Thank you to our incredible 2020 speakers - Mastering SAP 3 Conferences in 1

Understanding 'Protect the Core': Modern Custom Development Techniques and SCP

The thought of a migration to S/4HANA can be intimidating and overwhelming. There is a wealth of information on the market and with no simple answer or solution. Each organisation is at a different state of S/4HANA readiness, but the question begs; how do we know if, and when we are ready? In this session we plan to demystify all the uncertainty and though one migration does not fit all organisations, there is a tremendous amount of value that is earned by each and every one. The following topics will be covered; How to assess your S/4HANA migration readiness; what tools are available to organisations; how to build a business case leveraging your readiness test; different types of migrations; Greenfield, Brownfield and Bluefield; how to determine which migration is right for you and; a demonstration of a sample project plan with actual costs. With any major technology transition organisations are not confident in their capacity in terms of expertise and resource availability to execute such a project. The risk is high, but the business must continue to operate without interruption, leveraging an organisation with keen SAP expertise is essential. This session will help to guide you in selecting the best possible approach to this exciting initiative and key recommendations in getting ready and ensuring success.

Key takeaways:

Migrations can be as little as a lift and shift or as large as a complete business transformation but all of them require some level of impact
Multiple iterations are key to reduce risk and optimise downtime
Migrations mainly affect or deal with your data. Migration of a copy of production data is essential

Implementing Large S/4HANA Retail Scope Using Activate Methodology and Retail Template In Only 13 Weeks

Large ERP implementations (not only SAP’s) share a reputation of being very complex, very long and above all, extremely costly. Complete ERP implementations often took years. The old waterfall approach relied on long and detailed blueprint phases and had the focus on mapping the software to the company.

Now, with SAP Activate Methodology and Retail Template, a package of methodology and tools exists that changes things drastically.
We will share with you some customer success stories where SAP S/4HANA Retail with CAR and POS has been deployed, with a large merchandising scope in juts 13 weeks.

Key takeaways:

SAP Activate as a fast methodology focused on time to value
Success as a combination of Business buy-in, methodology and the right product

The Business World Is Changing - Is your SAP Implementation Keeping Up?

The traditional borders between industries are blurring. Where there once were product-driven industries and service industries, we now find car companies selling mobility services and agri-nutrient companies selling fertilisers to individual farmers, changing the requirements for billing and controlling. Finance organisations are expected to deliver better quality information faster. Again, where once corridors were full of paper lists, now managers expect to find a smartphone app with a list of critical open items and key actions. Nobody is prepared to wait for the period close to see their margins or the consolidated view of their business. As business models change, Finance is expected to deliver better steering information and advise their business rather than simply checking the numbers are correct. These topics are covered in "SAP S/4HANA Finance - The Reference Guide to What's New" and this session will dive into some of the reasons why organisations have begun a transformation and what they have achieved.

Additionally, the session will explore:

How industry requirements are changing and how this is reflected in the software
How the requirements on a finance organisation are changing and how SAP S/4HANA Finance supports this
How reporting requirements are changing and organisations are looking to introduce new steering models

Implementation Approaches - Cloud or On-Premise, Greenfield or Brownfield?

Are you ready for SAP S/4HANA Cloud? Can some cloud-thinking help you standardise your business processes? If you make the move to SAP S/4HANA, what speaks for a greenfield vs a brownfield approach? How easy is a data conversion? Once the system is in place, should you adopt SAP Fiori from the start or tread slowly? This session will attempt to address these common concerns and will dive into topics such as;

1. The main differences between SAP S/4HANA Cloud multi-tenant edition, single-tenant edition and on-premise edition
2. What it means to convert an SAP ERP system to SAP S/4HANA and the situations where a greenfield approach may bring benefits and
3. New user interfaces and change management while getting users involved from the start.

How to Bring Innovation to Your SAP Operations

This session will take you through my career, showing how I have innovated at various stages. What things have worked and what hasn't worked, why they haven't worked and what I learnt from them.

Key Takeaways:

Ways to innovate
How to stay ahead and keep pushing yourself
Things to remember when innovating

How to Use Automation and Intelligence Within Your SAP Landscape

This will lead the audience through how to use automation and intelligence tools within your SAP landscape. Going from build, through to run and then intelligence - this TED Style talk will show how I have built landscapes which are scalable, dynamic. What tools I have used and how they added value to what we did.

Key Takeaways:

How to identify tools which you can use
What automation has worked for me
Where to find more information on the subject

Vivek Chhibber Director Business Development, LOB Finance SAP Middle East & North Africa LLC (UAE)

Sessions

Adopt SAP S/4HANA Finance Innovations with Central Finance

With Central Finance, you can transition to SAP S/4HANA without disruption to your current system landscape. The solution follows a side-car approach and replicates financial transactions in real-time from existing SAP and third-party systems onto a single Central Finance instance. This Master Class gives a comprehensive look into key value cases and use scenarios for Central Finance, as well as its unique ability to combine harmonisation, analysis, and reporting on one central platform, enabling many cutting-edge finance innovations along the way. Learn how, even in heterogeneous system landscapes, Central Finance can bring together its functions as value creator, transformation platform, and reporting hub to guide the finance organisation of any given enterprise into the digital future.

Join this session to learn:
- How Central Finance works and what it offers
- Why our customers chose to adopt the Central Finance approach
- Discover how Central Finance can become your stepping stone to Finance Transformation
- Which finance applications unearth synergies when combined with the Central Finance approach

Getting Outside the Bubble: How the Rest of the World Does DevOps and Patterns For Importing Those Approaches To the SAP Context

SAP solution teams are often segregated from other technology platforms in a company, but neither SAP nor the development and operations of SAP systems exists in a vacuum. There is a lot to learn from other technology areas, in terms of process, technology, and most importantly practice. Learn how distributed teams of JavaScript, R, Ruby, Python, Java, and C# developers work together efficiently to develop and run large applications. In other words, DevOps. Once we’ve covered some real-world examples, we’ll tackle harder questions. Why don’t the same approaches always work when we import them into the SAP development context? What can we do to adapt our ways of working and the approaches from the rest of the industry so that they can be effectively applied to SAP development, operations, and configuration? Fortunately, individuals and teams in the SAP space have already done a lot of the work to answer these questions. After we establish the conceptual understanding of how the rest of the world works and some of the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches, we’ll dive into patterns for applying DevOps to SAP and hybrid landscapes. Learn how to integrate practices, technology, and process from the rest of the industry into our SAP world, and how can we help to lead the technology process of our companies. In addition to strategies, we’ll cover patterns that you can adapt to your own business, and real-world examples.

Key takeaways:

What is DevOps and how it is practised outside of the SAP world, including real examples
Why applying DevOps to SAP can be challenging, and what we can do to adapt
Patterns for implementing DevOps practices that you can apply to your own business

Embracing Agile in a SAP Context: What Works, What Doesn't, and How To Keep the Spirit of Agile To Deliver Great User Experience

Adopting agile methods in SAP implementation projects can be challenging. The situation becomes especially problematic when these projects involve external consulting companies or contract resources on restricted budgets and timelines, and then project timelines and scopes are dictated top-down by business concerns. As developers, managers, and product owners, we want to embrace the spirit of agile and continuous improvement but may struggle to do so.

In this session we will discuss the spirit of agile, including its roots in both software development and the manufacturing concept of continuous improvement. We will then look at some of the challenges we have with implementing these concepts. In the spirit of the Toyota Production System, we’ll empower ourselves to look for the root cause of these challenges and synthesize solutions that give us the software production process we are looking to achieve. If you feel like your agile system isn’t as agile as it should be, or if your organisation has implemented an agile process like Scrum but is grinding under the weight of the Scrum of Scrums of Scrums meetings, this is the session for you.

Key takeaways:

Learn about the spirit of agile and continuous improvement
See specific techniques for applying this spirit in SAP and enterprise technology contexts
Learn how to synthesise approaches that work for your business within the spirit of agile

HR Digital Transformation in the Age of Experiences

The dynamics of how and why people work is changing, impacted by and in parallel with broader social, economic and technological shifts on a global scale. Skilled labour markets are more competitive than ever, and we must excel in attracting, retaining, growing and reskilling top talent to compete in this new environment. Employee expectations have changed dramatically in the last decade. They seek flexibility and autonomy. They expect consumer-grade experiences in the workplace and would also like to see menial and manual tasks disappear or automated.

How does one then set up the HR digital transformation in this experience age? What should be focus areas of such a vision? How should we set up experiences that will help engage employees and accelerate the propagation of the company’s culture thus attracting the talent that is looking for such meaningful interactions.

This masterclass will address the above in the context of how Microsoft is implementing SAP Success Factors HCM ERP and is leveraging this investment to create delightful and meaningful employee experiences for its’ workforce.

Key takeaways:

How to set up the modern HR vision that focuses on Employee Experiences
How to think about delightful experiences for employees in the modern world and compete with consumer experiences that they enjoy outside
How to execute on such a vision to achieve results swiftly

Modern HR Innovation and Digitisation: Empowering Employees That Empower The World

The dynamics of how and why people work is changing, impacted by and in parallel with broader social, economic and technological shifts on a global scale. Skilled labor markets are more competitive than ever, and we must excel in attracting, retaining, growing and reskilling top talent to compete in this new environment. Employee expectations have changed dramatically in the last decade. How does one then set up the HR digital transformation in this experience age? What should be focus areas of such a vision. How should we set up experiences that will help engage employees and accelerate the propagation of the company’s culture thus attracting the talent that are looking for such meaningful interactions.

