EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT - MOHAMMED AL NAJJAR

One-Man Show in Baghdad

Mohammed Al Najjar is determined to make SAP a household name in Iraq, and is moving the needle through his own social and cultural engagement.

By Paul Baur

Mohammed starts by telling the story about how Iraqi consumers have embraced new brands in post-war Iraq. Ford was among the first to introduce minibuses to the country, so now everyone refers to minibuses as “Fords.” Consumers buying any kind of detergent always ask the store clerk for “Tide.” Mohammed’s vision for business software is similar: Whenever a CIO needs a solution, he should say “Give me a SAP.”

Turning this vision into reality means long days for Mohammed Al Najjar, senior executive for SAP in Iraq. “It is me, my bag, my laptop, and my beliefs,” he quips. Mohammed is the only SAP employee in a country of close to 30 million people served by an IT infrastructure frozen in the 1970s. Mohammed seems to be up to the challenge: With over three decades experience managing and implementing innovative solutions to business problems using the latest business software , he has completed projects for entities such as the Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Ministry of Telecommunication, as well as a host of private sector enterprises. Mohammed managed to close two large opportunities with very strategic accounts in the first year of SAP’s presence in Iraq.

A personal and professional mission

The conditions under which SAP’s only man in Iraq lives and works are daunting. Travel within Iraq is risky and time consuming, electricity and Internet connectivity are intermittent, and the climate is intensely hot – with summer temperatures reaching 55 degrees Celsius (130 Fahrenheit). Ravaged by neglect and war, Iraq’s IT infrastructure can only be described as Stone Age.
And then there are the bomb attacks. To maintain close contact with the people, he has made a personal decision not to travel in organized convoys or with hired security personnel. But he still takes precautions to reduce the possibility of getting in harm’s way.
Most westerners would throw up their hands and take a different assignment – any assignment. Not Mohammed. Because he doesn’t consider it an assignment; for him, it’s more of a personal and professional mission. Mohammed is first a teacher, friend, and consultant to the Iraqi people – being an SAP employee comes after that.

 “SAP is credible, mature, and keeps its promises”

Mohammed Al Najjar was born in Iraq but left the country as a young man, more than 30 years ago. He has since earned degrees at universities in Europe, accumulated significant work experience in IT, and after gaining success, has returned to Iraq to contribute to its growth. Other IT companies would have liked to employ him in Iraq, but he was convinced by SAP. “I joined SAP because it is credible, mature, and it keeps its promises. SAP also cares, and that goes very far with the customer,” he finds.
“There is a philanthropic side of me, and with the opportunities I had in life, I thought it time to go back and share this experience with youngsters, give them a new dimension of thinking, and help them have better options in life.” By Mohammed’s calculations, roughly 2%, or about 600,000 of Iraqis need training to support the IT infrastructure enhancements that the country might need in the future. He is doing what he can, from whitepapers to workshops to shaping college education.
The natural-born teacher believes in the inherent nature of the Iraqi people to learn and innovate, based in part on their cultural heritage: “Talent is abundant in Iraq, evidenced by four major civilizations in Mesopotamia (the current Iraq) that made significant advances, including the invention of the wheel and the first set of written laws known to humankind.”
Mohammed has developed a training system to expose Iraqis to Western ideas (the right ones, he jokes). The program is called 3-in-1, and trains Iraqis in Western marketing ideas over a period of six days. He works together with widows and orphan organizations, as well as the College of Sciences for Women at Baghdad University. “I believe that IT is a job that suits women, because it has the least risk,” explains Mohammed. “The program is headed by a very open minded dean whom I work very closely with projects on human development.”
Initiatives like the SAP University Alliance have the potential to boost local knowledge and stoke vocational skill sets. The alliance provides university faculties with the tools and resources needed to teach students how technology can help enable integrated business processes and strategic thinking, giving them the opportunity to gain valuable skills with the potential to add immediate value to the Iraqi IT sector.

