As part of an ongoing effort to drive value for all INDUS members, we would like to bring to you a new program for your participation and benefit – Ask Me Anything.
In this 1st Ask Me Anything session, we will cover licensing indirect or digital access of SAP software.
We hosted Ashish Thamke– Head of License Audit and Compliance Management for SAP India sub-continent in a free flowing question and answer session.
This was an open session where Ashish answered all the questions that were posted for him around Indirect/Digital Access of SAP software and the right way to license the use.
As part of an ongoing effort to drive value for our members, we have started a new program.
We plan to invite and host global SAP leaders who are responsible for a particular product portfolio or a region for an executive exchange and provide the opportunity for all INDUS members to interact with them. You can ask questions and provide feedback to these global leaders.
Given that we are in the midst of a compliance roll-out (e-Invoicing and TCS), we are hosting the global head of SAP’s globalisation team in the first executive exchange as part of this program.
Introduction to the executive:
Stefan Steinle is the Senior Vice President and Head of SAP Globalization Services. Based in SAP’s headquarter in Walldorf, Germany, he is responsible for the global reach of SAP’s products, which includes language experience, legal compliance, and functional localization. Stefan’s prime target is to ensure SAP customers can leverage SAP software to extend and grow their business globally in all geographies across the world.
Introduction of the Host:
Atul Govil (Chief Transformation Officer and Head – SAP & IT), who is an INDUS Board Member will host Stefan in this conversation and will moderate the discussion. You can join the session and ask any questions you might have regarding SAP’s localisation strategy or share feedback for Stefan to take back to SAP.
You can watch the entire recording of the session here.
Some of the important questions that were covered in the session include:
We have noticed that localisation solutions when being released are not complete. Take for example the current situation with the TCS solution released by SAP. While the sales side of the equation is handled by the SAP solution well, the procurement side of the solution is not yet ready or released. Why is that so and what can be done to address this going forward?
We have also seen that of late, SAP has a strategy to license the localisation solutions being released. We believe that localisation of ERP is something that is mandatory requirement for doing business and helps customers stay compliant and doesn’t necessarily add any additional business value. This makes it difficult for customers to justify the cost of procuring additional licenses for these solutions. Why is this so?
We also need to be aware of the solutions that surround the ERP solution that are also required to be localised (SuccessFactors or Ariba or Concur, etc). What is SAP’s strategy around them? What is SAP doing to revisit and ensure that their ERP/such solution cover all mandatory compliances?
Consumption of Notes by SAP customers on earlier version is not as seamless and has teething issues. How is SAP going to handle this?
We have seen that many interactions between SAP and customers is around the interpretation of the law of the land. Can SAP’s interpretation be shared for customers to be better prepared {in the form of Q&A or FAQ’s}. This is so that the primary focus of all interactions between us needs to be on the solution.
With the rate of change in compliance requirements getting faster and faster, how is SAP planning to address this? Also, what can be done to improve collaboration between development team and customers to be significantly improved. This is to enable SAP to act on localization requirements quickly and act/comply locally.
If you have a request in terms of which executives would you like to be invited, pls reply to this email and let us know and we will try and get them in one of the next sessions.
Stay tuned for more such executive exchanges with key SAP executives.
Influencing SAP products (both current and future is a big part of the user group agenda. To that avail, SAP announces a list of projects where they seek customer feedback before developing the ideas into full fledged product.
The list of projects which are part of the current cycle is listed below.
Please note that the registration is open to valid S-Users and Ariba Customers only.
The current CEI cycle offers the following projects. Learn more and sign up via the links below until 6th Nov 2020, to receive an invitation to an introductory call with SAP’s development team.
After the initial call, you can decide whether you want to participate in the project.
In the September edition of monthly webinar Defeat the Hackers, INDUS Security Special Interest group hosted Shipra Aggarwal and Bibin Mathew from SAP Labs India Bangalore.
