Hello Expert,

                    I am new in SCN ,so i want to know few thing

1) If i ask any question i am unable to see that question in my account unless someone reply on that. I want to see those query also so that i can put an reminder on those query if someone didn't answer.

2) How i can see the past raise query my me.

Thanks & Regards

Happy Singh

Hi Moderators,

It was surpristing to note the total reward points were keep flucating. Since last three months i have lost around 100 points and my status degraded from Silver level to Bronze. This issue was posted in PS forums also around 4 to 5 months back but no action from Forum.

If we lost points what we earned then there is no meaning to participation. I did't mean that I am participating only for points but at the same time gives us kind of satisfaction and appreciation from some one who needs our suggestions. Rewards and appreciation is helpful to promote active participation and contribution of individual growth as well as the forum.

I have no clue what is happening here. Please look into the issue and fix.

Thanks,

Sudhakar

Hi Team,

I have joined SCN newly and after couple of SCN blog posts I received a mail stating "You just started scoring points by contributing on the SAP Community Network ". But later on I have discovered the reputation tab is not showing.

Can anyone kindly guide me or tell me why such happened. How to contact administrator for that.

Regards

Santanu

As you may know, we will launch a new gamification platform (missions, badges, points) on SCN in the near future. Once it goes live, members will see a shift in focus to missions with specific tasks, versus only points / level. Until now, members earn an unlimited number of points for wiki creation and edits, while blogs and documents had a value of 10 points. To better align points values across all content types we will make these changes:

• Remove the option to manually request/receive additional wiki points by April 29th
• Change the number of points per wiki page creation to 40 each, with a maximum of 120 points per day.
• Change number of points per wiki edit to 2 each, with a maximum of 10 points for edits per day.
• Perform final wiki points mass upload to allocate March and April manually awarded points at the end of April.
• Beginning on January 1, 2014,adjust wiki points to 10 points per page created, with a maximum of 30 points per day.  Wiki page edit points will stay at 2 points per page with the limit of 10 points per day.

I’m sure you are curious about the gamification of SCN, and probably concerned about the changes in points for contributions. Please share your feedback with me. Having tested the gamification is QA, I can share that it is an exciting change for SCN. 

I wish you all a great continuation of collaboration on SCN .

Hi Everyone,

Good Morning / Good After Noon / Good Evening / Good Night (Trying to be at all the places where SAP is present - i.e. entire globe )

I was blogged forward by Blog It Forward - Moshe Naveh, thanks to Moshe Naveh for motivating me to write my first only blog on SCN since i joined the community.

My name is Sourabh Jain, i am currently working as a senior supply chain professional at Bristlecone INC.

It was not very interesting a start i had of my career, it started with market research, boring, dull, and with lots of data after i completed my management graduation - good old graduation days - becoming nostalgic .

Though i was doing a lot of quality work in my market research job, but the kind of creativity i have was not fit for that place, so i started looking something interesting outside walls of market research, which were covered with lots of data and statistics. I should not say all this - or should I , after knowing that i am an Electronics Engineer - they love all this data thing right, what do you people say? i would still say - that place was not a good fit for me . 

Then there was a big change in my life, i met this guy who was very interesting, crazy, full of creativity and challanges (come on guys , talking about SAP do you guys agree?)

My lifes most beautiful and interesting journey starts with SAP, no more dull data now, got to know how actually businesses functions, got a chance to improve them with my advice and SAP, lots of creativity and lot more challanges during this whole journey so far, which is around 6.5 years now.

Started with SAP SD (which i used to say is the most interesting module SAP has ), but then i got introduced to SAP APO three years ago, which i now say is the most interesting thing SAP has

This is how i used to look before SAP and now

                                    Before SAP

                                NOW - after SAP

looking much better now - right

Now i would like to answer those very important questions, which Moshe Naveh asked in his Blog It Forward Community Challenge d

What was your dream job as a kid?