 “A demo can change a life”

Mohammed is convinced that the best way to initiate business in Iraq is through social or cultural engagement. “SAP can play a phenomenal role in helping Iraq develop a vibrant IT industry,” he exclaims. “With every presentation or demo, I feel that I change somebody’s life.” But can a demo really change a life? “In Iraq it can,” claims Mohammed. In the meantime, he has gained quite a reputation in Iraq as a software evangelist. So much so, that Iraqi TV is planning to give him five minutes per day on the show “Good Morning Iraq” to talk about technology.
This is a great source of motivation for the man who left his home country in his youth, only to return to rebuild society. “Because every time someone comes to me and asks how he or she can make more of their skills, I realize I have achieved a major part of my role,” Mohammed explains. “I don’t perceive what I am doing as a job. The kick I am getting out of this job is seeing the value I bring to young Iraqis.”

“We are the founding fathers of technology”

In the context of his work for SAP in Iraq, Mohammed doesn’t feel comfortable with the term “customer,” perhaps because the relationships he has built go deeper. “My customers and market are still in their infancy,” he explains, “so most of my time is spent as relationship builder, business developer, cultural moderator, translator, and much of my work involves helping Iraq to understand SAP and SAP understand Iraq.” Mohammed is excited at the prospects for SAP in Iraq: “We are at a junction in time where we can really make a difference for SAP and for Iraq. We are the pioneers; we are the founding fathers of a new era of technology,” he points out.
“The government is the main driver of the economy, with essentially two places of focus: managing current operations and infrastructure changes,” explained Mohammed. “We expect this to continue until the private sector is able to develop itself.” Because of the push to make up for lost time and catch up with other markets, the proportion of IT spending is higher than in other countries – with oil revenues financing it. In 2012, the government budget was €110 billion, of which 7% went towards ICT infrastructure.

Rapid deployment solutions a winner

SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions are integral to the overall business strategy for accelerating the adoption of advanced IT within Iraq. These are expertly designed business packages that include both the specialized business software and the IT consulting services to install it into the business operation. The packages span business and financial management, sales and customer service, through supply chain management.”
“With Iraq in this phase of reconstruction, rapid-deployment solutions provide Iraqi organizations with the message of ‘low risk’ with its quick guaranteed timeline, low cost, and world’s best practices deployed with proven methodology,” Mohammed said. “They are a huge winner, because people are eager to move into the 21st century and they don’t have 2-3 years to implement,” he confirms. “It’s like delivering the world’s best practices on a silver platter.”

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT

JOHANN - USER EXPERIENCE RESEARCH

"Hi! I am Johann, currently working as a User Experience Researcher in our SAP headquarters in Newtown Square, PA.  User Experience at SAP has many angles but my work is mostly focused internally: developing new ways to understand our internal processes, tools and strategies and envisioning new ways to support and enhance the ways our SAP employees want to work. 

User Experience and, more recently, Design Thinking, are very powerful approaches to connect with how people feel, think and interact, exploring innovation (technology-based or not) and making sure that it all makes business sense.  The best part is that you get to work with very smart and diverse teams that include people with backgrounds in anthropology, psychology, art, interaction design, architecture, business and many other fields.  My own education shows a bit of that mix:  I started as an undergrad in Systems Engineering with some explorations in Linguistics & Language Education, went to a very unique Master’s program that combined Computer Science with the Science of Creative Intelligence (more about that some other day!) and then, finally did my PhD in Human-Computer Interaction.  Although getting as much knowledge as you can is great, nothing beats working with a diverse team of smart people… and SAP is full of them! 

On the personal side, I love to travel (and to think like a traveler!): my grandparents emigrated from Germany and started a new life in Colombia (South America, where I was born and raised) and I would like to think that I have inherited that desire to see and experience different ways of thinking and living."

