What do you call an event that is part solution showcase, part community forum, part brainstorming session & part vacation? The answer is 100% rewarding. This year we also called it ASUG 2011 (America's SAP Users Group), which took place at Lake Lanier in Georgia, and it was a huge success! With that said, my hope is you will enjoy reading about it and make plans to be at the next event in 2012.
Lake Lanier Resort was amazing & supported the type of off-campus brainstorming sessions and casual discussions that transform memorable presentations into actionable items which will benefit an entire organization for years to come. Presentations, which ranged from executive level “Best Practices,” and “Dashboards” to technical topics like “Enhancing the Supply Chain,” “The Future of Mobility” and “The Future in Memory Processing.” All of which illustrated effective ways companies in industries like Oilfield Services and others, can increase agility, leverage mobile technology, improve business intelligence & streamline collaboration. On top of great presentations and conversations, activities like golfing, prize drawings, and evening events by the lake kept everything fun and fostered fresh perspectives.
It was also apparent that contributions and commitments of key individuals like Carl Lewis, who orchestrated the multifaceted forum, were fueled by a passion to make the event enjoyable as well as informative. SAP contributed leading speakers who described the how SAP Business One has matured into a global business management software solution which continues to benefit from deeper functionality, increased extensibility and more ways to access & host your solution. ASUG sponsors also contributed on a multitude of levels, and without them it wouldn’t have been the same caliber of event. They showcased a myriad of methods for making SAP Business One a more scalable, multidimensional solution, one that can be configured and customized to meet the unique needs of any industry. FieldVu, for example, helps the Energy Services sector extend SAP Business One’s field management capabilities.
Undoubtedly, users were a critical key to the success. ASUG brings together a tremendous collection of talented system users, partners & developers who can compare notes, tackle problems, ask questions and strategize on ways to improve performance. Exchanging questions & ideas fuels conversations resulting in new ways to leverage configurations and polish current processes. One of the hidden benefits of attending is learning about how to make the most of one’s current SAP investment, and users can prepare themselves to take advantage of the next level of process automation, controls & scalability.
After the events on Lake Lanier came to a close VistaVu Solutions partners had one more event to attend, and it was an exceptionally exhilarating activity. To help its strategic partners stay “revved up” about everything they learn during the week, VistaVu invited those in attendance to the Atlanta Motor Speedway where they raced around the track at 140mph! What does racing a car at rates of speed that rival a Category 4 hurricane have to do with running your business? Simply put, sometimes we need to get out of our “comfort zone” and learn how to RUN FASTER. You quickly realize how your focus improves and you CAN adjust to a faster way doing business. Surprisingly, it takes less time than you think to accelerate to new levels of speed. In less time than it takes a piranha to fillet a fish, your senses sharpen and everything that isn’t critical to getting the job done fades from view.
The success of ASUG 2011 started with a clear vision, committed individuals and a community of talented users who share common goals. It was a success because of a continued commitment by SAP to invest more into SAP Business One, a solution that is helping organizations around the globe become better run businesses (after all, over 45% of SAP installations worldwide are SAP Business One). And lastly and most importantly, it was a success because of the lessons people took away from the forum. Their renewed sense of what is possible and how to make their organizations the best they can be made ASUG 2011 rewarding for everyone. Hopefully I will see you at ASUG 2012!
