Podcasts about solution manager

UC Today's Kieran Devlin speaks to Tim Jalland, Solution Manager at VOSS.In this session, we discuss the following:1) The challenges of a large multi-national organisation's cloud telephony2) The goals of the project and how VOSS underwent the audit and Discovery process3) The financial benefits the organisation enjoyed from their cloud transformation

Dans ce 166e épisode du podcast DigiClub powered by Huawei Technology et ooredoo Tunisie, nous avons discuté de la GreenTech avec la génération d'électricité à partir des panneaux solaires. Comment l'installer, combien ça coûte, et peut-il palier aux coupures d'électricités du fournisseur national d'énergie tunisien : Steg. Nous avons invité Asma Meddeb, Solution Manager chez Watany Group Energy qui a répondu à toutes nos questions. Animation : Walid Naffati Producteur : Walid Naffati Camera : Moez Habbes & Montassar Romdhani Coordination plateau : Ghazi Neffati Réalisation : Dorsaf Kortobi

Courtney Schlichte, Manager, Small Ag Marketing, US & Canada at John Deere Joaquin Azocar, Solution Manager for Farm Management Systems at DeLaval

¡Explora el fascinante universo de la hiperconectividad en un nuevo episodio de "Engineering The Future Talks"! 

Revolutionizing Quote-to-Cash: AI, Sustainability, and the Future of Industry - this podcast episode provides a deep dive into how AI is reshaping industries by enhancing efficiency, automating complex processes, and contributing to sustainability efforts. Sergey Jermakov, Stefan Weisenberger and Chelsea Ramage share their insights and practical advice for organizations looking to leverage AI for competitive advantage and operational excellence. Our guests: Stefan Weisenberger, Global VP, Head of Industry Business Unit Process Industries & Natural Resources and Chelsea Ramage, Solution Manager, Industry Business Unit, Mill Products & Mining at SAP ► Subscribe to the CLARITY Quote-to-Cash Podcast Channel here: @clarity1707 In this podcast, the CLARITY team explores key best practices that are enabling businesses to achieve greater efficiency and better business outcomes. In each episode, we meet with thought leaders and share insights that help businesses streamline quoting, pricing, and sales processes, monetize services with a subscription model, generate a recurring revenue stream, and drive XaaS transformation. Follow us here: Website: https://clarity.show

