehouse and being consumed based on whatever frequency is getting updated, right? [00:05:22.310] - Hau Ngo Yep, absolutely. [00:05:24.810] - Mustansir Saifuddin So, talking about tips, right? Can you share some ideas or tips that when it comes to using different visuals in SAC, are there any best practices or any ideas that you like to share? [00:05:43.410] - Hau Ngo Oh, sure. So the cloud itself, the tool itself, Analytics Cloud, has a number of different chart visualizations and they're categorized primarily by function. For example, you have a group of bar charts for comparisons. If you want to see trends, there are a set of line graphs, and then there's pie graphs and tree maps for distribution. So you have a good number of chart types to choose from, depending on what you wish to communicate with. That being said, the three that I've seen the most on my last ten projects has been bar, number one, numeric, the large numbers, the aggregation as number two, and tables as number three. And what I found early on, when I try to experiment with all the different chart types, it tends to confuse people if they're not statisticians. Right. You can't just throw a scatter plot and assume people know what that means. So what I find is most people tend to stick to those three bar numeric and table as the three most common chart types. If you stick with that and start from there, you should be in good shape. [00:06:57.150] - Mustansir Saifuddin That's a good tip. I mean, keep it simple. It seems like the more simple you keep, the better usability you get out of that, right? [00:07:05.940] - Hau Ngo Absolutely. And a lot of these folks, they do generate their existing dashboard from Excel. And if you were to look and use the existing dashboard from the managerial report deck, they almost typically use those three chart types. [00:07:23.270] - Mustansir Saifuddin I think one of the things that I'm looking at from a prerequisite point of view, talking about, what are some of the prerequisites required for a client. When they're using SAC as a self service tool? Because it's almost like a parallel, right. Things that are done currently in Excel, especially when you're doing some kind of manager or reporting that you want to customize in Excel and you want to take those skills into SAC. So what are some of the things that they should have in place from a prerequisite standpoint if they want to use this as a self service tool? [00:08:04.000] - Hau Ngo Oh, sure. So I think that may be a two part answer. From a personnel or staffing perspective, I would suggest that our audience consider finding someone, whether they be internal or external, who is excited about dashboards and what this tool can do for the company. And I'm not talking about the technical features of the tool, but the way the tool itself can benefit someone's day to day chores or workload. And now imagine if you were a business analyst and you can tell your team that they don't have to open their laptop and log into SAP to see the numbers. And that would be cool, because if they got an email each morning with a full color PDF with all information they needed, that simplifies and cuts out that friction. Right. And for the field staff, if they could open up a phone or a small tablet and get the customer sales history before going to a sales meeting, that would be easier than what they're using now. And from a technical perspective, companies with an S/4 landscape should consider SAC as a reporting tool of choice. I'm working on a proof of concept where I'm embedding the SAC dashboards into the S/4 environment for a customer, and maybe we can talk about that on a future episode. [00:09:28.670] - Hau Ngo But if you have a BW or Hana data warehouse and you're deciding between SAC or another cloud based tool, then I would strongly suggest you consider SAC. And that's because you get tighter integration with live data connections and you don't really have to worry about the security. [00:09:48.550] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, for sure. And I think that kind of is a good segue into my next question, which is all about leveraging what you already have in place, right. So when you are dealing with an S/4 or data warehouse cloud source system, what are some of the quick wins when you want to leverage the security models the roles definition that you have in your source system, do you have some examples that you can share with us? [00:10:17.800] - Hau Ngo Oh, sure. So I would say the quickest wins you can do when you're going in and highlighting the features of a new tool is to eliminate the unnecessary things that you would have to do, which is building data model, model data validation, and setting up security. If you could connect your dashboard to existing data warehouse or S/4 system, you're halfway there. And the beauty of SAC in terms of integration is there is no security. You inherit the security profiles of your source system, whether it's BW Hana or S/4. And the front end tool with single sign on respects all of the privileges you set up versus another tool where you have to kind of maintain or even duplicate that setting. With SAC, you don't have to worry about it, single sign on takes care of all of that. [00:11:13.790] - Mustansir Saifuddin I think that can go a long way, right? I mean, I'm thinking from the ease of use as well as the ease of deployment. It seems like if I can leverage my source