Two topics were covered in this month’s session:
Critical SAP Security Notes Released this Quarter
CVE (Common Vulnerability and Exposures)
Critical SAP Security Notes Released this Quarter
Bibin presented on the new critical patches that were released this quarter (July 2020 – Sep 2020) and should be consumed by customers on high priority. The session covered more details about these critical patches including:
Products affected
Impact
Availability of workarounds & FAQs
Please refer to the slides and recording for more information.
CVE (Common Vulnerability and Exposures)
Shipra shared the importance of CVE (Common Vulnerability and Exposures) for SAP customers in enhancing the security posture of their landscapes.
The session provided an overview on the need for CVEs for software security vulnerabilities. At the session, Shipra also spoke about how and when SAP became a CVE Numbering Authority and the benefits of doing so.
She also shared some practical tips on making the best use of CVEs.
In addition, the session also detailed on the following aspects:
Why do we need CVEs and what it is?
How SAP assigns CVE-IDs for its patched security vulnerabilities?
Understanding the CVE entry from MITRE and NVD
How customers can make use of CVEs to consume SAP patches effectively?
Some of the resources that she shared are as below:
With more than 14,600 SAP S/4HANA licensed customers and 7,100 SAP S/4HANA live customers, SAP S/4HANA is the fastest product adoption ever seen at SAP.
To help even more customer to move to SAP S/4HANA, the SAP S/4HANA Movement program is continuously improving SAP S/4HANA capabilities and developing ideas that accelerate the transformation process.
Furthermore, the program equips the customers with the solutions, tools, and services from SAP and its partners that ensure a secure MOVE to SAP S/4HANA.
Any move to SAP S/4HANA can be summarised in four phases.
1. Align on Vision & Strategy
This phase allows you to align on business and IT strategy, get buy-in across the organization, and set the foundation for all further steps.
Therefore, you need to explore where your industry is heading and what value SAP S/4HANA will bring to your business. With offerings such as SAP S/4HANA Move in Motion, SAP S/4HANA Simulation and the SAP S/4HANA Board Game, SAP Spotlight, and SAP S/4HANA Benchmarking Assessment, SAP makes clear the importance of the digital core and what support and benefits SAP S/4HANA brings to different industries.
With a deep appreciation for the uniqueness of every customer, this step is dedicated to personalised guidance and the creation of an SAP S/4HANA transformation plan.
To optimize the path to SAP S/4HANA, SAP experts help you with various service and support offerings to match business objectives to possible deployment strategies {On premise, Cloud or hybrid environments} and to implementation approaches {New implementation, system conversion and selective data transition}.
Supportive assets like the SAP S/4HANA Manifesto and the Custom Code Whitepaper can support you to make fact-driven decisions and choose the deployment and implementation options that meet your specific requirements.
4. Deliver Business Value
SAP supports the implementation phase of a customer’s SAP S/4HANA project with different project methodologies, implementation services, SAP tools, and enablement offerings.
The SAP S/4HANA Movement program continues to build and improve these services and tools to help customers deliver a quick adoption & the business value for their company and push forward their future success.
Project methodologies: SAP has developed different methodologies and frameworks for both SAP and partner-led deployment projects to ensure that the implementation of SAP S/4HANA is safeguarded and value-added.
Implementation services: Customers want to deploy SAP S/4HANA quickly with ready-to-run, pre-configured solutions based on years of SAP expert industry and line-of-business know-how. SAP Model Company provides those services and combines them with tailorable service packages of long-term, highly accountable, and flexible safeguarding solutions that are offered by SAP Value Assurance services.
SAP tools: Reducing the cost of implementation is an area of continuous improvement. SAP invests in tools such as the Software Update Manager, ABAP Test Cockpit or SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit. Those tools automate essential cost-driving activities such as code adjustments, pre-configurations, and data transitions
Enablement offerings: SAP offers several SAP S/4HANA enablement services that you can leverage and , that helps you be more confident with SAP S/4HANA. Here we would like to highlight the virtual bootcamp 10 Steps to SAP S/4HANA and the visual guides SAP S/4HANA Learning Journeys.