In this 2nd part of a 2-part series of Tech-Driven Business, Nick Verhoeven, Solution Manager for Planning & Analytics at SAP, rejoins Mustansir Saifuddin to dive into how SAP Analytics Cloud's seamless integration between planning, reporting and predictive capabilities is modernizing FP&A strategies. SAP Analytics Cloud continues to reshape business analytics and strategy. His key takeaway? With continuous technology developments, make sure you have a vision and then see how technology can help you achieve it.  As solution manager at SAP, Nick's role is to align the different functions within the company. Customer engagements, analyst relations as well as supporting the internal controlling functions are the main drivers of the role that spark enthusiasm in Nick and steer the solution in the right direction. Nick's discipline stemming from professional sports is his main strength, helping him drive enterprise engagements however sluggish processes might be. Connect with Us: LinkedIn: Nick Verhoeven,  Mustansir Saifuddin, Innovative Solution Partners , Twitter: @Mmsaifuddin Innovative Solution Partners YouTube or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation.    Episode Transcript: [00:00:00.260] - Mustansir Saifuddin Welcome to Tech-driven business brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. Nick Verhoeven, Solution Manager for Planning and Analytics at SAP, rejoins me to dive into how SAP Analytics Cloud's seamless integration between planning, reporting, and predictive capabilities is modernizing FP&A strategies. SAP Analytics Cloud continues to reshape business analytics and strategy.   [00:00:37.390] - Mustansir Saifuddin Welcome back, Nick, to Tech-driven business.   [00:00:39.830] - Nick Verhoeven Thank you, Mustansir. I'm happy to be here.   [00:00:43.670] - Mustansir Saifuddin Well, thank you, Nick. It's been an amazing session we had last time. Really enjoyed the discussion. And for our conversation today, I'd like to give a little background on what we talked about last time. We were looking on the surface of what planning is and what planning brings to SAC, especially in the analytics space. You are bringing both the planning capabilities and analytics together in the SAC platform. So what I would like to do today is I would like to start our conversation with taking it a step further. A lot of times, customers look at things where they are looking at, What benefit does it bring to me? What do I get out of this tool? So if I want to go and bring on planning capabilities of SAC, and how does it compare to other planning tools in the market? How does that sound to you?   [00:01:44.810] - Nick Verhoeven I think that's great. I always look forward to a bit of a deep dive in SAC and cloud, so let's do it.   [00:01:51.060] - Mustansir Saifuddin Awesome. Let's start with the most obvious thing. Whenever you look at any planning tool, you look at features. So what are some of the key features of SEL that elevates it compared to other planning tools in the market? What's your take on that?   [00:02:08.510] - Nick Verhoeven Well, that's a good one, Mustansir, but if I look at it, so this is my perspective, what I think is unique to the experience cloud is the flexibility in an enterprise setting. So what do I mean? What I mean by that is that with its integration to SAP systems and non-SAP systems, using commonly accepted APIs for metadata as transactional data to create and maintain data models for planning, that they can be easily extended with flexible dimensions and measures and accounts for a user interface. There you see this enterprise as well as business functionality coming together in that sweet spot. But then if you go beyond data, going beyond the model itself, you have user interactions through data inputs, analysis, workflow. Here similarly, we offer flexibility through drag and drop and wizards to build entire flows for the business user. But here we can also expand into scripting on those same objects and using a single artifact, lowering overall total cost of ownership, but allowing for limitless flexibility. Now having all these capabilities puts SAC Cloud in a true sweet spot in offering enterprise as well as flexibility, allowing for the FP&A persona and IT persona to work side by side on these different capabilities.   [00:03:31.360] - Nick Verhoeven And I think that's really unique to us.   [00:03:35.080] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, I think definitely I echo that same sentiment. One thing that really stuck out for me in this conversation is you mentioned flexibility a few times. So from your perspective, what you're seeing in this tool, what I'm hearing is from a business user's perspective, the flexibility is at a different level. Is that true? What is your take? What are you hearing from the customers when you talk about flexibility and that business ownership on this tool?   [00:04:07.790] - Nick Verhoeven Well, it's a sliding scale. In essence, a lot of business users are not used to working with enterprise tooling. They're used to working with Excel, and flexibility is 100% there. Then if they move to enterprise tooling, they need to be guided to a certain extent. I have a nice example from a toothpaste company from the US. What they've done is they've started with extremely guided applications, really having the user guided step-by-step, using heavily scripted applications, which are more expensive in the maintenance of such applications. But as the users gotten into it and started to accept the application with less flexibility than Excel, they've actually opened up bit by bit the functionalities that SAC brings to them. In a self-service perspective that they can do their own thing. With that, they started using those flexible functionalities for themselves, as still using scripting every now and then when they want to extend, but having the ability to create their own stuff, create their own models. Then they're really starting to appreciate the benefits of having a centralized database that consolidates all of the planning inputs side by side with a tool that is flexible enough for them to work on, albeit never as flexible as I thought.   [00:05:28.310] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, sure. And that's the key differentiator, right? And thank you for delving into the details of this. So what I'm hearing is at least you have two different paths. If you start off with a flexible application where a business user takes ownership versus an example where you started off with a guided approach and then let the business ease into the tool. So seems like multiple options available from how business can benefit from this tool. Great. Thank you. So now, and this question always comes up, and I've been working with planning and analytics in the SAP space for quite some time. What would be your recommendation for existing BPC customers? What is a realistic path forward for them?   [00:06:16.780] - Nick Verhoeven To your point, we get this question a lot because, of course, we have a huge user base using our BPC solution. Now, the first thing that I always want to say is we have tied our BPC support to that of BW for HANA, which is a long lasting one. There is no case of forced migration of any kind because this theoretically goes all the way up to 2040. However, it is the case that if you want to innovate, BPC is a platform that is being maintained and not expanded. This is where SAP Analytics Cloud comes in as our flagship cloud platform, neatly integrating with BPC so you can move on a case-by-case basis and build experience in the new platform. But no need, we're not forcing you in that sense. But realistically, customers have made major investments and moving without any aim of innovation does not make sense. My advice to BPC customers is to figure out where do you want to be from an FP&A perspective? What do you need? Considering the standstill of B2C from a functionality perspective and strong innovation in SAC and create an approach that aligns with your budget and resource constraints but still allows you to innovate at the because FP&A cannot sense it.   [00:07:34.430] - Mustansir Saifuddin I think that's the key point you mentioned, right? And the FP&A is this whole paradigm is shifting in this space. And if you're looking at a tool that is not moving with those changes and how the business is changing over across the board. So what is the best way to move forward? Is it a combination? What I'm hearing is it can be a combination of you still having your PPC and your landscape, but you're introducing SAC slowly, so where you can take in the benefits of all the new innovations that are coming in in SAC, correct?   [00:08:11.400] - Nick Verhoeven Yes. That is the more typical, to be fair. There is multiple examples that we have from companies. Some immediately go for a big process redesign because they want to consolidate their tooling, meaning they will only have a single platform and they move it immediately. But that requires a lot of resources and budget. If you do not have that available, but you do want to innovate, it makes more sense to do this case-by-case basis because it's a lot of change and you need to be ready to do the change management if it all happens at once. It's not black or white, but I would... I think that the more you go case by case is more logical if you have a big BPC investment.   [00:08:50.440] - Mustansir Saifuddin Makes sense. That takes me to a different topic and this same realm of conversations that we're having. Let's think from a business user's perspective, how can a business user be more effective using having SAC planning at their disposal versus other traditional planning applications? Can you provide some examples from your experience?   [00:09:14.290] - Nick Verhoeven Definitely. Because where I see traditional solutions having their place and mainly being very important to add up the numbers, they were also quite inflexible, up to the point that they were mere models of consolidation where data was added up. With SAP planning or SAP cloud planning, as our marketing department tells me to call it, one can do instance simulations using the versioning concept as well as running flexible, driver-based, and predictive-based calculations. That's a lot of buzzwords. What does it mean? Let's take the example of our reference customer Roche. They are a big pharmaceutical company in France. In their R&D expense planning, which is, of course, key as a pharmaceutical company, they had to produce about 20,000 data points each and every time that they run this situation. They, using our predictive functionality, have automated 16,000 out there. This is where they've used the embedded predictive capabilities in SAP's cloud for planning to automate to a certain extent, their planning process. Not all of it, because not all is automatable. But they've used the points that are predictable, used predictive for that. With that, they got the focus on those 4,000 points that are currently not that predictable, and they've increased their accuracy.   [00:10:36.560] - Nick Verhoeven This is really innovating the department, doing more with less and focus on where it matters for the people.   [00:10:46.180] - Mustansir Saifuddin I think that that is something that a lot of times it's not very obvious, especially you mentioned predictive capabilities and especially a lot of customers. But when you think about the traditional planning applications and tools available, a lot of times they don't even have those capabilities available. So from a business user's perspective, having this available at the disposal, it just gives them a lot more flexibility as well as control on what they are trying to get out of the tool. So it definitely, I think, puts them in a different level compared to how the traditional planning applications work in the past. Now, you used the example of Roche. How often do you see predictive being part of the planning solutions in terms of customers using SAC? Is this pretty prevalent or is it just trying to catch on now? What is your take on that?   [00:11:51.220] - Nick Verhoeven I wouldn't dare say that it's only starting to catch on because from the very beginning there were customers experimenting with this. But I think since we've released and this was 2021, 2022, the ability to directly write back into planning versions from predictions, this has really taken off. I actually myself have done an internal project with our central forecast team, where for central forecast, this is at a higher group level, we do the entire P&L using SmartPredict. I've trained a number of controllers to apply SmartPredict to the predictive functionality in SAP's cloud on their planning models. And not all accounts were automatable, but the ones that were are now being utilized. And we see those controllers applying it themselves because the focus of our predictive is that it's very much business-user-based. However, we are heavily investing in this. You say, What is the difference of a modern tool? I think that we are going to, and this is in our statement of direction, we are going to infuse artificial intelligence into each and every workflow of SAP and it's cloud for planning. This will go from version management to data management to scripting. All of that will get artificial intelligence and this will even more widen the user base that's able to work with SAP and it's cloud for planning.   [00:13:15.890] - Nick Verhoeven And first release is being mentioned on TechEd, which is currently ongoing. Their Just Ask has been presented as the natural language ability that we will get in SAP and it's cloud also on planning models.   [00:13:29.760] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, I think that is really good news. I mean, a lot of customers that have been thinking about that and now, as you already took the initiative of sharing that information with us, this is awesome because what I see, especially in this area, when you allow the business users to be more in control and this capabilities with AI becoming more forefront in a lot of these scenarios, and you have that tool that is already having those capabilities where it's allowing the business to take more control of their planning process, I think that's the wave of the future, basically. So talking from that angle, let's take a step back. The analytical applications, they've been around for some time. Can you use or share with us a use case where analytical application is required for a planning project?   [00:14:32.510] - Nick Verhoeven Yeah, sure I can. An analytical application is now embedded within the story, right? So it's a single artifact. But looking at the scripting functionalities of the unified story, so the former analytical application, we can devise a use case, and this, of course, comes from practice, but I'm not allowed to call the customer name, but let us just imagine I am a regional manager at a supermarket and I'm on the road. This regional manager then needs to analyze financial performance as well as subjective scores on cleanliness of the stalls and such. On entries or I enter this local supermarket, I desire to input set scores on my iPad and I would like to also compare these to the financial performance. After these inputs have been done, I want to sit down with the local manager and I want to figure out how can we tweak local forecast numbers based on the latest actuals and market expectations. In this situation where I need this flexibility on my mobile device, it is clear that I want a mobile experience and an easy way to input the numbers, say, in entry form with sliders. Having this is not standard.   [00:15:49.910] - Nick Verhoeven Of course, we have the ability to add Sliders, but how do we make sure that it writes back in the correct position of our plan and model? This can be easily achieved using descriptive functionality. This is an alternate way to leverage standard functionality, but then from Script. In this way, we will feed the Sliders into the model. We will make sure that we have a guided experience for a supermarket manager that is not necessarily someone that can build applications themselves. We actually see many specific requirements being fulfilled in this rate to really guide users through the process. Think about pop-ups, entering the screen, sliding screens as you go through them. Extra relevant for infrequent use, where a user can make do with minimal SAC training to what is needed using the scripts, you can really simplify their whole experience. I think that is key functionality where the scripting can help to either hide what could be viewed as a complex experience or to extend functionality that is just needed in that specific case, like the regional supermarket manager here.   [00:16:58.920] - Mustansir Saifuddin I think that's a great example, especially I like the fact that you're taking that extra step to make it easier for any user who maybe he or she may not be as comfortable with the application. How can you make their job function easier to handle depending on the requirement, right? And I see analytical applications becoming a key factor in those scenarios where you have the ability as a user to do things on the fly, but as long as you have the minimal training given to you, that makes a lot of sense. I think we talked about a lot of different things today. We are coming to the end of our session. Based on what we have covered so far, what is that one key takeaway that you would like to share with our listeners today?   [00:17:49.610] - Nick Verhoeven Well, I'd say there is really a new world of possibilities in the world of planning today. We've discussed a few with scripting and flexibility, but there is much more to explore now with AI also being infused into the platform like we mentioned. With that, it only becomes useful if we get tired to a specific strategy. Where does FP&A see themselves in the next 1-5 years in the world of AI, autonomous finance, and big data? Then we would want to see that you use that strategic vision and turn it into reality using rapidly evolving platform with the latest technology in the cloud, because that's the only place where this innovation can be offered. I would, of course, say look at SAP cloud, but my colleagues will tell you that you also have to look at the SAP Datasphere to have the surrounding data fabric. So really look at all the innovations ongoing, but always look at them into the respect of where is your FP&A strategy heading? You have a vision, you have something that you want to deliver on, and how can technology help you with that? And then as soon as you map that out, I'm quite sure the experts are more than willing to guide you on that.   [00:18:59.290] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, I think that's a great takeaway, especially you mentioned DataSphere, right? I mean, you think about technology, you think about cloud, all of it needs to be put together in a nice data mesh in terms of how you bring it all in one platform. And, of course, cloud is the way to go. So great insight on that one. I do appreciate your time. Thank you very much for sharing your insights. It's been a pleasure having you on our show. And definitely like to share this information with our listeners and make sure that they get the benefit of what you had to share today with us. So again, thank you.   [00:19:40.480] - Nick Verhoeven You're most welcome, Mustansir. I'm looking forward to see the recording.   [00:19:47.260] - Mustansir Saifuddin Thanks for listening to Tech-driven Business brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. Nick Verhoveen highlighted the dynamic evolution of SAP Analytics Cloud, emphasizing its integrative power within business planning and forecasting. His key takeaway: With continuous technology developments, make sure you have a vision and then see how technology can help you achieve it. 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 our podcast by subscribing to our YouTube channel. Information is in the show notes.

