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According to the 2025 ASUG Pulse of the SAP Customer Research, over one-third (35%) of respondents indicated that finding employees with the internal skills necessary to manage new technology is a top organizational challenge. As SAP S/4HANA adoption, cloud migration, and the growing utility of AI become more and more critical to SAP customers, it has never been more important to find IT professionals equipped with the knowledge and expertise to spur IT innovation. 

In this episode of ASUG Talks, SAP education takes center stage.  Shaquille Charles, a graduate of the St. Michael's Learning Academy (SMLA) SAP Veterans to Work program and a current Customer Success Manager at SAP, and Christine Aboud,  CEO & Co-Owner of SMLA, join the podcast. They discuss the Veterans to Work Program, Shaquille's transition from the military to his current SAP role, and the importance of building the next generation of SAP professionals. 

Key Insights

• Retiring IT professionals and the gaps they fill on teams
• Shaquille's journey from U.S. Army medic to SAP professional 
• How SMLA develops education and equips its graduates with the skills necessary to IT success 

Related Content

• As Christine mentioned, register for the Dallas-Fort Worth ASUG Chapter meeting on Oct. 17
• Read insights from the SAP for Utilities conference keynote stage
• Tune into last week's ASUG Talks focused on IT challenges in the oil and gas industry

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 Efficiency and safety are critical components of oil and gas operations. As the SAP portfolio expands and evolves, how is the software company still arming its OGE customers with solutions and offerings that enable efficiency and safety? 

 Ahead of their session at ASUG Best Practices (Oct. 6-8; register here) oil and gas industry leaders Justin Lester and Bob Pennington sat down with ASUG Talks to discuss the changing world of IT in this field. Given their collective experience, the two veterans charted how OGE operations have changed, and how SAP is factoring into many enterprises' IT operations.

 Key Insights: 

• The importance of correct data input in oil and gas operations
• Training the next generation of oil and gas IT professionals
• How AI factors into oil and gas operations

 Related Insights: 

• ASUG Talks recent interview with Jan Gilg,  Chief Revenue Officer & President for SAP Americas and the SAP Global Business Suite organization, about the state of cloud, AI, and enterprise architecture in the SAP ecosystem. 
• ASUG Editorial team covered the highlights from the SAP for Utilities, Presented by ASUG conference.
• Join the ASUG Communities on Sept. 16 for a session focused on the SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC). 

As SAP encourages its customer base to undertaking innovative business transformations--including migrating to the cloud and embracing SAP S/4HANA--ASUG Talks recently sat down with Jan Gilg, Chief Revenue Officer & President for SAP Americas and the SAP Global Business Suite organization. 

During our conversations, Jan discussed the new "suite-first" approach SAP unveiled at SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference along with the importance of clean core strategies, and the evolution of RISE and GROW with SAP. 

Key Takeaways: 

• The "pillars" of business transformation 
• Benefits of public cloud environments 
• The evolution of enterprise architecture in the SAP ecosystem

Related Insights

• Read ASUG Editorial's interview with Jan from earlier this year
• Learn more about SAP's updated clean core guidance strategy
• Gain insights on cloud adoption from ASUG Research
• Tune in to a recent episode of ASUG Talks to learn more about the upcoming ASUG Fall Conference schedule

ASUG is set to kick off its fall conference season, hosting three events aimed at helping attendees make the most of their SAP investments: SAP for Utilities, Presented by ASUG; ASUG Best Practices; and ASUG Tech Connect.

Ahead of these events, ASUG Talks sat down with the three ASUG programmers tasked with creating the agendas for the conferences and ensuring the content and insights present at these three events are meaningful and impactful:

• Kara Hughes, Director of Product Strategy – Experiences
• Lauren Milligan, Senior Associate Producer
• Alyssa Perna, Content Producer

The three broke down these upcoming conferences, highlighting crucial sessions, topics, and opportunities.

You can learn more about (and register for) the ASUG 2025 Fall Conferences here:

• SAP for Utilities, Presented by ASUG
• ASUG Best Practices
• ASUG Tech Connect

Organizations have contended with several "black swan" events in recent years, severely interrupting global supply chains, including the COVID-19 pandemic, global conflicts, trade route disruptions, and now the specter of tariffs. 
These events have put massive strain on supply chains, increasing prices. 

Recently at SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference, SAP used the example of tariffs as a way to demonstrate how its integrated business suite can help customers contend with business disruptions. This week on ASUG Talks, we dive deep into this topic, examining the role SAP solutions can play as enterprises seeks to bolster their supply chains, and prepare for the next inevitable disruption. 

Two supply chain experts--John Buckley, Consumer Product Industry Advisor at SAP; and  Ron Gilson, Executive Advisor and Principal of Consumer Products and Agribusiness at NTT DATA--join the podcast to cover the ways supply chains have changed, and how listeners can take steps to improve them. 

