Thursday, September 18, 2008

ASUG Operations Optimization Day 3 (and 2), and then some

Day 2 highlights, since I only posted the podcast, and nothing else:

I didn't get excited by the keynote. Check some of my contemporaneous tweets if you want to know what I thought then. I heard a few others say they liked it, so I've either heard I before or read it before done better, or I was overly critical.

Krishna Kumar's topic was titled green and energy savings, but there wasn't much on that. He's been to our offices (I recalled) and is very sharp, plus the presentation was well done and well thought, not to mention thought provoking. It's just that the connection to energy conservation for supply chains was a stretch from Google maps mash-ups, not well documented.

The Valero presentation on near real time dashboards was fascinating, not just for the technical know-how, but also for the project management and scope creep views. I later stopped at the SAP pod on MII and found a different opinion on publishing manufacturing data. I'll stick with the users on the pointy end of the stick over the developers, thanks.

At lunch I heard the most attended session for an SAP speaker was on RFID basics, so we're going to repeat that as a webcast. I also recorded a podcast, which is on the ASUG site.

After lunch I sat through the APO 7 new stuff session by Tod Stenger.

Then Jim and I presented, as pictured above. It went okay, got a few good questions and collected many business cards.

Tuesday evening was a second networking event, and then comedy from Second City. Perhaps a YouTube clip when I can upload.

Wednesday I did an early session with SAP usability developers. I'll probably write about that on SDN later. It went well, but we ran out of time.

Another good session was on SCM demand planning tips + tricks. I'm not a planner but it still helped me.

Lunchtime was the panel on SAP "Enterprise Support"" I went in with low expectations, and even they weren't met. My comment about slow (and incorrect) problem handling was deflected to a completely irrelevant claim that "Solution Manager" will speed up message solving. Since the help desk people gave us wrong advice, despite my spoon feeding the answer, I was disgusted with the answer, walking out shortly afterwards. It's a price hike, period. I have yet to see the value.

Thursday we're in east Tennessee, and got too see Butch McNally, formerly of BITI, now with Portals. Always a treat to chat with Butch. He's going to France, courtesy of WIS. ASUG, take note.

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