Community Interest Survey
Before launching our new SAP Business One Community it is imperative to understand our community’s interests. We first surveyed the partner and solution provider communities and then sent an initial survey to a broader audience which includes customers and independent consultants. We intend to continuously survey our members and the broader SAP Business One community to ensure the platform and services we provide are aligned with those required or requested by our constituents.
Initial Findings
Survey respondents were asked to indicated interest across 15 topics of interest in 6 categories. The interests of the user community and SAP B1 Channel were relatively consistent with the biggest differences being in the area of education and in-person meetings.
- A majority of all constituencies are looking for more networking opportunities.
- End Users overwhelmingly (81%) asked for a variety of educational opportunities
- Partners and especially third party product and service providers are looking for in-person, virtual or regional meet-ups.
Partner Preferences
We had 29 partners and solution providers respond to our initial partner survey. As a group, partners have considerably more access to information, contact with SAP, educational webinars and opportunities to network than customers and independent consultants. Surprisingly, networking and education topped the list of requested services. Other findings include:
- Partners were more interested in the in-person conference than any other constituency (62%)
- Informal discussions with partners had indicated greater interest in non-product training like the Consulting Academy (28%), and unexpectedly product updates was of greatest interest (76%).
- Generating market interest and awareness in the B1 and finding new consultants were also hot topics of discussion, yet the concepts of a job board (24%) and marketing (3%) were lowest in our results.
Follow up discussions with partners lead us to believe that the job board is controversial as it could promote movement between partners rather than attracting new talent to the channel. Similarly, effective marketing is a topic considered better suited for roundtable and private discussions rather than public forums.
Partner community interests are not monolithic. The SAP B1 Community will need to respect the diverse opinions within the community and promote our Code of Conduct and confidentiality within our discussion groups.
Non-Partner Preferences
The end-customer survey had a few differences in the questions. Specifically we added the option of virtual meetups on functional and technical topics. These new additions garnered the greatest response from the initial 21 responses.
- 81% requested technical meetups on topics such as AI, Automation, DTW, SQL, etc.
- Similarly 71% requested functional meetups on topics like reporting, Warehouse Management, etc.
- All of the educational and networking options garnered interest above 50%.
Anticipated Projects
Partners and non-partners alike seem alligned in the types of projects anticipated in the next year.
- Integrations (eCommerce, operations systems transportation, etc.) were top with 70% of partners and 66% of customers anticipating projects.
- Process Automation (AP, AR, Other) came in a close second with 67% and 59% respectively.
More interesting was the correlation.
- 91% of those reporting integration also reported automation.
- 8 of the 12 SQL to HANA migrations indicated they were also upgrading.
- 12 of the 15 cloud migrations reported upgrading to HANA.
Other Findings
We also received a surprising number of free form comments to the question: “How do you see the new B1 community being a benefit for your business?” Many of the responses pertained to:
- Networking, collaboration and connecting with a variety of community members both locally and around the world.
- Finding clarity and faster information regarding technical issues, access to experts and problem solving.
- Learning about new features and third party solutions to overcome real world problems.
Pre-Launch Planning Continues
Creating a vibrant community takes a great deal of effort. Our community is and will always be member driven and we need your input and assistance!
- If you have not taken our initial survey, please do! They are date and time stamped so we can continue to update our findings.
- Sign up for the community! Our Join Us page is live and we will have your name on the list for our launch!
- To help as a volunteer, please Contact Us via web form and indicate your area(s) of interest.
