DSAG-Technologietage 2014, Stuttgart Feb-18 and Feb-19: For two days 1950 participants created one of the biggest technology events in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (thereby achieving an all-time high at DSAG). During this conference all questions concerning custom development using SAP HANA Platform and SAP NetWeaver played a central role (certainly not the only one, many other technology topics were covered as well). The following notes comprise my takeaways with respect to custom development and extensions of SAP solutions.

"Level completed? Embark on the journey to the new world of technology" – this theme was illustrated by

Andreas Giraud, DSAG board member for Tecchnology, in his opening keynote.  Andreas explained

how technology acts as a driver for business innovations.

In the SAP space, a survey on planned investments at DSAG members provides helpful

insight into the trends of 2014 (Mobile, User Experience, SAP HANA etc.).

Many customers and partners plan innovation projects with SAP HANA,

with special emphasis on hybrid solutions (cloud and on-premise).

Vishal Sikka (SAP board member heading Products and Innovations) presented

major priorities in a short video message. Based on the paradigms of Timeless Software,

Design Thinking and SAP HANA, he outlined the five growth opportunities of this year:

- SAP HANA, special attention is paid to simplicity, user and developer experience (collaboration, real-time source code analysis etc.)

- Cloud Services (creating the freedom to innovate)

- Core Apps (realtime apps, merging OLAP and OLTP, simplifying landscapes and applications, potential to remove 90% of tables) 

- Edge Apps (innovative apps and realtime business networks)

- Co-innovation (pursuing new frontiers, custom development plays an important role)

He summarized his findings by the observation, that trusted co-innovation is at the heart of this journey.

Bernd Leukert (Member of the Global Managing Board of SAP AG) provided an overview of

technology investment areas at SAP in his keynote. With SAP HANA Cloud Platform,

a new developer experience is offered to the community .Even more general,

SAP HANA as Innovation Platform enables a significant simplification of developemnt and operations.

In particular, he mentioned these tasks:

- Identify business processes, which provide competitive advantage

- Componentization: Focus on custom development

His keynote was completed by a compelling demo on developer experience.

After this series of keynotes, all participants were invited to one of 6 parallel breakout session.

I choose some lectures from track “Application Development, Portals and UI”.

Andreas Wesselmann (SAP) started with an overview session on “Application Development
with SAP HANA Platform”, where he identified new types of applications, e.g.,
in health (cancer diagnostics and treatment) or soccer (training analysis).
Certainly, optimization of existing custom development solutions also plays a
very important role. A major pillar of this optimization is given by the
paradigm of “code pushdown”, i.e., delegating data intensive calculations from
AS ABAP to SAP HANA. While BW on HANA served as a frontrunner, other scenarios
can be achieved by a co-deployment of AS ABAP and HANA. In addition, hybrid extensions
of existing on-premise solutions can be easily established with SAP HANA Cloud
Platform (HCP). HCP can also be used for on-demand extensions and net-new apps.
Fiori apps can be easily created via HCP.

Customers using SAP NetWeaver could get a concise overview of “SAP NetWeaver 7.4” in the
subsequent lecture given by Karl Kessler (SAP), who elaborated on Big Data as key
driver for this release. While the application server layer delegates major tasks
to HANA (code pushdown) and SAPUI5, still many application services remain
there. These principles were explained in detail using the reference scenario “Open
Item Analytics”. Karl also pointed out that SAPUI5 is contained in NW 7.4 out
of the box, while it still can be used as add-on for lower releases. OpenUI5 is
an ambitious invitation for developer community to contribute and participate
at innovation cycles.

Dirk Basenach (SAP) explained how to run “Application Development in Cloud”, where
he provided deep insights in to SAP HANA Cloud Platform (HCP), the Platform as
a Service offering (PaaS) from SAP. Starting from the observation that businesses
today show an increasing demand for efficient cost control, fast innovation
cycles and minimizing risk, Dirk pointed out that HCP as a public cloud fulfills
these requirements. SAP offers also dedicated packages for special purposes,
e.g., SuccessFactor extension package, hybrid extensions of on-premise solution,
and net-new apps (e.g., SAP Mobile Documents, SAP Precision Marketing, SAP
Service on Demand). HCP enables an accelerated development with open and
modular services, e.g. document service (CMIS), connectivity service (using
reverse proxy approach, http and RFC), identity service (SAML based SSO,
support of SAP and 3rd party identity providers). It is possible to use Java
and HANA native development on HCP. Several customer success stories (Accenture,
Danone, OPAL etc.) completed the big picture of this story.

Day 2 of DSAG Technologietage is always devoted to work groups (AK = Arbeitskreis),

this year with 22 parallel sessions (from  AK Application Integration” to “Virtualization and Cloud Computing”).

Here are my notes from the sessions I attended today:

AK Development, Jochen Kleimann (Mahle Behr), Jürgen Stolz (StolzIT), Peter Barker
(SAP) on „Best practices: Betriebsmittelverwaltung with Interactive Forms“: The
speakers explained how Mahle Behr established cross organization processes with
interactive offline forms. They achieved the goal to minimize training effort
for hundreds of suppliers globally. Main technologies are Floorplan Manager
(FPM), Sidepanel and SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe (IFbA, While they shared
best practices and major achievements, they also identified some gaps, e.g., regarding
integration of BW data in FPM. Finally, Peter outlined how IFbA will enable
Mobile Forms (HTML5) and Cloud Forms (ADS on HCP) starting in 2014.

AK Development, Tobias Kaufman (SAP) on “Native HANA Development”: Tobias demonstrated
how to build custom specific applications using the two-tier architecture of
SAP HANA XS and SAPUI5, including recommendations “When to use what (ABAP or
XS)”. He provided a detailed insight how to use server-side JavaScript,
Outbound Connectivity (e.g., http-request to other servers) and OData. Tobias
also explained that SQLScript should be used for heavyweight calculation logic
in the HANA DB, and that the benefits of Application Function Library can be
easily obtained in many cases (e.g., Predictive Analysis). He shared details
and best practices regarding data acess with XSJS, XSODATA and Core Data
Services. In addition, special attention wa paid on the River concept (single
language for data modeling, business logic and UI), best suitable for data
driven apps. He illustrated these observations at a reference scenario (SHINE  = SAP HANA Interactive Education).

AK Development, Jakob Mainka (Linde AG) on “Implementation of ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC)
at Linde AG”. These lecture offered helpful information how Linde is operating
a global business, where custom development plays an important role (e.g., 100,000
new lines of code created by 120 developer every month). Obviously, quality
assurance and compliance according to GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) is
mission critical in this environment. While Linde spent high effort and managed
tedious processes for code review in old systems (4.6, 6.0), they have chosen ATC
as an alternate approach for better quality and agility. With ATC, they have
less effort and costs. Jakob Mainka explained how quality assurance of external
development projects is managed (e.g., internal definition of check variants),
and how a proper configuration (release of transports, periodic jobs etc.)
can further simplify processes and increase quality.

