The SAP Institute for Digital Government (SIDG) held a Discovery Workshop with our recently announced foundation client partner the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), on Thursday the 3rd of December. The workshop provided a platform to discuss areas of mutual interest and to identify areas for collaboration during 2016.

There were several key areas where the SIDG and NDIA were keen to work together on. Each area of interest involved leveraging technology to increase social inclusion for people with disabilities. For example . The “nudge” theory uses positive reinforcement or other means to encourage a particular behaviour or decision. With its partners the SIDG is looking to conduct research into how nudge theory can be applied in the area of social protection. Both the SIDG and NDIA believe this technique has potential to deliver positive outcomes for those with a disability.

At the Discovery Workshop the NDIA shared their vision for addressing disability barriers through assistive technology with the aim of enabling full social and economic participation. The SIDG looks forward to being involved in this exciting area of innovation.  The SIDG and the NDIA will continue these discussions, leading to plan of activities for 2016.

If you are interested in the SAP Institute for Digital Government and want to find out more, visit http://bit.ly/1Wsszpo, follow us on Twitter @SAPSIDG and email us at digitalgovernment@sap.com.

In the photo below, at the SIDG office in Canberra  - left  to right  :  Andrew Waite (NDIA) Brian Lee-Archer (SIDG) Helen McKenna (NDIA), Marie Johnson (NDIA), Sarah Johnson (NDIA), Garth O'Brien (NDIA)

When I joined a year back as HR Business partner, I understood that one of the major challenges faced by business leaders is to effectively engage with the talents. Most of the time, the review meetings witnessed discussion around targets/goals and hardly anything around individual development. With ageing workforce and global competition for talent, the need of the hour is to engage and retain our talents. The talents need personalized development plan to close the skill gaps and get more engaged workforce. We need the right talent at the right time with the right skill set to give our business the competitive advantage.

Hence along with business leaders my task was to sensitize the talents on 3 parameters of development plan/goals – What, why and how.

3.  Define the learning activities that will help you achieve each development goal. Learn about choosing the right activities by reviewing "My Development Playbook."

4. Document your learning activity results to recognize your accomplishments.

Development Plan in Successmap:

The Development plan in Success map starts with the following 3 questions:

• Who am I?– talks about one’s relevant experience, industry domain
• Where do I want to go?– talks about whether to grow in the current role or future role based on potential and performance assessment
• How do I get there?- talks about the means to get to one’s aspiration

The most striking feature in the Development plan is “My development playbook”

The development playbook helps one to navigate through 3 critical questions and thereby helps to achieve the most fulfilling career in SAP. Each critical question also has a resource section with ample tools for self-evaluation and assessment.

.

• Who am I?– The path to self- discovery enables one to assess skills, aspirations, growth opportunity, value and personal brand. This section is quite enlightening since it sets one in the mode of introspection.The resources available for exploration are potential assessment and development direction, gap analysis, personal brand building.

• Where do I want to grow? -  Once the self-discovery phase is over, reflect on the personal and career goals and identify how this can be applied at SAP. This section really outlines the career path for navigation starting with understanding SAP’s strategy, passion, industry trends (Know your SAP). Once you understand what SAP has in store you need to start thinking on your preference and career path opportunities (Career Navigator). The Career Pathfinder is a great tool for understanding SAP’s global job architecture. Once you identify the aspiration role, the required skills, competencies, responsibilities can be viewed through Global Job profiles. Also the open positions can be viewed through Job openings.

• How do I get there?– According to me once you are done with Step 1 and 2, half of the task is completed. Now it’s all about realizing your dreams and taking some solid actions around it.

The first thing that comes to someone’s mind when we talk about development plan is training. The tool urges you to think outside the box and apply 70-20-10 learning principle here. You need to choose the goals (can divide into short –term and long term goals) and decide on the tasks to achieve those. The development goals can then be recorded in success map for regular update.

Most of the time, one of the bottlenecks for accomplishing a development plan is the lack of managerial support. The beauty of the tool is that it enables manager to view the goals given by directs and mark their commitment. This provides sufficient window for manager to understand the aspirations and extend the required support for accomplishment.

Overall, I find the tool very intuitive, easy to navigate, quite resourceful and this serves as a career guidance for managers and employees. Diligent use of the tool will enable one to chalk out a successful career path @ SAP

Introduction

HCI provides the following two different development environments for developing integration content.

• WebUI - web-based application for online development mode
• Integration Designer - Eclipse based tool capable of offline local development mode

WebUI is suited for fast consumption and deployment of pre-packaged integration content with minimal modifications; whilst the Eclipse IDE is suited for full fledged development of custom integration contents. This allows integration developers to choose the appropriate development environment based on their particular needs or circumstances.

However, as of the current tenant version, there is a disparity of features between both environments. Here are some examples of certain features available only on one of the environments but not the other:-

• XSL mappings cannot be created or edited in WebUI
• Certain Message Routing elements like Multicast or Aggregator cannot be created in WebUI
• Message Mappings cannot be tested in Eclipse (like how it is tested in NWDS for PI)

As such, this may necessitate the developer to switch between the two environments. However, there is no quick and fast way to achieve this as of the current tenant version.

In this blog, I will share the procedure how Integration Content (pre-packaged or custom) can be exported from the WebUI environment to Eclipse for further editing, and then reimported back into WebUI.

Component Details

As HCI is a cloud solution with automatic rolling updates, future updates may incorporate changes to allow a more seamless transition between the two environments. Therefore these steps are only valid for the following versions and may be invalidated in the future.

Below are component versions of the tenant and Eclipse plugins.

HCI Tenant Version: 2.8.5

Eclipse Plugin Versions: Adapter 2.11.1, Designer 2.11.1, Operations 2.10.0

Step by Step Guide

We will use an example of transferring a pre-packaged integration content from WebUI to Eclipse and back.

Step 1 - Export Integration Package from WebUI

Login to WebUI, go to Discover to select an existing pre-packaged content. Select Copy to Workspace button.

Switch to the Design tab. Select the integration package and click Export.

The content will be downloaded as a ZIP file.

Step 2 - Extract project from ZIP file

Open the ZIP file in a ZIP file manager (example 7-Zip below). The ZIP file will contain several entries. One of the entries which ends with "_content" is listed as a file but is actually a folder.

Double click on that file and it will display a list of files and folders similar to an Eclipse project.

Extract the contents of the project folder into a local folder on the PC.

Step 3 - Import project into Eclipse

Start up Eclipse (which already has the HCI plugins installed). Select File > Import and choose Existing Projects into Workspace.

Browse to the folder with the extracted contents and select the available project(s).

Complete the import step and the project will be shown in the Project Explorer.

Step 4 - Determine content that needs to be changed

In this example, we will change the following three contents. The screenshots below display the content in WebUI prior to any changes. Some of the changes can actually be performed in WebUI, but this example is just to showcase the before/after details of changes done in Eclipse.

a) Content Modifier step with Message Header values

b) XSL mapping step which cannot be viewed/edited in WebUI

c) Groovy script

Step 5 - Modify content in Eclipse

Now we can modify the above three items in Eclipse.

a) Modify the value of one of the message header

b) Create a new XSL mapping and update the mapping step to use this new XSL mapping

c) Update the Groovy script with some comments

Step 6 - Update ZIP file with changed content

We will need to update the ZIP file downloaded in Step 1 with the contents that have changed.

Open the ZIP file in the ZIP manager, copy the files that have changed from the Eclipse workspace to the ZIP file. In the example below, the new XSL mapping file is copied into the src\main\resources\mapping folder of the ZIP file. This is repeated for the iFlow file and the Groovy script file into their corresponding folders.

Once all the relevant files are copied, return back to the main folder of the ZIP file. There will be a prompt that the "_content" file was modified, select OK to update it in the archive.

The file will be displayed with the latest details.