systems for my security and my roles that are already in place, it can make much easier for folks to kind of leverage that information. That mapping that is already in place. [00:11:40.450] - Hau Ngo Yeah, I would say it's an easier sell. And also long term, there's only one point of failure. There's no dual maintenance that someone has to maintain in different systems. So I think it's an easier path as well. In terms of the actual tool itself, you can have some limitation in terms of whether user is a content viewer where they can consume the information or if they're a power user. Right. But in terms of the actual line by line, row by row authorization, let that be taken care of centrally in either your data warehouse or your S/4 system. [00:12:18.830] - Mustansir Saifuddin Okay, that makes sense. Now, what are the opportunities? It seems like that's a good feature to have. Right. And that comes out of the box from SAC if you want to do any additional security in SAC because I know there are some planning functionalities as well as just pure reporting and dashboarding capabilities. Are there features available in SAC that allow you to further customize your securities or the role? [00:12:49.410] - Hau Ngo Yeah, sure. So for some customers, they have data sets that they upload, whether they're doing manual compiling of information or planning or something like that. You can still set up security inside analytics cloud from a team perspective. So you can define team roles where certain team members can see the financial information but other team members cannot. So there are some security functionality, but it's more around who can see what sensitive information that's maybe not in your systems, but in these confidential flat files. [00:13:29.990] - Mustansir Saifuddin That's good to know because I think your point earlier, right, when you talked about source systems, and especially when you're dealing with multiple source systems, it seems like it may be a better idea to have SAC drive some of the security of the role definitions. Right, because you have a mixed bag of information coming in to your models. [00:13:48.530] - Hau Ngo Yes, absolutely. [00:13:50.930] - Mustansir Saifuddin Good to know that. It's interesting when you look at this overall, we talk about everybody's looking at cloud analytics as the way to go and it's just so much simpler and the technology has advanced so much across the board. Right. It seems like the most logical choice for customers to move forward in the direction. Would you say so? [00:14:17.290] - Hau Ngo I would say so. I think what you're going to see moving forward is maybe not SAP specific, but more cloud based technology. Just because from a deployment perspective, the vendor only has to maintain one instance or one master copy of the tool. It's just so much easier to use than what I think we've had a struggle with in the past, where even though a lot of customers are doing similar things, we have to have our own installation on custom repository. Here I've noticed at least on the early days, SAP was rolling out features every two weeks and it was really hard to keep up. But now the products seem to have matured a lot more. So I think at this point we're going to focus more on usability versus features. [00:15:07.910] - Mustansir Saifuddin For sure. I know we covered a lot of different things in the session. Would you like to share any one key takeaway that our listeners can take it with them? [00:15:19.750] - Hau Ngo Oh, sure. So we talk about SAC quite often and some of the different considerations for implementing this tool. But overall there are other tools and if you consider implementation and tool selection in a broader perspective, I've been lucky to be in a few early conversations during the tool selection phase and most customers seem to struggle with either SAC or another cloud based tool such as Power BI or Tableau and deciding which one to use. And most of the time the conversation seems to be centered around features versus cost between these tools. And what I've seen in terms of outcome from a couple of these meetings with different companies is that the SAP centric customer tends to stay under the SAP umbrella due to the tighter integration and security benefits that we spoke about. And other customers with non SAP systems in the mix choose the other tools because they have similar features at a lower cost. But that cost saving is usually offset by higher development times. So that's just the cost of doing business when you're integrating different systems. But that's just something to think about. [00:16:42.830] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, and that's a good tip, right. And a good takeaway, especially when you have all these choices available to you. One thing that folks tend to leave behind is the fact that sometimes costs can be a factor in most cases, it is a factor. But what is the cost? Are you looking at the cost at this point in time, or are you looking at a future cost perspective? Especially when you're doing integration? Right. And this is all about maintaining your systems in the long run, right. So you have to keep that in mind. [00:17:18.090] - Hau Ngo Yes, absolutely. I think a lot of customers, they're very intelligent, but sometimes they get too focused on a certain thing and they get tunnel vision. But like you said, if you were to step back and look at the total cost of ownership of