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Things you can leverage while Planning your Move to SAP S/4HANA
S4HANA, SIG, Tips and TricksBy Mukesh Gupta

Things you can leverage while Planning your Move to SAP S/4HANA

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.

You can even further increase your understanding of the value of SAP S/4HANA with additional tools provided by such as SAP S/4HANA Business Value Advisor, Innovation Discovery for SAP products and industry-specific- value discovery assets.

2. Build the Case

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.

You can either take advantage of an expert-guided planning approach such as SAP S/4HANA Adoption Starter Engagement* or SAP S/4HANA Value Discovery Engagement or utilize the SAP planning tools SAP Readiness Check, SAP Transformation Navigator and Business Scenario Recommendations in your own timeframe to build your transformation plan on your own.

3. Plan the Path Forward

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.

For example, the SAP Integrated Delivery Framework and SAP Advanced Deployment follow the same approach while leveraging individual strengths.

And the Partner Conversion Factories provide high-quality system conversions at a fixed price.

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.

Register for the monthly INDUS SAP S/4HANA SIG Meeting
Join the WhatsApp Group

UncategorizedBy Mukesh Gupta

Update: Customers seeking Waivers from SAP for AMC payouts & Cloud based Offerings – INDUS Townhall with SAP Customers and SAP India leadership

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) – 

  1. Did you reach out to account manager – 77% said yes, 8 % said no, balance are yet to initiate a communication.    
  2. Did you get any assistance from the Account manager – 17 % said yes, 55 % said no, balance 
  3. 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:

  1. Considering there is a reduction in head count in some companies, SAP needs to tradeoff for the spared licenses.
  2. For Concur and such SAS based products, wherein usage is almost nil, a waiver is sought.
  3. Customers are seeking direct benefits which can have a bearing on their cash flows, liquidity.
  4. Escalation matrix is required from SAP for each Customer, to get both Sales, Service support.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.

HR SIG, Human ResourcesBy Mukesh Gupta

Transform and Leverage SAP SuccessFactors Learning at your workplace

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.

You can watch the recording of the session here.

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
Join the INDUS HR Special Interest Group WhatsApp Group

CIO Feature, Digital Transformation, Tips and TricksBy Mukesh Gupta

Tips for Unlocking the potential of Digital Technologies for Transformation

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.

  1. 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.
  2. While using outside experts, don’t forget to leverage your inside experts!
  3. 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).  
  4. Get C-Suite ownership (before you start anything else).
  5. Identify and Collaborate with key stakeholders. Drive digital culture into your organization’s DNA
  6. 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.
  7. Focus on data analytics (from nice to have –> must have).
  8. Build early successes. As in any change process, this adds momentum to your program.
  9. Recognise and address employees’ fear of losing their jobs.
  10. Be agile in decision making.
  11. Digital transformation is not a destination, its journey and a means to an end.
  12. Digital transformation will not solve all your business problems. However, it can significantly help enhance customer experience, reduce costs, improve efficiencies, improve quality and
  13. Digital transformation is not an option today. It is a necessity.
  14. Digital transformation is about reimagining your business.
  15. 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.

Accelerate SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Suite integrations using SAP Cloud Platform Integration Suite.
Cloud Platform, SIGBy Mukesh Gupta

Accelerate SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Suite integrations using SAP Cloud Platform Integration Suite.

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:

  1. Integration is the key to intelligent enterprise journey 
  2. SAP provides you with the enterprise-grade integration capabilities that support your integration needs.
  3. 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:

  1. 1500+ out-of-the-box, prepackaged integration content addressing SAP to SAP, non-SAP and and e-government application integration usecases.
  2. Simplified connectivity and seamless integration with 160+ non-SAP SaaS applications using the open connectors
  1. Govern and provide secure access to data and processes using the API management capabilities.
  2. 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:

  1. Upgrade to SAP NetWeaver 7.5
  2. Build New Agile Integrations with Integration Suite
  3. Move Existing Integration Scenarios to Integration Suite

Here are few links that will be useful for you to draw your integration strategy:

  1. Integration Strategy Whitepaper with roadmap from SAP´s CEO.
  2. Integration Assessment tool
  3. CIO Guide I: SAP Vision for Integrating SAP Applications in Cloud and Hybrid
  4. CIO Guide II: Process and Data Integration in Hybrid Landscapes
  5. Integration Strategy Advisor Methodology
  6. Future-Proof Your Integration Strategy

For implementors, the following links will be useful for you to get started:

  1. SAP API Business Hub (explore available Business Processes, APIs, Events, Integration contents, open connectors to Non-SAP applications)
  2. Discovery Center missions
    1. Integration Suite onboarding mission
    2. Getting started with API Management
    3. Getting started with Open Connectors
  3. Integration Flow Design Guidelines for SAP Cloud Platform Integration
  4. Integration Suite Community
CIO Feature, Digital TransformationBy Mukesh Gupta

9 Myths about Digital Transformation

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.

