It is appropriate at the start of a New Year to wish ones business and professional relation “all the best” for the New Year.
Professionally, I would like to wish you for this year, “a better year than 2009”. A nice outlook … at least for lots of companies for whom the last 12 month were not the best ever. Many businesses are actually happy to turn the 2009 page, close the book, and look ahead to 2010 with new aspirations. I have also decided not to look back too much at last year, but just to remember one important aspect of doing business within SAP in 2009: partnerships.
Relations, collaborations, partnerships are key in the “new reality”. This goes beyond pure incidental joint business transactions. Through collaborations and partnerships make the difference.Therefore SAP BeLux changed its yearly partner award at the end of 2009. We awarded 10 partners a “collaboration award”. In the past years, partners were nominated or awarded based on being the best in one specific category (award for midmarket, award for strategic solutions, award for customer satisfaction…). At the end of 2009 we looked at a combination of 5 criteria and looked for a clear answer on the main question: “how did the partner contributed to growing the SAP business”. The 5 criteria SAP BeLux used to determine “successful collaboration” were:1. new customers : obviously this is the key measure to define growth in Small and Medium Enterprises business. On the other hand, SAP equally targets ‘new names’ in the Large Enterprises segment2. extending the SAP solution footprint : within the installed customer base, SAP basically challenges its partners to invest in new, strategic solutions like Business User and CFO solutions, Netweaver Innovation solutions, Sustainability solutions,… and to position these at the customers. Therefore partners are requested to invest in demo systems, knowledge and education of their consultants.3. developing new markets, new industry sectors: even in a tough economic climate the focus industries like Financial Services sector and the Public Sector remain growth markets which require specific expertise and approaches together with SAP partners. 4. creating satisfied reference customers through high quality implementation projects. Customer success is the most valuable return for SAP and its partners. Equally real customer testimonials, success stories, reference calls,… are important way to convince prospects to invest in SAP.5. investment in sales and business development capacity: in summary SAP relies on transparent collaboration with partners to plan and develop joint opportunities .
Accenture, Alti Cernum, BSB, Callataÿ & Wouters, CSC, Delaware, Deloitte, IBM, Intensum and Thinking Solutions are the 10 companies I would like to congratulate with their collaboration award.
I am looking forward to extend this collaboration in 2010 and build a successful year together with the complete SAP eco-system.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Small, beautiful and … great (07/12/2009)
Luxemburg is one of the smallest countries in Europe where SAP has an own office. For years already SAP has chosen for a real office, with own operations and own people, not just a location where travelling salesmen pass-by. Luxemburg is particular and has a business environment which is at the same time “open” and “closed”. “Open” towards international collaboration, business networks and participants. Lots of business are indeed linked to international players and there is a large group of international business people active in Luxemburg. Open also towards innovations and change. It is a kind of a unwritten rule that “small” entities tend to be frontrunners in innovations and changes, as well in politics as in business. Luxemburg is confirming this rule.Closed also, because the business community consist of a small circle of Luxembourgian business people and companies with a good network. It takes a while before companies and individuals are integrated and connected. At SAP we recognize the characteristics and the specifics of the country. And we are glad to see that SAP and the SAP partners are also recognized in Luxemburg. In the last month only SAP won 2 awards in Luxemburg, and Amal Choury, president of the Luxemburg SAP User Group, was awarded the title of “Best IT Manager”. At this year’s Luxemburg HR Awards, organized by HR One, a renowned community of HR professionals, SAP was elected as the “Best HR software”. SAP HR solutions have gained a strong footprint in the Luxemburg companies and organizations. La Poste, Cargolux, Dexia, Etat de Luxembourg, KBL … are just a couple of companies that run SAP HR. And just a week ago, IT One awarded SAP the price of the Best Financial Systems against Fernbach Software; C&W; Oracle and some others software providers … About 50 CIOs from different sectors voted for the different prices categories and have also chosen Amal Choury as “Best IT Manager”. Amal is not only the driving force behind the Luxemburg User community, but also the “leading lady” at e-Kenz, an established and respected SAP partner. Together with Delaware, e-Kenz is innovating the SAP offering towards Luxemburg SME companies, combining a hosted SAP SME solution and introducing alternative SAP Software “consumption” models. Congratulations to Amal. I am glad to see that Luxemburg recognizes young, dynamic, … and female talent. SAP can be proud and the SAP community in Luxemburg is doing a great job to help organizations to become “best run”. The Awards are a motivation for SAP and the SAP partners to continue with lots of energy the good work 200km south of Brussels.