not only the tool, but maintenance, and will this be accepted? And which tool can actually be embraced by the business community? So those factors are taken into account. I would leave, I guess, the audience with one thing. People now are more impatient than they were in the past, because at the speed of things and their expectations have changed. Right. So app development, dashboard development, it's much faster. And if your tool can meet that demand from your customer base, then you're golden. The fact that you can whip up a dashboard in an hour or two is great, but if you're taking three months to get a lower cost tool up and running, that might be a deal breaker for your community, for sure. [00:18:20.070] - Mustansir Saifuddin And that's a great takeaway. I mean, it's something to keep in mind, especially when you're doing any cloud based analytics, right? What is the time to delivery that matters? Thank you so much, how. This has been a great session. Thanks for some of the insights into what things we should consider, especially when you're going with SAP analytics cloud as a tool of choice. So really appreciate your time and we'll look forward to meeting with you in the future. [00:18:47.940] - Hau Ngo Yes, absolutely. Have a good one, Mustansir. [00:18:50.930] - Mustansir Saifuddin You too. [00:18:55.770] - Mustansir Saifuddin Thanks for listening to Tech-Driven Business, brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. Hau has shared some key pointers for you to think about when choosing SAC. His main takeaway? Look at the bigger picture when choosing a tool. Be careful when being driven by cost. We would love to hear from you. Continue the conversation by connecting with me on LinkedIn or Twitter. Learn more about Innovative Solution Partners and schedule a free consultation by visiting Isolutionpartners.com. Never miss a podcast by subscribing to our YouTube channel. Information is in the show notes.
In this next episode of Tech-Driven Business, Mustansir Saifuddin continues the conversation with Hau Ngo of Summerlin Analytics to discuss how to approach data modeling and visualization when using SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). Hau first joined us for a 6-part series in 2021 to talk about SAC and what it means to enterprises as they move to the cloud. Hau and Mustansir share real-life tips on how to approach this depending on your team and company. Listen in for quick takeaways that you can put in to place today. As the tech industry moves to simpler tools, data modeling plays an even more important role. Hau is an SAP Analytics Architect and an early adopter of SAP Analytics Cloud. In 2017, he helped a technology company in California consolidate global sales reporting across 7 different ERP systems. This effort culminated in one executive dashboard that displayed real-time information, eliminating weeks of manual coordination and data wrangling. Subsequently, Hau has presented his work at conferences such as SAPPHIRE 2019 in Orlando Florida, and has gone onward to help additional customers streamline their reporting processes and visualize the key company metrics. His experience with SAP Analytics Cloud extends to customers with various systems such as SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, BW/4HANA, and S/4HANA. Connect with Us: LinkedIn: Hau Ngo Mustansir Saifuddin Innovative Solution Partners Twitter: @Mmsaifuddin YouTube or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation. Episode Transcript [00:00:06.010] - Mustansir Saifuddin Welcome to Tech-Driven Business. Brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. In this episode, I welcome back Hau Ngo of Summerlin Analytics listen in as he talks about the importance of balancing data modeling with visualization to get the most out of your investment in SAP analytics Cloud or SAC. [00:00:34.110] - Mustansir Saifuddin Hello Hau, how are you? [00:00:37.110] - Hau Ngo I'm doing well, Mustansir, how are you? [00:00:39.570] - Mustansir Saifuddin Hey, doing great, man. Welcome to Tech-Driven Business. Again, today we will talk about the balancing act they call it, especially when you talk about SAC. And you have so many different variables in terms of the data modeling part, the data visualization, and what is the right balance. That's what I want to talk about today. [00:01:06.070] - Hau Ngo Oh, sure, yeah. I think it gets a little bit tricky, I think now with this newer tool because you can do so much with it. Before we used to just do everything in either ABAP or BW and you just have like a table dump either in Excel or an LB grid. But now with SAC, you can still do a little bit of data modeling. You can define calculations so the lines are blurred, like where do you do which things? Right? And I think in terms of what I would suggest for a good data model in this new paradigm, I would try to have all your work done on the back end, meaning you would have all your calculations done in either S/4 or BW or Data Warehouse Cloud, and treat SAC as a read-only layer. So SAC as a reporting layer, just read what you've written and leave that. Now of course there's some give and take, some things are easier in SAC, but I think for the most part, make sure everything is done on the source system and you should be off to a good start. [00:02:13.930] - Mustansir Saifuddin Interesting. So what seems like a good data model in your example that you just shared? It's