January 23, 2013 6:39 pm

Cloud and big data push boost SAP

By Bede McCarthy, Technology Correspondent

SAP on Wednesday said its momentum had “never been stronger” as it forecast continued double-digit growth this year, helped by its move into big data and the cloud.

The German business software maker said full-year software and software-related services revenue would increase 11 to 13 per cent in 2013 on its preferred non-IFRS measure, while full-year operating profit would climb to €5.85bn-€5.95bn from €5.2bn last year, when higher investment hit SAP’s margins.

The company reported revenues of €16.2bn on the IFRS measure, up 14 per cent year on year and slightly ahead of the company’s guidance.

The world’s third-largest software maker by market capitalisation achieved almost €400m in sales for Hana, its data-crunching technology that can be used in everything from risk profiling to energy smart meters. Half of those sales came in the last quarter of 2012, and the group expects sales to reach up to €700m in 2013.

Hana is a key part of SAP’s push into cloud and mobile computing, where it hopes to keep pace with rivals Oracle and IBM. Last year it acquired SuccessFactors and Ariba, two multibillion-euro acquisitions.

Operating margins fell 9.2 percentage points compared with 2011 to 25.1 per cent.

Jim Hagemann Snabe, co-chief executive, said the 2011 comparison was distorted after a legal dispute with Oracle cost less than the company had expected. Using a non-IFRS measure, which excludes such costs, its operating margin was down 1.1 percentage points compared with 2011.

Asked about growth in the company’s core business of software and analytics, Mr Snabe said cloud, Hana and mobile products would generate new customers. “At the end of the day, software and analytics is still what runs companies. What is happening is that is being revitalised by these new technologies.

“How we allocate that [growth] you can debate, but clearly it brings us more users and that was not the case before. Hana allows the core products to run in real-time and that makes the core very, very attractive.”

Daud Khan, an analyst at Berenberg, said the Hana sales were impressive, and that the 2013 guidance numbers appeared cautious when compared with the bravado of the management.

“If you extrapolate the stuff they are saying, either they are being conservative about the numbers or overconfident on the rhetoric,” he said.

The company reported earnings per share of €2.37, down from €2.89 in 2011. SAP’s shares closed up 2.4 per cent at €59.20 in Frankfurt

The Blending of Passion and Profession - An SAP Employee Story

 

The Blending of Passion and Profession

 

 

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	For Sriharsha GN, the stage and software development share a lot. Through theater, the SAP employee from SAP Labs India is helping colleagues discover hidden talent.

Acting is much more than a hobby for Sriharsha Grama Narasimha Prasad – it’s spiritual. “I forget myself and become the role,” he reflects. “This helps me explore myself, what am I, what can I be, and what is inside me.” Talking to Sriharsha, you can tell he is on a personal journey, that nothing can stop him reaching his goal. When he’s not working in SAP Labs India (SLI) as senior software engineer in Quality Governance and Production, Sriharsha runs a weekend theater group in Bangalore called WeMove, or is helping colleagues in the SLI theater group.

Sriharsha’s passion for drama started at a very young age, when he participated by chance in an acting competition and won first prize. “From then on, I was very keen about performing onstage,” he reflects. In 2001, Sriharsha won “Best Supporting Actor” from India’s National School of Drama. Even after finishing his engineering degree and beginning his career as a software engineer, his passion for theater remained. That’s when he joined WeMove, “the place where people like me meet on Saturdays and Sundays out of passion and talent,” as Sriharsha puts it.

The 28 year old has since won many accolades for his acting talent, taking part in the planning, direction, coordination, and even the writing of poems and scripts for WeMove. Today, he is in charge of all creative elements for the theatre.

But the story doesn’t end there. Since joining SAP in 2008, the boundary between Sriharsha’s profession and acting has blurred. He maintains a very real connection between his role as software engineer during the week and performer/director/coordinator on weekends. And this is the way he likes it.
Sriharsha attributes his passion in each discipline to his ability to balance both activities in his life. “I heartily thank SAP for giving me so much space that I am able to manage both my work and my passion outside work so effectively that I am a key player at both places,” he explains. The activities have created a reciprocal effect on each other: “Pursuing my passion on weekends has only made my work at SAP more exciting and created a passion for SAP in me for the work culture. This has enabled me to learn and implement so many things in both places.”

