SAP Peer Forum
The SAP Peer Forum offers best practices and lessons learned through member-led and analyst-facilitated teleconferences, summits, and webcasts. These events are targeted to executives from numerous industries, including consumer products, chemical, life sciences, high tech, and industrial. Members share experiences, survey results, and case study presentations to maximize ROI and implement improve business processes.
Actionable advice through peer interactions.
Our structured peer networking events allow executives to learn peer insights, which shortens project timelines, ensures effective resource utilization, and prevents failed implementations.
Recommended Research
Teleconferences- Clients
- Testimonials
- Benefits
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Past Events
Extracting Maximum Value from your SAP Support Contract
Wednesday, February
24, 2010
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Teleconference
Given the escalating cost of your SAP support contract it is vital more than ever to maximize the quality of service that you get from SAP Active Global Support. This teleconference will explore what best practices members are using for getting the most value. How do you get your support service requests resolved as quickly as possible? What services does Enterprise Support entitle you? Are members considering moving to the recently announced new Standard Support? Will this save you much money? How do you choose? Are the lower cost 3rd party providers a real option?
If you have questions, please contact Kerin McGonagle.
Project Portfolio Prioritization and Governance
Wednesday, March
24, 2010
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Teleconference
With limited resources and a constantly growing list of projects, selecting the right business projects to execute is a big challenge for many SAP customers. In this call, we will explore what steps companies use to select and prioritize projects to execute. What governance processes are in place to manage the project portfolio? How do you ensure projects are executed inline with business objectives? How do you balance multiple projects into one comprehensive portfolio? What organizational structure ensures effective project governance? Lastly, we’ll explore what formal methodologies (such as stage gate) and tools are used.
If you have questions, please contact Kerin McGonagle.
Improving the SAP User Interface to Increase Adoption
Wednesday, May
26, 2010
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Teleconference
IT executives are striving to improve the overall adoption of SAP software within the enterprise, especially among the business users who are not constantly using the system. In this teleconference, AMR Research will highlight key UI design principles that companies have used to improve adoption of SAP, and then facilitate a discussion among Peer Forum members around what design techniques are most successful. Lastly, we will discuss the tools and technologies members use to support deploying SAP effectively to professional users as well as the role and future of SAP Enterprise Portal.
If you have questions, please contact Kerin McGonagle.
Best Practices in Business Process Measurement and Metrics
Wednesday, June
23, 2010
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Teleconference
This teleconference explores the following questions: How do you measure the performance of business processes and the financial implications? How do you tie it to the corporate goals or balanced scorecard? How do you decompose top-level goals as you work your way down the organization chart? How well is SAP supporting your end users with its BI products and content? How do you measure how different departments are utilizing the systems? What tools and techniques are members using to get hard data? What ERP system features and capabilities from the ERP, BPM, BI, and system monitoring vendors can be pressed into service?
If you have questions, please contact Kerin McGonagle.
Partial Client List
Adidas
Bayer Material Science
Bemis Company
Bristol Myers Squibb Co.
Campbell Soup Company
Cardinal Health
Dow Chemical
Eastman Kodak
FMC Corporation
General Mills
Kellogg Company
Levi Strauss & Co.
Mckesson
Merck
NBC Universal
Novo Nordisk
Pilkington
Textron
Unilever
Weyerhaeuser
“As a CIO, you get bombarded with information through many channels. It is important to be able to trust the source. With the AMR Research SAP Peer Forum, I know that the data, context, and background of the information is valid, important, and relevant. This peer forum is one of the few groups that is driven by competent members from a broad industry spectrum. Combining this with AMR Research's industry knowledge creates a very valuable tool that is key in today's market for each IT leader."
-Karl Wachs, Chief Information Officer, Celanese Chemical
“The SAP Peer Forum has helped our organization by providing a unique opportunity to discuss future trends and directions, share challenges we face, and to help us leverage the learning of others by sharing best practices, approaches and failures.”
-Vicki A. Nagy, Director, Application Operations, Film Products Group, Eastman Kodak.
"Thanks in advance for sending [the teleconference presentation] - and to your presenters for a spectacularly informative session! Dow values its long-term relationship with AMR and we're pleased to work with you in this way."
[referring to June 2009 Multivendor Portal Strategies teleconference]
-Brian Bell, I/S Technical Architect, The Dow Chemical Company.
“The AMR SAP Peer Forum is exceptionally valuable to us because it brings us into contact with other SAP customers who can tell us about their experiences in working with SAP and implementing SAP products and services.”
-Chris Meredith, VP, Enterprise Applications, Honeywell International.
“To me the biggest value is 'making it real'. To hear from other SAP customers about common issues and opportunities is very beneficial vs. relying on vendors or consulting partners.”
-Volker Schulmeyer, VP, Solution Architecture, PepsiCo.
