Podcast: Listen Now!
Vendor Podcast - Moving ALM Into the Community:
An SAP Community Podcast
Hosted by Jon Reed of JonERP.com
Podcast Interview Date: December 15, 2009
View Transcript

Starting with SAP TechEd 2009, Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) became an important point of content emphasis inside SAP. But why does ALM matter? And why now? How does it work in conjunction with Solution Manager? These were some of the questions on the table when Jon Reed of JonERP.com interviewed Evan Stoddard, Senior Product Manager with SAP, and Michael Schwandt, Program Director with the SAP Community Network. During the 18 minute podcast, Jon asks Michael and Evan about the expanded ALM presence on SCN, as well as the new ALM blog category.  

The three also explore the significance of ALM for IT teams. By treating IT as a line of business, the goal of ALM is to empower IT teams to pursue innovation, rather than simply reacting to technical events. Evan and Michael explain how they intend to achieve these goals, while engaging the SAP community in an ongoing conversation. The podcast also covers how listeners can get involved in the discussions on ALM taking place between SAP and ALM users.Podcast Highlights

(:38) Starting with SAP TechEd 2009, SAP started a major content push on ALM. So what is ALM, and how can it help SAP customers to reduce their cost of ownership?

(3:05) Solution Manager has a central place in ALM. What exactly is Solution Manager's role within ALM and how can customers tie their Solution Manager usage into ALM approaches? Can third party tools be incorporated into ALM as well?

(5:34) It used to be that to find ALM resources, you needed to be on SAP's service marketplace (/ALM), but now SAP has created an ALM resource collection on SCN. What motivated the ALM team to post their content on SCN, and what kind of information can visitors find?

(7:00) If you want to learn more about ALM on SCN, and hopefully interact with other ALM users inside and outside of SAP, don't know where to begin, what's the best step to get started?

(8:50) SAP is taking steps to involve customers in new product rollouts and functionality improvements. How are customers getting involved with the conversation about ALM and what impact are they having?

(10:39) The SAP ALM team has been very active blogging and giving webcasts. What has the team learned by sharing information and getting into question and answer sessions with SAP users? Does the time invested in these types of activities pay off?

(12:25) Why the ALM team treats the IT organization like a true line of business, instead of being in reactive mode all the time, or a necessary evil. Empowering IT fosters innovation and creates a lower cost of ownership for SAP customers.

(13:42) The ALM team has added some great resources to SCN, but there is much more to come. What can SCN visitors can expect from the ALM team in terms of new content in 2010?

(15:30) Before the podcast wraps, Jon gives Evan and Michael a chance to address either a misconception about ALM or a key point they'd like to emphasize. Evan: ALM has a holistic approach that includes third party solutions, not just SAP's tools. Michael invites members to write about their ALM experiences using the new ALM blog category.