CIOs have Critical Role in Guiding Business Out of Recession (25/11/2009)
I would like to share an article with you, which highlights some thoughts I fully support.
"Chief information officers (CIOs) have a critical role to play in the next five years as businesses continue to feel the effects of the economic recession, says Chakib Bouhdary, chief value officer at SAP. Smart CIOs realize that business is unlikely to be the same as it was before the economic crisis and are planning for the future, he told the SAP UK and Ireland User Group Conference 2009. They are engaging with the business, reducing IT cost and complexity, tapping into business information, and building an IT infrastructure for new ways of working, he said. Without understanding where the business is trying to go, CIOs will be unable to assess whether they have the right infrastructure to achieve those goals into the future, said Bouhdary. The biggest enemy of the enterprise is the inefficiency and complexity created by having too many applications, he said. The most successful companies have three to five applications per $1bn revenue, but many businesses typically have 50 applications or more. By investing wisely in a few applications, most businesses can cut costs and improve efficiency, said Bouhdary."
cfr http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/11/24/239444/cios-have-critical-role-in-guiding-business-out-of-recession-says.htm for ffull article
"Chief information officers (CIOs) have a critical role to play in the next five years as businesses continue to feel the effects of the economic recession, says Chakib Bouhdary, chief value officer at SAP. Smart CIOs realize that business is unlikely to be the same as it was before the economic crisis and are planning for the future, he told the SAP UK and Ireland User Group Conference 2009. They are engaging with the business, reducing IT cost and complexity, tapping into business information, and building an IT infrastructure for new ways of working, he said. Without understanding where the business is trying to go, CIOs will be unable to assess whether they have the right infrastructure to achieve those goals into the future, said Bouhdary. The biggest enemy of the enterprise is the inefficiency and complexity created by having too many applications, he said. The most successful companies have three to five applications per $1bn revenue, but many businesses typically have 50 applications or more. By investing wisely in a few applications, most businesses can cut costs and improve efficiency, said Bouhdary."
cfr http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/11/24/239444/cios-have-critical-role-in-guiding-business-out-of-recession-says.htm for ffull article
A regular car has four doors and six gears …(19/10/2009)
Imagine you are in the following situation. You are in the parking lot of a supermarket, watching a family of four (dad, mom, two kids) approaching. The man and the woman are carrying big bags of groceries. Daddy has to put down the bags next to his car and as he is searching his pockets for his car keys, some of the purchased goods fall on the ground. Once the door is unlocked, the children are climbing into the car using the door at the driver side, followed by the woman, who has some difficulties getting into the car through the passenger seat. The groceries are loaded into the car via the same door, handed over to the kids, who put them on the backseat. When, after quite some time, they are finished, dad starts the car and leaves the parking ground. As the car makes a lot of noise, this catches the attention of everybody around. Keeping the car in first gear can have that effect, of course...
You probably have some questions about the events I just described. “Why doesn’t the man use the car key to remotely unlock the car?”, you might ask. Or: “why don’t they open the rear and the passenger doors to get everybody in the car?" And: “wouldn’t it be better to load the groceries directly into the trunk of the car?” Some of you would ask: “something must wrong with the car, because what else could be the reason the driver didn't use any of the other gears?” It is hard to imagine that something like this would happen in reality. If this family would look around, they would quickly notice that their way of “using” their car was not exactly “common practice”.
Am I exaggerating? Perhaps. However, I see a lot similarities between the car scenario and the way people use software solutions. Companies often buy software solutions that are only partially known by the user, sometimes not implemented in an optimal way, too often under-exploited and even misused. The net effect is reflected in the level of user satisfaction (just like the car that is not convenient for its passengers, makes too much noise …) and un-used capabilities.
I’m happy that SAP has an entire community –our SAP ecosystem- to avoid this. Next to the services to have our software up and running, our partners and we have put everything in place to train and spread the knowledge and enable everyone to share their experiences. A very important element is peer-exchange; customers exchanging knowledge, challenges and insights. That’s why I believe a lot in the value of a user community: organizations can show each other that a car has lots of functions and even advanced options which can make life much easier. In this context the Belgian SAP User Group SAPience.be has proven its value. I’m a great fan of the SAPience.be user group and of event events like the SAPience.be User Day, where SAP customers show each other how they use SAP technology to get the greatest business value. If you want to see how other people use the “four doors and six gears” of their SAP software, then do stop by on November 19 at the SAP Lounge for already the 8th SAPience.be User Day.
