You might be thinking, hasn't Gretchen already worked on an SAP GRC 10.0 project? Is she really spending time during TechEd attending presentations on it? Yes, I have, and yes, I am, for good reason. SAP GRC 10.0 just went to general availability in late July, so there are not very many customers live on it yet. Every deployment is going to have its own unique situations, and I could hardly wait to hear about the use cases, challenges, and successes from the presenters and the questions raised today. The first session I attended was SCI204, Integration of SAP Applications with SAP BusinessObjects GRC 10.0, presented by Ankur Baishya of SAP. For me, there were several key takeaway messages. Ankur announced that Access Controls will have a mobile app for iPad going into ramp up soon. Interested customers should email him regarding joining the ramp up:
Ankur.baishya@sap.com
He also announced that GRC10.0 BI content is part of BI Content 7.06, which has a planned release in Q2 2012 (NOTE: planned release date was clarified by GRC solution management).
Next up was Kathleen Kochtan from NewellRubbermaid, session SCI104, SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Security. Kathleen is the Customer Chair of ASUG's Security Influence Council, and I have been looking forward to hearing her report on this deployment. Kathleen shared key learnings from their deployment, as well as some challenges they encountered along the way. For example, when doing role import, you must have at least one user assigned to the role, or it will not import.
I scooted over to the Clubhouse to meet up with some of my SAP Mentor colleagues, including Sue Keohan, Natascha Thomson, and Alvaro "Blag" Tejada, then "Blag" and I enjoyed a chat with ASUG volunteers Joyce Butler and fellow Mentor Tammy Powlas over lunch. I also enjoyed catching up with Matthias Steiner over dessert.
My next session was SCI213, Customer Experience: Migration Process from GRC 5.3 to GRC 10.0, presented by Alpesh Parmar from Levi Strauss & Co. I have always found that presentations from ramp up customers are great learning opportunities. I thought it was very valuable that Alpesh shared tips and tricks from their migration project, as well as sharing experiences and opinions, such as his view that the export of the master data worked better than the export of the transaction data.
After that session, I took part in a quick strategy discussion with the other members of the Security Influence Council leadership team, Greg Capps and Kathleen Kochtan. We are ready to give a very informative presentation on the status of requirements we have delivered to SAP. If you are curious about security enhancements that came out of this Council, or how you can get involved going forward, our session, SCI250, is a must.
Another, relatively new, tradition is the SCNotties Awards ceremony. The SCNotties are the brainchild of my ASUG volunteer and SAP Mentor colleague Jim Spath, based on the Razzies "awards" for bad movies. It is all in good fun and a great way to get to know other members of the SAP Communities. Mark Finnern, Greg Myers, Natascha Thomson and Sylvia Santelli picked up the mantle in Jim's absence. This year's awards were fun and festive, especially the multiple Elvis Presleys. Congrats to all of this year's winners!
Tonight I participated in a special treat, the Women in Technology event. Embracing Inclusion to Drive Innovation. The agenda included a panel discussion, followed by a design thinking workshop. I really enjoyed enjoyed being part of an inclusiveness event that really was inclusive rather than being top down micromanaged. A special shout out to SAP's Marilyn Pratt for all of her hard work on this exciting event!
