high sales are likely a result of external forces (a good economy, for example), but when sales lag, they focus inward to see what they can improve.
The “R” Word
After the Internet Boom came the crash when many lost fortunes as stocks sank. Value in stocks started return- ing in 2004 and we’ve had a pretty robust economy since then (though as many people pointed out, it is often called a “jobless” economy because value returned to companies without increasing employment much). But now things are starting to slow down again. There has even been mention of the dreaded “R” word (shhhhh - no one wants to admit that there might be a recession). The subprime credit crisis looms, and investors are getting nervous again. The War in Iraq has been going on for years, with no clear-cut end in sight. The stock market has been a bit, shall we say, variable. Pretty much everyone agrees: We should be preparing for less growth in the coming year than we had in the last few years.
Great companies do well in both
boom times AND
SAPtips
Page 70S
AP
tip
s
Journal
April/ May 2008
V
olume VI Issue 2
4CIO Corner
companies, these companies are wasting their money. If, instead, the company increases the amount of money spent on IT, then resources are used more effectively. Using the downtime to plan for, install, and implement new technologies (that fit into the hedgehog concept, of course) will enable the company to better meet the needs of the customer. When the economy returns, the company will be able to take advantage of the smoother processes and increased volumes to put money away to cover the increased costs during the NEXT recession. Both the company and the customer win in the long run.So the next time the CEO of a company goes to the CIO and asks the IT department to cut their budget while increasing money for advertising, consider whether that is really in the best interest of the company.
Dr. CJ Rhoads speaks and writes about leadership
development, business strategy and technology. She is the founder of ETM Associates, Inc., a Douglassville- based enterprise technology management consulting firm (ETMAssociates.com). She’s also an associate professor
in the College of Business at Kutztown University, and a widely published book author. Her company is currently looking for candidates for a program this summer to improve by “More Than A Million”. If you think your company would qualify, contact her email at
SAPtips
Page 71S
AP
tip
s
Journal
April/ May 2008
V
olume VI Issue 2
4On Humor
Editor’s Note: Did you start working with the Busi-
ness Information Warehouse (BIW) and consider yourself pretty much an expert, only to learn that BIW had become BW (Business Warehouse)? Then, as you adjusted to BW and thought you were the mas- ter of all you commanded…you learned that BW no longer existed, but BI (Business Information) was the data warehouse du jour for SAP. Do you find yourself confused…or worse…outdated, when it comes to the alphabet soup that is SAP? No worries, SAP career expert Jon Reed has a tutorial to bring you up to speed before you have a chance to make an acronym faux pas at the annual ASUG/Sapphire conference.
I have a running joke with a friend of mine who insists on pronouncing ABAP “Ayy-Bop”, as opposed to the more commonly heard pronunciation “Ahh Bop”. He says it’s just a case of “you say ‘to-mA-toes’, I say ‘to- mah-toes’”. I say that how we pronounce terms in the SAP world sends a clear message as to how much we know about the software.
And the more we know, the better the results. When in doubt, I pronounce SAP terms the way CEO Henning Kagermann and the rest of the guys on the board do it. That way, if I’m ever in front of them, I’ll hopefully fit right in instead of branding myself as an ill-informed American who doesn’t respect the best practices honed night and day in Walldorf. Well, maybe I wouldn’t fit right in. But if the opportunity comes up, I don’t want to be the one who refers to NetWeaver™ as “that Fusion-type product”.
Think of it this way: if someone calls you on the phone and the first thing they do is call SAP “sap” as opposed to the usual “S-A-P,” you would make the assumption that they are new to the world of SAP. And if you’re in a hurry, which most of us are these days, you’d be more likely to send them to Amazon.com for an “SAP for Newbies” title, versus taking your time to bring them up to speed.
As we approach ASUG/SAPPHIRE 2008, we run into the same kinds of dilemmas. Sometimes I have joked that knowing the right SAP terms helps you sound
“cool” at SAPPHIRE socials, but master- ing SAP terminol- ogy is more than just coming off as a first class trade show schmoozer. I submit that it’s not a bad thing for job
security to become known as “that guy/gal at our company who stays on top of these SAP trends.”
Of course, the need for a termi- nology primer is exacerbated by how quickly SAP tries a term on for size, and moves on to another – but not after spend- ing sizable chunks of time and money branding product names that are quickly discarded, or, in extreme cases, appropriated by some other SAP product. I have actually seen SAP product representatives misuse SAP terms or use outdated product names. If these folks have trouble keeping up with SAP, what about the rest of us?
What follows is a freewheeling SAP terminology guide that you can put to use at ASUG/SAPPHIRE and beyond. Hopefully, knowing your way around the SAP vocabulary matrix will help you to get your SAP ques- tions answered. In just a few short minutes, you can become the go-to-person at the water cooler when it comes to what’s hip and what’s not in SAP.
It does seem like SAP’s product name changes can be somewhat arbitrary, but I find that in most cases they are not. So, with each term, I will provide my best answer as to why the term is being phased out or brought in. Note that this represents my take alone, and does not represent SAP’s views, or those of SAPtips.