“The teleconference was very useful and answered many of my questions ... Thanks.”
[referring to June 2009 Multivendor Portal Strategies teleconference]
-Dave Walsh, Section Head, Research and Engineering, ExxonMobil Corporation.
“AMR’s SAP Peer Forum has provided me with valuable insight to what my peers are doing regarding SAP implementations with no filtering by implementation partners or software vendors. The Peer Forum has helped me avoid cost and risk by learning from others’ experiences.”
-Jim Walters, Director, SAP Solution Center, Abbott
“Thank you for hosting an insightful discussion on the Multivendor Portal Strategies. The session highlighted sophisticated ways of engaging different technologies to optimize the end-user portal experience.”
[referring to June 2009 Multivendor Portal Strategies teleconference]
-Yana Walker, Sr. Project Manager, Business Systems & Processes, Wyeth Corporation.
“Thanks many. [The networking discussion on SAP Testing Tools] was a great idea and an excellent way for learning and sharing with others so they can benefit.”
-Pierre Martinez, Lead IS Specialist-SAP Systems, NuStar Energy
“I truly enjoyed the call. It was very informative and has opened up a lot of interesting scenarios for my team to think about. ”
[referring to March 2009 BPM teleconference]
-Kevin Stringer, GBIP Team Leader, Eli Lilly & Co.
“Thanks for an excellent peer forum yesterday. That whole discussion of capable-to-match vs. heuristics was a ‘light-bulb moment’ for our head of planning IT. You may just have saved us millions of dollars in avoided rework. You’ve also opened my team’s eyes to the many more benchmarking opportunities ahead of us through the forum itself."
[referring to the Dec 2009 SAP SNP teleconference]
- VP Global Supply Chain Strategy, $17 Billion Dollar Consumer Products Company.
Benefits
- AMR Research expert analysts draw best practices out of interactions
- Peer experiences promoting good decision-making, maximizing ROI, and improving process effectiveness
- Education and development opportunities for your team without the travel expense
- Unlimited participation at all levels of your organization
Deliverables
- Executive In-Person Summits: Members can send 2 attendees to each of the semiannual Executive Summits. These are highly interactive, in-depth sessions that focus on specific topics published ahead of time.
- Monthly teleconference calls: Members receive unlimited access to all scheduled Peer Forum Teleconferences. Each 90-minute teleconference brings together peers in their community for an open discussion on a predetermined agenda.
- Bi-weekly newsletter: Members receive the Peer Forum Newsletter twice a month. Detailing all new and pressing information pertaining to the Peer Forum, it is AMR Research's primary means of communicating with members, including asking them for input and sending invitations for participation in Peer Forum activities.
- Written key findings and lessons learned from summits and teleconferences: Shortly after each teleconference and Executive Summit, AMR Research will publish a summary of the major discussion points and findings.
- Member-to-member peer networking to address specific questions or needs
- Member-driven agendas refreshed every 6 months
Advanced Planning Systems for SAP Shops
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Please join AMR Research Analysts, David Aquino and Paul Lord, for this cross-forum teleconference with SAP and Supply Chain members, as we discuss Advanced Planning Systems for SAP Shops.
Within the overall sales and operations planning (S&OP) process, supply planning is an important sub-process for matching demand with the capability to deliver profitably. In this teleconference, SAP Peer Forum members, together with Supply Chain Peer Forum participants, will discuss what technologies are successfully used for effective supply planning. We will discuss how supply planning technologies accommodate production of inventory plans and capacity plans. What techniques have members used for successfully calculating inventory levels across nodes as well as for determining capacity and material requirements? Lastly, we will discuss scalability, usability, and functional strengths and weaknesses of advanced supply planning technologies.
Exploiting SAP ERP 6.0 Enhancement Packs
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
If you have breathed a sigh of relief as you successfully completed your SAP ERP 6.0 upgrade project, what next? Which, if any, of the SAP Enhancement Packs for ERP 6.0 have you installed? What tips and tricks have you picked up for the actual installation and selective activation of them? What brand new functionality have you been able to directly exploit within these Enhancement Packs? How much real effort was it and how much business value from them did you derive so far? Does the SAP Enhancement Pack strategy help you introduce new functionalities that your business users need more quickly? Does this new innovation from SAP help you introduce changes at lower costs than before?
BusinessObjects Roadmap and Pricing with SAP
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Peer Forum Insights
On September 23, 2009, the SAP Peer Forum held a teleconference titled “SAP BusinessObjects Best Practices”. In this teleconference, members raised several questions about the SAP BusinessObjects roadmap and pricing models. As follow up, AMR Research worked with SAP to secure executives to address these member submitted questions. This call will explore: What is the SAP BusinessObject roadmap? Where will the functionality line be drawn between SAP BW and BOBJ? What is SAP future strategy for reporting? What is SAP’s pricing model for BusinessObjects and other reporting solutions?
