Getting Technical

This week I am in SAPPHIRENOW, Frankfurt. SAPPHIRE is the annual ’sales’ conference of SAP. This is the week where they have pitched their message to the market place.

A lot has changed in the last 100 days at SAP. It was 100 days ago today that Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe took the reigns from Leo Apotheker. In the language yesterday there was a lot that sounded like it was a political administration. The first 100 days has become a symbol of making change quickly and hitting the ground running.

Even just in the first half day of this conference we can see an energy and enthusiasm about SAP people not least from Co-CEO’s themselves. I think when the new Co-CEO’s were announced there was some skepticism whether this arrangement would work. I think it is working and there seems to be a new direction about the company.

Last night there was a reception for press, bloggers and mentors at a local art gallery. It was at this informal gathering that I heard someone say that ‘SAP has got its MOJO back‘. Craig Cmehil conspired with Jen Roach, Head of Global Communications, to introduce Jim Habemann Snabe to the collected SAP Mentors. He was very engaging and explained how well he and Bill are getting on as a working partnership. It was apparent that not only do they get on well but they are able to work together effectively even with a large time difference between their US and European offices.

Even though at this stage in the conference in Frankfurt there has not been too many announcements, it is clear – at least to me and some of my colleagues – that change has come to SAP, that SAP is continuing to innovate and that SAP has turned an important corner.

I am looking forward to the rest of the conference and more announcements today and tomorrow.

We all like to have wars over our text editors but when SE80 that SAP transaction that everyone loves to love opens JavaScript files from the SAP MIME library in Windows Notepad it is a bit much to take.

A colleague suggested that it was based on the Windows defaults for the program so I changed the defaults for .js to open in Notepad++ but still SE80 opens JavaScript files in Windows Notepad.

Until …

Today I noticed that when SE80 opens the JavaScript files it opens them as a .txt file for editing and on close re-imports into the MIME library as a .js file.

So …

I changed the default program for .txt files to be Notepad++ and now my .js files open in a much better editor.

This probably applies to .css and any other text based files you have in your MIME libraray.

Recently I was set up with a system without the correct SAP systems on my ‘logon pad’. This made it a little hard to access the systems I needed but here is the tip.

Use the sapgui.exe application to access the system you need.
Simply (from windows) hit the start button and then ‘Run’ and then type:

sapgui [appserver-domain] [system number]

If you add the switch /WAN it will treat it as a low speed connection.

One of the benefits of this is that it doesn’t start the SAP Logon application which will save you about 20M of memory. The downside is you don’t get the application in your tray that shows all the systems you are logged on to when you right click it.

More information here [SAP Service Marketplace link - credentials required]

It has been a long time coming this year, but I can now confirm that I will be attending TechEd in Vienna.

Vienna - I'll be there.

It will be a flying visit as I fly out  Thursday night so not much time to enjoy the highlights of the city.

So what will TechEd hold for me?

I have planned a few sessions to attend but there will be lots of SAP Mentor meetings , Demo Jam (SAP Entries notwithstanding), Hacker Night, catching up with virtual friends in the flesh and a keynote or two.

I note that Leo Apotheker will not be speaking. That is interesting all by itself.

The wonderful Community Network people have produced these badges and I love this one. “Come See Me Speak”. I know it is meant for people who have official sessions but you could come just to see me speak. I will be talking after all.  See you in Vienna.

Speaking at Vienna (well I am not a mute)

I was up for the go live of the Wolfram|Alpha site this morning and there is a new ‘Fail Whale‘ that I am sure everyone will be talking about soon.

If a blog post is less than 140 characters long should it have been a tweet?

It’s the 31st, so that means the year is already 1/12 old so excuse me for not doing this earlier, I have been in hiding from everything that looked like a laptop. Well, not for all of January. I am now back at work and very busy again.

I have also been focussing on completing a couple of tax returns. They are now complete. Not that I could possibly forget. There are several billboards on my way to work reminding me about JAN 31 in 1.5m high letters. And the kind folks at HMRC rang my office to remind me that I needed to get my return in. A new approach they said. How kind.

Anyway that explains my lack of activity on this blog. Well, at least it is a plausable excuse. You buying it? No? Oh well…

Last year was a great year of achievement and this year looks to build on that.

My current client has already extended my contract, always a good thing.

I am looking forward to a good year.

I trust you are too.

Technorati Tags: Happy New Year, Tax, Contracting

Have you been following the SAPfacts site? A winner has been declared.  I noticed that Eddy came second with “SAP Stands for Shai Agassi Products“. I submitted “SAP stands for the Shai Agassi Protocol” but was rejected because Eddy got there first. Oh well.

Well done everyone. It was a great bit of fun!

This is a lovely link to my Technorati Profile.

 Enjoy.