ASUG is pleased to share this guest perspective from Bob Bucy, IS Business Analyst, Business Solutions Supply Chain at bioMérieux, who serves as the ASUG Carolinas Chapter Chair and recently attended the ASUG Carolinas Chapter Meeting—October 2023.
Given our long-standing connection with the SAP University Alliances and member schools in the Carolinas, the ASUG Carolinas Chapter was recently honored to be selected as one of three pilot chapters to introduce ASUG Campus Connect—a new partnership between ASUG and SAP University Alliance institutions—to our members.
Earlier this month, our Chapter members gathered to kick off the program at a historic institution: The Citadel, in Charleston, SC, which graciously provided their facilities for our meeting, beginning Oct. 12 with a Thursday evening networking event at the beautiful Citadel Beach Club. Our meeting on Friday was held at the Swain Boating Center, a picturesque location on the banks of the Ashley River. In addition to enjoying the excellent facilities, our hosts at The Citadel wanted us to experience some of their institutional traditions, beginning with a cadet color guard on Friday morning to open our meeting.
Education and the need for continuous learning were our overriding themes for the day, with students and faculty in attendance from The Citadel, Fayetteville State University (FSU), and Georgia Southern University (GSU). ASUG Chief Operating Officer Carolyn Dolezal traveled to Charleston to provide an overview of ASUG and to introduce ASUG Campus Connect. ASUG has a longstanding mission to help people and organizations get the most value from their investment in SAP technology, and to provide opportunities for ASUG members to learn, connect, and grow. ASUG Campus Connect extends these opportunities to the next generation of SAP professionals with a mission to:
- Bridge the gap between SAP University Alliances and ASUG members
- Provide an opportunity for SAP professionals to inspire the next generation
- Enable real-world application of SAP technology outside of the classroom
Next, Dr. Murat Adivar, professor of business analytics and an SAP-certified consultant at FSU, provided an overview of the SAP University Alliances and how the program has been successfully embraced by Fayetteville State University. Under his leadership, FSU joined the SAP UA program and opened their SAP Next-Gen lab—intended to connect students, researchers, and startups with SAP customers and partners to develop new technology innovations linked to the 17 UN Global Goals—in 2018.
FSU students and faculty have been very engaged with the Carolinas Chapter since the inception of their SAP program, and Murat has been a member of the Carolinas volunteer leadership team since 2020. A key focus of the presentation was the persistent skills gap in the SAP community—which has existed for as long as Murat has been teaching—and how FSU and the SAP University Alliances are working to address that gap and equip students with the necessary skills to succeed.
Dr. Michael Weeks, dean and chair of business administration for The Citadel’s school of business, and Dr. Robert Riggle, associate professor of marketing and the marketing, supply chain management, and economics department head at The Citadel, took a few minutes to welcome ASUG to the campus and to share a bit about his institution's journey with SAP University Alliances. This is a journey still in its early stages, and The Citadel’s faculty and students expressed that they all look forward to a growing partnership with ASUG and other SAP UA schools.
With the focus squarely on education, it was only appropriate for Teo Rodriguez to join us from the SAP Customer Engagement team to share knowledge and education resources that are available to all SAP customers as part of their enterprise support. SAP customer support is a huge topic in the ecosystem, with many tools available that may not be readily known to many SAP customers. The Customer Engagement team is well known in the ASUG community, with Kristen Scheffler, VerNeil Mesecher, and their team visiting many of our chapters to share this information.
We were fortunate to have Ingevity and Butterball, two of our member companies in the Carolinas, share lessons learned from their journeys from SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) 6.0 to SAP S/4HANA. Both of these companies came from different places with their technology landscapes and took distinct approaches to their transformations, emphasizing the fact that the journey to S/4 will be unique for each SAP customer.
To wrap up the day, Teo joined me to share a sneak preview of one of the Power Peer Group topics coming up at ASUG Tech Connect in New Orleans next month: Why you must make the time for continuous learning, and what's in it for you. Findings from ASUG's 2023 Pulse of the SAP Customer research reinforced the challenges that SAP customers face not only in finding and retaining people with the right skills, but in ensuring their employees are able to keep their skills current within the rapidly changing world of technology.
We shared available learning resources—many of which are free for SAP customers—and talked about challenges we all face, such as figuring out what method of learning works best for us and prioritizing our time to develop effective habits of learning. We barely scratched the surface and are looking forward to continuing these conversations at ASUG Tech Connect in November (register here).
We had hoped to end the day with the Friday parade—another Citadel tradition—but the weather had other ideas and prevented the parade from taking place. But clouds and a little rain couldn’t dampen our enthusiasm for the event, with customers, partners, students, and professors alike relishing the opportunity for conversation and continuous learning, all the while making new connections and building relationships for the future.
Bob Bucy, IS Business Analyst, Business Solutions Supply Chain at bioMérieux, is the ASUG Carolinas Chapter Chair. Pictured above, from left to right: John Dickens, Sergey Ponomarov, Bob Bucy, Gwendolyn Glasner, Carolyn Dolezal, Aja Cederberg, Murat Adivar, Bob Riggle, and Hee Yoon Kwon.