Always wanted to be in ARMY all my childhood, broken my arms and legs so many times tried following army soldiers seen on TV, at last gave up and started following mathematics

What is your favorite place in the world?

My home is my favourite place in the whole world, where i live with sweet wife - Neelam and a very cute kid - Bhavya

They are my world.

What was the most fun project you ever participated in and why?

All of the projects i have worked on till now has been fun, really can't take one over another as fas as fun part of it is concerned.

In order to get the ball rolling I will "Blog It Forward" to all my team members at Bristlecone INC:

(Be sure to follow the Blog It Forward Chain to be notified when they update the link to thier BIF blog)

Ninad Tawade, Snehil Pansari, vinay raghuvanshi, Kovil Nimje, Arun Negi, Deepalok Roy Chowdhury, Ravish Harimittar

and your questions are;

• What do you like in supply chain and why?
• What do you enjoy most in your work and why?
• Your most memorable moment in life with reason?

See you around

Cheers

Sourabh

Bif! Bam! Pow! Zok! I have entered a Batman episode and been BIFfed by Twan van den Broek 

Well a big thank you to Twan for the Blog it Forward tag. I still remember the conversation we had at the TechEd when I gave him some tips about running a sapinsidetrack event.

So... to introduce myself for those that have just entered the room. I have been lurking around the S(D|C)N community since pre-beta. I have written a couple of these intro type posts so you are more that welcome to read those but lets see if I can add a little more detail or round out a few things.

You may not have noticed me around here that much recently. Yes it is true that I contributed more to the community and to SCN in the past and let's just say I have been taking a breather before I jump back in.

I really am passionate about community. I think it is what makes life much more fun. This is why Darren Hague and I started the sapinsidetrack events which have grown from humble beginnings to being held all around the world.

Please answer the following questions

1. What is your philosophy of innovation and how do you help others to innovate

Necessity is the mother of invention. Innovation that is for Innovation sake is a problem looking for a solution or a solution looking for a problem. Innovation that meets a genuine need is what really moves life forward. Growing up on a farm meant we often had to make do with what was available to solve a problem. I  think of the Apollo 13 as the best example of this. Don't innovate because you want to, don't innovate because you have a shiny new tool on your utility belt. What happens then is everything becomes a nail to your shiny new hammer.

Innovate because there is a genuine need and the solution will make a genuine difference in people's lives.

Often the answer to a problem is hiding under our nose and I like try to help people to see the solution that will work rather than one that uses a bunch of technology for it's own sake.

2. What is the project that you are most proud of in your SAP life

I have worked on some great and varied SAP projects over my career and I believe that with all the great new technology being released and refined by SAP there are only great days ahead. If I was to choose one "project" that I am most proud of it would be this blog: Three Little Words. It started a train of thought inside SAP and it's ramifications are still being felt today. Of course tying for first is the sapinsidetrack events. It warms my heart to hear of events going off all around the world.

3. If you had plenty of time next to your SAP career, what other career would you like to start (or did you already start)

So much to do ... So little time. I could have been a famous rock star - actually not really. I do like to sing and act and from time to time I still do this with various groups. [Winter spring summer or fall / All you have to do it call ...]

So to BIF a few other people: Paul Snyman ; Dan McNamara and Cathy Thomas because I have been trying to get them to contribute more to SCN for years and now they have no excuse. I have had the pleasure of working with and alongside them over the years and I would like to ask them the following questions:

1. How do you lead people on projects so that the project is successful?

2. What is the biggest lesson you have learned over your career?

3. What do you see as the 'Next Big Thing'?

I'm an old school SAPer.  Now in my 16th year here at SAP, I've had the pleasure of working with our ERP package and extended solutions for a very long time.  In fact, I spent over 10 years as a Solution Engineer demoing Plant Maintenance and Service Management to just about every industry you can imagine.