AK Portal and Development: Daniel Rothmund (Geberit) on “Project ‘Mobile Invoices’
with SAPUI5”. The speaker explained how Gebereit uses Portal, Gateway and
multiple ERP systems in this ambitious project. While the straightforward use
cases were implemented quickly, additional requirements could also be mastered,
e.g., offline scenarios (based in Roundtrips to Gateway), or using a multi origin
function at write operation in OData batch mode (with BADI Destination
Finder). At Gebereit, they were also able to define and implement custom
specific controls. Productive start of this project was very successful, they
achieved a high level of acceptance, no classroom training was needed.

AK Virtualization and Cloud Computing, Jana Richter (SAP) on “Flexible ABAP Server”. Jana provided
very helpful explanations and demos for these aspects:

- Optimized ressource consumption, support of adaptive computing (e.g., dynamic parameter
values at server start and during operations, flexible license management)

- Ensure Business continuity, simplify maintenance (e.g., soft shutdown, Rolling Kernel
Switch with Scale In scenario and dynamic configuration)

- Extended monitoring and troubleshooting options (SM04, SM51, SM50 etc.)

- Outlook (NW 7.4 SPS 08, reduced downtime (SUM), co-deployment ABAP and HANA)

Overall, I have seen an encouraging spirit at this conference. Custom Development is seen as a
major use case by almost all SAP customers. DSAG offered a great opportunity to
learn more how to optimize and modernize development processes, with many helpful
insights from customers, partners and SAP.

The concept of named vs. unnamed objects objects seems to be the most confusing one in ABAP programming. Unlike in other programming languages so far ABAP knows only named objects: development objects are defined by the object catalog (TADIR entry). And development objects without representation in the object catalog like local classes have a name, too. But in BRFplus there is the concept of unnamed objects that can only used locally but can’t be reused.

What is the reasons nor naming objects? When you create rule systems bottom up, most objects will have names. At first you create expressions, then you use them in rules and there are used in rule sets. If you create rule systems top-down then it is likely that you create BRFplus artifacts on thy fly and often without names. Since this can lead to a refactoring process sometimes it can be easier when you work with named objects. So the design methodology can propose certain best practices. But are there other aspects to consider?

When BRFplus applications contain many objects they become complex and vulnerable to side effects of changes and this is what my blog is about.

What about naming Rules?

Functions and rule sets are named BRFplus artifacts - but what about rules? Rules can exist either locally (and so unnamed) within a rule set or can be reusable and so have a name. My experience is the following:

• In general rules have little potential for reuse. So there’s no real need to name them. Moreover reuse can be harmful because of unwanted side effects. So if you want to prevent side effects you should avoid naming rules.
• Nevertheless, rules and expressions can be qualified for reuse due to subject-related reasons. In this case they should of course have names. If you want encourage people to build their rule sets bottom up from existing rules and to use rules as templates for modification after copying you should name them to make this process easier.

Should a Rule use only named Content (= Expressions and Rules) internally?

In general I don’t think so although I mentioned an exception in the last sentence: if there are rules and expressions as part of a reuse library they shouldbe used in the rule. But in general I don’t consider this as useful and isolation of rules is the better choice since rules should be save from unwanted changes in other parts of the BRFplus application.

A rule is a very complex object: a rule consists of a condition, a true-action and a false-action. A condition is TODO. A true- resp. false-action is a set of

• BRFplus actions
• assignment of context objects
• assignment of values
• executions of expression
• nested rules
• expression assignments and assignment of results

The complexity of a rule is hidden behind a very sophisticated UI – and the UI hides the ID of the condition, the true- and false-actions.

So my advice is: try to work with unnamed objects. Only if there are already artifacts where reuse makes sense, use them in rules. But using many names object to build up a rule can make a BRFplus application very complex and you have to consider side effects when doing changes. I made the experience that “spaghetti” BRFplus applications are hard to understand and to change.

I made the experience that a little bit redundancy can simplify changes because you can change rules independently.

Simplify your Life!

Reuse and isolation are two contradictory paradigms and both can be used to simplify a BRFplus application. If central objects like expressions and perhaps in rare occasions even rules are named you can reuse. If they provide reasonable calculations having a precise meaning then reuse can lead to simplification. In other cases naming objects could lead to unmotivated reuse and nasty side-effects when changing the BRFplus application. Give unnamed rules a chance!

With NetWeaver Process Orchestration 7.31 SP10 and 7.40 SP5, we are now able to detect and handle technical errors.  Some examples of technical errors are invalid password, unauthorized access, network failures, etc.  The technical errors include those occur in PI.  This capability has been missing in previous releases of BPM.

Why do we want this?  During the runtime of an integration scenario, when we receive a technical error, the integration will terminate with an error message, which we can view in the monitor.  We can also be alerted of the error.  But, what if we want to automate the process so that we can react to the error?  Maybe we want to update a status database or send the message to an alternate receiver or “rollback” a previously updated application/system.

This capability is also needed when we convert ccBPM to BPM, as ccBPM can detect such error event.

To configure this in BPM is quite easy.  I am assuming that the reader is already familiar with BPM.  The steps are as follow:

1. Create or using an existing “Automated Activity”.

   2.  Select the “Automated Activity” and click on the “Property” tab.

   3.  In the “Property” tab, select “Boundary Events”:

   4.  Click “Add…”. This will bring up the events that can be selected.  Go ahead and select “Technical Error” and click “OK”:

  5.   A new object on the upper left corner will be create in the “Automated Activity”:

  6.   When you hover the mouse over this object, you will be able to select the action you want to perform when technical error occurs:

Below is a sample BPM which uses this feature:

Hi all,

In this blog, I'll talk about OpenUI5, OData services and data manipulation with UnderscoreJS.

Server-side data manipulation

When you are using OData services while working with OpenUI5, you will notice that OpenUI5 will send multiple requests to your OData service. It will send a request when you want to sort your data, it will send a request when you search through your data and so on... . It will send a request for almost every action on your data. This is good when your services are fast enough to handle all the requests and you'll have to write less Javascript.

Why not client-side?

But why not sorting and searching through your data at client side? Manipulating your data at client side will reduce your requests to your backend, it will reduce logic in your backend and most devices will be able to handle this! Just be careful when working with lots amount of data.

Javascript vs ABAP?

Okey, I agree, when you've always worked in ABAP, ABAP will be much easier. But Javascript has, besides OpenUI5, many different libraries which you can use with OpenUI5. These libraries can make Javascript much easier, even easier than ABAP ! (maybe a little optimistic ) One of the many libraries that I prefer for data manipulation at client-side is UnderscoreJS.

UnderscoreJS

Underscore is a JavaScript library that provides a whole mess of useful functional programming helpers without extending any built-in objects. It’s the answer to the question: “If I sit down in front of a blank HTML page, and want to start being productive immediately, what do I need?” … and the tie to go along with jQuery's tux andBackbone's suspenders.

Underscore provides 80-odd functions that support both the usual functional suspects:map, select, invoke— as well as more specialized helpers: function binding, javascript templating, deep equality testing, and so on. It delegates to built-in functions, if present, so modern browsers will use the native implementations of forEach, map,reduce, filter, every, some and indexOf.

