One of the most popular strategies for integrating new technologies and transitioning a workforce is partnering with an industry association. Come to our event to hear amazing success stories.

With the advent of technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics, the impact on the working environment and how we work is inevitable. 

According to the Future of Jobs report by the World Economic Forum, the determining factors for success in this new frontier include the ability of all concerned stakeholders to instigate reform in education and training systems, labour market policies, business approaches to developing skills, employment arrangements and existing social contracts.

The report also suggests that by 2020, 85 per cent of organisations will be either likely or very likely to have expanded their technology adoption to include big data analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), app and web-enabled markets, and cloud computing.  The workforce is predicted to see a decline in existing roles by 2020, tempered by an increase in new tasks and roles, with the skills needed to perform most jobs changing significantly. 

Preparing for the new frontier

What all of this means, for any organisation intending to survive this new technology frontier, is that  there’s a need to develop strategies to adapt to the new required skill sets and the changing nature of the workforce. 

According to the report,  the most popular strategies organisations intend to use in order to manage the integration of new technologies and workforce transition is creating specialised departments internally and outsourcing to professional services firms. The third most popular strategy (with a total of 66 per cent) was organisations suggesting they will partner with industry associations.  

The SAP Australian User Group (SAUG) is one such association that is available to help organisations looking to adapt. SAUG is a not-for-profit independent group that provides benefits through resources and events to organisations using SAP solutions; SAP being one of the major ERP and technology players able to help companies become an intelligent enterprise and keep pace with new technologies. 

The chairperson of SAUG, Matt Perry, recently commented that the association has acknowledged the inevitability and fast pace of change and has directed the focus of their member resources to keeping members up to speed. The SAUG National Summit – the flagship event of the association – is open to both members and non-members and is a prime example of how the association can provide valuable assistance. 

What you can expect

This year, the SAUG National Summit will be held over two full days at the ICC in Sydney on 26th and 27th August. Any user of SAP technology, regardless of their department within the organisation, will gain valuable insights from this summit. 

The Agenda for the event includes a dedicated ‘People Engagement’ stream as well as ‘Transformation’ and ‘Strategic’ streams which will feature a balanced mix of customer presentations, industry experts and SAP technology specialists. Topics have been selected to  assist companies with the required transformations identified in the above mentioned report and will include themes such as:  

• Transforming the HR function for a connected workforce 
• Making yourself relevant and indispensable for the next generation of SAP technology
• Optimising training and learning with learning management systems
• Change Management
• Developing a digital mindset and much more.  

In addition to the HRM related stream, delegates can choose from 13 streams focused on hot topic areas including: digital transformation, S/4HANA, customer experience and experience management, intelligent technology, financial transformation, innovation, optimising SAP and more.

With over 80 breakout sessions, delegates can tailor their own agenda and maximise the relevance of their summit experience. The agenda features three outstanding thought leaders who will share their insights:

Ray Wang – globally recognised technology futurist, master strategist, and one of the world’s most in-demand technology speakers – will help make sense of emerging technologies and trends, and give incomparable insights into the most critical SAP issues.

Geraldine McBride, is a renowned Enterprise Business Technology and AI thought leader. With a background in science, her global career spans 30 years, including senior executive roles with IBM, Dell and SAP. McBride has a deep knowledge of enterprise systems, enterprise processes, AI and can explain how these can be transformed to deliver further tangible returns for enterprises and their customers. She is the CEO and director of MyWave, a market leading Enterprise AI company focused on Intelligent Personalisation by putting the customer at the centre of the business

Martin Mrugal, has held a number of diverse management and executive leadership roles. In his current role as global head of customer first, SAP SE,  Mrugal’s team is focused on transforming the way SAP engages and cares for its customers throughout the entire lifecycle. Mrugal’s new organisation brings together several cloud and on-premise customer teams under one umbrella including: Analytics and Innovation, SuccessFactors, SAP Cloud Platform, S/4 HANA Customer Engagement, Digital Supply Chain. 

What sets the SAUG National Summit agenda apart is its focus on customer experiences. Over 30 leading customer organisations reveal how they are transforming, improving, innovating and optimising their SAP systems, gaining real business value, tackling disruption and leveraging opportunities from new technologies.

As stated by IDC in their article The Future of Work: Preparing for the New Normal, “A strategy for the future of work must be an integral component of an organization’s overall digital transformation strategy in order to fully realize its value potential. The onus is not only on business leaders to sponsor and support work transformation, but also on individual workers who must take a proactive approach to ongoing learning and agility.”

If your organisation is using, or considering using, SAP solutions to help achieve such a digital transformation then consider the SAP Australian User Group and the SAUG National Summit to help manage the integration of new technologies and workforce transition.