This masterclass will address the above in the context of how Microsoft is making investments in HR foundation with SAP Success Factors Employee Central and Onboarding and leveraging the same and others to create delightful and meaningful employee experiences for its’ workforce.

Key takeaways:

How to set up the modern HR vision that focuses on Employee Experiences
How to think about delightful experiences for employees in the modern world

Create an HR Technology Vision and Roadmap Outline

The dynamics of how and why people work is changing, impacted by and in parallel with broader social, economic and technological shifts on a global scale. Employee expectations have changed dramatically in the last decade. While equitable compensation is important, employees want to feel a deep sense of belonging and connection. They would like to work for an organisation with a clear vision and a sense of purpose, one that fosters a culture that is diverse, inclusive, and respectful. They expect consumer-grade experiences at the workplace where they would also like to see menial and manual tasks disappear or automated.

Is it about process simplification, and/or process automation, creating delightful and engaging employee experiences, shrinking budgets or all of the above? These and many more real challenges haunt HR and technology leaders as they try to come up with a roadmap for the digitisation of HR and employee experiences in their companies.

This workshop will be an interactive session where we will use design thinking principles to derive the framework for the creation of HR technology vision and a roadmap. We will also share and exchange ideas on the many pillars of that vision. Each of the companies represented by their HR and/or technology leaders can gain clarity in creating these HR digital roadmaps that are both strategic and tactical and walk away with a strawman of their own vision for HR digital transformation for their company.

The Agile HR Digital Transformation Story: To the Cloud and Beyond

As a skilled and engaged workforce becomes pivotal to a company’s success, HR’s approach to attracting, rewarding and retaining people must evolve to a flexible workforce strategy, anchored on culture, to stay ahead of changing market conditions. This approach will result in top talent that will disrupt rather than be disrupted. HR leaders must embrace data and intelligent technology to enable their teams to be successful. These capabilities must exist on a global scale, amid rapidly evolving and increasingly complex regulatory, economic, and political shifts that drive continual adjustments to corporate business models. Transitioning to the cloud can seem complicated and daunting to many organizations. This session will address how one company approached this task and has been successful.

Key takeaways:

How to plan and execute on the journey to the cloud
How to start generating value out of these efforts quickly

Developing a Reporting Strategy That Maximises Value For Decision Making

A robust reporting & analytics strategy that empowers users in your enterprise to carry out speedy analysis and thus make faster and accurate decisions is imperative. In this ‘always connected’ world where you need to be constantly ahead of your competition and not to stumble or perish, you need to constantly slice and dice your data and in real time to not only understand what went wrong and what you could have done better but also plan intelligently for the future. In other words, combine the hindsight from your historical data with the insights of your analysis to provide foresights into the future. Alas, most enterprises, despite sitting on a treasure-trove of data, are hamstrung in their ability to maximise its value due to an inchoate reporting & analytics strategy. And if you have invested into BI tools (SAP or non-SAP) and are not realising the value out of them, it is time to develop a reporting strategy. In this session, I will lead you through a discussion on developing a reporting strategy that maximises value for decision-making based on my two decades of experience helping Fortune 500 companies leverage their SAP reporting & BI tools.

We will cover the key drivers, SAP reporting/BI applications, hybrid reporting/BI strategies, importance of data quality and governance, what are the key impediments your organisation faces in establishing a reporting strategy & lesson learned.

Key Takeaways:
1. Why organisations need a reporting strategy & key drivers
2. SAP’s overall reporting & analytics strategy & roadmap
3. SAP reporting & BI applications
4. Garbage In Garbage Out (aka importance of data quality & governance)
5. Key challenges/impediments your organisation faces in implementing a reporting strategy
6. Lessons learned/Best Practices discussion

Developing a Robust, Effective UX Strategy

An engaging user experience (UX) is essential for users in any organisation to want to keep coming back to use the application. It also an essential ingredient for the success of your digital transformation with SAP since quite a lot of your change management efforts will centre around UX activities. Most of my clients are facing challenges in putting together a robust UX strategy in this era of rapidly shifting user tastes, mobility, expectations and SAP's Fiori journey. In this session, I will lead, foster, and moderate a discussion on how to build a robust and effective User Experience (UX) strategy that caters to the likes and dislikes of the user community and how to continuously monitor and assess how successful organisations are in driving adoption of this strategy and the tools.

Key takeaways:

SAP (still) has a variety of user interface (UI) options
Having options is (generally) a good idea but it has caused confusion. A clear strategy will serve to dispel this confusion
UX (especially in the S/4HANA era) is front and centre and is embedded in every product we (at SAP) build
Having a robust UX strategy with adequate monitoring and measurements will accelerate its adoption

Creating the Ideal Employee Experience with an Agile Global People Platform

Preparing an organisation for the future people-centric business model is key. This means leveraging your people and their unique talent to create differentiation and advantage for your organisation and its mission. Furthermore, to become a magnet for talent means being a brand that people want to join. Preparing an organisation for the future people-centric business model is key. This means leveraging your people and their unique talent to create differentiation and advantage for your organisation and its mission. Furthermore, to become a magnet for talent means being a brand that people want to join. Creating the ideal employee experience requires delivering value to every person, every day. This means surfacing individualised and meaningful insights which propel careers and productivity forward. To be able to manage an agile workforce in these dynamic times the organisation must be able to respond to market conditions, shifting customer preferences, competitive pressures and governmental regulations by aligning their people, teams, and workforce. SAP delivers a global people platform and enables organisations to deliver solutions across the candidate experience, the employee experience and the HR experience. SAP provides a platform that can be at the centre of your HR infrastructure. SAP SuccessFactors brings you all three of these elements together, so you can deliver exceptional experiences that fundamentally improve the moments that matter.

Key Takeaways:

SAP delivers a global people platform enables organisations to deliver solutions across the candidate experience, the employee experience and the HR experience
How this platform can be at the centre of your HR infrastructure
SAP SuccessFactors can bring you all three of these elements together in order for you to deliver exceptional experiences that fundamentally improve the moments that matter

SAP Africa Localisation: Going Further Together

This session will cover a variety of topics relating to SAP localisation. The panel will cover proactive roll-in of legal requirements and changes, collaboration during the development cycle and roll-out of legal functions. The importance of collaboration in the localisation process will be deliberated and experiences on how iterative development approaches at SAP enables regular updates by the user group providing up to date transparency will be shared. Additionally, regulatory and legal changes and functions will be discussed with a focus on issues such as; usage of the community to align on legal requirements to ensure a reliable and compliant standard solution; consolidated feedback to development and; support to customers in implementing using the notes relating to new functionality and legal changes to name a few.

The Intelligent Enterprise: How HCM Fits into the Strategy

Organisations are evolving their more traditional view of HR from the function responsible for managing permanent employees to a broader target group. They are expanding the reach of select HR and talent management processes to further include the management of external talent. In doing so, these organisations bridge the gap between employees and external workers. Applying select processes is important however, we do need to keep the fine line between employees and external workers because there is a risk of co-employment and organisations need to manage that carefully.

On a more strategic level, companies who integrate the management of all their talent with their core business functions, corporate strategy and objectives achieve ultimate workforce agility, financial transparency and greater impact on the bottom line. Total Workforce Management is one of the intelligent enterprise business processes that we support with SAP’s Intelligent Suite, Digital Platform and Technologies. SAP makes possible visibility into people and finances and collaboration across the enterprise, alignment of talent strategy to key business priorities, leveraging an agile workforce and driving worker engagement with new and meaningful experiences.

Key takeaways:

Visibility into people and finances and collaboration across the enterprise
Align talent strategy to key business priorities, leveraging an agile workforce
Drive worker engagement with new and meaningful experiences

A Journey to a Single Instance of SAP

A Journey to a Single Instance of SAP When Mosaic was formed in late 2004, there were 3 ERP systems that complicated financial close timing and fragmented reporting. The consolidation of critical information was labour-intensive and exceptionally time-consuming. In order to move forward, Mosaic had to determine the best road forward for a newly formed international company. A decision was made to commit to a vision of a single global instance of SAP. This was the beginning of a five-year journey to realise worldwide efficiencies in a multi-phase integration that would give the company "one source of the truth" and standardised process. The phased approach was determined to the most risk averse and provide insurance of quality results.

You will learn how Mosaic tackled each phase and learned from each completed step of the integration. You will also learn about how the global instance contributed to a SWIFT bank connectivity implementation. Attendees will come away with a roadmap to a single global instance and the value it brings to a large multinational. We will review the guiding principles that led to the successful installation and configuration of SAP. Lessons learned during the five-year path to "one source of the truth" will be shared. The overall efficiencies gained will be reviewed that created a common technical language in our multiple country environment. The single instance leaves Mosaic positioned to take advantage of new technologies on a global scale.