Basically UnderscoreJS provides multiple Javascript helper functions. With UnderscoreJS your code will look more understandable and you will be able to do more with less code.

For more information about UnderscoreJS:

http://underscorejs.org/

Basic Example

Create an basic SAPUI5 Application with one view

Download UnderscoreJS and add it to your project

Include the underscorejs library to your index.html

In this example I'm going to work with a public OData service:

http://services.odata.org/Northwind/Northwind.svc/

More specifically the collection Customers.

http://services.odata.org/Northwind/Northwind.svc/Customers

Design the view

In our view, I just add a table with the following parts

• Toolbar
  • Button to count the rows: "Count rows"
  • Button to sort the table by country: "Sort by Country"
  • Textifeld to search over the full table
• 6 Columns
  • CustomerID
  • CompanyName
  • ContactName
  • ContactTitle
  • Country
  • City

This table is connected to the model "WorkModel".

createContent : function(oController) {      var oTable = new sap.ui.table.Table({            title: "Table Example",            visibleRowCount: 7,            firstVisibleRow: 3,            selectionMode: sap.ui.table.SelectionMode.Single,            toolbar: new sap.ui.commons.Toolbar({items: [                new sap.ui.commons.Button({text: "Count rows", press: oController.getCount}),                new sap.ui.commons.Button({text: "Sort Country", press: oController.sortByCountry}),                new sap.ui.commons.TextField({id:"search",liveChange:oController.find})            ]})      });      oTable.addColumn(new sap.ui.table.Column({            label: new sap.ui.commons.Label({text: "CustomerID"}),            template: new sap.ui.commons.TextView({text:"{WorkModel>CustomerID}"})      }));      oTable.addColumn(new sap.ui.table.Column({            label: new sap.ui.commons.Label({text: "CompanyName"}),            template: new sap.ui.commons.TextView({text: "{WorkModel>CompanyName}"})      }));      oTable.addColumn(new sap.ui.table.Column({            label: new sap.ui.commons.Label({text: "ContactName"}),            template: new sap.ui.commons.TextView({text:"{WorkModel>ContactName}"})      }));      oTable.addColumn(new sap.ui.table.Column({            label: new sap.ui.commons.Label({text: "ContactTitle"}),            template: new sap.ui.commons.TextView({text:"{WorkModel>ContactTitle}"})      }));      oTable.addColumn(new sap.ui.table.Column({            label: new sap.ui.commons.Label({text: "Country"}),            template: new sap.ui.commons.TextView({text:"{WorkModel>Country}"})      }));      oTable.addColumn(new sap.ui.table.Column({            label: new sap.ui.commons.Label({text: "City"}),            template: new sap.ui.commons.TextView({text:"{WorkModel>City}"})      }));      oTable.bindRows("WorkModel>/");      return oTable;  }

Controller of the view

In the controller I'm going to use UnderscoreJS for counting, sorting and for searching.

In the init of the controller I will do the following:

1. Create OData model by using the url of the service
2. Create two empty JSON models
   1. One to have always the original list, so I can always search on the full data ("OriginalModel")
   2. A second one for the view, which I will use for the sort, count and to show the result of the search ("WorkModel")
3. Read the "/Customers" from the OData model
   1. Put the result in the JSON model for the original list ("OriginalModel")
   2. Sort the result
   3. Put the sorted result in the second JSON model for the view ("WorkModel")

The JSON models are required for client-side data manipulation. With the OData model we cannot change the data without sending a request to the backend because of the bindings.

onInit: function() {      var sServiceUrl ="http://services.odata.org/Northwind/Northwind.svc";        var oModel = new sap.ui.model.odata.ODataModel(sServiceUrl);      var oModelJson = new sap.ui.model.json.JSONModel();      var OriginalModel = new sap.ui.model.json.JSONModel();      oModel.read("/Customers", null, null, null, function(data, oResponse){            OriginalModel.setData(data.results);            sap.ui.getCore().setModel(OriginalModel, "OriginalModel");            var data = _.sortBy(data.results,function(value){                return value.name;            });            oModelJson.setData(data);            sap.ui.getCore().setModel(oModelJson, "WorkModel");      }, null );  }

With UnderscoreJS we can easily do a count on the JSON model which is used in the view ("WorkedModel")

getCount: function(){      var model = sap.ui.getCore().getModel("WorkModel");      var count = _.countBy(model.getData(), function(value) {            return 'all';      });      alert(count.all);  },

Also for the sort I'm using an UnderscoreJS function.

1. Get the "WorkModel"
2. Change the data using UnderscoreJS
3. Set the "WorkModel" with the new data

sortByCountry: function(){      var model = sap.ui.getCore().getModel("WorkModel");      var data = _.sortBy(model.getData(),function(value){            return value.Country;      });      model.setData(data);      sap.ui.getCore().setModel(model,"WorkModel");  }

Full Table search

In this case we start from the "OriginalModel" to search over all records. Otherwise the seconde search will be incorrect.

For the search I will use mutliple UnderscoreJS functions.

I start with using the filter function to get only the records that meet the search term.

To find out which records that meet the searchterm, I use some other UnderscoreJS function in the filter function.

• I use a combination of chain, map, properties and filter for concatenating all field values as one string seperated by spaces.

var fields = [      'CompanyName',      'CustomerID',      'ContactName',      'ContactTitle',      'Country',      'City'  ];  var concat = _.chain(fields)                          .map(function(field) { return _.property(field)(item); })                          .filter(function(result) { return result !== undefined && result !== null })                          .value()                          .join(' ');

• After that I loop over all the different words in the searchterm and return every record that contains all the searchterms.

return _.every(search.split(' '), function(searchTerm) {  return concat.indexOf(searchTerm) >= 0;
});

Full code will look like this. I filter on the "OriginalModel" and set the "WorkModel"

find: function(oEvent){      var search = oEvent.getParameter("liveValue");      var model = sap.ui.getCore().getModel("OriginalModel");      var FilteredData = _.filter(model.getData(),function(item){            try{                var fields = [                      'CompanyName',                      'CustomerID',                      'ContactName',                      'ContactTitle',                      'Country',                      'City'                  ];                var concat = _.chain(fields)                                          .map(function(field) { return _.property(field)(item); })                                          .filter(function(result) { return result !== undefined && result !== null })                                          .value()                                          .join(' ');                return _.every(search.split(' '), function(searchTerm) {                      return concat.indexOf(searchTerm) >= 0;                    });            } catch(e) {                throw e;            }      });      var oModelJson = new sap.ui.model.json.JSONModel();      oModelJson.setData(FilteredData);      sap.ui.getCore().setModel(oModelJson,"WorkModel");
}

Result

Table with the originial data of the OData service

Sorted on country

Full table search  ( Country and ContactTitle )

Count

Testing

For testing, I've started chrome with:  --disable-web-security

Conclusion

This is one of the advantages of Javascript. It gives you freedom to use other libraries and frameworks. I think this is a great example of other libraries in combination with OpenUI5. But there are a lot more libraries and frameworks! With Javascript almost everything is possible!

