Been a very busy week. My real-life occupation with SAP took me to Mannheim in Germany. It`s a place I know well enough after thirteen years with SAP, as it is the next major town up the autobahn after Heidelberg, where SAP is nearly based. When SAP fills the local hotels, which is often, it is a good idea to go look to Mannheim. Like many cities, Heidelberg is the West End, Mannheim the East End.
Three days of talking to 650 + people about SAP and its incursion into banking. I had the pleasure of giving a presentation on the new SAP banking accounting products. After six years of development with the largest single development budget in SAP (at least for industry solutions) I am reminded of "2010, The Year We Made Contact." David Bowman saying quietly, "something wonderful is going to happen..."
SAP Banking has hit critical mass. I gave a presentation about the current functionality of the SAP applications for banks, and I had a guy in the audience that I presented to 13 years ago, and he came up to me and said, "Wow, there has been a complete transformation !"
It was also good to spend three days in the presence of my tribe. I spend a lot of time working all around Europe and the world, which is great, and I spend a lot of time working on things in my home office here in Geneva. It is a different thing to go to the epicentre, and really feel that the whole village is in the same place. Walking around like a pimp at a disco nodding and grinning, and catching up with what is happening. Chatting, seeing faces, catching the mood, all of things that blogging is not necessarily good for. To see the words, "all is well here," or "something wonderful is about to happen.." is not the same as looking into human eyes, and seeing the set of the shoulders, the posture, and the tone of voice.
Information exchange at a distance is good, but the bandwidth up close and personal is different. So, clearly what you hear is that I have been buoyed by contact with my peer group, and I think that this is a normal phenomenon... My whuffie has been replenished.
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