MythFact
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 physicalDigital 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 jobsDigital 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.

CIO Feature, Digital TransformationBy Mukesh Gupta

Digital Transformation is about Reimagining the Business for the Digital Age – Vijay Sethi, CIO – Hero Moto Corp

Premise:

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.  

Once upon a time:

The CIO had a very peaceful life and were very happy running the applications that they were responsible for (SAP, networks, security, email, etc). But in the last 10 – 12 years, things have changed and that too significantly. There has been an avalanche of buzzwords taking the world by storm.

  1. SCAM – Social Media, Cloud, Analytics and mobility.
  2. BAR – Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

These buzzwords move from just being buzzwords to becoming a reality of our lives. Digital is pervading the entire organisations from top floor to the shop floor.

Add to this, the generation of people that have joined the workforce are the internet native generation. Given the current situation of the pandemic, children are attending school on a mobile device from the comfort of their homes. Imagine the kind of expectations these citizens will have when they enter the workforce.

Digital Transformation:

What this has all done is to bring the conversation around digital transformation to the forefront of all the businesses. If you are not thinking and working towards digital transformation in your organisation, you might already be missing the bus.

Digital transformation is when you enable a non-digital native business to leverage digital technologies to transform themselves such that they are able to not only compete but also thrive in the new business environment.

Why should one care of digital transformation:

  1. Digital transformation programs have the potential to provide disproportional return on investments to the business.
  2. Enabling growth in the business by enabling new business models or channels or capabilities.
  3. In many cases, survival of the business will depend on how well digital transformation efforts play out in the market. The current pandemic has clearly shown that being digital is not just a nice to have side project for businesses but in many cases, has become the core of the business model.  
  4. When customers experience digital native businesses, their expectations from all businesses change, which means that if a business wants to survive or even thrive, digital transformation of business is inevitable.

What is Digital transformation:

Before we understand what digital transformation is, it is important to understand what it is not.

  1. Automation of business processes is not Digital transformation.
  2. When asked for examples of digital transformation, the common names that come up are that of Uber, Ola, Oyo and AirBnB. They are not examples of digital transformation but are examples of digital disruption. They are born digital and enabled new business models leading to disrupting entire industries.

Too often, Digital transformation, feels like a buzzword. As companies rush to streamline operational efficiency and impress end users with slick new interfaces, without a focused approach to solve the real challenge at hand, which is, how to deliver a superior customer experience in the digital age.

So, what is Digital Transformation?

Digital transformation involves defining a roadmap with a sequence of capabilities that should be developed, with the specific purpose of leveraging digital technologies to drive business to a different level!

Digital Transformation is about using digital technologies to create new – or modify existing – business processes, culture and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements!!

Digital transformation is a process and a journey and not a destination. One can’t say that now I am digitally transformed. So, how do we embark on this journey?

Defining a roadmap:

Every business needs to develop a clear vision of what would it be like to do business with them. Based on this vision, the team then needs to come up with a roadmap of what new capabilities will this vision need to come alive and by when do we need these capabilities and in what sequence.

Leveraging Digital Technologies:

Once we have the roadmap, we then go looking for the best technologies available in order to bring the roadmap and the capabilities alive and not the other way around, as a lot of businesses attempt.  

Business models, Culture & Customer experiences

The move from status quo to the vision laid out at the start usually requires the digital transformation program to address atleast two of these three areas. The result of the digital transformation effort should either

  • Create or enable new business processes and business models, which can lead to outsized increase in efficiencies and profits or enable the business to target new markets or customer segments.
  • Create a new kind of culture or modify the existing culture within the organisation. Culture of the organisation is like the operating system on a computer. All other programs will need to work within the limitations of the operating system. Just like the operating system is always working behind the curtains, culture of an organisation is also always working behind the scenes and controls what can be done and what can’t be done.
  • Create new or modify existing customer experiences. The reason for a business to exist is to create and satisfy a customer and her needs/wants/desires. So, digital transformation programs need to significantly change (hopefully make it better) the customer experiences in order to provide the disproportionate returns on the investment.  

All of this is now possible as the convergence and the maturity of digital technologies has significantly evolved over the years.

In conclusion:

If a digital transformation project has to have any chance of the impact that it can have, customer experience has to be at the center of digital transformation programs.

Most digital technologies provide possibilities for efficiency gains and customer intimacy – but if people lack the right mindset to change and the current organizational practices are flawed, digital transformation will simply magnify those flaws.

So, if you really want to run digital transformation, you need to start with the mindset and culture change.  

This post was originally published on “Leading Transformations” blog and has been republished here with permission.

Defeat the Hacker, UncategorizedBy Mukesh Gupta

Best Practices to Secure your SAP Custom Code

In the July edition of their monthly webinar Defeat the Hackers, INDUS Security Special Interest group hosted Natascha Lalor from SAP Ireland. She shared the importance of having Secure Software Development LiveCycle for custom code applications.