You can find the full project on github: https://github.com/lemaiwo/OpenUI5-and-UnderscoreJS

I've also added the index and the view to the attachments

Kind regards,

Wouter

Do you want to obtain the latest best practices and solution updates for selling complex configurable products using SAP VC, IPC, and SSC?

Then come to the SAP CPQ Info Day in Chicago on April  17, 2014, to learn how you can leverage product configuration and solution selling to drive customer value, increase efficiency, and become more competitive in configure-to-order and engineer-to-order environments.

The event will include presentations from SAP and eSpline, workshops, and panel discussions with Honeywell, Bobcat/Doosan, Kennametal and other leading industrial manufacturers using SAP Variant Configuration (VC), Internet Pricing Configuration(IPC), and Solution Sales Configuration (SSC).

Find out how to improve customer value with:

• hybris B2B Commerce – the platform for SAP’s strongly improved Configure, Price and Quote (CPQ) solution
• Configure, Price and Quote (CPQ) in the cloud with SAP Cloud for Customer
• Customer best practices in configurable product sales, solution sales, and product modeling
• Guided selling and configuration of complex systems and solutions with SAP Solution Sales Configuration
• SAP 3D Visual Enterprise applications for visual configuration and visual service parts selling
• SAP Flexible Solution Billing – collect invoices across orders, contracts, and projects within and across systems
• Mobile and offline sales and configuration

Increase efficiency and reduce costs with expert insight on new
approaches to:

• Speed up sales configuration analytics and MRP for low-level configuration with VC on SAP HANA
• Run a more efficient ETO special request process, linking configure-to-order with engineer-to-order
• Achieve more efficient product development by providing better tools and techniques for the product modeler
• Improve quality, accuracy, and governance of your VC product models and model changes

The ISUG-TECH Conference is held this year in Atlanta, GA, April 14-17. SAP ASE 16.0 will be announced here and there will be more than 150 hours of in-conference sessions Tuesday through Thursday. These sessions will cover a variety of SAP database, mobile and replication products covering SAP ASE (Adaptive Server Enterprise), SAP Replication Server, SAP PowerBuilder, SAP Mobile Platform, SAP PowerDesigner, SAP IQ and SAP HANA. Sessions will be in the format of lectures, round-tables and workshops, etc. Optional workshops are available on Monday and Friday that week. Check the web-site for more information about the content and descriptions as well as the speakers. It'll be highly technical in nature.

he format will be similar to the old Sybase TechWave conferences. The content is strictly technical, geared for those folks looking for education on the products, in terms of hands-on knowledge, presentation of new features and how all this technology will improve your technical life.

I am presenting three sessions along the SAP Development Track:

Best Practices using SAP ASE Windows Drivers - (2 Hour Lecture)

In this session we will cover best practices in using SAP ASE Windows  Drivers (ODBC and ADO.NET) in  regards to various applications, ranging  from small customer applications to  enterprise level.  The session will  break out via SAP ASE ODBC Driver and ADO.NET Provider. We will  cover  certain connection properties relevant to performance and  optimizations  and how to tune the drivers to achieve best results. Focus  is centered  on the use of new SAP ASE functionality implemented for use  with SAP  Business Suite but in terms of custom application development  as well  as use of Windows packaged services such as IIS and SSIS, as  examples.  These areas will be covered at low level in custom code to  high level.

Building an ODBC Utility Library with SAP ASE ODBC Driver - (Half-Day Workshop)

The workshop will demonstrate how to build a Windows DLL using Windows  Visual Studio (versions can be 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012) to be used for testing  applications and learning ODBC API concepts. It's a hands on session  where the library will be built, covering nuances of Visual Studio and  some of my techniques I use to build such a DLL/Library. The second part will be dealing with creating an application and how to use it with our  newly created library.

As I write this one I will provide a few test applications to demonstrate various techniques and concepts. I am using msdev 2012 to write my particular library. If you're writing C code for SAP ASE ODBC Driver this will be useful information.

Use of SAP ASE ADO.NET BulkLoad Capabilities - (1 Hour Lecture)

The SAP ASE ADO.NET Data Provider is capable of using bulk library-like capabilities to load data into the SAP ASE. This is achieved via the use of custom applications as well as the Microsoft SQL Server SSIS (SQL  Server Integration Services).  The lecture will cover the various levels of bulk  loading, similar in effect to the bcp utility in Open Client. This  capability will provide a means to effectively transfer large amounts of  data from one database to another. SAP ASE is the target and source is  typically SAP ASE or other databases in the case of mixed shops.

As I get closer to the conference I'll present some information on these topics and check to see if there is interest. I'd like to post information on the blog that'll provide a benefit to developers using the SAP ASE Drivers. Feel free to comment on the blog if you've some topics you'd like to learn.

Do you work for a company that blocks your access to Facebook? If you do, you’re certainly not alone. Though the number of companies that ban social media web sites is dropping, one 2013 survey reports that 52% of CIOs and IT directors still block Facebook.

In the U.S., that number is even higher, at 69%. From the point of view of employees, 19% of American workers aren’t able to access Facebook due to restrictions, according to another recent survey.

Whichever number you consider, company leaders who decide to block Facebook may be overly fixated on the risks of social technology: declining productivity, security concerns, or even workplace bullying.

Clouded by their reactionary impulses, they may have lost sight of the possibility that social technology can be a positive force.

Can social tools actually improve productivity?

A cautious but substantiated answer is yes. In a 2012 report, McKinsey found that organizations that fully implement social technology can expect to raise the productivity of knowledge workers by up to 25 percent. A 2013 Aberdeen survey reported that users of social technology claim 51% greater on-time project delivery, 30% higher customer retention, and 71% higher operational efficiency.

The key is in implementing it the right way. In the words of the McKinsey report, organizations should use social technology “to enhance communications, knowledge sharing, and collaboration within and across enterprises.”

In other words, your company doesn’t need an Anti-Facebook tool that blocks access to social media; instead, it needs a tool that works like the opposite of Facebook – one that enhances productivity, rather than saps it.

But what’s the right way to do that – to implement social technology in a way that doesn’t devolve into a purposeless chat-fest, but actually increases the effectiveness of your staff?

The wrong way and the right way to do social

Ironically, many organizations that have tried it have failed miserably in their implementations. Gartner says that their research  into the social collaboration efforts of more than 1,000 organizations shows the “provide and pray” approach to social technology – where an organization installs social tools and then sits back and hopes for the best – has had a miserably low 10% success rate. Where there’s no participation, there’s no business value.

Implicit in their findings is the reality that if you provide a tool to your employees that doesn’t have a purpose in the context of their existing work, chances are that most won’t use it. If employees can’t figure out how to apply it to what they’re already doing, it’ll languish as shelfware.

High-tech guru Geoffrey Moore emphasizes the importance of context. In a paper where he discusses the future of enterprise IT, he writes that one of the mistakes organizations make is to assume that collaboration needs to be separate from its core processes. Instead, to capitalize on the wisdom of crowds and experts, he writes, “Social business systems need to be implemented within a context, and that context is the processes that drive the business.”