Key takeaways are:

Establishing and focusing on a clear vision of the SAP implementation
How success cascaded through the various implementations with the application of "lessons learned"
How the single instance positioned Mosaic for taking advantage of new technologies. advantage of new technologies on a global scale

Emerging Technologies - Preparing to Take Advantage of Them; Before They Take Advantage of You

Benefits of new technologies can greatly streamline your operations, but is your ERP foundation sound and configured to allow easy integration into your processes. In operating a large multinational company maintaining consistent processes and procedures is imperative. Taking a "global" vision approach is sometimes difficult but is critical to optimising technical advances.

In this session we will examine is your ERP ready; do you really understand the new technologies you are looking to implement; does your company have a global vision to integrate ever-changing advances; what is the impact on your employees. We will review how the team at Mosaic created and maintains its global ERP vision and how this minimises integration time and maximises employee engagement. We examine how Mosaic achieved worldwide results on its journey, one that started with a single step and continues to this day. Attendees will be given an understanding of the steps needed to evaluate the effectiveness of technical advances and how this benefits them on worldwide scale, as it has benefited Mosaic. Most importantly, this will give you insights into keeping employees engaged and overcoming fear of change.

The overarching themes will be:

How to take advantage of a single instance ERP
Determining how to minimise customisation and focus on configuration
A look at how effective change management mitigates the "human factor"

Driving Employee Experience with Qualtrics: from Data to Insight to Action

Qualtrics Employee Experience Management goes far beyond traditional survey tools to create a listening culture, where employees provide feedback as and when it matters most and HR as well as line managers are empowered to get immediate insights and take meaningful actions. Together with SAP SuccessFactors, Qualtrics forms the SAP HXM suite.

This session starts with a brief introduction to Qualtrics followed by a live demo focusing on the analysis and dashboards as well as action planning tool. We’ll also touch briefly upon the integration with SAP SuccessFactors and implementation tips

Getting The Most Out of Your SAP Financials Applications

In this session attendees will be made aware of the power of the SAP system that they already possess. You don't always have to buy the latest and greatest tools to improve system functionality and performance! Understand the problem, and explore what might have been a better solution, review the tools available and make the most of your under-used functionality, a lot is hiding away in SAP, e.g. the CO module, which many Finance analysts shy away from.

Are system settings set in stone at go-live? What are the options to extend your system life? Are your end-users getting the most from your system? What can you do to help them? This informative session will explore answers to all these pressing questions!

Key takeaways:

Make the most of under-used functionality
Understand how to change system settings that appear set in stone at go-live
How to enable end-users to get the most from your system

Getting the Most Out of Your SAP Financials Applications

End user training is a key area to maximize SAP system ROI. I will introduce 30 useful hints and tips which attendees can take away and incorporate into their own end user training campaigns, e.g. turn into cheat sheets or weekly hints & tips e-mails. Tips and tricks for functional analysis a set of useful ideas to get the most out of your existing SAP system. Make your Finance processes run more efficiently and help your users be more productive with these indispensable tips and tricks.
I will provide an overview of the modules and functionality in FI & CO, In the session delegates will learn how to use substitution and validation rules to add business logic to SAP-GL, CO and FI transactions; understand the difference between substitution and validation and; see where the functionality can be used and what events trigger the functionality. The will also be an added section on how to write a good SAP OSS message. Takeaways will be an awareness of all the options within SAP Fi & CO modules, sub-module overview, a detailed list of end user training ideas and Finance hints and tips you can apply to your SAP system today.

Getting Started with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model - Not Only for ABAPers

With the SAP Cloud Application Programming Model you can focus on your business requirement that needs to be solved. Let's compare in a live coding walkthrough the steps from a data model to an OData API and a Fiori Elements UI.

Unlock the Secret of a Happy Marriage with a Little SAP Cloud Platform Development

Using the latest SAP technologies and tools such as SAP Cloud Application Programming Model, SAP Business Application Studio and SAP Cloud Platform Cloud Foundry environment, we will be building a simple Multi-Target Application which should solve once and for all the mystery of a happy marriage.

Early Adopter Advice: SAP Analytics Cloud, Add-In for Microsoft Office

SAP Analytics Cloud, add-in for Microsoft Office, delivers a Microsoft experience in the SAP Analytics Cloud solution. In this session, we describe how the add-in fits into existing SAP software implementations. We also present a real-world case study that illustrates how the add-in is being used by an early-adopter customer.

Tips & Tricks for Migrating Your SAP HCM System & Processes to Employee Central

In this session, expert Luke Marson will provide various tips and tricks when you perform a migration from SAP HCM to SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central core HR system. Luke will cover topics such as process comparison, best practices configuration, data migration with Infoporter, integration strategies, payroll migration options, and need-to-know configuration options that are required for your migration success.

Attendees will learn what the key aspects of a migration from SAP HCM to SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central are, what need-to-know information is required, and what they can do with payroll when migrating off SAP HCM.

Tips for Building Your Employee Experience Strategy

In this session, Luke will walk through various tips to consider when crafting an employee experience strategy, including topics such as employee listening, culture, policies, and technology.

Automating Accounts Payable is a Journey And Not a Destination – The Engen Story

Join Kavitha from Engen as she takes you through a journey on:

How Engen transitioned from a decentralised manual financial operation to a centralised automated and highly efficient financial operation
The implementation of AP automation
Ongoing post go-live activity to analyse and incrementally improve automation rates to maximise benefits and cost savings

The presentation will explore the challenges faced, how challenges were overcome, the learnings as well as concrete evidence of the success of the journey

The Future of ABAP Programming: All That You Know Is At An End

There are several seismic changes going on in the world of ABAP programming. Notable examples include abapGit for version control and the RESTful ABAP Programming Model. Having been involved with both initiatives I will share the utopian dream that is the future of ABAP development.

Key takeaways:

The ABAP language is evolving faster than ever before
A Test-Driven Development mindset is needed to compete in the modern world
abapGit is the future of change control
Version management in the SAP world

Custom Code Adaptation for S/4 HANA - What Do You Actually Do?

SAP has provided many tools in order to prepare to move from ECC to S/4 HANA, and to work out what custom Z code needs changing. However, going through the custom code analysis can be agony. There is so much information it can be difficult to keep up. In this session you will hear several examples of what you need to do to prepare your Z code for the cut-over - and the vast bulk of it you can do right now. Most importantly, this is not just high-level theory but a practical example of everyday situations relating to the transition to S/4 HANA.

Key takeaways:

The various tools SAP provides to help you with the transition
What needs to be done in detail
What you can start doing right now even if you are not upgrading until 2025

Improving Employee Experience: From Multiple Entry Points to a Central Entry Point with SAP Cloud Platform

End users are challenged these days with multiple entry points to multiple SAP and non-SAP systems. Join this session to learn how SAP evolves the SAP Fiori launchpad towards a central entry point on SAP Cloud Platform. You’ll learn how to integrate business apps from on-premise (e.g. S/4HANA) and cloud applications (e.g. SAP SuccessFactors) into a common experience following the SAP Fiori 3 design guidelines.

Key Takeaways:

SAP Fiori Front End Server recommendations and best practices
How to achieve a central entry point on SAP Cloud Platform across cloud and on-premise systems
SAP Fiori 3 availability on SAP Cloud Platform

Rudi de Louw Head of SAP Co-Innovation Lab Africa SAP South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Sessions

Innovation Lessons From Working In the SAP Ecosystem

Innovation is a word that somehow contains a lot of promise. But how do we unlock the potential of it? This fascinates us all, which is why people asked for a session on the topic of innovation. Let’s look at some lessons from working on innovation projects in various parts of the SAP ecosystem in Africa. We all have different roles and paths how we grow in this large ecosystem. Which innovation model will suit you best for where you are now? How do we make innovation happen? Perhaps some areas more likely to deliver value or create new business models than others. How do we find those areas? And how do we keep ourselves honest and keep it real?

There are plenty of things to watch out for with innovation projects – uncertainty, risks, costs, and ownership of IP can trip us up. Then let’s not forget about choosing an appropriate go-to-market strategy. A bad combination of these can easily kill our strongest ideas. SAP can help with your innovation journey. The problem is often to figure out how. We invite you to join us in examining the exciting topic of innovation, and on the rewarding journey of thinking differently.

Key Takeaways:

How to make innovation happen
Things to watch out for with innovation projects
Benefits when you do innovation right

S/4HANA Customer Insights – Preparations, Implementations & Post-Implementation Stories

Join this S/4HANA Customer discussion to hear from Engen, Sappi and others about their experiences and perspectives thus far in their SAP Implementation Journey. Hear about S/4HANA preparations, the implementation, as well as post-implementation stories.

S/4HANA Finance Customer Insights – Preparations, Implementations & Post-Implementation Stories

Join this S/4HANA Finance discussion to hear from Sappi, Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation and The Spar Group about their experiences and perspectives thus far in their SAP Implementation Journey. Hear about S/4HANA Finance preparations, the implementation, as well as post-implementation stories.

What Makes Change Management Work?

In this interactive discussion, representatives from Cipla, Mediclinic and Sanlam will share their experiences, challenges and successes in each of their organisations relating to change management. You will learn about the various practical steps taken by Sanlam when transforming the employee experience in the move to drive the digital employee experience and enablement journey. They will examine the interconnected nature of the relationship between HR, IT and Marketing in making efficient use of talent data for the future. Hear from Mediclinic about their agile approach and how they managed to customise their change approach to each division within the business. Learn how Cipla made change management work within their organisation, and leave with some tips and tricks around the successes and challenges that they faced.

