While ASUG mem­bers and the orga­ni­za­tion itself weath­ered changes and chal­lenges over the last three years, Board Chair Mark LeClair and CEO Geoff Scott assert that the ASUG foun­da­tion and its for­ward focus are sol­id, as well as filled with pos­i­tive trends, oppor­tu­ni­ties, and optimism.

The lead­ers reflect­ed on the issues and accom­plish­ments from 2018 to 2022 in a recent inter­view dur­ing SAP Sap­phire & ASUG Accel­er­ate Orlan­do. The inter­view coin­cid­ed with the end of LeClair’s four years as chair.

Dur­ing the May ASUG Board meet­ing, Vice Chair James John­son suc­ceed­ed LeClair, who con­clud­ed two suc­ces­sive two-year terms. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, Kris Cowles, SVP of IT for Top­Con Posi­tion­ing Sys­tems, and Diane Arnold, SVP of Enter­prise Tech­nol­o­gy Core Sys­tems and Plat­forms for the Walt Dis­ney Com­pa­ny, joined the board for their first meeting.

“Stronger Than Ever”

“ASUG is advanc­ing on its mis­sion, and we are set up for suc­cess with our mem­ber val­ue, our prod­ucts and our ser­vices,” LeClair said. ​“ASUG is stronger now, espe­cial­ly giv­en what we’ve gone through. We have the depth and breadth of ser­vices. We have influ­ence with SAP. The voice of ASUG is the strongest it’s ever been.”

Both LeClair and Scott acknowl­edged that the board and staff have faced dif­fi­cult dis­cus­sions and deci­sions. Some were prompt­ed by pan­dem­ic-relat­ed changes in the busi­ness and by how heav­i­ly ASUG relies on in-per­son event programming.

“Mark’s lega­cy is that he nav­i­gat­ed the orga­ni­za­tion through tumul­tuous times. He led the board to real­ize that we need­ed to piv­ot. We need­ed jar­ring change,” Scott said.

Lean in to Learn, Con­nect, and Grow

ASUG embraced tech­nolo­gies and col­lab­o­ra­tive pro­gram devel­op­ment to deliv­er vir­tu­al events, extend­ing pro­gram­ming expe­ri­ences beyond a ​“point in time.” It tapped into SAP, cus­tomer, and part­ner exper­tise more broad­ly, lean­ing into strate­gic ASUG pil­lars — Learn, Con­nect, and Grow — more effec­tive­ly, with new com­mu­ni­ties and offerings.

Scott also high­light­ed new pro­gram for­mats, such as ASUG Accel­er­ate Pow­er Peer Group ses­sions. These deliv­ered con­ver­sa­tions through a ​“cus­tomer-peer lens.” Scott pre­dict­ed that the forth­com­ing ASUG Mem­ber Pathfind­er prod­uct will become ​“his­toric” in deliv­er­ing mem­ber value.

Trust­ed SAP Relationship

LeClair and Scott said that they and oth­er board lead­ers have invest­ed time and atten­tion to improve rela­tion­ships with SAP lead­ers across the board. They’ve also worked to improve the over­all part­ner­ship that ASUG has with SAP.

“Our rela­tion­ship with SAP need­ed bet­ter align­ment,” LeClair said. ​“We need­ed a rela­tion­ship with open­ness, trans­paren­cy, and trust. We believe we have that now.”

“We’re col­lab­o­rat­ing,” Scott added, ​“focused on the voice of the cus­tomer. We have the cus­tomers and con­tin­ue to work on the trust­ed rela­tion­ship with SAP.”

Scott empha­sized the impor­tance of resum­ing the in-per­son ASUG Board – SAP Exec­u­tive Board mem­ber mul­ti-day meet­ings last year. Sev­er­al such meet­ings occurred in Orlando.

Out Front and in Front

LeClair said that his suc­ces­sor, ASUG, board direc­tors, pro­fes­sion­al staff, and the SAP ecosys­tem have sev­er­al pos­i­tive oppor­tu­ni­ties to leverage.

“The prod­uct port­fo­lio can be chal­leng­ing, yet there is so much to build out and on,” LeClair said. ​“We need to look at how to get the mem­ber val­ue mes­sage out fur­ther and more effectively.”

“And what would be my advice to James? Be in front of them — the mem­ber — and be out front for them. He’s out front for all of us mem­bers now,” he added.