In this next series of Tech-Driven Business, Nick Verhoeven, Solution Manager for Planning & Analytics at SAP, joins Mustansir Saifuddin to discuss the power of SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning and how it integrates within the SAP landscape. Listen in as Nick dives into how planning is such a powerful addition to SAP Analytics Cloud. His main takeaway? "To do relevant planning, you want to make sure you understand your current state of the business, the latest trends, and have your analytics looking at the future using AI and predictions."  The main purpose in Nick's role is to align the different functions within the company. Analyzing and reconciling these inputs to provide and position the best possible FP&A solution to facilitate optimal decisions through data. Customer engagements, analyst relations as well as supporting the internal controlling functions are the main drivers of the role that spark enthusiasm in Nick and steer the solution in the right direction. Nick's discipline stemming from professional sports is his main strength, helping him drive enterprise engagements however sluggish processes might be. Connect with Us: LinkedIn: Nick Verhoeven,  Mustansir Saifuddin, Innovative Solution Partners, X: @Mmsaifuddin YouTube or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation.    Episode Transcript [00:00:02.910] - Mustansir Saifuddin Welcome to Tech-Driven Business brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. In this first episode of a multipart series, Nick Verhoeven, Solution Manager for Planning and Analytics at SAP, joins me to share how planning is such a powerful addition to SAP Analytics Cloud. It's all about how it integrates with your SAP landscape and beyond.   [00:00:28.300] - Mustansir Saifuddin So joining me today is Nick Verhoeven, who serves as a Solution Manager for Planning and Analytics at SAP. Welcome to Tech-Driven Business, Nick. How are you?   [00:00:40.090] - Nick Verhoeven Thank you, Mustansir. I'm quite well. It's been a good Monday so far, so happy to be here.   [00:00:45.620] - Mustansir Saifuddin Thank you. I'm glad to have you on our show. And this topic is very near and dear to me. I've been in planning and analytics for so many years, and really happy to have you as our guests and share your experiences, especially for our topic today. It's a three-part series. We are looking at kicking off this session, and we want to talk about what makes SAC planning such a powerful addition to SAP Analytics Cloud? How does that sound?   [00:01:16.710] - Nick Verhoeven Well, I think that sounds great. I'm looking forward to it.   [00:01:20.500] - Mustansir Saifuddin Awesome. Let's get into our topic then. I want to start with the basics. What sets apart SAP Analytics Cloud compared to other cloud-based tools in the market? There are so many tools. So I like to hear your perspective. What makes it so special?   [00:01:38.010] - Nick Verhoeven So of course, I'm slightly biased, right? I love the product. I'm the solution manager for the product. But I do think there is something that is rather factual that really sets us apart. You ask about the market, so how do you define a market in general? And then what I'll be using is the Gartner MQs. The Gartner Magic Cloud runs Gartner is an analyst company and they make ratings of different software markets, if you will. What I think is rather defining, if you look at the way that SAP Analytics Cloud is positioned, is that we are represented in the business intelligence market, as defined by Gartner, but we are also, as the one and only vendor, also represented with the same product in the financial planning MQ. And that, I think, really sets us apart. And beyond that, if you look beyond just the solution SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning, I think the integration within an SAP landscape sets us apart. So it's the integration to our transactional systems, but also the integration to our business technology platform systems, which allows a wealth of data integrations and connections.   [00:02:54.070] - Mustansir Saifuddin I think that is the key piece over here, right? I mean, you just hit it on the head. So it seems like when you look around, especially when you're dealing with a cloud-based solution, a lot of times you're stuck with either one or the other solution. So what I'm hearing from you is it's really about bringing two technologies together in one platform, right? Is that basically what makes you think that this is a special tool that allows customers, especially when you're looking for a unified approach of doing things? So it seems like SAC is serving up both those areas from a customer standpoint, right?   [00:03:35.790] - Nick Verhoeven I'd say so, and think about it. When you are going to do planning, you don't start from scratch. You want insight on where you are, where you're going. And this is where analytics and planning to me and also to SAP, of course, are a natural extension of each other and not something that should have been viewed in a silo.   [00:03:54.810] - Mustansir Saifuddin Absolutely. Now that makes a lot of sense. And so talking about from that angle, let's get into the details. When you look at from an SAP perspective, you're a little biased because you're working in that tool and you know the insights and what's really going on. When we move forward, SAP continues to enhance its analytics offerings. What do you wish customers knew about SAP that they may have overlooked? A lot of times a tool is out there, but there are certain insights that you may have that can help a customer get more out of their investment, basically.   [00:04:34.170] - Nick Verhoeven I would say... We were discussing analytics and planning, but if I really focus on analytics, I think the main new addition, and people may have not overlooked it but haven't fully appreciated the capabilities that it brings, is what we call the unified story. This, in essence, means that we take the original object, that is the story where you could drag and drop self-service BI capabilities in there, and we combine that with the capabilities of the former artifact, which is the application designer. Here you could create very specific applications through scripting. Now, by combining these two, we allow in a single object to be present simple, low TCO way of building your analytics or planning input sheets for that matter. But the ability at any point in time extend that with scripting, if you so will. This is already quite interesting and relevant, but it's not the no point of return. At the point you've added scripting, you can close that again and give the object back to the user that might not be adapted to scripting, but the ability to maintain the object in itself, still remaining and retaining the lower TCO, but having the full flexibility to adjust the behavior of your analytical or planning object with specific scripting, I think that is unique to our platform in the way that we do it and has benefits for analytics as well as planning.   [00:06:09.730] - Mustansir Saifuddin That is very interesting. So let me ask you a follow-up question on this. So that means that when you talk about application designer, you're talking about the ability from a programming standpoint, you can customize certain things and build an application around it. But when you bring in a user, a business user, who can leverage this object or development that is done by from the technical perspective and then bring in their data or their simple stories and have a single, unified approach of looking at information, right? I'm hearing it correctly?   [00:06:49.790] - Nick Verhoeven I think you hear it completely correctly. Then we also productize that in a way with the recent addition of composites. Composites are reusable objects that will be released in our latest wave, and you'll see it in SAC three. But here what we have is basically script objects or regular objects that can be reused across many stories developed by a highly esteemed professional, but then can be reused across all of those stories. And then if you make an adjustment in such a composite, it will be adjusted in all of the stories, so really scaling out this combined capability across a very large user set.   [00:07:29.490] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, definitely. I think. And that brings value to the customer really many-folds, and that's what I'm hearing from you. So it's the benefit of using something that is being built and that is embedded, and then you're just extending it to a business user. So that's really awesome. Thank you for sharing that. So now let's get into our main conversation, why a customer, why any organization should consider planning capabilities of SAC? That's really the crux of why we have these two technologies put together in a single platform. So can you elaborate on that?   [00:08:10.120] - Nick Verhoeven Yeah, definitely. So I'd say the recent world of turbulent change, and I say recent, but this is of all times, that things are changing around us and we have to deal with it. And I think the natural addition to planning is to start looking forward of where might we be going. If you don't know where you're going, you'll never end up there, right? Yeah. And this is where we're planning adds so much value if you combine that in a single platform. And I would never be one to judge. Every company has their own resourcing constraints and such. But I see all kinds of small planning projects popping up in our analytics user base where they have either a long-term strategic planning that they want to start with or workforce planning as they want to get the right talent at the right time. So small initiatives, and that will then be leading up to a larger enterprise planning deployment at a customer. But I think it is a natural extension to analytics and also where analytics can add so much more value because you have analytics and then put that into something actionable being a plan, which could be resource allocation.   [00:09:18.390] - Mustansir Saifuddin Absolutely. I think what I like in this example, you mentioned two things, right? One is a lot of times when you think of planning, you look at the bigger enterprise planning approach. But here you have the ability or the capability of doing something small and you need planning no matter what you're doing. It doesn't matter if you're working with your labor data or your HR planning versus your financial or your sales data. You have components of planning which can be pretty easily integrated into this platform.I think that's one of the things that a lot of customers  always think about planning as a separate component versus having it together in an easy-to-use fashion where they can leverage the analytics at the same time, add a component of planning depending on what they are working on. So it's a natural extension. So that brings me to a more of a personal question. You've been SAP for quite some time as a Solution Manager for planning analytics. What drives you to make this tool as a tool of choice for customers? What is your take on it?   [00:10:31.710] - Nick Verhoeven If we boil it down to what is the reason for using this tool? It's all about decision making. I'm very passionate about the topic of decision making because it's so abundant in all of our lives because we make decisions all of the time. Where I have the tool myself personally, where I use it to have multiple scenarios of mortgage down payments, I have it for multiple scenarios of investments. I'm using drivers to also influence those investments and what would happen if, and that is my personal life. But then when I go out there with the customers, we have scenarios in the oil industry, we have the medical industry. We have so many different angles that you get to for planning and you have to get into quite a bit of specifics. This is what I really like. This is what I really love. Then on my day-to-day job, what I try to make sure is that I look at the solution not only as a great platform, but also something pragmatic that can help people in their day-to-day operation of making better decisions. And this is the analytics and planning that comes together, which I hold so dear.   [00:11:45.150] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, that makes sense. I think you hit it in the head on this one, especially when you think about how simple can it be versus how complex you want to make it, depending on your use case scenario, right? So it really helps to have this capability built-in where you already have information coming from your organizations, different platforms, and you're looking at more like an analytic solution using SAC, but then you push in this planning capability in that tool, and all of a sudden you got this all-rounded view of the organization, basically. That's pretty powerful. Now, so thinking ahead, we always talk about roadmaps and what is really coming next. And this is, I call it... I call it a two-part question. When you think about roadmap, what is there, from a business perspective, short term and long term, what is coming next that a customer should watch out for when you think about the roadmap for SAC?   [00:12:44.190] - Nick Verhoeven Taking that twofold question, starting with the short term, I'd say there's many developments, right? But I'll make a focus point where short term and long term also meet each other. And if I look at the short term, I'd say API, API, API. What I mean with that is within the application itself, so the scripting that we were just talking about, we offer APIs there so that you can, through scripting, enhance versions, set up customized planning areas. That is a multitude of functionalities there that you can use through APIs. So basically opening up the system to be manipulated in any way that the customer could want. I'd say that's one of the major short-term developments that we have offered and are also enhancing. This is something that also comes together with our B2P offering. So the import and export API can be leveraged by our integration suite, which can then also make sure that the data from the data marketplace in SAP DataSphere rolls in as drivers into SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning, does its calculations. And then if you want to go to the execution side of things, the integration suite can take those APIs again, take that information and push it out to execution system so that you actually execute on your plan.   [00:14:03.470] - Nick Verhoeven So that would be short term. Those APIs also offer a lot of perspective for the long term. So one of the statements that our major development leaders, so Matthias Kramer, has made is that artificial intelligence will come to each and every workflow of SAP Analytics Cloud. Now, the only way to make that work or have something that is effective through AI is to make sure that your application is offering all of the APIs for it to work. Just to give you an example, if you want to have something like asking your application to be built using scripts with certain functionalities, then you can ask the AI bot to write that. But that's only possible if the APIs are there, if it has the ability to create a version API, if it has the ability to trigger data actions. This is where it really meets each other. Just to give you an exciting perspective here, we internally have already developed bots that can generate entire applications, can also create queries, like we know from the pending just ask functionality, but the former search to insight functionality that's still there. But then going beyond that, also leveraging large language models to write a query and also ask AI to summarize.   [00:15:29.910] - Nick Verhoeven What do we see in that query? What are the most profitable stores within my assortment? It's these two stores. Note, this one store is actually on the rise compared to the last time you asked. Those insights the AI bot can offer. I've seen internal demonstrations where we can already do it. We also have an external statement of direction on AI, where we also have some of those beta demos already visible because we're really committed to deliver on that. [00:15:59.100] - Mustansir Saifuddin That is so exciting. I mean, especially thinking being on the projects myself, I know that from a customer standpoint, this is really exciting stuff, especially when they're looking at how to maximize their investments, especially on a platform like SAC, and you mentioned a couple of other technologies where you bring in data from DataSphere and all these other surrounding BTP, et cetera, how they all make it so much useful and allow any organization, any business who is using these platforms to extend their value proposition to the end users. So definitely something exciting and really looking forward to having these short-term and long-term goals coming together and giving this tool a boost that it really can make decision making, especially when you talk about these analytical tools, the decision making is where you're looking at time to value, and how quickly can you make those things? I know we talked about a lot of different things. So coming to our closure, one thing that I always like to ask my guests is based on what we talked about so far, what is the one key takeaway that you want our listeners to leave today?   [00:17:22.400] - Nick Verhoeven I'd say it's where we started. We spoke about what makes the platform special. In my mind, it's the presence in not only the analytics market, but also in the planning market, and with that also now with AI and predictive coming together. I think the most important thing is to not decouple these two elements, because to do relevant planning, you want to make sure you understand your current state of the business, the latest trends, and also having analytics looking at the future using AI and predictions, those are natural inputs to your actual plans, and those plans that need to turn into execution. It's so logical if you look at the plan to check X circle from Deming. There are so many things that always relate to these two are interrelated. And I think within a platform, they should also be interrelated. That's my main takeaway.   [00:18:24.480] - Mustansir Saifuddin Yeah, I think that is really powerful. Thank you for sharing that. And that's really what sets the whole application apart from so many other tools out there. And with that, I'd like to wrap our session. I do want to thank you for coming on to our show. I'm looking forward to our next conversation, which is all about planning and what makes SAC planning such a powerful tool. I'm looking forward to having that deep dive where... Especially when you look at all these things outside in the market, even from SAP, you have BPC, you have other competitor planning applications out there. We'll talk about more into a deeper perspective of what SAC planning can do and how will that be a game-changer for folks who are looking at planning as one of their additional analytics capabilities to be built into their platform. So looking forward to that. Thank you.   [00:19:23.910] - Nick Verhoeven Thank you very much. I'm looking forward to that as well. Thank you Mustansir.   [00:19:26.590] - Mustansir Saifuddin Thanks for listening to Tech-Driven Business brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. Nick shared valuable insights on the power of SAC planning. His main takeway? To do relevant planning, you want to make sure you understand your current state of the business, the latest trends, and have your analytics looking at the future using AI and predictions. 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.

