With an active trav­el sched­ule as part of her still-new role, ASUG Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer Car­olyn Dolezal joined ASUG Board Direc­tors and Senior Lead­ers for what has become an annu­al sojourn — meet­ing this month with SAP exec­u­tives at its Wall­dorf, Ger­many, headquarters. 

The excur­sions, briefly sus­pend­ed dur­ing the pandemic’s most intense years, serve as an essen­tial oppor­tu­ni­ty for ASUG lead­ers to lis­ten, learn, and deliv­er per­spec­tives direct­ly to SAP on behalf of ASUG mem­bers and the greater Amer­i­c­as SAP community. 

This year the ASUG del­e­ga­tion includ­ed Dolezal, as well as James John­son, Board Chair; Mark LeClair, past Board Chair; Tony Cae­sar and Lau­ra Tibodeau, both Board Direc­tors; Geoff Scott, CEO; David Was­com, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent, Exec­u­tive Pro­grams; and Kel­ly Dowl­ing, Con­tent Director. 

They met with sev­er­al SAP exec­u­tive lead­ers, includ­ing Chris­t­ian Klein, CEO; Sebas­t­ian Stein­hauser, Chief Strat­e­gy Offi­cer; Juer­gen Mueller, CTO and Exec­u­tive Board Mem­ber; Anja Schnei­der, SVP and COO; Thomas Sauer­es­sig, SAP Exec­u­tive Board Mem­ber and SAP Prod­uct Engi­neer; Peter Maier, Pres­i­dent, SAP Indus­tries and Cus­tomer Advi­so­ry; Karl Fahrbach, Chief Part­ner Offi­cer and Mem­ber of the Senior Exec­u­tive Team, and user group liaisons Yas­min Awad and Nor­bert Nowak.

In this view, Dolezal recaps the prepa­ra­tions, pri­or­i­ties, and some impres­sions from the days of dia­logue. Oth­er mem­bers of the ASUG trav­el con­tin­gent will share from their expe­ri­ences in future commentaries.

As I looked for­ward to the Octo­ber out­ing to SAP head­quar­ters in Wall­dorf, Ger­many, it occurred to me this would be a jour­ney of firsts:

• First trav­el oppor­tu­ni­ty with a cross-sec­tion of the ASUG com­mu­ni­ty: Board Direc­tors and senior staff leaders.
• First trav­el to SAP head­quar­ters and first meet­ings with sev­er­al SAP Exec­u­tive Board, strat­e­gy, and tech­nol­o­gy leaders.
• First occa­sion to take in infor­ma­tion for, and more impor­tant­ly, effec­tive­ly rep­re­sent, the inter­ests of ASUG members.

Pri­or­i­ties and Perspectives

To take up these respon­si­bil­i­ties, togeth­er with the trav­el­ing troop, I con­sid­ered the con­text in the days before the trip. ASUG and SAP built over many years an open and trans­par­ent rela­tion­ship — and I am hap­py to report this was evi­dent in this visit.

We met to pre­pare and decide on roles, respon­si­bil­i­ties, and pri­or­i­ties for the con­ver­sa­tions. We agreed we need­ed to cov­er the most impor­tant top­ics that occu­py mem­bers’ and cus­tomers’ minds — right now and for the fore­see­able future — includ­ing: Cloud Adop­tion, Busi­ness Tech­nol­o­gy Plat­form (BTP), SAP S/4 HANA as a Ser­vice, Sus­tain­abil­i­ty, and the SAP Ecosys­tem. We left a lit­tle room for SAP to add to the agenda.

That was the going in. Now, with a few days to reflect, I con­tin­ue to sort through obser­va­tions and impres­sions. I was delight­ed to see the direct access ASUG has to the high­est lev­el of SAP’s strat­e­gy and oper­a­tions lead­ers. These indi­vid­u­als demon­strat­ed an unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to SAP cus­tomers. They expressed gen­uine curios­i­ty about ASUG mem­bers and our organization’s per­cep­tions and expe­ri­ence with SAP tech­nol­o­gy and strat­e­gy. They clear­ly lis­tened. They were exu­ber­ant about the future. Ener­gy and com­mit­ment? Pal­pa­ble to a person! 

Rel­e­vance and Receptivity

The impor­tance, and the after­math, of these types of meet­ings and con­ver­sa­tions hinge on the rel­e­vance of the top­ics and on the open­ness and recep­tiv­i­ty of both par­ties to the dia­logue. ASUG Board mem­bers bring their own views, and their organization’s expe­ri­ences and assess­ments. But just as impor­tant, they unpack — and last week they unpacked on your behalf — what they col­lect and hear from oth­er members. 

As lead­ers and every­day SAP tech­nol­o­gy users, our mem­bers are unique­ly qual­i­fied to pro­vide real-life, real-time feed­back on what works well and where there are oppor­tu­ni­ties for improve­ment. In addi­tion, the cus­tomers’ view as strate­gists and prac­ti­tion­ers can help shape SAP think­ing and plan­ning on pri­or­i­ties, and road maps for the future.

We knew we were hav­ing mean­ing­ful, worth­while con­ver­sa­tions when the SAP exec­u­tives we met with want­ed to stay engaged longer than their appoint­ed time slots. 

Ideas and Pri­or­i­ties to Come

The SAP-ASUG meet­ing con­tent from this month is con­fi­den­tial under a non-dis­clo­sure agree­ment. As much as I would like to share more from these very open con­ver­sa­tions, in good part­ner­ship, I can­not share details. Yet, giv­en the trust between the two orga­ni­za­tions, SAP shared sev­er­al new ideas and pri­or­i­ties. They gained ASUG feed­back, we have tan­gi­ble next steps, and there are new points of con­tact for fur­ther meet­ings. We will fol­low through on those next steps in the com­ing weeks and months, again work­ing for you. 

In the end, I come away ener­gized by the per­spec­tives and pri­or­i­ties shared across many tables. We live in a com­pli­cat­ed, ever-chang­ing world with SAP involved in glob­al public/​private indus­try dia­logues to help shape the future — of tech­nol­o­gy, busi­ness, com­mu­ni­ty, the world. As SAP lead­ers seek cus­tomer per­spec­tives, the ASUG per­spec­tive makes for key inputs.

The Wall­dorf dia­logue was not the first and will not be the last; it’s only the lat­est and only one of many chan­nels ASUG uses to engage with SAP. ASUG mem­bers know that togeth­er, we can ampli­fy a pow­er­ful voice to shape these dis­cus­sions through mul­ti­ple chan­nels, every day. Ulti­mate­ly, our talk and action as part­ners will shape how we live and work. It was — and is – very excit­ing to have a seat at the table, to be in the rooms where it hap­pens. ASUG mem­bers have that oppor­tu­ni­ty if and when they want to use it, and we will work dili­gent­ly to deliv­er that voice in the conversation.