Most Enterprise Architects (EA’s) in organizations that run SAP should be aware of SAP HANA by now, but can they extend that conversation to now include S4/HANA? - In terms that CIO’s can understand?
As EA’s, we need to have a clear and concise view of what SAP HANA is, and how it can impact our organizations as we plan and develop our own SAP roadmaps for the future. To this end, on July 20th ASUG and SAP kicked off a webinar series – “SAP HANA for Enterprise Architects”.
The overall webinar series is intended to educate EA’s on the SAP HANA technology starting from a business context and capabilities, covering topics from infrastructure design through to implementation. The SAP HANA platform demands much education by SAP, as it is breakthrough technology in its design and implementation. The webinars, presented by a stellar line up of speakers and contributors, will give EA’s the knowledge and ammunition they need to engage in CIO conversations around how they can provide greater agility and value to the business through leveraging SAP HANA.
The first webinar, delivered by Chris Turner, Strategic Engagement Executive for SAP, and former CTO of a major SAP customer, Unilever, focused on the business background to set the stage on why you would want to engage in the SAP HANA conversation. During the webinar, Turner delivered an overview of the challenges that CEO’s face that EA’s need to be aware of. He then extended his conversation to include possible answers to these challenges and how this correlates to SAP technology as an enabler that CIOs can then take advantage of for their businesses.
Turner advocates SAP’s view of the role of enabling technology and how this helps organizations: “SAP believes in the perfect enterprise, one where technology is no longer the constraint to releasing value and where, through a simplified landscape and new real time capabilities, it opens up entirely new business and customer opportunities. “
This illustrates the type of leadership vision SAP has, and proposes for its customers. This sound byte is something EA’s can use as talking points to the “Why” of HANA. CIO’s need simple messages as they communicate with IT and throughout the organization.
Aligned with SAP’s current theme on Simplicity, Turner also explained the sources of complexity and how this impacts and limits business’ going forward. To borrow a line from an old Tom Cruise movie: “The Need for Speed”, Turner illustrated some of the realities that exist in today’s fast paced world. Businesses need to be more agile and this will most likely not come from a simple upgrade to their existing systems. This calls for new thinking and processes that may require a wholesale change in process and technology.
With the background of business reasoning, Turner then set out the foundation of what SAP HANA is and how it can fill that gap to meet some of the challenges CEO’s face.
It takes projects, resources, time and money to implement new technology. Every EA needs to be aware of the advances that SAP has made to simplify the business. The technology under the SAP HANA covers is complex, that complexity is hidden from the user in the use of new user interfaces, simpler infrastructure requirements, and innovative applications that leverage this new foundation, like S4/HANA.
Feedback from a few of the Enterprise Architects that were on the webcast regarding some of their key takeaways:
- “That HANA can reduce the overall footprint of (the) data center.”
- “(The) cost reduction of HANA due to high compression of columnar DB is a good point to help facilitate business case for HANA instead of the performance gain.”
- “Enterprise Architects have to become agents of change by educating biz and causing pivotal shifts in how biz should be conducted, leading to new revenue streams.”
This opening webinar, subtitled: “The Road to the Perfect Enterprise”, served as an introduction as to the “Why” and “How” organizations can leverage SAP HANA to meet the challenges that CEO’s face and need to address to remain relevant in a competitive business landscape.
The next installment in the series, HANA Basics and Fundamentals, will dive deeper into the technical details of S4/HANA so that EA’s will have more of the talking points for their CIO’s and themselves they need to enter those conversations that are taking place and can help turn SAP’s evangelism into reality for their businesses.
As you experience the webinars, think about how this technology could enable your business in new ways and make you the “EA Rock Star” your CIO needs.
Check out the recording here:
http://event.on24.com/wcc/r/1018697/C7B081D315E1AC15743C0EDF13048277
Webcast Series Details https://www.asug.com/hana-for-ea
Need to access current and future webinars? Here is the schedule going forward:
All webcasts occur at 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. ET on the days below. Click on the links to see the abstracts and register for each individual webcast.
July 20, 2015: SAP HANA for EA’s Kickoff Webcast –The Road to the Perfect Enterprise
August 4, 2015: SAP HANA Basics and Fundamentals
August 18, 2015: Migrating to SAP HANA from AnyDB – Tools & Best Practices
September 3, 2015: Simple Applications and S/4 HANA – A Review and How to Get Started
September 8, 2015: Extending SAP and Writing Your Own Applications on SAP HANA Cloud Platform
September 15, 2015: Joining the Pieces Together – SAP HANA Cloud Integration
September 22, 2015: SAP HANA and Data Centre Readiness
September 29, 2015: Why SAP HANA, Why Now and How?
October 6, 2015: Implications of Introducing SAP HANA Into Your Environment
October 13, 2015: Internet of Things and SAP HANA for Business
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