Knowledge sharing is the name of the game at Saphila 2019, the African SAP User Group’s (AFSUG) biennial conference for SAP users taking place at Sun City on 10 and 11 June 2019, where attendees will have access to a collection of industry thought leaders and speakers.
Among these is Tom Raftery, global VP, Futurist and Innovation Evangelist and one of SAP’s very own, who will be discussing the future of digital during his keynote address. Raftery is an inspirational speaker, a guest lecturer at the Instituto Internacional San Telmo and a board advisor for a number of start-ups, but it is his thinking as a futurist that will entice Saphila delegates this year.
Tom Raftery, global VP, futurist and innovation evangelist, SAP SE
Not to be missed, his talk will be looking at where the next 10 years of digitisation will take us. He says digital transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT) and associated technologies are all, roughly speaking, at the same level of maturity as the web was in 1995, and will be delving into where these technologies are going, and how they can affect organisations, your wallets and the planet as a whole.
Saphila 2019 will feature several other keynotes, including Andreas Heckmann, EVP & Head of Customer Support Services, Digital Business Services at SAP SE, who will deliver the opening keynote address at this year’s event, Isabell Petzelt, GVP Customer Strategy & Innovation from SAP America, who’ll guide delegates in building their vision of an intelligent enterprise, and Tom Janoshalmi, SVP Chief Strategy and Portfolio Officer at SAP’s SE Executive Board Office, who will be discussing keeping the Intelligent Enterprise both fast and safe.
A return visitor to Saphila this year, Erick Jacobs will be talking to the People Experience as he deep-dives the SAPPI SA/SAP journey with attendees. His topic Global HR administrative processes with industry-leading HR technology is a must-attend for professionals operating in this ever-evolving space.
Jacobs will be presenting the SAPPI SA case study, starting with how it all began, and ending with detail on how the company is implementing global processes benefitting from scale simplification, standardisation and harmonisation whilst complying with local labour legislation.
Saphila delegates will be graced by the presence of not one but two senior managers in the applications space from AfriSam South Africa, as Eric Kreft and Pieter Conradie join forces to discuss Python Imaging and OCR with SAP ERP – Fact or Fiction.
Kreft says that when AfriSam required a more cost-effective solution to manage delivery note images for proof of delivery, an investigation into the available options resulted in a solution using SAP with Python and Opensource tools. Both he and Conradie will delve into the case study, touching on its specific and bespoke requirements, while discussing the journey’s challenges and providing insights around how SAP ERP was ultimately used in areas previously not thought possible.
Another case study session will see Charles de Jager from GlueData Master Data Solutions joining Johan du Plessis, Senior Executive at Consol in empowering delegates to discover the hidden gems in R/3, whilst showing them how Consol Glass transformed its material master data management quality.
Delegates interested in what public sector organisations are up to will be invited to attend talks from both the Department of Labour and Eskom.
The former, hosted by Precious Malobane, Deputy Director and Project Manager at the DoL, will delve into the National Minimum wage system, which is currently live as part of the DoL’s online services, using SAP CRM.
Eskom’s Chief Advisor, Neophitos Antoniades, will be at Saphila 2019 talking about the company’s journey to S/4HANA migration, which took an astounding 35 weeks. Antoniades will be sharing the full journey, from a complex infrastructure with over 100 databases, over 200 application servers for 29 production and 63 non-production environments, to an optimised set up showing major performance improvements after the move to S/4HANA.
“Saphila 2019 is certainly a must visit for those using or deploying SAP systems as part of their day to day,” says Reg Barry, AFSUG Co-Chair. “AFSUG is confident that we have once again secured quality content from respected speakers but even more importantly, that we’ve made sure to tell real stories that matter to our delegates and sponsors.
“Our exhibition area is packed with sector experts and our seminar slots are full of industry thought leaders, all of whom bring something unique and valuable to the table.”
The African SAP User Group (AFSUG) provides a forum for SAP customers to share information and experiences, accelerate the implementation of successful business solutions and influence SAP Africa and SAP Aktiengesellschaft’s (AG) local and global directions. It represents all customers across a variety of industries, businesses and technological processes. Regular, focused and highly professional contact at all levels between AFSUG, SAP Africa and its business partners, allows the user group to promote the needs and wishes of the user community. Additionally, through this contact, it assists SAP Africa in the management of the service-related challenges presented by rapid growth.
