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Briefing Book: SAP Digital, Social, Communities

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SAP Digital, Social, and Communities
   Executive Briefing Book




   Updated: October 2012




   Objective:
   This doc...
SAP Digital, Social, and Communities
                       DRIVING THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL BUSINESS




CONTENTS

Overview
•...
Overview
Digital, Social, and Communities at SAP

SAP Digital, Social, and Communities leads SAP’s strategic participation...
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Briefing Book: SAP Digital, Social, Communities

  1. 1. SAP Digital, Social, and Communities Executive Briefing Book Updated: October 2012 Objective: This document is designed to provide background information on SAP Digital, Social, and Communities to executives, community spokespeople, SAP influencers, opinion leaders, and others. Page 1 of 47
  2. 2. SAP Digital, Social, and Communities DRIVING THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL BUSINESS CONTENTS Overview • Digital, Social, and Communities at SAP ...........................................................................................3 • Community Value ................................................................................................................................4 • Key Elements of Our Social Business ................................................................................................5 • Community Features and Tools ..........................................................................................................6 Facts At-a-Glance • SAP Community Network.....................................................................................................................8 • SAP & SCN Social Media Channels ...................................................................................................10 • The SAP.com Experience...................................................................................................................12 • Events: SAP TechEd and SAP Technology Forum ..........................................................................16 • Community Assets o Idea Place .......................................................................................................................................18 o SAP Store........................................................................................................................................19 o SAP Mentors ...................................................................................................................................20 o SCN Newsletter Publications.........................................................................................................21 o Developer Programs ......................................................................................................................22 o University Alliances Community ...................................................................................................25 • Recognition: Analysts, Influencers, Publications and Awards .......................................................27 Quotes and Testimonials • SAP Customers ..................................................................................................................................32 • SAP Partners.......................................................................................................................................34 • SCN Members .....................................................................................................................................36 • SAP TechEd Attendees ......................................................................................................................39 • University Alliances Community Members .......................................................................................43 • SAP: Paving the Road Ahead ............................................................................................................46 Note: The electronic version of this document contains active links to contextually relevant resources. If you’re reading a printed version and would like an electronic version, please request via mark.yolton@sap.com. Page 2 of 47
  3. 3. Overview Digital, Social, and Communities at SAP SAP Digital, Social, and Communities leads SAP’s strategic participation in digital marketing, public social media, and hosted communities. This recently formed organization brings together three critical SAP experiences and represents the convergence of “traditional” online marketing with social media and community from the user’s perspective. SAP provides orchestrated connections to a dynamic community of customers, partners, employees and experts, and delivers an unparalleled depth and breadth of knowledge about SAP solutions – wherever and whenever it is needed. The key components include: • SAP Community Network (SCN - http://scn.sap.com/welcome), which is SAP’s industry-leading professional social network. SCN launched in 2003 and connects a community of over 2.5 million individual members and thousands of enterprises, across a variety of roles, industries and topic areas throughout the lifecycle of their SAP relationship. Members from over 230 countries engage on SCN each day to find answers to product questions, solve implementation challenges, learn best practices, educate themselves on the latest SAP technologies, and connect with experts and thought leaders. • In-Person Events which augment, deepen, and strengthen community member relationships with each other and with SAP while providing a platform and venue for information exchange, education, and market-influencing thought leadership: o SAP TechEd – Major conference series held from October-November in four global locations (for 2012, these locations are: Las Vegas, Bangalore, Madrid, and Shanghai) o SAP Technology Forum – Smaller, local, one-day seminars from February-October in over 40 locations worldwide • SAP & SCN Social Media Channels, which represent our official SAP and SCN properties on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, and Slideshare with a combined reach over 425,000. These channels provide another way to extend our two-way dialogue with external audiences on platforms where relevant conversations are already occurring. SAP & SCN Social Media Channels also serves as a center of excellence within SAP in setting company-wide priorities, establishing policies and governance, standardizing tools, and delivering core training and enablement services across SAP organizations worldwide. • Digital Marketing, which includes SAP’s flagship web property (www.SAP.com) and online demand generation activities such as global campaigns, paid search and email. SAP.com is localized into 40 languages across 70 countries, generates 2 million unique visitors per month, and has a goal of being the most socially integrated corporate technology website in the world. Page 3 of 47
  4. 4. Community Value SAP Community Network provides: • Content – Features, technical documentation, and business process best practices • Collaboration – Highly engaged members in forums, blogs, and wikis • Downloads and Tools – SAP software, templates, plug-ins and samples, tools, and code snippets • Skill Development – Online tutorials, videos, demos, and premium training • Marketplace – SAP Store, the community-driven online solutions marketplace SCN allows customers to get more from their SAP investment: Efficiency – Reduce wasted resources, cycles, and money by reusing existing experiences and solutions from other customers, partners, and SAP Impact – Drive higher quality and better business results by leveraging proven best practices Speed – Accelerate execution through access to technologies, models, and a network of experts Insight – Innovate and differentiate with the benefit of collective wisdom and broad and diverse perspectives Members benefit from community participation: • Learn – Discover optimum configurations for specific industries; best practices for change management, upgrades or migrations; and what other “best run” companies are achieving. Get quick, high-quality answers from other customers, partners, and SAP experts. • Network – Connect with thought leaders and thousands of others to learn about new trends, market shifts, shared challenges, and best practices; gain general and industry-specific insights that can help achieve greater business and career success. • Succeed – Establish reputation by sharing knowledge, expanding skill-sets, and developing expertise. Page 4 of 47
  5. 5. Key Elements of Our Social Business Pillar Description Example Social Use the wisdom of the crowd to drive higher Idea Place Innovation quality solutions and innovations that better meet customer needs and therefore have greater market success and impact Social Leverage our reach and influence to drive speed SAP Store Commerce and to dramatically increase leads and revenues both organically and through targeted campaigns Social Enable customer success through the active SCN blogs Intelligence sharing of knowledge, solutions and best SAP Mentors practices to drive excellence and innovation Social Insight Extract intelligence from observable customer Popular/Top Rated behaviors and conversations to equip our content on SCN colleagues with insight into customer hot topics, SCN Member Survey burning issues, and new opportunities Page 5 of 47
  6. 6. Community Features and Tools Social media platforms are a vital part of SAP’s ecosystem, helping us build a true community around SAP. SCN is our market-leading implementation of social media best practices. By enabling employees, customers, and partners to share knowledge and collaborate on a global scale, SAP has instant access to a wide network of highly engaged experts with real-world experience across various industries and job functions. Our communities and events feature tightly integrated technologies, custom-built applications, and third-party social media tools which allow us to have genuine conversations with the ecosystem. These capabilities and tools include: Within SCN • Discussions • Contributor Recognition Program • Blog Posts • Developer Center • Documents/eLearning • Activity Streams • Downloads • Idea Place • Events/Webinars • SAP Store • Training and Education • Wikis Page 6 of 47
