Entrepreneur mentorship workshop, May 2, Bangalore
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On January 24 SAP and NEN inaugurated a three-year partnership to create an entrepreneurship ecosystem in India with technology enablement to growing and emerging entrepreneurs. The lack of mentorship was identified as a key roadblock to the entrepreneurial ambitions in the country. With this in mind, a series of workshops was conceptualized to mentor the young entrepreneurs. The first such workshop was organized on May 2, at SAP Labs Bangalore campus, and was attended by 9 mentees. In the inaugural session, Andy, MD, SLI explored the nature of SAP’s engagement with the start-up organizations, as defined by the “new SAP” business model, and said that with mentoring, the entrepreneurs can foster growth and economic development in the country. In the next two sessions, Vaibhav Tiwari, Chief Marketing Officer, Microland, and entrepreneur, and Pravin Agarwala, Vice President, SAP Labs India spoke about the importance of mentorship for start-ups and entrepreneurs. The program was highly appreciated by the participants many of whom said that the session convinced them of the importance of mentorship.
The program once again underscored SAP’s unflinching commitment to the creation of new wealth through innovation.
Managing just right: Managers’ Day – Leadership Spa , May 2, Bangalore
May 2 is celebrated across SAP as the Managers’ Day, since last year. Its celebration has been spearheaded by manaGeRIGHT which was formed in SAP Labs in 2012. It aims to bring together the management community and foster a sense of pride in them while providing experiential learning opportunities combined with insightful trainings to further their development. The goal was to “create world–class managers in SAP”.
This year, the managers had a chance to network, listen to world class speakers, learn from entrepreneurs and celebrate the best amongst them, through the ‘Golden Cap’ awards, on the Manager’s Day. The ''leadership spa” which was organized at Park Plaza, had a stellar cast of internal and external speakers: Luisa Delgado, board member and HR head, SAP, who joined in a video conference; Muruganantham Arunachalam, founder Jayashree Industries, and a TED speaker; V.R. Ferose, Head of Globalization, SAP; Bunty Bohra, MD Goldman Sachs; ndy, MD SLI. The occasion also served as an opportunity to applaud the best and most respected managers at SLI, four of whom were awarded the coveted “golden cap”. As the day turned to dusk, Javagal Srinath, the great Indian fast bowler regaled the assembled leaders with his cricket anecdotes.
The event made it clear that the bar for the performance of the managers has been set extremely high. With manaGeRIGHT, the managers can run better together, while also helping the organization run like never before.
Demo day: Innovation grand prix, April 30, Bangalore
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On April 30, innovation and brilliance was on display at SAP Labs India as ten teams battled to be crowned the most innovative app developers at the first edition of Demo day. The teams were allowed 6 minutes to present their application idea. The atmosphere was electric with the audience cheering on the presenters. A panel of judges, comprising of Dinesh Rao, Krishna Kumar, Krishnamurthy Balasubramanian, and Clement Selvaraj, from SAP, selected the top three demos, based on the presentation, innovation and business value of the idea. The winner was selected from amongst the top three by audience polling via sms. ’SMS Based Expense Tracker’ developed by Praveen S and team were declared the winner for their potentially high value generating innovation, while Gesture based interaction with SAP Applications was declared the first runner-up, and Graphical code analyzer the second runner-up. The excellent ideas on display and the crackling atmosphere proved that SLI is truly on the way to become the most innovative company in India.
Barcamp at Gurgaon, April 27, Gurgaon
SAP Gurgaon hosted its first Barcamp on April 27 at the SAP Vatika towers. More than 150 IT professionals, from various companies like Make my Trip, Flick 2 know , IBM, TCS, and Opera, entrepreneurs and students attended the technology un-conference, organized by Akash Kumar and supported by Mohammed A K Rao, and Neha Sabharwal from SAP Labs India. The event witnessed an unstinted sharing of technical knowledge and experiences through sessions, demos, and discussions. The topics included CSS, Big Data, Couch DB, Hybrid Applications, Mobile App development, Word press, and SQL. The SAP Gurgaon employees presented sessions on HANA, Design Thinking, HTML5 and Enterprises Gamification which were universally appreciated.