Step 7 - Import ZIP file back into WebUI

Switch back to WebUI. Before importing back the ZIP file, it is advisable to delete the existing package. I've tried importing to overwrite it but the process runs indefinitely.

Select Import and browse to the ZIP file.

Once the import is completed, it will be displayed in the Design Overview page.

Step 8 - View and verify the changes in WebUI

Select the Integration Flow and view it. Both changes (a) and (b) above can be viewed.

Select the Script element and view the underlying logic. The added comments are displayed.

Additional Steps for Custom Integration Package

For custom integration packages, they cannot be exported directly at first.

The content will be shown with a Draft version and there will be the following error message when trying to export it from WebUI.

In order to export it, select the draft Integration Flow to view the diagram and change to Edit mode. Then select Save as version. After saving a version, it can be exported into a ZIP file.

Conclusion

With this approach, we are now able to export content that was designed in WebUI into Eclipse for further enhancement and reimport it back to WebUI.

A range of energy storage options is becoming increasingly available to respond to the growing share of renewables on the grid. But batteries alone may not address all of the potential needs for power reliability - particularly as peak demand calls for power often at the times that renewables are least able to respond.

Enter Hydrostor: a Canadian startup that has launched the world's first underwater compressed-air energy storage solution.

Just last week, Hydrostor brought online a grid-connected, 1MW system using inflatable balloons positioned 180 feet below the surface of Toronto's Lake Ontario. The system - capable of holding enough energy to power 330 homes - will be operated by Toronto Hydro. The utility intends to use the Hydrostor system to store electricity during off-peak hours and then tap into it as demand grows. Read more >

SAP Utilities Experts >

Having been at TechED Las Vegas and Barcelona I really must say that the interest into S/4HANA is overwhelming. I had good discussion with customers and partners and it can be clearly seen that knowledge and understanding of S/4HANA is increasing. The focus of the inquiries is increasingly pointing towards adoption. Consequently the booths were well frequented and S/4HANA sessions were often sold out and even overbooked. Therefore it is good that many have been recorded and are available online. Enjoy in case you did not get a chance on site.

There were some great other sessions from Stefan Elfner, Wieland Schreiner, Sven Denecken on S/4HANA which together with mine will give you a good overview on S/4HANA

This post by SAP Product Security Response Team shares information on Patch Day Security Notes* that are released on second Tuesday of every month and fix vulnerabilities discovered in SAP products. SAP strongly recommends that the customer visits the Support Portal and applies patches on a priority to protect his SAP landscape.

On 8th of December 2015, SAP Security Patch Day saw the release of 19 security notes. Additionally, there are 7 updates to previously released Patch Day Security Notes.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Security Notes vs Vulnerability Type - December 2015

Security Notes vs Priority Distribution (July - December 2015)**

*  Patch Day Security Notes are all notes that appear under the category of "Patch Day Notes" in SAP Support Portal

** Any Patch Day Security Note released after the second Tuesday, will be accounted  for in the following SAP Security Patch Day.

To know more about the security researchers and research companies who have contributed for security patches of this month visit SAP Product Security Response Acknowledgement Page

Do write to us atsecure@sap.comwith all your comments and feedback on this blog post.

Yours,

SAP Product Security Response Team

There is no doubt about my first love for SAP and it’s techno-functional maturity. I am not frequent writer on SCN because of paucity of time and some other priorities on stack. But whenever there is pain I always come back to SCN for help and usually saved by defeat. I thought, I should also contribute. I cannot contribute like Masayuki Sekihara (He is guide, philosopher and friend for all Fiori Developers), but I should take some small baby steps. I am sure Masa should be much busier than me but still contribute to community and always available to help people like me (Who are little selfish, come back to SCN, when in trouble only). So this triggers a thought for payback to community, whatever big or small I have to share. So here I am with small blog talking about “Proxy  Settings in Fiori/UI5 App”.

So basically proxy settings are required to enable local development or Fiori/UI5 app in Eclipse on desktop with access to the OData Service. If you are testing locally in your Java Eclipse environment and you want to access an OData service in the ABAP system, a proxy is needed to ensure the same origin policy. In an SAPUI5 application project you can use a SimpleProxyServlet for local testing. So below are the required changes:

Step-1:

Open the web.xml file located in the <WebContent folder name>/WEB-INF folder and configure the parameter com.sap.ui5.proxy.REMOTE_LOCATION of the SimpleProxyServlet where the placeholders {protocol}, {host name}, {port number} are to be exchanged by the real protocol, host name and port number:

<servlet>

<servlet-name>SimpleProxyServlet</servlet-name>

<servlet-class>com.sap.ui5.proxy.SimpleProxyServlet</servlet-class>

</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>

  <servlet-name>SimpleProxyServlet</servlet-name>

  <url-pattern>/proxy/*</url-pattern>

</servlet-mapping>

<context-param>

  <param-name>com.sap.ui5.proxy.REMOTE_LOCATION</param-name>

  <param-value>{protocol}://{host name}:{port number}</param-value>

</context-param>

Example for above:

<context-param>

  <param-name>com.sap.ui5.proxy.REMOTE_LOCATION</param-name>

  <param-value>http://abc.com:8000</param-value>

</context-param>

Step-2

Open “Configuration.js”, in case of Fiori and prefix the serviceURL with /approot/proxy (Below is the example code of CRM Fiori "My Leads")

     sap.ca.scfld.md.ConfigurationBase.extend("cus.crm.lead.Configuration", {

            oServiceParams: {

                serviceList: [

                 {

                     name: "CRM_LEAD",

                     masterCollection: "Leads",

                     serviceUrl:URI("CRM_LEADS/proxy/sap/opu/odata/sap/CRM_LEAD/").directory(),

                     isDefault: true,

                     countSupported : false,

                     mockedDataSource: "/cus.crm.lead/model/metadata.xml"

                 }

               ]

      },

I hope someone will get the benefit of above.

Thanks,

Hemendra

Dear all, here I will walk through step-by-step creation process of master conditions with the help of Contract Business Object. The Master conditions are time dependent conditions where contract exist for a long period of time and conditions of the items as well as at the header level vary for various time periods.

Choose the transaction me31k for the creation of contracts. We see a page like this load

Provide the necessary details and move into the header of the contract which appears like this

Create items for the contract, I created a test item and here was providing the price details along with account assignment details

Choose the conditions button on the top to create conditions for this document as highlighted in this image

Provide conditions along with the validity period

Save the document

In the display mode, we can change this contract and add more conditions with various validities

Now when we choose the conditions icon on the contract item, we are shown the various validities of conditions. We can add new condition validities here

Thank you for reading

Hello,

The SP23 for GRC NFe is going to be released today.

The main changes with the Support Package are:

• Legal Changes
• • CT-e: NT 2015.003 -> ICMS on interstate transactions with final consumer
  • CT-e: NT 2015.004 -> ICMS tax related to poverty combat fund
  • NF-e: NT 2015.003 -> ICMS on interstate transactions with final consumer
• NF-e Outbound
  • Display Receiver Acknowledgements in Outbound Monitor
  • Report to upload changed validation rules
• NF-e Inbound
  • Remove Reject Cancellation NF-e

More details about each of the changes can be see in the GRC NFe documentation in the section What's New:

What's New in NFE 10.0 - SAP Electronic Invoicing for Brazil (SAP Nota Fiscal Eletrônica) - SAP Library

More details can be seen in the SAP Note 2217341 - SAPK-90023INSLLNFE: Support Package 23 for SLL-NFE

Regards.

Renan Correa

You have to feel sorry for Chief Information Officers. Just as they finally prove their worth to the business, a new job title turns up in the boardroom and tries to take credit for all things digital: The Chief Digital Officer or CDO.

What is a Chief Digital Officer?

The CDO is the “transformer in chief” or Chief Disruption Officer, with the responsibility for questioning how technology can benefit the business. The goal of the CDO is to help the organization implement new business models and processes that blur the digital and physical worlds.