  7. 7. Benefits of the new SAP Community Network In March 2012, SAP launched a brand new SCN experience to all members of the community. The underlying technology powering the SCN platform was migrated to Jive SBS 5.0, which enables a more open, collaborative and easy-to-use environment. The transition was a major undertaking, updating thousands of topic pages, some 20,000 blogs and more than 8 million forums posts with new designs, features and organization. The updated platform provides a unified and consolidated view of topics, features that make it easier to follow content, improved search functionality, easier publishing tools, and much more. The chart below highlights new features of the system. New Feature Advantage Spaces and subspaces SCN is organized into more than 400 “spaces” which support small, self-contained communities that are focused on a topic, solution, industry or line of business. Integrated blogs, discussions and Members can create a blog in any SCN space. Blogs are published documents immediately (no need for moderator approval) and blogs will become more readily available to other users with similar interests. Easy content creation process Most sections now contain a complete set of social networking tools for all types of content including discussions, blogs, and document collaboration and publishing. Simplified and consistent navigation Easier to use menu navigation that’s consistent with established navigation standards. Improved reputation program A reputation program to measure activity, thank members for contributions, and recognize visibility in the community. Find and follow content Track favorite content with the Follow button. Find and follow other members Track favorite people easily with the Follow button. Page 7 of 47
  8. 8. Facts At-a-Glance The History of SAP Community Network The first SAP community, SAP Developer Network, launched in 2003. The community continued to grow and eventually the SAP Community Network brand emerged in 2007. From the start, SCN has been an innovator and leader in accelerating social business for SAP and its ecosystem of customers and partners. The chart below shows major milestones and growth metrics throughout the years. 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Launched: 100K 1M forum Launched: 1M members Launched: Launched: Launched: 2.5M members SAP members posts BPX Business- EcoHub App Code SCN brand 1M newsletter Developer Community Objects Store Exchange created subscribers Network Community Wikis Career Center Launched: SAP University Idea Place Alliances Community SAP Community Network Statistics • Audience: o Technical: Developers, Consultants, Analysts, Systems Integrators, IT Professionals o Business: Process Experts, Application Consultants, Business Analysts, Dashboard Designers o Other: Analysts, Thought Leaders, SAP Employees • At a glance: o 2.5M+ members o 1M newsletter subscribers o 2012 Net Promoter Score (NPS) is world-class at 46% o 600-700 community moderators o Member testimonials • Popular spaces on SCN include: o Business Intelligence o SAP HANA o Cloud Computing o SAP for Mobile o Customer Relationship Management o SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions o Human Capital Management o Events & Webinars “SCN has been a very helpful resource for many questions that we encountered during the development phase of our SAP implementation, easily saving us 10-20% of overall project time. Finding a similar solution ourselves might have taken an extra 2-3 weeks in some cases.” - Faisal Mehmood, Business Process Analyst, Colgate- Palmolive Page 8 of 47
  9. 9. SAP Community Network Statistics (continued) • SAP Community Network: 2.5+ million total members Total Community Members o Growing at ~48,000 new members per month 4,000,000 o >200 countries and territories worldwide 3,000,000 (led by: U.S., India, Germany, UK, Japan, China) 2,000,000 1,000,000 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 • ~1,170 discussions per day in 2012 o >17,000 Likes o >7,000 Comments o >6,000 Ratings Unique Visitors • >2 million unique individual visitors each month 2,500,000 2,000,000 o >5 million total visits per month 1,500,000 o >44 million page views in 2012* 1,000,000 o >2 million page views per month* 500,000 o >500K pages viewed per week* 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 • >400,000 members have ever contributed their knowledge or experience o >38,000 contributors in past 12 months (>1 point) • ~7,000 new blogs through Sept 2012 New Blogs o >60% more blogs compared to 2011 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 * Forum and blog platform was replaced when Jive launched on the new SCN Lower page views were expected on the new SCN because the concept of pages has been replaced by dynamic content. Page 9 of 47
  10. 10. SAP & SCN Social Media Channels The SAP & SCN social media channels comprise the largest, most active, and most engaged global social communities at SAP. These properties on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, and Slideshare reach over 425,000 fans & followers every day with the latest from the SAP brand, executives, and solutions. These communities allow SAP customers, partners, and developers to engage with the SAP brand in a more responsive, more direct, and more human way. SAP’s community managers constantly monitor these channels and quickly respond to questions, complaints, ideas, and other requests that help improve customer experiences and foster advocacy and loyalty. Facts and figures on the SAP & SCN Social Channels: • 425,000+ Fans & Followers • 1,100,000+ video & presentation views on YouTube & Slideshare • 20,000+ customer interactions per month • 150,000+ clicks per month to SAP online experiences • Top B2B Brand Facebook Page (Altimeter Study, 2010) SAP and SCN Social Media Accounts SAP SAP on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/SAP SAP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sap SAPon Twitter: http://twitter.com/SAP SAP on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/sap SAP on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/SAP SAP on Google+: http://plus.google.com/u/0/+SAP/posts SAP Community Network (SCN) SCN on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/SAPCommunities SCN on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sapcommunitynetwork SCN on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SAPCommNet SCN on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=80937 SCN on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/SAPCommunityNetwork Page 10 of 47
  11. 11. SAPPHIRE NOW 2012 Orlando Social Media Highlights (compared to 2011) SAPPHIRE NOW 2012 China Social Media Highlights Page 11 of 47
  12. 12. The SAP.com Experience SAP.com is the corporation’s flagship web property, providing a world class user interface and signature design experience to 45M+ visitors a year across 70 countries in 40 languages. While the primary focus of the website is to help our customers discover and explore our industry-leading solutions, SAP.com also plays a critical role in providing fast and easy access to every aspect of SAP – across services and support, training, partners, events, customer testimonials and investor relations. SAP.com – Relevant, Innovative, Essential Exclusive Digital Experience SAP.com leverages the use of an embedded “cul de sac” design strategy, providing a self-contained digital experience across the key market categories (analytics, applications, cloud, database and technology and mobile), industries, and LOBs without the distraction of the larger corporate experience. This approach allows each and every SAP offering a fully unique, dedicated area to present the solution across overviews, expert resources, customer testimonials, product demos, and specific LOB and industry details. Dedicated “Cul de Sacs” for every Solution, Industry and LOB The SAP.com experience is enhanced with over 300+ hours of rich media across customer testimonials, case studies, solution overviews, etc. This allows SAP to leverage the rapidly growing trend amongst C-suite executives watching work-related online video. Finally, SAP.com is device agnostic, fully rendering across the majority of current desktops, laptops and tablet devices. In addition, m.SAP.com provides smartphone visitors with an optimized content, navigation, and rich media experience across their Apple, Android and Blackberry devices (available in English, Japanese and German). In addition, m.SAP.com leverages the inherent capabilities of a smartphone, allowing visitors to call an SAP representative with just one tap on the screen. m.SAP.com optimized smartphone experience Page 12 of 47
  13. 13. Personalized Features A new site feature called “Your SAP.com” enables users to fully personalize their site experience. Through a combination of self- selected interests, browsing history and predictive algorithms, new content pages are built for every single registered user. As new content is released (customer testimonials, white papers, videos, etc.) personalized email reminders are automatically sent to users with direct links to their individual web pages; and the more they interact with the site, the more personalized it becomes. This approach to a personalized web experience has delivered exponentially higher traffic, click-through and engagement rates compared with any other part of SAP.com. “Your SAP.com” – personalize the website to specific interests Always-on Contact Options “Always On” Contact Bar - direct engagement to SAP representatives Key to delivering the SAP.com experience is the presence of the ‘Always On’ Contact bar at the top of every page; enabling site visitors to more deeply engage with SAP as needed. Chatting live with an SAP representative, having them call you, or scheduling an in-person meeting with a sales representative is just a click away. When combined with access to ‘Free Trials’ for SAP solutions and the ability to subscribe to any of SAP’s eNewsletters, the ‘Always On” contact bar allows customers to engage with SAP.com at their pace and on their terms. Page 13 of 47