almost like do more of the heavy lifting on the back end, which can be either S/4 or Data Warehouse Cloud or any other system for that matter, as long as you can connect to SAC and then use SAC as almost like your reporting layer. But create your stories, but avoid more detailed calculations and modeling in SAC. [00:02:47.170] - Hau Ngo Yeah, exactly. Because if you start reading into the technical documentation, SAC explains the technology in this way. Each widget, each table that you see in your dashboard is a separate report or query call to the back end. So if you're doing a lot of heavy lifting on the front end, inside Analytics Cloud, it has to do that X times per widget. So we have nine or twelve there's nine or twelve separate calls. It's going to fetch a lot of data and then you're going to do a lot of calculations in your browser and that may slow it down. [00:03:27.770] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, that's for sure. I mean, the number of widgets does impact your so, I mean, when we talk about widgets, especially, I've seen some dashboards or stories that can go from a single pager to multiple pages. Is there a good definition of exactly how many visuals you can have or you should have just to make your dashboards more robust? [00:03:56.110] - Hau Ngo Oh, sure, yeah. If you're looking for like a really responsive, quick rendering type dashboard, something that the user can open and see the data right away. The approach I've been taking is if you can break up your stories into multiple pages, I think SAP still recommends having only six at most charts per page, which is kind of sparse, to be honest. I typically run between nine and twelve per page, but if you can render all of your stuff on different pages, you only have to load those widgets per navigation. So typically I build for directors and executives, and they almost always want to see an overview page, which is like one chart type from one page, another chart type for another page, and they want to see specific things on the overview, and as they go from page to page, they go into a more specific look or drill down into their data. But if you can break it up, it renders much faster. If you can stick with the simpler chart types, like bar charts, numeric, pie, anything that's not a table, you should be in good shape. [00:05:13.230] - Mustansir Saifuddin That makes sense. Yeah, especially those cards are very useful. As you mentioned, when you're working with the C-levels, the information can be readily available. It's easy to grasp what's being presented on the initial overview page. [00:05:27.230] - Hau Ngo Exactly. [00:05:28.290] - Mustansir Saifuddin So that kind of leads me to my next question. This is good because we always get this inquiry, especially when you're dealing with a source, especially when you have multiple source systems feeding into your SAC model. Right. What constitutes like, a model, especially when you're dealing with data warehouse and S/4, what would you prefer?Usually you see from your experience, do you see a blend of those data sources or do you see a single data source and then working with that on the SAC side? [00:06:16.520] - Hau Ngo Yeah, I would say typically when we first start off on a project, I see a blend and then it moves into a centralized data warehouse. And I say that because with SAC, you can get things up and running pretty quickly. So we can leverage this trick called in browser blending where you can say, I have data coming from multiple things. I want to them all mashed together on a dashboard. And if I were to select something like company code, that selection applies to all of the chart types regardless of the source of data. So to get those types of dashboards up and running quickly, to make sure that the information you're presenting is clear, understandable is what the user is looking for. That is a great starting point, but almost always you run into the data integration issue and that's almost always better done in a data warehouse because the tools are made for that. [00:07:13.310] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, that makes sense. Well, especially I'm just thinking of a scenario where you have a need to quickly bring something up, especially when you're dealing with executives and they want information on their fingertips, and you try to kind of get information directly from the source system versus a model based on a data warehouse, things can get a little tricky. [00:07:42.260] - Hau Ngo Yes. And with this tool, also, you get around that trick or that tricky scenario by showing these executives what you can do with the tool before committing three to six months into a lengthy implementation. They want to see what's possible upfront, and if they want to invest that fund towards that effort. [00:08:04.380] - Mustansir Saifuddin It's a great advice, actually. I like that. So what I'm hearing is you can do a quick show and tell and then see what the capabilities are and how the tool can interact with a transactional system versus a data warehouse. And then once things are the way it's supposed to be from a business standpoint, you can create a model behind the scenes. Right. To make it more the reusability seems to go up, correct? Is that my understanding? [00:08:37.110] - Hau Ngo Yeah, exactly. I consider this more like a high fidelity mock up where you're using production data. They're familiar with the