Achieving an Integrated Talent Management System: A Practical Case Study

During this session, Sanlam will practically demo how to achieve an integrated talent management system after implementation of core modules such as Employee Central, Job Profile Builder, Recruitment Management and Marketing, Onboarding, Performance and Goals, Succession Management and insights obtained as part of our reporting and analytics journey. Key takeaways will be practical demo of SuccessFactors modules and how integrated talent management can be achieved for an enhanced employee experience, as well as how we started to show a return on investment with some of the advanced analytics within recruitment, as well as the start of our reporting and analytics journey.

Danie Smit Manager: Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Platforms BMW South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Sessions

Our Journey Towards Predictive Analytics

Many companies are in a data driven transformation process and are facing challenges following the transformation roadmap. Traditional BI Managers are asking how they can elevate from a base of descriptive reporting to predictive analytics. We are applying a socio-technical framework in order to identify our critical success factors on this journey. We will share with you the experiences gained during our journey. Three years ago, we started with seven BI consultants and grew to more than 100 data professionals. This is our story about exporting South African BI and analytics skills to our global user base.

Key Takeaways:

A true South African success story
Real world examples
Value in our people's diversity

Tshepo Mahloko Senior Co-Innovation Architect SAP South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Sessions

Innovation Lessons From Working In the SAP Ecosystem

Innovation is a word that somehow contains a lot of promise. But how do we unlock the potential of it? This fascinates us all, which is why people asked for a session on the topic of innovation. Let’s look at some lessons from working on innovation projects in various parts of the SAP ecosystem in Africa. We all have different roles and paths how we grow in this large ecosystem. Which innovation model will suit you best for where you are now? How do we make innovation happen? Perhaps some areas more likely to deliver value or create new business models than others. How do we find those areas? And how do we keep ourselves honest and keep it real?

There are plenty of things to watch out for with innovation projects – uncertainty, risks, costs, and ownership of IP can trip us up. Then let’s not forget about choosing an appropriate go-to-market strategy. A bad combination of these can easily kill our strongest ideas. SAP can help with your innovation journey. The problem is often to figure out how. We invite you to join us in examining the exciting topic of innovation, and on the rewarding journey of thinking differently.

Key Takeaways:

How to make innovation happen
Things to watch out for with innovation projects
Benefits when you do innovation right

Insights & Learnings into SAP BPC

Join this discussion to hear from Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation, Northam Platinum Limited and more, about how an organisation can get the most out of their BPC investment. Insights will be shared about the different solutions to suit your business needs, and how to better utilise BPC to derive maximum value.

Game-Changing Innovation with SAP

Join this discussion to hear about some of the game-changing innovation projects that customers locally and abroad are engaging in with the help of SAP. Hear about SAP’s plans for future innovation and get insight into some of the exciting, innovative projects that City of Cape Town and Royal Swazi Sugar Corporation have undertaken.

Andreas Harms IT Manager BMW South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Sessions

Our Journey Towards Predictive Analytics

Many companies are in a data driven transformation process and are facing challenges following the transformation roadmap. Traditional BI Managers are asking how they can elevate from a base of descriptive reporting to predictive analytics. We are applying a socio-technical framework in order to identify our critical success factors on this journey. We will share with you the experiences gained during our journey. Three years ago, we started with seven BI consultants and grew to more than 100 data professionals. This is our story about exporting South African BI and analytics skills to our global user base.

Key Takeaways:

A true South African success story
Real world examples
Value in our people's diversity

Itumeleng Mothibi Test Manager BMW South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Sessions

Test Automation with Selenium and Sikuli for SAP

As a result of Agile/DevOps transformation and shift left approach more dynamic test solutions and tool are required to increase delivery agility on IT projects.

There is a wide variety of tools available to support whatever software products being delivered; each of these tools can fulfil particular demands. In the case of our business, there was a need for a test automation solution that integrated to our tool stack and enabled us to achieve faster test automation for SAP. Despite the wide availability of tools none, met our requirements.

Having learnt the benefits of web testing tools like Selenium, we then investigated a similar tool stack to carter for SAP. This led us to a discovery of SikuliX. Integrated with Selenium, Jenkins, Jira, confluence and supporting plug-ins, we were able to achieve what we were initially looking for with regards SAP Test Automation.

This approach showed remarkable results in terms of velocity and agility in comparison to available tools we have for SAP. Using one scenario within purchasing solution for example, the solution was 400% faster than other tools.

Although there is room for improvement for the solution, the tool has higher versatility than other test automation tool and it enables feature teams to automate SAP Tests within the agile delivery of our products.

Key Takeaways:
- Reduction in overhead for start-up and repetitive testing
- Simplifying end to end test after multiple sprints for testing
- Easily integrates with the latest agile delivery tools

Anglo American Electronic Manning Board: An Innovative Way to Provide Full Visibility of Your Labour to HR and Line Management

To address the challenges, Anglo embarked on a journey to develop an electronic manning board with “near real-time” SAP information. A user interface file was introduced to provide us with an accurate onscreen display of the entire organisation’s production and services teams, it also gave us full sight of the legal and mandatory training compliance for every employee and it enabled configuration of business rules to ensure error free transactions in SAP. The electronic manning board empowers line management to take full control of their own labour, to move required resources within teams and match to the production requirements of the day. EMB can be accessed from everywhere, anytime by any user with MDM (Mobile Device Management). The result? Swift real-time employee movements, full teams and correct labour at the workplace and ultimately improved production levels. I will demonstrate the Electronic Manning board, which will include the “manning board display” and illustration of its core functionalities.

Orscilla Haggard Group Finance Project Executive Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Limited

Sessions

Finance in a Federated Business Model – Bringing it all Together

Aspen Pharmacare, leading South African Pharmaceutical company recognised the value of standard and global Finance processes, even in a company with a strong federated business model. An interesting and challenging journey had to be undertaken to address the key areas in delivering on the Group objectives.

You will learn about the steps taken to reinvent the way that the Group Finance Projects teams approach Financial and supporting processes and the enablement thereof. Learn how Aspen mapped the journey by embracing fit-to-standard Pharma processes and by supporting the federated business units proactively. Some of the topics to be discussed include: Overview of current ERP and Finance system landscape; the positioning and value of the Group Finance Projects function; GSCP; localisation costs; Contract and Lease management; reporting requirements – Global and local; master data challenges – making sense of it all; today vs where we want to be – our roadmap.

Attendees will be taken through the journey on how Group Finance Projects are empowering the Aspen organisation to provide accurate, yet granular reporting and robust supporting processes. The support and standardisation drive and associated challenges faced in the Federated Business model and complex ERP landscape will be valuable lessons learnt to the audience.

This session will provide you with insights into:
1. Master-data processes are critical to understand and manage in a federated business model
2. Financial reporting is not only about getting the reports right, but also about ensuring sustainable supporting processes and configuration
3. Do not over-complicate basic requirements (e.g. Real-Estate management for Contracts and Lease management)

S/4HANA Finance Customer Insights – Preparations, Implementations & Post-Implementation Stories

Join this S/4HANA Finance discussion to hear from Sappi, Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation and The Spar Group about their experiences and perspectives thus far in their SAP Implementation Journey. Hear about S/4HANA Finance preparations, the implementation, as well as post-implementation stories.

Eric Kreft Senior Business Applications Manager AfriSam South Africa

Sessions

Travel Claims in SAP ESS; Really!?!

An overview of how AfriSam South Africa simplified Employee travel and other expense claims using standard SAP functions available in ECC6 and Employee Self Service. There is an emphasis on simplicity; No bells and whistles, just simple easy to implement and easy to use functionality. The primary purpose of this session would be how to get more value from your existing SAP modules. ESS does not have to be on Fiori and not all SAP projects need to have long timelines and large budgets.

Key Takeaways:

How to get more value from your existing SAP modules
ESS does not have to be on Fiori
Not all SAP projects need to have long timelines and large budgets

Chandy Beyrooti SAP Solution Advisor SAP Africa

Sessions

The Future of Finance

The current rate of manual work in most businesses far exceeds an optimal level, not only in day-to-day processes but month-end closure too. This leads to a longer time to close, a higher rate of human error, and decrease in employee satisfaction and efficiency. SAP recognised this and developed applications using technology to optimise and streamline business processes, and support out customers in overcoming these challenges.

We will illustrate how by automating repetitive day to day tasks of accountants, you are able to increase data accuracy, encourage continuous closing, and free up time of your finance team to focus on higher value tasks. This ultimately provides you with insight into your business and processes, with which you can take action to make your business run better.

During this session, you will be introduced to the many applications that SAP has developed to support our customers in their journey to financial transformation. This could potentially result in an increase efficiency and reduce errors in the finance department which enables finance to focus on strategic tasks. Businesses are able to perform finance processes faster, reducing kPIs and improve customer service. Finally the use of seamlessly integrated intelligent technologies enables business to operate at an optimal level, providing a competitive edge to all businesses that run SAP.