Christophe & Jens sprechen mit Dagmar Driesnack, Solution Manager bei Rohde & Schwarz, über ihre Studienzeit, den Wert der Standardisierung und warum das gewissenhafte Dokumentieren von Projekten unerlässlich für alle Beteiligten ist.

UC Today's Tom Wright hosts Tim Jalland, IT Consultant and Solution Manager, VOSS and Jamie Litherland, Chief Operating Officer, VOSS.In this session, we discuss the biggest challenges associated with cloud migration and how to overcome them.

O aumento de ameaças digitais nos últimos anos tem levado executivos a tratarem a segurança cibernética como uma prioridade em seus negócios. Para se proteger dos riscos, as empresas precisam de soluções poderosas que ajudem a manter funcionários, clientes e parceiros sempre seguros. No segundo episódio do Google Cloud Cast Apresenta, nossos apresentadores Daniel Leite e Marcelo Gomes recebem Marcos Cavinato, Head de Segurança, Redes e Compliance no Google Cloud na América Latina, e Renato Lopes, Solution Manager da Tigabytes, para uma conversa sobre como proteger seus dados e sistemas de maneira efetiva. Descubra como a nuvem tem se destacado como uma peça importante para as organizações que buscam mais segurança, conheça parceiras do Google Cloud no combate e prevenção a ataques e entenda como direcionar investimentos para evitar prejuízos para seu negócio. O Google Cloud Cast Apresenta faz parte do hub de conteúdo do Google Cloud Cast. Nesse podcast, nós discutimos temas como transformação digital, inovação e a jornada para a nuvem com a participação de executivos, especialistas e convidados especiais. Confira os links deste episódio: Leia aqui a transcrição do episódio: Gartner revelam 8 previsões de cibersegurança para 2023: https://bit.ly/3nEF3zK Olhando para o futuro: tendências de conformidade e segurança na nuvem em 2023: https://bit.ly/44KUmra Gartner identifica três fatores que influenciam o crescimento dos gastos com segurança: https://bit.ly/40Xc7Sj Gostou do episódio ou tem alguma sugestão? Compartilha com a gente por e-mail em googlecloudcast@google.com

Grace has been with CEDR Solutions for eight years. She is currently CEDR's Solution Center Manager. Prior to managing the Solution Center, she served as both a Solution Center Advisor and as a Compliance Officer with CEDR. Her favorite area of HR is paid leave laws. Grace graduated cum laude from Georgia State University's School of Law. Prior to attending law school, Grace received her paralegal certificate from Emory University and worked as a paralegal for a large law firm in Atlanta, GA. She recently received her Diversity & Inclusion certificate from Stanford Business School. She currently lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and three children.

In this Cisco Champion Radio Unfiltered episode, we have an open discussion with five incredible women who have navigated the male-dominated tech industry and have achieved great success. Join us to hear more about their personal experiences, including the challenges women face and how they responded, their triumphs and their advice on topics like how to show up with authority and how to be a better ally to your female colleagues. Follow us https://twitter.com/CiscoChampion Cisco Champion Hosts Micheline Murphy (twitter.com/MichyfishMurphy), WWT, Consulting Systems Engineer Rita Younger (twitter.com/SDN_Girl), WWT, Solution Manager, Global Engineering Shala Warner (twitter.com/GiftedLane), Cloud Platform Engineer Zoe Rose (twitter.com/RoseSecOps), Canon EMEA, Regional and Supplier Information Security Guest Denise Donohue (twitter.com/@ladynetwkr), Cisco, Systems Architect Moderator Amilee San Juan (twitter.com/amileesan1), Cisco, Customer Voices and Cisco Champion Program

Listen now and see what it's like to be a partner solution manager at a sports company!

UC Today's Rob Scott hosts Tim Jalland, Solution Manager from VOSS, and we discuss how you can fast track enterprise voice to Microsoft Teams. In this session we discuss the following:

There's a whole lot of disruption happening in supply chain right now. Lots of talk about how ports are backed up, and what needs to happen there.I was interested to know if other aspects of supply chain can help out as well, so I reached out to SAP's Solution Manager for warehouse management software Richard Kirker and asked him to come on the podcast to talk about the role of warehouses in this effort. We had a great conversation spanning the role of warehouse software in helping with the current supply chain disruption, the role of automation in this, and how warehousing software helps with sustainability.  I learned loads, I hope you do too...If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message over on my SpeakPipe page or just send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).If you want to learn more about how to juggle sustainability and efficiency mandates while recovering from pandemic-induced disruptions, meeting growth targets, and preparing for an uncertain future, check out our Oxford Economics research report here.And if you want to read up on our Industry 4.0 blueprint repost, head on over to https://www.sap.com/cmp/dg/intro-industry40/index.html, and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks.And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane! 

