We are excited to bring you a new call with nfatima14 (XM Expert and Community Lead) and jan.musil (Chief Product Owner, SAP Activate) to discuss the Experience Management topic! Over the course of about 20 minutes, Jan and Nishat covered many questions you may be wondering when it comes to SAP Activate and Experience Management (XM).
You can find the key highlights of the conversation below along with time stamps and a summary of each question asked. Additionally, we encourage you to check out the recorded video Conversation with Jan Musil, Chief Product Owner, SAP Activate here as it was an engaging session.
A little about Jan Musil... Jan brings over 25 years of experience within SAP which ties into this new topic of SAP Activate which has been recently rolled out, Experience Management. He is very skilled with his many roles and teams he has been a part of to lead, as the Chief Product Owner, the SAP Activate team to produce the implementation guidance and content a team can utilize for any solution (Cloud, On-Premise, and/or a combination of various products) for a successful project deployment from the Discover phase all the way through the Run phase of an implementation.
There has been a significant shift with moving into cloud implementations in the space of SAP software. Previously, cloud was initially a small part of the conversation. However, seeing the shift from On-Premise to more cloud projects, customers and partners are starting to think about how to adopt a standard solution which is cloud based that is consumed as a services rather than maintaining the infrastructure, software, and workload and moving it to cloud and consuming it as a service. This has been the past history.
Now looking at SAP Activate and how this fits in, there were methodologies in the past like ASAP that were used for On-Premise implementations. in 2014, before SAP Activate was introduced in the market (in 2015), the re-design of implementations was done. The assets and ready to run business processes helped customers imagine what the solution would look like through actually seeing the business processes running as they went through fit-to-standard workshops and assess the needs for delta requirements and any additional necessary integrations which can occur in a project.
Keeping in mind, the mindset of "standard first" was at the forefront. This was the major transformation which was made in implementations and to think about how you leverage the standard and how you focus on the differentiating processes and practices and preserving them as these things help preserve the value. All of this being said, SAP Activate is designed alongside this mindset and industry standard. In addition, for a company to use agile techniques to implement them in cycles and sprints to get the solution deployed to the business as quickly as possible.
Jan mentions when you move from an on-premise environment and start operating in a cloud environment, things speed up and there is a leap of faster cycles of innovation and enablement which is needed to embrace the cloud model and the SAP Activate content which we provide for this type of deployment.
In the past, the methodologies were buried in tools within SAP. when you look at Solution Manager, you can access the methodologies in the tool directly but you had to go through a couple of steps. However, with SAP Activate, the methodology is opened up to everyone with content in an easy to consume way on the SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer. The end goal of the experience is to have a rich and thriving community and that is something which we have done. We engage directly with our end users and give them the straight answers without any buffers or additional layers of communication.
The experience when Jan thinks about when he shops and tries to rethink how to bring the content of SAP Activate to our users is very similar. Throughout this process, we are improving the experience and we are learning as well. Listening to our users and improving the functionality is key. Throughout the evolution of SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer from when it was first introduced to where we have it today, there are so many great changes, improvements, and enhancements for our consumers and end-users all brought through the experience we are providing.
To see the full answer Jan gave to this question, click here starting at 8:17.
We are introducing a significant change to the business users, at a fast pace. Business users which took months to transition from their existing processes and practices to new processes and practices, need to accelerate that change. Having that pulse on how that goes with the Experience Management which was built into SAP Activate really improves the chances of the change being managed well. It allows monitoring of the sentiment of the users and the project team and add it to the traditional metrics we have in projects. Not everything can be managed through scope, time, and other hard metrics which are very important - but Experience Management adds additional dimensions to help improve the chances of success.
To see the full answer Jan gave to this question, click here starting at 11:28.
The XM content is available in the SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer in the following solution:
You can filter on the XM Transformation specific content via our left-hand navigation options to yield all content pertaining to this solution.
We focused initially on the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition solution. We have done this mainly because these projects are going through a significant transformation. We see a lot of customers that would have focused on on-premise to really shift into cloud - into private cloud. You can expect the XM content in other implementation roadmaps soon as this content is easy to use in other cloud solutions as well.
You can also use the search functionality in the SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer as well to yield all of the results for the XM content across all of the solutions which it is currently offered in.
To see the full answer Jan gave to this question, click here starting at 13:39.
