The Edson Consulting Blog

Chris Gets Interviewed at SAPPHIRE 2011

Chris Edson got interviewed at SAPPHIRE not-so long ago, take a look at the video and what he had to say:

Sapphire Can Change Your Life in 2011

Chris Edson from Edson Consulting Compares Sapphire in Madrid 2011 to Sapphire 1998

Following Rod Clarke’s blog; ‘Sapphire can change your life’, Chris Edson compares last week’s Sapphire, Madrid with its 1998 counterpart.

Many things have changed since ’98.  Not only have we entered a new millennium but we’ve witnessed the power of technology first-hand as we watched the events of 9/11 unfold before our eyes.  Social Media has arrived; Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter; which have revolutionised the way we communicate.  The world has 1 billion more inhabitants and last month saw the birth of the seven billionth person.  Back in Madrid, the fact that the pesetas in our pockets had been replaced by euros was not the only change…

I asked people at Sapphire what changes they’d noticed and the response was ‘almost everything’s changed’! On the surface, the conference seems to have transformed from large theatre presentations to lots of smaller ‘Microforums’ – meetings of around 15 people at conference tables. Other sessions were held in closed meeting rooms allowing customers to discuss specific topics openly. The Meet our Customers sessions were also very popular and the key note speeches are no longer held in auditoriums but delivered on the conference floor and shown in each hall on large screens.

The benefits of these changes are evident from the buzz that surrounds a contemporary day at Sapphire. The smaller sessions allow people to attend only those sessions of real interest to them. This means they can cover more detail and reach a better level of understanding of the specific topics that concern them. An example of this is where we discussed our recent success in delivering a CRM Loyalty project in one of the closed customer only sessions. We would not have been able to do this in the previous open format due to the competitive nature of the project but this session was by invitation only with the attendees screened beforehand.

Some attendee benefits have also changed.  No sign of the free conference back pack, T shirts or other goodies that used to be given to delegates.  Limo services that were freely available years ago now seem to be a thing of the past and my mode of transport in Madrid was white taxi or SAP bus. I also noticed that unlike the arrivals hall at previous events, SAP branding at the Airport was noticeable by its absence.

On the technology front, the Keynote speeches focused on Cloud Computing, In Memory Processing (HANA), Mobile and return to the CORE solution and whereas we used to discuss WAP, now we talk about mobile on many platforms all on smart phones (Iphone, Android, Tablets, windows phones, etc.)

Discussions at Madrid ’98 focused on massively parallel processing.   The hot topic at this year’s Sapphire was in memory computing or HANA. I spoke to several people who felt HANA (High-performance Analytics Appliance) was a game changing technology including a member of our team who is now convinced that we’ll be able to do complex analysis in real time within the business process.

In 1998, discussions revolved around the move from R/2 to R/3 (still a solution in one system). Since then we’ve experienced ECC and the separate modules of SRM, CRM, APO, BW… The keynote on Wednesday discussed the return to a CORE solution so; all in all, it seems we’ve gone full circle.

On a separate note, COPA is back in favour, powered by HANA in memory process technology, which is good as finance users always liked COPA. (Full circle again!)

Business Objects and Sybase have arrived in the SAP family and many more offshore companies are present.

Cloud computing has arrived and several solutions now appear on the cloud including Business ByDesign.  We used to talk about corporate network security; now we discuss cloud computing, security and the location of the data.

Finally we visited the Prado to retrace Rod’s steps from 1998. It felt like the one thing that’s remained unchanged in all this time and still exhibits inspiring artwork from Rembrandt, Monet, Rubens, Picasso and Matisse to name a few.

Chris Edson is Managing Director of Edson Consulting and leads the delivery of groundbreaking SAP projects.

 Rod Clarke is an executive coach who helps Businesses Succeed with IT

Edson Consulting delivers SAP projects and programmes, both across the UK and internationally. We focus on Project and Programme Management to ensure success. We also provide functional and technical services to realise these initiatives.

We’re different to our competitors in that we have a dedicated project delivery focus. This is reflected in our pricing, delivery methods and most importantly our delivery ethos.

We manage some of the most complex and challenging projects for some of the UK’s most successful companies.

If you would like to discuss your approach to SAP Projects or learn more about the transformation that Rod inspired in 1998 please contact us at info@edsonconsulting.com or visit us at www.edsonconsulting.com

Sapphire can change your life?

Rod Clarke from Edson Consulting recalls Sapphire in Madrid 1998

As we walked out of the third session we’d attended that first morning of Sapphire in Madrid 1998, I turned to my colleague and asked her the question, “So, remind me again why we aren’t doing this?”