For further information on the four steps and the underlying solutions, tools, and services, check out the new SAP S/4HANA Movement page in the SAP Support Portal. You can also visit the official website or contact the SAP S/4HANA Movement directly via e-mail.
INDUS SAP S/4HANA Special Interest Group (SIG):
Apart from all of these, INDUS also has a special interest group (SIG) for SAP S/4HANA where we invite SAP experts and customers who have gone live with SAP S/4HANA to share their experience.
The SIG runs a WhatsApp group and also a monthly call. You can join the WhatsApp group and register for the monthly call.
Written by Atul Govil, CTO, India Glycols and INDUS Board Member
Summary of the Agenda for the Townhall:
Considering the serious fall out of the ongoing Covid pandemic, top and bottom lines of many companies, industry sectors are in distress (particularly for the period March’20 till June’20). In most companies, considering liquidity crisis faced by them, IT budgets are under pressure, priorities for IT project and expense allocation are changing, projects getting delayed. For most companies, AMC payouts to SAP ERP & payouts made to SAP for their product offerings comprise a large part of the IT budget. Reduce the AMC burden, trade off the unused licenses or cloud products is the ask by SAP customers.
Brief on the Points covered during the Townhall:
Townhall meeting conducted on 20th July, based on registrations sought from SAP customers to participate in a townhall with INDUS board and SAP India leadership.
Along with registration, specific questions participants wanted to clarify from SAP was also taken, to make the discussion inclusive. 100+ organisations were represented in the Townhall.
Started with introduction by INDUS chairman Vijay Sethi and the INDUS board members. From SAP, Krishnan Chatterjee (Chief Customer officer, Head of Marketing and Mukesh Gupta (Director – Customer Advocacy & Executive Liaison for INDUS) participated in this meeting.
INDUS has had interactions with SAP INDIA leadership and their APAC team. INDUS was not satisfied with SAP’s response that this issue will be handled on a case to case basis. Thereafter Vijay Sethiji had written to Christian Klien (SAP’s CEO), Yasmin (who heads the user group community within SAP).
As per response of SAP, Account manager is the person who can help the customers, however as per feedback received from many customers in many cases, the account manager is not user friendly – this feedback was given to SAP, without taking specific names.
In case account manager does not respond, then Krishnan can be reached out to. As per SAP, no price reduction has been given to any Customer till date, or trade off of the un-used licenses made so far. Some cases have got differed payments.
A poll was conducted to take an anonymous feedback, to get pulse from the customer (64 feedback received on the below 3 poll questions) –
Did you reach out to account manager – 77% said yes, 8 % said no, balance are yet to initiate a communication.
Did you get any assistance from the Account manager – 17 % said yes, 55 % said no, balance
Are you happy with the SAP support on this topic – 6 % said yes, 69 % said no, 25 % balance.
As per SAP, a blanket waiver may not be possible, SAP will look at the request sector wise and provide some benefits. As per INDUS, it will be important that sector wise benefits, as applicable, be transparently provided to linked SAP customers. Whatever criterion is there, it should be applicable for all organisations. As regard the free add on Cloud based products, offerings by SAP, most companies are not using the same.
Krishnan committed that no Customer’s request will go unheard. Each and every customer will be given a hearing in the SAP internal task force for the task force to decide.
3 guard rails set by SAP for the constituted task force –
1st is the Industry vertical – impact on the industry,
2nd – size (turnover) of the enterprise, considering smaller sized companies are more vulnerable.
3rd – financial engagement of the enterprise with SAP.
Over 450 requests have come to the task force – 190 have been given relief based on INDUS efforts – in terms of deferment of payment and 2nd is the delayed start date of the cloud offering.
No. of new innovations related discussions have started. Request from SAP to INDUS to be able to drive these innovations to create higher value for their respective businesses.
