I’m posting a handful of my favorite videos from 2009 to close out the year. One highlight, without a doubt, was this shoot with Ann Rosenberg. To get to the bottom of the impact of BPM on SAP’s tools, skills, and consulting approaches, I managed to get the "Goddess of BPM," Ann Rosenberg herself, otherwise known as the Global Practice Owner for Business Process Management at SAP, to sit down for a live video shoot at SAP TechEd Phoenix. We shot the nine minute video on my flipcam and I thought the sound quality was very good, given that we were just outside the Community Clubhouse, where people were talking it up as usual. I consider BPM to be one of the most important skill areas inside of SAP, but it brings with it a great deal of hype as well. We got into those issues during this video.

Ann has said before that the "end of the silo functional consultant" is coming. And not many know that SAP is going through a plan to change all of its "application consultants" to "process consultants." In my view, that’s why BPM matters - not in a distant future, but right now. And there’s no one better to speak to this than Ann, who I consider to be a vitally important thought leader inside of SAP. Ann has played an instrumental role in the development of SAP’s BPM methodology, as well as the BPX curriculum design.

During this video, Ann, the co-author of Business Process Management: the SAP Roadmap, answers five key questions:

Vishal Sikka mentioned BPM prominently in his keynote, but what about the hype factor? Is BPM for real, and if so, why?

What is the latest on NetWeaver BPM, formerly "Galaxy"?

Why is the "silo functional consultant" an endangered species, and how are skills being retooled in BPM inside and outside of SAP?

SAP now has a formal BPX certification - what is offered in that curriculum?

How can project teams (and individuals) get started with SAP BPM? (Book, web site wiki)?

I hope you enjoy the video, and thanks to Ann for taking the time to share her views with JonERP readers.