SAP

Feedback: 10 signs that you aren’t cut out to be a CIO

Posted by on May 14, 2008 in Leadership, SAP, Technology | 0 comments

I sent the “10 signs that you aren’t cut out to be a CIO” post to some of my CIO friends and I received the following interesting feedback: 
A seasoned Fortune 100 CIO said:

I read the top ten list but haven’t read the whole article. I think the points are valid but thought the way the top ten things were phrased was not like a senior business executive would have stated them. But, that’s just a first impression.    

A very experienced Fortune 500 CIO remarked:

The blog and article are right on.     

and the following from a veteran former Deloitte partner:

Interesting perspective. I am not a CIO, and have always had an external perception of the role and the players. From that perspective, I have seen a host of CIO’s who contributed very little to the success of their companies in the 5 years they held the job prior to their termination. So, an internal perception of the CIO as “one in a million among IT professioals” is foreign to my perception, and probably to the perception of many C-level executives who hire and fire CIO’s. There are exceptions. My perception is that the exceptions did so because they were business-trained, and business-focused, and happened to fill a business role that included IT. If I were hiring a CIO, the last place I would look is at 25-year IT veterans. I would look for people who understand “business” then teach them the “business of IT.”      

and finally Jan, EPI-USE‘s CIO, made the following comment:

Thanks for sharing this Carel. One of the most profound standments regarding CIOs I heard in the last year were by Léo Apotheker, co-CEO of SAP, at last year’s Saphila conference. He said something like “The main focus of CIOs in future will not be technology, but optimising business processes”. Putting the focus back on the “I” in CIO!  

So, there you have it!

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What is SAP Business ByDesign?

Posted by on May 6, 2008 in Saas, SAP, Technology | 0 comments

SAP has its own TV channel and you can find numerous interesting videos on the SAP-TV website. I found this video describing SAP Business ByDesign. SAP released this video before the recent announcement that they are delaying the launch of Business ByDesign.   Also see SAP’s SAPPHIRE 2008 announcement that it will bring SaaS to large companies.

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Free How-to guides for implementing SAP HCM

Posted by on Feb 29, 2008 in HCM, SAP | 3 comments

Nov 2010 update: If you a consultant or consulting manager then check out my iPhone app to calculate consulting rates.Today I stumbled upon Sylvia Chaudoir‘s SAP HCM Expertise website. Sylvia is an ex-SAP HCM Consulting manager and she’s always been very willing to assist others. She’s presenting at the HR2008 conference in Orlando and you can meet her at “Meet the experts”. You can click on the Publications link to get a number of very useful guides to implement and maintain the SAP HCM system.Here are some other resources that you may find useful. Most of these resources are free:

  1. SearchSAP.com (free): This site has a wealth of information including many articles on the SAP HR/HCM module.
  2. SAP’s SDN portal (free): Loads of useful implementation information and forums.
  3. SAP Help Portal (free): This is SAP’s official help documentation portal. Here is the link to the SAP Best Practices for HCM (US version).
  4. SAP Business Maps (free): SAP Business process/solution maps are very useful as high-level overviews of the SAP solution. You will find the SAP ERP map here and a 2004 HCM map here.
  5. AdManus (free): AdManus is a group of german SAP HCM consulting companies. The site contains a lot of tips and tricks especially their newsletters archive.
  6. SAP HR/HCM – one stop resource (free): This blog is not well maintained and contains numerous ads and bad CSS formating. Not too sure if I should list this one…you decide. [Aug 28, ’08 update: Lost of good changes. Clean CSS and less intrusive ads.]
  7. MIT SAP HR-Payroll project notes (free): These notes are from 2000, however some of it may still be relevant.
  8. SAPDrill ($$): Self-study materials for SAP in general and SAP HCM.
  9. HR Expert ($$): Excellent HCM reviewed content. It is pricey, between $895 and $1,295 for an annual subscription. You can download a free sample here.
  10. SAP HR2008 ($$): This is an excellent conference to network and gain practical knowledge of the SAP HCM system.
  11. SAP PRESS books ($$): SAP PRESS publishes many books on SAP HCM. They are typically around $7+shipping.
  12. Blogs (free): I listed a few in a 2007 post.
  13. HCM Consulting companies (free :-): Some SAP HCM Consulting companies provide free information on their websites, however you’ll usually have to pay steep hourly rates for the good stuff.
  14. SAP Solution browser tool (free): Browse all the latest and greatest from SAP.

If you know of a good resource that I missed please post a comment.