The Townhall was opened up for all participants to share their inputs:
Considering there is a reduction in head count in some companies, SAP needs to tradeoff for the spared licenses.
For Concur and such SAS based products, wherein usage is almost nil, a waiver is sought.
Customers are seeking direct benefits which can have a bearing on their cash flows, liquidity.
Escalation matrix is required from SAP for each Customer, to get both Sales, Service support.
SAP should show commitment and work as a partner and not as a transactional vendor. Sentiment of the impacted Customers to be addressed. Customers are getting a feel that SAP is acting unilaterally.
In many companies, there is a significant reduction in employees salaries, headcounts also getting reduced, also Contracts are being renegotiated to lower their Operating costs. It is expected from SAP that they support it’s Customers in these desperate times.
Brief on INDUS, it’s objectives and activities to achieve these, was shared during the Townhall.
It was emphasised that we need to increase the member base across Industry verticals. Further a showcase of the new and interactive INDUS website was done, with Events gallery, details of the Special Interest Groups, faq section, Licensing linked clarifications, Blogs, link of Webinars being done by INDUS & SAP (new and recorded).
In the interface between SAP and it’s Customer, there is a need to build greater trust, it cannot be just around Contracts enforcement, being inflexible. There is a need to create a win-win situation with greater resilience. Further as per SAP, there are areas to drive co-innovation and put a mechanism around it.
A follow up meeting will be planned in due course of time. Recording of the meeting will be made available to participants.
You can view the entire recording of the INDUS Townhall here.
Outline of the earlier interactions with SAP on stated topic:
In the wake of the ongoing crisis, we had reached out and held discussions with the SAP India MD, Deb Deep Sengupta and SAP India Chief Customer Officer – Krishnan Chatterjee (on 2nd April & follow up call on 16th April) to discuss the possibility of reduction in the AMC & subscription of cloud based products like SuccessFactors, Concur etc.
We formally sent an email requesting for a 3 month waiver of AMC given the current situation, following which we had a meeting with the SAP regional lea-dership, represented by Richard McLean (SAP APJ CFO) and Paul Marriott (SAP APJ COO).
April 30th – SAP APJ CFO – Richard McLean and SAP APJ COO – Paul Marriott in this meeting
Focal Point: Seeking AMC waiver for 3 months due to the impact of the current pandemic on the businesses in India, which are already impacted by GST, De-monitization and other linked disruptions.
On 22nd June, INDUS board through it’s Chairman Vijay Sethi, reached out SAP’s CEO – Christian Klein requesting for SAP’s support in waiver of AMC – no uniform rule for all customers in a country and that SAP is willing to consider requests on an individual basis.
Each SAP user organization whose business is significantly impacted (negatively) and is keen to engage with SAP for relief options – needs to reach out to SAP through their respective account manager or in case response from account manager is not achieved, then the org can route the request with Krishnan Chatterjee.
The INDUS HR Special Interest Group in their monthly meeting covered the following in the session “Transform & Leverage SAP SuccessFactors Learning @ your workplace”.
They hosted Sreelatha who delivered the session and covered the topic in detail.
A brief overview on SF Learning Management System, an effective learning approach supports:
Filling of skills Gaps
SuccessFactors brings together powerful functionality that allows companies to map out skills needed in the workforce and enables their users to explore these and find the right development opportunities for them.
Continuous Learning
Companies are beginning to assess and value learning agility, or the ability to learn quickly in a changing environment. As people are now expecting to work for decades longer than their predecessors did, they take for granted that they will need to learn and gain new expertise throughout their lives.
Based on past experience we have covered detailed slides on how organization can create the learning culture, overcome the economics of learning and enhancing the employee engagement. Top 12 benefits are covered in detailed with examples.
With integrations that support social learning, mentor matching, curated content delivery, crowdsourced content, and the tracking of learning activities outside of the traditional LMS catalog as well as training programs and learning journeys, SuccessFactors Learning not only enables learners to keep growing throughout their working lives, but also supports visibility for employers into just how their workforce is developing.