Il Technology Solution Manager nel campo dell'e-learning è una figura professionale trasversale che si occupa dell'analisi e della ricerca di soluzioni tecnologiche per esigenze formative digitali per le medie e grandi aziende.Il suo ruolo è quello di capire ed interpretare le esigenze di formazione catalizzate spesso dell'ufficio risorse umane per poi mediare ed implementare la fattibilità con risorse esterne o con altri reparti aziendali come ICT.Il ruolo di questa figura è centrato su un'analisi dettagliata dei sistemi informatici attualmente attivi all'interno di un'azienda come intranet, piattaforme e-leanring ed identity providers per poi progettare e costruire non solo nuovi corsi di formazione ma anche vere e proprie esperienze utente usabili ed intuitive, minimizzando gli attriti di innovazione e conivolgendo i destinatari finali. Ascolta in Podcast originalil'intervista completa a Lucio Monterubbiano, Technology Solution Manager for e-learning

Quale sarà la professione più richiesta nel prossimo futuro? Quali nuovi lavori 4.0 esistono già? Come ci sono arrivati e dove si sono formati quelli che li svolgono? Ve lo racconteremo in questo nuovo appuntamento, per capire in concreto cosa fanno, e quanto guadagnano, il project manager 4.0, l'esperto di blockchain, il data labeling specialist, il programmatic manager, o il designer di stampe in 3 d. Ma anche che cosa sono il data scientist, lo steam manager, lo chief evangelist, futurologo. È un tema che riguarda tutti, perché se vero che la richiesta del mercato per figure come il data scientist è aumentata del 25%, di oltre il 20 per cento per i social media jobs e per users experience deigners, anche le professioni tradizionali come enologo o magazziniere diventano 4.0.

François travaille depuis 5 ans chez LinkedIn, en plus d'être le créateur du podcast CSMs & Co. Aujourd'hui, il passe de l'autre côté du micro, pour nous décrire son quotidien : - le binôme Account Director & Client Marketing Solution, pour assurer l'expansion de LinkedIn Marketing Solutions au sein du portefeuille - les enjeux d'un business flottant pour ses campagnes de marketing, à l'inverse d'un business récurrent - le lancement d'un nouvel outil de communication pour apporter de la valeur à ses clients : le podcast - l'importance de replacer l'humain au coeur des relations commerciales (la vulnérabilité est une force !) - son pronostic éclairé sur les 3 évolutions majeures dans nos métiers CSM/AM Pour le contacter sur LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/fdecaux/ Et le lien vers son podcast : http://csmsandco.com/

Max Saltonstall and Carter Morgan co-host the podcast this week and talk APIs with our guests, Dave Feuer and Benjamin Schuler. Apigee, an API management platform that is a part of Google Cloud, focuses on all steps of the digital product life cycle to make API management easy for clients. The software company SAP provides data storage and other business support for different types of companies across the world. Together, Apigee and SAP allow data to be collected, stored, organized, and securely accessed and shared with other applications. The shift to e-commerce and the desire for tailored experiences has driven the need for more API usage and therefore better API management. SAP and Apigee, with their myriad features, allow businesses to keep up with these increasing demands efficiently. We hear examples of how companies are leveraging these tools and use cases where the power of SAP and Apigee benefit customers most. Our guests describe the developer experience as well. We talk about the process of creating a project with both SAP and Apigee and why both tools working together makes the developer’s job easier. Planning your project with an “API first” mindset means choosing APIs and SAP software early in the planning process to better align your project with your business goals. Apigee can help you manage these APIs securely, letting you choose the data that is shared. The use of both SAP and Apigee helps companies to realize long-term efficiency and streamlined operations as development becomes easier with each additional API. Benjamin Schuler Benjamin Schuler is a Solution Manager for SAP at Google Cloud with a focus on topics around application modernization. Prior to joining Google, he was working directly for SAP's consulting unit and helped companies move parts of their SAP landscape to the cloud. When he is not busy populating spreadsheets or adding yet another //TODO: to his demo apps, he likes to get out onto the water for some freeride kitesurfing. Dave Feuer Dave Feuer is Senior Product Manager at Apigee, a part of Google Cloud Platform. Previously, Dave ran the Platforms & Strategies practice at a boutique consulting firm, designing and implementing developer programs for Fortune 100 companies. Prior to that, Dave ran enterprise telecommunications product development and software engineering at IDT and Net2Phone, a telecommunications and payments company. Dave started his career as an embedded software development engineer, and frequently questions how he ended up spending so much time in Google Slides. Cool things of the week AI Simplified: Managing ML data sets with Vertex AI blog Create your own journaling app without writing code blog AppSheet Journal site Interview Apigee site Apigee Setup site SAP site Apigee: Your gateway to more manageable APIs for SAP blog Accelerate the time to value of your SAP data with Apigee video GCP Podcast Episode 54: API Lifecycle with Alan Ho podcast GCP Podcast Episode 219: Spotify with Josh Brown podcast Conrad Electronic: Powering next-gen retail with BigQuery and Apigee API management site Schlumberger chooses GCP to deliver new oil and gas technology platform blog Schlumberger Selects Google Cloud for its Enterprise-Wide SAP Migration and Modernization site What’s something cool you’re working on? Max is documenting how Google & Alphabet made the move to SAP. He’s also working on a Discord bot on Google Cloud and ITRP series launch. Carter is working on a SAP content video series and teaching in the Equity Through Technology program.

Unser heutiger Gast ist 35 Jahre und hat Wirtschaftsinformatik und Psychologie studiert. Seine Laufbahn startete er als Praktikant und Werkstudent, wurde später Berater und ist heute Projektmanager, Scrum Master und Agile Coach und ist auf dem Weg zum Solution Manager. Sein Wissen gibt er gerne weiter, u.a. auch als Dozent für Projektmanagement. Er betreibt Kampfsport und interessiert sich für positive Psychologie. Hallo Simon Kanwischer.OPITZ CONSULTING Deutschland GmbH ■■■ Digitale Service Manufaktur

SAP Learning Hub is SAP's most advanced and comprehensive digital learning platform. Christoph Haffner virtually met David Chaviano, Solution Manager for the SAP Learning Hub Enhanced Student Edition and Lars Satow from the Learning Experience and Design team to learn what exactly the SAP Learning Hub offers and to talk about the latest improvements of the user- and learning experience. Tune in and listen to all the latest information and detailed insights.

SAP Learning Hub is SAP’s most advanced and comprehensive digital learning platform. Christoph Haffner virtually met David Chaviano, Solution Manager for the SAP Learning Hub Enhanced Student Edition and Lars Satow from the Learning Experience and Design team to learn what exactly the SAP Learning Hub offers and to talk about the latest improvements of the user- and learning experience. Tune in and listen to all the latest information and detailed insights.