  14. 14. Optimized Onsite Search Experience With all web visitors relying on search technologies as part of daily life, delivering a best-in-class onsite search functionality is required to facilitate the SAP.com experience. Key functionality, like faceted search, previous search archives, predictive search strings in addition to recommended and promoted search results, are some of the many reasons SAP.com is best in class with onsite search. SAP.com Onsite Search Results Page Social and Community Integration SAP.com is fully integrated with social channels and aspires to be the most socially integrated corporate technology website in the world. Our social strategy is based on these principles: • Become the first corporate technology site that helps customers navigate the social ecosystem while contributing to the community at the same time • Provide holistic SAP solution overviews and content across both SAP and user-generated sources The ‘Social Hub’ on SAP.com is our first iteration of this strategy, directly linking to SAP’s corporate presence across 3rd party social media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), corporate blogs and most importantly, the SAP Community Network. This integration goes to the next level across each of the site’s solution areas with top social posts being integrated across the core site content, offering visitors the best of SAP and 3rd party content for the solutions they are exploring. SAP.com “Social Media Hub” Page 14 of 47
  15. 15. Digital Demand Generation SAP.com is the cornerstone our Digital Demand Generation Strategy based on three fundamental principles: 1) Attract maximum traffic to SAP.com, 2) Convert site visitors into Lead Status and 3) Nurture anyone not ready for a Sales conversation. The number one driver of traffic to SAP.com comes from our search marketing efforts and the media partnership SAP has with Google. These efforts alone, live in 50 countries, account for over 600 million SAP impressions and 7 million visitors to the website every year. • Search Mkting Convert • eNurture • Social Mkting • Test Lab • Your • Paid Media • Content SAP.com • Offers Attract Nurture To drive conversions of site visitors into sales leads, SAP’s Digital “Test Lab” executes 25 A/B tests on the site every quarter. These tests, focused on optimizing page layout, design, usability, content and offers, drive an average conversion rate improvement of 35%. SAP’s Online Lead Routing (OLR) ensures each and every site inquiry is processed within 1 business day and routed to the correct sales channel. Over 1 million site inquiries will be processed via OLR in 2012 and for those not ready for a sales conversation, SAP maintains the Flash, our single largest eNurture tool, being sent to over 700,000 subscribers every single week with special offers, breaking news on SAP innovation, new product releases, demos and free trials, discounts to premier events and more. “Digital Test Lab” for higher lead conversion Page 15 of 47
  16. 16. Events: SAP TechEd and SAP Technology Forum SAP TECHED 2012 Las Vegas, Oct. 15-19 | Madrid, Nov.13-16 | Bangalore, Nov. 28-30 | Shanghai, Dec. 4-5 SAP TechEd is SAP’s premier technical education conference. The annual event is a manifestation of the SAP online communities, gathering more than 22,000 attendees each Fall, including SAP product experts, customers, partners, and industry thought-leaders. SAP TechEd is the fastest way to get hands-on technical training on SAP solutions, developments, and network with industry experts and peers. Learn more at www.sapteched.com. Hosted in four locations worldwide, SAP TechEd 2012 will continue momentum in Las Vegas, Madrid, Bangalore, and Shanghai. SAP TechEd is an amazing event full of deep-dive technical content, hands-on workshops, and opportunities to meet the technical experts building SAP products. Network with peers, developers, thought leaders, experts, architects, and others. In addition to the physical events, parts of the conferences are broadcast live from the SAP TechEd Live Studio (www.sapteched.com/live), encouraging online participation and broadening the reach of the event. REACH SAP TechEd Attendees 22,000 SAP TechEd Online Views 480,000 Technology Forum Attendees 16,000 Virtual Workshop Participants 900 Internal SAP TechEd 5,400 Las Vegas Madrid Bangalore Shanghai 2012 TechEd Global Impact and Momentum: • Estimated 22,000 in-person attendees • 1,000+ hours of content • 260+ demo-filled technical sessions and workshops • Hot Topics: analytics, mobile, cloud, databases, SAP HANA/In-memory, and sustainability • 60+ partner exhibits, networking lounge, interactive stations, Q&A sessions, and SAP TechEd Live Studio Of the customers attending, 81% recommend increasing their organization’s investment in SAP products and services and 79.5% are more likely to invest sooner. Page 16 of 47
  17. 17. Getting Social @SAP TechEd SAP TechEd leverages the latest social and digital technology to create real-time, engaging experiences for both online and in-person attendees. In the fourth quarter of 2011, the social reach of SAP TechEd included 41,326,398 Twitter impressions, 5,900,398 Facebook impressions, and 15,343 YouTube views – with high level of engagement driven by the community - 63% of the Tweets and 50% of the blogs were contributed by non-SAP employees. Twitter – follow @SAPTechEd and add to the discussion #SAPTechEd Facebook – comment on posts, share photos, answer polls, and RSVP to events LinkedIn – join the conversation, RSVP to events YouTube – watch videos on the SAP TechEd playlist SAP TechEd Community Space – read and contribute blogs, documents, and discussions around SAP TechEd topics Who’s Coming? - search the online SAP TechEd attendee directory. The integrated social media platform connects attendees to network and meet up with their LinkedIn colleagues and people they follow on Twitter during and after the event SAP TechEd Buzz! – join us for a series of pre-conference broadcasts on Google+ SAP TechEd Online SAP TechEd Online is your source for live and on-demand content from the SAP TechEd 2012 conferences. Watch keynotes, Demo Jams, event highlights, and select lectures. Attendees can also enjoy captivating interviews featuring SAP executives, speakers, and other industry experts. Share your favorite sessions, download presentations, and watch behind-the-scenes videos, at your convenience (http://www.sapteched.com/online). SAP Technology Forum The SAP Forum is a global road show that leverages SAP TechEd content on a country level. Presentations are delivered in the local language and are free of charge. o View the events calendar o Each local tour-stop is driven by a combination of SAP country subsidiary, SAP user groups, and partner-sponsors. o SAP Forum community space – view blogs, agendas, event photos and presentations. Virtual Hands-on Workshops The most valuable assets from the SAP TechEd conferences are the hands-on workshops which offer direct access to SAP systems with expert-led exercises and classroom training. Attendees can reserve up to two workshops on-site. By making the course available virtually, these hands-on workshops can be delivered from any computer, after the events. In 2011, 16 hands-on workshops were deployed through cloud and virtualization technology. The number of workshops will increase to 45 in 2012. Learn more about the content curation of SAP TechEd at http://www.sapteched.com/groundswell2012/. Page 17 of 47
  18. 18. Community Assets Idea Place is crowd based, collaborative way for SAP to co-innovate with our customers, partners and the greater ecosystem. Idea Place hosts innovation campaigns called Idea Sessions, which are typically based on a topic or question that is posed to a target audience. The question can inspire ideas from the audience. Through social tools, others in the audience can connect with the idea submitters and begin to develop ideas. Once ideas are mature enough, the audience will vote and self-prioritize the ideas, providing insight into audience demand. Finally a review team can analyze the ideas, with the ranking provided by the votes and strategic fit determining which ideas will have the strongest impact. The ideas are then taken and implemented in a company, solution or SAP product. The idea sessions take several forms including: Idea Gathering: Excellent as a listening post to spot customer ideas and trends. Good for future applications. Co-Innovation Jams: Help customers break through their own silos by co-innovating with them and their employees. Harvest ideas that can be delivered by SAP and integrate SAP into the customers’ corporate innovation strategy. Customer-Partner Collaboration: Where SAP cannot execute on an idea, connect customers’ needs with partners to accelerate innovation in the ecosystem. Over the last 2 years, Idea Place has run over 150 idea sessions with significant results: • Idea Place Statistics: o 11,565 Ideas o 9.189 Comments o 52,382 Votes o 339 Completed Ideas Page 18 of 47