Drama as a Way to “Learn by Unconventional Means” In June, as part of SAP’s 40 year celebration, SAP Labs India (SLI) produced an adaptation of Moliere‘s comedy. The more than 20 cast and crew members of the play were all employees of SAP Labs India, many of them had never set foot onstage. The production combined the disciplines of acting, directing, design, art and technology, and fostered the development of employees in the areas of teamwork, coordination, and self expression.   According to V R Ferose, managing director of SLI, the theater production for 40 years SAP was part of a larger initiative with focus on learning via unconventional means. Drama is just one activity that the leadership team in Bangalore is supporting to expose employees to unconventional sources of learning. Another activity is visiting and learning at schools for the blind. Ferose is sure that this trend is not only relevant to India. The recent international bestselling book “Jugaad Innovation,” documenting frugal and flexible innovation practices, mentioned SAP Labs India for its unique practices in this area, saying it is a testimony to the creativity of its employees.

Show production as a process
For example, coordinating productions for his theater group has inspired Sriharsha to apply LEAN methods at work. “Coordinating with so many people and artists, and creating and defining processes under deadline pressure in my theater group has enabled me to take up the challenge of introducing LEAN culture in my team at SAP,” says Sriharsha. “I am now a Continuous Improvement Round Table member for my team and I have thus contributed my part in this journey of SAP towards LEAN.”

In turn, Sriharsha’s work experience has flowed back into his theater projects: “SAP has taught me the true spirit of balancing processes and creativity while making a product. I also have a vision to use what I have learned at SAP to create entertaining products through my theater group.” Sriharsha has even instituted SAP’s collaboration and decision-making tool, SAP StreamWork, in his theater group. “There were times when we had to plan for several theater performances in parallel – including the complexity of work streams for each production. Since I knew about SAP’s social collaboration tool, we were able to use the solution to take decisions quickly while working remotely.” Sriharsha took advantage of SAP’s offer to non-profit organizations to use the tool for free. “It was a golden opportunity, and people liked it,” he explains.

Theater instills confidence
Theater has had another positive effect on Sriharsha’s work life. It’s improved his confidence in himself and the connection to colleagues. “The praise and feedback from my colleagues when they watch my performances increases my closeness with them at office. This has made me very creative and confident in my daily work, as well as when taking up challenges on the job,” Sriharsha reports.
Sriharsha has seen the same transformation happen to colleagues in theSLItheater interest group. He is one of the founding members of “Rangabhoomi – AnSAPTheatre Interest group”. Here Sriharsha plays a leading role in engaging employees in theater and the creative process. “Software engineers should experience the power of theater acting, and it will really help change perspective,” believes Sriharsha. “I’ve seen a huge change in the people that have participated. Their confidence levels were higher and their thought process was totally different,” he assesses.
SAP Labs managing director VR Ferose recognizes the value of theater to support personal development. So much so that SLI employees were given the opportunity to put on their own theater production as part of SAP’s 40^th anniversary celebrations (see Box “Drama as a Way to “Learn by Unconventional Means”).

Life on the stage has helped Sriharsha connect better with people, develop empathy for others, and approach life in a better way. “I think it is very important to dream and achieve what you have dreamt as it only makes the world a better place to live,” he says.

Written by Paul Baur, SAP

SAP Women Spotlight

A conversation with Anastasia Race

 

Tell us a little about your yourself

My name is Anastasia Race. Born and bred in Australia and have been Sydney based for a large part of that time. I am an Economics law graduate from Sydney University and have spent the last 20 plus years in IT and T in a capacity of roles spanning Channel management, Business development and large enterprise sales.

