The begin­ning of any new year brings oppor­tu­ni­ties to hit reset and reflect. As ASUG moves into 2024, com­mit­ted to ensur­ing the suc­cess of our mem­ber com­mu­ni­ty, I’m excit­ed to con­tem­plate the year ahead. 

At last fall’s inau­gur­al ASUG Tech Con­nect, a con­fer­ence ded­i­cat­ed to show­cas­ing the pow­er of tech­nol­o­gy and com­mu­ni­ty, I spoke about the impor­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion and knowl­edge-shar­ing as a con­tin­u­ous, year-round activ­i­ty. That’s because, out­side of our in-per­son indus­try con­fer­ences, your ASUG engage­ment can take many forms, just as your involve­ment in the ASUG com­mu­ni­ty will open many doors. 

In con­sid­er­ing what thoughts to share with our mem­ber­ship this week, the words of Amer­i­can pro­fes­sor and researcher Brené Brown came to mind; she defines con­nec­tion as ​“the ener­gy that exists between peo­ple when they feel seen, heard, and val­ued; when they can give and receive with­out judg­ment; and when they derive sus­te­nance and strength from the relationship.”

At the heart of ASUG — and key to my under­stand­ing of our pur­pose and impact — is cre­at­ing con­nec­tion through com­mu­ni­ty. As lead­ers, as pro­fes­sion­als, and as humans, we crave con­nec­tion con­stant­ly. Every day, it dri­ves us for­ward in our careers and strength­ens our com­mit­ment to our orga­ni­za­tions’ mis­sions. Ulti­mate­ly, con­nec­tion unlocks pos­i­tive change.

When­ev­er we sur­vey our mem­bers, you tell us con­nect­ing with your peers is crit­i­cal to your suc­cess. You tell us you want to hear each other’s sto­ries — to hear how your peers over­came chal­lenges and achieved suc­cess, pro­fes­sion­al­ly and per­son­al­ly. We know there’s no sub­sti­tute for cul­ti­vat­ing spaces where you can have these con­struc­tive conversations. 

That’s why 38 region­al Chap­ters, indus­try- and top­ic-spe­cif­ic com­mu­ni­ty alliances, vir­tu­al town halls, web­casts, and edi­to­r­i­al offer­ings — includ­ed with­in your ASUG mem­ber­ship—cur­rent­ly exist: to help you con­nect, and to help you get the most val­ue out of your invest­ment in SAP technology. 

In 2023, our Chap­ters con­vened 140 times across North Amer­i­ca. In 2024, you can fur­ther engage with ASUG Chap­ters and local in-per­son expe­ri­ences, join our val­ued ASUG Vol­un­teers, and make your voice heard — to your peers, to ASUG, and to SAP — through our Com­mu­ni­ty Alliances. I hope you’ll take advan­tage of every oppor­tu­ni­ty to do so. 

Last year was a strong one for our con­fer­ences — for indus­tries such as util­i­ties and oil, gas, and ener­gy — and saw the launch of ASUG Tech Con­nect, designed for prac­ti­tion­ers to par­tic­i­pate in deep-dive learn­ing labs, 1:1 expert ses­sions, and peer-to-peer con­ver­sa­tions about what is work­ing with their SAP tech­nol­o­gy projects — and what pit­falls to avoid. In 2024, con­sid­er attend­ing our four major con­fer­ences, redesigned to align, edu­cate, and empow­er our mem­ber­ship.

What else? This past year, we launched Cam­pus Con­nect, a reimag­ined col­lab­o­ra­tion between SAP Uni­ver­si­ty Alliances and ASUG mem­ber com­pa­nies. Cam­pus Con­nect pro­vides an impor­tant path­way for SAP pro­fes­sion­als to inspire a new gen­er­a­tion of tal­ent, address­ing the skills gap and enabling real-world appli­ca­tions of SAP tech­nol­o­gy out­side the class­room. I had a chance to see Cam­pus Con­nect in action at recent ASUG Michi­gan, Car­oli­nas, and Dal­las-Fort Worth & Okla­homa Chap­ter meet­ings, and I couldn’t be more excit­ed about the future of this expand­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty to fos­ter the next gen­er­a­tion of SAP talent. 

In 2023, we also relaunched ASUG’s week­ly First Five newslet­ter, dis­trib­uted to our entire mem­ber­ship. We want to keep you com­pa­ny over your first cup of cof­fee on Mon­day morn­ings. This year, we will con­tin­ue to deliv­er analy­sis of the lat­est SAP news, cus­tomer case stud­ies that explore how SAP users are trans­form­ing their tech­nol­o­gy land­scapes, exclu­sive ASUG research, com­mu­ni­ty dis­patch­es, and inter­views with key indi­vid­u­als advanc­ing the objec­tives of the SAP ecosystem. 

I’m look­ing for­ward to the third sea­son of ASUG Talks, pre­mier­ing this spring in a round­table for­mat designed to con­nect our mem­bers with SAP experts in con­ver­sa­tions about the top­ics you’ve iden­ti­fied as crit­i­cal to your suc­cess, from cloud migra­tion to inte­gra­tion and automa­tion. Gain insights on the go and hear direct­ly from your peers about prac­ti­cal strate­gies that enhanced their SAP knowl­edge. Through­out the year, we’ll expand the impact of con­ver­sa­tions con­duct­ed at our events through spe­cial edi­tions of the pod­cast, such as our episode record­ed live at ASUG Tech Con­nect.

This year, we’ll deliv­er research reports and pro­vide you with the data you need to make informed deci­sions about SAP tech­nol­o­gy projects, illu­mi­nat­ing how your fel­low SAP users max­i­mize the val­ue of SAP imple­men­ta­tions. We will unveil our annu­al Pulse of the SAP Cus­tomer research in the first quar­ter of 2024, with addi­tion­al research forth­com­ing on top­ics like sus­tain­abil­i­ty, SAP S/4HANA, SAP Sig­navio, and SAP Busi­ness Tech­nol­o­gy Plat­form. Thank you for your par­tic­i­pa­tion in these projects, which iden­ti­fy trends and emerg­ing issues for our members.

Con­sid­er­ing all that ASUG has in the works for 2024, I keep return­ing to the impor­tance of engag­ing with empa­thy in your com­mu­ni­ties, of tak­ing the time to forge the indi­vid­ual rela­tion­ships that pow­er our pro­fes­sion­al net­work and ensure brighter, bet­ter futures for our orga­ni­za­tions. It all comes down, as always, to you, and to your con­nec­tion with others.

Car­olyn Dolezal is ASUG’s Chief Oper­at­ing Officer.