  19. 19. The SAP Store is the place for you to discover, evaluate, buy, and consume applications from SAP and partners. The SAP Store focuses foremost on offering quick-to-implement solutions that are built for the online environment, such as business analytics, mobile apps, and cloud/on-demand solutions including SAP Business ByDesign and SAP Sales OnDemand. For enterprise customers evaluating larger, more complex solutions, the SAP Store offers the ability to perform research, understand scope, and get better information for decision making within a trusted environment. The SAP Store refers broadly to all of SAP’s online channels from the SAP EcoHub to the SAP Online Store to the SAP Store for Business ByDesign and the SAP Store for Mobile Apps. Today, through this platform, you can discover and explore over 1,500 solutions from SAP and over 600+ partners. In many cases, you can also demo or download free trials or even purchase business analytics solutions. The SAP Store is an “enterprise-ready” app store that complements existing consumer app stores by addressing your organization’s unique needs within the context of the corporate procurement process. The SAP Store is available via website as well as on device with native mobile application for iOS ("SAP Mobile Apps" in iTunes) and Android ("SAP Store" in Google Play Store). Additionally, there is an HTML5 version of SAP Store for iPad, tablets and desktop also available. Key Features/Capabilities • Business applications from SAP and extended ecosystem of partners • Mobility, analytics, and on-demand applications • Social commerce and peer insights • Solutions include on demand, on device, and on premise • Ability to evaluate applications hands-on before you buy • Enhancements that make the store faster and more intuitive to use Customer Benefits • Accelerated innovation and value for a greater return on investment • Trusted end-to-end experience • Increased agility thanks to instant access and a shortened buying cycle • Reduced risk because you can try before you buy • Deeper, richer insights from a community of peers • Better reach and access to the entire SAP ecosystem • Discover, evaluate, buy, and consume enterprise applications quickly and easily • Access high-quality apps securely from the SAP ecosystem and partners in a trusted environment • Leverage the insights, experience, and knowledge of your industry peers Page 19 of 47
  20. 20. SAP Mentors (http://sapmentors.sap.com) are the top community influencers of the SAP ecosystem. Most mentors work for customers or partners of SAP. All are hands-on experts of an SAP product or service, as well as excellent community project champions. They are nominated by their peers based on their passion for the community, their willingness to contribute and share, as well as their ability to motivate others. Currently, there are ~120 total mentors, representing less than 1/200th of 1% of the top contributors. 36 new Mentors have been added in 2012. SAP Mentor Contributions in 2012 SAP Mentors make a difference for SAP in 3 areas: Engagement, Co-Innovation and Advocacy. Engagement: • SAP Inside Tracks are grassroots community events worldwide organized by SAP Mentors. Fifteen (15) Inside Track events are scheduled for 2012. • SAP Mentors are the trusted advisors to our customers and prospects at major SAP events such as SAP TechEd and SAP World Tour. o “(The SAP Mentor panel) is one of the highest ranked parts of the program at our SAP World Tour event in Australia and the feedback we get is that it’s very valuable.” – Ray Kloss, SAP Australia head of Marketing Co-Innovation (examples below): • SAP Mentor Philip Kislof suggested changes to SAP Solution Manager in a blog post, which was then picked up by the product team and is now implemented in the latest SAP release. • SAP Mentors Thorsten Franz and Tobias Trapp continue to work closely with the development teams of ABAP on HANA, respectively. • Vishal Sikka acknowledged the SAP Mentors’ influence on the Developer Licensing Model during his SAPPHIRE NOW 2012 Keynote in Orlando Advocacy (example below): • Vinay Naithani’s blog titled Successfactors in a hybrid model –Top 4 challenges you will face from customers posed some challenges to customers adopting SuccessFactors. • 3 SAP Mentors (Jarret Pazahanick, Chris Paine and Luke Marson) responded with detailed comments to every challenge posted by Vinay, thus setting the record straight. • Vinay’s closing comment showed the impact made by the Mentors: “Thanks again. I am pretty encouraged by the views received …as it has helped me understand SFSF a bit more.” Page 20 of 47
  21. 21. SCN Newsletter Publications extend the SCN experience by providing a fast, easy way to learn about news and announcements and to get the latest information from thought leaders. The seven newsletters have a combined reach of over 1 million subscribers and generate 4.8 million impressions per quarter across a variety of topics. Newsletter topics include: • Technology News @SCN (2x/month) • Business Process News @SCN (2x/month) • N. America BI Newsletter (monthly) • Business Analytics Newsletter (monthly) • Developer News (quarterly) • IT Management Newsletter (quarterly) • The Cloud Newsletter (quarterly) 75 issues will be distributed this year which will bring more than 30,000 members each month to engage in the community. Members who visit SCN via the newsletters spend an average of 12 minutes on the site. The click-through rates for each Newsletter are as follows: Newsletter CTR Technology News @SCN 11.00% Business Process News @SCN 8.28% North America BI newsletter 1.53% Business Analytics Newsletter 2.25% Developer News 10.25% IT Management Newsletter 12.25% The Cloud Newsletter 29.69% Page 21 of 47
  22. 22. Developer Programs The SAP Developer Center (http://developer.sap.com) is a one-stop shop for all developers to learn, try, develop and share their experiences on new technologies, tools and SAP products. The site offers trial licenses and developer licenses to download for free, as well as a hosted environment. Step-by-step guides with code samples and demos support developers while providing them hands-on experience with SAP technologies. There are also discussion forums moderated by topic experts if developers have questions or face specific issues. The SAP Developer Center was initially introduced as the HANA Developer Center at TechEd Bangalore in 2011. As the number of visitors has grown, the site itself has also grown to support more technologies and tools. In addition to the HANA Developer Center, there are now learning materials and free resources for the Cloud Platform, the Mobile Platform, as well as an area for Developer Tools and SDKs. We will soon be providing similar resources for SAP’s on-premise platform. Some key statistics: Page 22 of 47
  23. 23. The current Developer Centers: Code Exchange (http://scn.sap.com/community/code-exchange) facilitates the sharing of custom code by developers in our ecosystem. It fosters co-innovation and co-development between SAP and the SAP developer community by providing a platform for developers to work on projects that address their specific requirements. The projects are then shared with the SCN community so other customers can benefit from studying, adapting and using these solutions. The platform supports code and release management, online discussions and blogs, document management and issue tracking. Code Exchange Facts and Figures: • Launched at TechEd Berlin in 2010 • +23,000 registered users • +300 active users • +250 projects “As the maintainer of a community project that sprang to life on the SAP Community Network, I’m really excited about the Code Exchange area on SCN. Having a co-development platform integrated into the SAP Community Network gives community projects visibility where it matters: within the SAP community. That’s something no other co-development platform can offer.” Morten Nicolai Wittrock, Senior Consultant, Applicon Page 23 of 47
  24. 24. SAP InnoJam is a 30-hour event at SAP TechEd providing hands-on experience with SAP’s newest, most innovative technologies. Participants mingle, huddle, hack and sweat with developers and non- developers alike while learning about SAP technologies. They collaborate and co-innovate with fellow SAP enthusiasts and develop prototypes of solutions to real business cases. Winners of InnoJam secure a spot onstage at DemoJam during TechEd that same week. The first InnoJam took place at TechEd Berlin in 2010 when it was originally called Innovation Weekend. Since then, more than 1,200 people have participated in InnoJams in 10 different countries. Overview of Developer Experiences at SAP Page 24 of 47
  25. 25. The SAP University Alliances Community (UAC) provides the connection between university leaders and students, SAP customers and partners, and SAP internal experts around the world. The community, which is a part of the SAP Community Network, is freely available to all professors, students, and professionals with academic interests. Its multifaceted online environment delivers the latest academic resources, bringing real-life knowledge and skills in using SAP software to institutions of higher education worldwide with the feel and structure of a traditional college campus. UAC provides additional online resources, tools and exclusive content for members of the SAP University Alliances Program (UAP), a group of over 1,200 member institutions that provide students in-depth, hands-on experience with SAP software and solutions to further their careers and professional interests. UAC resources include prerecorded demonstrations, webinars, articles, white papers, videos, exercises, and handouts to use in teaching, research, publications, and other educational activities. A number of valuable SAP desktop software products can be downloaded for academic use during a typical term. The latest social media tools and technologies allow for interaction and engagement with professors and students and provide immediate access to academic resources. Skills acquisition and career development opportunities for all community participants are the central focus of the site. • Audience o Professors and students at over 1,200 member universities worldwide using SAP in the classroom o All other global universities/colleges interested in SAP related topics • At a glance o Official public release: February 23, 2009 o Estimated 384,000 members (UAC has approximately 13% of ecosystem participants) o More than 64,000 newsletter subscribers • Social Media o Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sapua o Twitter: http://twitter.com/SAP_UA o LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=719777 o Xing: https://www.xing.com/net/uap/ Page 25 of 47
