Getting ready for Q4 2024 SAP Mentor influencing <update>

As you can see I just received new swag from the SAP Mentor program, a hoodie that will come in handy for Q4 2024 in terms of influencing SAP. Thank you SAP!

For those unfamiliar with the SAP Mentor program:

Who are SAP Mentors?

• Top influencers in the SAP ecosystem, representing customers, partners, and consultants
• Hands-on experts of an SAP product or service, as well as contributors to community-driven projects
• Participants who possess a passion to share, educate, and influence
• Advocates with business experience and strong relevant networks
• Professionals who share feedback and market insights with SAP product teams and SAP executives

What do SAP Mentors do?

As part of this influencer program, SAP Mentors lend their support by:

• Engaging in collaborative activities in their area(s) of expertise
• Improving or influencing SAP products and services.??
• Presenting on topics from a thought-leader point-of-view.
• Providing market perspectives and (early) feedback on product strategies.
• Exchanging perspectives from customer, end-user, developer, and partner experiences.

Source: SAP Mentors - SAP Community

A word of thanks

As a SAP Mentor, I feel very grateful for this ongoing opportunity. We are enabled to do what we love to do which is providing feedback to SAP to further improve products and services. In return we also receive a lot of insight and knowledge from SAP. You can easily say a win-win situation is created. It's also great to see and hear that the efforts that are made by the SAP Mentors are being appreciated by SAP.

External feedback is really important for any company, I always appreciate honest feedback from our own partners and customers because it helps us to improve ourselves further. The same can be said for SAP.

A benefit of being a SAP Mentor that might be overlooked on first sight is that we get to spent time with this amazing group of highly talented persons. The online meetings and the in-person (my favorite option) meetings are a source of inspiration. From a personal development perspective this has been one of the best sources for continuous development for me over the years. After our meet-ups I always go back home completely inspired and fueled up.

A big thanks also to the SAP Mentor program team who take care of us.

A new world awaits

We have entered a new wave of innovation, the era of AI is upon us and we have exciting times ahead of us. I'm eager to see and experience the many AI scenarios that are being unfolded as we speak. SAP is definitely putting a lot of effort and emphasis on AI. Having played around with AI already, my expectation is that we will be amazed with what is still to come.

If you have not yet looked into AI I would suggest you start by understanding the basics and the principles behind it. Once you understand those, I would then also suggest to start playing around with the many free AI applications that are already available to further understand some of the capabilities and possibilities. Personally, I frequently make use of AI already and I find it very useful. If you now wonder did he use AI to write this article, I can assure you I didn't because I love to write myself.

In terms of SAP, you can also get started with your own AI scenarios by levering SAP S/4 HANA together with AI services on the SAP Business Technology Platform. You can get more information over here: SAP AI Core | SAP Community.

DCOM 2024 (July 2024)

Numerous SAP Mentors have recently attended SAP d<com> (an internal SAP event) to have meetings with SAP to provide feedback and continue our online discussions in person. It was a great event with many great discussions which again left me inspired and fueled up.

Upcoming events and presence

I'm always happy to discuss and network so if you spot me at any of these events, feel free to stop me and talk to me. We can discuss what the direction of SAP looks like, which SAP products you are using, what is working or is not working for you, what your plans are and more. You never know I may even be able to help you out or vice versa. There in lies the power of networking and connections.

SAP ALM summit AMEA 2024

In September there is the SAP ALM summit EMEA edition. I won't be able to attend the whole event this time around unfortunately due to conflicting agenda items. I do plan to be there on the first two days (although partially on the second day). It's definitely an event I would recommend to attend. SAP Cloud ALM plays a significant role in the implementation and operations of RISE and more and more functionality is being delivered.

You can check out the event here: SAP | SAP ALM Summit EMEA 2024

SAP TechED and accompanying events 2024

The next major upcoming event for me will be SAP TechED so I would say stay tuned for what is to come because the future of SAP looks bright. You can already sign up for the SAP TechED virtual events online here: SAP TechEd in 2024 | SAP Events.

SAP NOW Brussels

In collaboration with SAP Belgium, I will be present as SAP Mentor at SAP NOW Brussels SAP | SAP NOW 2024

I invite attendees and SAP Partners to talk to me. It's SAP flagship event in Belgium where customers and partners will be dipped into the latest news on SAP in terms of innovation and strategy.

SAPInsider Copenhagen

Check out the accompanying events also I would say because those will enable you to do in-person networking which I always find very valuable. I'm planning to go to the SAPInsider event in Copenhagen for which fellow SAP Mentor Wouter Lemaire and me will be proposing a session on the topic of SAP BTP administration & governance.

A broader overview of SAP events can be found here: SAP Events.