Scn briefing book for sapphire now 2010

SAP Community Network (SCN)
Briefing Book

Updated 11 May 2010

Objectives: This document is designed to provide background information on SAP Community
Network (SCN) to executives, community spokespeople, SAP influencers, opinion leaders, and
other interested parties.

CONTENTS

Overview
 What is SAP Community Network? ............................................................................................ 4
 Web 2.0 Features and Tools ......................................................................................................... 5
 Key Messages ............................................................................................................................... 6
 SAP Community Network Statistics ............................................................................................ 7

Community Highlights
 New for SAPPHIRE NOW ............................................................................................................... 8
 SCN in the Media .......................................................................................................................... 10
 Community Enhancements & Innovations ................................................................................. 12

Fact Sheets & Community Accomplishments
 SAP Developer Network............................................................................................................... 14
 Business Process Expert Community ........................................................................................ 15
 SAP BusinessObjects Community ............................................................................................. 17
 University Alliances Community ................................................................................................. 19
 SAP EcoHub ................................................................................................................................. 21
 Community Events: SAP TechEd and TechTour ....................................................................... 23
 SAP Mentor Initiative ................................................................................................................... 25
 Marketing ..................................................................................................................................... 27

Quotes and Testimonials ....................................................................................................... 29
 Analysts ........................................................................................................................................ 30
 Customers .................................................................................................................................... 33
 Partners ........................................................................................................................................ 37
 SAP Mentors and SCN Members................................................................................................. 39
 SAP TechEd Attendees ................................................................................................................ 42
 University Alliances Community Members ................................................................................ 44

EXPLORE | ENGAGE | INNOVATE

To request a PDF of this document with functional links, please contact kimberly.taba.derose@sap.com

Page 2 of 45

SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

SAP Community Network
SCN on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/SAPCommunities

SCN on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sapcommunitynetwork
SCN on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SAPCommNet
 Also, automated feeds for updates from: @SCNBlogs and @SCNCareerCenter
SCN on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=80937

SCN on Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/SAPCommunityNetwork

SCN on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/SAPCommunityNetwork

SCN on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/sapcommunitynetwork

SCN on Delicious: http://delicious.com/sapcommunitynetwork

SAP EcoHub
SAP EcoHub on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/SAPEcoHub

SAP EcoHub on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/SAP-EcoHub/136104103748

SAP EcoHub on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sapecohub

SAP EcoHub on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1830012

SAP EcoHub on Digg: http://digg.com/users/EcoHub

SAP TechEd
SAP TechEd on Facebook: http://www.sapteched.com/facebook

SAP TechEd on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SAPTechEd

SAP TechEd on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1900632

SAP TechEd on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/SAPTechEd

University Alliances Community
UAC on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sapua

UAC on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sapunialliances

UAC on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=719777

UAC on Xing: https://www.xing.com/net/uap/

Page 3 of 45

OVERVIEW
What is SAP Community Network?

SAP Community Network (SCN), SAP‟s professional social network, provides orchestrated
connections to our dynamic community of SAP customers, partners, employees and experts. It
delivers an unparalleled depth and breadth of knowledge, insight and rich content about SAP
solutions and services, in a collaborative environment that encourages optimized technology
solutions, best-run business practices, and accelerated innovation.

The communities were launched in 2003 and have grown in scope, depth, and richness to now serve
over 2 million individual members and thousands of enterprises globally, across a variety of professional
roles, industries, countries, topic areas, and throughout the entire lifecycle of their relationship with SAP.
These communities increase the flow of information between SAP and our ecosystem of customers,
partners, bloggers, experts, opinion and thought leaders, providing openness and transparency through
active engagement by both SAP employees and community members. They include:

 Very large public online communities, which encourage and facilitate the open exchange of
information, solutions, business processes, and other SAP, partner, customer, and user-generated
content:
o SAP Developer Network (SDN) – IT pros,
developers, and enterprise architects configure,
install, run, optimize, innovate on the SAP
NetWeaver platform
o Business Process Expert community (BPX) –
Process experts, application consultants, and
business analysts share best practices around
business processes
o SAP BusinessObjects community (BOC) –
Insights on business intelligence and information
management
o University Alliances community (UAC) –
Students and professors learn, connect,
collaborate
 Solution marketplace, which allows customers to
discover, evaluate, and buy partner and SAP solutions:
o SAP EcoHub – Online community-powered marketplace connecting buyers and sellers.
 Physical events, which augment, deepen, and strengthen community member relationships with
each other and with SAP while providing a platform and venue for information exchange, education,
and market-influencing thought leadership:
o SAP TechEd – Major conference series held from October-November in four global locations
(for 2010, these locations are: Berlin, Las Vegas, Bangalore, and Shanghai)
o SAP Tech Tour – Smaller, local, one-day seminars from March-November in over 40 locations
worldwide

The core of this collaborative activity occurs via an active exchange of information and extraordinary
value in online discussion forums, blogs, whitepapers, articles, eLearning, downloads, a job board and
career center, innovation marketplace, reputation and recognition programs, online demos, product
technical and business specifications, comments and opinion pieces, solution ratings and reviews, and
much more.

Page 4 of 45

Web 2.0 Features and Tools

Social media and Web 2.0 tools are a vital part of SAP‟s ecosystem, helping us build a true “community”
around SAP products. SCN is our market-leading implementation of social media and Web 2.0 best
practices. By enabling employees, customers, and partners to share knowledge and collaborate on a
global scale – extending beyond SAP‟s walls – we have instant access to a wide network of highly
engaged experts with real-world experience across various industries and job functions.

Our communities and events feature tightly integrated technologies, custom-built applications, and
third-party social media tools which allow us to have genuine conversations with our ecosystem. These
capabilities and tools include:

Within SCN
 Discussion forums  Reputation and recognition programs
 Articles  Blogs
 eLearning  Widgets and NewsGator feeds
 Download center  Online demos
 Audio and video rich media  Product technical and business specifications
 Innovation marketplace  Comments and opinion pieces
 Wikis  Solution ratings and reviews

Beyond SCN
Twitter – Follow multitudes of thought leaders, members, SAP employees, and @SAPCommNet
on Twitter. (List of affinity groups.) At SAP TechEd 09, we even incorporated the Twitter feed
into ticker screens, screen savers, and live video discussions.
LinkedIn – Groups for SAP EcoHub, SAP TechEd, and SAP Community Network allow
professional connections. The SAP Community Bio application enables members to connect
their LinkedIn and SCN profiles, reflecting SCN credentials on their LinkedIn bios.
Facebook – Groups for SAP EcoHub, SAP TechEd, SAP Community Network allow personal
connections.
YouTube – View nearly 100 videos of community members offering testimonials, keynotes from
events, demos from webcasts.
Flickr – Post SCN pictures, such as from events like SAP TechEd.

…and much more, including Scribd, Slideshare, and Delicious

Page 5 of 45

Key Messages

SAP Community Network provides:
 Content – Find features, technical documentation, business process best practices
 Collaboration – Meet highly engaged members in forums, blogs, and wikis
 Downloads & tools – SAP software, templates, plug-ins and samples, tools, and code snippets
 Skill building – Learn via online tutorials, videos, demos, including premium training
 Marketplace – SAP EcoHub, the community-driven online solutions marketplace

SAP Community Network enables a new way of working:
 Shave time and save costs – Capture efficiencies by re-using existing tools and solutions +
proven business practices and processes
 Increase effectiveness – Leverage wisdom of the crowd and then modify or adapt successful
best practices for greater impact at speed
 Anticipate and capitalize on change – Access vast knowledge stores and benefit from a
broader perspective into emerging trends on the horizon
 Up-skill the staff – Enhance today‟s capabilities to match current business needs while building
future competence for strategic advantage
 Foster collaborative work styles – Break down the walls and silos for efficiency, impact,
versatility

Customers get more from their SAP investment:
Efficiencies – Reduce wasted resources, cycles, and money by re-using existing experiences
and solutions from other customers, partners, and SAP
Impact – Drive higher quality and better business results by leveraging proven best practices

Speed – Accelerate execution through access to technologies, models, and a network of experts

Insight – Innovate and differentiate with the benefit of collective wisdom and broad and diverse
perspectives

Members benefit from community participation:
 Learn – Discover optimum configurations for specific industries; best practices for change
management, upgrades or migrations; and what other “best run” companies are achieving. Get
quick, high-quality answers from other customers, partners, SAP experts.
 Network – Connect with thought leaders and thousands of others to learn about new trends,
market shifts, shared challenges, and best practices – general and industry-specific – insights
that can help achieve greater business and career success.
 Succeed – Establish reputation by sharing knowledge, grow skillsets, develop expertise.