  26. 26. SAP University Alliances provides its member institutions with: • Donated SAP software licenses for academic use in for-credit degree and diploma programs • High quality curriculum content and teaching resources • Academic peer-hosting at five University Competence Center (UCC) locations worldwide • Collaboration-oriented regional academic conferences for professors • Academic workshops and webinars led by experienced academics for professors/lecturers to learn best practices for using SAP’s leading technology products and curriculum content in their information-technology and business courses “Incorporating SAP skills into our coursework and offering SAP certification has given our students an upper hand in the competitive African market. The IT field is growing, and there’s a demand for talented and knowledgeable employees. Our graduates enter the job market ahead of their peers in terms of their knowledge of ERP and business processes and have been able to take up positions as ERP consultants, business analysts, and functional leaders.” Lisa Seymour, PhD | Senior Lecturer, Research Associate CITANDA (Centre for IT and National Development in Africa) University of Cape Town, South Africa “The Career Center and Student Union are the two most wanted segments in UAC for students. I have heard and also seen students discussing the UA Career Blogs. Though majority of the students are interested in career and job prospects, a few students were also keen to look into the research opportunities section as well. I received some good insights from the research opportunities which I had given to the student to work on their mini-projects and dissertation course. The update on the Dashboard Competition in the Student Union section has been a good hit amongst the students.” Vijayakumar Bharathi | Associate Professor Symbiosis Centre for Information Technology a constituent of Symbiosis International University in India Page 26 of 47
  27. 27. Recognition: Analysts, Influencers, Publications and Awards Through the course of the last 9 years, we’ve received ongoing recognition from analysts and business authors, as well as SAP customers and partners. The following pages reflect a sample of the testimonials and awards we have been fortunate to receive in recent years. Analysts and Influencers "Through its Community Network, SAP tracks and maintains communication with more than 2.5 million members. This strategy not only decreases the cost of standard customer support, it also allows the company to receive instant access to customer feedback, as well as in-depth insight into new product, solution and technology ideas." Alicia Fiorletta, Channel Marketer Report, May 2012 “Collaborative community support (SCN) changed the nature of SAP’s interactions, making them more human through online discussions, blogs, and even video chat." Mark Fidelman, Forbes.com blog, March 2012 “SAP is far and away the community superstar.” ComBlu, The State of Online Branded Communities, November 2011 “In the software industry you can’t really have a discussion about communities without mentioning the SAP Community Network…No other vendor has had the ability to manage a community at this scale, (2+ million strong).” Sovos Group, September 2011 “SAP has quietly built a B2B social media juggernaut that puts most groups (whether B2B or B2C) to shame on just about any measure. Drew Neisser, CEO & Founder of Renegade Fast Company blog, August 2011 “SAP has recently stepped up efforts to manage and grow the ecosystem more actively. The SAP Community Network now has more than 2 million members.” Gartner, December 2010 Page 27 of 47
  28. 28. SAP Community Network Featured in Published Books Social Business By Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies for the Connected Company by Dion Hinchcliffe and Peter Kim, May 2012 Book Description: Social Business by Design is the definitive management book on how to rethink the modern organization in the social media era. Based on their research and work through the Dachis Group, thought leaders Dion Hinchcliffe and Peter Kim deftly explore how the social, cultural, and technological trends provoked by the social media explosion are transforming every business environment. Offering both a strategic overview and a hands-on resource, Social Business by Design clearly shows how to choose and implement a social business strategy as well as maximize its impact. "By plugging customers into the process of creating reusable knowledge, every contribution made both SAP and the community much richer and more useful." "Other companies have since gone on to create similiar social relationships with customers, but few have been as successful as SAP or have turned it into such an essential component of their business as a sustained competitive advantage." Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in Your Organization by Michael Brito, July 2011 Book Description: Many organizations today have already evolved into social brands. However, behind the firewall, chaos, anarchy, and conflict reign. In Smart Business, Social Business, leading enterprise social business consultant shows how to build an internal framework based on change management that will lead to success with social media: one that will make external engagement more effective, meaningful, and sustainable. ”SAP experts, partners, industry opinion leaders, employers and customers are collaborating within the community to increase the return on customers' SAP investments.” “In today's real-time business environment, organizations need to evaluate technology solutions and make timely decisions. Community members who participate in the SCN are learning about each other's implementations of SAP technologies and partner products. The time needed to evaluate technology solutions then dramatically decreases.” “This SAP example can be used as a guide for companies that are trying to determine the business value that social media can bring to their organizations. With minimal investment, enterprise companies can create external communities for customers and partners to engage and share key learning and technology challenges with each other.” Page 28 of 47
  29. 29. (SAP's) community engagement efforts are helping drive innovation, intelligence gathering, sales leads, and insights into business operations and sales development life cycles.” Social Marketing to the Business Customer: Listen to Your B2B Market, Generate Major Account Leads, and Build Client Relationships by Paul Gillin and Eric Schwartzman, January 2011 Book Description: Social media visionary Paul Gillin and strategic corporate communications consultant Eric Schwartzman have teamed up to present research, stories, and recommendations targeted exclusively at B2B companies. Social Marketing to the Business Customer presents a compelling case for using social media to revolutionize customer outreach, bringing companies in contact with their customers in unprecedented ways and creating dialogues that drive repeat business and reveal new revenue opportunities. SCN “…is a branded B2B social network with nearly 2 million members — less than 10 percent of whom are company employees. The community generates 6,000 posts per day in 200+ discussion forums.” SCN “… makes a market for SAPs products much more efficiently than the company could do exclusively through its own sales and marketing channels. Intangible benefits like easier networking, industry recognition and professional development drive community engagement.” SCN “… helps engineers share details with other engineers, and the by- product of all that sharing makes a market for SAPs products much more efficiently than the company could do exclusively through its own sales and marketing channels.” The Hyper-Social Organization: Eclipse Your Competition by Leveraging Social Media by Francois Gossieaux and Ed Moran, June 2010 Book Description: Social media is changing the world as we know it. This book shows you how to change your organization and be on the leading edge of the movement. Instead of marketing to general target groups, Gossieaux and Moran reveal how you can refocus your efforts to home in on what matters most to people—the communities or "tribes" that are at the core of their "identities"— and unite them through their shared passions, problems, responsibilities, wants, and needs. “As SAP demonstrated with its Developer Network, a network of humans can often leapfrog over what would have been obstacles to more conventional, rigid “channels”. By simultaneously leveraging a network of developers, potential users, and consultants (all of whom would have been engaged only individually via different, discrete, and more expensive “channels” in the past), SAP was able to inexpensively and expertly kick- start the adoption of its new software.” “This Hyper-Social customer care platform (SCN) is so effective that the average response time for posted questions is about 17 minutes, and about 84 percent of the problems raised are solved.” Page 29 of 47
  30. 30. The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison, April 2010 Book Description: In a radical break with the past, information now flows like water, and we must learn how to tap into its stream. Individuals and companies can no longer rely on the stocks of knowledge that they’ve carefully built up and stored away. Information now flows like water, and we must learn how to tap into the stream. But many of us remain stuck in old practices—practices that could undermine us as we search for success and meaning. In this revolutionary book, three doyens of the Internet age, whose path-breaking work has made headlines around the world, reveal the adjustments we must make if we take these changes seriously. In a world of increasing risk and opportunity, we must understand the importance of pull. Understood and used properly, the power of pull can draw out the best in people and institutions by connecting them in ways that increase understanding and effectiveness. Pull can turn uncertainty into opportunity, and enable small moves to achieve outsized impact. “SCN was a success in no small part because it provided ample opportunity for nearly everybody involved to become more productive in what they do. Independent software developers could improve their coding chops. SAP’s in-house code-writers could learn more quickly which of the features they wrote worked for their users – and which did not. And SAP itself could get a lot more value from its customer service people: As SCN began taking care of more routine and entry-level customer questions, SAP could focus on the more difficult ones.” “A key to the pull approaches is the use of “platforms” that are designed to flexibly accommodate diverse providers and users of resources. SAP’s Community Network is one good example. These platforms are open- ended and designed to evolve based on the learning and the changing needs of the participants.” Page 30 of 47
