There’s no doubt that the UK & Ireland SAP User Group Conference 2011, which took place from November 20 through 22 in Birmingham, United Kingdom, was a resounding success. With more participants, more exhibitors, and a wider range of topics than ever before, the annual conference just keeps on growing. For the first time, Steve Winter, the new managing director of SAP United Kingdom & Ireland, introduced himself to participants, and SAP’s CIO Oliver Bussmann also made an appearance. In addition, industry analyst Ray Wang, who gave his view of the IT – and especially the SAP – world at the conference in 2009 was back to share his thoughts again. So it was not without reason that Alan Bowling, head of the UK & Ireland SAP User Group, was visibly proud at the opening of the event.

Smart Move: SAP Business Suite 7 Maintenance Until 2020

“The event gets better from year to year, and for this we thank our committed volunteers and the whole team, but also SAP for its support,” Bowling said. Although SAP and its users still don’t see eye to eye on all matters – especially with regard to licensing and price models – he believes that the relationship with SAP in the United Kingdom and Ireland has greatly improved as a whole. “The extension of standard maintenance for SAP ERP 6.0 and SAP Business Suite 7 until 2020 was a smart move by SAP and showed that the company was listening to us,” he added. Together with SUGEN, the global SAP User Group Executive Network, Bowling claims that they have achieved very much and are continuing to work on bundling customer feedback and addressing it to SAP.

The new managing director of SAP UK&I, Steve Winter, also promised to listen and to intensify cooperation. Winter, an American who joined SAP from PeopleSoft in 2005, has been in the country for almost three months and wants to use his entire organization to improve contact with users. “We want to continue to drive innovation with you and support you in the areas of on-premise/core, mobility, and cloud technology,” he said. Or, in the words of Colin Sharp, who is responsible for looking after the user group from SAP’s side: “We would like each and every customer to profit from the advantages of working with us. That’s why all of our users should be part of the user group, whether they use core SAP, SAP BusinessObjects, or Sybase solutions.”

The UK & Ireland SAP User Group annual conference. (Photo: UKISUG)