I had the opportunity to attend SAP’s SuccessFactors SuccessConnect conference being held in Las Vegas. The conference is well attended, with over 2500 attendees - an increase over last years.
 

So let’s look at the Top3 takeaways from the Day 1 Keynote:

Simplicity – In a keynote story line based on Verne’s 80 days around the world, Ettling stressed the need for simplicity – simplicity extends to run, use and engage with modern HR software. It is an incline to the overall SAP message of running simple… 


 
 
SuccessFactors SAP #SConnect15 SConnect
The Simplicity message was prominent at SConnect 

Certification – SAP has realized the need for certification – launching the self service centers a year ago. It’s good to see the traction now and in a nice move SuccessFactors welcome the first certified administrators at SuccessConnect. Certification of partners is coming, too – in general certification is critical to standardize services and capabilities so that customers can see repetitive high quality implementation and services.

 
SuccessFactors SAP #SConnect15 SConnect
Certification was a bug push. 

Next Generation HCM software – SAP shared vision of combining multiple HR transactions to make the life of HCM software users easier. A good move as in the past HR systems have been single transaction driven. With the innovation of (true) Analytics, BigData and Cloud, HR vendors can now aggregate more transaction in a more intelligent way. You can find more on my news analysis here – and my 2014 blog post on the same topic, creating the ‘transboarding’ verb (see here). 
 
 
SuccessFactors SAP #SConnect15 SConnect
Introducing SuccessFactors Intelligent Servcies
 

MyPOV

A good start for the SuccessConnect. It is clear that HCM is key for SAP, CEO McDermott called in recovering from its recent accident. With the intelligent services SAP is trying to do achieve something truly innovative – we will have to dig deeper into that the next days. Ettling also lifted the bonnet (sorry was in Scotland the last days) on plans to change Performance Management and Learning, as a preview to Krakovsky’s keynote tomorrow.

Some key tweets from the event:

 

 

And more on overall SAP strategy and products:

 

  • News Analysis - SAP SuccessFactors introduces Next Generation of HCM software - read here
  • News Analysis - SAP delivers next release of SAP HANA - SPS 10 - Ready for BigData and IoT - read here
  • Event Report - SAP Sapphire - Top 3 Positives and Concerns - read here
  • First Take - Bernd Leukert and Steve Singh Day #2 Keynote - read here
  • News Analysis - SAP and IBM join forces ... read here
  • First Take - SAP Sapphire Bill McDermott Day #1 Keynote - read here
  • In Depth - S/4HANA qualities as presented by Plattner - play for play - read here
  • First Take - SAP Cloud for Planning - the next spreadsheet killer is off to a good start - read here
  • Progress Report - SAP HCM makes progress and consolidates - a lot of moving parts - read here
  • First Take - SAP launches S/4HANA - The good, the challenge and the concern - read here

 

  • First Take - SAP's IoT strategy becomes clearer - read here
  • SAP appoints a CTO - some musings - read here
  • Event Report - SAP's SAPtd - (Finally) more talk on PaaS, good progress and aligning with IBM and Oracle - read here
  • News Analysis - SAP and IBM partner for cloud success - good news - read here
  • Market Move - SAP strikes again - this time it is Concur and the spend into spend management - read here
  • Event Report - SAP SuccessFactors picks up speed - but there remains work to be done - read here
  • First Take - SAP SuccessFactors SuccessConnect - Top 3 Takeaways Day 1 Keynote - read here.
  • Event Report - Sapphire - SAP finds its (unique) path to cloud - read here
  • What I would like SAP to address this Sapphire - read here
  • News Analysis - SAP becomes more about applications - again - read here
  • Market Move - SAP acquires Fieldglass - off to the contingent workforce - early move or reaction? Read here.
  • SAP's startup program keep rolling – read here.
  • Why SAP acquired KXEN? Getting serious about Analytics – read here.
  • SAP steamlines organization further – the Danes are leaving – read here.
  • Reading between the lines… SAP Q2 Earnings – cloudy with potential structural changes – read here.
  • SAP wants to be a technology company, really – read here
  • Why SAP acquired hybris software – read here.
  • SAP gets serious about the cloud – organizationally – read here.
  • Taking stock – what SAP answered and it didn’t answer this Sapphire [2013] – read here.
  • Act III & Final Day – A tale of two conference – Sapphire & SuiteWorld13 – read here.
  • The middle day – 2 keynotes and press releases – Sapphire & SuiteWorld – read here.
  • A tale of 2 keynotes and press releases – Sapphire & SuiteWorld – read here.
  • What I would like SAP to address this Sapphire – read here.
  • Why 3rd party maintenance is key to SAP’s and Oracle’s success – read here.
  • Why SAP acquired Camillion – read here.
  • Why SAP acquired SmartOps – read here.
  • Next in your mall – SAP and Oracle? Read here.

 


And more about SAP technology:
  • HANA Cloud Platform - Revisited - Improvements ahead and turning into a real PaaS - read here
  • News Analysis - SAP commits to CloudFoundry and OpenSource - key steps - but what is the direction? - Read here.
  • News Analysis - SAP moves Ariba Spend Visibility to HANA - Interesting first step in a long journey - read here
  • Launch Report - When BW 7.4 meets HANA it is like 2 + 2 = 5 - but is 5 enough - read here
  • Event Report - BI 2014 and HANA 2014 takeaways - it is all about HANA and Lumira - but is that enough? Read here.
  • News Analysis – SAP slices and dices into more Cloud, and of course more HANA – read here.
  • SAP gets serious about open source and courts developers – about time – read here.
  • My top 3 takeaways from the SAP TechEd keynote – read here.
  • SAP discovers elasticity for HANA – kind of – read here.
  • Can HANA Cloud be elastic? Tough – read here.
  • SAP’s Cloud plans get more cloudy – read here.
  • HANA Enterprise Cloud helps SAP discover the cloud (benefits) – read here.
 
Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard.