SAP Mentors will crush it for SAP

…and other examples of how the recession is a time of massive opportunity.

I’ve just come off watching a keynote by Garry Vaynerchuk talking about how differentiated content (whether that’s media, products or services) wins in the recession and onwards. It’s a riveting (but NSFW) 13 minutes. I’ve seen Gary talk live and the energy he exudes sucks you into his world. He’s not a motivational speaker, he’s not some business ‘guru’ or ‘expert’ but he’s a master at monetizing. As I listened to what he had to say I had one of my ah-ha moments.

I’ve mentioned on many occasions that (for my sins) I’m an SAP Mentor. Something I’ve learned along the way with these guys and gals is that they are super bright and capable of moving needles. I’m also convinced that in the right environment, they can and will bring valuable change to the businesses they represent or in their own businesses. I know some better than others and understand why they shine. It’s because they have genuine passion for what they do. I’ll give some examples:

Thomas Jung is an SAP insider who some believe is the King of ABAP. (ABAP is SAP’s proprietary programming language). Thomas developed a good looking user interface for ESME on a cross country flight to Las Vegas. The UI hooks straight into the SAP Netweaver system. If you know anything about building UIs and especially for SAP, you’ll also know that SAP has a reputation for ‘ugly’ and ‘difficult.’ Thomas’s effort knocks that notion firmly on the head.

Eddie Herrmann works for Colgate-Palmolive and is one of the guys who invented the award winning SAPLink (Thomas was part of that as well), an open source technical tool that has proven incredibly popular among SAP developers. Eddie also hosts Enterprise Geeks. He has a natural talent for acting as a show host and comes up with great graphics to illustrate his shows. Even if the thought of listening to a geek is repellent, Eddie makes it enjoyable. I don’t understand all they talk about but I just love that show.

Anne Petteroe is an SAP consultant based in Norway. Anne is the person who organized, nurtured and grew the Facebook group opposed to amended terms of service. She provided me with perspective on why Facebook’s thinking about working out its user rights and responsibilities won’t work. If Anne doesn’t like something, she tells you.

Blag is a senior ABAP developer/consultant based in Peru. He’s also a gifted cartoonist. Not in the drawing sense but in the figuring out a story sense. He understands what it means to be a stand alone freelancer in an outpost that few people care about.

Jim Spath is a technical architect with Black and Decker. He walked the room at a business process expert session where I was a panellist passing the mic. He’s a scout leader and passionate about sustainability. He car pools every day (where possible) and has kept records of his electricity consumption going back years in a bid to try drive down his consumption. He’s a volunteer in the American SAP User Group. Jim is not afraid of giving his unvarnished opinion and has been very helpful to me on a number of occasions.

I could go on (and it would be a long list to include Marilyn, Nigel, Dick, Abesh, Rich…) but this should give you a flavour of what I mean. These are all people who not only know their stuff but they care deeply about the things in which they’re involved. In one sense it doesn’t matter that they are connected to SAP because I could say the same thing about Maryland Association of CPAs and the crowd that’s hanging out at #mdsocial. Go check out the individuals.

So why do I think this group of Mentors could crush it for SAP? By that I mean that this group could help SAP do extraordinary things. The other evening we participated in a discussion with SAP about the company’s evolving education programme. That’s a big deal because education lies at the heart of what delivers quality. Professionals know that only too well. A solid education provides the foundation for your career and many other things besides. It’s been said that qualifying as a CA is a passport to many top level positions. Having a solid understanding of SAP is a passport to an in-demand, well paid career. The mentors have strong and well informed views. They live in the trenches and know what’s what. They’re prepared to help. They could genuinely amp the game and so provide an essential first step in sorting out SAP’s uncontrolled ecosystem. Now is the best time to do that. Especially as we see Deloitte hitting an alleged 70% fall off rate in work.

The market for what SAP offers has changed. The downturn is hitting them just as hard as it is anyone else. The company needs to do a lot more than simply adopt the default position of freezing hires, freezing salary increments, slashing expenses. That is not a differentiated play. That’s business as usual. Their customers need a lower cost of implementation. It’s far too high as is the incidence of failure. A well educated cadre of implementers could go some way towards the goal of delighting customers. Speaking of which, Ronald Voets, a product manager with Exact Software says as I write this:

…go from a transactional relationship to an emotional relationship with your customers.

That says it all. The Mentors have an emotional relationship with SAP. And that, like all love affairs, can go one of two ways. The crazy part is that it would be simple for SAP to harness all that passion. They’ve kind of got that through the Mentor activities inside the SAP Communities. But that’s a fraction of what is possible. The big question: does SAP have an emotional relationship with its Mentors? We’ll see. What I do know is that the market to believe in something is infinite.

If you’re a professional and you’re reading this then what does this say to you? Anything?

Gary Vaynerchuk at FOWA Miami 09 from DamianVoltes.com on Vimeo.

Tagged as: ERP, NetWeaver, SAP, SAP Mentor