Only a person that has dug deep into the system can truly appreciate the depth and breadth of functionality of these solutions, as well as their robust integration to the other modules.  I can honestly say that I was still learning the solution's vast capabilities after 10 years.  When addressing a client's maintenance and service requirements, it was never a question of whether or not SAP's solutions could functionally meet the requirements:  but often, the question of usability came up.  Not everybody was enamored by our screens.  Lots of clicks.  Lots of end-user training.  Not so intuitive.  The solutions were amazing, but there was room for improvement. 

Recently, SAP change the game in a big way.  What do you get when you combine all the rich functionality and deep integration of SAP with a mobile device?  You get SAP Work Manager and SAP Service Manager.

These two mobile apps mobilize SAP Plant Maintenance and SAP Service Management work on just about any device and on any operating system, and the screens are every bit as gorgeous and intuitive as you would expect from a mobile application.  The usability issue has been solved - but that's just the beginning of the business value to be gained when you mobilize resources.  Think about it:  your mechanics are no longer tethered to a terminal.  All of the information they need is sitting at their fingertips so they can do their job quicker, safer, easier and more accurately.  Reduce equipment downtime, improve first-time fix rates, reduce spare part inventory, reduce overtime, increase work order capacity, increase service revenues and so much more.  Plus take advantage of native device capabilities such as GIS, camera, barcoding/scanning and more.  Not only do these solutions allow most companies to streamline their operations, but they are seeing a return on their investment in 6 to 9 months from Go-Live!

Do I have your attention?  Please join me as I dig deeper into these topics in two upcoming webinars.  You'll hear how these solutions can transform your business, you'll see live product demos and you'll hear case studies from reference customers. 

Register Here for the event "Deliver World Class Field Service powered by Mobile Solutions from SAP" on May 1st.

Register Here for the event "Drive Excellence in Asset Maintenance and Inventory Management with Mobile Solutions from SAP" on May 7th.

I look forward to seeing you.

Rick

Hi All,

I'm trying to install SAP HANA Studio on a OpenSuse 12.3 OS.

As soon as I unpack the .SAR files and I run the ./hdbsetup command I get the following error message:

cannot load wxWidgets properly: Can't load
'/home/vbar/HANA/SAP_HANA_STUDIO/instruntime/Wx.so' for module Wx:
libjpeg.so.62: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory at
DynaLoader.pm line 190. at sdbrun/Require.pl line 62

Any clue?

Thanks a lot for your time.

Regards,

Vincenzo

Moderators are essential to SCN’s daily activities. They guide, motivate, advocate, uphold the rules and much more. In order to help the community get to know these important people, I spotlight a different moderator every two months, in each new issue of SCN Momentum, the newsletter for moderators and space editors.

To nominate a worthy moderator for an upcoming issue, please enter the details in this table.

The following table list the Moderators, Space Editors and Content strategists for all New SCN spaces.

For a list of SCN Wiki moderators, visithttps://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/x/Ki4

Hi Community Members.  Well, after an extended hiatus, the SCN Platform Update blog series is back.  This will be the fourth installment, and the main purpose is to provide you with the latest platform updates.  A lot has happened since my last update, almost too much to summarize here, but let me try to point out some key items.

Registration and Sign-on.  A number of enhancements have been made to the registration and sign-on process.  The focus here is to simplify the user experience so that it is easier for you to get logged in and connected to the community, and to standardize the registration and sign-on across other SAP web properties.  This is an ongoing effort.  So, stay tuned for further updates.

SPAM.  If you are unaware of any SPAM content on SCN, then that is a BIG compliment to the Moderators and to the SCN and IT teams.  All websites have their share of SPAM-ers, and SCN is no exception.  Over the past couple months we have seen a dramatic uptick in spam content, and we have responded in force by beefing up our moderation and applying various fixes to the platform in order to stem the creation of spam content.

Gamification.  Back in February, Chip Rodgers announced that Gamification is coming to SCN.  The SCN and IT teams have been feverishly working to deliver this technology.  Stay tuned for further updates.

