The UK & Ireland SAP User Group has announced the appointment of Paul Cooper as its new chairman, succeeding outgoing chairman, Philip Adams. Paul has more than 15 years’ experience working with SAP systems. He is currently head of IS at Burton’s Biscuit Company, and prior to that spent 10 years in SAP-related roles at Northern Foods and Bluefin Solutions. Paul was chair of the application life-cycle management Special Interest Group (SIG) for 10 years; he was appointed to the board of the User Group in 2011, and became vice-chair in 2013, before becoming chairman.
“I’m delighted to be taking on the role of chairman, and look forward to driving the continued growth of the User Group,” commented Paul Cooper. “As chairman, I will be focused on ensuring that the User Group remains relevant in today’s digital world. For example, in the last 18 months, the User Group has invested heavily in the UKISUG Jam platform – providing members with greater freedom to collaborate and share information online. We appreciate that members’ time is increasingly precious, so we will be looking to actively increase the number of online events we offer.”
The UK & Ireland SAP User Group currently has more than 5,000 individual members registered from more than 500 organisations. As part of the User Group’s continued expansion and strategy to engage with more line of business users, it has recently merged with the SuccessFactors User Group UK.
“SAP’s acquisition of SuccessFactors, Concur and Ariba has meant more line of business people are using the company’s product than ever before. Expanding our membership to include more line of business users is definitely an area we plan to focus on, as we continue to grow the User Group,” added Paul Cooper. “We also foresee the business process impact of Brexit as a likely area of concern for many of our members. So it will be important that we work closely with SAP to ensure users have the advice they need to navigate this period of uncertainty.”