Key Takeaways:
1. Increase efficiency and reduce errors in the finance department which enables finance to focus on strategic tasks.
2. Perform finance processes faster, reducing kPIs and improve customer service.
3. Intelligent technology such as machine learning, learns from accountant behaviour and starts working immediately while continually adapts without on-going maintenance.

Erick Jacobs Business Process Engineer Sappi Southern Africa Limited

Sessions

Sappi Southern Africa HR: Global HR Processes on EC and in the Cloud

There is an immense commercial value for businesses to increase efficiency for HR and IT by eliminating redundant tasks. Optimising the HR system landscape and enabling HR data leads to better operational and strategic decisions being made. There are also lessons to be learned by understanding instant and comparable insights in Sappi globally. There is also something to be said about implementing global processes benefitting from scale simplification, standardisation and harmonisation complying with local labour laws and legislation. Insights will be provided into integration points relating to EC to SSF Recruitment, AD to EC and Workflows to various stakeholders. The session with have a section devoted exclusively to Change Management including issues relating to adoption, acceptance, usage and change by reviewing some of the challenges and lessons learned.

Key Takeaways:
- Why did Sappi do it?
- How did Sappi do it?
- What did Sappi learn from doing it?

Maria Raijmakers Divisional Executive: Human Capital Operations and Insights Liberty Group Limited

Sessions

Ctrl_Alt_Delete: What, If Anything, Would We Have Done Differently in Our SuccessFactors Project?

This session brings together three HR executives to discuss various SuccessFactors Implementation roadmaps and experiences. The panel will review lessons learned when implementing Recruitment (Administration & Marketing), Onboarding/Offboarding, Performance/Goal Management, Employee Central and integration to payroll on SAP ECC. Other points of discussion include what to consider prior to starting your implementation, key decisions during and post implementation support. SAP may say “start anywhere, go anywhere” however, there are many considerations relating to time management, recruitment management, onboarding as well as Job Architecture. Understand the intricacies involved in having multiple disparate HR systems, a multi-national footprint with no centralisation of HR processes, reporting or governance. These are all items that required serious consideration prior to embarking on the journey.

Our panelists will discuss unique experiences of implementation in their organisations which could add great value in planning your own SAP roadmap.

Ctrl_Alt_Delete: What, If Anything, Would We Have Done Differently in Our SuccessFactors Project?

This session brings together three HR executives to discuss various SuccessFactors Implementation roadmaps and experiences. The panel will review lessons learned when implementing Recruitment (Administration & Marketing), Onboarding/Offboarding, Performance/Goal Management, Employee Central and integration to payroll on SAP ECC. Other points of discussion include what to consider prior to starting your implementation, key decisions during and post implementation support. SAP may say “start anywhere, go anywhere” however, there are many considerations relating to time management, recruitment management, onboarding as well as Job Architecture. Understand the intricacies involved in having multiple disparate HR systems, a multi-national footprint with no centralisation of HR processes, reporting or governance. These are all items that required serious consideration prior to embarking on the journey.

Our panelists will discuss unique experiences of implementation in their organisations which could add great value in planning your own SAP roadmap.

Jade Keogh Group Manager: HR Systems Transformation Mediclinic

Sessions

What Makes Change Management Work?

In this interactive discussion, representatives from Cipla, Mediclinic and Sanlam will share their experiences, challenges and successes in each of their organisations relating to change management. You will learn about the various practical steps taken by Sanlam when transforming the employee experience in the move to drive the digital employee experience and enablement journey. They will examine the interconnected nature of the relationship between HR, IT and Marketing in making efficient use of talent data for the future. Hear from Mediclinic about their agile approach and how they managed to customise their change approach to each division within the business. Learn how Cipla made change management work within their organisation, and leave with some tips and tricks around the successes and challenges that they faced.

Omeshnee Naidoo Chief Information Officer City of Cape Town

Sessions

Game-Changing Innovation with SAP

Join this discussion to hear about some of the game-changing innovation projects that customers locally and abroad are engaging in with the help of SAP. Hear about SAP’s plans for future innovation and get insight into some of the exciting, innovative projects that City of Cape Town and Royal Swazi Sugar Corporation have undertaken.

Tania Naudé Group Head: Organisational Design Development and Human Capital Services, AECI

Sessions

Ctrl_Alt_Delete: What, If Anything, Would We Have Done Differently in Our SuccessFactors Project?

This session brings together three HR executives to discuss various SuccessFactors Implementation roadmaps and experiences. The panel will review lessons learned when implementing Recruitment (Administration & Marketing), Onboarding/Offboarding, Performance/Goal Management, Employee Central and integration to payroll on SAP ECC. Other points of discussion include what to consider prior to starting your implementation, key decisions during and post implementation support. SAP may say “start anywhere, go anywhere” however, there are many considerations relating to time management, recruitment management, onboarding as well as Job Architecture. Understand the intricacies involved in having multiple disparate HR systems, a multi-national footprint with no centralisation of HR processes, reporting or governance. These are all items that required serious consideration prior to embarking on the journey.

Our panelists will discuss unique experiences of implementation in their organisations which could add great value in planning your own SAP roadmap.

Ester Kruger Change Programme Manager: Digital Transformation Discovery

Sessions

Becoming a Corporate 'Athlete': The Neuroscience Perspective

Recent developments in the field of Neuroscience are giving the scientific world a better understanding of the biological bases of behaviour, how we learn and change. These developments are already making an impact in the world of organisational development, change management, coaching, training and leadership development.

This session will aim to provide some insight into what are the basic neuroscience principles that drive human behaviour; what this means for a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous corporate environment and; What we can do to develop mental fitness in individuals, team and the organisation. Neuroscience provides a unique perspective to explain why change can be so challenging. As our brains are neuroplastic, we can use our understanding of these principles to enhance our capacity to adapt, collaborate and access our best thinking to find solutions. Developing this capability does not happen automatically. It can be compared to the level of work an athlete needs to put in to become fit and continue performing well.

Key Takeaways:

Neuroscience provides a unique perspective to explain why change can be so challenging
As our brains are neuroplastic, we can use our understanding of these principles to enhance our capacity to adapt, collaborate and access our best thinking to find solutions
Developing this capability does not happen automatically - it can be compared to the level of work an athlete needs to put in to become fit and continue performing well

Surviving & Thriving in the Exponential World

For each of us as individuals to survive and thrive in this rapidly-changing exponential world, we require ever-increasing levels of self-awareness, purposefulness, engagement and accomplishment.

In principle, all managers should be leaders (but sadly are not) and not all leaders need to be in a management position. The reality is that we have to explore who we are as a leader of self, before being a leader of others, teams, organisations or businesses. More than ever, it’s imperative for us to take accountability for actively developing our careers and journey through this time called Life.

Bryan Hattingh, Co-Founder of Cycan, delivers an inspirational address titled “Surviving and Thriving in the Exponential World”, taking the audience through a deeply reﬂective view of:

The world, its challenges and opportunities
The changing face of society and industry
What the inhibitors are that we need to transcend
Understanding how to activate of our personal brand and ultimately, internal shift of heart and mind with respect to agility, resilience and creative disruption and innovation are essential.

Ultimately, the keynote informs and inspires the audience, equipping them to take the necessary steps forward in leading a richer, fuller, more accomplished life.

Barry Coltham Managing Director Achievement Awards Group

Sessions

The HeartMath System

The HeartMath system empowers people to achieve coherence by self-regulating their emotions and behaviours to reduce stress, increase resilience, and unlock their natural intuitive guidance for making more effective choices. This enables people to break through to greater levels of personal balance, creativity, insight and health. HeartMath Publications include over 300 peer-reviewed independent studies utilizing HeartMath techniques and technologies to achieve beneficial outcomes. This presentation will showcase how HeartMath techniques can improve personal effectiveness and quality of life.

By sharing insights from a South African case study and by including an interactive demonstration, the presentation will include practical examples of this powerful tool in action. Delegates will leave with an understanding of each person’s inner journey, the link between emotions and outer results and a simple technique to achieve better outcomes.

Key Takeaways:

An understanding of each person’s inner journey
Link between emotions and outer results
A simple technique to achieve better outcomes

Mervyn George Innovation Strategy Lead for Africa SAP Africa

Sessions

Purpose, Profit and Data Game-Changing Innovation with SAP

Purpose, Profit and Data

If the pandemic has taught us one thing, it’s that products and services that resonate the most with consumers are the ones that see it through the dark times. To resonate, brands need to live and breathe a culture, ethos and purpose that attracts people. At the same time, they must drive profitability to remain intact. Investments, divestments and other game changing business decisions rely on bold but compassionate leadership, supported by empirical evidence, insights and probability. In this session, we explore the mindset shift needed to bring this balance to life, how SAP is adopting this to help its ecosystem, and how platforms and solutions play a critical role in enabling companies to adapt.

Game-Changing Innovation with SAP

Join this discussion to hear about some of the game-changing innovation projects that customers locally and abroad are engaging in with the help of SAP. Hear about SAP’s plans for future innovation and get insight into some of the exciting, innovative projects that City of Cape Town and Royal Swazi Sugar Corporation have undertaken.

Can you Report on Data From SAP and SuccessFactors at the Same Time?