  31. 31. Awards SAP.com: 2012 Stevie Winner (Gold and Silver awards) The Stevie Awards honor the achievements of organizations worldwide and are judged by more than 200 executives nationwide across a number of categories including Websites. This year SAP.com was awarded Gold for best homepage design and Silver for best overall website design. SAP.com Best HomePage Design SAP.com Best Overall Website Design SAP Global Paid Search: 2012 OMMA Member’s Choice Award The OMMA Awards (Online Media, Marketing and Advertising) for Online Advertising Creativity honor those advertisers that push the potential of online ad creative. The SAP Global Paid Search team won the 2012 Member’s Choice Award for our partnership with MindShare and Google to implement a chat-in-ad feature on SAP.com for demand generation. SAP Global Paid Search Member’s Choice Award: Online Advertising Creativity Page 31 of 47
  32. 32. Quotes and Testimonials SAP Customers "It helped me a lot to understand SAP’s implementation strategy and today I am still learning on SCN. There are people that I don’t know and they don’t know me either, but they helped me without thinking of anything in return. I thank these people from the bottom of my heart. I decided I wanted to follow their footsteps and help my peers as well." Jansi Rani Murugesan, SAP Basis/Solution Manager Consultant, Infineon Technologies “(SCN is) a great tool to bring people together, to connect them with others who have similar challenges they’re trying to face, and is a real time-saver in solving our issues.” Corrine Nareau, Business Analyst, SAIC “I don’t really know any other software company that has such a great community online that supports people like this.” Tom Matys, Senior SAP ABAP and Web Applications Developer, FMC Corp "After years consuming SCN content, I have discovered that being a contributor makes me feel much more connected with like-minded professionals in the SAP community, and motivates me to engage even further." John Moy, Australia Post “We were able to capitalize on the content and lessons learnt on SCN to significantly shorten our learning curve and development lifecycles.” Phillip Parkinson, Integration Developer, Standard Bank “SCN has been a very helpful resource for many questions that we encountered during the development phase of our SAP implementation, easily saving us 10-20% of overall project time. Finding a similar solution, ourselves, might have taken an extra 2-3 weeks, in some cases.” Faisal Mehmood, Business Process Analyst Colgate-Palmolive Page 32 of 47
  33. 33. “Using SCN, Siemens resolves technical problems related to SAP NetWeaver 50% faster than through other channels.” Richard Hirsch, Senior Portal/SAP NetWeaver Consultant Siemens IT Solutions and Services “The SAP Community Network is a valuable network that connects me with peers and insightful information from different perspectives which helps me resolve our SAP-related problems and as a consequence, it helps reduces the overall cost of running our SAP systems at P&G.” Dr. Dietmar Giljohann, Global Solution Owner Procter and Gamble, Inc. “There’s no comparable source of quality information about SAP software.” Vikash Krishna, Sr. Business Analyst Pepsi Bottling Ventures "There are so many intelligent and inspiring people in SCN…” Sacha Wenninger, SAP Developer, Australia Post “The more [SDN and BPX] community members participate, the more we can maximize the exchange of information. In the end, this helps all members to resolve issues faster and to maximize the value they get from their SAP Customer Relationship Management applications.” Stephen Johannes, Sr. Analyst for SAP CRM Bunge North America “You find a good mix of technical and business contributors who have similar issues to your own. It is a quick and efficient way to share knowledge… I use the communities of innovation to research a specific topic. It’s probably the best spot to find out what’s going on with SAP.” Roger Myer, IT Specialist – eBusiness Brenntag Canada Inc. “By researching our issue in the Business Process Expert community, we saved a lot of money in consulting fees and time in our search for information. … Not knowing much about how SAP accommodates accounting practices and tax regulations in China, we looked to the Business Process Expert community to see how other global customers were using SAP in that area.” Marielen Withnell, Director of B Systems Pacific Coast Feather Company Page 33 of 47
  34. 34. SAP Partners "If at all my name is identified globally to some extent, it is only because of SCN." Lakshmipathi Ganesan, Senior Consultant, HCL Technologies "SCN is a brilliant tool for getting information, sharing information and learning." Ronald Konijnenburg, Principal BI Consultant, Logica "SCN gives me a lot of advantages...when I have problems, SCN gives me the solutions back and the best practices...I can also share my best practices with the community...people will acknowledge and appreciate that...I encourage people to join the community, start posting something and get better learning..." Ashish Tewari, Senior Consultant, Deloitte Consulting LLP "One of the reasons why they (customers) choose SAP is because of the community that exists around SAP. The fact that this open dialog exists and the fact that SAP values feedback and has initiatives like the SAP Mentor initiative and the ability to ask questions and get answers from other customers who have gone through the same process is very powerful." Tom Cenens, Technical Consultant, Infinite Solutions "The SAP Community Network (SCN) is something I actually came across whilst preparing for my original interview and has been on my browser bookmarks list ever since. Quite honestly it's a gem of a resource for anyone involved with SAP and I try to set aside a bit of time each day to at least have a read through some of the ever growing repository of information." Stephen Millard, SAP VSN Consultant, ROC “SCN offers SAP partners like us the opportunity to get connected with over 1.8 million members of the SAP ecosystem, who live and breathe SAP, to exchange know how and to demonstrate our thought leadership in the tax management solution area. It’s a great way to connect directly with SAP customers, partners, and SAP employees.” Ross Moris, Director of Alliance Sales Sabrix, Inc. “I recommend that each partner with a storefront on the SAP Store site actively participate in SAP Community Network. Being able to show prospects and customers how Paymetric has provided answers to real-world e-payment challenges in community forums and shared best-of-breed solutions in blogs has helped build strong credibility and goes far beyond what traditional marketing can offer.” Eric W. Bushman, Vice President, Solutions Engineering Paymetric Page 34 of 47
  35. 35. “As we got closer to a finished product, we used SCN to get in touch with a group of really excellent beta testers from all over the world. We blogged on SCN about features throughout the development. The release happened at SCN Day, the obvious place to release an open source tool that came out of the community.” Morten Nicolai Wittrock, Senior Consultant Applicon “Especially for the custom development pieces of the SAP Resource and Portfolio Management application, the forums and demo scenarios on BPX were invaluable.” Miel Claessens, SAP PLM Consultant Uphantis “The Business Process Expert community is proving to be an ideal forum to make the SAP Environment, Health, and Safety Management application even better by allowing industry participants to share feedback on their ongoing implementations and harnessing their collective intelligence to define requirements for future development.” Dr. Karl-Franz Torges, Solution Manager, Chemicals Safety Management TechniData AG “Collaboration on SCN helps us do our jobs better. It further strengthens the profile of our company and encourages learning and knowledge- sharing. SCN means we have access to some of the best minds when it comes to problem solving.” Vinod Dhumbala, Reddy Solution Architect Intelligroup, Inc. “I have been blogging on behalf of Crossgate for over a year on the SAP Community Network and it has been very useful in establishing our company as experts and thought leaders in the field of SAP, NetWeaver, EDI and B2B. I frequently receive follow-up emails from individuals that have read my blog postings and have an interest in discussing the subject in more detail. These contacts are beneficial to our sales organization and our reputations as subject matter experts are greatly enhanced through these blogging activities.” Kevin R. Benedict, Business Development & SAP Relationship Manager Crossgate Inc. Page 35 of 47
  36. 36. SCN Members "It helped me a lot to understand SAP’s implementation strategy and today I am still learning on SCN. There are people that I don’t know and they don’t know me either, but they helped me without thinking of anything in return. I thank these people from the bottom of my heart. I decided I wanted to follow their footsteps and help my peers as well.” Jansi Rani Murugesan, Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. "I would like to call it the best community network compared to any developer community network. The new SCN is more people oriented now as it has grown more like a social network." Krishna Tangudu, Satyam Computer Services Ltd. "SAP has become more open and at the same time social media got widespread. This combination created a new situation, where experts are visible in social media and what is a nice trend that they are more and more willing to share knowledge and learn from others, whether inside or outside the SAP organization." Tamas Szirtes, Senior Netweaver Consultant & Partner, Intenzz "Don't be afraid to share what you know, what you learn along the way, etc. with your SAP Basis colleagues, friends and contacts or even in forums and sites like SCN and others.You'll soon see that the knowledge will get back to you, which will have you more prepared and discovering new things along the way. That's one of the reasons I love my job as a SAP Basis and why I love SCN and similar websites!" Antonio Barrote, SAP System Administrator, Lactogal "You have no idea how many times I get in front of a problem that I am already familiar with only because of SCN. I must have read tens of thousands of threads (well based on the fact I have more than 10,000 posts myself) and learned a bit with each one of them. So Yes, you give, you get!" Juan Reyes, Independent Consultant "I love SCN because it really gives me plenty of ideas....when you forget or don't know about the solutions...SCN is right therefore you....it really helps me when I go to the customers..." Prabodh Misra, Independent SAP BI Consultant “The SCN Community is a great place to learn, share, and network. You can ask questions in the forums, you can answer them too – to help others who may experience the same challenges you have faced. You can build a virtual network of people with the same interests. You can blog on topics that are important to you.” Susan R. Keohan, SAP Workflow Specialist, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, SAP Mentor Page 36 of 47