The program also provided a unique opportunity for peer-to-peer networking to the participants. The attendees were effusive with praise for the unique informal event which allowed them to learn from their colleagues, interact and exchange notes. “It was an excellent initiative. The sessions were brilliant, and the questions after the sessions revealed unique perspectives. I sincerely thank SAP for helping to organize the Barcamp, and hope that this will become a regular feature”, said one of them.
Bandhan 2013, April 19, Bangalore
Bandhan 2013, which celebrated the SAP colleagues who have completed 10 or 15 years with the organisation, was held at ITC Gardenia, Bangalore. The evening demonstrated the organization’s gratitude for the long and continuous support that these colleagues provided. The evening entertainment started with the electrifying performance of the dance troupe 5678 to the enthralling tunes of Remo’s Flutekick. After this, Andy and Bhuvan personally thanked every employee being facilitated, for their service to SAP. The evening was rounded off by a superb musical performance of Benny Dayal, and an exquisite dinner spread. The evening proclaimed how much SLI values its employees, who have the reason for the organization’s success.
UpStart: The interaction with the ‘start-up man’, April 18, Bangalore
On April 18, the first edition of UpStart, a lecture series to facilitate an interaction between SLI employees and entrepreneurs, was inaugurated at SLI Bangalore with a talk by Mukund Mohan, CEO, Microsoft Startup Accelerator. Mukund has been an extremely successful entrepreneur who created and sold BuzzGain, a leader in Do It Yourself PR, to Meltwater in January 2010. Before that, he also founded and sold 2 Silicon Valley startups in the Internet and Enterprise software markets. He has invested in over 30 internet startups in Silicon Valley and India. Mukund held management and executive roles in Hewlett Packard (Mercury), and worked at Cisco Systems as an engineer.
“For an entrepreneur, three things are important: attitude, discipline, and ability to tell stories. The best way to get your point across is not a bare narration of facts, but a story, which through the combination of narrative, character and plot, captures our interest.” said Mukund, sharing his ideas with the SLI employees. He discussed the value of perseverance, being a realist, and being ethical. He also pointed out the importance of experimentation while focusing on details. He revealed that he believes in living simply while pursuing his passion for creating new solutions.
The remarkably simple philosophy of life, energized the SLI employees, and helped them understand the requirements for being a successful entrepreneur.
Rumours: A play by the SLI theater interest group, April 13-14, Bangalore
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On April 13, and April 14, Rangabhoomi, the theatre interest group of SLI presented three shows of “Rumours”, a farce scripted by Neil Simon, at the Jagriti theatre, Whitefield. All three performances, one on Saturday, April 13, and two on Sunday, April 14, were highly appreciated, with many audience members commenting that they had enjoyed the most humorous hour-and-a-half of their lives!
The play was performed by an exceptionally talented cast. Despite pressures at work, the actors devoted three hours every day, for more than a month, to bring the drama to life. The result was a brilliant and unique interpretation of each and every character. The extremely clever script – “a show about nothing”, on the surface of it – was enacted in a deeply nuanced manner.
The production of “Rumours” creates a new high for Rangabhoomi. It also demonstrates the value SAP places in nurturing the interests of its employees. With the support of a company which deeply values its employees, Rangabhoomi is set scale newer heights in the future.
What the Hack, 48 hours coding marathon, at Gurgaon, April 12-13, Gurgaon
SLI”s vision of organizing its development strategy around innovation was recently buoyed by SAP Labs Gurgaon, where an internal 4-day HANA application innovation event was organized. 35 teams with more than 150 participants competed for the coveted position of the ultimate innovator. The ‘Hack-a-thon’ started on Friday, April 12 and continued through the night. After 48 hours of an incredible coding sprint, all the participating teams showcased their prototypes to the jury, which selected eight ideas to be showcased on the April 15, 2013.
The final showdown witnessed over 200 colleagues cheering for the eight finalists. Five jury members, Andy (MD SLI), Daniel Stephan (CD, ATO), Michael Redmann (CD, ATO), Krishna Kumar (CD, ATO) and Sudhir Verma (IMS) judged the prototypes.
All the demos were so good that the judges found it difficult to select the best team. In fact, there was a tie for the second runner up position.
However, ultimately, all contestants were winners in the sense that their knowledge and innovation quotient increased manifold, which will help them run better in future. The contestant also received “SAP – What the Hack” branded bean bags to remind them of the time when they coded through the night!
