Product Innovation Summit and INDUS Regional Conference - South
- 392 Customers, across 210 unique customers
SAP hosted one of-our-own Technology Interactive Campaign, the Product Innovation Summit on September 14th and 15th 2015. The event is an exclusive forum for SAP customers across India region, to meet the brightest minds that help their business run better. Customers got the chance to interact with developers and experts about our latest advances in Cloud, Application, User Experience and Database & Technology. Excitement was building up for customers as they registered and entered one the best companies to work with in India – Great Place to work.
The event started with a complete house pack audience ready to hear the key notes from SAP Labs India MD, EVP & Global Head of Suite Engineering – Dilip Khandelwal. Dilip did start his words by the need and essence of Product Innovation Day and how the event has multiplied on customer’s participation year on year and have made a mark as one of SAP’s premiere technical education and networking events. Dilip did mention on the recent accomplishments and also on S/4HANA making its way towards the Indian market.
Dilip’s Key Note speech was followed by Customer Key Note addressed by Raja Ukil, CIO – Wipro. Raja did mention about the innovations being carried at Wipro and how it would make an impact to the whole eco systems in ‘Simplifying’ activities. He also mentioned about SAP’s support in ongoing innovations and how events like Product Innovation Summit provide a platform for such initiatives.
Dr. Heinz Haefner, SVP P&I and PMCS did engage with customers and partners with his talks on the essence of ‘Influencing SAP products’. Heinz showcased the benefits of customer’s early engagement on SAP products.
He also shared the successes and milestones achieved across different programs from India and also highlighted customer quotes during the presentations. He did encourage participants to get involved via Live Influence sessions, End User testing pods via which they could utilize to convey their thoughts and feedback.
Nandagopal Prasad, Head of Partner Innovation Lifecycle Services did initiate focus on co-innovation that partners and customers could get involved and be the pioneers of innovation in SAP ecosystem.
Over a span of two days, the event included 114 Speakers, 24 Lecture sessions, 6 Keynote Sessions, 24 Lecture Sessions, 72 Demo Pods, 15 Influence Pods, 26 Innovation Pods, 16 Influence Pods, 32 Usability Test Sessions, 15 Live Influence Sessions, 114 Speakers, 3 Partner Sessions. To help customers identify and participate in sessions that are relevant to their business verticals and areas of interest, the sessions were classified along three tracks: Cloud, Database and Technology, Applications and User Experience.
The PIS organizing team had the responsibility of ensuring that the customers get to see the brightest ideas in product and technology and how customers can leverage this knowledge to make their businesses run better. This team carefully analyzed the target audience and ensured that the topics were vastly enriched from last year. All topics for the lecture sessions, demo pods and usability testing were thoroughly scrutinized and handpicked to outpace the industry.
Customers showed high enthusiasm in the Q&A sessions and the feedback collected after every lecture session stood above 90%, indicating that the speakers did an excellent job in keeping the session interesting and interactive.
The demo pods were designed to provide more detailed information on the product & technology. Each demo pod was handled by two developers from SAP who showcased demos of their products or technology to the participants visiting their pods.
Usability Testing – Yet another new program introduced this year, let customers experience our latest offerings in a hands-on manner. Customers tested applications across 32 test sessions during the two days. Customers not only got an exclusive preview of our software, but also got to interact with our development teams and provide their feedback, thereby influencing the future road map.
The Influence pods were designed to create awareness and drive innovations at SAP Labs through the customer engagements.
A lot of customers we spoke to, confirmed that attending this event once a year, not only offered them a lot of product insights and learnings, but also presents them with networking & eco system support that enables them to stay ahead in the industry.
PIS highlights - Customer Comments:
Mitrabhanu Tripathy, Manager – Intel Corporation: “PIS event has always been an event we look for every year. PIS introduces new formats to engage with customers every year. This time, Live Influence sessions were a good format to engage with…”
Kuljeet Singh, CIO – Avon Cycles Limited: PIS has been an amazing event. Demo pods like Influence Pod is a good way to enable customer make aware of Influencing programs. Iam looking forward to deeper collaboration with SAP.
Lokanadham Naidu, Lead Finanace Systems: “Knowing Customers can play a vital role in Influencing SAP products is a good news, We always wanted this opportunity.”
The day concluded with a positive note with good lead for INDUS Regional Conference South.
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INDUS Regional Conference South event was scheduled in partnership with PIS 2015 event and was scheduled for 15th September 2015.
The event started with a welcome note by Mukesh Gupta, Director –Customer Advocacy, SAP India on INDUS (India Users of SAP) and also on advantages in being a member and re-emphasized on Customer Influence programs as addressed by Dr. Heinz Haefner during PIS 2015.
The event was continued by Customer Key Note by Prakash Venkatesan, CEO Essae Digitronics.
Followed by Welcome and Key Note, The event flowed to a new setup of engaging customers and partners. The event introduced Panel discussions, involving pioneers and market leaders from specific domain to discuss, brainstorm on the areas of highlight.
A Glimpse to the INDUS Regional Conference – South
The event also had other formats of showcase like Demo Pod, Live Influence session and End User Pods continuing to gain more and feedbacks from participants.
Both the events concluded in a very positive note and the statistics reflects the success.
Organizing Team:
