Check out SAP User Group Conference 2012

For more news of the UK & Ireland SAP User Group Conference 2012 click here

So proud of my old team…..

I’m not there now but really proud to be associated with my former team at the Training and Development Agency for Schools. Well done to them and their partner Redweb!

Conference synopsis

The 2011 conference is now complete and it looks to have been successful. Given the economic surroundings it was encouraging to see high levels of interest recorded by many exhibitors and good attendance overall. Indeed, over 20% of the stands for 2012 in Manchester have already been sold which has never been seen before.

I hope everyone got out of it what they intended, if you attended, look out for an email over the next couple of days that will have a link to an online survey for the conference. This is important for two reason as it allows us to do things better next year, and also you get entered into a draw to win an iPad2 – so just in case keep an eye on the Spam folder as well, and if you haven’t already mark up an email from the user group in your email application as not spam to make sure.

For some overview video footage of the conference go to: http://www.youtube.com/user/UKISUG and over the coming weeks we will be putting more footage of the keynotes onto the UG youtube channel.

For photos from the conference go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/56630402@N06/

Below follows links to press articles relating to the conference

Computer Weekly – http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240111446/CIOs-must-be-in-driving-seat-or-get-bypasses-says-SAP-CIO

Computer Weekly  http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240111440/SAP-can-help-business-harness-disruptive-tech-says-MD-for-UK

Computer Weekly http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240111439/SAP-needs-clear-easy-comms-with-no-red-tape-says-UKI-SAP-User-Group

Computer Weekly – http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/read-all-about-it/2011/11/sap-acknowledges-need-to-work.html

Computer Weekly – http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240111391/SAP-user-group-calls-for-better-engagement-from-SAP

Computer Weekly – http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/read-all-about-it/2011/11/sap-uses-sybase-afaria-to-mana.html

ComputerworldUK http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/cloud-computing/3320021/cloud-increases-licensing-complexity-warns-sap-user-group/

ComputerworldUK http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/it-business/3319829/update-sap-could-benefit-from-social-networking-company-acquisition/

Techworld – http://news.techworld.com/applications/3320389/sap-hana-makes-big-data-analytics-more-accessible/

Computing – http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2126648/sap-improve-communications-licensing-flexible-user

Computing – http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2126927/sap-cio-predicts-memory-hana-replace-relational-databases

V3.co.uk – http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2126647/sap-user-urges-firm-reform-software-licensing-model

BusinessCloud9 – http://www.businesscloud9.com/content/sap-needs-tell-its-cloud-story-better-argues-user-group/6978

PublicTechnology.net – http://www.publictechnology.net/sector/central-gov/more-flexibility-horizon-sap-customers-cost-wise

Information Age – http://www.information-age.com/channels/business-applications/company-analysis/1674958/licence-complexity-a-blemish-on-saps-reinvention.thtml

eWeek Europe – http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/sap-licensing-still-too-rigid-say-users-46882

We hope to see you on 18th,19th and 20th November 2012 at Manchester Central for our next UG conference.

 

Day 1 – Sunday afternoon and evening

A good attendance today – with most people seemingly enjoying the evening networking session. Before that we had several general sessions around what’s new in SAP areas and also some focused sessions on some SAP initiatives such as Customer Connection.

The highlight for me however was the Demojam session where some interesting sessions included a pantomime, a police officer, boxes of apples and augmented reality.  The winner of this was Intellicorp who, and I still don’t really know how, turned transport management and change control, coupled with test management into a fairy tale…….perhaps it was, all I know is that the audience were transfixed by Intellicorp staff taking this to a new level. A fun event before the more serious activities that start tomorrow.

The evening  was well attended and people were spending serious time with the 85 exhibitors – minus the SAP mentors who were suffering the age-old challenge of being a volunteer, personal and business commitments ( in UG world we all know about this!).

 

Conference starts today

After 14 months of planning (yes we have already started for 2012!) today is the first day of our conference. I’m just about to set off for Birmingham, but the conference team have been there since yesterday with the crews working through the night to get it all ready to start later this afternoon.

I’m looking forward to the next three days and to meeting everyone.

For the latest updates search on Twitter for the following hashtag #ukisug11 or join in by using this hashtag to appear on the live twitter wall.

Hope to see you soon

Just 2 days to go

This Sunday sees the start of our 2011 conference and everything seems to be going to plan…….lets hope that I havent spoilt things by saying that! Personally I’m really excited about meeting some of our keynote speakers, especially Steve Cram as I vividly remember sitting around the TV watching the epic battles between the three British 1500m runners of the time. I’m equally excited about meeting Oliver Bussman who as a fellow senior IT leader has been confronted with all the same challenges that we all have in the ERP world. Meeting Timo Elliot will also be something to look forward to, after folowing Timo’s personal website and blog for a few months I can’t wait to hear first hand his views around business analytics. Ray Wang who also speaks is a firm favourite of the User Group and personally from my view is an all round great guy, if there is a piano in the bar area of the metropole ask him to play as he is a first class pianist.

So I’m looking forward to meeting these guys, but most of all meeting our members – feel free to stop me and have a chat at the conference, I’m always open to how we can strive for more for our members.

PS If you have a last minute urge to attend – try the booking site or contact the user group direct, there may be an opportunity to still arrive.

Mobile App for Conference available now

This year we have a new mobile app available for most platforms …… and it’s free. Check out who is speaking, the exhibitors, maps and layouts for the conference, create your own agenda and get instant access to the UG official news, twitter, flickr and youtube feeds.  If you are attending you will be able to link up and message attendees and exhibitors as well as benefit from broadcasts during the event.

So if you are going – get the app now and prepare. If you are not get it now and see what you are missing!

Click here to get it – FREE

 

 

Only 18 days until the conference

It is only 18 days to go until our annual conference – so you don’t have much time to book a place. Don’t delay – with hundreds of organisations present and with some organisations registering more than 20 attendees you can see it is popular.

With Steve Cram, Ray Wang, Oliver Bussman, Timo Elliot, and Steve Winter as Keynote speakers plus 8o exhibitors, multiple streams, many networking opportunities, including the welcome reception on Sunday and the Gala Dinner on Monday it really is a value for money event.

The good news is that there are still some spaces left so go to the conference website to register:

www.sapusers.org/conference2011