The session provided an overview of the various tools at SAP that can be used to secure custom code. In the session Natascha also explained the processes that should be in place to make sure your custom applications are secure. She also shared best practices that will help to secure custom applications right from the start.

The session gave an overview on:

  • Software security vulnerability situation today
  • Application security testing solutions at SAP
  • ABAP Test Cockpit
  • SAP Code Vulnerability Analyzer
  • Custom Code Management Tools
  • Threat Modelling

You can find the recording here.

You can find the slides here.

Join the Defeat the Hackers WhatsApp group
Register for the Monthly Special Interest Group Meetings

ES SIG, S4HANABy Mukesh Gupta

Realize the Power of SAP S/4HANA with the New Guides Program

The first edition of the monthly INDUS Enterprise Support Special Interest group meeting, SAP launched the SAP Enterprise Guides program that can help you in your SAP S4HANA Project on June 30th, 2020.

You can watch the replay of the session below:

Here is a brief summary of the program, how you can participate and where to find more information to get started.

The GUIDES program is offered to accompany SAP Enterprise Support direct customers on the journey to SAP S/4HANA, it provides prescriptive and proactive SAP S/4HANA guidance in an efficient and programmatic approach for the full project life cycle.

1. What are the key new features and benefits in GUIDES?

Besides the well-known and proven SAP Enterprise Support services, assets, and SAP Enterprise Support Value Maps, the new GUIDES program will have additional innovative content and assets, which will be further enhanced and optimized in 2020. 

2. How can SAP’s GUIDES program support you?

The new GUIDES program has some key pillars, as illustrated in the below picture: 

The engagement starts with an Onboarding session, followed by delivery of selected Journey Checks. The tailored Engagement Plan builds the foundation for the collaboration between the SAP Enterprise Support Advisory and customers. 

Engagement Points are designed to be delivered throughout the project. They can be touch points between SAP Enterprise Support and customer’s project team on specific topics like the results and follow-up activities of a Continuous Quality Check service.

The well-known SAP Enterprise Support Value Maps will remain an important collaboration foundation and methodology between SAP Enterprise Support customers and SAP Enterprise Support Advisory team.

*Note: Not every Journey Check will be available at the start of GUIDES. Number of Journey Checks varies depending on deployment options and transition paths. 

3. How does an Engagement Plan of GUIDES program look like?

Let’s have a look at a high level Engagement Plan example to get detailed insights on the GUIDES program. We will share more details on these activities from PREPARE to EXPLORE phase. 

The Engagement Plan can be adjusted after each SAP Activate phase or in case of significant changes to your project planning. For instance, a first Engagement Point could be scheduled during your starting activities while you convert your sandbox, the supporting empowerment offerings and documents on how to perform this conversion would be provided. Further, a Journey Check will be provided, where typical questions with relevance to sandbox conversion and next steps will be raised. We would guide you through this exercise based on SAP’s Best Practices. 

In case there is an unplanned change in the project, an ad-hoc Engagement Point can be scheduled to align on required Engagement Plan modifications.

4. What are NEXT STEPs?

As a customer, you may ask, so when is the right time that SAP Enterprise Support direct customers can join the new GUIDES program? The ideal and recommended starting point is at the end of the SAP Activate DISCOVER Phase or at the beginning of the PREPARE phase. It is also possible to join our program at a later phase of the implementation.

So if you are already in such a phase, kindly join us through the activities below.

Register for the SAP Enterprise support Guides program via SAP Enterprise Support Advisory Council landing page.

Let SAP Enterprise Support be your guide in your SAP S/4HANA journey!

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Build a Business Case for SAP S/4HANA by playing the SAP S/4HANA Virtual Board Game
Procurement, S4HANABy Mukesh Gupta

Build a Business Case for SAP S/4HANA by playing the SAP S/4HANA Virtual Board Game

In their July edition, the INDUS S/4HANA Special Interest group hosted Saurabh Chaudhri who explained in detail about the SAP S/4HANA Board game. He and his team also hosted two groups of SIG members to play the game virtually.

This game helps if

  • You struggling to grasp all the different innovations in S/4 and how it applies to their business?
  • You interested in a new and engaging way to convey the business value of S/4HANA to your business leaders?
  • You and your teams suffering from powerpoint fatigue?

SAP’s S/4HANA Solution Management team has GAMIFIED this learning process through the introduction of:

SAP S/4HANA Virtual Board Game:

SAP S/4HANA Virtual Board Game is a fun, interactive way to help you discover how SAP S/4HANA solution capabilities can add value to your business. The game can be played by business executives with a specific business objective in mind and by operational team members with curiosity to learn more about their LoB functionalities.

Apart from learning aspect, game has tangible outputs for you, which can be referenced after the game for future meetings.

You can find the recording of the session below:

You can find more information about the game as below:

We will get back to you with more information about the next session shortly.