  37. 37. “I am very excited to be a part of this experience. The people in the SAP Mentor group are amazing. And, I forget who came up with this quote, but ‘Ask not what SAP can do for the Mentors, but what the Mentors can do for SAP.’” Karin Tillotson, Valero Energy Corporation, SAP Mentor “There are so many technologies, frameworks, and tools…it would be pointless to try to have all the required detailed knowledge at hand when you need it for a particular solution. To acquire information rapidly and develop the required skills for a particular solution on demand – to learn what you need, when you need it, it is absolutely crucial to be familiar with the most valuable information resources for SAP professionals: SCN blogs, articles, wikis, and forums, SAP Library, SAP Notes…The SAP system itself. If you have a good command of these, you can solve every problem and you will acquire a huge body of knowledge along the way.” Thorsten Franz, AOK Systems GmbH, Bonn, SAP Mentor “I have met some of the finest people that I can ever wish to know, what it means to me is they are people of integrity, with a purpose, people who are trying to get things done at the right time and for the right reasons...and all these attributes matter to me...being a SAP Mentor is not just an honor it’s a privilege...it has given me some phenomenal opportunities to meet and work with some of the people whom I would have probably never known...” Dennis Howlett | Enterprise Irregulars, SAP Mentor “It is a great honor ... to be able to contribute ideas and participate in discussions with folks from SAP and other Mentors via the Mentor program. Thanks for the program and all the support you give to it!” Julius Bussche | Turnkey Consulting, SAP Mentor “You build a reputation based on the quality of your content, your expertise, and by showing that you are active in the communities.” Richard Hirsch, Senior Portal and SAP NetWeaver Technology Platform Consultant, Siemens IT Solutions and Services, SAP Mentor “SCN became part of [our] day-to-day activity… [it was] the learning center, the place to go to…Eventually we all come to realize that with learning, sharing is also an essential part.” Shabarish Vijayakumar, Wipro Technologies, SAP Mentor “Blogging on SCN is about sharing. It is about community learning and the distribution of ideas and best practices across a community with a shared interest.” Kevin Benedict, Consulting, Netcentric Strategies “I think this is different to the other communities I have participated before – SCN has faces and you have the chance to meet them. In the last three years I have come in contact with so many SCN members, that I can say I have my own ‘SAP family. After three years I still enjoy to contribute on SCN.” Marcel Salein, FIVE1 GmbH & Co. KG Page 37 of 47
  38. 38. “Though I was an occasional visitor of SCN from its very inception it was only three years back I actually started actively contributing there and eventually realized its power, the joy of sharing knowledge and the amazing things which have changed my life thereafter.” Dipankar Saha, Senior System Analyst, IBM India, SAP Mentor “I guess the single most important reason I’m active on SCN is the fact that I, despite my age, still need and even more important WANT to LEARN ‘all’ there is to know about SAP in general and ABAP development in particular. Often I just log on to SCN to scroll through the ABAP development forum, in which the ABAP objects forum is of particular interest to me or at least questions related to ABAP OO programming.” Micky Oestreich, Developer, Fit2IT “I think that the success of Techedge has been possible also thanks to SCN because when you are an early adopter, SCN is really essential and it becomes also one of your best friend.” Sergio Ferrari, Solution Architect, Techedge and SAP Mentor “SCN, its contributors, and the community that it provides, is a work in progress, a story that’s unfolding everyday through each of its contributors, each of its readers, and all of the people and organizations behind it. You can talk about professional exposure or showcasing your skills or any of the other career advancing reasons that some may consider but the real quality of your contribution is in the exploration and the discovery that you bring to the community.” Emmanuel Hadzipetros, Consultant, THQ Inc. Page 38 of 47
  39. 39. SAP TechEd Attendees “I am not an SAP professional. I could not believe how much I learned about SAP and the technology behind the application from the ground up. I learned more about cloud computing and mobile technology with SAP as well as architecting and infrastructure around it than 2 weeks at Microsoft. This conference expanded my horizons and still was able to allow me to speak with SAP professionals at my site about the technology coming and enhancements! Great, great conference. 17 years in IT as an Engineer to Analyst and have never been to a better conference! Thank you for broadening my horizons!” Craig Johnson, Roche “I attended TechEd from 1996-2001; it was refreshing to come back and see that the spirit of education and collaboration was just as alive after all these years. I can't thank SAP and its partners enough for this invaluable event.” Eric Poellinger, Vistaprint “If SAP is part of your career, then you owe it to yourself to keep abreast of the latest and future technologies presented by SAP plus enjoy some good times with colleagues and new friends!” Orlando Leal, First Solar, Inc. “SAP has done an excellent job managing such a massive event to perfection.” Naineesh Burde, Forest City Enterprises “I found the whole experience enlightening and learned that we could be utilizing so much more in SAP. I highly recommend TechEd to both technical and non-technical people because of the content and what I was able to learn.” Kelly Kirkpatrick, Business Systems Manager, Advanced Technology Services “Being rather new to SAP and very new to HANA, I found SAP TechEd to be tremendously informative and enlightening, providing great value to both my own career skills and to my organization.” Patrick Demets, Canadian Pacific Railway Page 39 of 47
  40. 40. “SAP Teched is the most important and awesome event in the year. Everyone related to SAP technologies should attend at least once in his/her lifetime. Best experience ever.” Alvaro Tejada Galindo, Beyond Technologies "The workshops and sessions were wonderful, interactive and knowledgeable. I learned a great deal that I will use immediately upon returning to work. I highly recommend SAP TechEd to any professionals thinking about implementing or upgrading SAP." Junaid Maniya, Hollister, Inc. "SAP TechEd was great to get into direct contact with SAP employees like product and solution managers to get first-hand information about upcoming trends and products." Raphael Branger, Head of CC BI, IT-Logix AG "SAP TechEd is THE event to update yourself in SAP solutions, technology, and state-of-the-art deployment and to position yourself regarding innovation adoption, efficiency and quality." Raphael Ensinger, Fujitsu "SAP TechEd remains the best way to get a broad-spectrum and in-depth update on what is happening in the field of SAP technology and technology strategy." Dr. Andree Leidenfrost, Director ProAgile Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia "...I got good exposure of WebDynpro for ABAP, MDM, Adobe Interactive Forms and Sybase Technology. It is good experience in my SAP career. I am planning to attend SAP TechEd next year also.” Anumala Sunil Kumar, HCL Technologies Ltd. "A great event with many resources, educational sessions, solution demos, and networking sessions right at your finger tips!" Henrik Wagner, EMC Corporation “SAP TechEd represents “excellent experiences, excellent communities, excellent ideas, and exciting future.” Tommy Kinoshita, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. Page 40 of 47
  41. 41. “SAP TechEd is a one stop shop and saves me time getting up to speed on the latest technology.” Naresh Maharaj Keane, Inc. “SAP TechEd was very valuable for me to be able to discuss current issues and opportunities face-to- face with SAP developers and product managers in a setting that is not all marketing.” Richard Boenisch, Manager Data Warehouse & Analysis Kohler Company “I had never been to an SAP TechEd before, and wasn’t sure what to expect. In the first 20 minutes, after I arrived…I started hearing the words ‘collaboration,’ ‘transparency’, and ‘social’ - and I was hearing these words from SAP executives and customers. The event was suddenly, surprisingly relevant to me in a way that I did not anticipate, nor that I was prepared for. It was magical.” Susan Scrupski, Blogger on SCN “SAP TechEd is still the ultimate experience for the SAP technical specialist. Those that attend love it – those that don’t are envious. As a SAP Mentor, the event is even more valuable because getting inside access to SAP is easier and because attendees find it easier to approach us.” Graham Robinson, SAP Mentor, Yelcho Systems Consulting “SAP TechEd is a great event for our branding and marketing purposes. As exhibitors we have been able to connect with new prospects, meet existing customers and enhance the network.” Klaus Zimmer, PBS Software GmbH “Sponsoring the SAP TechEd events around the world is important to our brand recognition in the SAP application workload.” Michael Waite, Red Hat Inc. “SAP TechEd gave me access to the people and the materials that are so critical to the success of my job. It also gave me a jump start on new and exciting projects for the next few years.” Deb Donohoe, Spectrolab Inc., A Boeing Company Page 41 of 47