It’s one of the hottest new executive jobs in corporations around the world. The CDO Club estimates that the number of CDOs worldwide are currently doubling each year.

Why Now?

Over the last few years, digital disruption has resulted in big changes to IT organizations.

After the custom-made software of the early ‘IT craftsmanship’ era, the era of ‘IT industrialization’ brought us large-scale enterprise information systems, with an emphasis on consistency and efficiency. Today’s CIOs have spent most of their careers in the industrialization era.

But now we’re in the era of Digitalization, and IT has moved to the core of business strategy, providing continual opportunities for growth, innovation, and differentiation. Information is no longer something that helps executives make better decisions — it’s now a critical part of the customer experience. And the right skills for the industrialization era are not necessarily the right ones going forward.

For example, we’re moving from the notion of customer ‘loyalty’ to the notion of customer ‘royalty.’ All of us now expect the kind of treatment that was reserved for VIPs in the past. We expect our vendors to treat us as individuals, to recognize us, to know what business we’ve done in the past, and to make personalized recommendations based on the current context. All of this depends heavily on existing information systems, but requires more real-time operations and more agile development cycles than in the past.

And information systems are now the foundation for new business models. For example, a family-owned manufacturer of air compressors is using the internet of things and predictive maintenance to switch from selling equipment to selling compressed air as a service. And a manufacturer of next-generation forklift trucks is looking at pricing based simply on the weight of goods being lifted.

The future of IT is less about servers and more about business opportunities, and some organizations have chosen to create a new executive position with this in mind.

What does a CDO Actually Do?

Today’s Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are well-aware of the possibilities that new technology offers to differentiate from the competition, and are predicted to outspend CIOs on tech by 2017. But many CMOs are hopeless at technology. The CDO role helps bridge the innovation gap between the CIO and the CMO: using the latest technologies to help focus on customer needs.

The primary mission of the CDO is to set the pace of change rather than suffering from it. To do that, they have to ask two questions. First, “If we wanted to completely disrupt our industry, what kind of company would we start?” and second, “How do we become that company?”

In addition, faced with the new opportunities, many companies have implemented digital initiatives as a mess of disconnected, inconsistent, and sometimes incompatible activities. Organizations that want to become digital need someone with a holistic view of how all the initiatives come together and who can shepherd them through the change. To succeed, the CDO needs to be part leader, part bridge builder, and part evangelist.

Why a CDO rather than a CIO?

First, today’s CIOs have plenty on their plate coping with the changes required to technical infrastructures. Separating out the innovation role can make sure that it gets the executive priority it deserves.

Second, the CIOs knowledge of tried-and-true methods of performing IT “better, faster, and cheaper” may no longer be enough. Organizations are being forced to become more creative and inventive. They have to be willing to tear down the walls between different functional silos and support new ways of working, new modes of communication, and processes of continual innovation.

The chief challenge in digital is not technology but people. CDOs need to help break down silos and rethink the organization. It’s more important for CDOs to have great “analog” skills such as diplomacy, creativity, empathy and change management. They have to be extraordinary people leaders: digital talent is in high demand, and they have to be magnets for the best.

As a result, many Chief Digital Officers in companies don’t have an IT background. Instead, they are seasoned general managers. SAP’s Chief Digital Officer, Jonathan Becher, is a great example. He was an entrepreneur at a small startup, then became Chief Marketing Officer of SAP, and now he’s Chief Digital Officer, charged with creating a new direct-to-consumer business model.

How should CIOs and CDOs work together?

Clearly, there should be a tight partnership. The CDO should be able to concentrate on how to use the latest technologies to improve the customer experience, while the CIO looks after daily operations, obsesses over data governance, and finds ways to cut costs.

In practice, however, the roles are bound to overlap. Where does “operations” stop and “innovation” begin? After all, the ‘industrialization era’ of integrated ERP systems ultimately resulted in considerable customer experience benefits as well as internal efficiencies.

Organizations who want to innovate must rethink their core business and operations, not just bolt some extra technology on top. Investments in real-time systems are increasingly essential, and will require close collaboration between the CIO and the CDO.

Just as the role of ‘CIO’ has meant different things to different organizations in the past, each company has to work out how best to combine the responsibilities of keeping today’s business running smoothly with preparing for the business of the future.

What does the future hold for CDOs?

Many believe that the CDO will ultimately be a temporary role, a short-term fix for a problem that will go away as “digital business” becomes normal business — just as there are no longer any ‘Heads of e-Business’ in organizations today. For example, Gartner believes that the business innovation role of IT will ultimately come back under the CIO title (potentially becoming “Chief Innovation Officer”) and that the practice of using CIO to refer only to ‘back office’ functions will decline.

[This blog was first posted to my Business Analytics Blog]

Hi All,

We all might have come across some annoying, half explained error/status codes while processing HTTP request and than with this limited information available we have to go through internet to find the correct/close fitting problem to ours.

While doing so most of us don't know what exactly the error code tells us and thus the search filters are very limited and result is vast, so to have a better understanding over HTTP status code I have listed all of them below to help us understand what exactly they want to tell us.

Courtsey: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes

There are five major category of HTTP status/error codes, listed below....

• 1xx Informational
• 2xx Success
• 3xx Redirection
• 4xx Client Error
• 5xx Server Error

1xx Informational

Request received, continuing process.

This class of status code indicates a provisional response, consisting only of the Status-Line and optional headers, and is terminated by an empty line. Since HTTP/1.0 did not define any 1xx status codes, servers must not send a 1xx response to an HTTP/1.0 client except under experimental conditions.

100 Continue

This means that the server has received the request headers, and that the client should proceed to send the request body (in the case of a request for which a body needs to be sent; for example, a POST request). If the request body is large, sending it to a server when a request has already been rejected based upon inappropriate headers is inefficient. To have a server check if the request could be accepted based on the request's headers alone, a client must send Expect: 100-continue as a header in its initial request and check if a 100 Continue status code is received in response before continuing (or receive 417 Expectation Failed and not continue).

101 Switching Protocols

This means the requester has asked the server to switch protocols and the server is acknowledging that it will do so.

102 Processing

As a WebDAV request may contain many sub-requests involving file operations, it may take a long time to complete the request. This code indicates that the server has received and is processing the request, but no response is available yet. This prevents the client from timing out and assuming the request was lost.

2xx Success

This class of status codes indicates the action requested by the client was received, understood, accepted and processed successfully.

200 OK

Standard response for successful HTTP requests. The actual response will depend on the request method used. In a GET request, the response will contain an entity corresponding to the requested resource. In a POST request the response will contain an entity describing or containing the result of the action.

201 Created

The request has been fulfilled and resulted in a new resource being created.

202 Accepted

The request has been accepted for processing, but the processing has not been completed. The request might or might not eventually be acted upon, as it might be disallowed when processing actually takes place.

203 Non-Authoritative Information (since HTTP/1.1)

The server successfully processed the request, but is returning information that may be from another source.

204 No Content

The server successfully processed the request, but is not returning any content. Usually used as a response to a successful delete request.

205 Reset Content

The server successfully processed the request, but is not returning any content. Unlike a 204 response, this response requires that the requester reset the document view.

206 Partial Content

The server is delivering only part of the resource (byte serving) due to a range header sent by the client. The range header is used by tools like wget to enable resuming of interrupted downloads, or split a download into multiple simultaneous streams.

207 Multi-Status

The message body that follows is an XML message and can contain a number of separate response codes, depending on how many sub-requests were made.

208 Already Reported

The members of a DAV binding have already been enumerated in a previous reply to this request, and are not being included again.

226 IM Used

The server has fulfilled a request for the resource, and the response is a representation of the result of one or more instance-manipulations applied to the current instance.

3xx Redirection

This class of status code indicates the client must take additional action to complete the request. Many of these status codes are used in URL redirection.

