ASUG con­tin­ues to grow with the launch of two tech­nol­o­gy- and indus­try-focused com­mu­ni­ties this month, Intel­li­gent Spend Man­age­ment and Busi­ness Net­work Alliance and the Con­sumer Indus­tries and Cus­tomer Expe­ri­ence Alliance.

With each alliance debut, ASUG, vol­un­teer, and SAP lead­ers empha­size the respon­sive, com­mu­ni­ty-cen­tric dynam­ic to the struc­ture and oper­a­tion. Alliances unite and con­nect think tanks, peer groups, task forces, influ­ence coun­cils, and event col­lab­o­ra­tions, among oth­er activ­i­ties. Alliance lead­er­ship teams include vol­un­teers, SAP lead­er­ship and sub­ject mat­ter experts, and ASUG staff. Addi­tion­al­ly, alliance lead­ers urged ASUG mem­bers and cus­tomers to step into open alliance lead­er­ship roles. 

The Intel­li­gent Spend Busi­ness Net­work Alliance lead­er­ship team includes: Andy Rubin­son, SAP Co-Leader and Senior Direc­tor, Prod­uct Suc­cess, SAP Pro­cure­ment; Sofia Tadil, SAP Co-Leader and Direc­tor, Com­mu­ni­ties Strat­e­gy, Intel­li­gent Spend and Busi­ness Net­works; Nick DeCen­zo, Co-Com­mu­ni­ty Chair and Senior Con­sul­tant, Dele­ware Con­sult­ing; Rahul Goy­al, Co-Com­mu­ni­ty Chair and Senior Direc­tor, SAP at Ellu­cian; Kari Budry, SAP Field­glass con­tact and Glob­al Solu­tion Man­ag­er, Ser­vices Pro­cure­ment, SAP Intel­li­gent Spent and Busi­ness Net­work; Rossana Bobadil­la, SAP Con­cur con­tact and Senior Direc­tor, Amer­i­c­as Prod­uct Mar­ket­ing; and Lor­raine Yao, SAP Busi­ness Net­work con­tact and Direc­tor, Solu­tion Management.

In addi­tion to brief overviews of the var­i­ous SAP solu­tions under the Intel­li­gent Spend Busi­ness Net­work Alliance ban­ner, the lead­ers reviewed recent SAP Busi­ness Net­work prod­uct nam­ing changes. In pro­cure­ment, Ari­ba Net­work is now SAP Busi­ness Net­work for Pro­cure­ment Automa­tion; in sup­ply chain, Ari­ba Net­work is now SAP Busi­ness Net­work for Sup­ply Chain Col­lab­o­ra­tion; in logis­tics, Logis­tics Busi­ness Net­work is now SAP Busi­ness Net­work for Logis­tics; and in asset col­lab­o­ra­tion, the for­mer Asset Intel­li­gence Net­work is now SAP Busi­ness Net­work for Asset Management. 

SAP’s Tadil said the nam­ing con­ven­tions sig­nal ​“not just a change in ter­mi­nol­o­gy but the dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion of the pro­cure­ment role,” espe­cial­ly con­tin­ued chal­lenges to nav­i­gate the sup­ply chain. 

Intel­li­gent Spend Busi­ness Net­work Lead­ers also attempt­ed to sur­face top­ics for future alliance dis­cus­sions and mem­bers’ press­ing chal­lenges. Par­tic­i­pants sug­gest­ed the alliance tackle:

• SAP sus­tain­abil­i­ty approach­es in pro­cure­ment processes
• Tax and ben­e­fit com­pli­ance solu­tions giv­en chang­ing reg­u­la­tions and region­al differences
• AI in sourcing
• Cloud adop­tion
• Change man­age­ment.

The Con­sumer Indus­tries and Cus­tomer Expe­ri­ence Alliance, mean­while, con­vened for an inau­gur­al town hall to launch its alliance and intro­duce ASUG peer groups that fall with­in its func­tion­al­i­ties. Those func­tion­al­i­ties include Appar­el, Footwear, and Fash­ion (AFF), Con­sumer Prod­ucts Indus­try, Cus­tomer Expe­ri­ence (CX), Cus­tomer Man­age­ment (CM), Retail, Life Sci­ences, and Whole­sale Distribution.

This alliance lead­er­ship team includes Oliv­er Stocks, SAP AFF Con­tact and Vice Pres­i­dent, Busi­ness Devel­op­ment Indus­try Cloud for Retail and Fash­ion; Scott Orton, Man­ag­er SAP OTC, Under Armour; Peter Akbar, SAP AFF Con­tact and SAP Glob­al Chief Cus­tomer Offi­cer for Fash­ion; Har­ris Fogel, SAP Con­sumer Prod­ucts Indus­try Con­tact and Glob­al Vice Pres­i­dent (GVP), Con­sumer Prod­ucts; Seema Vish­noi Kessel­ring, SAP Cus­tomer Man­age­ment & Expe­ri­ence Con­tact and GVP, CX Prod­uct Strat­e­gy; Ang­ie Rad­jen, Senior Man­ag­er, CX Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy, Moen/​FBWinn; Raj Kasired­dy, Senior Man­ag­er, OTC, McKesson; Puru Bud­dha, AVP, Busi­ness & Infor­ma­tion Ser­vices, Chesa­peake Util­i­ties Cor­po­ra­tion; Chris Far­rell, SAP Life Sci­ences Con­tact and Vice Pres­i­dent – Life Sci­ences, Head of Indus­try, SAP Amer­i­ca, Inc.; Alireza Ghase­mi, SAP Retail Con­tact and Glob­al Chief Solu­tion Offi­cer, SAP Retail Store (Smart Store) & Return Man­age­ment and Indus­try Busi­ness Unit (IBU) Retail; and Lynn Lupo, SAP Whole­sale Dis­tri­b­u­tion Con­tact and Solu­tion Man­ag­er, Whole­sale Dis­tri­b­u­tion IBU SAP. 

In addi­tion to pro­vid­ing brief overviews of the var­i­ous SAP solu­tions uti­lized with­in their respec­tive busi­ness­es, Cus­tomer Expe­ri­ence Alliance mem­bers dis­cussed chal­lenges to the con­sumer and cus­tomer expe­ri­ence indus­tries, express­ing inter­est in using the alliance to bring about new ideas, col­lab­o­ra­tions, and an increased sense of community.

Lead­ers also attempt­ed to sur­face top­ics for future alliance dis­cus­sions and mem­bers’ press­ing chal­lenges. Par­tic­i­pants sug­gest­ed the alliance tackle:

• Build­ing strong part­ner­ships with ASUG com­mu­ni­ty of cus­tomers to have rel­e­vant and engag­ing conversations/​discussions on busi­ness trends, impact, key learn­ings, and more
• Lever­ag­ing SAP tech­nol­o­gy inno­va­tions to move all par­tic­i­pants’ indus­tries forward
• Uni­fy­ing cus­tomer data from enter­prise and exter­nal sources to con­nect demand with the sup­ply chain process and pro­vide a seam­less expe­ri­ence for customers
• Shar­ing strate­gies for reduc­ing costs, pro­vid­ing end-to-end vis­i­bil­i­ty, and meet­ing reg­u­la­to­ry and com­pli­ance requirements

ASUG is call­ing for vol­un­teers to fill roles with­in the alliance, includ­ing vol­un­teers in Con­sumer Prod­ucts Indus­try, Retail, Life Sci­ences, and Whole­sale Distribution.