Dinis Guarda interviews Qiaoyin Yang, Senior Industry Solution Manager at Huawei Technologies, in this new interview for citiesabc. The interview focuses on the role of innovative ICT solutions that are applied to the #ElectricPowerIndustry and the challenges that companies face when dealing with massive electric grids and their legacy systems.About Dinis Guarda profile and Channelshttps://www.openbusinesscouncil.org/w...https://www.dinisguarda.com/https://www.intelligenthq.com/author/...https://www.hedgethink.com/author/din...About citiesabc.comhttps://www.citiesabc.com/https://twitter.com/citiesabc__Dinis Guarda's 4IR: AI, Blockchain, Fintech, IoT - Reinventing a Nation https://www.4irbook.com/Intelligenthq Academy for blockchain, AI courses on https://academy.intelligenthq.com/

In unserem RZ10 Update spreche ich über aktuelle Themen und News in der Welt von SAP Basis & Security. Die Themen vom 23.09.2020: SAP reagiert auf BLM-Bewegung, Batch-Input-Recorder-Hintertür, SAP IAS Tipps und das Live-Webinar "SAP Solution Manager – Grundlagen und Einsatzmöglichkeiten".

Mit metasonic® TIZZARD sind Unternehmen in der Lage, Prozessmodelle zwischen dem SAP Solution Manager und dem metasonic® Process Touch in beiden Richtungen auszutauschen. Das ermöglicht, zusammen mit dem Fachbereich und Anwendern, eine schnelle Analyse und Bearbeitung der SAP-Standardprozesse mit einem interaktiven Modellierungstisch. Das verkürzt zum einen die Workshopdauer und erhöht anderseits die Qualität der Workshopergebnisse.

Die SAP Basis & Security Themen der Woche: SAP Security Patchday Juni, Rollenkonsistenzprüfung, Solution Manager 7.2 SP11, Lesetipps und eure Fragen an RZ10 :)

As the world's population changes, how does product design and interface design change with it? And why is the 4th industrial revolution happening NOW - what's come together to make IoT possible? Industry veteran Tim Sweet joins us for a conversation about human-machine interfaces (HMI), usability, and human factors - scoping the discussion within IoT and the products that are pushing this 4th industrial revolution forward. Tim Sweet: Tim is a Solution Manager at DNA Group, responsible for opportunity and solutions development for HMI products and smart grid solutions. Tim has been a part of several technical revolutions: the telecom revolution, the launch of the digital network, and the birth of the internet, and is now an active participant in the IoT revolution. With communications networking at his core and years of experience in the HMI field, Tim has a passion for helping the wireless digital revolution grow and expand with the deployment of smart edge devices that help us all understand and live in this connected world.DNA Group: For over 30 years, DNA Group has been involved in sourcing products from Asia and Europe. Throughout those years, DNA Group has successfully navigated the global marketplace providing competitively priced engineered components, assemblies and value-added solutions. Their market experience includes Transportation, Marine, Digital Switching Systems, Solid State Lighting (LED), Medical, HVAC, Power Tools, Lawn and Garden, White Goods (appliances), and emerging markets; from simple switches to complex printed circuit board assemblies and digital controls, with specialties in electronics contract manufacturing, current sensing, human-machine interfaces, power switching, integrated solutions, and component sourcing.Support the show (http://www.ncriot.org)

Lo scorso 8 maggio Consoft Sistemi ha partecipato all'evento 'Nuovi trend per ICT e OT nel settore regolato Life Science - Nuovi trend per ICT e OT nel settore regolato Life Science - Nuove tecnologie nel rispetto della Compliance' che si è svolto alla Blend Tower di Piazza IV Novembre 7 a Milano. Consoft Sistemi ha partecipato attivamente con uno speech congiunto di Andrea Provini, Global CIO Bracco e presidente AUSED e Marco Casu, Solution Manager, Area DevOps & Testing di Consoft Sistemi SpA. Titolo dello speech: "Pharma & «DevOps»: binomio dirompente?"

Michael Janning und Christoph Haffner im Gespräch zu aktuellen Angeboten und Veranstaltungen von SAP Education. Es geht um das SAP Education Forum, die SAP Skills Konferenz im Juni und ein Update des Kurses SM255 - ChRM mit Solution Manager 7.2.

Sofico’s 50 globally distributed engineers are committing 350 changes which triggering 90 builds per day. To ensure that the pipeline can handle that load and that the quality of the code changes is still good Sofico is using Bamboo, Ant, Selenium, SauceLabs and Dynatrace to check for performance and architectural regressions early on. Listen to some of the reasoning and best practices that Jan Swaelens, Solution Manager at Sofico, shares with us.@JanSwaelenshttps://be.linkedin.com/in/janswaelens

Sofico’s 50 globally distributed engineers are committing 350 changes which triggering 90 builds per day. To ensure that the pipeline can handle that load and that the quality of the code changes is still good Sofico is using Bamboo, Ant, Selenium, SauceLabs and Dynatrace to check for performance and architectural regressions early on. Listen to some of the reasoning and best practices that Jan Swaelens, Solution Manager at Sofico, shares with us.@JanSwaelenshttps://be.linkedin.com/in/janswaelens

EMC teams with industry-leading video surveillance partners to provide proven, end-to-end video surveillance solutions.  Back in Episode #7, I spoke to Ken Mills (@OtherKen) and Terry Gainer, former law enforcement officer with over 30 years experience on the force.   Terry outlined the rapid growth and challenges faced by law enforcement offices in connecting, storing and managing massive amounts of data in a Video Surveillance Data Lake.  Continuing that conversation, I’m once again joined by Ken Mills (@OtherKen) to review some of EMCs joint solutions; Solutions tested and certified at the EMC Surveillance Validation Labs, renowned for conducting rigorous interoperability testing and optimized storage configuration models.  EMCs extensive partner community allows for simple and efficient Plug and Play solutions, requiring little technical configuration during deployment and operation.  Joining Ken and I this week is Steve Teitelbaum (@STeitelbaum).  Steve is the Solution Manager for Surveillance Solutions at Avnet Embedded, where he is responsible for building end to end Video Surveillance Solutions.  This week we dig into Avnet Enabled Video Surveillance Solutions. Get the details this week on #EMCTheSource Podcast. Don’t miss “EMC The Source” app in the App Store.  Be sure to subscribe to The Source Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher Radio and visit the official blog at thesourceblog.emc.com EMC: The Source Podcast is hosted By Sam Marraccini (@SamMarraccini)

Podcast Structure: I. Intro chatter, II. (2:40) SolBros reader questions, III. (21:55) SolMan - "A mile wide and an inch deep?" - discuss! IV. (36:05) Individual updates: Jim Spath - SolMan and ASUG, Phil Avelar - CHARM lessons learned, Tony D - SolMan consulting, customer value and learning tools.

When you begin a podcast, you never know how it will turn out. I had high hopes that the combined voices of Jim Spath, Tony de Thomasis, and Phil Avelar would advance the Solution Manager conversation with new insights and a clash of perspectives, but you never know. The end result exceeded my own expectations. With good humor but a frank style that underscored their different perspectives, these guys nailed it. We taped this four way, fifty minute podcast on Skype, and while the sound quality is solid, there is the occasional piece of background noise. I think you'll find that any occasional sound blips are more than worth it for the caliber of the content.

