Kicking off our 2024 event schedule, the ASUG Carolinas Chapter recently convened on the campus of North Carolina State University for a day-long meeting focused on education and networking.
With strong attendance from SAP customers, university faculty, and students from across the Carolinas, the March 22 meeting featured an opening presentation by ASUG CEO & Chief Community Champion Geoff Scott, who spoke thoughtfully about the value of ASUG to the larger SAP community in a time of unprecedented change, reflecting on the rise of artificial intelligence and the transition to SAP S/4HANA and cloud-centric environments that many SAP customers are continuing to navigate.
NC State is a member of the SAP University Alliances program; in her presentation, Dr. Marianne Bradford, Professor of Accounting at the Poole College of Management at NC State, discussed how the program factors into her approach to teaching ERP in a classroom setting.
In addition to creating and overseeing assignments that increase students’ familiarity with SAP products, Dr. Bradford introduces her students to other industry-leading tools they’re likely to encounter in their careers; for example, she’d introduced UiPath to her students even before the announcement of UiPath’s strategic partnership with SAP was made at last year’s SAP Sapphire.
One of those students, Parker Steele, an accounting and information systems major at NC State, joined Dr. Bradford to share his experience with the SAP UA program and provided a demonstration of a recent UiPath integration assignment automating the creation of purchase orders in SAP.
Another highlight from the meeting came during a panel discussion focused on the SAP skills gap, moderated by myself, that showcased perspectives from the following panel members:
- Kyle Montgomery, CEO at Bull City Talent Group
- Richard Hornung, Senior Vice President, SAP Center of Excellence at Moody’s Corporation
- Dr. Murat Adivar, Professor of Business and Director of the Center for ERP and Advanced Analytics at Fayetteville State University
In addition to reflecting on various hard and soft skills that are currently in demand across the SAP ecosystem, from determination to communication and time management, the panel focused on discussing skills that are specifically transferrable from SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) to SAP S/4HANA.
The soft skills that have always been necessary for successful ERP projects, as the panelists discussed, include conflict resolution, influence or sales ability, and organizational change management, while new key skills for the SAP S/4HANA world include SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) and SAP Fiori.
Additionally, the panelists noted the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion, reflecting on the value to be gained from employing more senior tech professionals and individuals transitioning from active military service to civilian IT careers. The role that the SAP University Alliances have to play as a source of training and education across all of these scenarios also came into focus throughout the conversation.
To cap off the panel, Kris Ferris, SAP eCommerce Application Specialist at Collins Aerospace, shared his journey from the US Army to the SAP community, reflecting on how the skills and character traits he developed in the military are helping him succeed in his current IT role. This panel involved plenty of audience participation, and it’s clear that the topic will remain on everybody’s radar for the foreseeable future.
Next, Jelena Perfiljeva, Expert SAP Developer with Mindset Consulting, shared her take on the SAP clean core strategy, a widely discussed and frequently misunderstood topic. Many readers of ASUG First Five are no doubt familiar with The Boring Enterprise Nerds, a partnership between Jelena Perfiljeva and Paul Modderman focusing on discussing technical topics in a fresh, humorous voice. In fine Nerds tradition, the ASUG Carolinas Chapter was treated to an entertaining and insightful explanation of the clean-core topic, with more than a few light bulbs coming on for attendees around the room. In particular, Perfiljeva’s creative way of visualizing “on-stack” developer extensibility and side-by-side extensibility with a full stack of pancakes seemed to resonate with the audience.
SAP always provides much appreciated support to our ASUG Chapter events. Teo Rodriguez joined us from the SAP Customer Engagement Team to share the Customer Insights Dashboard, another service available to all SAP customers as part of SAP for Me. To round out the day, Robert Bass shared the breadth of capabilities within SAP Signavio for SAP S/4HANA and SAP ECC customers alike.
As always, our sponsors—including IQX Business Solutions, Netcare International, Protera, BCC Distribution, Optima ECM Consulting, New Era Technology, and Surety Systems—provided terrific content and support. One partner, Finn Schnohr of Netcare International, traveled from Denmark to attend multiple ASUG chapter events, officially winning the award for furthest distance travelled to attend an ASUG Carolinas event; in his customer case-study presentation, Schnohr discussed how Netcare’s Document Collaboration Hub (DCH) has shaped the future of workflow processes at Vestas Wind Systems A/S.
Customers and partners alike commented on the overall energy and quality of conversation present at this meeting, which began the evening before with a well-attended networking event at Whiskey Kitchen in downtown Raleigh and continued well beyond the scheduled end-time of the meeting. A great start to the year for the ASUG Carolinas Chapter, the meeting also served to fuel our attendees’ growing anticipation for the next ASUG Carolinas Chapter event, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, on June 28.
The full content library for the March 2024 ASUG Carolinas Chapter Meeting can be found here.
Bob Bucy, IS Business Analyst, Supply Chain at bioMérieux, is the ASUG Carolinas Chapter Chair.