A user agent may carry out the additional action with no user interaction only if the method used in the second request is GET or HEAD. A user agent should not automatically redirect a request more than five times, since such re-directions usually indicate an infinite loop.

300 Multiple Choices

Indicates multiple options for the resource that the client may follow. It, for instance, could be used to present different format options for video, list files with different extensions, or word sense disambiguation.

301 Moved Permanently

This and all future requests should be directed to the given URL.

302 Found

This is an example of industry practice contradicting the standard. The HTTP/1.0 specification (RFC 1945) required the client to perform a temporary redirect (the original describing phrase was "Moved temporarily"), but popular browsers implemented 302 with the functionality of a 303 See Other. Therefore, HTTP/1.1 added status codes 303 and 307 to distinguish between the two behaviors. However, some Web applications and frameworks use the 302 status code as if it were the 303.

303 See Other (since HTTP/1.1)

The response to the request can be found under another URL using a GET method. When received in response to a POST (or PUT/DELETE), it should be assumed that the server has received the data and the redirect should be issued with a separate GET message.

304 Not Modified

Indicates that the resource has not been modified since the version specified by the request headers If-Modified-Since or If-None-Match. This means that there is no need to re-transmit the resource, since the client still has a previously-downloaded copy.

305 Use Proxy (since HTTP/1.1)

The requested resource is only available through a proxy, whose address is provided in the response. Many HTTP clients (such as Mozilla and Internet Explorer) do not correctly handle responses with this status code, primarily for security reasons.

306 Switch Proxy

No longer used. Originally meant "Subsequent requests should use the specified proxy."

307 Temporary Redirect (since HTTP/1.1)

In this case, the request should be repeated with another URI; however, future requests should still use the original URI. In contrast to how 302 were historically implemented, the request method is not allowed to be changed when reissuing the original request. For instance, a POST request should be repeated using another POST request.

308 Permanent Redirect

The request, and all future requests should be repeated using another URI. 307 and 308 (as proposed) parallel the behaviours of 302 and 301, but do not allow the HTTP method to change. So, for example, submitting a form to a permanently redirected resource may continue smoothly.

4xx Client Error

The 4xx class of status code is intended for cases in which the client seems to have errored. Except when responding to a HEAD request, the server should include an entity containing an explanation of the error situation, and whether it is a temporary or permanent condition. These status codes are applicable to any request method. User agents should display any included entity to the user.

400 Bad Request

The server cannot or will not process the request due to something that is perceived to be a client error.

401 Unauthorized

Similar to 403 Forbidden, but specifically for use when authentication is required and has failed or has not yet been provided. The response must include a WWW-Authenticate header field containing a challenge applicable to the requested resource. See Basic access authentication and Digest access authentication.

402 Payment Required

Reserved for future use. The original intention was that this code might be used as part of some form of digital cash or micropayment scheme, but that has not happened, and this code is not usually used. YouTube uses this status if a particular IP address has made excessive requests, and requires the person to enter a CAPTCHA.

403 Forbidden

The request was a valid request, but the server is refusing to respond to it. Unlike a 401 Unauthorized response, authenticating will make no difference.

404 Not Found

The requested resource could not be found but may be available again in the future. Subsequent requests by the client are permissible.

405 Method Not Allowed

A request was made of a resource using a request method not supported by that resource; for example, using GET on a form which requires data to be presented via POST, or using PUT on a read-only resource.

406 Not Acceptable

The requested resource is only capable of generating content not acceptable according to the Accept headers sent in the request.

407 Proxy Authentication Required

The client must first authenticate itself with the proxy.

408 Request Timeout

The server timed out waiting for the request. According to HTTP specifications: "The client did not produce a request within the time that the server was prepared to wait. The client MAY repeat the request without modifications at any later time."

409 Conflict

Indicates that the request could not be processed because of conflict in the request, such as an edit conflict in the case of multiple updates.

410 Gone

Indicates that the resource requested is no longer available and will not be available again. This should be used when a resource has been intentionally removed and the resource should be purged. Upon receiving a 410 status code, the client should not request the resource again in the future. Clients such as search engines should remove the resource from their indices. Most use cases do not require clients and search engines to purge the resource, and a "404 Not Found" may be used instead.

411 Length Required

The request did not specify the length of its content, which is required by the requested resource.

412 Precondition Failed

The server does not meet one of the preconditions that the requester put on the request.

413 Request Entity Too Large

The request is larger than the server is willing or able to process.

414 Request-URL Too Long

The URL provided was too long for the server to process. Often the result of too much data being encoded as a query-string of a GET request, in which case it should be converted to a POST request.

415 Unsupported Media Type

The request entity has a media type which the server or resource does not support. For example, the client uploads an image as image/svg+xml, but the server requires that images use a different format.

416 Requested Range Not Satisfiable

The client has asked for a portion of the file (byte serving), but the server cannot supply that portion. For example, if the client asked for a part of the file that lies beyond the end of the file.

417 Expectation Failed

The server cannot meet the requirements of the Expect request-header field.

418 I'm a teapot (RFC 2324)

This code was defined in 1998 as one of the traditional IETF April Fools' jokes, in RFC 2324, Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol, and is not expected to be implemented by actual HTTP servers.

419 Authentication Timeout

Not a part of the HTTP standard, 419 Authentication Timeout denotes that previously valid authentication has expired. It is used as an alternative to 401 Unauthorized in order to differentiate from otherwise authenticated clients being denied access to specific server resources

420 Method Failure (Spring Framework)

Not part of the HTTP standard, but defined by spring in the HttpStatus class to be used when a method failed. This status code is deprecated by spring.

420 Enhance Your Calm (Twitter)

Not part of the HTTP standard, but returned by version 1 of the Twitter Search and Trends API when the client is being rate limited. Other services may wish to implement the 429 Too Many Requests response code instead.

422 Un-processable Entity

The request was well-formed but was unable to be followed due to semantic errors

423 Locked

The resource that is being accessed is locked.

424 Failed Dependency (WebDAV; RFC 4918)

The request failed due to failure of a previous request (e.g., a PROPPATCH).

426 Upgrade Required

The client should switch to a different protocol such as TLS/1.0.

428 Precondition Required

The origin server requires the request to be conditional. Intended to prevent "the 'lost update' problem, where a client GETs a resource's state, modifies it, and PUTs it back to the server, when meanwhile a third party has modified the state on the server, leading to a conflict."

429 Too Many Requests

The user has sent too many requests in a given amount of time. Intended for use with rate limiting schemes.

431 Request Header Fields Too Large

The server is unwilling to process the request because either an individual header field or all the header fields collectively, are too large.

440 Login Timeout (Microsoft)

A Microsoft extension. Indicates that your session has expired.

444 No Response (Nginx)

Used in Nginx logs to indicate that the server has returned no information to the client and closed the connection (useful as a deterrent for malware).

449 Retry With (Microsoft)

A Microsoft extension. The request should be retried after performing the appropriate action.

Often search-engines or custom applications will ignore required parameters. Where no default action is appropriate, the Aviongoo website sends a "HTTP/1.1 449 Retry with valid parameters: param1, param2 . . .” response. The applications may choose to learn, or not.

450 Blocked by Windows Parental Controls (Microsoft)

A Microsoft extension. This error is given when Windows Parental Controls are turned on and are blocking access to the given webpage.

451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons (Internet draft)

Defined in the internet draft "A New HTTP Status Code for Legally-restricted Resources" Intended to be used when resource access is denied for legal reasons, e.g. censorship or government-mandated blocked access. A reference to the 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, where books are outlawed

451 Redirect (Microsoft)

Used in Exchange ActiveSync if there either is a more efficient server to use or the server cannot access the users' mailbox.

