Sydney, Australia — SAP Australia & New Zealand is bullish about participation for its annual user conference, SAPPHIRE ’01 Brisbane to be held on November 18 – 21, as attendees are continuing to register despite many companies employing aggressive cost cutting strategies.
“We are pleased with the positive feedback and interest being generated by SAPPHIRE ’01 Brisbane. The number of registered attendees to date shows that we are on track with our expectations this year,” said Leighton Jenkins, project manager of SAPPHIRE ’01 Brisbane.
SAP has secured an excellent line up of leading international and local speakers who will address business and IT issues including Chris Bennett, Managing Director and CEO SAP Australia and New Zealand; Henning Kagermann, Co-Chairman and CEO SAP AG; Les Hayman, President and CEO SAP Asia Pacific and Shai Agassi, CEO SAP Portals.
The conference, to be held at the Brisbane Exhibition and Conference Centre, is the largest IT customer event in Australia and, in fact, in the Southern Hemisphere. Next year SAPPHIRE will be held in Korea.
SAPPHIRE ’01 will focus on business and IT strategies that will help companies face and survive the turbulent global outlook. It will also feature companies that have used IT to leverage their business expertise and to take advantage of opportunities in the changing e-business environment.
SAPPHIRE ’01 will discuss a diverse range of topics including enterprise portals, CRM, supply chain management, business intelligence and product lifecycle management.
A Tech Ed conference will run alongside this year’s SAPPHIRE. This is the first year Tech Ed has been run in the region and aims to provide technical staff in SAP customer sites hands-on experience with the latest SAP products as well as future product strategy.
“More than ever, companies now need sound business and IT strategies that will not only allow them to weather the current economic storm. They need strategies that will enable them to win and take advantage of business opportunities during and once the storm has subsided,” said Chris Bennett, managing director, SAP Australia and New Zealand.
Speakers who will present at SAPPHIRE ’01 include Carol Burch, SAP vice president for Global Business Unit in CRM; Wolfgang Runge, SAP vice president for Global Business Unit in SCM; Philip Bullock, Managing Director, IBM Australia and New Zealand; Hans- Dieter Scheuerman, SAP vice president for Global Business Unit in Financials; Tony Morgan, Corporate CIO at Telstra; Joe Thomas, Global Extended Enterprise Leader at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young; Vince Gill, Director at KPMG Consulting; and John Gattorna, Managing Partner at Accenture.
SAPPHIRE ’01 will also provide stimulating industry workshop sessions combining SAP industry experts from around the globe, customer panel discussions and industry sector demonstration areas. The workshops will focus on SAP solutions for key vertical market segments including utilities, telecommunications, banking, public sector, retail and consumer products, transportation, manufacturing and defence.