You can find inspiration on www.inspirationforsuccess.be
You probably have some questions about the events I just described. “Why doesn’t the man use the car key to remotely unlock the car?”, you might ask. Or: “why don’t they open the rear and the passenger doors to get everybody in the car?" And: “wouldn’t it be better to load the groceries directly into the trunk of the car?” Some of you would ask: “something must wrong with the car, because what else could be the reason the driver didn't use any of the other gears?” It is hard to imagine that something like this would happen in reality. If this family would look around, they would quickly notice that their way of “using” their car was not exactly “common practice”.
Am I exaggerating? Perhaps. However, I see a lot similarities between the car scenario and the way people use software solutions. Companies often buy software solutions that are only partially known by the user, sometimes not implemented in an optimal way, too often under-exploited and even misused. The net effect is reflected in the level of user satisfaction (just like the car that is not convenient for its passengers, makes too much noise …) and un-used capabilities.
I’m happy that SAP has an entire community –our SAP ecosystem- to avoid this. Next to the services to have our software up and running, our partners and we have put everything in place to train and spread the knowledge and enable everyone to share their experiences. A very important element is peer-exchange; customers exchanging knowledge, challenges and insights. That’s why I believe a lot in the value of a user community: organizations can show each other that a car has lots of functions and even advanced options which can make life much easier. In this context the Belgian SAP User Group SAPience.be has proven its value. I’m a great fan of the SAPience.be user group and of event events like the SAPience.be User Day, where SAP customers show each other how they use SAP technology to get the greatest business value. If you want to see how other people use the “four doors and six gears” of their SAP software, then do stop by on November 19 at the SAP Lounge for already the 8th SAPience.be User Day.
You can find inspiration on www.inspirationforsuccess.be
Some best practices are good enough and become common practices … other best practices are not good enough and require own practices (14/08/2009)
remember when I was a student at the university I heard for the first time about “good practices”. The principle idea behind good practices was that certain “ways of doing” got accepted as being good, or even being the reference. Instead of re-inventing everything one selves, it was allowed for organization to “copy” what was considered good practices. Exchanging on how to do business, on how to run certain processes, on the flow of activities … helped companies to increase efficiency and allowed to gain speed on changing towards/or implementing new practices. SAP (and also other business application software providers) used the concept of good practices to offer standard solutions that were built around these practices. SAP called these standardized processes/flows/models even “best practices” and helped organizations to accelerate in implementing these. Considering the evolution since the early 90’s, good practices (or even best practices) are still very relevant. The waves of Business Process Re-engineering/Modeling/Improving … have enforced the idea of reference based practices and processes. One could say that some “good practices” have become common practices. Meaning that it is a common business, or a generally accepted business practice, to do things in a certain way. And hence to standardize operations accordingly. The result is also that companies see clearly that there is no need to do these practices themselves any longer. They are common, and non-core, and hence ready to outsource or out-task. If you just think about pay-roll processing, facility management (cleaning, catering, fleet management…). The list of “common” practices is actually longer in certain industries (eg. procure-to-pay, warehousing, …) … although these are in more cases still considered “differentiating” from competitors or peers. On the other side of the spectrum, companies try to “innovate”. Not only by developing new products or services, but through creativity in processes (Business Process Innovations). The main idea is to differentiate through an different “practice”. We could say that organization opt for “own practices” which support to build competitive advantage. Own processes are most of the time not “rocket science” but rather “variations” on practices or processes. These own processes are most of the time “rewired” processes, using existing building blocks, or merely changing certain aspects of a good/best practice. It is clear that in many organizations “best practices” have to live together with “own practices”. The question is: is your IT infrastructure and organization capable of supporting this at an acceptable cost of ownership? Equally important is to question the flexibility and speed of changing practices. Undoubtedly a business process platform, which deliver both standard practices and an environment with tools to easily compose own practices based on proven building block/services is the best option. And guess what … SAP can help you here.