Of course you can! EPI-USE Labs will demonstrate how to draw on SAP and SuccessFactors data in the same report, using Query Manager. These days many companies are running a hybrid HCM landscape, with some data in SuccessFactors and the rest (often including payroll) still on-premise. This session will show you how to reduce complexity with HCM reporting, and how to provide professional business reports.

Fast, Ad Hoc Financial Operational Analysis, on Clean Master Data and Operational Data, Without Having to Bother IT... Wouldn't That be Something?

Ensuring correct reporting is mandatory for Finance. That would be easier when everybody involved books the operational and financial transactions properly and on time, and when all the involved master data parameters are clean and tidy. In practice, that is seldom the case, making it hard labour for controllers to figure out what went wrong and what to do about it, connecting the accounting documents in FICO and the operations transactions in the various modules. Is that easy? No, it isn’t. It’s complicated, as complicated as the complex data structure (tables, fields and relations) of SAP. That complexity doesn’t only hurt financial users, it also makes the life of the IT experts hard, as it prevents them to provide swift answers to these (most of the time ad hoc) analysis questions.

Without the proper tooling the financial people typically end up doing it themselves, based on SAP table downloads and loads of Excels. Work that is useless if the underlying data isn’t correct. That brings us to Master Data Quality and Operations Data Quality, two hugely important yet the least ‘sexy’ subjects in Management. The question asked in this session is “Analysis on complex and dirty data - can it be made easier?”

Jacques will explain the concept and background of the software solution. His main topics are that a “True Business User Self-Service” (TBUSS*) system can only work when it is based on:

A thorough understanding of the complex underlying SAP data structures
A thorough understanding of the way business users think and operate
Simple, understandable and effective user interface

Playing with Things - IoT, Hybrid Integration and Process Orchestration Architectures Unpacked

Internet of Things, Machine Learning, Analytics, Big Data, Design Thinking, Blockchain and Data Intelligence are not terms that would be have been used in business circles a decade ago but today they have the ability to turn ordinary organisations into exponential organisations. We will be looking at SAP’s digital innovation technologies that will allow businesses to power digital transformation. This masterclass will give attendees a practical overview of the technologies and services as well as how they can be applied to real-world use cases. In this session, learn how to set up an end-to-end scenario by leveraging key services of a hybrid SAP Landscape.

We will first use the SAP Cloud Platform IoT service to publish IoT device data from a device into the message broker, which will be consumed by SAP Cloud Platform Integration and forwarded to the SAP Cloud Platform Workflow service for a decision step. Based on the workflow decision, it will trigger the creation of a service request in the on-premise SAP Backend System.

Key takeaways are; SAP Hybrid Integration, technologies available and how to apply these technologies.

Tshifhiwa Dombo Senior HR Advisor: SAP SuccessFactors SAP

Sessions

Top HR Apps To Digitise HR

In today's experience economy, we extend our devices' core capabilities with a mix of free and paid-for apps that we leverage on a need basis. This empowers us to make decisions on the fly. Is your current HR system delivered with use-case-based Apps to extend core capabilities? What impact would this have on your users? How much effort and time would that save you? HR Apps built to extend the SuccessFactors Suite are available today. Come and experience the power of The SAP App Centre. A fully digital, online store where you can discover, try, buy, manage, and deploy trusted partner Apps that extend your existing SAP solutions. You will also see top Apps in action. This session will take you through the journey of seamlessly integrating your chosen Apps into your existing SAP landscapes thereby granting your end-users immediate access to the apps via single sign-on. For partners, there is a service for management and billing, payments, and customer communications directly in The App Centre. With a PO-based ordering system, SAP Ariba payments, support for multiple currencies, and application usage analytics, we’ve truly engineered procurement for the enterprise in the SAP App Centre.

Key Takeaways:

The live demo of the SAP App Centre will empower customers with hands-on experience on how to find a mix of free and paid-for apps designed to help you digitise HR.
Partners will be equipped to reach more customers with tools to market, deliver and support their Apps.

See How To Automate GL Reconciliations & Clearing – Directly In SAP

Traditionally SAP users have had no option but to reconcile balance sheets and other GL accounts outside of SAP. This meant downloads to Excel or interfaces to 3rd party systems. Now personnel time can be saved by automating GL reconciliations directly in SAP, using BEST’s SAP add-on module. No more need to replicate data outside of SAP, whilst using the existing SAP security and authorisations to ensure the highest level of audit controls.

Open item clearing in SAP is often time consuming with a high level of manual matching and multiple screens to be processed by users. BEST’s SAP add-on module enables automated clearing across company codes, GL accounts and different fields. Advanced matching algorithms mean high automated matching rates.

In this interactive demo, see how it can all be automated inside SAP, within the existing SAP controls & take home tips on:
1. How GL reconciliations can be automatically performed in SAP.
2. How open item clearing can be automated in SAP.
3. Optimisation of the existing SAP function to save personnel time, improve audit controls and financial reporting.

Rory Moore Africa and Asia Pacific Liquid Studio Lead Accenture

Sessions

SuperFast SAP

Companies who are evolving and embracing speed and agility are growing at twice the rate of companies who are struggling to scale innovation. Dream Big – Start Small – Scale Fast. Join this session to learn more!

Emile Steyn Senior SAP Security Consultant Soterion Soterion

Sessions

The Key Steps to Implementing Effective GRC

Effective GRC is measured by how well business users carry out their access risk management activities. In this session we will discuss how Oceana achieved SAP Security utopia by understanding the importance and interrelationship between the various components of effective GRC, namely the SAP role design, rule set and the access control solution.

Kevin Govender Enterprise Resource Planning Lead Deloitte Consulting (Pty) Ltd

Sessions

Reimagine Everything

Deloitte, as the Innovation Partner, will help our clients reimagine their enterprise and make SAP solutions work together, with a ‘business first’ approach and an integration strategy that supports their vision for the enterprise. Deloitte has been working with SAP, the market leader in enterprise application software, for three decades and our team has extensive, industry-specific experience with SAP’s entire portfolio of offerings, both on-premise, hybrid and in the cloud. Additionally, Deloitte has been a recipient of numerous local and international SAP accolades, and these awards are proof of the quality and value we offer our clients.

Deloitte Consulting Africa strives to help its clients from strategy to execution with offerings and solutions that span ‘Imagine, Deliver and Run’ with a focus on the digital transformation of their operating model, business model and IT systems. Our differentiation is our ability to work with our clients from developing strategy right through to the execution – what we call our ‘issue to impact’ philosophy.

For 30 years, Deloitte’s Global SAP practice has delivered award-winning levels of service to help global organisations transform their businesses and achieve results that matter. With an extensive network of business and technology practitioners dedicated to SAP solutions in our global network, we have served our clients in assisting them in their journey to implement SAP solutions effectively and to realise potential business value from those investments. We offer a complete range of implementation, integration, and alignment services—from business case and strategy development to systems design to configuration, testing, deployment, and post-implementation support. Each day across the globe and across all industries, we are busy deploying the latest SAP offerings, including SAP S/4HANA, to support real-time data access and analytics, enabling organisations to evolve their existing business processes and adopt new processes that can support the future of business.

Siliziwe Mafika Senior Manager – Finance Strategy Lead (ETP - Finance & Performance) Deloitte Consulting (Pty) Ltd

Sessions

Preparing for the Future of Finance - Now

Digital is not just another technological advancement – it is an exponential transformation of culture, behaviour and process as well. Specific digital solutions already exist – bringing them together is Transformational. Finance needs to be at the centre of this transformation to maintain its license to operate as a digital Finance business partner. It is not optional – and there are advantages for the first movers. This digital world is here. The question is, how will your finance function respond?

How can digital finance “game-changers” enable you to: How can digital finance “game-changers” enable you to:

Prepare for the reality of finance’s role in a digital world, and to stay relevant and competitive?
Be a better business partner and respond to the organisation’s needs in a more strategic way?
Explore new technologies that are available to help drive down costs and free up time for strategic activities?
Identify opportunities to automate your finance ecosystem and make your processes more efficient?
Manage, analyse, and forecast data and implement tools for more accuracy today and in the future?
Reimagine Finance to think big and start matching disruptive technology against your biggest problems and challenges?

Clarity and direction for transformation come from exposure to the latest innovations across industries. Organisations need to immerse themselves so that the vision for finance is crystallized. Finance will then craft a robust roadmap for a total digital transformation of the finance function and be ready to take the next step on their digital journey.

Exponential HR Professionals: Reimagining the Work of HR to Enable Dynamic and Digital Ways of Working

The future of work is changing. As traditional jobs are redesigned, there is an increasing need for companies to provide resources and opportunities for lifelong learning. Companies need to be radically open to attract more people who are high-IQ risk-takers in order to generate flows and be plugged into discussions about the future of the workforce.

SAP Data Sorted! Top Tips and Options for Migrating and Managing Data in SAP S/4 HANA

Data is often left for last when it comes to preparing for the digital business transformation and customers are faced with having to sacrifice quality over timelines saying things like: "We underestimated the complexity, duration and associated costs in our data stream” and "We will focus on getting the data right post-migration". Learn how to avoid the pain by applying the easy, practical steps as well as implementing the right toolset to support master data management.

