The UK & Ireland SAP User Group Conference will kick off next week at the ICC in Birmingham between the 22nd and 24th of November. The conference is expected to deliver briefings and workshops for delegates.

CBR spoke to Craig Dale, CEO, UK & Ireland, SAP User Group about what to expect from this year’s event.

1. Spectrum Connected

This will be the strap line for the event that will have a focus on building and maintaining SAP investments. Last year the strap line was Formula for Success – Connecting people.

Dale expects there to be around 560 customers in attendance and between 900-1000 attendees in total.

Dale, said; "There will be a number of retail companies coming the event along with manufacturing supply chain management."

A large focus is on networking, with the opportunity given to speak about experiences.

2. Education

The reason there is to be a lot of networking is so that customers can be educated about deploying SAP and maintaining it.

"Licensing and understanding licensing will be on the agenda," said Dale. This is something that has been on the agenda in previous years, but as new products come along it is an in-demand topic of discussion.

Streams will be running through the event to offer insight to customers to help them understand products.

3. S4 HANA

Education about the technology, a roadmap and deployment options will all be key topics during the conference.

Dale said that there will be a focus on: "Where they sit on the roadmap," and how to use and understand the technology.

There will be a dedicated S4 HANA stream and it will feature in keynotes where deployment methods will be discussed.

4. Improving SAP

This is a great opportunity for SAP customers to learn more about deploying the technology and connecting with fellow users to share knowledge.

It is also a good opportunity for the company to learn from customer experiences, this is something that will help to influence SAP.

With more and more businesses going through digital transformations, this will be an opportunity for the company to see how this is impacting businesses and understand how it can help them.

5. Speakers

A number of speakers from SAP are expected to at the conference, including; Sven Denecken, Global VP, co-innovation and strategy S4 HANA; Cormac Watters, SAP UK & I MD and Philip Adams, chairman of the UK & I SAP User Group.

In addition to the speakers, there will be over 100 breakout sessions which look at topics such as risk management and cybercrime.

CBR will be in attendance and will have interviews with top executives from both the User Group and SAP.