Page 6 of 45

SAP Community Network Statistics

 SAP Community Network: >2 million total
members
o Growing at ~30,000 new members per
month
o >200 countries and territories worldwide
(led by: U.S., India, Germany, UK, Japan,
China…)
o SDN: >1.9 million members
o BPX: >700,000 members
o BOC: >390,000 members
o UAC: >170,000 members

 ~6,000 posts per day in >350 discussion
forums
o >1.6 million topic threads
o >7 million total messages
 It took three years to reach the first
million, nine months to reach the
second million, and just six months to
reach the third million forum posts
o Median reply time: 23 minutes

 ~1 million unique individual visitors each
month
o >2 million visits per month (100,000-
120,000 total visits per day)
o >230 million page views last year
o ~20 million page views per month
o ~4-5 million pages viewed per week

 >200,000 members have ever contributed
their knowledge/ experience
o >99,000 last year alone
o >9,000 lifetime Active Contributors

 1/200th of 1% of the top contributors are
designated “SAP Mentors”
o <100 worldwide among >2 million members

 ~5,000 bloggers
o >60% are not SAP employees, but are
customers, partners, and other thought
leaders
o >250 blogs published per month (~9-12 per day)

―It just feels awesome to be a part of this community and to know that without ‗me‘ it would be just
1,999,999 members.‖ – Ravi Kanth Talagana, Principal Consultant, Intelligroup Asia Pvt. Ltd.

Page 7 of 45

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS
New for SAPPHIRE NOW

 SAP BusinessObjects Community Evolves from a Technical into Business User Community.
Detail: The SAP BusinessObjects community (BOC), part of SAP Community Network, is a powerful
resource that helps members gain accurate business insight quicker through exclusive expert
content, peer-to-peer collaboration and best practice sharing. BOC helps members succeed with
their business intelligence (BI) client solutions so that they can resolve business challenges through
their practical application.

Over the past 12 months, BOC has experienced significant growth as well as a shift in focus - from
a mostly technical community to a place where business users, end users, and business analysts
come together to collaborate. For example SAP customers who use BI client solutions such as
Crystal Reports, Dashboard Design (Xcelsius), or SAP BusinessObjects Explorer tools can now find
sample reports and dashboards, best practices articles, e-learning tutorials, and moderated forums
to meet their needs. The new tagline “Turn Insight into Action” reflects this updated mission of BOC.

Previously hosted on BOC, the Information Management topic areas of Data Integration, Data
Services, and Postalsoft now reside on the SAP Developer Network (SDN) where they have a
natural fit. Similarly, the technical BI topic areas, including Crystal Reports.NET, Crystal Reports for
Eclipse, BusinessObjects Enterprise and Edge, Crystal Reports Server, and BusinessObjects BI for
SAP deployments have been relocated to SDN. This is all part of the evolution of the
BusinessObjects community since it merged with SAP Community Network when SAP acquired
Business Objects in 2008.

―There‘s a great deal of information available through the SAP BusinessObjects community on how
companies can solve just about any kind of problem they face. It‘s amazing that‘ it‘s all available for
free.‖

– Eric Le Du, Managing Partner, Odaxys Consulting

 Idea Place launches at Innovation Campus
during SAPPHIRE NOW. Detail: The Idea Place
hosted by SAP is your public channel to participate
in innovation at SAP – a first step towards
influencing the future of SAP products, solutions or
services that are easier to use, lower your cost or
just make the products, solutions or services better.
Idea place enables you to submit ideas, collaborate
on and vote for ideas, and connect you with the
teams that build SAP products, solutions or services.

Call to action:
Influence the Future of SAP Products, Solutions and
Services - Start Today with Idea Place!
http://ideas.sap.com

Page 8 of 45

 SAP StreamWork launch complements SAP Community Network. Detail: SAP StreamWork is
an open and extensible environment for collaborative decision making which naturally benefits from
SAP Community Network (SCN) capabilities and the expertise and passion of the members of
SAP‟s social network. By establishing an SAP StreamWork developer community on SCN,
leveraging discussion forums, and creating an ongoing communication channel within SAP‟s
communities, the SAP StreamWork product group is fostering the community relationships that will
help shape the future of the product, promote advocacy, and ultimately drive greater value to our
customers.

Developers using SAP StreamWork can visit SAP Community Network to participate in the SAP
StreamWork Developer Community where they can find documentation, get free access to the
product, and watch videos. On the SAP StreamWork Topic page, users can find product tutorials,
news, blogs and other information and collaboration opportunities. Last, there is the SAP
StreamWork API & Integration Topics forum for questions and answers.

o SAP StreamWork Developer Community: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/streamwork-dev
o Forum: SAP StreamWork API and Integration Topics:
http://forums.sdn.sap.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1657340
o SAP StreamWork Topic Page: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/streamwork

Page 9 of 45

SCN in the Media

(See more accolades from analysts, influencers, customers, partners, community members, and more
starting on page 29.)

 SAP Community Network lauded in Aspen Institute report. Detail: A new report by the Aspen
Institute cites SAP Community Network as possibly ―the most extensive use to date of social media
by a corporation.‖ This report, titled “Leveraging the Talent-Driven Organization,” offers insight into
how a number of firms are using social networking tools to open up communication, collaboration
and learning across boundaries, and utilizing these tools to develop new products and real-time
solutions for customers.

The report highlights the benefits that SAP Community Network provides:

―One of the most valuable [benefits] is its power
to give employees at all levels of the company
real-time insights into customer needs, interests
and problems.

And the prominence of SAP Community
Network has had a positive impact on the
perception of SAP as a company that is open
and collaborative. Customers generally are
happy when a supplier will really listen to them, a
process that is inherent in the structure of SAP
Community Network.‖

The Aspen Institute focuses on fostering values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect
on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and in providing a neutral and balanced venue
for discussing and acting on critical issues. (Download full report)

 SAP Community Network and SAP EcoHub receives positive coverage by bloggers, authors.
Detail: Articles, books, and blogs citing SAP Community Network and SAP EcoHub as strong
examples include:
o “The Power of Pull” by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davidson – May 2010
o The VAR GUY: “EcoHub: SAP‟s App Store Attracts Partners” – April 13, 2010
o SAP Watch: “Beyond Facebook and Twitter: SAP vs. Oracle on social media” – April 6, 2010

Page 10 of 45

 SAP Communities receive high rankings in two independent, third-party reports. Detail:
o In their “eBusiness Index Review,” online expert analyst siteIQ ranked the SAP communities in
1st place – tied with Intel – for the top spot among technology sector companies, recognizing
achievements around building and sustaining vibrant communities.

―The SAP communities rank in a
virtual tie with Intel.com for first
place, and receive an astonishing 18
‗Good‘ and ‗Best Practice‘ ratings.‖
siteIQ ScoreCard, May 2009

o The Altimeter Engagement report ranks the world‟s 100 most valuable brands/companies based
on how they leverage social media to interact with customers. SAP Community Network ranked
#9 overall and #3 among technology companies. (Link to press release)

SAP ranks in the top ten of
―the world‘s most valuable
brands based on how they
leverage social media to
interact with customers.‖
Charlene Li
The World‘s Most Valuable Brands.
Who‘s Most Engaged?
Altimeter, August 2009

o In both reports, SCN was ranked ahead of many of the world‟s most established companies
many of whom have longer experience in engaging with their stakeholders in interesting and
unique ways.

Page 11 of 45

Community Enhancements & Innovations

 New Marketing Asset: Launched in time for SAPPHIRE NOW is
the second eBook, Delivering Business Value: Quotes and
Testimonials eBook volume 2, published May 2010. The second
volume in this series features SCN members and SAP Mentors
discussing the value they receive from participating in the
communities through quotes, blogs, and videos. (Link to eBook)

 SAP Community Network membership passes 2 million
member milestone in March 2010. Detail: Only 2 years after
reaching the 1 million member milestone, SAP Community
Network doubled membership to become 2 million members
strong in early March 2010. (Link to Mark Yolton‟s blog)

 Refreshed SAP Community Network Success Story Center.
Detail: Housed on an SCN wiki, the more informative and
dynamic SCN Success Story Center features case studies,
quotes, and testimonials from customers, partners, analysts, influencers, community members, and
SAP Mentors. It also includes quotes from and links to the two eBooks released so far: Driving
Business Value: Quotes and Testimonials volume I and Delivering Business Value: Quotes and
Testimonials volume II.

 New Marketing Asset: SAP Community Network – What‟s In It For You? video. Detail:
Community engagement and contribution is a key part of keeping the SAP communities vibrant and
active. This 2.5 minute video showcases the benefits of joining, participating, and contributing to
SCN.