To centralize or not to centralize, that is NOT the question? (23/06/2009)
Cost cuts are on the toplist of business priorities these days in all organizations (small or large, no matter which industry sector they operate in). The trivial question is: how can organizations systematically drive down costs? How can enterprises improve cost structures? The answers are often related to improving operational efficiency; to do more with less. That is indeed the “what to do?” question and answer. But than comes the “how?”. My recent customer contacts have show that lots of commercial, industrial or service organization make reflection around the “best” organizational structure to maximize efficiency and drive down costs. Should organizations structure (or re-structured) all or part of their operations in a central or decentral way? In today’s economic reality, in comes down to “how to organize lean operations?”. How can one run and structure his business in a more performing (read in first instance “cheaper”) way? For sure in lots of different ways. But often “lean” is also associated to concepts like standardization, harmonization, benefiting from economies of scale, shared services, … It is generally accepted that the effect of centralization or consolidating of services within an organization is adding value (either higher service or lower costs) for a company. Quite often the real value is not coming from the consolidation as such, but from the automatization of the services associated with it. Research has proven that top performing companies use more often shared services than their peers. Besides the many other motivations to centralize, better control (governance, compliancy, security …) and cost reduction (enterprise workforce effectiveness, reduced enterprise process cost, …) are the strongest drivers. SAP has developed on the topic of shared services over the last couple of year, in order to deliver solution which allow companies to “centralize” part of their services or operations if they want to. I dare to say that SAP is probably the only enterprise business application that allows companies (especially large) to operate large scale shared service operations. And as is required in most cases, integrate these with more decentralized operations and processes. I doubt that lots of companies will fundamentally change their organizational form today (rather business process improvements than business process re-engineering), but the question “how to organize lean operations?” is more actual than ever. And than it is always good to know that the SAP Business Process Platform can enable our customers to deal with their business priorities by enabling shared services kind of solutions and/or further centralization of processes. After all this it would be a wrong deduction to say that SAP only support centralized business models. Decentralized business models are equally successfully support by the SAP solutions. And than there is a nice side effect … since there seems to a cyclical movement from centralization to decentralization, it is good to know that the SAP solutions can support both models.
Is everything clear? (07/06/2009)
The past months have been a turning point in our business; but equally in lots of industry sectors, and even in the whole economy. At SAP we talk about a New Reality, rather than about a crisis. It is clear in the mean time that not every company or industry is in crisis. But on the other hand it is also clear that there is a “new reality” for each and every business. A “new reality” characterized by economic volatility, instability and changes. A volatility that brings new risks, uncertainty … but equally new opportunities and possibilities. New in this reality is also the growing pressure for accountability and complexity. Accountability is related to the growing demand of stakeholders to proof that the company operates in the best interest of the global community. Sustainability, green economy, corporate social responsibility … are the more often used terms when it comes to accountability. Complexity on the other hand has to do with operating in the interconnected global world. The Suprime crisis has proven that nobody is immune for what happens at the other end of the world: the interconnected economy (the flat world) spreads its effects and influences at incredible speed over the globe. To be able to recognize these new dimensions, to see opportunity and deal with uncertainties and risks, and to make the right decisions within this new reality, enterprises need to see the whole picture. The best antidote to weather today’s economic storms is CLARITY. Because once you know more, see more, you can effectively do more. In this new reality it is not about cost cutting, at least not about cost cutting alone. It is rather about “thinking clearly”; how to (re?) focus business strategies and answer questions like who are the customers I want to serve? What is my strategy? Which markets I want to be in? Next to thinking clearly, “seeing clearly” (transparency while operating in today’s complex global world) and “act clearly” (demonstrating accountability) are component of the clear company. The best run companies need clarity today. SAP wants to enable clarity. SAP wants to enable its customers to become a clear enterprises. Enterprises that see clear in the whole value chain, from one end to the other. Enabling clarity comes according to SAP down to 3 things
Make businesses and business networks transparent, accountable and sustainable. SAP can cover all business processes and help to achieve clarity. Just think about Business Suite 7.0 and GRC as the cornerstones for making businesses transparent and accountable.
Secondly, agile & lean. On top of efficient operations, enterprises need flexibility and ability to innovate. To operate accurate while having the ability to change fast if necessary, is what the Business Process Platform and the Enterprise SOA of SAP bring as an answer to the table.