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Hasso Plattner (ex-SAP CEO) Ventures launches $45mm VC fund in South Africa

Posted by on Feb 22, 2008 in Entrepreneurship, SAP, South Africa, Venture Capital | 0 comments

I’ve mentioned Hasso Plattner a number of times in my blog. He is the colorful co-founder and former CEO of SAP AG. He is also the father of SAP’s client-server 3-tiered product called R/3.This week Hasso Plattner launch HP Ventures Africa (Hasso Plattner — not to be confused with Hewlett Packard) in Cape Town, South Africa. Vendorprisey mentioned it in his blog. HPV is also active in Europe. Jeff Nolan used to work for SAP Ventures and he had blogged about his first meeting with Hasso Plattner.I quote from this week’s BusinessWeek article:

Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa will be targeted mainly at companies in telecom, mobile applications, media, software, renewable energy, and energy-saving technologies.

and from the SAgoodnews.co.za website:

A new R350 million venture capital fund has been launched to give innovators in South Africa a leg up into the global technology arena.The Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa, named after the co-founder of software giant SAP, aims to invest in and manage a portfolio of investments that have a unique innovative offering either based on the business model, product offering or underlying technology.Focusing predominantly on activities in South Africa and later in other emerging African markets, the technology investments will concentrate on telecommunications, mobile applications, media and software as well as clean technology investments such as renewable energy, energy-saving concepts and similar business segments in early stages of their development.Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa aims to identify companies that have the potential to succeed on an international level and will provide access to an international network of leading companies, venture capital firms and institutions in the technology arena, according to Andrea Böhmert, who is going to head the fund.”In the past SA technology companies have found it almost impossible to get funding from international groups outside of South Africa,” said Böhmert.“All start up businesses know, that it is extremely important not only to get investment funding but also assistance in accessing global markets. This is where our fund can score. Prof. Plattner and co-funders MAN Ferrostaal will be able to `open doors´ for start ups that would never be accessible otherwise across the IT industry as well as in the industrial solutions sector.”

C|Net talks about the fund’s Green focus.And finally you can click here, to submit a proposal to the Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa Fund. Good luck!

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SAP HCM Consulting companies

Posted by on Jan 17, 2008 in HCM, SAP | 8 comments

I’ve had numerous requests from business partners for a comprehensive list of SAP HCM consulting companies in the USA. My aim in this post is to give you a comprehensive list — let me know if I missed one.Pure-play SAP HCM companies:

  • EPI-USE: EPI-USE America, based in Atlanta, GA, is my former employer and one of the best SAP HCM consulting companies in the world (ok, my bias). Magnisol represents EPI-USE in Europe. EPI-USE has offices in South Africa (the parent company), Mexico, the UK, and Australia. EPI-USE has some world class complimentary SAP HCM products.
  • Symphony Consulting: Symphony is based in Charlotte, NC and partners with Ariston Consulting to implement full SAP ERP projects. They recently became an SAP Public Services partner.
  • AspireHR: Formerly ERP Solutions is based in Dallas, TX. They provide SAP HCM services and they’ve developed a number of interesting products. I assume AspireHR of the UK is not a related entity. They seem to have a strong relationship with SAP’s development group in Palo Alto.
  • Exaserv: A number of former Arinso employees started Exaserv a couple of years ago. They are based in Atlanta, GA with offices in Luwembourg, Dallas, and Walldorf Germany. They have unique products for HIPPA and Pension plans.
  • Insight Consulting: Insight is based Cincinnati, OH and Insight’s managing partner is on the HR Expert advisory board.
  • Emeritis: Emeritis has operations in the US, Belguim, Thailand, and Brazil. They claim over 200 SAP HR implementations. I don’t think that they have a strong presence in the US anymore.
  • Arinso: Arinso is one of the first and the largest SAP HCM consulting company in the world. Last year Arinso was acquired by UK-based Northgate. Arinso US is based in Atlanta, GA and has 25 offices around the world. In 2006 Arinso acquired OpenHR.
  • Worklogix: Worklogix is a niche SAP HCM consultancy. They are based in Texas, New York and Canada. Their strength is SAP Performance Management. They wrote the book!

Some full service SAP ERP consulting companies have a significant SAP HCM practice. These include:

And then the big boys:

Did I miss one or more? — let me know…Update July 1, 2008: Yes, I did… ROC.Update August 25, 2008: Axon will soon be part of HCL.Update May 1, 2009: ROC Acquires Towers Perrin SAP HCM Practice in North America.

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Just-in-time (JIT) training for entrepreneurs

Posted by on Oct 24, 2007 in Apple, Business, Entrepreneurship, SAP, Technology | 0 comments

I think that the exponential increase of on-demand video (youtube.com, Yahoo! video) will allow entrepreneurs to learn on-the-fly from some incredible sources. The problem with Youtube is that it takes time to find quality videos, like this Sellingpower interview of SAP Americas CEO, Bill McDermont.The Stanford’s Educations Corner is an entrepreneur’s best friend. It contains wisdom, knowledge, tried-and-tested experience from very well-known and experienced business people like John Doerr (Kerner Perkins), Carly Fiorina (former HP CEO), and Guy Kawasaki (Garage Ventures). This month’s Futurist click-of-the-month is SciVee.tv. This is a great example of a site aggregating some quality videos.

We expect to disseminate science to the widest possible audience, thereby bringing the YouTube generation–who are the next generation of leading scientists–the best science using a medium they have adopted and use on a daily basis,” says University of California, San Diego, pharmacy professor Phillip E. Bourne, one of the directors of the SciVee project.

Apple’s iTunes now contains a section called uTunes. uTunes contains audio lectures from prominent universities like MIT, Stanford, Duke and Berkley.Another interesting site is slideshare.net. On this site you’ll find lots of very well articulated business presentations. Again, you’ll have to search a little to get gems like this one:View on SlideShareWhich sites do you use for your JIT training?

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