Key takeaways:

Data as a key asset
Migration to S/4 HANA – what to look out for in preparation for data migration to S/4
Which options exist for ongoing master data management

Maintenance Budgeting and Asset Lifecycle Management – Necessary Evils or a Vault of Untapped Value?

Various inefficiencies negatively impacted the Budget and Planning Process. Budget and Planning weren’t outcome-driven and largely dependent on manual interaction. Low data integrity, master data inconsistencies and inconsistent data granularity added to the problem. Data was maintained in spreadsheets that weren’t integrated with the ERP and Mine Technical Systems, limiting cost controls and overall planning capability, resulting in conflicting views. We introduced a planning, forecasting and analysis tool which will enable a business to address process inefficiencies and improve data integrity.

To overcome the key business challenges, we:
- Simplified and standardised processes through establishing process ownership
- Introduced processes to measure, manage, and drive forecast accuracy
- Improved business flexibility and responsiveness by putting forecasting at the heart of performance management
- Established a capability to quickly test scenarios and sensitivities
- Focused on volatility and materiality – minimised detail to reduce cycle time and improve relevance
- Enabled capital prioritisation aligned to portfolio objectives and risk appetite
- Implemented a planning, forecasting and analysis tool which will address process inefficiencies, improve data integrity, improve cost controls and improve planning capability.

The Collaborit Asset Cost and Lifecycle Manager enabled us to:
- use a single source of data for Budget/Forecast determination and tracking of actual expenditure.
- reduce complexity and effort to compile the Maintenance Budget
- create collaboration between all budget owners/approvers on one platform
- improve data integrity and accuracy
- institutionalise the budget determination logic and methodology
- underpin budget/forecast results with line item detail to explain/justify cost inclusions
- timeously respond to budget variance exceptions
- improve the credibility of the budget process and output

Process improvements and system enablement for the Planning and Budgeting functions is a fundamental building block in moving towards a proactive performance and cost management culture. Select a planning, budgeting, forecasting and analysis tool that support and institutionalise the budget and planning process across the organisation. Invest in a solution that provides sufficient flexibility through configuration and parameterisation to support specific business requirements.

Your Journey To the Cloud: Secure Data Migration From SAP HCM to SAP SuccessFactors

With low investment and operating costs, unlimited scalability, and permanently up-to-date applications, cloud computing offers many advantages for both managers and IT specialists in the field of Human Resources (HR). But one important step lies between the concept of cloud solutions and the reality of their productive use: data migration.

While transporting data from an old system to a new one is not rocket science, HR information is added and updated—and required—each and every day, so it must be accurate and available. Carrying out a migration with greater speed and control enables organisations to start reaping the
benefits of a new system quickly and easily. You may have found yourself wondering how you can continue to run all of your HR processes smoothly in SAP SuccessFactors following your migration. How can you make sure that the transition is seamless, that payroll is accurate, and that, ultimately, you will be able to take your old system offline?

Terence Stevens Senior Manager - SAP HCM & SuccessFactors Accenture South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Sessions

Seamless SAP HR Implementations: Tips, Tricks & Learnings - An Interactive Discussion

Join this interactive discussion to gain tips, tricks and learnings for a seamless SAP HR implementation and hear from the experts at Accenture about how best to migrate from On-Premise SAP HCM and Payroll to SAP SuccessFactors and the cloud.

Puleng Mashaba Senior Manager and SAP HCM & SuccessFactors Practice Lead for Africa Accenture South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Sessions

Seamless SAP HR Implementations: Tips, Tricks & Learnings - An Interactive Discussion

Join this interactive discussion to gain tips, tricks and learnings for a seamless SAP HR implementation and hear from the experts at Accenture about how best to migrate from On-Premise SAP HCM and Payroll to SAP SuccessFactors and the cloud.

Roelof Nel SAP SuccessFactors Functional Consultant EPI-USE Africa (Pty) Ltd

Sessions

Driving Employee Engagement Through Mobile Platforms

According to statistics, there are roughly 5 billion unique mobile users in the world with more than half being smartphone users. Most of these users will at some point log in to a site or system to either execute an activity, search for information or just browse around. Employees and users are driven to deliver in shorter timelines and with fewer distractions that influence their interaction needs. The way they experience this engagement lies in our hands and we should make it as simple and user-friendly as possible while delivering the intended message or service.

In this session, Elize will discuss the benefits of mobile user engagement and take you through the SuccessFactors end-user experience to demonstrate how information can be delivered.

The main focus will be on how the entire HR experience can be delivered through a mobile-only approach, negating the need for desktop-based interaction. She will also look at how the existing employee experience can be enhanced for desktop users through the use of the mobile application. Finally, she will share the link between what the mobile capability offers and where these offerings fit into the employee lifecycle and how EPI-USE can accelerate the implementation of these features.

Dimitri Denissiouk Managing Director IBA South Africa

Sessions

Enterprise Performance Management: Modern Outlook

SAP Profitability and Performance Management (PaPM) is a next generation digital performance management solution that provides breakthrough real-time business data aggregation capabilities for SAP and non-SAP systems, a high-speed finance and risk calculation engine and comprehensive simulation and scenario management. It is designed to run simply and comfortably for business users. The calculation model is fully transparent and auditable which gives instant insight into margin contribution schema and makes your data analysis process more sophisticated and intelligent. Seamlessly integrated into system landscape PaPM improves overall service level and supports various business applications by supplying accurate and well-structured key figures. It refines operational and strategic decision making and facilitates the company's growth in challenging market conditions.

Enterprise Performance Management: Modern Outlook

SAP Profitability and Performance Management (PaPM) is a next generation digital performance management solution that provides breakthrough real-time business data aggregation capabilities for SAP and non-SAP systems, a high-speed finance and risk calculation engine and comprehensive simulation and scenario management. It is designed to run simply and comfortably for business users. The calculation model is fully transparent and auditable which gives instant insight into margin contribution schema and makes your data analysis process more sophisticated and intelligent. Seamlessly integrated into system landscape PaPM improves overall service level and supports various business applications by supplying accurate and well-structured key figures. It refines operational and strategic decision making and facilitates the company's growth in challenging market conditions.

Preparing Finance For Your Journey to S/4

The move to S/4 can be drastically simplified with careful preparation in the ECC environment and the use of Activate Methodology. The conversion from Classic Finance to FlexG/L is possible in the ECC environment with the right tools and approach. This conversion readies itself for automatic conversion into the S/4 Universal Ledger. The key to success is to model FlexGL correctly to determine the future strategy for the business and its financial structures.

We have the right tools to facilitate this conversion which includes dashboards from which the configuration is implemented, historic financial data is converted, problems are analysed and audit requirements are met. These tools empower your project team to establish the correct Financial Model and deliver the conversion from POC to the final Production conversion.

Sherri Williamson Senior Consultant Beyond Technologies

Sessions

Going Live in Lockdown

We’ll share our lessons from going live on the latest version of S/4HANA Cloud EX, (including Concur, SuccessFactors, SAC & Sales Cloud), in a time of lockdown.

Our team in South Africa took our customer in the United States, RLS Inc, a leading supplier of nuclear medicine, live on SAP S/4HANA Cloud EX at 32 plants in 17 states on 1 September 2020 – right in the middle of the COVID lockdown.

As it’s the future of projects, you’ll be very interested to hear how we did it!

Shawn Jubber Senior Solutions Architect – SAP & Integrated Systems CoCre8 Technology Solutions

Sessions

6 Steps to Simplify Your SAP HANA Migration

You know you want to deploy SAP HANA to streamline your SAP landscape, simplify operations and empower your business to compete and win in the digital economy. But you also know that big transformation projects like this are extremely complex. In fact, the majority of transformation initiatives never deliver on expected business benefits. Why is that?

The disruptive nature of digital technology and its ability to drive hyper-agile, competitive new business models, has enterprises in every industry embracing their own digital journeys. IT leaders fully expect in-memory computing architecture to help them lower IT costs and improve asset and resource utilisation. They also believe it will enable their organisations to rapidly respond to opportunities based on real-time, proactive analytics — two critical enablers of digital transformation. However, in-memory computing is one in a long line of disruptive new technologies — including cloud, datacentre and mobility, among others — that is competing for IT budget, resources and executive mindshare. Migration to SAP HANA is also perceived as highly complex. But as we’ll see, technical complexity, while real, is not the real roadblock to transformation success.

Key takeaways:
This talk is designed to share insights into where and why SAP HANA migration projects may go off track, show you the speed bumps and roadblocks that may slow you down, and offer a few travel tips to help you along your journey.

Mark Hughes License Management SAP South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Sessions

SAP Licensing Insights and Q&A

Join this interactive session to hear some insights from SAP around all things licensing related and get the opportunity to have your most pressing questions about SAP licensing answered by the experts.

Shaun-Lee Pelser Senior Project Manager Beyond Technologies

Sessions

Going Live in Lockdown

We’ll share our lessons from going live on the latest version of S/4HANA Cloud EX, (including Concur, SuccessFactors, SAC & Sales Cloud), in a time of lockdown.

Our team in South Africa took our customer in the United States, RLS Inc, a leading supplier of nuclear medicine, live on SAP S/4HANA Cloud EX at 32 plants in 17 states on 1 September 2020 – right in the middle of the COVID lockdown.