We have a motto: "small improvements every day." It is embedded on how we work in the SAP Activate team and other teams as well. It really makes a huge difference if you make those small improvements everyday - they add up over time. Jan is a big proponent of agile thinking and an agile mindset. As an example as to why this is important:
We used to update SAP Activate content every six months (prior to SAP Activate, content was updated every 12-18 months), and the amount of change we introduced every time we updated was so disruptive and required a lot of learning. Whereas, when we go through the continuous updating, every two weeks, there are minor changes but they add up to significant improvements over time.
We had the mindset of "how do we help our customers continue what they were aiming to accomplish by doing those improvements." We, still, continue to do updates like these with the customer in mind, every two weeks. Agile is a groundbreaking mindset change that people should consider adopting as it generates a lot of benefits.
To see the full answer Jan gave to this question, click here starting at 15:13.
Kelsey Lapczynski / SAP Activate Team
Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast
As always, I would like to encourage you to subscribe to our new podcast “Inside SAP S/4HANA.” This podcast leverages the unique knowledge and expertise of SAP S/4HANA product experts, partners and customers to address your needs by sharing product insights and project best practice. There is no customer success without product success and project success; we help you get to the next level and make your SAP S/4HANA projects a success. Subscribe now and benefit from the shared knowledge.
openSAP Microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA
Just a couple of months ago, we launched openSAP microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA as an exciting new learning opportunity. What began with a small batch of 20 videos, has now become a channel with more than 50 microlearnings that have generated over 20,000 views since then. Today we cover multiple lines of business, like Finance and Manufacturing & Supply Chain, and key technology topics like Master Data Management, Extensibility, User Experience, and Upgrade Management. We are continuously adding new microlearnings to the SAP S/4HANA channel, so make sure you check them out.
Your voice matters!
If you want to learn more and actively engage with SAP subject matter experts on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, join our SAP S/4HANA Cloud Customer Community. This platform which is available to SAP S/4HANA Cloud customers and partners has a clear mission: deliver an interactive community to engage with one another about best practices and product solutions.
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:
Follow us via @Sap and #SAPS4HANAValueSeries #SAPActivate
You can find the key highlights of the conversation below along with time stamps and a summary of each question asked. Additionally, we encourage you to check out the recorded video Conversation with Jan Musil, Chief Product Owner, SAP Activate here as it was an engaging session.
Key Highlights of the video:
0:54 - Can you tell me about your journey at SAP?
A little about Jan Musil... Jan brings over 25 years of experience within SAP which ties into this new topic of SAP Activate which has been recently rolled out, Experience Management. He is very skilled with his many roles and teams he has been a part of to lead, as the Chief Product Owner, the SAP Activate team to produce the implementation guidance and content a team can utilize for any solution (Cloud, On-Premise, and/or a combination of various products) for a successful project deployment from the Discover phase all the way through the Run phase of an implementation.
3:49 - What is the importance of the cloud strategy and where does SAP Activate fit into it?
There has been a significant shift with moving into cloud implementations in the space of SAP software. Previously, cloud was initially a small part of the conversation. However, seeing the shift from On-Premise to more cloud projects, customers and partners are starting to think about how to adopt a standard solution which is cloud based that is consumed as a services rather than maintaining the infrastructure, software, and workload and moving it to cloud and consuming it as a service. This has been the past history.
Now looking at SAP Activate and how this fits in, there were methodologies in the past like ASAP that were used for On-Premise implementations. in 2014, before SAP Activate was introduced in the market (in 2015), the re-design of implementations was done. The assets and ready to run business processes helped customers imagine what the solution would look like through actually seeing the business processes running as they went through fit-to-standard workshops and assess the needs for delta requirements and any additional necessary integrations which can occur in a project.
Keeping in mind, the mindset of "standard first" was at the forefront. This was the major transformation which was made in implementations and to think about how you leverage the standard and how you focus on the differentiating processes and practices and preserving them as these things help preserve the value. All of this being said, SAP Activate is designed alongside this mindset and industry standard. In addition, for a company to use agile techniques to implement them in cycles and sprints to get the solution deployed to the business as quickly as possible.
Jan mentions when you move from an on-premise environment and start operating in a cloud environment, things speed up and there is a leap of faster cycles of innovation and enablement which is needed to embrace the cloud model and the SAP Activate content which we provide for this type of deployment.
8:17 - What is your take on Experience Management?
In the past, the methodologies were buried in tools within SAP. when you look at Solution Manager, you can access the methodologies in the tool directly but you had to go through a couple of steps. However, with SAP Activate, the methodology is opened up to everyone with content in an easy to consume way on the SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer. The end goal of the experience is to have a rich and thriving community and that is something which we have done. We engage directly with our end users and give them the straight answers without any buffers or additional layers of communication.
