Sun City, South Africa, 29 Oct 2012
Hosted by the African SAP User Group (AFSUG) and supported by SAP, Saphila 2012 kicks off today and will be showcasing an impressive line-up of local and international keynote speakers, including Valli Moosa, former Minister of Environment and Tourism; Robert Enslin, SAP President of Sales and a member of the SAP Global Managing Board; Franck Cohen, President of SAP EMEA; Oliver Bussmann, SAP Global CIO; as well as track athlete superstar, Oscar Pistorius.
Saphila 2012, the largest biennial SAP African User Group conference, taking place from today to 31 October, has attracted more than 1 500 attendees. With 43 sponsors, doubled partner attendance and customer participation up 64%, the event is set up for success.
Themed "The Moment is Now", Saphila provides an innovative forum for existing and potential SAP customers to collaborate with AFSUG, SAP and SAP-certified partners. Delegates from more than 20 countries in Africa, plus overseas visitors from France, Germany, Netherlands, India, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States, can interact with a powerful community of thought leaders, C-level executives and experts from around the world.
This year, Saphila also offers four, one-day HANA training courses during the duration of the conference. SAP Overview and SAP BW (Business Information Warehouse) on SAP HANA courses will take place on 29 October. SAP HANA Implementation and Modelling course, as well as Mobility Fundamentals and a Best Practice course, will run on 30 October. Course attendees participating at Saphila will receive discounts of 12% to 43%.
With 134 speakers and 171 sessions in total, this year's Saphila will be the biggest in its history. A diverse variety of innovative topics are on offer, encompassing SAP's five-pillar strategy: applications, in-memory computing (HANA), mobility, cloud, and database and technology.
Another first this year, Saphila 2012 is offering 57 micro-forums. Micro-forums are small intimate sessions with subject experts. The event also features a Meet the Experts forum, allowing delegates to attend one-on-one sessions with SAP specialists. In addition, delegates have the chance to meet with a variety of customers, including Transnet, Telkom, City of Cape Town, Rainbow Chicken and Kenyan Ports Authority.
In advance of Saphila, SAP held its first ever virtual Tweetup earlier in October to promote the event and encourage active engagement. During the Tweetup and at the conference, SAP demonstrated SAP's Social Media Analytics tool by Netbase. This social engine provides valuable insight on sentiment analytics and what people are saying about your brand and is indicative of how SAP uses its own technology. The tool will be run throughout the conference.
"Hot on the heels of SAP"s stellar third-quarter results, Saphila 2012 is going to be a game changer, driving a different kind of business conversation for African decision-makers," said Derek Kudsee, Chief Operating Officer of SAP Africa. "This world-class conference offers attendees the exceptional opportunity not only to network and exchange ideas with experts from multiple fields and thought leaders, but the possibility of getting trained, and learning first-hand about how SAP's HANA in-memory computing will revolutionise the way business is conducted."
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