In short, successful organizations shouldn’t implement social technology as something extra that employees need to do – rather, it should fit into the work they’re already doing and make it easier to do.

How social tools help processes evolve

Does the idea of embedding social tools within processes work in real life, though? There is certainly a case to be made that adding a social layer to traditional business processes won’t work in the long term. The argument, in rough terms, is that the way people naturally want to communicate fundamentally conflicts with a process-heavy business model.

That argument, however, just serves to highlight the adaptability of social tools – and their importance in unshackling workers from bureaucracy.

Yes, by adding a social layer, you may simply be creating a “socialized business process” at first – which indeed might provide only a modest improvement – but the presence of the social technology is what will allow the process to evolve beyond its original, inflexible self into a better way of working: one that capitalizes on our human nature to find the path of least resistance to get things done, and one that’s agile enough to deal with exceptions.

Here’s an example: Imagine that you're a sales person. Each time you try to close a deal, you repeat a process that’s similar but also variable in the details. You might need to discuss the sales strategy with your colleagues, talk to your product team about features, work on a presentation with your extended team, include the legal department in the contract review, and so on.

Each of those interactions, in turn, will have its own process – either formal or informal – and the right social technology will help you do what’s required more effectively.

You’ll be able to bring the right people and experts from outside your team into the conversation directly – whether they’re on your team, in another department, or even outside the company – without resorting to side conversations via email, which can be difficult to share and capture.

You’ll be able to see the status of the deal – with data pulled directly from your customer relationship management system – and make it visible to people who otherwise may not have access to the CRM, like experts in finance, legal, or product management.

You’ll be able to share customer documents, work on drafts of the presentation, and discuss your sales strategy in a single forum – where you can save a record of decisions and outcomes, and where colleagues who missed earlier conversations can catch up later.

At the end of the day, the deal your sales team is working on has a higher chance of getting done quickly, for a higher value, and with a better fit to your customer’s needs – resulting in a happier customer and a healthier revenue stream for your organization.

And all the while, thanks to the adaptability of the social technology, the original sales process will continue to evolve into one that minimizes red tape and connects the people that matter directly to each other.

Are you willing to let your competitors be more productive?

The right social technology won’t just help you if you’re on a sales team – it’ll help you in marketing, customer service, human resources, or whatever line of business you’re in. Applied correctly, social tools can bring together all the things your employees need – expertise, content, best practices, problem solving, data, applications, and templates – to get their work done faster and more effectively.

And that’s why – if you’re not already seeking the right social technology – your competitors will be, and they’ll be the first to capitalize on it, improve productivity, and outpace you in their growth.

Follow SAP Social Software on Twitter: @SAPSocial

In today’s demanding corporate environment, businesses are struggling to boost employee engagement. According to a recent report, only 13 percent of employees say they are engaged at work. Does that include your employees?

Collaboration, the act of working with other people to achieve a mutual benefit, is vital to employee engagement.

Now, HR departments can take advantage of solutions that bring productive, engaging social collaboration to the enterprise.

Download the “6 Ways Social Collaboration Can Boost Employee Engagement” paper now to learn how social collaboration can help HR departments answer the following questions:

• How can we engage new hires and make them productive more quickly?
• How can we reduce the cost of training, while simultaneously providing more and better training?
• What can we do to improve our performance management?
• How can we get more employees to collaborate and contribute?

To read the white paper, register here.

APJ: SAP Future IT Leaders @ SAP d-code, Shanghai - China, 14 March

We will co-locate the SAP Future IT Leaders at SAP D-Code Shanghai held from 13 – 14 March 2014 to provide professors opportunities to hear keynotes directly from SAP Board Members/ Senior Executives and have hands-on workshops and attend lectures on SAP’s latest solutions conducted by SAP Experts.

SAP D-Code Shanghai is an event to address education, collaboration and networking for the entire SAP Ecosystem with five Experience Zones including Vision Zone, Connect Zone, Challenge Zone, Learn Zone and Engagement Zone. For more information on this, please see this link.

To learn more about our SAP Academic Conference, please see this link.

Date:      Friday 14 March 2014

Venue:    Shanghai Expo Centre

              No. 1500, Expo Avenue, Pudong, Shanghai, 200126, China

SAP Future IT Leaders @ SAP D-Code(Students & Professors)

Some places just seem to be natural breeding grounds for innovation and entrepreneurship, and Barcelona is one of them. Home of Mobile World Capital and the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona has become the city where the best new mobile technologies are conceived and introduced. Last year an amazing 70,000 people from around the world came to Barcelona to learn about mobile trends and how to ultimately apply those to improve people’s lives. As a side note, the impact of the event on Barcelona’s economy was estimated at €350 million -- pretty cool. This year even more visitors are expected, and I have no doubt that’s due in large part to the fact that the world has shifted to a “mobile first” approach as the standard consumption model of technology. I believe without a doubt that SAP has the best end-to-end mobile platform solution in the market today, and Mobile World Congress is the place to showcase that!

New Leadership

I made a promise to the SAP team when I took on the Platform Solutions leadership role that I would bring the best talent in the world to SAP, and since Barcelona is ground zero for enterprise mobile technology, it’s fitting that we use that as the backdrop to announce a new global leader for SAP’s  mobile organization. Rick Costanzo, the new EVP of Global Mobility Solutions at SAP, is a born leader for enterprise mobile technology. I am thrilled he has officially started at SAP, and extremely proud and excited to have him on my team. Rick will be leading SAP@ Mobile World Congress, and I invite you to join him along with Dirk Boesmann, who heads up SAP Mobile Development, and the rest of our team to learn how you can innovate with SAP and experience the future of mobile, regardless of the size of your enterprise or industry.

Rick is the former EVP of global sales at BlackBerry, and with his deep experience in the enterprise mobility market and SAP’s Mobile Solutions Portfolio, he can absolutely help your enterprise embrace the mobile-first mindset required to succeed in a world being shaped by social, cloud and big data macro trends that impact every aspect of our lives and businesses.

Rick will be building on the accomplishments of Anthony Reynolds, who helped SAP attain market leadership in all mobile segments and analyst validation of SAP Mobile capabilities, including leadership in Gartner’s Mobile Application Development Platforms (MADP) and Mobile Device Management (MDM) Magic Quadrant reports, along with the highest ranking by Yankee Group on Future Return on Mobility for Mobile Application Platforms. Anthony’s key focus was on building the mobile enterprise, and he was instrumental in helping innovative companies such as Colgate, Verizon, BP, AstraZeneca, Vodafone and hundreds of others use a structured approach for the crawl, walk, run process that everyone has to face as they adapt their business to changing  technology.

Competitive Innovators lead the World

I believe companies that choose to innovate are the ones that will ultimately lead the world. Innovation requires ideas, but ideas are not enough. You have to turn them into competitive advantage. Companies that take a structured approach and have a strategy for mobilizing their enterprise will be in the best position in their respective market when mobile investments evolve to full multichannel user experiences. They will be able to map their mobile commerce opportunities to the physical and digital way people consume goods and companies will buy and sell in the future. Their apps, networks and systems will be better connected with SAP Mobile, enabling better decision making for smarter use of resources and a smarter world.

