IT Management : 2012 : July

PHENOMENAL! One word we would use in the UK to describe the impact of mobile devices exploding within SAP and what we can do with them.

So in early 2010, SAP started with 22,000 BB worldwide and by Q2 we were into supporting iPhones and iPads. The backend then grew to include mobile application platform, and demand for devices grew within SAP. The next challenge was security and support of these devices. This is where mobile champions were born, selected and trained, with Wiki and communities to increase the development of skills set and knowledge rapidly to get ahead of the game! So in 2 years were are up 30,000 I-devices and 1,500 Android devices.

Second level support in the UK was changing rapidly due to the increase of smartphones, tablets etc. So when Nico Costemalle approached us to design and open a Mobile Solution Centre, we spent months planning, designing and creating the mobile centre of excellence for the UK colleagues. The aims were to provide a complete end to end service for the business including provider contract management to receiving/allocating devices, supporting the devices and Apps, and also running mobile demo workshops for the ‘SAP runs SAP’ Afaria enrolment and systems surrounding it.

We analysed the current local business trends and mobility demands with Presales, Sales and Marketing about what their expectations would be from the mobile centre in their location. Taking this into consideration, alongside the requirements to assist with the SAP goal to be the ‘mobile leader’ in business, we needed to make it a success and would have to consistently change in line with developments in the mobile world. SAP UK were to be the 1^st ever SAP Mobile centre to open its doors to SAP colleagues, and run by SAP internal staff using Mobile Champions to support our colleagues. The pressure and expectation was high.

We achieved opening our mobile centre with the smallest budget in comparison with the all the new ones that have opened since. Being the first, we had a limited budget but worked with our provider, Vodafone, to supply display stands and’ try before you buy’ devices, to assist with procurement and demo questions. This was the first for SAP, and Vodafone donated £40,000 worth of display stands and agreed to provide test devices for mobile centre staff, display stands and to change them in accordance with device changes within the mobility area of the business.

SAP UK Mobility team jumped at the chance to get on board with us as they saw the benefits of both teams working closely together, transferring knowledge from them to us about the Top Apps everyone should be using and us enrolling and pushing the APPS out onto devices. The plan then was to do workshops together to increase the knowledge of SAP UK colleagues to be selling Apps, advising and support all smart devices within SAP and to customers.

We opened in January 2012, the demand for our service was like bees to a honey pot! As soon as we opened the doors, we could not perceive the up take on the services we were offering and much praise for the local business. Increasing weekly, were the walk in’s,’ try before you buy’ and assistance for the enrolment. The more devices that came into the UK meant the more visitors we have had and revisits. Comments from those who have used our services:

‘How it was great that internal people know and understand the business would be supporting them’;

‘It is great to be able to walk in and get a consultation, advice and support without logging a ticket!’

Although the customer feels that they have walked in and had their problem solved without logging a ticket, the Mobile Solution Center has captured the data. We scan bar codes into a database and record the reason they have come to the centre and support given. We can analyse the types of reasons for coming to see us and add this to our CSS tickets for a full analysis. We are working towards converting this scanned analysis into to CSS ticket form, as our next steps.

We have been asked to attend many events, workshops and TIPS sessions. We did a Mobility day with Presales and Sales people in the UK and 65 out of 80 attendees, which is the biggest uptake they have had for all session run previously. The feedback was when the next one is and they found it very valuable sessions and this is what they have wanted for a long time.

We have changed our mobile centre a couple times, as being the first we set the standard and now with more coming on board we are working towards a Mobile Solution Center (MSC) harmonisation. Therefore, the experience is the same whichever country you go to that has a MSC. We were originally called an IT mobile centre, and now we are a Mobile Solution Center (MSC). We have changed the centre around as working with it and the new developments, we found it works a lot better now and gives us more scope to improve in the future.

We are also working with Facilities, Presales and Marketing to develop a mobility area on the ground floor, where we could incorporate more support for internal and external customers. It is looking promising and the support in the local business is great for this development within the UK. Our next plan which is under way is also to work now with Samsung UK to provide display stands and devices like the agreement we have with Vodafone. We will aim to do this with any other providers SAP will work with when it comes to mobility.

We were also honoured that Oliver Bussmann could spare some time to come up and view our MSC on July 5^th, some seven months after our opening. We showed him quickly around and he seemed very impressed with the MSC in the UK. It is a boost to all that he could come and offer his opinions as he is the leader in SAP when it comes to Mobility!!!!