figures, and you can get them most of the way there with business content. So regardless of which system that you have, the tools are there for you to kind of take apart and blend together in your browser with this tool. [00:09:00.410] - Mustansir Saifuddin For sure. Yeah. So let me ask you this. Based on your experience, I know you talked about you've done multiple SAC implementations in your experience. Anything that stuck out for you, like, any example that you would like to share with our listeners? [00:09:14.760] - Hau Ngo Yeah. So this is going to be, I would say, a tricky one to answer because I work with large teams where the project budget is $400 million, and then I work with small teams where it's just me plus the client, because newer companies are being formed now through divestiture where there's a larger firm, they spin off a smaller subdivision or subsidiary. And those folks, they know what they want. They're used to having information in a certain way, but they no longer have the staff or the team to deliver that. So I would say if you don't have a data warehouse, don't worry, you can use this tool. You can use other cloud based dashboard tool with your source data, whether it's ECC or S/4. But as you get more mature and as you consider purchasing a data warehouse, maybe you don't even need a large team for that either, because now SAP has another tool called Data Warehouse Cloud, which is a cloud based data warehousing tool that doesn't require the large upfront cost and the team to implement. [00:10:25.400] - Mustansir Saifuddin That interesting. Yeah. I think the way the industry is going depending on the size of the implementation and the requirements. Right. You can take multiple approaches and there's no right or wrong answer. It depends on what your requirements are at that point in time, right? [00:10:54.870] - Hau Ngo Yes, exactly. And it seems like now the tools are advancing that in a way that we can do more with less and we can get things done quicker than before. So it's pretty exciting. [00:11:08.430] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, for sure, I think. And that's the key piece, right? I mean, you can spin up a dashboard in a matter of days and hours versus weeks and months. That used to be the case in the past. [00:11:19.540] - Hau Ngo Yeah, exactly. [00:11:23.050] - Mustansir Saifuddin That's an interesting segue into this idea of like, folks talk about getting things quickly and that means that a lot of times a lot of projects want to bypass our data warehouse. Right. What are your thoughts on that? What would be your advice to them or the right way to do it? [00:11:47.290] - Hau Ngo Oh, sure. So if they're, I would say relatively small and nimble in terms of company size, you can create beautiful dashboards with S/4 data. You don't need a data warehouse if you happen to run S/4, so that there's a lot of business content there that you can leverage and extend. But if you are looking at a data warehouse, like I mentioned, data warehouse cloud is an option. But a lot of these cloud based tools, they seem to work better and they seem to work across different data sources as well. I would say just go ahead and give it a try. The takeaway here isn't so much the tool, it's trying to get the user buy in from your business. So I would focus more on that before really focusing on how do we do it, making sure if this is something that the users want to get done. [00:12:44.470] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, for sure. I think that is probably one of the key takeaways. I always ask this question because my listeners like to hear, especially when you're talking about these kind of insights. What is the one takeaway when you talk about the balancing act between data modeling and data visualization when it comes to SAC? [00:13:07.510] - Hau Ngo Oh, sure. I think in the past we used to have, I would call them clunkier tools like business objects or Lumira, where you need a dedicated resource or team of resources to maintain the server to do the development. What I've seen now is the transition to simpler tools, both the front end and the back end, the SAC visualization tool and the data warehousing tool that's coming out because they're so much easier to use. I would focus less on the reporting visualization need in SAC because you can get a dashboard out and running in an hour if everything is really clearly defined, so the effort is much less. Right. But the classic problem exists if you happen to be doing a lot of data transformation or merging data from different places, the data modeling efforts still remains, even though you can get it done quicker. The effort between visualization reporting versus back end modeling, the ratio is now leaning more on the back end. So before, if it's three to six months on the back end, maybe a month on the front end. Now it's more like a day at most on the front end, depending on how many revisions you want to go to. [00:14:38.760] - Hau Ngo But the data validation is still there on the back end. So I would focus more on hiring developers for the back end who knows what they're doing and are familiar with the process. More so on the back end than the front end. [00:14:52.450] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah. So I think it kind of leads up to that question about how do you architect your data? Right. In your source system? And what is that? The possibility