Podcast guest Jim Spath is a fan of the Bengies Drive-In Theatre.  And just like the drive-in, we've got a podcast double feature for you. In part two (the part in this description), Jim and I talk about our shared interest in improving the public discussion on SAP Solution Manager and why we think this public airing is important. In part one of our double feature, we talked about getting the most out of ASUG 2010.  

In the first of two live Sapphire podcast recordings Jon will issue this week, Jon Reed of JonERP.com sits down with Ajay Vonkarey of Alpha Sirius to discuss his views on Sapphire, his impressions of the SAP market, and in particular, his views on Solution Manager - a topic you could not get away from at Sapphire where Ajay has deep expertise. In this 24 minute podcast, taped in a classroom as Sapphire closes out, Jon asks Ajay for his views on the pros and cons of Solution Manager from a customer perspective, how Solution Manager fits into BPM, and how SAP skills needs are evolving in the era of BPM and "end to end process" management.

In a sluggish economy, SAP professionals want to know where the action is. One area that looks promising in 2009: RunSAP and Solution Manager. But there's a problem: many SAP consultants (and project teams) are not yet clear on how the two products relate, nor are they clear on the skills needed to implement them. To shed light on this topic, Jon interviews Ajay Vonkarey, President of Alphasirius, a company with deep experience in both RunSAP and Solution Manager. Jon specifically invited Ajay to do this podcast because of Ajay's innovative thinking around RunSAP and Solution Manager skills trends.

What is at the root of the customer frustration with SAP's maintenance fee increases? And what does RunSAP and Solution Manager have to do with it? To get at these questions and many more, listen in with Jon Reed and SearchSAP.com Site Editor Demir Barlas as they interview Robert Max, ASUG Evangelist for ASUG, Americas' SAP Users' Group. Formerly the SAP Infrastructure Manager for a Fortune 500 Company, Max has played a leadership role in many ASUG groups, including serving as as the Chair of the ASUG Solution Manager Community. During this podcast, Robert explains how SAP customers can achieve a greater value from SAP support by maximizing the use of Solution Manager, RunSAP, and end-to-end process optimization. He also talks about the skills needed by project teams (and individual consultants) if they want to take advantage of these emerging post-go-live opportunities.

The SAP market is changing, but one thing remains a constant: the need for quality SAP professionals with the right skills combinations. In his latest podcast, Jon sat down with Kent Sanders, a 15 year SAP professional who is knee-deep on a cutting edge eSOA project for a major SAP Retail customer. Sit in with Jon and Kent as they discuss Kent's keys to attracting and retaining SAP talent, how SAP developers can stay relevant on projects and reduce the risk of being outsourced, and how Kent's project team has developed a different way of obtaining "buy in" for eSOA projects, building support "from the bottom up." Kent also talks about the tools SAP professionals need to master to stay relevant, and how his project finds the right mix between outside consultants and internal training. During this thirty five minute podcast, Jon and Kent cover topics such as: - How Kent's fifteen year SAP career has evolved into his current role as an Enterprise Architect, and how he has pursued the TOGAF certification and other components of his skill set. - The importance of the TOGAF SOA architecture and how it applies to the SAP world, in terms of architectural solutions that solve SAP business problems. Kent explains how the TOGAF framework was incorporated into SAP's Enterprise Architecture Framework, and how he was involved in the earlier stages of this process while working for SAP. - Why ABAP Developers and SAP Java Programmers need to think about becoming SAP Software Engineers, and why SAP Basis Experts should focus on becoming SAP Enterprise Architects. - The current NetWeaver product suite, including NetWeaver Portals, and how eSOA skills fit into a broader NetWeaver competency. - How the line is blurring between technical and functional approaches, and the role "offshoring" can play in this process of staffing projects. Kent also notes the communication issues involved in outsourcing that can impact which projects are appropriate for offshoring and which are better handled in house. - Fresh back from a conference session on attracting and retaining SAP talent, Kent talks about the three keys to building (and keeping) a great project team: provide a well-thought career path for your team members; 2. don't hold back on training your people with the latest SAP skills even if it means you might lose some of them to the SAP job market; 3. adopt a mentality of continuous training. - Kent also reports that the hardest skills to find, according to the SAP customers at the conference, were: 1. NetWeaver Administrators, and 2. Enterprise Architects. Java developers and ABAP programmers were easier to hire on the open market. Kent mentioned that the consulting firms don't even have many folks that know NetWeaver and Enterprise SOA well. Kent said that many of these firms turn to outsourcing to fill their project needs. - Jon asks Kent to elaborate on the role outsourcing plays on SAP projects, and asked him to talk about how SAP professionals can make themselves less vulnerable to outsourcing. Kent explains that mastering data modeling and business modeling tools, and emphasizing strategy and architecture was the key to becoming more outsourcing-proof. - Kent talks about his current SAP project, and how his team has developed a unique approach to building momentum for eSOA projects by working on projects from the "bottom up." Kent talked about how there is natural resistance to eSOA from both high level IT executives and business executives. He explained how his team is gaining support one project at a time by focusing on projects that have a "wow factor" and a tangible business benefit. - Kent provides an overview of his current SAP environment, and how they are working on eSOA with plans to involve NetWeaver CE, ESR, and NetWeaver PI. He talked about how his team can get projects done within a $50,000 budget and having composite apps up and running in a six week to two month period. Kent's team is using this approach to solve business "pain points" and to develop their own eSOA roadmap. - Jon asks Kent to explain to listeners how he identifies which areas are the best candidates for early eSOA projects. He lists the main factors that are ideal for eSOA projects: simplification, consolidation, and building new services and composites. Kent talks about which projects can have a "wow" type of impact, such as service-enabling inventory lookups, getting data to customers more effectively, and making user-friendly interfaces for in store employees for quick training and ramp up. - Jon and Kent go more in-depth into a discussion of the future of SAP development and the future of SAP technical skill sets. Kent talks about the importance of mastering new process modeling tools like Aris for NetWeaver, which is now tied into the ESR. He tells us that it's not yet possible for business process experts to model all their own code without the help of a developer, but this kind of model-driven programming is becoming closer to reality. Kent mentions other hot tools that SAP professionals should know, such as Web Dynpro, Adobe Forms, Solution Manager, and Aris . - Kent highlights the keys his project has used to build a quality internal team and strike a good balance with outside consulting support. He talks about the importance of hiring manager-level folks who are "SAP rock stars," which in turn allows for a more savvy use of SAP implementation partners. Kent says that for the next phase of his project, they are looking to bring in less consultants and train more people internally. - In closing, Kent talks about how the successful SAP professional understands that technology changes all the time, and that if you view paradigm changes as a threat, you should get out of this particular field, because there is always change. The point is to apply the right forward-thinking mindset towards skills acquisition. In terms of adding real value to SAP customers and keeping your skills in demand, Kent says that the key is to develop a deep understanding of NetWeaver and the ability to help SAP customers harness that technology and break through their NetWeaver confusion. If you can do that, says Kent, you can "write your own check."