 Launch of New ALM Quarterly Newsletter in April 2010: Detail: Complementing the new
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) area on SDN and ALM topic of interest page on SAP
EcoHub, the quarterly ALM newsletter will highlight the best articles, blogs, how-to-guides,
webinars, and more. The first issue had more than 2,500 subscribers. (Link to first issue)

Page 12 of 45

 Launch of Code Exchange. Detail: Code Exchange is an SDN area that aims to foster and
capture co-innovation and co-development between SAP and the SAP developer community, as a
large amount of innovation related to the use and enhancement of SAP solutions occurs outside of
SAP. Code Exchange provides a platform for developers to work collaboratively on software
development projects that address their specific requirements and share them with the SDN
community so other customers can benefit from studying, adapting and using these solutions. The
platform supports code and release management, online discussions and blogs, document
management and issue tracking. (Link to press release)

“As the maintainer of a community project that sprang to life on the SAP Developer Network, I‘m really excited
about SAP launching a code exchange area on SDN. Having a co-development platform integrated into the
SAP Developer Network will give community projects visibility where it matters: within the SAP community.
That‘s something no other co-development platform can offer.‖
− Morten Nicolai Wittrock, Senior Consultant, Applicon

 Launch of Career Center in Aug 2009. Detail: The career center uses the power of the ~2 million
community members to facilitate SAP-specific job and talent searches by combining an online job
board with social media tools, including an interactive forum. Job seekers can post resumes free of
charge, and apply for jobs around the corner or around the world. Job seekers can even showcase
their skills in the rich, collaborative environment of SAP Community Network and leverage the
power of the community for career development. It helps employers quickly identify highly qualified
SAP talent worldwide and facilitates targeted recruitment. (Link to press release)

―An SAP curriculum in the classroom is particularly important because it opens new opportunities for students
when they graduate. And the University Alliances Community and the SCN Career Center enable new SAP
trained graduates to reach employers and identify job opportunities. Several of my students have recently
secured challenging positions by connecting with employers through the career center.‖

− Ron Pike Ph.D., Lecturer,
Management Information Systems,
California State University, Chico

Page 13 of 45

SAP Developer Network (SDN)
The SAP Developer Network (http://www.sdn.sap.com) is the inaugural SAP community which
launched in 2003 to create a community for our middleware platform called SAP NetWeaver.

 Audience: Developers, Consultants, Analysts, Systems Integrators, IT professionals

 At a glance:
o >1.9M members
o ~390,000 newsletter subscribers
o 2009 Net Promoter Score (NPS) remains high at 65%

 New ALM Quarterly Newsletter launched in April 2010: Complementing the new Application
Lifecycle Management (ALM) area on SDN and ALM topic of interest page on SAP EcoHub, the
debut issue of the ALM quarterly newsletter highlights the best articles, blogs, how-to-guides,
webinars, and more. The first issue had more than 2,500 subscribers. (Link to first issue)

 Popular topics on SDN include:
o ABAP Development o Master Data Management
o Business Information Warehouse o Technologies
o SAP NetWeaver Platform o Databases and OS Platforms
o Exchange Infrastructure o Security
o Business One o SOA
o Enterprise Portal o Mobile Infrastructure
o Web Dynpro o Knowledge Management

―Collaboration on SDN helps us do our jobs better. It further strengthens the profile of our company and
encourages learning and knowledge-sharing. SDN means we have access to some of the best minds
when it comes to problem solving.‖

− Vinod Dhumbala, Reddy Solution Architect, Intelligroup, Inc.

Page 14 of 45

Business Process Expert Community (BPX)
The Business Process Expert Community (http://bpx.sap.com) was the second of SAP‟s communities,
launched in 2006 in response to the growing needs of a new category of business worker who was
emerging to bridge the gap between the IT and business worlds.

BPX is your trusted community for business solution collaboration, knowledge and insight on
implementation and business process, connecting functional application consultants, business analysts,
product and solution managers, customers in various roles and opinion leaders / topic experts.

 Audience: Process Experts, Application Consultants, Business Analysts

 At a glance:
o >700,000 members
o >280,000 newsletter subscribers
o 34 total areas
o 18 vertical industry areas
o 2009 Net Promoter Score (NPS) = 44%

 Popular topics on BPX include:
o Retail & Chemicals industries
o CRM
o BPM
o GRC
o EPM
o BPX Skills/Education
o IFRS

 New areas added to BPX in 2009
include:
o Business Process Management
(BPM)
o International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
o Sustainability
o Master Data Management (MDM)
o Chinese-language community, including: Automotive, PLM, BS7, Manufacturing, CRM, CP

 The BPX community includes 17 focus communities:
o Business Process Management o Manufacturing
(BPM) o Value Engineering
o Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) o BPX Skills and Education
o Customer Relationship Management o Sustainability
(CRM) o Governance, Risk and Compliance
o Product Lifecycle Management o Master Data Management (MDM)
(PLM) o Organizational Change Management
o Supplier Relationship Management o International Financial Reporting
(SRM) Standard (IFRS)
o Supply Chain Management (SCM) o Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
o Enterprise Performance o Standards
Management (EPM) o Partnership and Certification

Page 15 of 45

 The BPX community also includes 18 industry areas:
o Aerospace & Defense o Life Sciences
o Automotive o Mining & Metal
o Banking o Oil & Gas
o Chemicals o Professional Services
o Consumer Products o Public Sector
o Defense o Retail
o Healthcare o Travel & Logistics Services
o Higher Education & Research o Utilities
o Industrial Machinery & Components o Wholesale Distribution

 Sampling of Top BPX Stories in 2009 (see more in the December newsletter):
o Gravity is a research prototype that provides real-time, cloud-based, collaborative business
process modeling within Google Wave. An SAP TechEd Live video interview with Wolfgang
Hilpert, Senior Vice President SAP Solution Management SOA and BPM, is among the most
viewed videos from the series.
o Process Design Slam at SAP TechEd in Phoenix, Vienna, and Bangalore provided a physical
complement to years of virtual community collaboration. See a write-up by noted blogger and
judge Sandy Kemsley at Column2.
o The 3-part IFRS webinar series highlighted record community interest in the coming requirements.
The International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) is being mandated by the US Securities
and Exchange Committee for all US-traded companies by 2014. To help community members
navigate the complex changes and connect with experts, we launched the IFRS Community on
BPX, supplemented by a series of webinars held by SAP and Deloitte and generated record-
breaking numbers – registrations, live attendees, views of content, leads and pipeline generated.

 BPX Success Stories:
o eBook of Quotes & Testimonials
o “Building a Vibrant On-Line Community – Paying IT Forward” – CRM@BPX
 Held several BPX Awareness and Demand Generation events.
o CRM@BPX – “The Next Generation of CRM” with Jujhar Singh
o PLM@BPX – “Be Prepared” featuring Ed Miller, president CIMdata
o Wipro@BPX – “Delivering Cost Savings with SAP CRM” with Pitney Bowes
o Retail@BPX/BI/Sustainability – “Delivering Results: Clarity and Sustainability in Today‟s Retail”
with NRF Store Magazine
o IFRS with Deloitte Series (3)
 Activities to deepen the core:
o BPX awareness activities drove member growth to 648,000 at year-end 2009
o JonERP.com Podcasts
 “The Impact of Retail at BPX”
 “Utilities at BPX”
 “Engaging Users with Chemicals@BPX”
 “ALM@SCN - Why it is an important area for customers and partners”
o BPX Presentation – Spotlight and Advocate Kit

―Extending our solution … required a very different business process. With BPX, we tapped into experts
and launched faster leveraging the work of others.‖
− Louis Panebianco, Florida Department of Revenue

Page 16 of 45

SAP BusinessObjects Community (BOC)

The SAP BusinessObjects community (http://boc.sap.com) is a powerful resource that helps
members gain accurate business insight quicker through exclusive expert content, peer-to-peer
collaboration and best practice sharing. BOC helps members succeed with their business intelligence
(BI) client solutions so that they can resolve business challenges through their practical application.

Over the past 12 months, BOC has experienced significant growth as well as a shift in focus - from a
mostly technical community to a place where business users, end users, and business analysts come
together to collaborate. For example, SAP customers who use BI client solutions such as Crystal
Reports, Dashboard Design (Xcelsius), or SAP BusinessObjects Explorer tools can now find sample
reports and dashboards, best practices articles, e-learning tutorials, and moderated forums to meet
their needs. The new tagline “Turn Insight into Action” reflects this updated mission of BOC. This is all
part of the evolution of the BusinessObjects community since it merged with SAP Community Network
when SAP acquired Business Objects, producer of world-class Business Intelligence (BI) tools, in 2008.