of pulling the information in a way that it makes sense from whatever the business KPI that you're working on, correct? [00:15:09.250] - Hau Ngo Yes, absolutely. And you'll find, as you know, the time sync is validation and there's really nothing that you can do to get around that, depending on how many sources of data you're combining, transforming, and the complexity that is still there. [00:15:25.570] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, for sure. And that's probably not going to go away until you have all these different definitions of the key indicators and how you measure it. And every company, every organization has their own way of doing it. So as long as that is well defined and well published, the front end work seems like it's become a lot more easier and better in terms of the visualization with Sac. [00:15:56.170] - Hau Ngo Yeah, absolutely. [00:15:58.450] - Mustansir Saifuddin Great. Hey, it's been great talking to you. How really good insights in today's session. Look forward to our next coming up soon. Thank you so much. [00:16:09.200] - Hau Ngo Yeah, thank you, Mr. Have a good one. [00:16:11.760] - Mustansir Saifuddin You too. [00:16:15.530] - Mustansir Saifuddin Thanks for listening to Tech-Driven Business brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. Hau shared some key pointers as you think about where to focus your efforts in SAC. His main takeaway, as we transition to simpler tools focus on data modeling. We would love to hear from you. Continue the conversation by connecting with me on LinkedIn or Twitter. Learn more about Innovative Solution Partners and schedule a free consultation consultation by visiting Isolutionpartners.com. Never miss a podcast by subscribing to our YouTube channel. Information is in the show notes.
In this next episode of Tech-Driven Business, Mustansir Saifuddin brings back Hau Ngo of Summerlin Analytics to share an update on SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). Hau first joined us for a 6-part series in 2021 to talk about SAC and what it means to enterprises as they move to the cloud. He revisits us to talk about what it takes for an architect to be successful in implementing SAC. Listen is for quick takeaways that you can put in to place today. With the wealth of learning tools available, SAC is no longer out of reach for clients or consultants. Hau is an SAP Analytics Architect and an early adopter of SAP Analytics Cloud. In 2017, he helped a technology company in California consolidate global sales reporting across 7 different ERP systems. This effort culminated in one executive dashboard that displayed real-time information, eliminating weeks of manual coordination and data wrangling. Subsequently, Hau has presented his work at conferences such as SAPPHIRE 2019 in Orlando Florida, and has gone onward to help additional customers streamline their reporting processes and visualize the key company metrics. His experience with SAP Analytics Cloud extends to customers with various systems such as SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, BW/4HANA, and S/4HANA. Connect with Us: LinkedIn: Hau Ngo Mustansir Saifuddin Innovative Solution Partners Twitter: @Mmsaifuddin YouTube or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation. Episode Transcript Mustansir Saifuddin (00:03) Welcome to Tech-Driven Business. Brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. In this episode, I welcome back Hau Ngo of Summerlin Analytics listen in as he talks about his real-life experience of SAP Analytics Cloud, specifically, how SAP is making it easier for clients, lessons he has learned since he last joined me in 2021, and more importantly, what you need to do to be successful with an SAC implementation. Mustansir Saifuddin (00:51) Yeah, it's been a while. It has been a year and a half when we last spoke about SAC and the role of SAC in the business intelligence SAP world. Hau Ngo (01:04) Yeah, I think so. And I think at that time, SAC was still relatively new and unknown. So it's good to catch up after some time in the field and see what other people are experiencing with the tool. Mustansir Saifuddin (01:16) Yeah, for sure. I think it's come a long way since we last spoke, and for today's session, I would like to talk about some of the key ingredients, especially when you're making your reporting and analytics implementation right. And what makes them successful, especially when you're dealing with SAC. Hau Ngo (01:35) Yeah, sounds good. And I would say now that things are starting to pick back up, projects are starting to come back online, a lot of people are starting to look at reporting as the key driver in the businesses again. And it's good to see that SAC is up there with the other cloud tools. Mustansir Saifuddin (01:51) For sure. Yeah, I think we've seen a lot of good changes coming through the tool and how it has kind of developed over the past couple of years. So okay. With that, let me get into the first topic I would like to get your insights into. So when we talk about SAC, what is the role of the analytics architect, especially when it comes to implementing SAC? Hau Ngo (02:20) Sure, I think that's a great initial question, and I think a lot of clients overlook communication as a quality that should be high up the list. Of course, technical competency and familiarity of the tool is a given. The resource should know where 80% of the time, where to find the