SAP Osmosis outreach event at Tumkur university, April 1, Tumkur
An SAP Osmosis outreach event was held at Tumkur University on April 1. The students of the university were presented a short overview of SAP, before interactive sessions on topics like big data, mobility, and cloud. There was also a presentation on career planning for the students. The sessions were general, and aimed at a broad audience, not from an engineering background.
This event was the first in a series of outreach programs, as a part of which one-day workshops will be conducted at various colleges in Karnataka. These will help the students understand cutting edge technologies, and help them plan their career better.
Business Suite on HANA Press, Bloggers', & Analysts launch, March 19, Bangalore:
On March 19, SAP business suite on HANA was launched in Bangalore, simultaneously with other locations in APJ. Suite on HANA has already been launched in Germany, and USA earlier this year. The event was attended by 25 participants from the influencer community which included representatives from The Economic Times, Business Standard, the Financial Express, The Deccan Herald, Dataquest, CIO and Information Week, 5 bloggers and 2 IDC analysts. The powers of SAP India, SAP Labs, and ecosystem were harnessed to provide an end to end perspectives from the customer, innovation and market perspectives. The spokespersons were Rajamani Srinivasan, SAP India, Srikanth Gopalakrishnan, SAP Labs, and Satish Subramaniam from WIPRO. A number of queries were answered by the speakers who complimented each other.
From now, SAP business suite customers in the APJ region will have the option of powering their business suite with SAP HANA. It will help them translate real-time insights to action while removing the complexity of redundant data and systems. SAP HANA – the next generation platform – will help customers navigate the dynamic market conditions of the Asia Pacific region. SAP business suite powered by SAP HANA is the only integrated real-time platform that can support an entire business, in the market. With a strong backing from the SAP services and partner ecosystems, it can become a game-changer.
SAP DKOM Bangalore 2013, March 13-14, Bangalore:
If faster, higher and stronger is the motto of the Olympics, 'newer, bigger, and better' was the motto of SAP DKOM Bangalore 2013. The mood was celebratory for the 12 consecutive quarters of double digit growth, while being aware of the requirements to continue and enhance the growth. Andy, MD, SAP Labs India said that SLI has to play a bigger role within the Labs network, and pointed out that it should transform from showcasing demos to building real life application.
The importance of the customers to SAP's strategy was clearly explicated in the various keynotes. In the CTO keynote, Vishal Sikka, Executive Board member, talked about minimizing the distance with the end user, while optimizing feasibility and viability. SAP Executive Vice President Tanja Rückert, celebrated the unprecedented success of HANA, but said that enhancing user experience and driving customer adoption seamlessly are the challenges for the new SAP. Klaus Weber, EVP, SAP Custom Development complemented her, pointing out that bad user experience is the most common frustration amongst SAP users. Co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe, was upbeat about the successes of SAP over the last 3 years, but said that SAP needs to minimize time to impact. He said that SAP re-generation has come about not by doing same things differently, but by doing different things. Cloud, mobility, and analytics are the pillars of the new SAP. Stressing on user experience, he said that it should never be sacrificed on the altar of features. "I believe less is more and beauty matters.” said Jim.
DKOM Bangalore also featured customer keynote, delivered by Parthasarathy V.S., member of the group executive board, Mahindra and Mahindra. In the field keynote, Suprakash Chaudhuri, MD, SAP India, commented that the SAP customer profile has changed, and the organization needs to interact with its customer base differently. The post-lunch sessions were dominated by talks on HANA and suite on cloud, before giving way to the high octane app contest -- Demojam. The application that won the contest aims to simplify the customer's experience of reading newspapers by analyzing the unstructured news reports data, and linking them to structured insights and discoveries. There were various other interesting apps on display including one that performs real-time analytics of a work unit based on geo-location. The evening ended with a guest keynote by the celebrated former Pakistani cricketer Wasim Akram, who spoke about the need of hard work, and innovation in every area of life.
SAP DKOM Bangalore 2013 was a bonanza for learning with 88 deep dive sessions, and 70 demo pods. There were innovative demonstrations to educate employees about various technological issues. For instance, SAP Products standards team created a techie version of the perennial carnival favorite, the haunted house, to inform their colleagues about the role performed by their team.