As I mentioned in previous platform updates, we utilize the SCRUM development methodology and perform deployments on a three-week sprint cycle.  Here is the summary of the latest deployment and what is to come.

Sprint 17: Deployment Date: Sunday, April 14

New Features

• Community Everywhere is a feature of the Jive platform that enables community content to be embedded into other websites.  We are beginning to introduce community conversations into the product documentation.  The performance of this feature is currently being evaluated.  Keep an eye out for further announcements.
• SPAM, spam, spam, and more spam.  Lots of enhancements to support better content moderation.
• Gamification.  As mentioned above, the teams involved are getting the system ready.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed: User does not receive an e-mail after completing the registration. A separate a-mail should come after the user completed the registration.
• Fixed: User Can Set Himself For Approval On Document, Circumventing Moderation Process
• Fixed: User has the ability to bypass the moderation of documents and blogs (via Edit content)
• Fixed: Moderation Controller Interceptor Doesn't Work As Expected
• Fixed: Unauthorised Message When Creating A Discussion While Being Moderated
• Fixed: Documents and polls can be visible to other users even before they were approved by moderator
• Fixed: Draft Documents and Blogs are Published when Approved in Moderation Queue
• Fixed: S-User Is Able To Edit Locked Fields In SCN User Profile
• Fixed: Remove IDS Login Switch Artefacts
• Fixed: Remove 1 Pixel Border Around Form In Discussion Create Page
• Fixed: Styles for user autocomplete popup
• Updated Omniture code to track social medial clicks.
• Investigated SOLR reindexing issues

Sprint 18: Deployment Date: Sunday, May 5

Sprint 18 we will continue to work on the following items.  Note that the items in this list represent the key items that are being developed.  There is no guarantee that they will be ready to deploy at the end of the Sprint.

• Gamification updates
• SPAM controls and moderation enhancements
• Remember me to automatically log you in.
• Sign-on via Twitter and Facebook
• Move newsletter preferences from the old business card to the new SCN user profile.
• Show the Space Moderators and Space Editors under the People tab of each respective space.
• Performance monitoring is a continuous task.
• Numerous bug fixes.

The next SCN Platform Update will go out after the Sprint 18 deployment.  Stay tuned.

It’s been more than a week since I was blog forwarded byMoshe Naveh to participate in the blog it forward chain in hisBlog It Forward - Moshe Navehand I think that the combination of this honor with the exciting BIF initiative are more than enough to convince me to get me out of my comfortable ‘Industry Solutions-Utilities’ SCN space zone.

So let's start.....

My name is Amlan Banerjee, and I am working as a Senior SAP Finance (though the actual terminology is FI-CA ) professional with an Indian IT Consulting giant, TCS and is currently based in Sydney.

After completing my graduation (Engineering) in Comp.Science, I worked as ASP developer for a few months, but I couldn't find it challenging and so I left the job and did my post-graduation (PGBM) in Finance.

So "Why Finance after Comp. Science"- I faced this question quite a lot in my career.

Any guesses??? Well, the answer is straight and simple "Comp. Science was my parents wish, where as Finance was mine"

I started my SAP career with a SAP FI certification and then moved to IS-Utilities (IS-U) space around six years ago.

"IS-U"- When people (mostly from non-SAP background) ask me what does IS-U stands for....I normally answer them as its the short form of "ISsUe"

Well jokes apart, IS-U, is something which I found very exciting and interesting.

The fact that it deals with the one of the basic human needs makes it more challenging and any changes can have adverse impacts on the society.

Though I have learned a lot of state-of-art IS-U functionality in all these years, my desire for learning new functionality hasn't stopped.

I joined SCN around 3 years ago and have now got addicted to it. This is the place where I spent most of my day and sometime weekends (though I have to do it by hiding from my wife ) as well.

Enough about myself...now its time to answer the questions.

What was your dream job as a kid?