 Audience: Report/Dashboard Designers, Developers, IT Professionals

 2009 at a glance:
o >390,000 members (was
~40,000 when joined SCN in
March 2008)
o >180,000 newsletter
subscribers (new in 2009),
launched in 8 languages
o >149,000 forum posts
o Added ~650 blogs
o Added >1,500 articles and
>6,350 notes (short technical
articles)
o 2009 Net Promoter Score
(NPS) = 32% (first year surveyed)

 Most popular BOC pages include:
o Innovation Center
o BOC homepage
o Support for Crystal Reports, Xcelsius and Interactive Analysis
o Downloads
o Crystal Reports Design
o Xcelsius

―The folks at PGS explained that when they ran into complex technical challenges regarding Xcelsius
software, they quickly overcame them by reaching out to the SAP BusinessObjects community. This
helped ensure that our project was delivered on time and within budget.‖
− Kevin Smith, Head of Project Management Office, REC

Page 17 of 45

 Increased activity 61% since SAP TechEd „08
o Monthly page views increased 273%, making
the BOC pages among the most active of the
SCN communities.
o >10,000 viewers of BOBJ webinars

 Added five new areas that increased activity by
nearly 50,000 page views:
o SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
o Innovation Center
o Crystal Reports Server
o Betas
o Academic Research Center

 Established baseline marketing:
o Messaging and broad evangelization of BOC (SCN properties, Twitter)
o Completed first BOC success story: “Accelerating Time To Value with the SAP BusinessObjects
Community”
 Many BOC quotes included in eBook of Quotes & Testimonials
o Hosted two podcasts with Jon Reed:
 “A Look Inside the BOC Community: A BusinessObjects Community Podcast”
 “Turning Knowledge Into Consulting Success: Building a Reputation with the SAP
BusinessObjects Community”
o Webinars:
 Partner Webinar BOC feature (Kuhan Milroy)
 “Maximizing Business Intelligence in a Data-Driven Enterprise” with Lexmark

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SAP University Alliances Community (UAC)
SAP University Alliances Community (http://uac.sap.com) is an open academic-oriented community for
professors, lecturers, and students of universities worldwide providing connections and access for them
to engage and collaborate with SAP customers and partners, including via a Career Center and many
cross-links and connections to the SAP Community Network to further SAP‟s engagement with Higher
Education to support SAP Ecosystem growth and close the SAP-related skills gap.

Through University Alliances, SAP provides leading software and curriculum resources and materials
as well as academically-oriented training workshops and community events, and networking contacts
with SAP customers and partners. These resources assist universities worldwide in improving the
professional and academic outcomes of their graduating students.

 Audience:
o Professors, Students at >1,000 member universities worldwide
o All other global universities/colleges interested in SAP related topics

 At a glance:
o Official Public Release: February 23, 2009
o >170,000 members, about 2,500 added each week
o > 36,000 newsletter subscribers
o 3 new local language forums: Russian, Japanese, and Chinese
o Awarded the 2009 Commendation of Excellence in the “Collaboration Co-creation” Category,
Corporate Division by the Society for New Communications Research

 Social Media Launch
o Facebook (link: http://www.facebook.com/sapua)
o Twitter (link: http://twitter.com/sapunialliances)
o LinkedIn: (link: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=719777&trk=hb_side_g)
o Xing: (link: https://www.xing.com/net/uap/)

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 The site is presented as an on-line campus environment – furthering the academic commitment and
theme
 Includes a parallel private Collaboration Workspace for professors at University Alliances program
member universities worldwide and SAP UA employees only
 Annual Academic Event: bringing professors together at least once per year at a country or regional
(Americas, Asia Pacific and Japan, EMEA) level
 Frequent week long academic workshops (train-the-trainer) held by expert professors for
professors/lecturers to learn to use SAP‟s leading technology products in their information-
technology and business courses (over 20 different products/courses)

―I find that the UAC is a great tool that enables me to easily connect with professors from around the
world. Being in Hawaii, I am several time zones apart from most of the University Alliances members with
whom I collaborate, yet through the UAC I can access content at a time that is convenient for me and I
can utilize the help desk discussion threads to get answers to personal or student questions, 24x7.‖
− James Lee, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Computer Science and Information Sciences
Brigham Young University – Hawaii

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SAP EcoHub
SAP EcoHub (http://ecohub.sdn.sap.com/) is a community-driven online
enterprise solution marketplace that delivers a holistic view of solutions and
services offered by SAP and its ecosystem of partners. For customers, it
delivers a streamlined approach to discover, evaluate and buy the right
solution for their business needs.

Customers can find solutions by industry, by solution type, by their functional roles within their
organization, as well as conduct keyword searches or navigate through special topics area to discover
all relevant solutions. SAP EcoHub leverages the wisdom of the >2 million members in SAP
Community Network through solution reviews and ratings, blogs, wikis, and discussion forums to help
customers better evaluate the right solution for their situation. SAP EcoHub then helps complete the
buying transaction – either through eCommerce fulfillment or in most cases by routing inquiries or leads
directly into the SAP CRM system or the SAP EcoHub Partner WorkCenter for further nurturing and
qualification of the interest and the intent to purchase.

SAP EcoHub accelerates the software acquisition cycle for the customer – helping innovate faster and
achieve breakthrough results. It acts as a trusted source for the intelligence and buying experience that
customers need to make an informed decision by streamlining the process of discovering, evaluating
and buying SAP ecosystem offerings.

Since launching in October of 2008:
 500 solutions listed on SAP EcoHub (5x more than at launch)
 250+ partners with one or more offerings listed on SAP EcoHub
 Embraced service partner offerings
 Accelerating customer adoption with approximately 900% growth in customer and partner traffic on
SAP EcoHub
 Visitors and leads from over 110 countries
 Visitor profiles that help our partners reach their target audience (IT professionals: 49%; LOB
professionals: 29%; C-level: 6%)
 Thousands of online trials delivered
 Fast emerging as the „Hub of Innovation‟ – spurring an ecosystem effort to introduce, educate and build
awareness for new applications such as Enterprise Micro-Apps (Google Gadgets and iPhone apps)

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 SAP EcoHub Live Event Series launched in February 2010: Theme & Category based virtual
event series designed to showcase solutions offered by SAP and its ecosystem pertaining to the
special interest topic, e.g. sustainability, or by solution area/industry sector. The first event triggered
high interest with hundreds of registrations, and almost half of all traffic driven through EcoHub
social media (Twitter) programs.

 JonERP.com Podcasts
o “A Look Inside the BOC Community: A BusinessObjects Community Podcast,” including SAP
EcoHub
o “EcoHub and the Challenges of Online Marketing,” with Paymetric

―SAP EcoHub is an easy to use single source that will streamline the process for identifying trusted,
relevant solutions that meet our business needs and work within our existing SAP installations. This is
something that I have been searching for a long time.‖
− Matt Stultz, Vice President, Global Information Technology, Newell Rubbermaid

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Community Events: SAP TechEd and TechTour
SAP TechEd (http://www.sapteched.com) is SAP‟s premier technical and business process
conference. The annual event is a manifestation of the online communities gathering together each fall,
including SAP product experts, customers, partners, and industry thought-leaders. The event focuses
on hands-on in-depth education and networking.

 Hosted in four locations with 12,000 attendees each year.
o In 2009, the Experts Networking Lounge at the Phoenix and Vienna locations featured 424
sessions with more than 1,700 attendees.
o 2010 Event Dates:

SAP TechEd 2010 Berlin October 12 - 14
SAP TechEd 2010 Las Vegas October 18 - 22
SAP TechEd 2010 Bangalore December 1 - 3
SAP TechEd 2010 Shanghai December 1 - 2

SAP TechEd blends physical and virtual events together in real-time, incorporating many social media
tools:

 Twitter – Followers of @SAP TechEd converse about SAP
TechEd using the hashtag #SAPTechEd (in 2009, hashtag
#SAPTechEd09 yielded over 9,000 tweets in just 4 days
during the Phoenix event), as well as:
o Ticker Screens – In addition to showing updates and
session info on the “tickers,” the bottom of the screens
displayed the live SAP TechEd Twitter feed on-site in
the Community Clubhouse.
o Laptop Screen Savers – Conference laptops in the
session rooms show screensavers with current Twitter
discussion in a fun, creative, and colorful way.
o Live Video – Every hour on the hour, SAP TechEd
broadcasts live interviews of experts and influential
community members with an integrated Twitter
stream.

 Facebook and LinkedIn channels also promote the conference and provide
location-specific updates.

 SAP TechEd community blogs – Speakers share presentation abstracts, create conversation
around SAP TechEd topics, and poll attendees prior to their
session.

 Flickr – Any of the 12,000 attendees can post and tag their
event photos for the community to view the aggregated
collection.

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SAP Tech Tour (http://www.sapteched.com/techtour) is a global roadshow that leverages SAP TechEd
content on a country level. Presentations are delivered in the local language and are free of charge.
o 50 events worldwide
o 20,000 attendees each year
o View the events calendar and register for an event alert
o Each local tour stop is driven by a combination of SAP country subsidiary, SAP user groups,
and partner-sponsors.
o Virtual Tech Tour & Webinars – one-hour sessions, content specific, offered both live and on-
demand

SAP TechTour community blogs – view local agendas, event photos, and presentations.

