Life is not an argument but an act of faith- As said by TS Elliot with a faith for more from SAP, last week I was in SAP TechEd from Oct 5th to Oct 7th that was held at Bangalore International Exhibition Center.This was the first time I have attended for SAP TechEd in India. On Wed day morning started at 9 am and took a city high way road NH48 for my 40 km ride to this conference center. The high way is pretty nice and good to go for any long ride. It got resembled like an interstate 101 there in Phoenix,AZ. Reached there around 9.45 am and then was in a despair over the long line at the registration counter. It quickened fast and was able to catch the executive key note of Bernd Leukert.
Bernd at the helm took the stage with a great applause from the crowd of techies around. With his silent and soothing voice he started pitching the conversation around the topics on Innovation, SAP S/4 HANA, Fiori 2.0, SAP HANA Cloud Platform, SAP BW on AnyDB, SAP BW/4HANA Process orchestration and much emphasis given towards IoT & digitization.
If I were to pick the three highlights from the keynote for me – they were
1. SAP IoT (Internet of Things) and progress around. From Tanja Rueckert. Industry still diffuse many open questions around Security and Data privacy about IoT. I hope SAP will take care of these while building new solutions around this space. Especially in SAP Asset Intelligence Network.
2. SAP Machine Learning Strategy. From SAP Chief Innovation Officer Juergen Mueller. I hope to see some profound effect with his diligent efforts within SAP.
The signs are around us. We are on the cusp of a shift to a new common sense model that will re-shape many facets of our life, including how we identify ourselves, participate with others, connect with others, mobilize resources and learn. Machine Learning is still booming and I hope for SAP to identify plenty of opportunities within. Looking forward more from this young man Juergen.
3. SAP Modern UX-For every user using the much enhances Fiori 2.0. Bernd emphasized many times about the importance of enhanced version of Fiori that will enrich user interface. He gave a demo related to consolidation of user notification that is very good development that many of the audiences applauded after the demo.
Renovations involve strengthening existing product lines through new marketing campaigns or mild formulation changes.At the end of his key note I felt like SAP is renovating in many aspects of it’s product portfolios with few lesser innovation.
Day 2 & Day 3 passed not much of an attention to me except the session on SAP S/4 HANA Digitalization session by Sven Denecken – SVP Co-Innovation and Product Management S/4HANA that was really helpful for any customers who would like to migrate from traditional ERP to S/4 HANA. While talking to few clients like us that are would like to migrate to SAP S/4 HANA, still have few ambiguities about the how difficult it would be migrating to S/4 HANA in a full fledged manner. His session helped the crowd to answer some of the migration questions. Axiomatic manner!!!
Refer best practices for further information.
My take at the end :
-
There is the old cliché, ‘change is the only constant’ (perhaps that in itself needs to change). it does ring true for SAP seeking to make the transition from stone-cast ideas to innovative and worthy recommendations.
- Since last few years S/4 HANA it’s been the DNA behind the SAP high and inclusive growth, which has been embellished year on year with new renovations except with few little on innovations. Old wine in new bottles.
- Very much impressed with the progress and gargantuan amount they have planned for IoT and digitization.
- Progress in SAP HANA cloud platform services will be beneficial to SAP.
- On the concern side SAP needs more cohesion between it’s product teams with the audience. It looks like a one way platform for me.
- Last but not least amenities provided by SAP in this location were irksome, debunk, and not replete. I hope they might have noticed some of the audience complaints and will work in amelioration for the next time.
Disclaimer: Views here are my personal views and some of the interpretations are based on my personal assumptions only.
sivaayyala 