The client is supposed to re-run the HTTP Autodiscovery protocol to find a better suited server

494 Request Header Too Large (Nginx)

Nginx internal code similar to 431 but it was introduced earlier in version 0.9.4 (on January 21, 2011)

495 Cert Error (Nginx)

Nginx internal code used when SSL client certificate error occurred to distinguish it from 4XX in a log and an error page redirection.

496 No Cert (Nginx)

Nginx internal code used when client didn't provide certificate to distinguish it from 4XX in a log and an error page redirection.

497 HTTP to HTTPS (Nginx)

Nginx internal code used for the plain HTTP requests that are sent to HTTPS port to distinguish it from 4XX in a log and an error page redirection.

498 Token expired/invalid (Esri)

Returned by ArcGIS for Server. A code of 498 indicates an expired or otherwise invalid token.

499 Client Closed Request (Nginx)

Used in Nginx logs to indicate when the connection has been closed by client while the server is still processing its request, making server unable to send a status code back.

499 Token required (Esri)

Returned by ArcGIS for Server. A code of 499 indicates that a token is required (if no token was submitted).

5xx Server Error

The server failed to fulfill an apparently valid request.

Response status codes beginning with the digit "5" indicate cases in which the server is aware that it has encountered an error or is otherwise incapable of performing the request. Except when responding to a HEAD request, the server should include an entity containing an explanation of the error situation, and indicate whether it is a temporary or permanent condition. Likewise, user agents should display any included entity to the user. These response codes are applicable to any request method.

500 Internal Server Error

A generic error message, given when an unexpected condition was encountered and no more specific message is suitable.

501 Not Implemented

The server either does not recognize the request method, or it lacks the ability to fulfill the request. Usually this implies future availability (e.g., a new feature of a web-service API).

502 Bad Gateway

The server was acting as a gateway or proxy and received an invalid response from the upstream server.

503 Service Unavailable

The server is currently unavailable (because it is overloaded or down for maintenance). Generally, this is a temporary state.

504 Gateway Timeout

The server was acting as a gateway or proxy and did not receive a timely response from the upstream server.

505 HTTP Version Not Supported

The server does not support the HTTP protocol version used in the request.

506 Variant Also Negotiates

Transparent content negotiation for the request results in a circular reference.

507 Insufficient Storage

The server is unable to store the representation needed to complete the request.

508 Loop Detected (WebDAV; RFC 5842)

The server detected an infinite loop while processing the request (sent in lieu of 208 Already Reported).

509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded (Apache bw/limited extension)

This status code is not specified in any RFCs. Its use is unknown.

510 Not Extended

Further extensions to the request are required for the server to fulfil it.

511 Network Authentication Required

The client needs to authenticate to gain network access. Intended for use by intercepting proxies used to control access to the network (e.g., "captive portals" used to require agreement to Terms of Service before granting full Internet access via a Wi-Fi hotspot).

520 Origin Error (CloudFlare)

This status code is not specified in any RFCs, but is used by CloudFlare's reverse proxies to signal an "unknown connection issue between CloudFlare and the origin web server" to a client in front of the proxy.

521 Web server is down (CloudFlare)

This status code is not specified in any RFCs, but is used by CloudFlare’s reverse proxies to indicate that the origin webserver refused the connection.

522 Connection timed out (CloudFlare)

This status code is not specified in any RFCs, but is used by CloudFlare’s reverse proxies to signal that a server connection timed out.

523 Proxy Declined Request (CloudFlare)

This status code is not specified in any RFCs, but is used by CloudFlare’ s reverse proxies to signal a resource that has been blocked by the administrator of the website or proxy itself.

524 A timeout occurred (CloudFlare)

This status code is not specified in any RFCs, but is used by cloud Flare’s reverse proxies to signal a network read timeout behind the proxy to a client in front of the proxy.

598 Network read timeout error (Unknown)

This status code is not specified in any RFCs, but is used by Microsoft HTTP proxies to signal a network read timeout behind the proxy to a client in front of the proxy.

599 Network connect timeout error (Unknown)

This status code is not specified in any RFCs, but is used by Microsoft HTTP proxies to signal a network connect timeout behind the proxy to a client in front of the proxy.

Hope this benefits you all.

Regards,

Prithviraj.

I have been talking to organizations about cloud BI and analytics since BusinessObjects first launched “Crystal Reports On-Demand” in 2006, winning praise from well-known cloud advocates:

“With the availability of crystalreports.com, Business Objects, the world leader in business intelligence solutions, is bringing the power of on-demand computing to BI customers worldwide” — Mark Benioff

Yet almost a decade later, I find that most of the companies I talk to still don’t feel they are ready for cloud analytics — so here’s yet another attempt to persuade you to take the plunge.

What About Security?!

All the surveys show that security concerns are the number one thing stopping organizations from considering cloud solutions.The reality is that while there are clearly risks involved with cloud computing, the security provided by reputable cloud vendors is likely to be much more secure than home-grown solutions.

Cases such as Target’s credit card breach, Sony’s email hack, and the problems at the US Office of Personnel Management should remind us that keeping data on-premise is no guarantee of security. Indeed, hackers often attack older systems that have been inadequately patched, and these are far more likely to be on-premise than in the cloud.

I’ve even started to detect a tone of exasperation from research organizations like Gartner:

“The high levels of concern about cloud service provider security postures have become counterproductive… Many enterprises are paying an opportunity cost by allowing unwarranted security fears to inhibit their use of public cloud services that would be more secure, and more agile, than processes they implement within their own data centers.” — Gartner: Top Strategic Predictions for 2016 and Beyond: The Future Is a Digital Thing

You don’t have armed guards and a vault in your home (despite the possibility of bank failures), and you don’t have a home electricity generator (despite the possibility of blackouts). Why are those “risks” acceptable? Because the benefits of relying on an outside service run by experts completely overwhelm the potential costs. The same is true of cloud deployments:

“Compared with older IT systems, cloud computing is often much cheaper. It adds tremendous flexibility: firms that need more computing capacity no longer have to spend weeks adding new servers and installing software. In the cloud they can get hold of it in minutes. Their applications can be updated continually, rather than just every few months. Individual users can reach their e-mails, files and photos from any device. And cloud services also tend to be more secure, since providers know better than their customers how to protect their computing systems against hackers.” — The Economist

Of all the benefits, greater agility is the biggest reason for investing in cloud applications. According to the Gartner 2014 CIO survey, 56% of respondents chose it, beating the next five reasons — including cost — put together.

The benefits of cloud deployments have not been lost on business users. According to a recent survey by Gigaom Research, 81% of line-of-business employees admit to using unauthorized cloud applications and 38 percent deliberately use non IT-approved cloud applications because getting approval from IT is too difficult. That sounds bad enough — but the killer statistic is this one: according to a November, 2013 Frost & Sullivan survey, 91% of IT departments admit using SaaS apps that have not been approved by IT!

Clearly, everybody realizes that there are big benefits to using cloud applications. The best way forward for organizations is not to irrationally resist them, but to ensure that they are being implemented securely:

“Corporate IT departments have lost the fight against cloud computing, but continue to put their companies at risk by refusing to secure the intersection of the cloud they can’t stop and the enterprise the have to protect.” — ComputerWeekly

My Data Isn’t In The Cloud! (Yet)

First, let’s point out the obvious: cloud analytics is a great option for organizations whose data is already in the cloud. For example, if you’re using cloud applications such as SuccessFactors, Ariba, or Concur, then a solution like SAP Cloud for Analytics is a natural fit.

But what if all your data is on-premise? In that case, why move it all to the cloud just for analysis?

First, you may be underestimating just how much of the data that is being analyzed in your organization comes from your internal systems:

“We found, on average, that 45% of the data business people use resides outside of the enterprise BI environments.” Forrester: Business-Driven Agile Enterprise Business Intelligence (BI)

"An astonishingly miniscule 2% of business decision-makers reported using solely enterprise BI applications.” Forrester: It’s Time For A User-Driven Enterprise BI Strategy

Increasingly, the information used in business analysis comes from outside your company, from suppliers and customers, third-party data feeds, and market benchmarks. All the cloud adoption surveys indicate that the number of cloud applications in your organization is set to steadily increase. And analytics tools aren’t only being used by employees — especially in business to business markets, providing better access to data is an increasingly important part of the customer experience.