―SAP TechEd gave me access to the people and the materials that are so critical to the success of my
job. It also gave me a jump start on new and exciting projects for the next few years.‖
− Deb Donohoe, Spectrolab, Inc., A Boeing Company

―There is no other place or class you can go to get as much breadth and depth of technical topics as
TechEd. I usually take a full year to digest and refer back to the different things in the conference, and
find it very inspiring and helpful with client implementation.‖
− Yujin Yan, IBM GBS

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SAP Mentor Initiative
SAP Mentors (http://sapmentors.sap.com) are the top community influencers of the SAP ecosystem.
Most mentors work for customers or partners of SAP. All of them are hands-on experts of an SAP
product or service, as well as excellent champions for product roll-in and roll-out. They have been
nominated by their peers on the basis of their passion for the community, their willingness to contribute
and share as well as their ability to motivate others. Currently, there are ~75 total mentors,
representing <1/200th of 1% of the top contributors.

Resources:
 SAP Mentor Introduction slidedeck on Slideshare
 Follow the main SAP Mentor Twitter account: http://twitter.com/sapmentors
 Or follow the high signal twitterstream of all twittering SAP Mentors:
http://twitter.com/SAPMentors/sapmentors

2009 highlights:
 Ran 57 webinars
 Completed 16 success stories
 Introduced 4 new mentors
 44 attended SAP TechEd Phoenix; 29 attended in Vienna; 11 attended in Bangalore

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Examples of SAP Mentor contributions in 2009:
 Mentors gave Hervé Couturier, Executive Vice President of Technology Development, an excellent
open feedback session about SAP NetWeaver‟s perception in the market during SAP TechEd 08 in
Berlin. Hervé has since taken every opportunity to meet with the Mentors, including at SAPPHIRE
09 and SAP TechEd 09 in Vienna.

 SAP Mentors help spread the message: During the launch of SAP Business Suite 7, the Mentors
helped launch a Twitterstorm that made #bs7 a top 10 trending Twitter Topic, which appeared on
the Twitter homepage. Fifteen of 40 #bs7 trendsetters were SAP Mentors.

 Mentors help crystallize your strategy: Focus and vision of SAP Certification has greatly improved
through a couple of SAP Mentor feedback sessions and a 15-page white paper written by five of the
SAP Mentors in their spare time.

 The discussions with SAP Mentors during a mid-market event organized by Global Communications
convinced Luis Murguia, SVP for SAP Mid Market EMEA, to launch an SME Advisory Council called
“the voice of the SAP Mentors” where five SAP Mentors will meet quarterly. Quote from his invitation
email: “Sometimes companies can get a little „inward‟ focused; and the fresh, unbiased opinion of a
person outside of the company can be a compelling driver to make us face reality.”

 SAP Mentor Mike Pokraka‟s intensive testing for the upgrade of the SAP Workflow book led to
many improvements of our product.

 SAP Mentors have helped to make SAP events a success. Roland Wartenberg: “The SAP Mentors
were the backbone behind the SAP virtualization week online activities.”

 SAP Mentors actively influence the code exchange product planning by helping define the feature set
of the SDN code exchange platform as members of the so-called „extended product team‟. They have
provided valuable feedback regarding both the general feature set as well as more complex topics like
ABAP integration. This helps SAP develop a platform that meets actual community demand.

―I‘m more proud of my affiliation with SAP Mentors than just about anything I can think of.‖

− Jon Reed, (Jon ERP.com), SAP Mentor (Link to video).

―I have met some of the finest people that I can ever wish to know, what it means to me is they are
people of integrity, with a purpose, people who are trying to get things done at the right time and for the
right reasons...and all these attributes matter to me...being a SAP Mentor is not just an honor it‘s a
privilege...it has given me some phenomenal opportunities to meet and work with some of the people
whom I would have probably never known...‖
− Dennis Howlett, Enterprise Irregulars, SAP Mentor (Link to video)

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SAP Community & EcoHub Marketing
The Global Ecosystem and Partner Marketing (GEPM) team – responsible for marketing initiatives
around SAP Community Network (SCN) and SAP EcoHub – has taken a leadership role as social
media marketing experts. In collaboration with the SCN team, GEPM has formulated an innovative
“Community, Marketing and Social Media” (CMSM) marketing model that links SAP communities and
SAP EcoHub and leverages social media marketing approaches to amplify SAP‟s marketing efforts in
new ways. GEPM is sharing these techniques across SAP – including broader marketing teams,
partner teams and regions – to raise the level of capability throughout the company as well as
externally to establish SAP as a leader in orchestrated social media marketing.
(Read more about the model in this article written for Frost & Sullivan.)

―Marketers have to think beyond classical audience segmentation, and develop and leverage the
construct of ‗conversation segmentation‘ wherein the conversation topic is equally important as who is
engaging in the discussion. In the world of communities and personal social networks, we have
audience of diverse profiles (technical, line of business, buyers etc.) as participants in the same
network or fan-group or friend-list, and therefore marketers need to listen in on the conversation as
predictor for the right message and engagement tactic.‖

– Salim Ali, Global Head of SAP Community Marketing

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 SAP Business Suite 7 launch marketing leveraged multiple social media channels, changing the
paradigm for product launches in SAP. First, we built a BS7 area on the BPX community, and
promoted the launch on SCN via features, blogs, wikis, forums, articles, newsletters, and SAP.com.
The launch was covered on Twitter, Facebook, and third-party blogs – driving hashtag #BS7 to a
top 10 topic on Feb. 4, 2009. Finally, continual nurturing of the community sustained interest.

 Twitter-based demand generation campaigns resulted in extremely successful proofpoints:
o Enterprise Micro-Apps Webinar Series – SAP EcoHub Twitter campaign contributed significantly
to registration page traffic and pre-event registrations.
o Twitter campaign for SAP EcoHub Live yielded high traffic to the registration pages for the event
and resulted in pre-event registrations.

 Streamlined marketing execution platform for “EcoHub-anchored Campaigns” established
new SAP-wide marking campaign effectiveness benchmarks, such as for the IFRS campaign which
resulted in record-breaking registrations, attendance, leads generated.

 Theme-based Marketing
o SAP EcoHub Live Virtual Event Series: Triggered a theme-based marketing virtual events to
build thought-leadership on special topics, solution categories or industry offerings and
associate SAP EcoHub as the destination
o Theme-based EcoHub Home Page Content Rollout: Created a theme-calendar to build a
cadence of synchronized rollout of associated collateral/blogs/solution
reviews/webcasts/promotional offers on the SAP EcoHub home page
o Theme-filtered Twitter Widget: Created a Twitter widget to capture tweets/social media
conversations related to the themes by using keyword filters.

―We first used the EcoHub campaign feature during February 2010 and we were extremely pleased
with the response rate. The SAP team were professional and easy to work with. We attracted more
traffic, interest and registrations than any other campaign activity our company had tried previously. We
will definitely utilize the EcoHub marketing again‖.

– Neil McHugh, Vice President of Marketing & Business Development – Americas, Sky Technologies

 Rich materials produced for adoption of SAP Community Network include:
(Note: some links are SAP-internal)
o SAP Community Network – What‟s in it for You? video
o SAP Community Network Jumpstart Kit
o Value University Deep Dive for Pre Sales
o Executive Briefing Center Spotlight Presentation
o BPX Spotlight Presentation
o SAP Community Network collateral piece in English/Chinese
o Two SAP Community Network eBooks, including quotes from P&G, Colgate Palmolive,
Intelligroup, and NVIDIA: volume I and volume II.
o Three customer case studies:
 “Building a Sales Order Cockpit” – Procter and Gamble
 “Building a Vibrant Online Community – “Paying IT Forward” – CRM@BPX
 “Accelerating Time To Value with the SAP BusinessObjects Community”

 Programs to increase community vibrancy include: Active Contributor page, Refer a Colleague
program, SAP Community Content widgets (Widget Gallery) and viral sharing (Newsgator), partner
social media training webcasts, Social Media Trends wiki, Success Story wiki.

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Quotes and Testimonials
The SCN marketing team has published two eBooks containing a collection of accolades and
testimonials. Hear directly from analyst and influencers, community members in numerous roles, and
event attendees about the value they‟ve experienced through participation in SCN.