I know SAP can help you accelerate your business with mobile applications and analytical tools for gaining business value from your data. We can also help you create your own industry specific apps at our Mobile Innovation Center and we can help you drive revenue with innovations in IOT and mCommerce, all available in the Cloud and powered by SAP HANA.

We are looking forward to meeting with everyone at SAP@ Mobile World Congress (Feb. 24-27, 2014) and hope to work with you to create the connected future in Barcelona!

You have mastered various SAP tools and modules but still wondering why that guy is still valued more than you. Whenever you have discussion with him, he seems to have NOT SO GOOD technical knowledge as you think you have. During your assignments you always find yourself under pressure; whenever your boss asks you about status you don't even have words to tell how busy you were. But if you pass by that guy you find him NOT REALLY working; he even takes longer time to deliver his assignment, in your thinking. "But why he is cherished more?" you always wonder. When you try to tell your customers how wonderful are the SAP Solutions and on how many projects you've worked earlier, nobody appreciates it. But that strange guy, who is even junior to you, even if draws few diagrams on whiteboard, everyone claps saying "We were looking for such solution". Even some of the customers try to lure him to join their team. "What is so special with him?" you often think but haven't yet found an answer. You may need to look for following qualities (for example) which he has and probably you don't have (or if you have you're not using them appropriately).

1) Understanding the context in which a solution is sought

You always focused on the tool you were master in. But you didn't look beyond that. That guy, even of his limited knowledge of "the tool" understands why customers need such solution. He talks about business process for which SAP has offered a solution. His understanding of the process puts him on higher rank than you. Memorizing transaction codes, tables names or other technical detail isn't necessary as is the understanding of how to put things together. You may notice that guy without remembering such details still can build the system and he is an edge on you by knowing "Why" to build system instead of only knowing "how" to...

2) Considering all aspects of a solution, not only the configuration

You know the exact IMG nodes to configure system. You even remember them. When you are asked how long the solution will take, you quote the time which configuration takes. Later when you've configured the system, you're shocked to hear that's not what was asked or you're pressed for not being able to answer many other things. But you see everyone talking to 'him' nicely. You know why? He knows there are quite a few things which are associated with delivering a solution. So before committing himself to an assignment, he first make sure what exactly is required. He document it, get it signed-off and then put each single activity in a clear plan. When he has to provide status of the project, he can clearly tell on which stage the solution has reached by then; its configured already as per requirements, tomorrow users are coming to test and so on....

3) Speaking 'language' of customer i.e. business-oriented conversation

When you gather business requirements, your focal point is the SAP tool (which is superb, no doubt about it). You ask customers what entries you'd like to have here in this table or you ask them in your technical language. Customers give you wrong feedback and you're happy for having conducted a good workshop for requirements gathering (that's another story later you're just shocked when your customer refuses to accept the solution you provide). That guy, who is just drawing some diagrams, in his first meeting with customers get good feedback. The reason, he talks with him from business perspective. He asks them how you're performing such and such activities currently. He just captures the process on board with some kind of flow charts and explains "how a to-be solution would look like". Being business-oriented he convinces customers for the solution his first meetings. He just doesn't need to make noise of how successful was his workshop. Compare it with yours and see why he always wins...

If you've changed your perspective about 'him' and instead have started thinking to improve yourself for missing qualities, I think I have achieved my purpose through this not-so-detailed but quite-frank blog of convincing you that you can also be THAT GUY. I'd be happy to hear what you think.

Wishing you a prosperous SAP career,

Once a junior consultant (but now enjoying status of "That Guy" at current stage of my SAP career)

The idea of self-service business intelligence has been at the core of the BI promise – transforming raw data into meaningful and useful information for business purposes– is now back at the top of the BI industry headlines? Should you ignore the buzz and just go on with your business? You shouldn’t.

First, let’s get the semantics out of the way: Self service is an approach to BI that lets business users access and work with corporate information without the IT department’s involvement. For the most part, people agree with two fundamental concepts: one is “more autonomy for the end users” and the second one is “have as little IT involvement as possible”. And those are not new concepts. Go back to December 22, 1997 and read the first WebIntelligence press release:

“WebIntelligence provides end users with self-service access to data stored in data warehouses, data marts, and packaged business applications (such as SAP R/3). Using WebIntelligence, end users can autonomously access these data sources without having to submit development requests to IS.”

So why has Self Service BI grabbed news headlines consistently since 2012? After all, it’s not a new concept. Below is a list of three reasons why Self Service BI is still making news:

1. Technological Advancements: Moore’s law might not be what it used to be, but servers, PCs, mobile phones, and tablets are packing more transistors per dollar than ever. Software engineers have learned how to take advantage of them and essentially reduce the query time to a non-factor: Innovative systems capable of storing and crunching on the spot all the data you ever need; fluid user interfaces representing data on a screen is now pretty much seamless. No more waiting!
2. Users Expectations have changed. People don’t have 2 set of expectations when it comes to software: one for business applications and another one for all those ‘apps’ they used in their life outside of work (and often during work!). Business people are expecting the same simplicity, the same elegance, the same responsive UIs in their business applications. And if their expectations are not met they will likely forgo using the company-sanctioned bi tools and go ‘rogue’ with a new one their nephew has told them about.
3. Business Demands: Speed is the new mantra. “Significantly increase your speed, and you can reach new, possibly more profitable realms ahead of competitors” said CIO Magazine back in July 2013. Not only you need to be on top of the traditional metrics (think reports and dashboards), but you must also dig into all the available corporate data and find the hidden opportunities, the hidden costs, etc. And not only you need this insight, but you need it in the next hour. Yikes!

Enter Agile Visualization, the “new-er” face of Self Service BI. At its core, the agile visualization promise is similar to what you have heard before: More autonomy for the business users and limited involvementfrom IT. Agile Visualization also brings to the mix is a simpler user experience, one that uses crisp visualizations to convey knowledge and information and helps tell stories like the story of how your sales team “crushed” the last quarter, or something you would like to bring to the attention of your team.

Is Agile Visualization the one-stop solution to all your information needs? Probably not, but best-in-class companies are already adopting agile visualizations in combination with traditional BI and reporting greater BI success. 75% of better performing organizations deploy data visualizations as part of their BI environment compared to only 41% in companies with less growth.

Are other factors at play? Maybe, but I suggest not staying on the sidelines. Educate yourself about agile visualization or even better don’t wait any longer: go to www.saplumira.com, download SAP Lumira and start using it against your Excel data. It’s free!

I’ll leave the last word to one of the customers interviewed in a recent survey sponsored by SAP:

“The more you enable business with self-service BI technologies, the fewer things get lost in translation.”

                                              IT Manager, chemicals manufacturer, Australia

From USA Today:

Rising levels of student debt have raised alarm bells in the minds of economists and recent college graduates alike. With a bachelor's degree virtually indispensable in today's workplace — and a master's necessary in many fields, as well — many people, be they fresh out of high school or not, have found themselves needing to a seek a higher education in order to pay the bills.

