This year’s SAP for Utilities, Presented by ASUG delivered a truly outstanding conference experience. For those of you who joined us in Denver, you already know this to be true, because the energy was undeniable. I hope those who could not make it this year have been reading our recaps of the keynote panels and standout sessions from Loudoun Water and Salt River Project, among others. (ASUG will continue its coverage over the coming weeks and months, both here and in the ASUG First Five weekly newsletter.)
From the opening-keynote presentations from SAP and our host utility Xcel Energy, to the array of speakers from the North American utilities customer community, to the Colorado Convention Center itself, this was a great conference — and, with over 1500 attendees, by far the best-attended edition of SAP4U in recent memory.
There was much to learn and plenty of old friends to catch up with, but I was personally taken aback by the number of SAP4U newcomers I met — and by all the utilities that are just now starting their SAP journeys. The enthusiasm was palpable, with so many like-minded people gathered to discuss our shared mission, our organizations’ goals, and the software we use every day to drive our industry’s success.
While I participated in many different sessions, Monday's Enterprise Architecture Workshop was a highlight. Last year, 32 people from 24 different utilities registered to attend this workshop. This year, we had over 100 people from 35 different utilities. (Across the hall, at the same time, was another workshop focused on SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP Business Data Cloud, which also sold out.)
I co-hosted the EA Workshop with Martin Mysyk and Stefan Ressing, both Enterprise Architects from SAP. In his advisory role, Martin helps SAP customers to design their journeys with the latest SAP tools and solutions, so that they can be sure to obtain the appropriate licensing in the right quantities. In his role at SAP, Stefan focuses on value; his team helps existing Cloud ERP customers to get the most value out of their subscriptions post-deal, so they continue to see value with every renewal. Both sides of this enterprise architecture team from SAP play a key role in our success, with one ensuring that we know what to implement and the other supporting our evolving business needs to ensure we are maximizing our usage of what we’ve purchased — and staying supported as products and services evolve.
Across four hours, our workshop covered the core fundamentals that all architects who work within modern utilities need to know, from clean core to BTP to the entire set of SAP tools. Through team-building exercises in smaller breakout groups, we explored the differences between IT and business stakeholders and how their perspectives can come together to manage a portfolio of SAP applications. Bringing together utility leaders all at various stages of their cloud ERP journeys for a panel discussion with audience Q&A, we shed light on strategic decisions and lessons learned from Sempra, Dominion Energy, Oklahoma Gas & Electric (OG&E), Salt River Project (SRP), Loudoun Water, and Snohomish County PUD — my own utility. Following this was a high-level discussion of SAP Business Data Cloud that gave all of us more insight into what’s coming from the utilities industry business unit (IBU) in the year ahead.
Together with Martin and Stefan, I also shared with attendees my guide to making the most of this year’s SAP4U conference, from keynotes with Daniela Haldy-Sellmann, SVP and General Manager for Energy & Natural Resources at SAP, and Michael Sullivan, NVP of Renewable Energy and Utilities at SAP, to IBU-centric sessions with Markus Bechmann, who co-leads our utilities IBU, and Frederick Meyer, who focuses on end-to-end product management for SAP utilities. We learned a lot about what’s coming next for our industry from SAP by connecting directly with those tasked with leading its development.
As discussed in my last column, I also laid down tracks for attendees specifically focused on customer experience (CX) and enterprise asset management (EAM); for others keen to partake in more comprehensive technical training in solutions like BTP and BDC, there was plenty on offer at the conference.
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Indeed, so much learning, connection, and growth was happening all around SAP4U that I departed the conference convinced more than ever that we as an SAP utilities community must continue our conversations year-round — leading up to next year’s newly announced SAP4U conference (Oct. 7-9, in San Antonio, TX; bookmark the page ahead of registration opening soon).