I am a proud mother of a soon to be16 year old daughter who is about to go through the trials and tribulations of year 11 and 12 over the next two years. I have to say that there is nothing like the grounding, humility and inspiration a child can give to a parent.

My many passions are travel, cycling, kayaking, film and reading anything that inspires and teaches me something new or helps me see things from a different perspective. My Russian and Greek Heritage has imparted to me a love of food, family and culture and a strength and resilience that comes from being a child of migrant parents forging and new life in a strange new country full of opportunities. My philosophy on life is that luck happens to those who recognize and act on opportunities and have a clear focus on the things they want to achieve. Persisting in this vs changing tack continuously is what creates success in the end.

What were you doing before your recent arrival at SAP?

Prior to SAP I was working for Oracle Corporation in Australia as an Account Director responsible for the sale of Database, Technology, Business analytics and Exadata solutions for 3.5 years. I have been fortunate to have worked for organisations such as Microsoft. IBM, Cisco and Optus in a variety of sales and Partner/Channel l Management roles all across Public Sector, Insurance, Retail and professional services which has provided me with broad commercial experience and insight into IT and IT and its many complexities.

What does your role as Channel Sales Manager for the Cloud team entail?

My role is Channel Sales Manager (ANZ) looking after Infrastructure Technology and Business Process Outsourcing as well as Hosting and reporting to Greg Harbour VP cloud. The role focuses on selling SAP applications through the many partner cloud environments that are established and being established. To this end I am responsible for driving incremental revenue in conjunction with our partners across ANZ and establishing a portfolio of key partners that we will proactively manage in driving our joint GTM execution plans. Our customers are telling us that they want to move to consumption based software and infrastructure as a service model.

Our partners need our assistance in equipping them with the frameworks and enablement to address this market. SAP is evolving and maturing in how we do this (with challenges along the way) but the exciting things is we are creating and innovating new possibilities and through that reinvigorating our business and relationships with customers and partners. Our success in meeting 40% growth in channel sales by 2015 depends on our ability to adapt quickly and address this market opportunity, and through our partners, grow our addressable market space.

Where do you see Cloud Computing heading in the future? What role does SAP have to play in this?

Organisations like Forrester, in their 2012 Sizing the cloud Market Asia Pacific Report are predicting strong growth in this market and we have a window of opportunity now. Australia is still the most mature cloud market in the Asia Pacific Region. Cloud procurement is being centralised and Managed more formally through IT, spending on dynamic infrastructure services is doubling . Saas is the largest cloud market segment and we will see ERP, HCM business intelligence growing the fastest. Business process as a service will evolve allowing shared resources across multiple customers on a per user, self-service and consumption based model approach . Dynamic applications services will evolve from traditional managed services . Customer will be able to control how and where their data is stored.

In addition market developments such as the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) , The federal government’s Cloud Computing Strategic Direction and other Government initiatives will drive increased demand for cloud based services across all cloud market segments in Australia and NZ

SAP is in an excellent position to address these market developments through the way in which we enable our partners to meet this market and also through the development and delivery of our software and technologies like HANA.

What do you think diversity is? Why do you think it’s important to see more women involved in SAP?

Diversity is a simple word that highlights “difference” within a very broad context of race, gender ethnic, beliefs, Lifestyle, cognitive style, education and so on .It is what makes us the unique and interesting individuals we are . Diversity forms the basis of the society we live in and often the organisations we work in. Supporting and managing diversity in the workplace successfully is what enables greater business outcomes because of better Communication problem solving, team synergy , loyalty, and the ability to adapt to change. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Nothing we do in this company is the product of one person and one idea. It is the power of the collective whole that creates that higher outcome. I have seen firsthand many times how women can contribute to not just successful business outcomes because of their personal style, communication skills, capability and experience but also in contributing to a corporate culture that is fun, interesting and dynamic.

What are you plans for the next 12 months? Personally and professionally.

