Are you making the most of your User Group membership?

During last year’s UKISUG Connect, we asked a number of User Group members why they signed up, and what benefits of membership they have realised.

Whether it was about networking with other SAP professionals, having access to learning tools or being able to speak directly with SAP, each user had something different to share.

Claire Rudd – HR and IT specialist at E.ON

Watch Claire's interview on YouTube.

For Claire, the main membership benefit has been networking with other SAP users involved in similar projects. This has allowed Claire to gain valuable and honest feedback on SAP products, and build a professional network of like-minded users.

“At the moment we’re looking at what cloud solutions we can implement in the SuccessFactors space. By attending the HR and SuccessFactors Special Interest Groups, we’ve been able to see companies that have implemented the things that we want to do and have open conversations with them about what’s worked and what hasn’t worked well.”

John Wager – IT and Operations Manager at Saddleback

Watch John's interview on YouTube.

Collaborating on IT projects has been the main benefit for John Wager, who heads up IT for cycling distributor, Saddleback. As the only IT professional in his organisation, John looks to fellow User Group members for advice and feedback when undertaking new SAP projects, collaborating with them to gain a more varied perspective.

“Being able to talk to our peers is massively important for a small business. As a big business you might have a thousand people to speak to internally and ask, ‘how do we do this?’ I run the entire IT department by myself and if I don’t know how to do something, I’m limited to going to a VAR or the SAP portal for advice. To be able to hear from someone who’s already put in a process for returns, deliveries or sales orders who can say, ‘this could save you time’… is invaluable.”

Barbara Barker – Business Analyst at Newcastle University

Watch Barbara's interview on YouTube.

Barbara at Newcastle University explains how the User Group has given her team access to learning tools that have helped them to understand a great deal around complex issues such as GDPR, and to gain insight before starting new projects. One of the biggest advantages of membership for Barbara is the discount to SAP’s Learning Hub, which she uses during allocated training days.

“The discount we’ve been getting for the SAP Learning Hub has been really fantastic for us, if you look at the cost of going on a proper SAP training course – and we can do them in our own time, and decide when and where we want to do them.”

Lee Brown – BMK Holdings

Watch Lee's interview on YouTube.

For Lee Brown, being kept up to date with the latest developments in SAP ByDesign and the future product roadmap is vital to his role. One of the main benefits for Lee is being able to influence SAP’s product development through having access to SAP during the User Group’s SIG.

“If we weren’t part of the User Group, I don’t think we would feel as engaged in the SAP community and we wouldn’t necessarily have that opportunity to influence the product, so it’s important for us to stay involved. Through the User Group, we have a direct line to the SAP. There’s often SAP representation at the ByDesign SIG, where you can make requests for development changes and new functionality, and discuss general issues and feedback with SAP.”

If you’d like to speak to us about your experience of the User Group, please get in touch by contacting sarah.cavanagh@sapusers.org.