I heard via Twitter that SAP was hosting an ASUG Virtual Summit and thought I’d check it out. Registration was free and allows downloads for a period of time after the event.

I listened to a presentation by Robert Enslin. He is the President of SAP North America. Listed under Keynote speaker when you first login.

We are hearing a lot about businesses not wanting to spend. ERP projects being put on hold until the economy turns around. But what Mr. Enslin was saying was on target: As a business one has to choose to prepare to emerge on top when the economy changes around or to be shaped by circumstances and hope for the best. Mr. Enslin of course would encourage choosing to “move forward with business regardless of the state of the economy.”

Sounds great but how are business decision makers supposed to do this? He called it clarity. Market strategies are changing minute by minute. Antiquated systems cannot get decision makers the information they need fast enough. Clarity is the ability to see clearly what is happening in every aspect of operations. “Best run businesses must see clearly, think clearly and act clearly.” In addition the business community anticipates additional pressures from the government as well as stake holders for transparency.

So how does a business achieve clarity? He identified 6 strategic areas.

Manage Cash

Run Lean Operations

Drive Compliance Activities

Get Closer to Best Customers

Retain Top Talent

Protect and Nurture Your Brand

He also noted that companies must move away from a cost focused mentality and toward value focus. To do this they need to identify and set strategic priorities and enable the strategy to achieve them with the intelligent use of IT. An agile IT platform is increasingly relevant, as the margin of error gets smaller and smaller.

SAP can help with Value Methodologies. Mr. Enslin identified 3 components here:

Discovery

Realization

Optimization

Discovery; start the discovery with benchmarking against peers. The ASUG SAP Benchmarking Program with benchmark by Industry, Region or Company Size.

Realize more Value. For a large business Suite 7 was released last November to 300 customers and released early this year (2009) for general availability. Mr. Enslin calls it “innovation with minimum disruption.” The enhancement package for Suite 7 recently released allows access to new functionality without upgrading.

Optimize Value. Here Mr. Enslin takes the opportunity to introduce SME offerings: Business All in One, Business by Design, and Business One.

Mr. Enslin cites G.T. Solar an All in One client: G.T. Solar was a $50 million revenue business without a central IT program. They implemented SAP Business All in One in 16 weeks, and over the last 2 years have seen 900% revenue growth.

The message is timely. We do not dispute the times, the economy or the uncertainty business is faced with; SAP offers tools to help businesses not only navigate through these times but to move forward regardless of them. DataXstream can help you choose which tools best fit your business needs and help your business realize the value of its SAP IT investment.