Near Zero Downtime with SAP
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
On July 22, the AMR Research SAP Peer Forum held a teleconference "Minimizing Planned Downtime Windows For SAP Production Systems." Following that call, AMR Research escalated to SAP's senior Active Global Support executives that many members believed that reducing SAP Planned Downtime was of utmost importance. As a follow up, SAP offered to hold this webcast/teleconference to respond to this assertion and to answer questions about SAP near zero downtime initiatives.
SAP Peer Forum Fall Executive Summit
November 10, 2009
Peer Forum Insights
- SAP Peer Forum Summit Session: SAP COE Budgeting and Staffing: How Much is Required?
- SAP Peer Forum Summit Session: Maximizing Your SAP Relationship Effectiveness
The SAP Peer Forum Executive Summit is an all-day in-person networking event where members will discuss these strategic SAP topics:
• SAP COE Staffing: What Head Count Is Really Required?
• SAP COE Operating Budgets: How Much Is Enough?
• Maximizing Your SAP Relationship
If you have questions, please contact Crystal Ellis.
Solution Manager
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Peer Forum Insights
Which companies are successfully using Solution Manager? What are the major benefits? How is it used to streamline testing automation efforts? What difficulties are faced when moving to solution manager and how to overcome them? Experiences linking together HP Quality Center and Solution Manager? Techniques for managing multiple projects affecting the same business process in Solution Manager?
Encore Session: Fast Payback SAP Projects for IT Cost Savings
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Measuring the IT cost savings from your SAP projects is critical, especially in an economic downturn. In this teleconference, we will review the results of the SAP Peer Forum field study designed to understand what SAP projects Peer Forum members have implemented to achieve a fast IT operations savings. You will hear about successful projects from two Peer Forum members: Rohm and Haas on their server virtualization project and Hospira about an automated testing project. This teleconference will be a replay of the Spring Summit session in Palo Alto, CA, and will provide input about quick win projects you may be able to implement in your organization.
SAP Business Objects Best Practices
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The February 09 teleconference on SAP Business Warehouse (BW) very successfully identified real world experiences for just the SAP BW product. After the dust has settled on the SAP’s Business Objects (BO) road map, what similar product best practices do members have for SAP BO? How well does it actually work with SAP BW? Where are the gotchas?
Encore Session: Fast Payback SAP Projects for Business Process Improvement
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Measuring the business value from your investment with SAP is critical. In this teleconference, we will review the results of a field study designed to understand what business improvement projects Peer Forum members have implemented to achieve a fast payback. You will hear about successful projects from two Peer Forum members: Hospira on implementing a drop ship process with 3rd party providers and Pilkington on their SRM implementation for procurement. This teleconference will be a replay of the Spring Summit session in Palo Alto, CA, and will provide input about quick win projects you may be able to implement in your organization.
Supplier Management and Collaboration on SAP: So many choices!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Peer Forum Insights
Companies running SAP who are looking to build electronic interfaces to their supply base have many choices - SRM, SNC, and NetWeaver PI, GXS, Sterling, e2open, SupplyOn, Liason Technologies. Do you need EDI or a supplier portal or both? Do some tools encourage more collaborative relationships? Is it more cost effective to roll your own with a portal and EAI tools or should you outsource more of the support and day to day operation to a managed service? We’ll poll members about their current approaches and future plans and enlist a member co-lead to talk about the pros and cons of their approach.
Minimizing Planned Downtime Windows For SAP Production Systems
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Peer Forum Insights
Previous Peer Forum discussions have raised this as a critical operations issue for companies running large instances, particularly of ERP. This teleconference will drill into further detail by examining the exact durations of a set of predefined activities for the planned downtime window. Tools and techniques for squeezing the duration of this window to an absolute minimum will be examined.
Multivendor Portal Strategies
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Peer Forum Insights
The notion of a “unified portal framework” that helps companies address all of their user interaction, content management, and collaboration needs is undeniably attractive, but few companies have accomplished it. Most Peer Forummembers find themselves with multiple strategic portal providers, most commonly SAP and Microsoft SharePoint, as well as legacy products from IBM and BEA. How do companies get these offerings to work together, from a functional, architectural, and technical point of view? How do other user interaction products, mechanisms and interfaces, such as Duet and forms management, fit into the picture?Streamlining Your Non-SAP Integrations With NetWeaver XI/PI
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Peer Forum Insights
NetWeaver PI (formerly XI) is becoming increasingly popular within the Peer Forum as members seek to simplify their plethora of interfaces between SAP ERP and non-SAP systems. This session will discuss the integration challenges and best practices for the PI/XI A2A and B2B integration hub. What integration styles are being used with PI/XI? How reliable is it and what skills are needed to both set it up and operate it? How effective are the SAP-supplied integrations, especially master data synchronization? Is there any PI 7.1 experience yet of SOA integration styles, or of SAP Business Connector replacement? Has anyone found ways around the licensing challenge with it?SAP Peer Forum EMEA Spring Executive Summit
April 28, 2009
Peer Forum Insights
Networking Dinner will be held at the Aces of Clubs at the SAP golf club (Opelstrasse 30, 68789 St. Leon Rot) on April 27th, 2009 at 8pm. Shuttle service will be provided from the hotel to dinner.SAP Peer Forum Spring Executive Summit
April 14 - 15, 2009
Peer Forum Insights
- SAP Peer Forum Summit Session: Fast Payback SAP Projects For Reducing Business Expense
- SAP Peer Forum Summit Session: SAP Outsourcing—How Far Is Far Enough When Seeking a Balanced Outsourcing Model?
