Planning and Prep

Paul Kurchina ‒ Community Evangelist

Stuart Browne – Founder and Managing Director, Resulting IT

Ensuring that your next SAP implementation is successful starts with understanding the keys to project success. During this session, you will hear from Stuart Browne, founder and managing director of Resulting IT, as he dives into the DNA of failed SAP projects and discusses the simple, practical things that you can do to ensure that your next major SAP program is a success.

Join this session to explore findings from a number of research projects, and learn from independent experts who have spent 20 years obsessing over SAP project success.

Ranjeet Panicker – VP, SAP America

For many customers, SAP S/4HANA transition programs start with a debate on how to approach the project and what options to consider. Most of them swiftly conclude that the company’s vision, readiness to change, and ability to manage these changes play a much bigger role than any technology aspects.

Join us to learn about SAP’s strategic road map for enabling an intelligent enterprise. Discover how to drive faster implementations with reduced complexity, increased automation, and greater ease of use. And uncover the best first steps to take when planning and executing your move to SAP S/4HANA in order to be successful on your journey to becoming an intelligent enterprise.

Scott Koren – Associate Partner, IBM

We are seeing two significant shifts underway in the SAP marketplace. First, organizations are increasingly recognizing the need to plan their SAP S/4HANA transformation in the context of two tectonic shifts in technology: digitization and cloud platforms. Second, enterprises increasingly express the need to realize maximum value from their investment in SAP solutions. At IBM, we are helping clients navigate these complexities and confidently plan their path forward with SAP S/4HANA. Join this session to learn how we can help you successfully plan your move today.

Nicole Griffith – Director, Project Management, Canadian Stewardship Services Alliance
Tom McGinnis – Ph.D., SAP Certified Associate

Preparing your teams for the move from ECC to SAP S/4HANA is essential during the planning phase, and for Canadian Stewardship Services Alliance (CSSA), giving their teams access to the resources needed was a crucial step. Join Nicole Griffith, director of project management with CSSA, and Tom McGinnis, SAP certified associate, as they discuss how ASUG’s SAP S/4HANA Discovery Workshop helped CSSA get a picture of what to expect and chart their path forward.

During this live Q&A session, McGinnis will touch on the benefits of this instructor-led, immersive, and interactive learning experience, and Griffith will share what led CSSA to leverage this course at the beginning of its planning. Tune in to get insights into how the ASUG SAP S/4HANA Discovery Workshop can help you on your journey, too.

Roan Low ‒ SAP Solutions Architect, Syntax

SAP S/4HANA transformation is to simplify business processes. Yet, the SAP S/4HANA migration journey can be bumpy. It’s often anything but simple. Understanding and controlling this often-complex path is essential in gaining more business value from this transformation.

During this session, Syntax SAP Solutions Architect Roan Low will outline how to migrate successfully, including how to best align the often-competing strategies of internal and external partners, how to streamline the migration journey, and how an SAP S/4HANA project can be successful, if done right.

Joshua Milos – Senior Manager, IT Applications/SAP, Birkenstock Americas
Bryant Vitanza – Business Transformation Manager, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Nagarajan Nallaiah – Manager, Enterprise Applications, Varian Medical Systems

Once you have made the decision to make the move to SAP S/4HANA, the next step is mapping out how you’re going to actually make the move. During this live panel discussion, you will get to hear from your peers as they discuss the key elements of a successful SAP S/4HANA project, specific considerations depending on the migration path you choose, and more. Hear examples of how IT and business worked together to ensure that their project would meet the strategic objectives of the business, the challenges that they encountered along the way, and what they wish they knew when they started.

Paul Kurchina ‒ Community Evangelist, ASUG

Paul Kurchina ‒ Community Evangelist, ASUG

Andreas Liris – CIO, Maple Leaf Foods

Maple Leaf Foods, a leading consumer protein company, successfully executed its SAP S/4HANA project in just one year. During this session, you will get to hear directly from CIO Andreas Liris as he discusses the ins and outs of how his team successfully mapped out and prepared for the move.

Uncover insights about what is needed in order to be successful during this phase. Tune in to hear Liris discuss how long it took the organization to plan, how it utilized tools from SAP, chose an implementation partner, and more.

Ranjeet Panicker – VP, SAP America

Are you a leader who is looking to understand the most influential technology for a successful SAP S/4HANA project? During this session, we’ll take a deep dive into the accelerators and other tools that customers can take advantage of during the planning and preparation phase.

You’ll learn:

• How to get familiar with automated custom code adaptation and how to manage business downtime during an SAP S/4HANA transition
• How to interpret a readiness check output for SAP S/4HANA, as well as the options for managing data quality and data loads during an SAP S/4HANA implementation
• How to leverage the SAP solution road map, industry reference architecture, and the SAP Transformation Navigator tool to help you architect a solution for the future landscape
  

Wim Hummel ‒ Manager ICT, Cosun Beet Company
Jan-Willem van der Meere ‒ Digital IT and BI Leader, Lamb Weston/Meijer

Cosun and Lamb Weston/Meijer have been SAP customers since 1989 and 2003, respectively, so you can imagine that the customization and technical debt they had built up over the years was a lot to unpack.