And last, collaboration and customer centricity. Clarity beyond the own business, into the complete business network is what is needed. As well for Enterprise operating in the Financial service industry dealing with complex financial products (clarity in the products), as for manufacturing companies which outsource part of their activities off-shore in the Far East (clarity in the social and environmental dimension of the operations). Clarity also in the relationship with the customer.
Companies can rely on SAP to enable clarity. Stay tuned; SAP will communicate much more on this topic in the near future. I hope the message is clear.
Make businesses and business networks transparent, accountable and sustainable. SAP can cover all business processes and help to achieve clarity. Just think about Business Suite 7.0 and GRC as the cornerstones for making businesses transparent and accountable.
Secondly, agile & lean. On top of efficient operations, enterprises need flexibility and ability to innovate. To operate accurate while having the ability to change fast if necessary, is what the Business Process Platform and the Enterprise SOA of SAP bring as an answer to the table.
And last, collaboration and customer centricity. Clarity beyond the own business, into the complete business network is what is needed. As well for Enterprise operating in the Financial service industry dealing with complex financial products (clarity in the products), as for manufacturing companies which outsource part of their activities off-shore in the Far East (clarity in the social and environmental dimension of the operations). Clarity also in the relationship with the customer.
Companies can rely on SAP to enable clarity. Stay tuned; SAP will communicate much more on this topic in the near future. I hope the message is clear.
Who or what is a business user? (26/05/2009)
As a Managing Director, I am a heavy user of my PC. I guess I spend every day at least 2 hours behind a screen, working on systems. But I would not call myself a “real user” of an enterprise application. Most of my “system time” I am working actually on my mail. I do use our own SAP ERP, CRM, SRM, … systems, but only sporadic. And most of the time to approve, release or consult transactional objects. My personal system use is often linked to non-operational activities. The kind of activities that need information, analytics, communication and collaboration capabilities. Some would call me an information worker or a business user. As a business user, I need information for fact based decision making and communication. Enterprise Applications have for a long been focusing on transactional users or task workers only. People that enter sales orders or book invoices or release production orders are well served by Business Systems. The main focus of the software was and is on how to raise productivity, transparency and consistency for operational activities. But how about the non-operational activities? How about the information workers? This kind of employees only sporadic access enterprise applications. They mainly require information for doing their job; which is managing, decision making and steering their area of reponsability. And they want this intuitively, fast and anywhere. For a long time (too long?) SAP has under-served this user community. Only during the last years, SAP has been focusing to to answer the question: how can we increase the productivity of information workers? With the acquisition of Business Objects, SAP has clearly chosen to set new standards in this domain. Analytics is the name of the game : analytics embedded in transactional systems, analytics for informations users, analytics to bridge the gap between strategy and execution … With Business Objects Explorer, launched at the Sapphire in Orlando just a week ago, SAP want to take Enterprise Performance Management to a next level and make information available in a “google like search and click” approach. Everybody is used to serve the web looking for “the” piece of information that he/she requires. Just imagine that business users can serve the corporate information source to find the answer for his/her questions. This is closer to become a reality than it might sound. But there is more than analytics. The collaboration of SAP and Microsoft or IBM, the Duet and Alloy solutions, also fit into the program to address the needs of the business user, combining the familiar day-to-day working environment (mainly mail) with access to information and transactions in a convenient way. It is all about enabling users to become more efficient and gaining the necessary insight into the organization and analytics to become “better run”.