- SAP Peer Forum Summit: Town Hall Meeting With Kaj van de Loo, SVP in the Office of the CTO
- SAP Peer Forum Summit Session: Town Hall Meeting with John Schwarz—Business Objects
- SAP Peer Forum Summit Session: Experiences With the SAP ERP 6.0 Upgrade
Business Process Management (BPM)
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Peer Forum Insights
To focus business transformation efforts and roll them out globally, companies need to consolidate widespread process improvement with business strategy activities and start building a business architecture that supports continuous change. SAP has its Business Process Repository, which evolved out of its ASAP methodology and used in conjunction with Solution Manager and the new SAP BPM product (Galaxy). However, there are a variety of tools companies can look to. What are SAP Peer Forum members doing in this space?Managing BW/NetWeaver BI
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Peer Forum Insights
Managing SAP’s BW/NetWeaver/BI requires considerable ongoing effort for success. Over the years SAP Peer Forum members have cited several best practices to make BW/NetWeaver BI work for them. This discussion will revisit best practices from SAP Peer Forum members and will focus on how companies are managing the growth of their environments. What governance have companies adopted? Is BW/NetWeaver BI scalable to the multi-terabyte size that companies are encountering?Maximizing SAP Business Value Throughout the SAP Lifecycle
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Peer Forum Insights
Nearly all SAP Peer Forum members have expressed the desire to improve their relationship with their business counterparts. Companies are looking for ways to measure both the effectiveness of the Business/IT relationship and the real business value generated from their investments in SAP. This session will share some best-in-class examples of what SAP customers can do to get closer than ever to the business decision-makers to measure and continuously improve their business/IT relationship, be much more responsive to business needs, demonstrate cost-effectiveness, defend their budgets, and retain their talented people.SAP Business Intelligence and Performance Management Update Teleconference
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Peer Forum Insights
SAP’s Business Objects acquisition has left many customers wondering what it means to them and their Business Intelligence/Performance Management plans. Many Peer Forum members are trying to figure out how the market consolidation will impact their BI and PM strategies. This session will provide an update of SAP’s roadmap and what Peer Forum members are actually doing and planning to do.Critical Operations Procedures for SAP Production Systems: Disaster Recovery and Planned Downtime Teleconference
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Peer Forum Insights
This teleconference will discuss two critical operations procedures, disaster recovery and planned downtime management. For most Peer Forum members SAP applications are mission-critical. But how good are they are disaster recovery/ business recovery? What technical tools to companies use for replicating data to another datacenter? How often do companies do technical and full business recovery rehearsals? How can you optimize the standby hardware for other operations? How do companies plan, publish and manage planned downtime schedules for the year? Where are the biggest issues in reducing downtime further for the business?SAP in Manufacturing Teleconference
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Peer Forum Insights
Topics for discussion will include:- How are companies leveraging SAP to support shop floor activities?
- How do manufacturing plants integrate with SAP in a 24/7 manufacturing environment, given the business requires real time inventory tracking/accuracy, lot numbers, etc.?
- What have experiences been to date with SAP MII?
SAP Enterprise Support: What Does This Actually Mean For Me? Teleconference
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Utilization of SAP Demand Planning Teleconference
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Peer Forum Insights
This call is for those companies that are currently using SAP Demand Planning (DP) and would like to discuss how other companies are utilizing the offering. We will discuss how companies are using (or not using) SAP DP for the following functional areas:- Statistical forecasting
- Demand consensus building
- Sales and operations planning
- Demand shaping
- Collaborative demand planning (CPFR, VMI, etc)
Managing Mergers, Acquisitions, and Divestitures Teleconference
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Peer Forum Insights
What techniques and approaches have companies utilized to enable the rapid integration of new companies and their technologies? What is a realistic time frame, and how do you harmonize the acquired company’s data and business processes. What have companies done to expedite the transition during a divestiture and allow access to SAP for the acquiring company in a secure manner? How can you streamline the process of integrating new business activities into your existing SAP landscape? What are the best practices for pre-planning and blueprinting? Should joint ventures be handled differently?