Since 2005, SAP Sapphire meant panicking for 6+ weeks of April and half of May. Since I’m no longer in the IBM SAP Practice Global CTO, I won’t be there. I’m still deeply involved and interested in IBM‘s efforts in the SAP world. It impacts most of my clients and I spend a lot of time on the interfacing of SAP software to many of IBM’s latest capabilities like Bluemix and Watson and most recently in developing an FDA compliant cloud for SAP. SAP is still on my mind, still important, and I wish I could go to Sapphire to see my friends who have become like family over the decade.
You can go beyond just discussing Digital Transformation, you can touch it. You can touch it in the IBM Booth #104. Gagan Reen, who leads the LSS, and his team will be launching Digital Transformation Cognitive Solutions as part of the IBM and SAP Digital Transformation initiative.
Please let me know how Sapphire goes this year. What is new? What is pure hype and what is real? Have a great show and I will remain calm all of May, but I will miss of you, my extended work family, at Sapphire.
This is my 13th Sapphire and I still get excited by them. For me, it is old home week where I get to meet all the people I know, I’ve seen before, and sometimes those that I just get to read about. Since I’m terrible at names and faces, it is a struggle for me, but it is worth the effort. Even for the IBMers, I review the roster before I go to make sure I’ve seen the names. If I can tie the person to idea or something we worked on, I can almost always remember them.
I look forward to walking all the solution booths and listening to the pitches from each company. Some are great and inciteful.. Most are OK. A few don’t have clue what an SAP system is or will be. In that case, I just hope I got the wrong person. I’m not a fan of the professional showperson booths, but some are entertaining. I prefer to speak with the experts on the topic.
I’m not happy that some of my favorite vendors are not going to be at the show because SAP is limiting the application life cycle management (ALM) vendors at least according to the the exhibitor guide. I’m rather disappointed when IntelliCorp (http://intellicorp.com/), Realtech (http://www.realtech.com/wInternational/index.php), and Panaya (http://panaya.com/) are not permitted to attend and put up booth. I’ve seen 100’s of companies benefit from their tools. If SAP wants to beat them with better tools – go for it. I don’t like seeing software that benefits my clients being pushed out by marketing rules.
Specifically, for Panaya, I have a lot experience. They are part of the IBM SAP and Oracle Upgrade methodology and we’ve added them for automated manual testing. Specific to SAP, they are limited to ECC, but they do a great job and far better than Solution Manager. Now we are looking to work with them on Quality Management of SAP systems. There use of cloud and collecting the “wisdom of the cloud” or crowd-sourcing knowledge is leading edge for the SAP world. So why wouldn’t clients want to hear? Clients are happy to benefit from previous clients’ works and even share if they think they’ll get something back of equal or greater merit.
I’ll be spending MOST of my time around the IBM booth area. Please do come by and ask for me, Chuck Kichler, by name. I’d love to hear what you think about this blog, about SAP, and about IBM, to discuss your problems or ideas, or just to say hello. Bring your business card, too. I’ll want to write what we discussed on the back, so I can remember you, and maybe we can even do some business.
Chuck Kichler
And, yes, I am almost up to taking pictures and using Evernote Hello (http://evernote.com/hello/), but this seems a little too big brother for me at this point. If you are using it, can you let me know how people react to the picture part?
See you at Sapphire NOW in Orlando on June 3 – 5, 2014.
Thoughts, Theories, Facts, and Notions 