Learning in the Flow of Life & Personalisation
The focus in corporate learning is shifting away from formal training programs and learning paths in many cases, and toward a more self-determined paradigm of learning.
With SAP Content Stream by Skillsoft, in-context learning like tips, videos or answers to questions can be incorporated directly into daily work.
The embedded, synchronized learning assistant (ELSA) empowers users with in-context learning – available through a browser plug-in – directly in their natural workflow. The ELSA plug-in works with a variety of popular browsers such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Explorer.
Additionally, many companies are shifting to a content-delivery model rather than a traditional learning assignment model. With iteratively improved machine learning and increasing integration of learning recommendations into various work processes, SuccessFactors Learning will leapfrog the learning experience platform model in some ways, while also offering multiple extensions to provide the LXP experience as well.
Human Experience Management
With HXM, organizations can harness intelligent technologies to personalize the user experience, use data to understand how employees feel, and leverage an open ecosystem to tap into a wide range of solutions. SuccessFactors Learning is focusing on a reimagination of the end user experience of our solution.
SF Learning solution offerings in more detail: :
A Learning Management System (LMS) that supports instructor led training, A Learning Management System (LMS) that supports instructor led training, eLearning, exams/assessments, reporting and dashboards
SAP Jam Collaboration for extended social learning
Mobile learning via an intuitive app for anytime, anywhere learning
Analytics that help customers understand how, where, and to whom training is delivered, and through this understanding, it can help customers measure the efficiency of internal and external training resources and the overall impact of training experiences on employees
SAP Content Stream by Skillsoft, a solution extension integrated with SF Learning to deliver an immersive learning experience and high class content. And at SAP SuccessFactors, we have an “Open Content Strategy because– it all starts and ends with content! SAP SuccessFactors believes content should be ‘open’ and available from any source and easy to consume. So in addition to the content from Content Stream
Content creation tools – SAP Enable Now, a content authoring tool that allows customers to easily create and deploy context-sensitive user help, transaction documentation, training simulations, test scripts, and e-learning materials, and SAP Knowledge Accelerator which is an editable, web-based learning and support product that customers can use to complete training and performance support.
Combining SuccessFactors Learning with SAP Content Stream fills the gap of addressing learning experience and engaging users with personalized and relevant content.
Organizations must evolve their training solutions to better manage costs, address skill gaps, and comply with learning standards and employee expectations. Add SAP Jam, and you provide a collaborative learning experience to your employees.
Learning solutions need to continue to invest in their Learning Management System to support compliance and talent development as well as training external audiences. And they must increase their focus on
Supporting modern learners and learning strategies
Delivering learning through a beautiful and engaging user experience
Expanding in new markets such as B2B/Extended Enterprise
I had the opportunity to host Mr. Vijay Sethi (CIO, CHRO and head of CSR at the world’s largest two wheeler manufacturer – Hero Moto Corp) on a meeting and request him to share his his insights and learnings about digital transformation. He also busts some of the myths about digital transformation. If digital transformation is a topic of interest for you, I highly recommend that you watch the entire session here.
At the end of this session, Vijay shared some tips for driving successful Digital transformation programs. You can watch him share his tips on the how to run successful digital transformation initiatives here.
Don’t rush to find out consultants. They have a role to play, but much later in the process. Figure out your business strategy before you invest in anything. All investments need to bring your business strategy to life.
While using outside experts, don’t forget to leverage your inside experts!
Don’t get into the trap of chasing best technology! Digital transformation is not about technology at all. It is about culture. Focus on mindsets and culture of your organisation Encourage experimentation – fail fast, fail cheap and learn from mistakes (and successes).
Get C-Suite ownership (before you start anything else).
Identify and Collaborate with key stakeholders. Drive digital culture into your organization’s DNA
Setup the right team. Bridge the skill gap. Get people who understand IT, who have done IT and who have the passion to do IT.