Like,every other Indian youngster, I also dreamt of being a cricketer with loads of records under my name.

Have represented at school and college levels. but that was the end of it...

Still play cricket during the weekends with friends and enjoy watching the T-20's on TV.

Being in Australia geography for quite a while, I have also been to the three major cricket venues - MCG (Melbourne), WACA (Perth), SCG (Sydney).

The below picture is from WACA, where I went to witness a Test match b/w Aussies and Windies.

What is your favorite place in the world?

I love travelling and visiting new places.

I have visited many places in the Australian Continent, having lived here for around 5 years now.

However, I still become emotional and nostalgic, when it comes to my hometown, Kolkata.

So I would go for Kolkata (India) as my favorite place in the world.

But if you ask me my favorite vacation spot, I would say, Gold Coast (Australia).

Had an excellent trip with my family last X-mas

Dolphin Show-Sea World Theme Park,Gold Coast

What was the most fun project you ever participated in and why?

I always enjoyed working on IS-U projects;Be it my first project or be it the current one.

However, I would pick up the IS-U-Credit Management integration project as the one which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The reason being-

    - it was a completely new functionality that I was working on.

    - Was involved in the initiative from the scratch and also led to its completion single-handedly.

In order to get the ball rolling I will "Blog It Forward" to my friends and our SCN Moderator in the IS-Utilities space:

(Be sure to follow the Blog It Forward Chain to be notified when they update the link to their BIF blog)

William Eastman, Rajesh Gumpena, vikram reddy, debashish mishra

Sachin Kulkarni

BANASRI MITRA

I have had the pleasure of working with and alongside them over the years in SCN space and I would like to ask them the following questions:

(a) If you had not been in to SAP, what career you think you would be into?

(b)  What is your favorite time-pass, apart from surfing SCN ?

(c)  Which of the options you will choose in a SAP Implementation project-Quality or Cost?

See you in IS-Utilities space and in the forth-coming SAP Tech-ed's.

Cheers,

Amlan

With less than 1 month until the ASUG Annual Conference/SAPPHIRENOW, I would like to challenge you to participate in a unique fundraiser to benefit Doctors Without Borders.

It is well known that over the course of the conference, attendees will be logging some serious footsteps.  Some may even organize into morning runs - before the heat of the day can beat on us.  Practically everyone has a smartphone that can track your distance or some other device like a Fitbit that will also track it.

If you will be doing enough running or walking, and prefer to track something else, how about how many coffees you consume, or how many evaluation cards you fill out after a session?  Or how many SAPMentors you can get photographed with? 
You decide - anything that is fun, OK?

So you sign up below.  Then, using whatever means you like (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, letters to mom and dad) find people to sponsor you.  You can direct them to this Fundraising Page.

During the conference, post your mileage or coffees-consumed (whatever your challenge is) periodically.  If you use Twitter, use the hashtag #sapcc.

By the end of the conference, I bet we will have done something we can all be happy about - well, multiple things actually!  We will have learned about SAP via the ASUG and SAPPHIRE sessions, kept fit if we elected to do a 'physical challenge'  AND raised money for Doctors Without Borders.

I am hoping to have multiple sponsors, so I will probably have multiple lines.  I hope you will join me in this Community Challenge. 

Together we can be some of the 'helpers' that the world so desperately needs.

Hi  experts,

I have a requirement to get AR Ageing that 0-30,30-90.90-180,180-365.

I can apply these with offset on Document date. But I don't want to apply

on document date but I want to apply on posting date. It means we have

a variable on Posting date. When user enters the posting date it should check

the document date for the documents and calculates the ageing from document date

but not on posting date because if posting date gets calculated for ageing I am missing

out the days like if my doc was created on 04032013 but it was posted on 05042013.In this case

if I consider posting date it is in 0-30 bucket. But it should be in 30-180 bucket as per the document date.

Hi..!

