In the latter part of 2019, SAP released the New SAP MaxAttention, the highest and most exclusive level of engagement available with the SAP Digital Business Services organisation. As we draw closer to the end of 2020, let’s look into the SAP’s premium customer engagement program development and future goals as showcased in the recently concluded 2020 SAP MaxAttention Summit.
The first 2020 SAP MaxAttention Summit was held on 9-10 November as a virtual event hosted by Peter Harkin, Senior Vice President of Premium Engagements at SAP.
Customers’ success has been at the core of SAP solutions and services. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the software giant has already created a new Board Area called Customer Success headed by Adaire Fox-Martin, an Executive Board member of SAP SE and recently appointed Global Buy-Social Ambassador by the Social Enterprise UK (SEUK). With the health crisis making a dent in most organisations almost the entire year of 2020, SAP’s commitment to ensure customers innovate and thrive with SAP solutions remains unflustered.
2020 SAP MaxAttention Summit Highlights
Speaking at the inaugural SAP MaxAttention Summit, Customer Success lead Fox-Martin explained how the German company is invested in customer success, bringing all its customer-facing services and sales roles under one area.
As SAP’s premium engagement support plan, the SAP MaxAttention program is expected to deliver to customers a best-in-class level of engagement to ensure business continuity and success even in a time of crisis.
In her welcome address, Fox-Martin stressed:
“Our name is our mission.”
She shared about the LACE (Land, Adopt, Consume, Expand) operating model, which is being adopted by some 40{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} of SAP’s workforce. The new workforce structure that is focused directly on customer success is part of the organisational change. She also emphasised that making customer success as SAP’s key mission is the company’s competitive advantage.
Derek Prior from Resulting IT, an independent SAP consultancy in the UK, and Paul Kurchina, an SAP expert and known guru of the SAP scene in the U.S., also presented and led a remarkable online discussion that displayed their expertise in the SAP environment.
Prior shared the outcome of his study on the importance of SAP MaxAttention premium-level engagement for SAP customers, which concluded that SAP Services played a pivotal role in sustaining customer success. He further highlighted how SAP MaxAttention was able to help companies’ generate value-based outcomes while continuously innovating.
About Prior’s mentioning of the importance of having a Global Center of Expertise (CoE), Kurchina asked customers to revisit their Global CoE models to ensure all the critical changes and emerging challenges are covered, including remote working as the new norm.
Each day of the summit ended with an executive session, in which SAP Managers answered questions from participants. Thomas Sauserrig, a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE responsible for product strategy, handled queries related to “cloud-only”. Fox-Martin tackled the Net Promoter Score and user-feedback-related questions. Meanwhile, Harkin addressed the issue of customer criticism, including the New SAP MaxAttention contract.
Updates for 2021
Significant updates on the SAP MaxAttention 2021 portfolio as well as SAP’s engagement strategy to further propel customer success were delivered by Harkin. These are:
- Extensions to the SAP MaxAttention portfolio for 2021, including back-office SAP applications and the Mission Control Center
- The Intelligent Enterprise Institute, where customers will be able to work together in various labs on new processes with EMEA North as the pilot region.
- Major investment in the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and its components
With regards to specifications and enhancements integration through the SAP Cloud Platform as part of the SAP BTP, both Anja Schneider, Head of Customer Innovation in the SAP Technology and Innovation Board Area, and Shane Paladin, President of SAP Services, advised customers to keep their core systems clean.
Stressing about the importance of leveraging technology in the right way and finding a trusted partner through the digital transformation journey, Paladin, said:
“Technology is a value driver. Trust is the default of moving forward,” he said.