The experience when Jan thinks about when he shops and tries to rethink how to bring the content of SAP Activate to our users is very similar. Throughout this process, we are improving the experience and we are learning as well. Listening to our users and improving the functionality is key. Throughout the evolution of SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer from when it was first introduced to where we have it today, there are so many great changes, improvements, and enhancements for our consumers and end-users all brought through the experience we are providing.
To see the full answer Jan gave to this question, click here starting at 8:17.
11:28 - What are the benefits of embedding XM into SAP Activate?
We are introducing a significant change to the business users, at a fast pace. Business users which took months to transition from their existing processes and practices to new processes and practices, need to accelerate that change. Having that pulse on how that goes with the Experience Management which was built into SAP Activate really improves the chances of the change being managed well. It allows monitoring of the sentiment of the users and the project team and add it to the traditional metrics we have in projects. Not everything can be managed through scope, time, and other hard metrics which are very important - but Experience Management adds additional dimensions to help improve the chances of success.
To see the full answer Jan gave to this question, click here starting at 11:28.
13:39 - Which of the SAP Activate roadmaps currently have XM content available in?
The XM content is available in the SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer in the following solution:
You can filter on the XM Transformation specific content via our left-hand navigation options to yield all content pertaining to this solution.
- Click the "Content" tab of the SAP Activate Methodology for RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition implementation roadmap
- Scroll down on the left-hand side of the filtering options to "More"
- Select "XM Transformation"
Filtering on the XM Transformation Content
We focused initially on the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition solution. We have done this mainly because these projects are going through a significant transformation. We see a lot of customers that would have focused on on-premise to really shift into cloud - into private cloud. You can expect the XM content in other implementation roadmaps soon as this content is easy to use in other cloud solutions as well.
You can also use the search functionality in the SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer as well to yield all of the results for the XM content across all of the solutions which it is currently offered in.
To see the full answer Jan gave to this question, click here starting at 13:39.
15:13 - What advice do you have for our audience?
We have a motto: "small improvements every day." It is embedded on how we work in the SAP Activate team and other teams as well. It really makes a huge difference if you make those small improvements everyday - they add up over time. Jan is a big proponent of agile thinking and an agile mindset. As an example as to why this is important:
We used to update SAP Activate content every six months (prior to SAP Activate, content was updated every 12-18 months), and the amount of change we introduced every time we updated was so disruptive and required a lot of learning. Whereas, when we go through the continuous updating, every two weeks, there are minor changes but they add up to significant improvements over time.
We had the mindset of "how do we help our customers continue what they were aiming to accomplish by doing those improvements." We, still, continue to do updates like these with the customer in mind, every two weeks. Agile is a groundbreaking mindset change that people should consider adopting as it generates a lot of benefits.
Additionally, engage with the SAP Activate team directly with any feedback and questions you may have via the SAP Activate Community (make sure to follow the community page) as the team and community members are very engaging in our thriving community - come join us!
To see the full answer Jan gave to this question, click here starting at 15:13.
Kelsey Lapczynski / SAP Activate Team
Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast
As always, I would like to encourage you to subscribe to our new podcast “Inside SAP S/4HANA.” This podcast leverages the unique knowledge and expertise of SAP S/4HANA product experts, partners and customers to address your needs by sharing product insights and project best practice. There is no customer success without product success and project success; we help you get to the next level and make your SAP S/4HANA projects a success. Subscribe now and benefit from the shared knowledge.
openSAP Microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA
Just a couple of months ago, we launched openSAP microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA as an exciting new learning opportunity. What began with a small batch of 20 videos, has now become a channel with more than 50 microlearnings that have generated over 20,000 views since then. Today we cover multiple lines of business, like Finance and Manufacturing & Supply Chain, and key technology topics like Master Data Management, Extensibility, User Experience, and Upgrade Management. We are continuously adding new microlearnings to the SAP S/4HANA channel, so make sure you check them out.
Your voice matters!
If you want to learn more and actively engage with SAP subject matter experts on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, join our SAP S/4HANA Cloud Customer Community. This platform which is available to SAP S/4HANA Cloud customers and partners has a clear mission: deliver an interactive community to engage with one another about best practices and product solutions.
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud release info: http://www.sap.com/s4-cloudrelease
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud Release Blogs here
- SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel here
- Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
- Product videos on our SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA YouTube playlist
- Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud Customer Community: register here
- SAP Activate Community here
- Feature Scope Description here
- What’s New here
- Help Portal Product Page here
- Implementation Portal here
Follow us via @Sap and #SAPS4HANAValueSeries #SAPActivate
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