          I raised purchase order for excisable item. .then raised A/P down payment invoice with 100% down payment, when i tried to add this document an error occured Duty status ' with payment of duty' is not allowed for cenvat tax codes in A/P down payment request & A/P down payment invoice.

  Hi ..!

       I  raised purchase order for excisable item. .then raised A/P down payment invoice with 100% down payment, when i tried to add this document an error occured Duty status ' with payment of duty' is not allowed for cenvat tax codes in A/P down payment request & A/P down payment invoice.

Hi Everyone,

Good Morning / Good After Noon / Good Evening / Good Night (Trying to be at all the places where SAP is present - i.e. entire globe )

I was blogged forward by Blog It Forward - Moshe Naveh, thanks to Moshe Naveh for motivating me to write my first only blog on SCN since i joined the community.

My name is Sourabh Jain, i am currently working as a senior supply chain professional at Bristlecone INC.

It was not very interesting a start i had of my career, it started with market research, boring, dull, and with lots of data after i completed my management graduation - good old graduation days - becoming nostalgic .

Though i was doing a lot of quality work in my market research job, but the kind of creativity i have was not fit for that place, so i started looking something interesting outside walls of market research, which were covered with lots of data and statistics. I should not say all this - or should I , after knowing that i am an Electronics Engineer - they love all this data thing right, what do you people say? i would still say - that place was not a good fit for me . 

Then there was a big change in my life, i met this guy who was very interesting, crazy, full of creativity and challanges (come on guys , talking about SAP do you guys agree?)

My lifes most beautiful and interesting journey starts with SAP, no more dull data now, got to know how actually businesses functions, got a chance to improve them with my advice and SAP, lots of creativity and lot more challanges during this whole journey so far, which is around 6.5 years now.

Started with SAP SD (which i used to say is the most interesting module SAP has ), but then i got introduced to SAP APO three years ago, which i now say is the most interesting thing SAP has

This is how i used to look before SAP and now

                                    Before SAP

                                NOW - after SAP

looking much better now - right

Now i would like to answer those very important questions, which Moshe Naveh asked in his Blog It Forward Community Challenge d

What was your dream job as a kid?

Always wanted to be in ARMY all my childhood, broken my arms and legs so many times tried following army soldiers seen on TV, at last gave up and started following mathematics

What is your favorite place in the world?

My home is my favourite place in the whole world, where i live with sweet wife - Neelam and a very cute kid - Bhavya

They are my world.

What was the most fun project you ever participated in and why?

All of the projects i have worked on till now has been fun, really can't take one over another as fas as fun part of it is concerned.

In order to get the ball rolling I will "Blog It Forward" to all my team members at Bristlecone INC:

(Be sure to follow the Blog It Forward Chain to be notified when they update the link to thier BIF blog)

Ninad Tawade, Snehil Pansari, vinay raghuvanshi, Kovil Nimje, Arun Negi, Deepalok Roy Chowdhury, Ravish Harimittar

and your questions are;

• What do you like in supply chain and why?
• What do you enjoy most in your work and why?
• Your most memorable moment in life with reason?

See you around

Cheers

Sourabh

Bif! Bam! Pow! Zok! I have entered a Batman episode and been BIFfed by Twan van den Broek 

Well a big thank you to Twan for the Blog it Forward tag. I still remember the conversation we had at the TechEd when I gave him some tips about running a sapinsidetrack event.

So... to introduce myself for those that have just entered the room. I have been lurking around the S(D|C)N community since pre-beta. I have written a couple of these intro type posts so you are more that welcome to read those but lets see if I can add a little more detail or round out a few things.

You may not have noticed me around here that much recently. Yes it is true that I contributed more to the community and to SCN in the past and let's just say I have been taking a breather before I jump back in.

I really am passionate about community. I think it is what makes life much more fun. This is why Darren Hague and I started the sapinsidetrack events which have grown from humble beginnings to being held all around the world.