In summary, we have evolved from a self-service attitude, with Wiki and communities, to a personal touch demand for proactive and direct involvement with the MSC. It is far from the end when it comes to mobility, customers demands and new inventions and Apps out there!! Bring it on!!!!!!!

Come and visit our Mobility team below and follow the change by pictures story below:

Mobiltiy Team in the UK:

Opening day:

Changed to this in June 2012:

Changed to this in July 2012:

Can a flooded server room somehow create value?

Hardly something you think about with your feet in the water when you have to get all systems back online as well as handle all administrative and logistic tasks.

Allow me tell you the story of one such occurrence…

In July 2011, Copenhagen experienced unrelenting rainfalls which created chaos in the city. Streets and sewers were flooded.

The SAP Office being situated next to the ocean, it got badly hit by the record downpour. At first, the server room located in the basement was not even accessible. You could not possibly imagine the devastating situation we discovered after all the water was pumped out from basement. The raised floor tiles were floating around the racks, cooling stations, UPS, and PBX. The water had reached above the elevated floors and to lower levels of the racks.

Of course, we had expected the worst.

During this time, we had begun implementing our contingency plan. We initially focused on the most critical systems, getting them up and running, and checking for loss or corruption of data. Within a few hours, the file servers were diverted to our centralized hub with no data loss.

I have been reflecting on those first critical hours, and the more I think about it, the more I realize how powerful it is to be part of a global organization. The response time from all needed stakeholders was unbelievably quick and efficient. A true depiction of the quintessential team effort throughout an organization, everyone overcame boundaries and went above and beyond to provide help.

After having ensured business continuity, we then concentrated on what needed to be done in the server room. Cleaning, replacing damaged equipment, and getting the server room back to normal took days. What we didn’t replace was the PBX. We simply cleaned it and unfortunately, after a few weeks, the rust started to eat away at the system cards.

At the time, SAP was on the verge of launching the new global Unified Communication solution Lync. Considering the PBX situation in Copenhagen, management decided to turn the Denmark SAP office into the first location with Lync voice capabilities for all current Telco scenarios.

Preparation for the rollout was very thorough. Feedback from all employees was gathered and from top managers to receptionists, from training rooms to meeting rooms, all technical requirements (such as headset types for example) and functional needs (i.e. group calling) got carefully analyzed. The following items represent changes which were made following the feedback consultations:

Local number attached to Lync client for each colleague.
Meeting rooms with new VoIP solution
Reception with a brand new solution to dispatch calls
New support processes and structure
Re-designed onboard processes to handle future requests

During preparation time, we took great care in informing all employees on what the changes would entail and what could be expected. We worked closely with the business to ensure a smooth cutover from traditional telephony to a complete UC solution:

Information sharing via mail
Posters around the office
Information via the internal LCD screens around the office
Information and guides in all meeting rooms
Information sheets and guides on all desks

The project team that helped us locally worked out solutions for all topics on our requirement list; some were easy, some needed extra attention.

We switched over to Lync over a weekend. In essence, we took the incoming lines from the PBX and plugged them into the Lync gateway. Once all configurations and testing completed, we were ready for the employees to start using Lync.

On Monday morning, our primary focus was the reception where a brand new solution from Lync had been designed for switchboard environments. There was some fine tuning to do but, overall, the transition went smoothly.

We had very few support cases related to our new Telephony solution on the first day; most of the cases were related to how-to´s. This was not only an agreeable surprise but a huge confirmation that our carefully thought-out preparation had paid out.

Neither bad feedback nor negative comments! A few weeks went by and an increasing number of employees began to understand the true value of the transition. From the business standpoint, the following descriptions have been collected during discussions:

Flexibility
Mobility
Simplicity
Cost-effectiveness

While the question at the heart of this article, namely “can a flooded server room somehow create value?” may have seemed initially a bit far-fetched in the reader’s mind, the Copenhagen case clearly illustrates you can take a devastating situation and turn it around to your advantage by seizing an opportunity. The “turning it around” part took an enormous amount of work and effort from all involved, but it the end, it resulted in a big pay-off and the satisfaction which stems from a well-managed and well-prepared implementation of a new technology.

Thanks

/ Staffan

IT Management

Creation & Realisation MSC UK

Can a flooded server room somehow create value?

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