As it’s the future of projects, you’ll be very interested to hear how we did it!

S/4HANA Finance Customer Insights – Preparations, Implementations & Post-Implementation Stories

Join this S/4HANA Finance discussion to hear from Sappi, Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation and The Spar Group about their experiences and perspectives thus far in their SAP Implementation Journey. Hear about S/4HANA Finance preparations, the implementation, as well as post-implementation stories.

Data Privacy – How Do I Manage This In SAP?

Data Privacy regulations (POPI, GDPR etc) are having an impact on almost every organisation around the world. Privacy by design is now expected as part and parcel of your security framework. As owners of the data subjects (Customers, Vendors, Business Partners, Employees), it is critical that you understand what data is deemed sensitive, for what purposes it is being used, how it should be controlled and who should have access to it. Anything less, unfortunately, carries the risk of severe penalties and fines.

In this session, Dudley will share some of his experience of the activities and tasks typically associated with a data privacy project - where to begin, key stakeholders, objectives and deliverables, and how this can be fast-tracked using Soterion’s Data Discovery module.

Key takeaways:

Understand the activities and tasks associated with a data privacy project
How to easily identify whether your SAP system is storing personal data
How to manage any sensitive personal data going forward – data privacy by design

Human Capital Management Solutions - Our Success Stories, Lessons Learnt

We will be showcasing technologies and platforms that have enabled Dimension Data and some of our clients to effectively manage the entire talent life cycle, all while keeping employees engaged. We believe that our journey towards adopting digital tools has taught us lessons that can help you make informed decisions towards building a purpose-led digital adoption in your business.

Reggie Goco VP: Global Business Development xSuite North America Inc.

Sessions

Automation and Digitalization Inside SAP ECC6 and S/4 HANA

In this session, the attendee will learn and see what a fully automated SAP environment could look like for their organization. If your company is still keying in transactions in SAP, be it to receive an invoice, to book a journal entry, or to process a Purchase Order or a Sales Order - this session is right for you. The future of SAP is now. There is no need to wait for automation to come as it's already here. Learn and see how this could look like for your company by attending this session.

Key takeaways:
1. See what Automation of SAP Day to Day Business Transactions looks like
2. See what Digitalization of SAP Documents and Supporting Schedules and Contracts can look like
3. Learn how easy it is to do so

Human Capital Management Solutions - Our Success Stories, Lessons Learnt

We will be showcasing technologies and platforms that have enabled Dimension Data and some of our clients to effectively manage the entire talent life cycle, all while keeping employees engaged. We believe that our journey towards adopting digital tools has taught us lessons that can help you make informed decisions towards building a purpose-led digital adoption in your business.

Solving B-BBEE Scorecard Reporting – Addressing HR and Financial Pain Points

Preparing the B-BBEE scorecard usually is a time-consuming exercise, requiring the responsible employees to spend almost all their time just on this one activity. With very little time left for proper planning and the possibility of incorrect reporting, with the accompanying financial penalties and reputational damage, is something any organisation would like to avoid. iOCO’s B-BBEE Scorecard solution provides an innovative, cost-effective and time-saving solution that addresses multiple challenges each organisation in South Africa is facing currently. This solution will not only free up the employee’s time to be better utilised, but also provides the functionality to assist with improved planning so that the organisation can implement more effective interventions and thus improve their B-BBEE rating more quickly.

Paul Hammersley Head of Landscape & Data Services EPI-USE Labs

Sessions

Copy and Mask Data in SuccessFactors

Do you need recent and consistent data in your SuccessFactors test systems? Worried about sensitive personal data and the POPI Act? Join our session to see how you can copy and/or mask your data using Data Sync Manager.

Solving B-BBEE Scorecard Reporting – Addressing HR and Financial Pain Points

Preparing the B-BBEE scorecard usually is a time-consuming exercise, requiring the responsible employees to spend almost all their time just on this one activity. With very little time left for proper planning and the possibility of incorrect reporting, with the accompanying financial penalties and reputational damage, is something any organisation would like to avoid. iOCO’s B-BBEE Scorecard solution provides an innovative, cost-effective and time-saving solution that addresses multiple challenges each organisation in South Africa is facing currently. This solution will not only free up the employee’s time to be better utilised, but also provides the functionality to assist with improved planning so that the organisation can implement more effective interventions and thus improve their B-BBEE rating more quickly.

Time and Attendance: What Are Your Options?

With a multitude of organisations moving their HCM environments into SAP SuccessFactors, significant consideration needs to be given with regards to Time and Attendance requirements. Adding further complexity is the fact that the current Time and Attendance functionality will also cease to be supported when SAP ECC 6.0 reaches the end of its maintenance. What options are available to organisations? What considerations need to be taken into account? And, why has SAP SuccessFactors decided to partner with Kronos for Workforce Management?

Come and join us for an interactive discussion that will explain SAP’s strategy with regards to time and attendance. We will delve into the options that organisations have for their time and attendance requirements. This includes current on-premise considerations, as well as the cloud offerings that SAP has brought to the market. What should inform an organisation’s decision on which option to take? How does this affect integration and the implementation thereof? We will compare functionality between the different options so that you can make the right choice for your organisation when the need arises. Attendees will be apprised of the pros and cons of each of the various options with regards to time and attendance. We will (time) travel in to the future and attempt to model the different scenarios that organisations will encounter when it is time for them to move off SAP ERP ECC 6.0.

Key takeaways:

An understanding of SAP’s direction with regards to time and attendance
What to consider in choosing the right time and attendance options for your organisation
Migrating to the cloud does not mean your complex requirements cannot be taken care of

Future of SAP Payroll: What to Expect

The year 2025 is fast approaching, and many organisations are still undecided as to when and how they will move their payroll off the current SAP ERP ECC 6.0 to one of the newer SAP offerings. Coupled with global expansion, mergers and acquisitions, the pressure is on HR and IT to deliver ever increasing payroll complexity at lower and lower costs. Technological goal posts are constantly shifting, which makes it difficult for organisations to keep up and level the playing fields. Join us as we explore the different payroll options that will be available to organisations before the cut-off date for the end of maintenance for SAP ERP ECC 6.0.

From SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll to the S4/HANA Side-Car, we will discuss the pros and cons of each and how the migration to them will affect current on-premise customers. SAP’s Payroll strategy will be discussed in detail and the different deployment models will be explored. From Core Hybrid to Full Cloud, the options will be explained to attendees. We will also go through prerequisites of each and the implementation considerations that organisations need to know. We will discuss integration and how it affects your payroll with regards to how it will affect the functionality available to customers.

Key Takeaways:

An understanding of SAP’s direction with regards to payroll
What to consider in choosing the best payroll solution for your organisation
Migration to SAP’s newer payroll solutions is not as complex as you may think

SAP’s Integration Strategy for the Intelligent Enterprise

Integration becomes the key enabler for intelligent enterprises. SAP pursues the goal of making integration in the cloud and hybrid landscapes easy and simple. SAP bases its integration strategy for the Intelligent Enterprise on four principles: out-of-the-box integration, open integration, holistic integration, and AI-driven integration.

Key Takeaways:

SAP Cloud Platform Integration Suite and SAP HANA Data Management Suite
SAP support of all types of integration use cases ranging from the process, data, user, and IoT to analytics-centric integration
SAP Integration strategy

Automate Your Business by Emulating Your Users

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) accelerates the digital transformation of business processes by automatically replicating tedious actions that have no added value. SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation is a complete automation suite where software robots are designed to mimic humans by replacing manual clicks, interpreting text-heavy communications, or making process suggestions to end users for definable and repeatable business processes.

Key takeaways:

Reduce the presence of repetitive and manual activities
Make customers happier with a better experience
Reinvent processes and promote continuous improvement

S/4HANA Customer Insights – Preparations, Implementations & Post-Implementation Stories

Join this S/4HANA Customer discussion to hear from Engen, Sappi and others about their experiences and perspectives thus far in their SAP Implementation Journey. Hear about S/4HANA preparations, the implementation, as well as post-implementation stories.

S/4HANA Customer Insights – Preparations, Implementations & Post-Implementation Stories

Join this S/4HANA Customer discussion to hear from Engen, Sappi and others about their experiences and perspectives thus far in their SAP Implementation Journey. Hear about S/4HANA preparations, the implementation, as well as post-implementation stories.

S/4HANA Customer Insights – Preparations, Implementations & Post-Implementation Stories

Join this S/4HANA Customer discussion to hear from Engen, Sappi and others about their experiences and perspectives thus far in their SAP Implementation Journey. Hear about S/4HANA preparations, the implementation, as well as post-implementation stories.

S/4HANA Finance Customer Insights – Preparations, Implementations & Post-Implementation Stories

Join this S/4HANA Finance discussion to hear from Sappi, Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation and The Spar Group about their experiences and perspectives thus far in their SAP Implementation Journey. Hear about S/4HANA Finance preparations, the implementation, as well as post-implementation stories.

S/4HANA Customer Insights – Preparations, Implementations & Post-Implementation Stories

Join this S/4HANA Customer discussion to hear from Engen, Sappi and others about their experiences and perspectives thus far in their SAP Implementation Journey. Hear about S/4HANA preparations, the implementation, as well as post-implementation stories.