I‘d recently been appointed as CIO for Manufacturing & Supply for a global manufacturing organisation. We had 40+ sites around the world, each of which seemed to operate a unique blend of home grown and packaged ERP solutions to plan and control operations and meet the expectations of our regulators. There was certainly no strategy or standardisation to enable us to achieve process consistency or demonstrate a single control model to the regulators. Oh, and all the sites were increasingly concerned about the “Y2000” effect – and looking for ways to ensure continuous operation after the end of 1999.

Within days of my appointment came the bombshell that our regulator was demanding significant changes to the systems being used in our largest sites.

Attending Sapphire in Madrid was possibly an avoidance tactic on my part – a chance to step back from the chaos that was descending and try to think through how we might plan our way forward. It made sense to take my newly appointed Head of IT Strategy. Perhaps we would find some inspiration at Sapphire?

Listening to case studies from organisations of a similar size gave me hope that implementing on the scale that we needed had been done before. The increasing credibility of fast track implementation methodologies started to make me believe that achieving the incredibly short timescales to meet the Y2000 and regulatory requirements wasn’t quite as impossible as I’d initially thought.

More conference sessions seemed, if anything, to confuse the picture building in my mind. So, mid-morning on day two, I suggested that we go into Madrid to the Prado. Despite having shown no previous interest in museums and galleries, my colleague was over-enthusiastic in her agreement. We took a taxi and were soon wandering around the cool rooms of one of the world’s finest art galleries. After a general tour of the highlights, I led the way to the section where I could look at another masterpiece by one of my favourite artists – Hieronymus Bosch. The peace and calm of the galleries enabled us to think through what we should do.

Over the next few weeks, we agreed a strategy to implement SAP as a single standard process and system model across all our manufacturing sites. We identified a truly inspirational programme director, gained buy in from the Manufacturing Executive team and signed an agreement with SAP. Well before the Y2000 clock ticked over, we’d implemented a single solution across eight manufacturing sites, exceeding the expectations of our regulators on the way.

It was a few weeks later when I was chatting with my colleague that I discovered her real enthusiasm for the visit to Prado.  A mishearing on her part meant that she thought I’d suggested a shopping trip to Prada!

Rod Clarke is an executive coach who helps Businesses Succeed with IT

Edson Consulting delivers SAP projects and programmes, both across the UK and internationally. We focus on Project and Programme Management to ensure success. We also provide functional and technical services to realise these initiatives.

We’re different to our competitors in that we have a dedicated project delivery focus. This is reflected in our pricing, delivery methods and most importantly our delivery ethos.

We manage some of the most complex and challenging projects for some of the UK’s most successful companies.

If you would like to discuss your approach to SAP Projects or learn more about the transformation that Rod inspired please contact us at info@edsonconsulting.com or visit us at www.edsonconsulting.com

Meet Edson Consulting at Sapphire Madrid 9 & 10th November

Edson Consulting will be at Sapphire Madrid on 9^th & 10^th November. We will be available to discuss managing your SAP Projects and how to reduce costs on your existing SAP projects.

Chris Edson will be speaking at the CRM Loyalty Micro Forum on Wednesday and Thursday and will be available for one-to-one sessions afterwards.

You can hear Chris describe a recent implementation of SAP CRM Loyalty to over 2000 locations in the UK and understand the approach and potential benefits available from Loyalty Management in SAP and the importance of customer loyalty in the current climate.

To reserve a one-to-one session with Chris please contact him at chris.edson@edsonconsulting.com

Job Vacancy: SAP Technical Project Manager

Rate: Depending on experience

Start Date: ASAP

Job Type: Contract/Permanent

Visa Required: Applicants must be eligible to work in the specified location

Edson Consulting, are independent specialists IT project delivery. Focused on Project and Programme Management, we deliver IT projects across a wide range of technologies including SAP based initiatives. We provide Independent Advice, Project Management, Design and Integration solutions to enable excellent delivery of our clients’ projects. We focus on providing certainty of outcome for our clients and their projects.

Edson Consulting has a strong reputation of delivering SAP based project and programme management solutions and we now need to recruit additional Technical Project Managers with SAP content knowledge to join our team.

We are recruiting a technically focused Project Manager with experience of delivering SAP based projects in a technical delivery capacity within large organisations

Successful candidates must demonstrate project management delivery experience with a sound understanding of technical architecture and technical delivery issues.

Ideally the candidate will demonstrate:

Experience of delivering SAP solutions and projects within large organisations, either client side or within a consulting environment. Expertise in delivering technical projects in a complex multi supplier or outsourced service operations environment. Experience of delivering least 3 of the following areas is desirable, SAP Technical Architecture, SAP Netweaver Integration – Middleware – PI, Service Orientated Architecture Infrastructure – networks, managing SAP Environments, procurement and commissioning of infrastructure.

Edson Consulting is an equal opportunities employer..

Location: Nottingham & Northern England