SAP started off the year with a bang with the announcement that Business Suite will be available on HANA. This gives customers more database options, and the ability to process and analyse their data faster than ever before.
March saw SAP make a number of mobility announcements with SAP announcing the launch of its new Mobile Documents app, as well as a partnership with Ericsson to jointly market and sell its cloud-based, Machine to Machine (M2M) solutions.
In April, SAP and the User Group highlighted improvements to its Customer Connection programme, making it much simpler for SAP users to register to make suggestions for product development. We encourage our members to take further part in the Customer Connection programme in 2014.
In May, SAP announced that it is to be giving its customers the option of running their applications on top of a cloud-based version of HANA. This will allow customers outsource some of their more mundane transactional activities to the cloud, while being able to scale up as needed.
In June, SAP announced its intention to buy CRM and eCommerce player Hybris. With Hybris technology, SAP plans to flesh out its multi-channel eCommerce offering, and deliver enhanced customer insight and engagement across all channels.
July saw SAP Co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe announce that he will be stepping down, leaving Bill McDermott at the helm as sole CEO from May 2014. However, SAP was at pains to say it will be business as usual especially as Jim will be taking a place on SAPs supervisory board.
In September, SAP got busy with BI and Big Data. The company announced plans to acquire predictive analytics firm KXEN.. From a product perspective, SAP announced the latest release of SAP BusinessObjects. Version 4.1 promises to provide a simplified user interface and improved mobile worker access.
In October, here at the User Group we published the findings of our 2013 member survey. The findings highlighted that BusinessObjects usage continues to rise; however more than half of users did not think that support across Business Suite and BO was well integrated. In 2014 we will continue to work with SAP to address our members concerns.
And lastly, in November we held the 2013 UK & Ireland SAP User Group Conference in Birmingham. This year, product innovation, mobility, HANA and cloud were the big topics of conversation. Our 25th Anniversary conference was a huge success with a wide variety of topics covered and some excellent keynotes from Jim Hagemann Snabe and Mandy Hickson. Roll on this years event!
Only a few weeks into January and it already looks like this year will another busy and interesting one for SAP and its users alike.
Heres to a successful 2014!