I am very focused on getting some key wins in Q4, building a strong pipeline and portfolio of excellent partners to help SAP address the growing market . Building the internal and external relationships and connections to do this is so important and I am really encouraged with the support and assistance I have had from everyone so far. We will be challenging the boundaries and trying to overcome obstacles along the way, but I believe we have absolutely the right attitude and focus.

Personally I would like to get fitter and attempt the tougher mudder challenges with my much tougher SAP colleagues this year.

 

 

	SAP Volunteers Pack 1,000 School Bags for Children in Need By Kate Dieffenbach

On August 8, 26 SAP employees ventured to Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia for the annual Cradles to Crayons “Backpack-A-Thon”.  Cradles to Crayons is an organization that provides everyday essentials, warm clothes, shoes, books, and school supplies to homeless and low-income children.  Nearly 500 volunteers from 22 different companies and organizations worked together to pack a grand total of 20,000 backpacks, filling them with much needed school supplies. The SAP team of volunteers joined forces and packed close to 1,000 backpacks in less than two hours!  The backpacks will be donated to children in homeless and low-income circumstances living in the greater Philadelphia region.
Congratulations and thank you to all of our volunteers!
Watch ABC News coverage of the 5th Annual Backpack-A-Thon.

Five Minutes with Robin Manherz

Five Minutes with Robin Manherz

Head of North America Business Transformation

 

North America News: What projects are you currently working on that you are excited about?

Robin: Anything we’re doing around our North American and Global 2015 business strategy. For instance, we’re looking at how we’ll adapt our go to market model, how we deploy our sales force, finding alternate routes to market and reinventing the SAP brand. I’m excited about all of this because it keeps my skills, the work I do and my outlook fresh. This part of our business requires that I understand the mechanics of the company and allows for creativity and innovation. I like that.  I like having to know the depth of the business and being able to explore the places it can take us. It’s work that lets me engage both sides of my brain.

North America News: Tell us one thing that people generally don’t know about you.

Robin: I’m a mother of six kids, four of whom were adopted from Haiti. I’m a pretty transparent person so people who know me personally, know my family. But for those who don’t, it might come as a surprise. We mimic the Brady Bunch and by that I mean we have two kids who are 12-years-old, two who are 10 and two who are five. My husband is a stay-at-home dad and that makes our family possible. There’s plenty of effort required beyond the traditional with a family like ours. Plus we have two dogs and a cat.

Really, we’re like the Brady Bunch minus Alice! 

North America News: What are some of your passions and hobbies that you enjoy outside of the office?

Robin: (laughs) A family of six kids doesn’t give time for much else! Each one of them has their own interests so we make sure to encourage and support what they want to do. I’m in a life phase where most of my concentration is on my family and my work, but out of that has grown two particular passions for me.

When we began to grow our family five years ago, we wanted to adopt children who might’ve been forgotten or who were otherwise outside the ‘desirable’ criteria; Haiti gave us that opportunity and made me passionate about the awareness of adopting older children. And so often in 3^rd world countries, children are an indication of the status of women. Since learning that—since seeing it first hand in Haiti—I’m very concerned about the plight of women in poor countries. I am involved in an organization that works to ensure women can deliver their babies and receive proper care.

North America News:  What did you want to be when you grew up?

Robin: When I was a kid, I wanted to be an architect.  I’ve always loved art and the intersection of science and art.

North American News: If you could have dinner with anyone (living or not), who would it be and why?

Robin: A quiet dinner away from all the noise and activity with my husband. Truly. I have such a full life, great relationships with my kids, the people in their lives, people I work with…John and I invest a lot in our family and what grounds me are the opportunities we have to reconnect. Having a calm, peaceful dinner with time for reflection, just the two of us, would do that.  

Robin with her family near their Denver, CO home (l to r) Michael (10), Stephanie (10), MJ (12), husband John with Emma (5), John (12) and in front, Ben (5).