option to change a setting or to enable a feature. And I think I've done about ten SAC projects so far, and I still ask my clients for direction when they come and ask for something I'm not clear about. But getting back to the communication part, I think this skill ranks nearly as high as the technical know-how, because building a dashboard is very collaborative and it's an effort that involves directors of finance or supply chain who then need to present the information to someone in the executive office. So folks at these level are exceptionally pressed for time and having a resource who communicates well, whether it's during the working sessions or through email makes this process go smoother, quicker, and more enjoyable. Mustansir Saifuddin (03:30) Interesting. So it seems like one of the key skills required for having a successful implementation, especially when you're playing the architect role, is communication. Hau Ngo (03:40) Yes, absolutely. Only because this tool is end-user friendly. And there's a lot of things now, I guess, two or three years later, written about this tool and the functionality, and SAP has done a wonderful job of marketing that. Where it gets into a little bit of trouble, I think, for a lot of end users and clients is they're not sure what the tool can do because it can do a lot. But what they have in their specific environment, whether it's Analytics Cloud to S/4 directly, or if they're connecting to the new Data Warehouse Cloud, or if they're connecting to HANA Data Warehouse, or BW Warehouse, or BW/4HANA. So depending on how it's used and what it's connected to, it can do certain things in some instances, but not another. And having an architect who maybe have a little bit of experience in all four different areas could definitely help walk them through that process. Mustansir Saifuddin (04:40) That's interesting. Yeah, I think that makes sense, especially when you're dealing with the level of users who are more business focused and having that communication skill, as well as a way to understand what their requirements are. Right, I think that makes sense. Hau Ngo (05:00) Yeah, absolutely. Mustansir Saifuddin (05:01) So I think this kind of leads me into my next question. We always talk about this, right? Why does the business knowledge and collaboration with business users is so important, especially when you go about implementing SAC? Hau Ngo (05:15) Yeah. If you recall a couple of years ago, and this is maybe speaking to our age, but most of the reporting tools were excel-based, and now dashboards have been recognized as the more efficient way of presenting large amounts of data in a quicker way. And the challenge with this new approach is that each business department looks at different metrics and how they interpret the data differently. Right. So, for example, someone in finance looks at the profit and loss or maybe the sales margin numbers and may want key data points in a tabular review and in a specific order or grouping. Someone else in order fulfillment or customer service may like the larger numeric tiles that show daily sales numbers or bar tiles that show open orders for specific items that may not ship in time. So to add to that, each dashboard will be tailored to the preference of that particular executive. Maybe she's older and you have to use larger fonts and maybe consider something that's print ready. Or you may have a director who's younger and wants to see numbers on the go. So you may have to consider a mobile, responsive layout. Hau Ngo (06:29) So all of this is to say that design dashboards and the data models that go with it is often highly customized and require a lot of interaction. More so than your typical back-end developer maybe used to. Mustansir Saifuddin (06:42) I think that is important to know, especially when you talk about a demographics. Right. Who is my end client, especially the age. The way of presenting the information based on their key roles seems like one of the key reasons that you need to understand the business. And what I'm hearing from you. Collaboration is the key piece, right? Hau Ngo (07:10) Yes, absolutely. Because you don't want to go back and forth with a higher-level executive. Too many times they are pressed for time. So however, you can shave off those cycles of back and forth, whether you're familiar with the process area or maybe you can anticipate the request. That definitely goes a long way. Mustansir Saifuddin (07:31) For sure. So I think that let me ask you a personal question. What do you consider one of your biggest accomplishments when it comes to doing these implementations? Any personal favorites? Hau Ngo (07:49) Yeah, I would have to say that learning new skills and learning them quickly has been exciting and rewarding. I would say during the first 15 years working with SAP, the technology has been relatively slow. Back then you had BW and ABAP for data warehousing and reporting. But just in the last five years, that has been a blur with Hana calculation views, S4 CDS views, analytical cloud and the application design, of course. And now with Data Warehouse Cloud and each one of these required learning and retooling and it's a very exciting time. Mustansir Saifuddin (08:30) Absolutely. I think that kind of sums it up. Right. I mean, things have changed quite a bit in the past few years, especially when it comes to SAC and certain tools that are very business focus and the