The problem is that these days, college is far from cheap. Tuition for a four-year college can cost easily more than $10,000 per year, ranging all the way up to $50,000 or even more for top-of-the-line institutions. With many inbound college students finding themselves strapped for cash, their only option — aside from obtaining federal aid — is to seek loans to cover the difference between the costs of college and living and any income they might obtain in the meantime. This can amount to a crippling debt load by the time students graduate.

However, student debt rates are not the same across the nation: In fact, there is a surprising amount of variance, according to numbers collected by College In Sight. The average graduate of a four-year institution (or higher) with student debt has less than $20,000 of debt in Utah or Arizona. Let's take a look at eight states at the other end of the spectrum, those with the highest amounts of student debt in the country.

8. Vermont

If you are graduating with debt from a college in Vermont, you will have an average of $28,873 owed. That's right: even in a state home to small names like Middlebury College and Norwich University, student debt rates are still fantastically high. What's worse is that 63% of graduates — almost 2 out of every 3 outgoing students — are graduating with debt to their name.

7. Ohio

We travel to the Midwest for the seventh spot on our list, which belongs to Ohio. With an average debt rate of $28,683 among those graduating with obligations to lenders, the home of Ohio State University is certainly not a cheap state in which to attend university. It might be appealing to root for the Buckeyes, but your pocketbook may not be such a huge fan of the prospect, especially with 68% of outgoing students bearing debts from their education.

6. Iowa

Staying in the Midwest, we move on to Iowa, home of the Hawkeyes and the Cyclones. Getting closer to your Big 10 or Big 12 favorites for a few years is going to cost you: Graduates from the state who have borrowed come out with an average of $28,753 in debt. The percentage of students who are in debt has gone up, too, with 72% of those who attend college in the corn belt state turning to the bank for help pay for their tuition.

5. Connecticut

Jumping out East, the next state on the list is Connecticut, where the average indebted graduate owes $28,783 after completing college. It will certainly cost you a pretty penny to go to Yale, located in New Haven, and even the home of the Huskies, UConn, isn't exactly cheap, either. The good news is that more than a third of those graduating from the state are debt-free.

4. Rhode Island

We stay on the Eastern Seaboard for the fourth spot on the list, Rhode Island. Breaking the $29,000 mark with an average debt of $29,097 for those who are indebted, it certainly doesn't seem like it was inexpensive for Harry Potter star Emma Watson to make her foray into the world of American higher education at Brown University. Even schools like the Rhode Island School of Design and Roger Williams University can cause you to rack up the debt.

3. Minnesota

The bronze medal goes to Minnesota, the home of the Golden Gophers. The average graduate who isn't debt-free owes $29,793 to the bank. If you're looking for an option other than Walden or Capella universities in the state, you can try Carleton College; either way, it seems like there's no way to avoid tacking on extra debt if you're bound for the North Star State out of high school.

2. Pennsylvania

The penultimate spot on the list belongs to none other than Pennsylvania, where a graduate who is burdened by loans averages $29,959 in debt. There might be plenty of options to go to college in Pennsylvania — including Temple, Lehigh, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Pittsburgh — but the sheer number of prestigious schools hasn't helped debt levels of the outgoing students in the state. Another deadly statistic is the percent of graduates who have taken out student loans, which weighs in at 70%.

1. New Hampshire

The surprising top of the list goes to New Hampshire, which, with a whopping average debt of $32,440 for graduates running a loan tab, comes in at nearly $2,500 more than its nearest competitor. Besides Dartmouth, there aren't too many familiar colleges in the state to those outside of New England, but even the lack of notoriety for New Hampshire's universities hasn't prevented many graduates from tacking on over $30,000 of debt during their college years. To top it all off, 75% of graduates — or three out of every four — are graduating with obligations to the bank.

SAP CodeJam on SAP River

Friday, March 21, 2014 from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM (EDT)

Grand Rapids, MI

The SAP CodeJam Group and Grand Valley State University will collaborate on an SAP CodeJam focusing on SAP River.  With SAP River you can develop and test an application backend, in a matter of minutes, that runs on SAP HANA - SAP's in‑memory database and application platform.  Grand Valley State University Professor and SAP Mentor Simha Magal is organizing the event in conjuction with Craig Cmehil of SAP CodeJam.

Want to get your hands on the latest in SAP River while having fun with other developers close to where you are? Then come and check out one of the coolest and fastest growing events from SAP!

SAP CodeJam will focus on SAP River. As a participant, you’ll get access to SAP River including tools, sandboxes, experts, and more! In the days prior to the event, you'll receive an email with a checklist and a couple of links that will help you get prepared.

So, put yourself to the test and sign up for CodeJam now! The event is free, but space is limited.

What do you need to attend? First and foremost DESIRE! Second you will need to bring your own laptop.

Registration opens soon.

Alex

Treinamento e educaçãotêm tudo a vercoma nossa capacidade detrabalhar de forma eficiente, a pensarem novas formas, ede contribuir ecrescer.

Então, na minhamente,a formação e a educaçãodevem começarcom a gente. A opinião da SAP Educação é a mesma.

A área de Educação Global está trabalhandocom aempresa de pesquisa econsultoria, Pierre AudoinConsultants(PAC),para examinaros membros daSAPCommunity Network(SCN), com o intuito de melhor compreenderas nossas prioridadese preferênciasde treinamento.

Cinco minutosapenas!

Nós encorajamos você acompletá-loquando puder.Levaráapenas5 a 7 minutosdo seu tempo paradarSAPEducaçãoa entradaque precisapara projetara formação e educaçãoque atenda as suasnecessidades.A pesquisapergunta sobreseus objetivos pessoaispara a formação,como o treinamentoinfluencia o seutrabalho diário, equaisos elementos deformação sãoimportantes para você.

Os seus dados serãotratadosde forma estritamente confidencial.

O melhor momento paraexpressara sua opiniãoé quando alguémestá escutando.

A SAPEducaçãovêas contribuições dos membros da SCNcomo essencial para amelhoria contínuade suas ofertas. Agoraé a hora certapara deixar a SAPEducaçãosaber o que é realmente importante para você.

Participe da pesquisa! -

Brief Survey on SAP Education and Training

Hi Experts,

I am involved in a SAP upgrade project where we are upgrading system from ECC 5.0 to ECC 6.0. We are also using SAP Solution Mgr. ( Ver 7.0 EHP1) which is presently connected only to ECC 5.0 for Change request process. We are planning to use SolMan after ECC 6.0 go-live, before that  I would like to know whether we can use our existing Solution Mgr.ChaRM for retrofit activities so that ECC 5.0 related changes can be migrated in to new ECC 6.0 environment till we go-live with new version. Is this something recommended? I appreciate sharing any of related documentation on this. Please let me know.