  42. 42. “There is no other place or class you can go to get as much breadth and depth of technical topics as TechEd. I usually take a full year to digest and refer back to the different things in the conference, and find it very inspiring and helpful with client implementation.” Yujin Yan, IBM GBS “The TechTour is just about the right length – hit the spot!” Peter Ford, Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) “We felt that participation [in the TechTour] was well worth the investment of our time and marketing budget as (1) it brought us fully up to speed with the latest developments in the SAP strategy; (2) the number and quality of attendees was high with several constructive business conversations.” Ian Mackensie, Microsoft Page 42 of 47
  43. 43. University Alliances Community Members “As part of the first lesson in my course, I ask each of the students to register an account on SCN. Students will be able to know more about SAP enterprise, SAP software, new technologies on the market, recent events and UA career blogger. Students can also take part in discussions and the blogs and as well as read some success stories, such as “A Step in the Right Direction.” Some students often browse the UA Career Resource Center to prepare for their future employment.” Xin Shun Guo, Assistant Professor, Business and Information School of Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade Shanghai, China “I consider the UA course library to be an extremely helpful resource for professors. Sharing teaching material between universities improves the teaching quality and allows me to set-up more interesting and interactive courses. I also use the UAC to access information about the latest technology trends related to cloud, mobile applications and SAP HANA.” Christine Legner, Professor University of Lausanne, Switzerland “I think the University Alliance Community is absolutely fantastic, and a dynamic and fun way to interact with a variety of content, people and ideas. What I was extremely impressed with seeing a recent ASUG announcement webcast for the topic of 'How the SAP University Alliances Program Can Support Your SAP Talent Needs', because it's a topic I wholeheartedly believe in. I am proud to say that I already have referred friends and colleagues to the site and webcast announcement.” Brian Rizman, SAP Consultant and Former UA Student PriceWaterhouseCoopers, United States “The UA program has helped us deliver educational programs that give us a huge competitive advantage. These programs prepare graduates for lucrative careers in numerous fields.” Simha Magal, Professor and SAP Mentor Grand Valley State University, United States “Incorporating SAP skills into our coursework and offering SAP certification has given our students an upper hand in the competitive African market. The IT field is growing, and there is a demand for talented and knowledgeable employees. Our graduates enter the job market ahead of their peers in terms of their knowledge of ERP and business processes and have been able to take up positions as ERP consultants, business analysts, and functional leaders.” Lisa Seymour, Senior Lecturer, Centre for IT and National Development in Africa University of Cape Town, South Africa Page 43 of 47
  44. 44. “The SAP University Alliances program is of great value to Chevron. It provides us with a pool of applicants who already have fundamental knowledge in areas where Chevron needs those skills. In the SAP software support area, this has been very valuable in that it allows us to put new hires into meaningful roles much more quickly than they would if they started without the specific functional knowledge that the SAP University Alliances program brings.” Mike Reddy, General Manager - Enterprise Business Solutions Chevron Information Technology Company “SAP is undoubtedly the market leader when it comes to ERP systems. Thus, studying at a school that is a part of the SAP University Alliances program definitely gave me an edge over other candidates. Not only did I get hands-on experience working on SAP software, working on data sets like GBI gave me a better understanding of the immense capabilities of SAP software. It demonstrated how SAP solutions can be used to streamline and simplify many complex business processes and functions in many more ways than I could imagine otherwise. I feel this understanding of different business processes, and how SAP software works was a key factor in my recruitment and will help me throughout my career. I am very excited to use this knowledge in my future role as staff in the Information Technology Advisory function of Ernst and Young.” Dheera Anand University of Southern California, United States4 “Through our membership in SAP University Alliances, we offer innovative degree programs where many colleagues have teamed to implement various SAP products in their teaching and lab exercises. This has attracted several large international SAP customers offering projects, internships, and careers to our students and donating financial support for university advancement.” Dr. Peter Lehmann Professor of Business Intelligence and Business Information Systems Stuttgart Media University, Germany “The cross pollination that is enabled between academia and industry by the UAC benefits SAP and the participating students and universities. The innovative educational tools are aimed to grow the high- value, skilled IT workforce critically needed in today’s competitive global environment.” Pierre-Majorique Léger, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Information Technologies, HEC Montréal, and a moderator on UAC “Grand Valley State University’s ERP program, through its participation in the UAC, has provided an opportunity to gain knowledge and experience in business processes and SAP. Blogging on SCN has allowed me to voice my thoughts, share what is happening, and connect to the SAP community around the world. The UAC allows me to search for jobs, connect with other SAP student organizations, network with SAP mentors, and dive deep into the UA library!” David Herrema, Student, Grand Valley State University Page 44 of 47
  45. 45. “The UAC provides professors at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business access to a wide variety of leading-edge SAP related content that can be leveraged to enhance the learning experience for their students. The faculty-contributed curriculum materials as well as SAP white papers, customer case studies, solution maps and best practices provide a rich source of content for lectures, case studies and lab assignments. The forums provide a venue to share best practices, interact with other faculty and troubleshoot issues with student exercises.” Bipin Prabhakar, Ph.D., Clinical Associate Professor Information Technology and Services Indiana University “I find that the UAC is a great tool that enables me to easily connect with professors from around the world. Being in Hawaii, I am several time zones apart from most of the University Alliances members with whom I collaborate, yet through the UAC I can access content at a time that is convenient for me and I can utilize the help desk discussion threads to get answers to personal or student questions, 24x7.” James Lee, Ph.D., Associate Professor Computer Science and Information Sciences Brigham Young University – Hawaii Page 45 of 47
  46. 46. SAP: Paving the Road Ahead SAP helps its customers to be best-run businesses. In order to earn the right to do so, we constantly push ourselves to be leading examples of best-run in everything we do. Digital, Social, and Communities at SAP was formed this year to reflect how the software industry, its customers, and the role of marketing are being transformed through social technologies. This evolution has led to the convergence of “traditional” marketing approaches (corporate websites, offsite events) with online communities and the latest social media tools to drive measurable business outcomes. Today’s customers neither distinguish between these touch points nor do they conform to a linear engagement cycle. In fact, today 60% of B2B purchase decisions are now made before speaking with a vendor. Furthermore, buyers value the opinions of their peers 50% higher than those of brands and other “official” sources. Recognizing the dynamic and fluid nature of these interactions, SAP Digital, Social, and Communities is leading the way in how we connect with customers. Key initiatives launched this year include: • Modernizing our SCN community platform to meet the needs of future markets and new audiences, and to provide advanced capabilities • Supporting SAP’s Big Bets such as SAP HANA, Cloud Computing, Analytics, and Mobile from a holistic digital perspective • Leading SAP’s shift to embrace Pull Marketing • Helping to “humanize the SAP brand” through authentic, two-way conversations with real people SAP’s strength in online engagement is grounded in its unmatched commitment to serving our customers with tools, technologies, programs, and practices that enable them to achieve extraordinary success as best-run businesses. We continue to deliver tangible benefits and measurable value to our customers by driving social business leadership across the entire business lifecycle. Page 46 of 47
  47. 47. Note: The electronic version of this document contains active links to contextually relevant resources. If you’re reading a printed version and would like an electronic version, please request via mark.yolton@sap.com. Page 47 of 47

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