All this means that you’re already moving data to and from outside environments — at some point, there will be a tipping point where it makes as much sense to move your internal data to the cloud as it does to do the opposite. Solutions such as SAP HANA Smart Data Integration can help you move your internal data to the cloud efficiently for analysis (or vice-versa), either in batch or in real time as transactions hit your on-premise systems.

In addition, analytic environments are becoming increasingly hybrid, with the ability to query a mix of on-premise and cloud data. For example, SAP Cloud for Analytics offers the ability to use cloud-based software to query internal data directly, without it leaving the organization.

Disruption — To Your Job?

I was on a panel at the Gartner BI conference in Sydney earlier this year. At one point, the moderator asked the audience which analytics technology would be the “most disruptive” in the coming year.

I picked Hybrid Transaction/Analytical Processing (HTAP), since real analysis on real-time transactional data has been one of the biggest challenges in analytics for over 50 years.

But the audience disagreed and voted massively for “cloud analytics”. I was surprised since I reasoned that users shouldn’t really care whether the analytics are being provided by an internal server or a cloud platform. But then I realized that when the audience were primarily thinking about “disruption” to their own jobs.

Earlier this year, I hosted a cartoon caption contest on the SAP community network. It was very popular, but my own entry didn’t get many votes. I’ll leave it to you to decide if it just wasn’t funny, or whether it was too close to the bone:

Yes, cloud analytics will mean new ways of working. But analytics leaders have to own the business problem, not the architecture. If you define your role as looking after servers, instead of helping the organization make the best use of the available information, then you are probably already running into problems with shadow analytics.

Cloud analytics environments have lots of benefits. You owe it to your users (and your career) to take advantage of them.

Taking The Plunge

Whatever your reasons for being reticent about cloud analytics, note that many other organizations are moving ahead. These companies, at least, clearly believe the benefits of cloud analytics outweigh the perceived risks.

According to the Forrester report “Application Adoption Trends 2015: The SaaS Boom Continues As Businesses Demand Agility“, 36% or respondents had already replaced, or are planning to replace, their on-premise BI with SaaS BI, and 31% had chosen SaaS BI to complement their existing BI, or intended to do so in the future.

And in recent EMA research, 56% of respondents indicated that cloud-based analytics was “important” or “essential” to corporate strategy:

The bottom line: you may not be ready for cloud analytics just yet, but I’m pretty sure it’s a big part of your future.

[This post first appeared on my Business Analytics Blog]

There are very few information resources available on Integration details of ILM with Web-DAV compliant third party storage providers. In this blog i will detail the integration details of connecting SAP ILM with Open Text based Web DAV Storage. The SRS( Storage Retention Service) is an SAP Service provided to help SAP ILM Enabled AS-ABAP system to communicate with ILM Certified WebDAV Storage providers. SAP also provides a java based service called XML DAS but it needs a SAP Java platform to integrate SAP ILM and ILM certified WebDAV Storage Providers

Enabling SRS Service

The Storage and Retention Service runs on AS-ABAP and helps to control all transactions triggered in SAP System (enabled for ILM) in conjunction with the ILM-Store(Open Text or Any Third Party ECM ).

To activate SRS on the SAP ILM System (Retention System or Warehouse) we have to goto transaction SARA and choose customizing as shown below.

Now choose Technical Settings as shown below

Choose option local to activate it .The option local means that the current SAP system contains the SICF service for SRS activated.

Activate SICF Service SRS as shown below on the ILM enabled System.

Connecting SRS Service with ILM Storage using RFC

To enable SRS to communicate with Open Text Enterprise Library we need to establish an RFC Connection via transaction code SM59 of Type G.

Now provide user name and password in logon and security tab and choose Special Options as shown below

Now perform a connection test you should get a successful response code .

Registering the ILM Store in SAP ILM

To register the Open Text based ILM Store in SAP we have to first activate SICF service required for ILMSTOREADM transaction. Activate in SICF as shown below.

Now execute tcode ILMSTOREADM and create an entry and save it. When you save it ,the connection will be tested to the store by using the RFC Connection we created earlier .If there are errors the SM59 Connection was not created properly and has to be corrected.

The integration is now completed between SAP ILM and Open Text.

“To get in your car and do some driving . . . that’s a good time to be out,” muses Rob Vissers as he climbs behind the wheel of his beautifully maintained 1965 Austin-Healey 3000 sports car.

Vissers, who is deputy director of global customer coordination at BOA Group, takes great pride in his classic automobile.

Summer weekends are often spent participating in sports car rallies. During the winter months, he performs most of the necessary maintenance in his own garage.

“In a modern car, you can’t work it yourself anymore,” Vissers says, referring to the complexity and inaccessibility of today’s auto engines. “Here, it’s just simple.”

And as Vissers goes on to explain, running simple is something that both his automobile and the company he works for have in common.

Aiming for Global Consistency

BOA Group manufactures flexible mechanical components for a variety of automotive, aerospace, and industrial applications. These products include expansion joints and bellows, metal hoses, and stainless steel parts used in the exhaust and fuel systems of both passenger cars and heavy vehicles. Headquartered in Germany, the group consists of 15 subsidiaries and has sales and service offices in most industrial countries worldwide.

“We have a lot of global customers,” Vissers says. “And they expect to receive the same information and level of service from us across all their locations.”

A worldwide customer base is a good “problem” to have. But Vissers knows that globalizing sales processes can be as complex as overhauling a modern computerized auto engine.

For BOA, the simple approach was rolling out the SAP Cloud for Sales solution to support worldwide transparency and consistency, greater accuracy, and faster response times.

Hitting the Road with Real-Time Information

In his role with global customer coordination, Vissers sees first-hand what BOA’s international customers really want.

“The most important thing for selling our products is speed of response to our customers,” Vissers notes. “They’re expecting ever-faster response times in quotations, in technical answers, and in deliveries.”

To achieve this level of service, BOA’s salespeople need constant access to a wide variety of information – such as product specifications, quotations, order histories, and up-to-date contact information. In the past, however, most of this information was maintained at the local level.

That changed when the company decided to consolidate the data through the single cloud-based sales solution.

“Now our salespeople have real-time access to this information on a global scale,” says Vissers. “And by using their mobile devices, the information is available whenever they need it – even while they are on the road.”

Vissers, in fact, uses the tool himself on a daily basis to enter opportunities, track orders, and feed information back to the office for further analysis. He also points out that having this sales and customer data all in one place helps BOA generate more-accurate sales forecasts, which in turn results in better production planning.

Enjoying the Simple Pleasures

Back on the road, Vissers is steering his British racing green Austin-Healey down a quiet country lane.

“What I like most about old cars is that they are very simple and very direct,” Vissers says. “You still get the proper feeling of driving, but they are also much easier to maintain.”

Avoiding unnecessary complexity is a concept that Vissers believes applies as much to business as it does to automobiles.

“I think the simplicity of old cars shows you that sometimes simple is very good and can be better than being too complicated.”

Please join me on Twitter at @JohnGWard3.

You might also like this:

Video where you can hear more from Rob Vissers and see his classic Austin-Healey for yourself

SAP Customer Success Profile about BOA Group

SuccessFactors Employee Central runs Early Adopter Program for SAP HANA Cloud Integration (HCI).

In Q4 2015 - Q1 2016 the SuccessFactors Employee Central (SF EC) runs the HCI Early Adopter Program for selected EC customers.

The participated customers can download, configure, and validate the HCI middleware content that is provided for the prepackaged integration.

The customers can replicate employee master data, organization management data or cost center using HCI.