Thanks in advance

Ellath

When you using GOS toolbox menu in some transactions the Attachment list service is active, but when you opened it there are no attachments in it. Previously this was the designed behavior when the application published GOS with more than one business object. Recently an enhancement was released in SAP note 1966453 in order to give the control to the customers to decide:

• have a consistent behavior of the active / inactive status of the Attachment list, so when no attachment exists make the service always inactive or as usual active when there is least one attachment in it, but in this case some delays may occur when the GOS toolbox menu is opened

OR

• have the standard behavior, so when the application publishes GOS with more then one business object the Attachment list stays always active and in this case no performance problems can happen

You can find more information about this in the GOS Troubleshooting guide under the section The Attachment list is active, but no attachment displayed in it and in SAP note 1966453.

Exciting news! Here at SAP we’ve been working feverishly to bring you new capabilities to solve your most demanding data management challenges. We’re thrilled to announce that we have teamed up with ISUG-TECH to host the ISUG-TECH Conference in Atlanta, GA on April 14 – 17^th.  You’ll get in-depth, technical information on the SAP Data Management portfolio of products, including SAP ASE, SAP HANA, SAP IQ, SAP Replication Server, SAP PowerDesigner, SAP PowerBuilder, and SAP SQL Anywhere. This is not a marketing event, the sessions will be highly technical delivered by those Sybase experts you know and love – Peter Thawley, Jeff Tallman, Rob Verschoor, Chris Brown, Chris Baker, Richard Soundy, Mark Mumy, Javier Cuerva, Paul Vero plus many others.

You won’t want to miss this unique opportunity to learn straight from our engineers and industry experts about a wide-range of topics. Plus, you will get the exclusive first look at SAP ASE 16.   SAP has dedicated extraordinary talent to this latest release and will be hosting a number of sessions on it at the conference. And, you’ll get a front row seat to hear about SAP’s vision for data management that offers revolutionary opportunities to your business while requiring a fraction of the IT infrastructure, and an evolutionary path for your applications.   Factor in keynotes, workshops, face time with SAP experts, and networking with colleagues – and you have a program you can’t afford to miss!

Check out the detailed agenda and register today at: http://my.isug.com/conference

We are pleased to announce the February 2014 release of SAP Cloud for Customer.  This release delivers on SAP’s promise to help you engage your customers like never before, with significant enhancements in the areas of:

PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS
Leveraging the power of the HANA Cloud platform and SAP Infinite Insight, Cloud for Customer now delivers next-generation predictive analytics that only SAP can offer.  Available across devices, these capabilities help sales and marketing people better score leads, find new business and engage the right set of influencers to help them win.

INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS

With this release we continue our commitment to deliver industry-specific functionality to our customers.  We are introducing support for design win process in Cloud for Sales to help  high-tech companies specifically semiconductor and component manufacturers  collaborate with channel partners by automating the design registration lifecycle to maximize channel revenue and increase design wins. We are also expanding our Cloud for Sales Retail Execution offering for consumer products companies, with visit summaries, notifications on visits, next visit scheduling prompts and auto assignment of task and surveys and the addition of dynamic surveys.

USER EXPERIENCE

Mobile solution enhancement allows us to not only support a broader range of tablet and hand-held devices, but also to deliver a long list of enhancements to the mobile experience including: broader offline functionality, predictive analytics like the deal finder and influencer map, mobile forecasting, Jam feed support, enhanced surveys, and a native business card scanner.  Service and sales professionals get to leverage capabilities of Visual Enterprise on the road and out in the field. Offline mobile functionality has also been enhanced in line with end user expectations with the ability to create, read and update information. To deliver a consistently great user experience across different devices, Cloud for Customer has embraced HTML5 as user interface technology for browser based solution experiences.

CUSTOMER AND BUSINESS INSIGHT
Engaging a customer requires insight, and SAP is enriching the insight that we offer to customer-facing employees with this release.  Expanding on our popular SAP Customer Insight dashboard, we introduce SAP Customer Insight for Marketing which includes tiles for target groups, email campaigns, marketing leads and the ability to capture and display marketing funds status.  For sales people, we provide improved account fact sheets in PDF format, improved pipeline visualization, and dashboard enhancements that include the ability to incorporate headlines and analytics from SAP Business Warehouse and external systems.

INTEGRATION
This release of Cloud for Customer expands the scope of packaged iFlows to provide marketing, sales, and service personnel with more complete data and business processes, including commerce information from hybris.  Delivering enhanced data and business process integration with both SAP and non-SAP systems, this release includes scenarios to support field service billing and simplified ordering, as well as replication of attachments, sales area data changes, and social media profiles.  New iFlows have also been introduced to facilitate quick integration with SuccessFactors Employee Central for employee records, as well as a Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) interface for Sharepoint, Alfresco, OpenText among other solutions.

EASE OF CONSUMPTION
To help our customers keep operational costs down, SAP has added a number of features to make application administration easier.  With new information migration tools, rules engine enhancements, and improvements to the creation, management, and rollout of customizations by key users, administrators will be able to focus their time on employee adoption.

To learn more about this release of SAP Cloud for Customer, watch the video below

Read the release notes on the SAP Service Marketplace.

We hope that your sales, service and marketing line of business users will leverage these powerful new features to better engage customers, creating personal connections that endure and lead to a lasting, profitable relationship.

Please feel free to reach out to us via comments and questions on this blog for further information and clarification.

Thank you for your time and attention.

February 14 is Valentine’s Day. While tradition tells us it’s synonymous with getting (and receiving) flowers and candy, it’s really about showing that you care about people. To me, Valentine’s Day is about spreading the love to our community – and what better way to do that than by volunteering?

This past Friday, I spent time with more than 2,000 SAP employees, customers and basketball legends at NBA Cares All-Star Day of Service to help families in New Orleans. The league’s global community outreach initiative addressing social issues like education, youth and family development and health and wellness, NBA Cares has raised more than $230 million for charity, provided more than 2.8 million hours of hands-on service, and built more than 860 places where kids and families can live, learn and play.

For the second consecutive year during All Star Weekend, SAP participated in the event and organized a KABOOM! playground build (with Adidas) at KIPP New Orleans Leadership Primary School. Over 200 volunteers built and installed a brand new 3,500 sq. ft. playground for more than 700 students to enjoy!

One of our volunteer guests, a New Orleans local, was wowed by the impact volunteer projects (like the KABOOM! Build) is making on the lives of the residents of the 9^th ward. “KIPP New Orleans Leadership Primary was totally gutted inside and had to be rebuilt [due to Hurricane Katrina]. The wounds of the hurricane are still present… [and we’ve] never fully recovered,” he remembered.  Projects like this playground build, are helping to heal those wounds. To borrow from the definition of a common basketball term, the All-Star Day of Service was the ultimate assist! What an amazing feeling!

The energy of the event was unstoppable. While everyone had a chance to speak, take pictures with, and get autographs from to their favorite basketball players, volunteers were focused on the task at hand. In fact, one volunteer commented, “enough Star Power… time to get back to work.” Talk about a slam dunk for SAP, the NBA and KIPP.

As the Volunteer Ambassador of this event for the past two years, I’m honored to work with so many individuals who are committed to making the world run better. I’m looking forward to Valentine’s Day 2015, where I can help spread the love all over again! For me, the “V” in Valentine’s Day stands for Volunteering.