New! Delivering Business Value: Quotes and Testimonials eBook volume 2, published May 2010

Driving Business Value: Quotes and Testimonials eBook volume 1, published December 2009

(CTRL-Click on images to link to eBook)

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Analysts and Influencers
 ―SAP Community Network (SCN) … may be the most extensive use to date of social media by a
corporation.
―One of the most valuable [benefits] is its power to give employees at all levels of the company real-
time insights into customer needs, interests and problems. And the prominence of SAP Community
Network has had a positive impact on the perception of SAP as a company that is open and
collaborative. Customers generally are happy when a supplier will really listen to them, a process
that is inherent in the structure of SAP Community Network.‖
Richard Adler, Rapporteur
Leveraging the Talent-Driven Organization - Communications and Society Program
The Aspen Institute, March 2010 (Download free report)

 ―The team has built one of the best technology partner ecosystems in the market. The emphasis on
community outreach, influencer participation and investment in a partner's success continues to be
a differentiator. Efforts such as the SAP mentor program, SAP Partner Edge, SAP EcoHub and
SAP Community Network … provide proof points of progress and success.‖
Ray Wang
Event Report: 2009 SAP Influencer Summit - SAP Must Put Strategy to Execution in Order to
Prove Clarity of Vision,
Altimeter Group, December 2009

 SAP ranks in the top ten of ―the world‘s most valuable brands based on how they leverage social
media to interact with customers.‖
Charlene Li
The World‟s Most Valuable Brands. Who‟s Most Engaged?
Altimeter, August 2009

 ―The sap.com communities [SAP Community Network] rank in a virtual tie with Intel.com for first
place, and achieve an astonishing 18 ‗Good‘ and ‗Best Practice‘ ratings.‖
siteIQ ScoreCard, May 2009

 ―SAP has set the standard — certainly within the tech industry — and offers a good example of the
potential. SAP is one of the leaders in the scale, diversity, and integration of its vast ecosystem.‖
John Hagel and John Seely Brown
How SAP Seeds Innovation
Business Week, July 2008

Page 30 of 45

 ―Many businesses can create stickiness by building user communities. Every year, … SAP hosts
conferences where customers can meet with IT experts, software developers, and, most important,
each other. These aren‘t sales events per se, but you can be sure that attendees leave with a
feeling of partnership with SAP.”
Jack and Suzy Welch
The Welch Way
Business Week, September 2008

 ―Think about this for a minute. If what we‘re seeing … in the SAP Developer Network … among
other places – is indicative of something broader, then we're seeing the emergence of a new kind of
learning curve as we scale connectivity and learning through pull, rather than scaling efficiency
through push. We call it the ‗collaboration curve.;‖
John Hagel, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison
The Collaboration Curve
Harvard Business.org, April 2009

 ―…IDC believes that SAP's ecosystem strategy and in particular its orthogonal structures make
SAP more attractive than it would otherwise be to both customers and partners. As a result, the
ecosystem plays a key role in maintaining SAP‘s lead in Europe overall and competing to regain
leadership in those markets where Oracle is larger, particularly the vertical markets where SAP and
Oracle are competing fiercely across the board.‖
―As the business applications market gets tougher, IDC believes that SAP will double down on its
ecosystem strategy as it brings clear benefits to the company, its partners, and its customers. It
represents something that is truly unique and in many markets brings benefits to customers and
suppliers that we have not seen in other strategies.‖
David Bradshaw
Bringing Competitive Advantage Through Collaboration
IDC Opinion, January 2009

 ―SAP has elevated its community development into an entire practice within the company, and it
allows the most dedicated members of its community direct access to senior management to
provide feedback on products, services, and strategy. This is a best practice that Forrester believes
will become common over the next decade as more companies realize that while community
development can be difficult to manage, it may be the best way to stay customer focused and
relevant in a rapidly changing competitive environment.‖
Chris Andrews with Thomas Mendel (Ph.D) and Edward Radcliffe
Four Essential Components Of Successful Innovation Initiatives
Forrester, April 2009

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 ―SAP, a long-established company renowned for its deep internal integration of enterprise software,
has also evolved substantial external ecosystems around its technologies. The SAP Developers
Network, an online community where any SAP developer or power user can ask fellow members for
support with an SAP software problem. At very little cost to SAP, this network provides both
solutions to its customers and business opportunities to its ecosystem partners.‖
Henry Chesbrough and Andrew Garmin
Use Open Innovation to Cope in a Downturn
Harvard Business Review, June 2009

 ―SAP‘s innovative ‗community‘ programs help it to engage deeply and build long-term loyalty with
both customers and partners, while enlisting their feedback on industry-specific needs and solution
requirements….They tend to foster stability in challenging economic times and growth opportunities
as the economy rebounds.‖
Warren Wilson and Nishant Singh
SAP Vendor Profile
OVUM, July 2009

 ―[SAP‘s] Business Process Experts (BPX) community is the largest and most mature of these
initiatives. BPX, which currently numbers more than a half million members, is intended to help
customers—a combination of business executives, analysts and developers—share and collaborate
on the creation of best practice-based business processes…
―But, while SAP‘s communities certainly deliver value to each of the company‘s constituencies, they
arguably deliver even greater value to SAP itself. They provide the vendor with many new
opportunities to reach and continually engage with customers, to improve customer satisfaction and
to obtain continual feedback on existing products and services, customer needs and opportunities
for new offerings.‖
Tom Kucharvy
SAP Virtual Communities
Beyond-IT, July 2009

 ―Dell, Intel, Lenovo and SAP are all doing a lot of things right when it comes to their blogs. For
instance, all of them have a lot of employees who blog and, in SAP‘s case, partners, customers
and others as well…According to Mark Yolton, senior vice president of the SAP Community
Network, ‗We have lot of smart people at SAP, but we don‘t have all of the smart people. We want
to hear insights from others, especially from our customers and partners.‘‖

Ann All,
Making Corporate Blogs Better
IT BusinessEdge, September 2009

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SAP Customers
 ―Through the community we found a partner developing a grants proposal solution that perfectly
solved our problems. Together with the expertise of PGS and SAP Community Network, we
implemented an integrated Grants Management and Project and Portfolio Management solution.
The solution enables County Users with varying levels of experience to be able to initiate a grant
proposal and create the grant budget with ease. All information will be captured within the system
which eliminates the use of offline systems and spreadsheets. In addition, the solution provided
greater visibility to the County‘s grant funding and activity via user-friendly dashboards.‖
Kelly Jones, Assistant Accounting Manager, Collier County, Florida

 ―Embarking on our core banking transformation journey at Standard Bank South Africa, we needed
to leverage all the intellectual property at our disposal. Project resources together with the SAP
Community Network is proving paramount to us realizing our vision. We were able to capitalize on
the content and lessons learnt on SCN to significantly shorten our learning curve and development
lifecycles.
The enterprise service workplace provides an ideal mix of business and technical acumen on how
to use SAP delivered standard content with simple use cases, we used this together with the SAP
Global Data Types Catalog to ensure that architecture guidelines and standards are adhered to
from start to end. SCN as a whole has matured greatly and is probably one of the most significant
SAP communities to date, its contribution to the success of SAP projects globally should not be
underestimated.‖
Phillip Parkinson, Integration Developer, Standard Bank

 ―We wanted technical information, step-by-step instructions on how to get them to work together
(SBOP & SAP ERP), and objective information about what works and what doesn‘t. Our partner
pointed us to trusted resources on the SAP BusinessObjects community that gave us just what we
needed to make informed decisions and implement the software successfully.‖
Jean-Marc Viallatte, Managing Director
Hamelin

 ―Our partner quickly pulled up screen cams posted on the SAP BusinessObjects community, and
they helped us understand the power of layering SAP BusinessObjects reporting software on top of
other SAP products. For us, it was like a presales demo – but even better because many of them
were created by satisfied SAP customers.‖
Louis Truong, Projects Director
Klépierre

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 ―SCN has been a very helpful resource for many questions that we encountered during the
development phase of our SAP implementation, easily saving us 10-20% of overall project time.
Finding a similar solution ourselves might have taken an extra 2-3 weeks, in some cases.‖
Faisal Mehmood, Business Process Analyst, Global Information Technology
Colgate-Palmolive

 ―Using SDN, Siemens resolves technical problems related to SAP NetWeaver 50% faster than
through other channels.‖
Richard Hirsch, Senior Portal/SAP NetWeaver Consultant
Siemens IT Solutions and Services

 ―The SAP Developer Network is a valuable network that connects me with peers and insightful
information from different perspectives which helps me resolve our SAP-related problems and as a
consequence it helps reduce the overall cost of running our SAP systems at P&G… I quite
frequently use the SDN to study whitepapers white paper published by SAP experts before we
enter a new SAP arena to obtain some over view papers for our reference‖.
Dr. Dietmar Giljohann
Global Solution Owner, Order Management in Supply Network Services
Procter and Gamble, Inc.

 ―There‘s no comparable source of quality information about SAP software.‖
Vikash Krishna, Sr. Business Analyst
Pepsi Bottling Ventures

 ―The folks at Penitus Global Solutions (PGS) explained that when they ran into complex technical
challenges regarding Xcelsius software, they quickly overcame them by reaching out to the SAP
BusinessObjects community. This helped ensure that our project was delivered on time and within
budget.‖
Kevin Smith, Head of Project Management Office
Renewable Energy Corporation

 ―The more [SDN and BPX] community members participate, the more we can maximize the
exchange of information. In the end, this helps all members to resolve issues faster and to
maximize the value they get from their SAP Customer Relationship Management applications.‖
Stephen Johannes, Sr. Analyst for SAP Customer Relationship Management application
Bunge North America

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 ―The SAP BusinessObjects community and SDN have helped us in getting quite a few performance
related cues which have helped us improve BO universes and design underlying BW Structures for
optimum performance.‖
―While trying to integrate BusinessObjects solutions with SAP software, SCN helped us many times
to get answers to specific questions. Thanks to SDN and the SAP BusinessObjects community, we
were able to shorten the Testing & QA phase of our implementation by about a week, saving up to
10% of overall project time.‖
Nikhil Kulkarni, Enterprise Application Designer
NVIDIA

 ―You find a good mix of technical and business contributors who have similar issues to your own.
It‘s a quick and efficient way to share knowledge… I use the communities of innovation to research
a specific topic. It‘s probably the best spot to find out what‘s going on with SAP.‖
Roger Myer, IT Specialist – eBusiness
Brenntag Canada Inc.