It takes more than good ingredients to serve a nice meal ... (28/04/2009)
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a good, a very good or a bad restaurant? What does it take to run a very good restaurant? To deserve good marks from your audience or from the Gault Milllau.I would not dare to compare a small pizzeria (to avoid misunderstanding, they can serve delicious food) with a 3 Michelin Star restaurant à la Hof van Cleve. But still, within the same category/type of restaurants there seems to be a huge different in the “customer experience”. How come? The chefs basically have access to (or even use) the same “ingredients” and even then the result can be quite different. At least if we stay within the same type of restaurants I would dare to state that it is not the ingredients alone that determine the result. What makes the difference? Same or similar input, and still a different output or result. Is the chef the reason? Would the often miss-used statement “people are the most important asset” be the differentiator in the restaurant business? Is it the creativity of the chef, the experience of the kitchen personnel, the ability to “exploit” the potential of the ingredients, the unique combination of flavors, ….or is it something outside of the kitchen? What about the other elements of the experience, which have basically nothing to do with the quality or appreciation of the meal, but do influence or even determine the complete “experience” (like the atmosphere in the restaurant, the wine, the quality and friendliness of the service …)? I like to compare the “SAP experience” of quite some of our customers with a restaurant experience. Some enjoy a good experience, while for others it leaves a bitter taste. Although our customers (and partners) do mostly have access to the same software components, the results in an operational business environment can be quite different. Some SAP projects are very nice: the solution really pleases the users, the way the system set-up, the configuration; the customizing that has been done is great. The solution fits the business needs and makes company best run; the process run efficient, the system delivers valuable business insight and SAP supports the demand for flexibility, change and innovation over time. Is it the “chef” with his personal experience, his ability to put the components together, and with his creativity to combine and compose the right solution that makes the difference? Let me answer this firmly with a YES. Just like in a restaurant, people can make the difference between a good, very good and a bad project. When customers ask me which partner to choose to support my implementation, I use the restaurant metaphore to stress that you can cook different meals with the same ingredients. If you put the best ingredients in the hand of a lousy cook, the result is not guarantied. If you want to gain a Michelin Star, you will need the best possible people in the kitchen. If you want a good SAP solution, you will need good consultants and integrators. Even in a take-away (pre-configured solution?), the people can make the difference. But just like in the restaurant business, the meal is not the only part of the experience. It is “necessary but not sufficient” to compose your company SAP solution using the right ingredients in the right proportion and combination. Beside the “meal”, the critical success factors, the elements which make your experience also relate to project governance and management support (lets say the maitre d’hotel), user acceptance and knowledge (like the restaurant atmosphere) , the integration and involvement/ownership of the business … etc. I guess it is a challenge for SAP to make sure the ingredients are “fresh” and good quality; a challenge for the SAP integrator that the “meal” is rightly cooked; and for the customer and partner to make sure that it all contributes to a “delicious” experience.
Flemish government headcount increases by 7000 …. (22/03/2009)
This weekend I read an article in the newspapers about the increase in the number of Flemish public officials (“ambtenaren”). The headline was that more than 7000 additional employees are serving the Flemish population over the last 7 years; an increase of 17%. That equals the number of people working for a company like eg. Electrabel. The increases on the Federal level, within the Brussels administration and the Walloon administration are quite comparable. Is there an issue with the efficiency of our Public Services? Efficiency is apparently less critical in the Public Sector than it is in private companies. Today “efficiency” is seen as a knock-out criteria for private companies to stay in business. If your company is not operating efficiently, you will be put out of business by competitors. Streamlining end-to-end processes, within each department separately but also across different departments within the organizations, transparency in the different process step, no duplication of work, stable, reliable and traceable information … all elements which are a necessity in private companies. ERP solutions like SAP played an important role in enabling this in the private sector. How about the Public sector? Do they have the same drive to organize their operations and processes? And do they have the same tools and systems to do so?
The other element that attracted my attention is the fact that the Public Sector was lacking actual information on their employee file. A “study” had to be executed to know how many people were actually working for the Flemish government; capturing insight in age, sexe, education level and other indicators on headcounts at the same time. I have the impression that lots of private companies equally lack ready available insights or key indicators on what they call “their most important assets”. Do private companies have the intelligence available to answer questions like “what is the evolution of personnel turnover in the last 10 years, eg. per education level?”, “how many people will retire from the company in the next 10 years?” … I have personally experienced (based on customer contacts) that Business Intelligence on personnel information is less developed than it is on topics like inventory levels, customer information or available production capacity. The personnel data should be easily available out of a classical Personnel Administration system like SAP HR. Maybe there is a large opportunity to improve the insight and business intelligence and to supply company management with relevant KPIs on personnel/headcount matters.
I am sure companies will welcome this (not only when having to make decisions on headcounts these days).
The other element that attracted my attention is the fact that the Public Sector was lacking actual information on their employee file. A “study” had to be executed to know how many people were actually working for the Flemish government; capturing insight in age, sexe, education level and other indicators on headcounts at the same time. I have the impression that lots of private companies equally lack ready available insights or key indicators on what they call “their most important assets”. Do private companies have the intelligence available to answer questions like “what is the evolution of personnel turnover in the last 10 years, eg. per education level?”, “how many people will retire from the company in the next 10 years?” … I have personally experienced (based on customer contacts) that Business Intelligence on personnel information is less developed than it is on topics like inventory levels, customer information or available production capacity. The personnel data should be easily available out of a classical Personnel Administration system like SAP HR. Maybe there is a large opportunity to improve the insight and business intelligence and to supply company management with relevant KPIs on personnel/headcount matters.