During this session, you will learn how they both used low-code to remove their customizations from ECC and prepare for SAP S/4HANA, while delivering new innovations to the business at the same time. Hummel and van der Meere will share how using SAP’s market-leading low-code solution, SAP Rapid Application Development by Mendix, made their existing SAP developers five times more productive. They will also discuss how they adopted Agile and DevOps, which not only ended up bringing business and IT closer together, but also led to better business outcomes. Join this session to hear key insights from your peers and find out whether low-code should be part of your SAP S/4HANA strategy, too.

Van Vi – Head of SAP HANA Practice Unit, North America, SAP America, Inc.

Moving to SAP S/4HANA is more than just a technical upgrade—there is a lot to consider when planning your project in order to be successful on your journey. During this session, you will hear how the SAP S/4HANA Regional Implementation Group (RIG) continues to help customers be successful with the help of their 10 steps to SAP S/4HANA through a system conversion boot camp. Tune in to hear Van Vi, head of SAP HANA practice unit, answer questions about how this boot camp can help boost your knowledge and confidence to move from SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA.

Sergio Abraham – Director, Security Innovation, Onapsis

If you have not yet started your journey to migrate to SAP S/4HANA, you are not alone. Many companies are planning to migrate to SAP S/4HANA, but preparing for the big move can be a daunting task. There are a number of SAP S/4HANA implementation paths to choose depending on your business type and enterprise goals, but one constant remains true: security.

Join Onapsis, an SAP Endorsed Apps Company, as we outline the importance and strategies for building application security and compliance in from the start of SAP S/4HANA migration projects. Attendees will walk away with a better understanding of:

• How to build an SAP security program that measures and appropriately responds to issues from a risk perspective.
• Build processes around custom coding and how to introduce only safe code to SAP environments.
• Empower audit teams to gain the information they need to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and corporate policies.

Joshua Milos – Senior Manager, IT Applications/SAP, Birkenstock Americas
Nagarajan Nallaiah – Manager, Enterprise Applications, Varian Medical Systems
AVV Subramanian – Head, Digital Enterprise Core, Bosch

As you’re starting to map out your SAP S/4HANA project, understanding what’s required for your organization from a technical perspective is key. During this live panel discussion, you’re going to hear customers discuss everything from understanding your long-term hardware needs and potential system workloads, to how projects may vary based on your migration approach.

Tune in to discover how your peers were successful throughout this phase, where they encountered challenges, and what they wish they knew when they first started.

Paul Kurchina ‒ Community Evangelist, ASUG

Sergio Abraham – Director, Security Innovation, Onapsis

Sergio Abraham leads Onapsis Innovation Labs, and one of his main responsibilities is to discover customer insights that will drive future products and services. Come get your questions answered about how Onapsis can help you build application security and compliance from the start of your SAP S/4HANA migration project.

Wim Hummel – Manager ICT, Cosun Beet Company
Jan-Willem van der Meere – Digital IT and BI Leader, LambWeston/Meijer
Mark Manning – Customer Evangelist, Mendix
Maarten de Vries – SAP Account Manager, Mendix – EMEA region
Stephanie Freeze – SAP Account Manager, Mendix – North America region

Cosun Beet Company and LambWeston/Meijer both used low-code to remove their customizations from ECC and prepare for SAP S/4HANA. Come prepared with questions for Wim Hummel, manager ICT at Cosun Beet Company, and Jan-Willem van der Meere, digital IT and BI leader at LambWeston/Meijer, about how they adopted this, as well as Agile and DevOps. They will also be joined by members of the

Mendix team, who can answer questions about how SAP Rapid Application Development by Mendix can make your existing SAP developers five times more productive during this stage.

Roan Low ‒ SAP Solutions Architect, Syntax

Roan Low is an accomplished IT Infrastructure leader and brings more than 21 years of global experience in information systems, information technologies, and infrastructure operations, focused exclusively on SAP and the cloud. Come get your questions answered about how Syntax can help you map a successful SAP S/4HANA project, including how to align the often-competing strategies of internal and external partners and how to streamline the actual migration.

Scott Koren – Associate Partner, IBM

Scott Koren is an associate partner in IBM Enterprise Applications Integration and leads the IBM EA Value Engineering practice. In this role, Scott helps IBM clients define their unique value proposition and create the financial case for change for their EA-enabled business transformations. Come prepared with questions for Scott about how IBM can help you realize the maximum value from your investment in SAP S/4HANA and navigate other complexities when planning your move.