 ―By researching our issue in the Business Process Expert community, we saved a lot of money in
consulting fees and time in our search for information. … Not knowing much about how SAP
accommodates accounting practices and tax regulations in China, we looked to the Business
Process Expert community to see how other global customers were using SAP in that area.‖
Marielen Withnell, Director of Business Information Systems
Pacific Coast Feather Company

 ―Extending our solution … required a very different business process. With BPX, we taped into
experts and launched faster leveraging the work of others.‖
Louis Panebianco, Florida Department of Revenue

 ―Reading what other customers said about these products [SAP BusinessObjects portfolio] gave me
confidence that the products would work as promised. It‘s uncensored, so we could trust the
information and move ahead with confidence.‖
Michel Poupon, Studies Manager
Acome

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 ―There‘s a great deal of information available through the SAP BusinessObjects community on how
companies can solve just about any kind of problem they face. It‘s amazing that it‘s all available for
free.‖
Eric Le Du, Managing Partner
Odaxys Consulting

 ―Saving 2-3 weeks off the development phase allowed us to shorten total project time for our
customer by 40-50%; all thanks to our membership in the SAP BusinessObjects community.
Everyone should share their experience on BOC as it helps all those who are new to SAP
BusinessObjects solutions like me.‖
Ramakrishna Kamurthy, SAP BI Consultant,
SITA CORP

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SAP Partners
 ―SCN offers SAP partners like us the opportunity to get connected with over 1.8 million members of
the SAP ecosystem, who live and breathe SAP, to exchange know how and to demonstrate our
thought leadership in the tax management solution area. It‘s a great way to connect directly with
SAP customers, partners and SAP employees.‖
Ross Moris, Director of Alliance Sales
Sabrix, Inc.

 ―I recommend that each partner with a storefront on the SAP EcoHub site actively participate in
SAP Community Network. Being able to show prospects and customers how Paymetric has
provided answers to real-world e-payment challenges in community forums and shared best-of-
breed solutions in blogs has helped build strong credibility and goes far beyond what traditional
marketing can offer.‖
Eric W. Bushman, Vice President, Solutions Engineering
Paymetric

 ―As we got closer to a finished product, we used SDN to get in touch with a group of really excellent
beta testers from all over the world. We blogged on SDN about features throughout the
development. The release happened at SDN Day, the obvious place to release an open source tool
that came out of the community.‖
Morten Nicolai Wittrock, Senior Consultant
Applicon

 ―Especially for the custom development pieces of the SAP Resource and Portfolio Management
application, the forums and demo scenarios on BPX were invaluable.‖
Miel Claessens, SAP PLM Consultant
Uphantis

 ―The Business Process Expert community is proving to be an ideal forum to make the SAP
Environment, Health, and Safety Management application even better by allowing industry
participants to share feedback on their ongoing implementations and harnessing their collective
intelligence to define requirements for future development.‖
Dr. Karl-Franz Torges, Solution Manager, Chemicals Safety Management
TechniData AG

Page 37 of 45

 ―Collaboration on SDN helps us do our jobs better. It further strengthens the profile of our company
and encourages learning and knowledge- sharing. SDN means we have access to some of the best
minds when it comes to problem solving.‖
Vinod Dhumbala, Reddy Solution Architect
Intelligroup, Inc.

 ―Our staff both contributes to the community resources on a weekly basis – for example, by
answering questions posed on forums – and uses what‘s available to help us resolve technical
challenges more quickly.
―Before using the SAP BusinessObjects community, it took us two weeks to solve a typical
problem. On average, we‘d run into two or three issues per project. Now, we get instant solutions by
searching forums or reaching out to SAP Mentors and other experts. There‘s no doubt that these
resources help us consistently deliver projects on time and within budget.‖
Freddy Guerrero, Principal Partner
Penitus Global Solutions (PGS), LLC

 ―At Intelligroup, we have a large number of SCN members who actively participate and contribute
various articles, wikis, blogs, and so on on behalf of Intelligroup. These enthusiastic contributors
have been doing this over the last three years now and they have established themselves as
‗subject matter experts‘ in various areas.
―There are examples where customers have recognized these thought leaders on the SAP
Community Network and have reached out to them for their process-specific advice. This definitely
helps us in prioritizing and expediting our internal ‗Vision to Reality‘ activities and align them as per
market demand and customer needs.‖
Bhalchandra Bhosale, Senior Vice President, SAP Practice,
Intelligroup, Inc.

 ―I have been blogging on behalf of Crossgate for over a year on the SAP Community Network and it has
been very useful in establishing our company as experts and thought leaders in the field of SAP,
NetWeaver, EDI and B2B. I frequently receive follow-up emails from individuals that have read my blog
postings and have an interest in discussing the subject in more detail. These contacts are beneficial to
our sales organization and our reputations as subject matter experts are greatly enhanced through
these blogging activities.‖
Kevin R. Benedict, Business Development & SAP Relationship Manager
Crossgate Inc.

Page 38 of 45

SAP Mentors and SCN Members
 ―Back in the olden days, you had very few avenues to connect with people who shared your interests in
SAP. Perhaps you met someone at training or at a conference. Now you can find those people and
begin your dialogues with just a few clicks.
The SCN Community is a great place to learn, share, and network. You can ask questions in the forums,
you can answer them too – to help others who may experience the same challenges you have faced.
You can build a virtual network of people with the same interests. You can blog on topics which are
important to you.
For me, a day would not be complete without at least one visit to SCN – to get an answer, provide an
answer, or just learn what else is going on. This is a fabulous network of spirited individuals whose
passion goes beyond any specific geography or technology.‖
Susan R. Keohan, SAP Workflow Specialist, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, SAP Mentor

 ―It was great to be involved with many of the product development groups. The sessions have the
mutual benefit of the Mentors getting early information and input in direction and the SAP groups get
invaluable feedback, opinions, and even some blogging/Twitter publicity love.
I received an email from a recently hired Financial Systems Manager at my company. She is based out
of South Africa and came across my name while searching for SAP and Colgate. When she noticed I
was an SAP Mentor, she contacted me with interest in finding out more about the SAP community, how
she could become involved, and how they may better utilize SAP in their local division. I was able to
send her information and links and encouraged her to join and become active in the Business Process
Expert community. SAP Community Network and the Mentor program [sic] allowed me to connect
internally with a business person who, most likely, I would have never met otherwise.‖
Ed Hermann, Colgate Palmolive Company, SAP Mentor

 ―I am very excited to be a part of this experience. The people in the SAP Mentor group are amazing.
And, I forget who came up with this quote, but ‗Ask not what SAP can do for the Mentors, but what the
Mentors can do for SAP.‘‖
Karin Tillotson, Valero Energy Corporation, SAP Mentor

 ―There are so many technologies, frameworks, and tools…it would be pointless to try to have all the
required detailed knowledge at hand when you need it for a particular solution. To acquire
information rapidly and develop the required skills for a particular solution on demand – to learn
what you need, when you need it, it is absolutely crucial to be familiar with the most valuable
information resources for SAP professionals: SCN blogs, articles, wikis, and forums, SAP Library,
SAP Notes…The SAP system itself. If you have a good command of these, you can solve every
problem and you will acquire a huge body of knowledge along the way.‖
Thorsten Franz, AOK Systems GmbH, Bonn, SAP Mentor (Link to video)

Page 39 of 45

 ―I‘m more proud of my affiliation with SAP Mentors than just about anything I can think of.‖
Jon Reed, (JonERP.com), SAP Mentor (Link to video)

 ―I have met some of the finest people that I can ever wish to know, what it means to me is they are
people of integrity, with a purpose, people who are trying to get things done at the right time and
for the right reasons...and all these attributes matter to me...being a SAP Mentor is not just an
honor it‘s a privilege...it has given me some phenomenal opportunities to meet and work with some
of the people whom I would have probably never known...‖
Dennis Howlett, Enterprise Irregulars, SAP Mentor (Link to video)

 ―It is a great honor ... to be able to contribute ideas and participate in discussions with folks from
SAP and other Mentors via the Mentor program. Thanks for the program and all the support you
give to it!‖
Julius Bussche, Turnkey Consulting, SAP Mentor