I am sure companies will welcome this (not only when having to make decisions on headcounts these days).
Business-critical software demands new kind of support (16/03/2009)
After reading the article “EuroCIO denounces Microsoft and SAP”, which appeared in Data News on 6 March, I’d like to share some thoughts on the support services that SAP offers its customers. For a long time ‘support’ in the ICT sector was synonymous with ‘ensuring that the systems keep running’. But for the companies supporting their business-critical processes with software, this isn’t the end of the story. In this current challenging climate especially, these organizations want their applications to provide them with continuous value and help them to be quick in anticipating changes in market and business conditions. This is the only way for them to maintain a competitive edge. Software suppliers may like to point to concepts like SOA and clear upgrade possibilities for their software, but customers expect more. They want their supplier to help them think about the added value of the software, as well as offer support for achieving and maintaining this value. With this in mind, last year we introduced the standard support model Enterprise Support. Here, SAP takes greater responsibility for guaranteeing the quality of the systems at the customer’s site and the customer also receives supplementary advice services for introducing new capabilities and innovations. Additionally, we also extended our standard support period by two years, so that customers have a long-term guarantee for their investment. As reported in the article of 6 March, this new support model has a new price tag. Since last year new customers are paying 22% support costs – the average market price for standard support services. And for the first time in 10 years, the support contributions of existing customers are to be index-linked each year by 8% until 2012, so as to reach 22% by that point. What we are really proud of, however, is that our customers will be able to reduce their TCO because of the many new services on offer. They will be able to free up time and resources to focus on what really matters in today’s world: not just keeping the system running with limited resources but ensuring that the business applications can support the organization even more efficiently and rapidly enhance all the business processes with added value. Today, more than ever, this is our leitmotif. What’s more, we’ll keep on listening to the market, our customers and user groups so that we keep getting better at anticipating their wishes.
This is not a crisis of the IT industry … (08/03/2009)
At SAP we have agreed not to use the term “crisis” too much anymore, but rather talk about the “new reality”. A good attitude I think, … since it seems that when people talk too much about the crisis that in the end everybody seems to accept the crisis and does not fight it anymore.
At SAP we believe there are good reasons and ways to address the challenges of the new reality, rather than accepting the crisis. Especially in the IT industry. In contradiction to 2001 (dotcom), IT did not cause the downturn. It is rather the other way around: IT (Software and more in particular Enterprise Business Solutions) can play a fundamental role to address the “new reality”.
In these times lots of companies are looking for cost savings, cutting down on expenses and investments. The predictability of the economic evolution is limited (even in the short term), so companies tend to look for short term and easy(?) cost saving measures rather than investing in ways to overcome some of the challenges. Cash shortage, working capital, in-efficenties in business processes, … or things like a poor sourcing strategy are not addressed by “saving costs”. Smart investments and short term projects that tackle the real pain points have higher changes to be successful and to help companies survive. SAP has made a short document on this. I would like to advise everyone (our customers and partners) to read it, find some inspiration and address the challenges beyond the regular cost savings.
The SAP colleagues are ready to discuss with you.
At SAP we believe there are good reasons and ways to address the challenges of the new reality, rather than accepting the crisis. Especially in the IT industry. In contradiction to 2001 (dotcom), IT did not cause the downturn. It is rather the other way around: IT (Software and more in particular Enterprise Business Solutions) can play a fundamental role to address the “new reality”.
In these times lots of companies are looking for cost savings, cutting down on expenses and investments. The predictability of the economic evolution is limited (even in the short term), so companies tend to look for short term and easy(?) cost saving measures rather than investing in ways to overcome some of the challenges. Cash shortage, working capital, in-efficenties in business processes, … or things like a poor sourcing strategy are not addressed by “saving costs”. Smart investments and short term projects that tackle the real pain points have higher changes to be successful and to help companies survive. SAP has made a short document on this. I would like to advise everyone (our customers and partners) to read it, find some inspiration and address the challenges beyond the regular cost savings.
The SAP colleagues are ready to discuss with you.
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