In all, SAP DKOM Bangalore 2013 was an innovative event which demonstrated the importance of customers to SAP's strategy.
SAP Startup Focus program: March 9-10, Bangalore, and March 15, Pune
As a part of the Startup Focus program, there have been Startup Focus sessions in various parts of India. These sessions brought out the strategic importance of SAP's engagement with the start-up community. The first Startup Focus summit was held in Bangalore on March 10, 2013. Kaustav Mitra, who heads SAP startup focus program globally, conducted the Local Executive Network Summit (LENS) where 25 influential mentors and venture capitalists from the start-up community network were invited. A similar program was held in Pune on March
As a part of the events, the participants learned about SAP HANA and the SAP Startup Focus program which is designed to help technology start-up organizations use technologies that SAP has to offer and build on those platforms. The events were extremely interactive and many queries, regarding various aspects of the program like incubation, operational models, technical help, were answered. SAP will continue its interactions with the startup community in future.
SAP Osmosis: Bangalore, February 7-9
On February 7, 8, and 9, 50 students from prestigious colleges in Bangalore visited SAP Labs India, Bangalore campus. SAP Osmosis, a three day knowledge sharing and innovation forum for students, was organized by SLI in collaboration with government of Karnataka on these days. The event was conducted to bridge three pieces of a puzzle: educational institutions, corporate and government.
The event was structured so that students experienced the functioning of a software product development company and learned about their products and solutions. They were educated on topics like SAP HANA, and Mobility. On the second and third days, they applied their learning to solve a real life problem, in retail management, using Design Thinking methodology. SAP experts helped students’ prototype their ideas and create solutions that have business value. The participants demonstrated their solutions to a panel of judges comprising of senior technologists from SAP and officials from Government of Karnataka. They were judged on parameters like understanding and utilizing the knowledge shared, thought process and uniqueness of the idea, and the end user experience.
Many innovative solutions were created by the students. The winning team created an app called shop buddy which helps customers buy products based on their personal choices, and preferences. The runners-up product was SAP Trendz which analyses the feedback a product receives on social media.
SAP Osmosis helped the students, the software industry, and the Government of Karnataka, interact better. It also encouraged students to interpret and appreciate technology better, and become innovators in their own right. The success of the program, which was a pre-cursor to more such collaborative initiatives in future, will help Bangalore become an innovation hub.
LEADERSHIP TALK SERIES
Leadership Talk Series is an ongoing effort at Labs India to give employees a chance to hear and interact with renowned and motivational personalities from all walks of life.
Leadership talk by Harsha Bhogle and Anita Bhogle:March 8, Pune
On March 8 at Suzlon Excellence Academy, Pune, Harsha Bhogle, along with his wife and business partner Anita, discussed leadership ideas with examples from the world of sports, as a part of the leadership talk series.
They pointed out that similar management principles can be applied both to sports as well as the corporate world. The famous commentator and his statistician wife various issues with examples from the sporting world:
- Team management and team dynamics
- Innovation
- Growth
- Resources versus resourcefulness
- Goal setting and its importance
- Diversity and sensitivity within the team
The interaction which discussed important management ideas in simple terms, with examples from India’s greatest religion, cricket, honed the winning edge of the SLI, Pune employees.
Leadership Talk by Lila Poonawalla, Bangalore, February 7
The Leadership Talk Series at Pune was inaugurated, on February 7, through an inspiring address by the quintessential Pune girl, who is known throughout the world – Lila Poonawalla! The 70 years old lady, who had conquered corporate India, demonstrated the boundless energy of someone half her age. Her down-to-earth demeanor and her engaging manner immediately struck a chord with the audience who were eagerly waiting to listen to the inspiring words of the first woman CEO in India’s business history.
Starting at 4:30 p.m., after a short introduction by Anita Waghmare, QA Manager at Pune, Lila in turn regaled, inspired, enlightened, and motivated the SLI, Pune employees for more than an hour. She talked about Leadership, contrast between Manager and Leader, teamwork, breaking gender barriers, and much more, by citing various practical examples from her own illustrious career.
The interaction with the woman, who shattered the glass ceiling on the way to her meteoric rise to super-stardom in the Indian business world, inspired and motivated the SLI, Pune employees to run better.