 ―You build a reputation based on the quality of your content, your expertise, and by showing that
you are active in the communities.‖
Richard Hirsch, Senior Portal and SAP NetWeaver Technology Platform Consultant,
Siemens IT Solutions and Services, SAP Mentor

 ―SDN became part of [our] day-to-day activity… [it was] the learning center, the place to go
to…Eventually we all come to realize that with learning, sharing is also an essential part.‖
Shabarish Vijayakumar, Wipro Technologies, SAP Mentor (Link to blog)

 ―Blogging on SDN is about sharing. It is about community learning and the distribution of ideas and
best practices across a community with a shared interest.‖
Kevin Benedict, Consulting, Netcentric Strategies (Link to blog)

 ―I think this is different to the other communities I have participated before – SCN has faces and you
have the chance to meet them. In the last three years I have come in contact with so many SCN
members, that I can say I have my own ‗SAP family. After three years I still enjoy to contribute on
SCN‘‖
Marcel Salein, FIVE1 GmbH & Co. KG (Link to blog)

Page 40 of 45

 ―Though I was an occasional visitor of SCN from its very inception it was only three years back I
actually started actively contributing there and eventually realized its power, the joy of sharing
knowledge and the amazing things which have changed my life thereafter.
―There are many instances when my clients have read my blogs and articles in SCN and as a result
of which I got it much easier to convince them or make them listen to my proposal. It actually
creates a brand for you in the SAP community, where people can recognize you by name and
shows lot of respect and lend a listening ear when you say something on your area of expertise.‖
Dipankar Saha, Senior System Analyst, IBM India, SAP Mentor (Link to blog)

 ―I guess the single most important reason I‘m active on SDN is the fact that I, despite my age, still
need and even more important WANT to LEARN ‗all‘ there is to know about SAP in general and
ABAP development in particular. Often I just log on to SDN to scroll through the ABAP
development forum, in which the ABAP objects forum is of particular interest to me or at least
questions related to ABAP OO programming.‖
Micky Oestreich, Developer, Fit2IT (Link to blog)

 ―I think that the success of Techedge has been possible also thanks to SCN because when you are
an early adopter, SCN is really essential and it becomes also one of your best friend.‖
Sergio Ferrari, Solution Architect, Techedge and SAP Mentor (Link to blog)

 ―SCN, its contributors, and the community that it provides, is a work in progress, a story that‘s
unfolding everyday through each of its contributors, each of its readers, and all of the people and
organizations behind it. You can talk about professional exposure or showcasing your skills or any
of the other career advancing reasons that some may consider but the real quality of your
contribution is in the exploration and the discovery that you bring to the community.‖
Emmanuel Hadzipetros, Consultant, THQ Inc. (Link to blog)

 ―As you help thousands of users logged in with answers and solutions, some reward you with
points. But some go beyond that to personally thank you maybe over a mail or a call.... some of
these conversations at times lead to a friendship. Moreover, there might be times when the same
folks help you find a solution.‖
Shabarish Vijayakumar, Technical Lead Consultant, Wipro Technologies (Link to blog)

Page 41 of 45

SAP TechEd & SAP TechTour Attendees
(See highlights from SAP TechEd 2009 on YouTube)

 SAP TechEd represents ―excellent experiences, excellent communities, excellent ideas, and
exciting future.‖
Tommy Kinoshita, Mitsui & Co., Ltd.

 ―SAP TechEd is a one stop shop and saves me time getting up to speed on the latest technology.‖
Naresh Maharaj, Keane, Inc.

 ―SAP TechEd was very valuable for me to be able to discuss current issues and opportunities face-
to-face with SAP developers and product managers in a setting that is not all marketing.‖
Richard Boenisch, Manager Data Warehouse & Analysis, Kohler Company

 ―I had never been to an SAP TechEd before, and wasn‘t sure what to expect. In the first 20 minutes
after I arrived…I started hearing the words ‗collaboration,‘ ‗transparency‘, and ‗social.‘ And I was
hearing these words from SAP executives and customers. The event was suddenly, surprisingly
relevant to me in a way that I did not anticipate, nor that I was prepared for. It was magical.‖
Susan Scrupski, (Blogger on SCN)

 ―SAP TechEd is still the ultimate experience for the SAP technical specialist. Those that attend love
it – those that don‘t are envious. As a SAP Mentor the event is even more valuable because getting
inside access to SAP is easier and because attendees find it easier to approach us.‖
Graham Robinson, SAP Mentor, Yelcho Systems Consulting

 ―SAP TechEd is a great event for our branding and marketing purposes. As exhibitors we have
been able to connect with new prospects, meet existing customers and enhance the network.‖
Klaus Zimmer, PBS Software GmbH

 ―Sponsoring the SAP TechEd events around the world is important to our brand recognition in the
SAP application workload.‖
Michael Waite, Red Hat, Inc

Page 42 of 45

 ―I had an unforgettable and brilliant week [at SAP TechEd] and was truly proud to be a part of
it...honestly I keep pinching myself that I have found a community I can be a part of professionally in
a way that feels creatively vital and authentic.‖
Jon Reed, JonERP.com, SAP Mentor

 ―SAP TechEd gave me access to the people and the materials that are so critical to the success of
my job. It also gave me a jump start on new and exciting projects for the next few years.‖
Deb Donohoe, Spectrolab, Inc., A Boeing Company

 ―There is no other place or class you can go to get as much breadth and depth of technical topics
as TechEd. I usually take a full year to digest and refer back to the different things in the conference,
and find it very inspiring and helpful with client implementation.‖
Yujin Yan, IBM GBS

 ―The TechTour is just about the right length – hit the spot!‖
Peter Ford, Her Majesty‟s Revenue & Customs (HMRC)

 ―We felt that participation [in the TechTour] was well worth the investment of our time and marketing
budget as (1) it brought us fully up to speed with the latest developments in the SAP strategy; (2)
the number and quality of attendees was high with several constructive business conversations.‖
Ian Mackensie, Microsoft, Inc.

Page 43 of 45

University Alliances Community Members
 ―The cross pollination that is enabled between academia and industry by the UAC benefits SAP and
the participating students and universities. The innovative educational tools are aimed to grow the
high-value, skilled IT workforce critically needed in today‘s competitive global environment.‖
Pierre-Majorique Léger, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Information Technologies,
HEC Montréal, and a moderator on UAC

 ―Grand Valley State University‘s ERP program, through its participation in the UAC, has provided an
opportunity to gain knowledge and experience in business processes and SAP. Blogging on SCN
has allowed me to voice my thoughts, share what is happening, and connect to the SAP community
around the world. The UAC allows me to search for jobs, connect with other SAP student
organizations, network with SAP mentors, and dive deep into the UA library!‖
David Herrema, Student, Grand Valley State University

 ―The UAC provides professors at Indiana University‘s Kelley School of Business access to a wide
variety of leading-edge SAP related content that can be leveraged to enhance the learning
experience for their students. The faculty-contributed curriculum materials as well as SAP white
papers, customer case studies, solution maps and best practices provide a rich source of content
for lectures, case studies and lab assignments. The forums provide a venue to share best practices,
interact with other faculty and troubleshoot issues with student exercises.‖
Bipin Prabhakar, Ph.D., Clinical Associate Professor, Information Technology and Services
Indiana University

 ―I find that the UAC is a great tool that enables me to easily connect with professors from around the
world. Being in Hawaii, I am several time zones apart from most of the University Alliances members
with whom I collaborate, yet through the UAC I can access content at a time that is convenient for me
and I can utilize the help desk discussion threads to get answers to personal or student questions, 24x7.‖
James Lee, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Computer Science and Information Sciences
Brigham Young University – Hawaii

 ―As a newer member of the SAP University Alliances Program, the UAC is a great source of SAP
and program-related information. We use SAP in the classroom to reinforce business concepts and
to give students hands-on exposure prior to entering industry. In addition, the UAC has a variety of
resources geared towards students. Early on they can learn about careers and ERP, when they are
ready to graduate they are able to post their resumes and search for jobs within the SAP ecosystem.‖
Peter Lukszys, Senior Lecturer in Marketing and Director of Applied Projects
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Page 44 of 45

 ―The UAC allows me to connect with the business community and SAP experts so I am able to
introduce cutting-edge topics that are of most interest to companies that hire our students. The
resources available across SCN allow me to stay ahead of the learning curve.‖
Ross Hightower, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Management Information Systems
University of Central Florida

 ―An SAP curriculum in the classroom is particularly important because it opens new opportunities
for students when they graduate. And the University Alliances Community and the SCN Career
Center enable new SAP trained graduates to reach employers and identify job
opportunities. Several of my students have recently secured challenging positions by connecting
with employers through the career center.‖
Ron Pike Ph.D., Lecturer, Management Information Systems
California State University, Chico

Page 45 of 45

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