This blog describes how to swap easily the BOOMI middleware for HCI middleware on example of the prepackaged integration for Cost Center from the SAP ERP to SF EC.

The existing BOOMI customers could reuse their configuration in ERP.

Both BOOMI and HCI Cost Center prepackaged integrations use the intermediate document (IDoc) ODTF_CCTR, which is provided with AddOn ODTFINCC and the standard SF EC SOAP message.

1. Prerequisites for the prepackage integration

The prepackaged integration uses the AddOn ODTFINCC 600 with SP10 or higher.

If the customers are already using the prepackaged Cost Center replication with BOOMI as a middleware they can re-use the AddOn and their IDOC configuration in the ERP.

In general, there are two main steps to set up the configuration:

• Configuration in SAP HCI system.
• Configuration in SAP ERP system (mainly set up of the RFC connection with HCI).

2.  Configuration in SAP HCI

To ensure the securely communication you need to set up the certificates and permissions in SAP HCI and SAP ERP systems.

You need to set up the technical integration user in Employee Central, which will be used by HCI to communicate with SF EC.

If you apply the Cost Center Package Content in HCI Web UI you could start the configuration.

2.1 Configure Sender (to connect with SAP ERP)

The default value of the Address field is “/ERP_to_EC_CostCenter_Replication_IDoc”. However, you could change it.

2.2 Configure Receiver (to connect with SF EC)

In Address field enter the base URL of the API server of SuccessFactors system.

The default value of the Address Suffix field is “/sfapi/v1/soap”.

In the Credential Name field enter the symbolic name of the credentials for SF Employee Center.

2.3 Configure Process Parameters

Set value of Parameter “TRANSFER_NAME_AND_DESCRIPTION” to “true” if you want to replicate name and description of the Cost Center.

2.4 Maintain the Language Table if you replicate name and description fields

If  you set value of Parameter “TRANSFER_NAME_AND_DESCRIPTION” to “true” you have to maintain the language mapping.

3. Configuration in the SAP ERP

The prepackaged integration uses the intermediate document (IDoc) ODTF_CCTR. You have to configure the ALE connections as usual.

3.1 Create a RFC destination for HCI  (type G).

In “Target Host” enter the runtime URL of your SAP HCI environment (without https://)

In the “Path Prefix” enter the value of the Address field, which you configured in HCI Sender.

Create port in IDoc processing (XML/http) for integration (transaction WE21), partner profile (transaction WE20) and maintain distribution model (transaction BD64) for message ODTF_CCTR as usual by the IDoc configuration.

Now you can replicate the Cost Center from SAP ERP to SFSF EC.

4. Replication of Cost Center from SAP ERP to SF EC

4.1 Create Cost Center in ERP (transaction KS01).

4.2 Start Replication Report ODTF_REPL_CC for this Cost Center.

You could also activate and use the Change Pointers to replicate the changes of the Cost Center automatically.

Enter Receiver Partner No. that you have created in Partner Profile.

Enter the Start Date. The Start Date is used as a Transmission Start Date and shall not be changed.

The report creates ODTF_CCTR IDoc and triggers the replication to the HCI.

4.3 HCI Monitoring

In HCI Monitoring you could check the status of the replication.

4.4  Check Cost Center in SF EC.

Finally, in SF EC you can check the replicated Cost Center.

The Cost Center 1411 of the Controlling Area 2000 has been successfully replicated to SF Employee Center.

You have configured the Cost Center prepackaged integration with HCI and replicated the Cost Center from SAP ERP to SF EC.

I think the most and common mistake while building and executing a digital transformation strategy is limiting vision by today's requirements and processes. Of course, the strategy which is being to be built, should cover today's needs, however it will be useless if not sliding easily through future.

So I started to imagine that how the business processes will look like next ten years. What will be in the center of everything? Thanks to Bernd Leukert's great posting SAP TechEd Las Vegas 2015: Four Major Takeaways he clears the answer by:

...“digital transformation” means putting the customer at the center of everything we do, providing an individualized, personalized and multi-channel experience. Customers are no longer satisfied with a static, generic experience. As a result, many businesses have to rethink their customer relationship management (CRM) models....

I am totally agree whit this phrase. E-commerce and CRM will be totally different in near future. Consumers will not be happy and satisfied by using mobile devices for shopping. You may notifiy them real-time by push messages or any other methods to alert them to start shopping according to their choices or preferences, however this is really time consuming and boring experience. So what will make them happy?

Smart Butler

I beleive e-commerce and CRM experience will be totally different in next 10 years. There will be smart butlers, these will be small piece of applications, which are connected to e-commerce platforms built in SAP Hybris Yaas. Just create your smart butler for examle in Yaas with your preferences like: your interests, your urgent needs, your budget, your priorities. And release your butler to the web for your shopping needs.For examle boring supermarket shopping can be easily done by them. If you tell your butler that you like suprises, you may receive your new pair of shoes (which you really need and want) in a very hectic workday:)

These butlers are can communicate any device or any item so called IoT to serve you better.

Also on the other hand these butlers and industry class butlers can be used as input for companies for demand planning. Machine to machine, networks and applications can communicate and save time. Please read this eye-openning article by Bernd Leukert Growing the Business with Connected Networks

Today this might be sounds little bit un-real, however SAP Hybris Yaas and SAP HANA technology enabled platforms like hcp.sap.com helps both developers and customers to realize future world.

cheers,

@sarhanpolatates

A couple of weeks ago, I taught a SAP Cloud for Customer (C4C) class to a group of 15 at SAP UK. The participant group size has consistently been in the 10 to 15 range across Europe for the last 12 months or so. While last year the attendee profile was exclusively SAP partners this year customers are making up 20% to 30% of the class size. This has been great to see because it not only means that SAP C4C is in the ascendency within the partner community it is also showing that early partner investment in the solution is translating into sales and projects.

Deliver SAP Cloud for Customer projects faster using smaller teams than you are used to

After the obligatory round of introductions, I kicked off.

"Welcome to the New World", I said. "In this room today we have enough consultants to resource 3 large SAP Cloud for Customer projects. In fact if we get the project timing right, we have enough consultants to resource 6 projects running in parallel."

The room was silent. I understood the reaction. Before I started working with the solution a couple of years ago my reaction would have been the same. But, it's true. With SAP C4C you must completely re-think what it means to run an SAP project.

Let me put this into perspective. We're currently implementing SAP C4C for one of the largest retailers in the world. The first phase of the project to implement the Service functionality went live in 12 weeks with a team of 5 consulting resources (full-time PM, C4C Functional, C4C Technical and C4C Development) and 10 customer resources (full-time PM, Key Users and part-time ERP Functional, ERP Technical, SAP Integration, Change Management, Test Manager, Training Lead and BASIS). The second phase is currently underway with the same team.

This is not the SAP you used to know.

It may of course be necessary to field larger teams of consultants to deliver the solution. The customer may not be willing or able to provide ERP/CRM Functional Resource, ERP/CRM Technical Resource, SAP Integration, Change

Management etc. to support the project.

The complexity of the current landscape may also impact the number of resources required. For example, integration with a highly bespoke SAP ERP and / or SAP CRM system will require more consulting effort as will integration with external non-SAP systems.

Similarly, the requirement for a large number of enhancements using the Cloud Application Studio (SDK) will impact consulting effort.

Having said all of that a 5-person team should be your starting point for a project requiring integration and enhancements and, assuming you use the SAP Cloud implementation methodology, it should be possible to go-live in anything from 4 to 12 weeks according to scope and complexity.

If SAP ERP / CRM configuration is an ocean, SAP Cloud for Customer configuration is a small lake

SAP has gone to great lengths to bake best practice into SAP C4C. Very little configuration is required to get the solution up and running because it has been done for you.