 Key Insights

•  How organizations can (and should) respond to supply chain disruptions
• SAP's approach to developing solutions meeting its customers supply chain needs
• The importance of integrated business planning as a process

 Related Insights

• Read how Brent Potts, Senior Director of Global Marketing for Oil, Gas, and Energy at SAP, is seeing the industry change to embrace energy diversification. 
• Join ASUG on Aug. 28 for a customer influence opportunity focused on data privacy in the SAP HANA database

ASUG recently collaborated with Intel and Microsoft to examine two of the hottest topics in the SAP ecosystem: cloud migration and AI adoption. As SAP continues spurring its customer base to embrace the cloud, citing next-generation AI solutions as a critical benefit to this shift, this research sheds light into how the cloud environments ASUG members are choosing, and what processes they are using AI solutions to improve. 

Blake Baltazar, ASUG Senior Project & Research Analyst, and Marissa Gilbert, ASUG Research Director, join ASUG Talks this week to break down this research and its key findings. 

Key Insights

• What factors drive cloud adoption 
• The cost ASUG members reported paying for their cloud services 
• What AI solutions respondents are leveraging

Related Resources 

• Read ASUG's SAP S/4HANA focused research and listen to a recent podcast with the ASUG research team on the key findings. 
• Read how Carhartt leveraged SAP Commerce Cloud to modernize its global commerce infrastructure. 
• Join ASUG on Aug. 20 for an Ask Me Anything Community Conversation on SAP Process Integration & Orchestration (PI/PO). 

In North America, the utilities industry is contending with shifting customer expectations, growing power demands, and changing technology infrastructure. With the growing importance of AI and cloud solutions, the role of enterprise architects is altering in utility companies.

Ahead of their session focused on EAs in utilities at SAP for Utilities, Presented by ASUG, Marc Rosson, EA at Snohomish County PUD, and Martin Mysyk, Senior EA at SAP Canada, join ASUG Talks for a conversation about this changing job. We dive into how SAP is supporting EAs in the utilities space, along with ways organizations to empower and train the next generation of EAs.

Key Topics

• Major challenges faced by EAs in utilities
• How the industry's changes are impact the role
• The importance of upskilling and reskilling EAs to meet demand.

Related Insights and Resources

• Check out the ASUG Content Collection "SAP Enterprise Architecture Fundamentals" for resources aimed at EAs. 
• Learn how Gina Vargiu-Breuer, Chief People Officer and Labor Director at SAP, approaches SAP's growth strategy.
• Join the ASUG Communities team on Aug. 14 for a deep dive session focused on Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) on SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
• Register to recieve the monthly The Topic:  Utilities newsletter from ASUG. 

SAP S/4HANA officially released 10 years ago. In that decade, SAP has not only encouraged its customer base to embrace the next-generation ERP platform, but it also spurred widespread cloud migration. 

The ASUG research team has monitored the adoption of both S/4HANA and cloud environments for several years. In this year's research, sponsored by BearingPoint, they found continued adoption of both S/4HANA and cloud environments among the ASUG membership. 

Marissa Gilbert, ASUG Research Director, and Blake Baltazar, Senior Project & Research Analyst, join ASUG Talks to discuss the research and the trends they are seeing. 

Key Insights

• Year-over-year S/4HANA adoption trends observed by ASUG research 
• Insights into cloud environment adoption 
• RISE and GROW with SAP adoption rates, and factors spurring organizations to leverage these offerings. 

Related Content

• Read more about SAP's recent acquisition of SmartRecruiters, a human resources solution, as a way to bolster SAP SuccessFactors HCM functions.
• Tune into an ASUG Community Conversation on Aug. 5 focused on demystifying SAP's integration landscape.  

SAP hosted its quarterly financial results call last week. The first since the litany of announcements the software company made at SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference in May, the event covered SAP's continuing focus on cloud adoption and innovative AI strategies. 

But, in keeping with its most recent messaging, SAP also continued articulating how its software can help organizations deal with current economic headwinds. 

Jim Lichtenwalter, Senior Producer of ASUG Podcasts, is joined by Isaac Feldberg, Senior Editor at ASUG, to discuss the earnings results and what they means for ASUG members. 

Key Insights: 

• SAP's strong financial growth in Q2, despite uncertain economic conditions
• New customers leveraging SAP products
• SAP's new efforts in China 

Related Insights 

• Check out the full ASUG editorial breakdown of the financial results 
• Listen to the last ASUG Talks News Brief, recorded at SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference
• Join the ASUG Communities team on July 31 for an "Ask Me Anything" session on demystifying AI 

AI is innovating at a rapid rate. After generative AI took the ERP ecosystem--and the larger tech industry--by storm in recent years, agentic AI is quickly capturing the attention of the community. It makes sense, as the capabilities enabled by agentic AI solutions are staggering. And SAP is introducing agentic-infused solutions, further enabling its customers. 

But what exactly IS agentic AI? What can it accomplish for users? 

In the latest ASUG Talks Roundtable, host Jim Lichtenwalter is rejoined by AI thought leaders, Paul Modderman, Founding AI Engineer at Nova Intelligence; and Anurag Barua, Transformation Leader at SAP. The three build on their previous conversation (focused on generative AI) and dive deep into the development and utility of agentic AI. 

Key Topics

• Practical applications of agentic AI 
• Measures enterprises can take to mitigate data hallucinations 
• The role SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) has in enable agentic AI solutions 

Around the ASUG Ecosystem 

• Register for the ASUG Community Conversation Business Transformation Management: Making the Case for Change—and Proving It on July 24.