Berlin SuccessConnect 2018 - #whatchado, Laszlo Bock and expedition to Mars – welcome to the world of SAP
by Paulina Dancewicz
oming from an HR background, I recently joined TalenTeam and have been discovering the sector and this conference was a great opportunity to learn more. What I found is a dynamic environment with interesting people trying to innovate what used to be a traditional industry. The first indication was the unwritten theme introduced by SAP CHRO, Stefan Ries, ‘HR Punks’… simply because HR rocks! As the conference unfolded, this all became apparent why.
The event hosted over 3,000 attendees who were prospective and existing clients, SAP partners and employees and HR professionals. Many people had diverse background and initiatives. For the setting, think of it like a big Ikea store – but rather than house furnish for sale – it was stands with inspired people explaining how their technology would change the world. In the centre of the main hall there were several stands with SAP experts presenting the SAP suit and upcoming new functionalities. Customers and Partners could play with big mobile phones hang on the wall to test the iOS and Android SAP applications.
Those who are keen on performing arts, had an opportunity to sit in the SAP Demo Theatre, place which looked like a modern amphitheatre, where SAP employees from all over the world were giving speeches and presentations of various HR topics and Success Factors’ functionalities. Additionally, there were sessions running throughout all three days around Success Factors solution and real customers’ cases. The event was a great opportunity for professionals to network and engage in interesting conversations.
Apart from a comprehensive outlook on SuccessFactors solutions there were several guests invited presenting their extraordinary initiatives as an illustration to the event’s theme: People, Passion, Purpose. The example that comes to mind was Adriana Marais who is one of the Mars One Project astronauts who are planning to travel to Mars. She was full of enthusiasm explaining her brave initiative to pursuit her passion.
Camilo Herrera, an Ambassador of Light from Colombia explained how his non-profit organisation delivers light, energy and internet to most disadvantaged and remote areas of the country. Long applause Laszlo Bock, former senior VP of People Operations at Google, was one of the most signature speakers at the event. Presenting his life story and talking through his book, he gave insights on people management and how happiness and engagement of employees translates to their productivity and further to organisation’s profit.
Whachadoo – finally, at the Power Lunch session, where participants enjoyed a three course meal while networking with new people sitting at their table, Ali Mahlodji presented Whatchado, his fascinating and brave project, that helps children and young people discover their passion and convert it into a profession. With his very interesting and powerful speech, Ali showed the importance of changing the approach to education in today’s world and the importance of inclusiveness and diversity. His next project is to create an alternative school. Good luck Ali!
Product highlights 2018
- Intelligent Enterprise – the idea is to have common user experience, common data model, common platform (SAP Business Technology Platform), and common reporting & analytics across the whole SAP suite, not solely SuccessFactors. The focus was on SAP Analytics Cloud, which is meant to become the single reporting & analytics tool across all the SAP applications, allowing to combine data from multiple sources.This will allow make HR and Finance more strategic through analysis of data and provision of insights across the business.
- Total Workforce Management – the importance of managing the modern workforce, with Millennials, generation Z and contingent employees being the majority of workforce now and in the future. Fuller integration of Fieldglass, predictive analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence should all enable the modern workforce management.
- Conversational HR – SAP launched a native Digital Assistant embedded into the SuccessFactors application using SAP CoPilot. The plan is for the digital assistant to also be voice enabled and integrated with Google Home and Amazon Echo and, as well as including machine learning.
- Data Privacy – very important topic this year because of GDPR. New features that are now available to support data privacy were presented.
- Mobile App – long awaited Android app has been released. One of useful features is a home page tile allowing employees to enter their time directly without entering the app.
- Health & Wellbeing – important topic to all employees and managers as organisations have realised that personal happiness of the employees translates to their productivity. SAP decided to partner with Thrive Global, to make health & wellbeing a key element of corporate planning, placing employees and businesses to make the business thrive.
What I can conclude is that SAP is not just a HR management system, it’s actually what reunites a new community of likeminded people trying to make a difference. I look forward to next year’s conference and maybe by then I’ll have my own great ideas!