SAP SPECTRUM December 2009
Customer magazine
Joining Forces
One for all? Once, perhaps. But times have changed. Real innovation is no longer driven by individual companies working under their own steam. Today, collaboration is the name of the game – and pooling ideas is the key to achieving new successes.
The Customer President
As president of Adobe Japan, Garrett Ilg experienced firsthand how SAP brought his business greater margins. Convinced, he took over the top spot at SAP Japan in September 2008, a day after the Lehman Brothers collapse. One year later and undeterred by prolonged crises, Ilg is determined to do for customers what SAP has done for his previous employer.
Miners with Market Mindset
PT Timah, the world’s second largest tin producer, has been progressively implementing SAP software, from its back office to its core processes. The solutions have enabled an attitudinal shift in the company, from production selling to demand filling. The result is greater profitability.
03.08.2009
SAP Community Network
By: Stefan Nicola
Mark Yolton, Senior Vice President of SCN, explains how SAP’s online communities rise above others in the field; and he gives insight into the exciting present and future of social media for the enterprise.
SAP.info: The SAP ecosystem includes over 1.7 million people and a multitude of platforms. How do SAP customers actually benefit from these communities?
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Yolton: There are many benefits. The first is getting quick, high-quality answers to their questions from other customers, from partners, and from SAP experts. The second is getting connected to other customers from whom customer community members can learn about new trends, shared challenges and best practices – which they might then adopt. That leads to a lower total cost of ownership, greater efficiency, higher quality implementations and eventually, higher quality operations of their SAP solution and maybe of their business. Also, members can learn about the optimum configurations for their industry, the best practices for change management, for upgrades or for migrations, and what other “best run” companies are achieving. And from thought leaders and the experience of thousands of others, customers get early information about trends, market shifts, and other insights that can help them achieve greater business and career success.
SAP.info: What about contacts with SAP internal experts?
Yolton: Our product managers – and a wide range of other SAP experts – are moderators within the community and are engaged in the blogs, wikis and discussion forums. That means they can get direct feedback from our customers. Participants are not going through layers of management – it is a direct channel between and among customers, partners, external thought leaders, and SAP experts. Customers might post a question on a discussion forum, they might write a blog saying ‘this would be a great product feature if SAP offers it,’ and immediately, this information goes to the product managers and others across SAP who are engaged.
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