Please answer the following questions

1. What is your philosophy of innovation and how do you help others to innovate

Necessity is the mother of invention. Innovation that is for Innovation sake is a problem looking for a solution or a solution looking for a problem. Innovation that meets a genuine need is what really moves life forward. Growing up on a farm meant we often had to make do with what was available to solve a problem. I  think of the Apollo 13 as the best example of this. Don't innovate because you want to, don't innovate because you have a shiny new tool on your utility belt. What happens then is everything becomes a nail to your shiny new hammer.

Innovate because there is a genuine need and the solution will make a genuine difference in people's lives.

Often the answer to a problem is hiding under our nose and I like try to help people to see the solution that will work rather than one that uses a bunch of technology for it's own sake.

2. What is the project that you are most proud of in your SAP life

I have worked on some great and varied SAP projects over my career and I believe that with all the great new technology being released and refined by SAP there are only great days ahead. If I was to choose one "project" that I am most proud of it would be this blog: Three Little Words. It started a train of thought inside SAP and it's ramifications are still being felt today. Of course tying for first is the sapinsidetrack events. It warms my heart to hear of events going off all around the world.

3. If you had plenty of time next to your SAP career, what other career would you like to start (or did you already start)

So much to do ... So little time. I could have been a famous rock star - actually not really. I do like to sing and act and from time to time I still do this with various groups. [Winter spring summer or fall / All you have to do it call ...]

So to BIF a few other people: Paul Snyman ; Dan McNamara and Cathy Thomas because I have been trying to get them to contribute more to SCN for years and now they have no excuse. I have had the pleasure of working with and alongside them over the years and I would like to ask them the following questions:

1. How do you lead people on projects so that the project is successful?

2. What is the biggest lesson you have learned over your career?

3. What do you see as the 'Next Big Thing'?

I'm an old school SAPer.  Now in my 16th year here at SAP, I've had the pleasure of working with our ERP package and extended solutions for a very long time.  In fact, I spent over 10 years as a Solution Engineer demoing Plant Maintenance and Service Management to just about every industry you can imagine.

Only a person that has dug deep into the system can truly appreciate the depth and breadth of functionality of these solutions, as well as their robust integration to the other modules.  I can honestly say that I was still learning the solution's vast capabilities after 10 years.  When addressing a client's maintenance and service requirements, it was never a question of whether or not SAP's solutions could functionally meet the requirements:  but often, the question of usability came up.  Not everybody was enamored by our screens.  Lots of clicks.  Lots of end-user training.  Not so intuitive.  The solutions were amazing, but there was room for improvement. 

Recently, SAP change the game in a big way.  What do you get when you combine all the rich functionality and deep integration of SAP with a mobile device?  You get SAP Work Manager and SAP Service Manager.

These two mobile apps mobilize SAP Plant Maintenance and SAP Service Management work on just about any device and on any operating system, and the screens are every bit as gorgeous and intuitive as you would expect from a mobile application.  The usability issue has been solved - but that's just the beginning of the business value to be gained when you mobilize resources.  Think about it:  your mechanics are no longer tethered to a terminal.  All of the information they need is sitting at their fingertips so they can do their job quicker, safer, easier and more accurately.  Reduce equipment downtime, improve first-time fix rates, reduce spare part inventory, reduce overtime, increase work order capacity, increase service revenues and so much more.  Plus take advantage of native device capabilities such as GIS, camera, barcoding/scanning and more.  Not only do these solutions allow most companies to streamline their operations, but they are seeing a return on their investment in 6 to 9 months from Go-Live!

Do I have your attention?  Please join me as I dig deeper into these topics in two upcoming webinars.  You'll hear how these solutions can transform your business, you'll see live product demos and you'll hear case studies from reference customers. 

Register Here for the event "Deliver World Class Field Service powered by Mobile Solutions from SAP" on May 1st.

Register Here for the event "Drive Excellence in Asset Maintenance and Inventory Management with Mobile Solutions from SAP" on May 7th.

