This initiation was taken by Dr.Peter Zencke in January 1996. Dr. Peter Zencke, a mathematician and economist, joined SAP in 1984. As a member of the Executive Board of SAP AG since 1993, he has led major development areas for SAP R/3 and SAP industry solutions.

The new solution was developed in conjunction with such industry leaders as Reebok International Ltd and VF Corp and today this solution is being used by more than 60+ SAP AFS Customers worldwide.

There you go, thanks to initiatives taken by people like Dr.Peter Zencke that SAP Continues to dominate in the world of ERPs and consistently spring out solutions for emerging industries.

S.Suren

ssurenlk@msn.com

By S.Suren

It is a known fact that SAP caters to different industry verticals by providing industry specific solutions. In this post I would like to give you an insight into how these industry specific solutions are developed for the different product offerings SAP have.

For instance when it comes to SAP Business One solution, when there is a need to cater to the requirements of a particular industry vertical, the separate add on for this vertical needs to be purchased by the customer. This add on is often a separate development of one of SAP’s Development Partner who have been doing SAP Consulting for the industry clients. This add on developed by the partner is later sent for approval to SAP AG where the solution is tried and tested before being available as a genuine SAP Add on for the particular industry vertical.

For SAP All in One solutions, that is for the higher end of the medium sized companies, the requirements (best in class practices) of the particular vertical is also preconfigured into the solution. This preconfiguration is submitted to SAP AG by the relevant development and/or channel partner and a certificate is obtained from SAP AG, certifying that this preconfigured solution is accepted to cater to the best in class practices of the proposed industry vertical.

As for R/3, the industry solutions are seamlessly integrated with the standard SAP components. This is then configured based on the requirements of the particular client. Therefore the client when purchasing SAP will be buying the relevant SAP Industry Solution suite.

Hope this post provided you with an insight into how SAP IS works.

Send in your comments and suggestions at ssurenlk@msn.com.

Have a nice day!!

S.Suren

My predictions for 2008 are based on the background that companies are looking ahead (and behind them!) in order to ensure they are positioned in an ever competitive and changing market place with still an uncertainty on how some future scenarios may pan out. The Triple Crown of increased profit, improved efficiency and added value remains the goal for a lot of companies.
On that basis I believe that Business Intelligence software will continue to grow in importance as companies try to understand their business in more depth, BPM (business Process Management) software will figure in order to drive efficiency. There is also likely to be more moves towards the less paper office both for efficiency, security and the new mantra of being ‘green’ so we will see increased integrated scanning solutions. Within IT departments, server virtualisation will continue apace with new players such as Microsoft challenging the VMware dominance. Collaboration software such as Microsoft’s Groove will start to be considered as a way to add value with clients and improved mobility for people will be introduced with more services available via handheld or remote devices (Blackberry will still dominate over Microsoft), IP telephony and WiFi. Improved web sites using Web 2.0 will start to emerge as differentiators in the market place.
Customers will increase their demands for efficiency pushing e-billing and electronic communication up the priority list. E-billing will present a major challenge with increased costs due to lack of standardisation at the delivery point.
Sharepoint will still be high on the agenda but the reality will kick in as to what can actually be achieved. Vista will be reviewed but risk adverse sectors will put it back to 2009 except for the brave few! Office 2007 will follow a similar route. Concerns such as DRM (Digital Rights Management) and how that will impact records management and elctronic document sharing will start to be debated.

Attending a recent course on complex projects we discussed the characteristics of a successful leader and came up with an A-Z list (Had to think hard on X and Z!). On returning home I thought I would try to recreate it just for a bit of fun. Some of the key things for me are taking Responsibility, being a Mentor to your team, Honesty (telling it how it is and doing it early (Don’t hide from problems no matter how difficult)), Supportive to the team and individuals and Encouraging (tell them when it’s good).
Here is the list. Am sure you can add a few more!

A – Assertive, Approachable, Accountable
B – Balanced, Brave
C – Creative, Coherent, Curious
D – Decisive, Delegating
E – Enthusiastic, Empowering, Encouraging
F – Focussed, Flexible
G – Goal-Orientated, Governing
H – Honest, Helpful, Happy
I – Intuitive, Intelligent
J – Just
K – Knowledgeable
L – Listener, Lawful
M – Motivational, Mindful, Mentor
N – Nurturing, Noble
O – Objective, Open, Opportunist
P – Perceptive, Progressive, Personable
Q – Questioning
R – Reliable, rational
S – Self motivating, Strategist
T – Trustworthy, Thinker
U – Understanding
V – Versatile, Venerable
W – Willing, Wise
X – Xenophilous
Y – Yearning
Z – Zealous