Focus on data analytics (from nice to have –> must have).
Build early successes. As in any change process, this adds momentum to your program.
Recognise and address employees’ fear of losing their jobs.
Be agile in decision making.
Digital transformation is not a destination, its journey and a means to an end.
Digital transformation will not solve all your business problems. However, it can significantly help enhance customer experience, reduce costs, improve efficiencies, improve quality and
Digital transformation is not an option today. It is a necessity.
Digital transformation is about reimagining your business.
Digital transformation is not easy. It is “Change” multiplied and amplified by technologies.
In the same session, he also busted 9 myths about digital transformation. You can read the same and watch the video here.
If you would like to watch his entire session, you can do so here.
In this August edition, of INDUS Cloud Platform Special Interest group we had Arti Gopalan (SAP product manager) share about how you can Accelerate SAP S/4HANA & SAP Business Suite integrations using SAP Cloud Platform Integration Suite.
You can watch the replay of the session below:
You can download the slides used in the session from here.
The three key messages delivered as part of this session are:
Integration is the key to intelligent enterprise journey
SAP provides you with the enterprise-grade integration capabilities that support your integration needs.
Future proofing your integration strategy and the way forward from SAP PI/PO customers.
Digitalization has become the key to being adept in businesses. Organizations that are looking to build connected experiences, achieve greater flexibility, and construct new innovations at scale need to consider integrations at the beginning of their digital transformation projects.
SAP Cloud Platform Integration Suite provides our customers with capabilities and support that simplifies and accelerates enterprise integration requirements. This is done by delivering:
1500+ out-of-the-box, prepackaged integration content addressing SAP to SAP, non-SAP and and e-government application integration usecases.
Simplified connectivity and seamless integration with 160+ non-SAP SaaS applications using the open connectors
Govern and provide secure access to data and processes using the API management capabilities.
Machine learning driven assisted implementation that considerably reduces implementation time.
For our SAP Process Integration/Process Orchestration (PI/PO) we have shared a strategy paper on how to Future-Proof Your Integration Strategy (SAPinsider Article). Do read this blog by Harsh Jegadeesan who is the head of Product Management for Integration Platform to understand the rationale and way forward for our customers. We recommend the following 3 actions to protect your existing integrations:
Upgrade to SAP NetWeaver 7.5
Build New Agile Integrations with Integration Suite
Move Existing Integration Scenarios to Integration Suite
Here are few links that will be useful for you to draw your integration strategy:
Integration Strategy Whitepaper with roadmap from SAP´s CEO.
I had the opportunity to host Mr. Vijay Sethi (CIO, CHRO and head of CSR at the world’s largest two wheeler manufacturer – Hero Moto Corp) on a meeting and request him to share his his insights and learnings about digital transformation. He also busts some of the myths about digital transformation. If digital transformation is a topic of interest for you, I highly recommend that you watch the entire session here.
In this session, Vijay busted 9 Myths about Digital transformation. You can find the same as below. You can watch him share his takes on the Myths here.
Myth
Fact
Digital Transformation is about technology.
Digital transformation is all about the customer
Digital transformation is about disrupting everything.
Digital experience is all about putting customer experience at the center of decision making.
Digital transformation will replace physical
Digital transformation will enhance physical.
Digital transformation will cost too much.
Digital transformation is not about cost, but about value.
Digital transformation is only relevant for large organisations.
Digital experience is all about putting customer experience, irrespective of the size of your business.
Digital transformation will lead to people losing their jobs
Digital transformation is about enhancing skillsets of employees.
Digital transformation and digitization are the same thing.
Digital transformation is about significantly enhancing value, while digitization is about making current process faster, better, easier.
Digital transformation is IT’s baby, nobody else needs to worry.
Digital transformation is about business and not IT.
Digital transformation can wait.
Digital transformation is already a necessity.
If you would like to watch his entire session, you can do so here.