I look forward to seeing you.

Rick

As you may have heard, I’ve been working on a project to add extensive game mechanics to the SAP Community Network (SCN). There have been some game elements in SCN for a while now: we introduced the point system in 2004, and we added lists of top participants (also known as leaderboards) and point levels. What we are about to launch is more extensive, and it’s called gamification. Although some don’t like the term, it seems like it’s here to stay having been around since 2004!

In his recent blog Game On! Gamification Coming to SCN, Chip Rodgers explained what gamification is and what  the objectives of the SCN gamification project are. This is a project that I’ve been leading for over a year now, and we are very close to launch. I wanted to share the news with you that:

SCN Gamification will be launched on Sunday, April 28 in the morning CET

There are a couple of activities planned for the launch, and you should join if you can:

SCN Buzz streaming live video on Tuesday, April 23 – watch the home page at 10:30am PT that day and listen to the team talking about the project. Chip Rodgers will moderate the discussion including me, Audrey Stevenson, Oliver Kohl, Jeanne Carboni, and Sean Yang talking about the project and the upcoming launch.

SCN Game Room, a virtual SAP Connect room open for two days following the launch on Monday, April 29 and Tuesday, April 30 in several time zones – the details will be communicated via a system announcement. Come to the room and “hang out” with the SCN Team and other community members to ask questions, give your feedback, etc.

On Twitter, remember to use our (new) hashtag #SCNGameOn

The Gamification Core Team is comprised of myself, Audrey Stevenson, Oliver Kohl and Sean Yang, under the guidance of our managers Jeanne Carboni. We’ve been working around the clock these past weeks to launch, in spite of the recent spam attacks that impacted our project significantly. We had to modify our strategy to include pre-moderation, testing and bug fixes. There are still a few tickets we are working on now with the intention is to fix them in time for the launch.  The team is working closely with Jive and Bunchball, as well as SAP IT, to fix all outstanding issues for the launch.

As you can imagine, gamification will change SCN and you will be informed of these changes via several blogs and documents, as well as some “tip in a minute” videos we’re preparing. Make sure you follow the core team as well as Krysten Gentile to be kept up to date.

My colleague Moshe Naveh already published a blog informing the community of changes about wiki points which will be implemented at the same time as gamification.

A blog series

Now let’s step back a little bit. I want to share my experience as a project manager and there is a lot I want to tell, so I am planning to write a blog series. In this first post I want to talk about the project and how it came to light.  In future blogs, I’ll share more about the project, our objectives, the team, missions and badges, the new points levels, and more!

This is fun!

This project has been exciting for the several reasons:

Gamification is everywhere, we just don’t notice it. The way I see it, by the end of this decade gamification will be embedded in most experiences we have online. The new generation is expecting more fun at work and in their private lives, gamification will soon be seen as a tool to ensure good user experience.

Gamifying a mature, professional community like SCN is a complex task. We did careful analysis of member behavior to understand what should be encouraged and how to best encourage it.  We're talking about serious fun here: Fun via missions and badges as well as surprises for the community, but serious because it is about content, quality and reputation. In an upcoming blog I will explain the thought process behind the mission strategy and design, the way we work towards countering cheating and rewarding quality content with badges.

Gamification will change the way people engage on SCN for the better because it will give everyone something to strive for, and provide helpful tips for successful engagement in the community. I can’t wait to see the reaction of the community when we launch!

The project team has been working very hard to make sure we have a successful launch next Sunday.  And over the last four weeks, we have included many community stakeholders in the process of testing in QA, providing feedback on the system and how it works, and helping optimize the experience for launch.  We’ve had our SCN community team, SCN moderators, SCN space editors, and SAP Mentors all participating and giving feedback and everyone has been very excited and positive about the coming changes.

We are ready and can’t wait to bring the new gamification experience to the community!

Follow me and you will be notified about my other blogs, and learn more about the story of SCN’s gamification!