whole layout and the communication that it brings to the end users, I think is much different than what it was in the past. Hau Ngo (08:55) Yeah, you can almost say we went from waterfall to agile very quickly. Mustansir Saifuddin (09:02) That's a good comparison. Things were done a certain way for a very long time, especially when it comes to analytics. Now we are able to take that to the next level, right? Hau Ngo (09:13) Yes, absolutely. Mustansir Saifuddin (09:14) Especially with SAC some of the key ingredients that it contains. As a tool, from predictive to planning to the stories, everything is just giving you the information very quickly in a very precise way. Hau Ngo (09:34) Yeah, and SAP has done a good job with that. They actually package a lot of the information where it's almost out of the box and implementation is very minimal to get your data into a presentable format quickly. Mustansir Saifuddin (09:47) Absolutely. We always talk about these implementations and that question comes up. Right. Analytics implementations are challenging at times and especially when you're dealing with different levels of business users. What are some of the key indicators for a successful implementation? How would you quantify that? Hau Ngo (10:12) If you ask a lot of people, I'm sure you'll get different answers. But I think the clarity of the project goals and limitations of the tools are important. Sometimes I see projects fail because the client expects more than what the people or the tool can deliver. In a limited time, the scope keeps expanding. But where I've often seen successes are when projects that have a team that constantly work together to define and agree to what's possible. Those projects tend to be more successful more often than not. Mustansir Saifuddin (10:48) So I think it kind of sums it up with that statement you had just made. Right. As long as you have a very succinct definition of the requirements and then a resource or an expert who understands architecture can do things, these things in a very precise manner right. In a very timely delivery also. Hau Ngo (11:13) To be honest, most of my projects, the one I enjoy the most, I actually learn from the client. So it's an oxymoron. You're hiring someone who's an expert in this field but that person is also learning both the functional business side and the technical side, sometimes, from the client. So it has to be collaborative for some of these things to work out well. Mustansir Saifuddin (11:35) Yeah, I think that's a key statement you just made. Especially a lot of these kind of projects tend to go different ways depending on how requirements are defined and what kind of challenges you have when you come on board in these projects. Technical challenges, business challenges, et cetera. And when I look at it as a whole, it seems like the learning is on both sides, especially when you are interacting with the level of users in these kinds of cases is definitely different than working with an analyst, right? Hau Ngo (12:21) Yes, absolutely. Mustansir Saifuddin (12:24) Okay, great. So I know we kind of come to our time for at least this particular session. I would like to ask you this based on what we have covered so far, what is one of the key takeaways that you would want to leave the listeners with today? Hau Ngo (12:42) I would say most of the new cloud-based tools that we see today, like analytics cloud, they're relatively easy to use, but still I see a lot of hesitation when it comes to adapting or even trying out these new technologies. So my advice is to just give it a try, even if it's just an evaluation, and learn what it can do and just as important, what it cannot do. There's a lot of tutorials, online video and written, so the barrier to entry isn't as high now as it's been in the past. You'll have to put in the work, of course, but you'll be surprised how quickly you can become an expert with these new tools. And after that, it's about sharing what you've learned and helping your team succeed. Mustansir Saifuddin (13:28) That's a great advice. That's a great advice. I like it. Especially when you mentioned that there are so many tools available for anyone who is interested and has the desire to take that to the next level. So the information is available as long as you're willing to go out and explore. Hau Ngo (13:48) Yes. Mustansir Saifuddin (13:49) Great. Well, thank you so much, Hau. So it's been a pleasure talking with you and look forward to our next session. Hau Ngo (13:56) Yeah, likewise, Mustansir, to dive into some deep conversation technical conversations next time. So talk to you then. Mustansir Saifuddin (14:05) Thank you so much. Hau Ngo (14:07) Yes, thank you. Mustansir Saifuddin (14:11) Thanks for listening to Tech-Driven Business, brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners, Hau gave a great overview of SAP Analytics Cloud in today's environment. His main takeaway: take advantage of the many resources available to learn. The barrier to entry for SAC is low, so take advantage of it to learn all that you can. We would love to hear from you. Continue the conversation by connecting with me on LinkedIn or Twitter. Learn more about Innovative Solution Partners and schedule a free consultation by visiting Isolationpartners.com. Never miss a podcast by subscribing to our YouTube channel. Information is in the show notes.
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