SAPPHIRE NOW, Day 2: Jim Snabe, Tigers, Formula On...

Former Member · ‎2013 May 16

After a whirlwind of information from SAP executives and customers yesterday (see my recap of Day 1), today was another action-packed day of keynotes, announcements, stories, and insights from every corner of SAPPHIRE NOW. So let’s get right into it, beginning with the morning keynote.

Keynote: Jim Hagemann Snabe with McLaren and Nespresso and More

Having seen Bill McDermott take the stage at yesterday’s keynote (he was amazing), today it was co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe’s turn to give us his perspective on SAP and how we are helping customers to address their business challenges. Jim is a favorite presenter of mine; he always has interesting stories and research to share, and he does so with deft expertise from the big stage.

Thematically, he talked about the need for companies to optimize their resources and fuel growth through innovation. "You'll be at the table," Jim said, "but you're either eating or you're being eaten." (Punctuated by a gigantic photo of a tiger!) Pretty straightforward: innovate or face obsolescence; move forward or stagnate. (Good ZDnet story here.) He backed it up with scores of examples from SAP, SuccessFactors, Ariba, our partners, and our customers...

Jim brought several customers on stage. The CEO of McLaren, Ron Dennis, returned after SAPPHIRE NOW 2012 to share his company's success since last year. We also heard from Nespresso, Pepsi Co, Timken, and Accenture executives - each with success stories of innovation and business success with SAP.

Since SuccessFactors (an SAP company) CEO Lars Dalgard couldn't join us due to a family emergency, Jim also covered the cloud topic in some detail on Lars' behalf. The massive chart (below) told the audience everything it needed to know, providing resounding proof-points on SAP's commitment and leadership in the cloud:

$1 billion run-rate of cloud revenues
29 million users of SAP cloud solutions
- for People, Customer, Money, and Supplier solutions
9.8 million SAP Jam subscribers
world's largest business network (Ariba - another SAP company)
$460 billion in annual transactions processed over the SAP Ariba buyer/seller network

For more on our announcements, see the news releases from today and this week.

See a short summary video of Jim's keynote (under 3 minutes).

See the full video of Jim's keynote (1 hour, 15 minutes).

See dozens of on-demand videos from SAPPHIRE NOW.

Wall-to-Wall Innovation from SAP and Partners

There are more than 240 SAP partners here in Orlando, and the show floor is buzzing. From the very large (Deloitte, Accenture, Cisco...) to midsize and small, the range of SAP extensions and innovations is downright impressive. There's far more than any one attendee could ever take-in during the 3+ days of SAPPHIRE NOW. Here's a quick Vine video (6 seconds).

I attempted to capture it with a panoramic shot:

There are, of course, plenty more innovations coming from SAP industries (25 of them), lines-of-business, the five major innovation areas (cloud, mobile, analytics, database & technology, big data ... with social and business networks thrown in for good measure), services, a startup focus, and much more.

One of the very cool startup innovations I saw in the SAP HANA area was Tracx... They provide social media insight and intelligence such as dashboards and beautiful visuals that answer questions like: what is the volume of social media activity around a topic, which social channels are most active and relevant to this event, who are the key influencers on our topic, what are the hot tweets or other content mentioning our product or brand ... Really cool stuff like the dashboard below -- but also be sure to take a peek at our live SAPPHIRE NOW social traffic via Tracx.

Focus on the Marketing Line of Business

Since I'm in the Marketing team at SAP, I paid special attention to a set of marketing presentations by CMO's and others attending SAPPHIRE NOW. Topic-specific presentations like these are happening all over the show floor in various Forums and demo areas.

Some of the Great SAPPHIRE NOW Resources!

I have a few favorite blogs from among the dozens being produced by many of the attendees here in Orlando. Check these out:

Doing Good While Doing Well

One of the most important things we did here at SAPPHIRE NOW didn't involve technology or innovation or business, but it was nevertheless highly impactful and beneficial to the world around us.

More than 1,000 attendees volunteered their time to pack food for orphans in Sierra Leone, where children (and adults) are literally eating grass and dirt because there's nothing else for them to fill their empty bellies. Two NBA stars stopped by to help, through a relationship between the NBA and SAP. Together, we packed 300,000 meals! Check the video:

Big Plans for Tomorrow

Tomorrow (Thursday) will be jam-packed again... Highlights include:

Keynote by Hasso Plattner and Vishal Sikka - “SAP HANA Changes Everything!” (watch live, online, at 8:30am Eastern time)
Hasso-Vishal press conference right after they keynote ends (watch for great questions from the SAP Mentors)
Meetings with internal SAP teams: the SAP University Alliances crew, my SAP Regional marketing colleagues, many others
Show floor - visit partners and SAP booths - consume as much innovation as possible
Concert: with Alan Jackson, Bonnie Raitt (Yes! Love her!), and Martina McBride

See the full online live broadcast schedule and join us!

How Can You Not Be Watching?!

We have 12 video channels streaming high-definition video from SAPPHIRE NOW in Orlando.

Find one that relates to topics you care about, and join us virtually if you can't be with us physically. You'll find a wealth of interesting content and speakers on the following topic-specific video channels:

Keynote & Executive Interviews
Analytics and Mobile
Database & Technology
Cloud and Business Networks
Partners and SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises)
Industries and LOBs (lines of business)
Global Communications Center
Forums A, B, C, D (different topics at each forum every day)
ASUG News

Find all 12 high-def live video channels on all 18 broad topics at our virtual events center: events.SAP.com!

Weather forecast: sunny, with chance of clouds likely only in Hasso's and Vishal's keynote (SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud)...