Membership of the
SAP UK & Ireland User Group has grown by 10% to more than
400 business organisations in the past year, says chairman
Alan Bowling.
In his first year as chairman, Bowling has established regular
briefing meetings with SAP UK chief operating officer Carolyn
Horne.
"Having a direct line of contact with SAP is an important new
development," he said.
The establishment of the
SAP User Group Executive Network (SUGEN) is another important
innovation in the past year.
SUGEN was formed by 12 regional SAP User Groups, including UK
& Ireland.
Bowling was among those SUGEN members to meet with SAP co-CEO
Leo Apotheker and other top management to reach the agreement on
Key Performance Indicators for SAP's controversial Enterprise
Support.
"SUGEN is important because it brings together a large body of
users that can influence SAP," said Bowling.
The areas of influence include upgrades, service-oriented
architecture, roadmaps and enterprise support.
This means the groups will be able to give feedback from users
on SAP's plans before anything is released.
Looking ahead, Bowling said his organisation will be talking to
the Business Objects user group about working together.
"Now that SAP has bought Business Objects they are part of the
same business so it makes sense for us to work with their user
group," said Bowling.
The two user groups will be looking at ways of working together
in the next three to four months.