Let's consider an Opportunity. With SAP CRM we configure Partner Determination Procedures and Access Sequences, we configure Status Profiles, Text Determination Procedures, Organizational Determination Profiles, Actions Profiles and so on and so forth. With C4C the core Opportunity works out of the box and we do not have the same level of control over the Opportunity. Instead of this we focus on our Sales Cycles, Sales Assistant (massively simplified over Actions), Approval and Workflow settings.

For a seasoned SAP professional configuring SAP C4C for the first time comes as a bit of a shock to the system. Configuration is simple and straightforward. Don't overcomplicate it.

Don't assume you can build missing functionality. You are not using ABAP anymore

Developing in the Cloud Application Studio is not like coding with ABAP. With ABAP the types of development you can build is virtually limitless. SAP C4C is different. Your Tenant (unless a Private tenant) is running on a system shared by other C4C customers and so the type of development you can implement is constrained by the cloud architecture. You don't have access to the ABAP layer so your approach to development must be different. If the functionality does not exist, don't simply assume that you can build it. You can of course engage with SAP directly for developments not possible using the Cloud Application Studio but there will be a cost and time impact on your project.

This blog was first published at SAP Cloud for Customer is different. Reading this blog could save you thousands (if not more)

17 weeks to Davos. 17 global goals to achieve a sustainable future. 17 blog posts exploring the UN’s vision for humankind. Here is number 8.

Global Goal #8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Addressing youth unemployment

In Europe, more than seven million youth between the ages of 15 and 24 years old are considered NEETs – not in education, employment, or training. In addition, there are another 4.4 million young adults that leave education and training early.

These young people are missing out on the opportunity to learn and acquire skills, knowledge, and competencies that they could use throughout their lives to participate more fully in a prosperous and inclusive society.

In an attempt to counteract these numbers, representatives from business, education, and youth organizations came together to launch “The Pact for Youth” at the recent 2020 Enterprise Summit in Brussels. The goal of this pact is to create a fair and equitable culture of partnership between business, education, and youth in Europe that will help prepare young people for quality jobs and responsible citizenship. The pact hopes to create an open job marketplace that will offer job opportunities for interested and flexible young Europeans. The pact also supports ubiquitous Internet access across Europe to enable mass open online courses (MOOCs). With free access to education, young professionals can prepare for job opportunities in both a classical economy as well as the digital one.

Creating advanced job opportunities everywhere

There is more IT technology can do. The digital economy is creating a greater demand for digital skills. The enabling technology is already available: 3.2 billion people – or 43% of world population – have Internet access. And 95% of the population has cell phone signal coverage. What is keeping Amira, who lives with her family in Indonesia, from working remotely as a Website designer or graphical presentation expert? The only thing she is missing is access to international buyers.

Upwork, an open global exchange platform for digital services and goods, closes this gap. Independent of their physical location, people can bid for smaller work projects such as a last-minute Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. Or, based on their skills, people could bid on even larger Upwork projects, such as developing a Web site.

This approach is helping to level the enormous inequality in wages between emerging and developed countries. At the same time, it connects people anywhere – including many of today’s youth – to the global marketplace and offers enhanced opportunities for them to grow and prosper.

Combatting forced labor

Slavery was abolished centuries ago, yet it continues around the world. There are an estimated 30 million forced laborers in global supply chains today – from conflict minerals in the Congo and fishing in Thailand to migrant workers in the United States and North America. And many of these laborers are children.

These laborers are forced to work for little or no pay, and in some cases, under the threat of violence. The majority are exploited for manual economic labor in the private sector, under conditions they did not agree to, for someone else’s profit. Despite the widespread illegality of slavery, profit estimates from slavery are as high as $150 billion.

Fighting the criminal methods of slavery directly is very difficult. However, creating transparency of products produced through slavery enables consumers to make a conscious decision with everything they buy. For instance, Made in a Free World (MIAFW) is a non-profit organization founded in 2012 to combat human trafficking by enabling companies to eradicate forced labor in their connected and integrated supply chains.

MIAFW’s database maps the bill of materials of countless numbers of products and services right down to their raw materials and labor sources. Imagine connecting MIAFW’s data with the insights of historical and real-time intelligence from hundreds of global government, business, and other data sources in a global sourcing and procurement network. Based on such combined information, companies could make conscious decisions about their suppliers, eliminating products made with slave labor throughout their entire supply chain.

SAP is doing its part…

At SAP, our vision and purpose is to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. Our technology is helping organizations like MIAFW to tackle the challenges of modern day slavery in supply chains. For instance, Ariba, an SAP company, is teaming up with MIAFW to leverage its powerful community of more than 2 million companies. These organizations, which drive nearly $1 trillion in commerce on an annual basis, will in future be able to identify businesses that use slave labor in their supply chains.
 

We also promote the education of youth as part of our social initiatives. For instance, Simplon.co, the Cape Town Science Centre, the Galway Education Centre, and SAP joined together to launch Africa Code Week. The objective of this initiative is to empower future generations with the coding tools and skills they need to thrive in the 21st century digital workforce and further Africa’s economic development. Initially the program, offered in English and French, hoped to enable an estimated 20,000 children from 11 countries across the continent to participate in software coding workshops. However, more than 88,000 children were trained through more than 3,000 on-site workshops and MOOCs.

This blog was originally published by Will Ritzrau and myself here. To learn more about the Global Goals, and to view previous blogs in this series, visit: http://www.digitalistmag.com/tag/17-weeks-to-davos

Are you a SAP Business ByDesign Analytics Key or End User? Then January 2016 is your time to join openSAP and learn everything you need to know to help you deliver the analytics your business needs! Reporting with SAP Business ByDesign starts from January 20 and is now open for registration on openSAP. New to openSAP? No problem, it’s free to join and all you need is a valid email address to sign up.

With Reporting with SAP Business ByDesign, you will learn about the built-in analytics principles and how to use them effectively to meet your business needs. Week 1 of this course will explain the architecture of SAP Business ByDesign, the underlying Data Structure, and the SAP Business ByDesign Terminology. In the following weeks, you will have the opportunity to get hands-on practice.

As an end-user, you’ll see how you can leverage analytical functionality in your daily business to support quick and informed decision making. Along with how you navigate through the system to adapt, extend, and create personalized views and selections, you’ll also get insights into accessing analytics on a mobile device.

For key-users, the course will focus on adapting, creating, and extending reports according to the needs of the company and specific end user groups. From a functional point of view, you’ll learn about creation of key figures, creation of data sources, extensibility, report assignment, data extraction via ODATA and BW interface, and much more.

Finally, the course will look at how, both end and key users, can leverage Microsoft Excel functionality for your reporting requirements including advanced Visual Basic functionality.

Sign up today for free and benefit from all of the analytical functionalities available with your SAP Business ByDesign system.

Data blending enables the self-service join of a primary data source (e.g. corporate data) with one or more secondary data sources (e.g. local spreadsheet) which contain common linked dimensions.

Let's use the following example to illustrate this feature: Data blending to join company products (CrossFit and Yoga) and census data. In this example we see that some neighborhoods in Los Angeles buy CrossFit products (lime) while others buy Yoga products (cyan).  We use data blending to join census data to learn more about these customers.

In Lumira Desktop, join two datasets using a common linked dimension. First we add a new dataset, in this case a spreadsheet of census data which includes neighborhood, average education score and estimated income.  We link both datasets using the neighborhood dimension.

Then use a chart to analyze the blended data. For example: CrossFit products (top bubble chart) appeal to a broader educational section of the population compared to Yoga, but the largest Yoga sales (bottom chart) also came from the neighborhood with the highest income per capita (Bel Air).

Before the census data is blended, it seems both CrossFit and Yoga sales are quite similar. However, after the census data is added, users gain more insight into the two products.

"Did you know..." is a series of short blogs by the BI & Analytics Competence Centre, a global team within SAP engineering focused 100% on customer success. They are a useful reminder of Lumira hints, tips and best practices.