Hi there,
When the enterprise software behemoths (SAP, cough) are climbing aboard the AI wagon, you know that the whole AI thing is now “super cereal”. Thankfully, we’ve already boarded the AI train a long time ago and saved a seat for you, dear readers. Get some snacks, hop on in and enjoy the view and the ride!
-Jelena and Paul
ABAP Brings SAP and Microsoft Together
SAP and Microsoft products are like peanut butter and jelly, like raspberries and chocolate, like pineapple and coconut: both frequently live in harmony in the enterprise software pantry. And it’s always fun to see what we can do with all this goodness.
There was a burst of SAP Community activity on MS/SAP subject, starting with an announcement about ABAP Steampunk availability on MS Azure. Then a blog post “The ways of the modern ABAP developer – with Microsoft” by Holger Bruchelt talked about an event-based SAP/Microsoft integration workshop. The post includes a Github repository link and a workshop video that I recommend even if you are just casually curious. I think it’s great that the workshop is based on quite a realistic scenario. Too many times we get the technology but then it’s not clear what to do with it exactly and how it corresponds to reality.
Additional blog post “Kick-Start your SAP ABAP Platform integration journey with Microsoft” by Martin Pankraz talks about Steampunk and Embedded Steampunk scenarios that are available to try out with SAP BTP and Azure. At least one of them involves Excel, which guarantees to excite the business users.
The only hiccup on the way to becoming modern: you need ABAP 2022 and there is no free dev/trial on-premise system available for that version. Free trial and free tier of SAP BTP is available but it is not exactly representative of on-premise environments that many (most?) of us still work with. That’s a pitty.
P.S. You can find a list of many SAP/MS technology enthusiasts (aka “ninjas”) here. Please share and follow this amazing group of folks. JP
Salesforce Says “We Love AI Too!”
Jon Reed writes about Salesforce Connections 2023 over at diginomica, and sums up what a lot of vendors seem to be saying these days: "figure out how to make AI work for you, before it takes away your market share - or your livelihood". Smart formulation of what seems like everybody trying desperately to find a way onto the generative AI bandwagon.
(As an aside, digging deeper into diginomica's trove of Salesforce pieces linked from this one, I find Stuart Lauchlan highlighting a common theme these days: a skills shortage, this time in AI.)
Salesforce is finding several ways to climb on board. They've taken a marketing approach of branding their generative AI tools/features with "GPT": Einstein GPT, Tableau GPT, Slack GPT, Commerce GPT, Marketing GPT, and so on. Jon also picked up on something I've been thinking about lately - that everyone getting hyped about generative AI matched up with their own company data probably has the cart before the horse. One of the retail panelists made the point: "Do we have all the right data? Yes. Do we have it where we are ready to use it? No. This is step one for us." It definitely feels like data is - and always will be - the actual problem big companies face with amazing AI tools. Salesforce is making a play here with Data Cloud.
What will things look like a year from now, when we've had time to shake out the idea that everyone has to include generative AI in everything? Will it be the panacea that some folks think it is? I have to keep asking that question to keep myself honest, because I'm still a little bit of a space cadet head-in-the-clouds dreamer about its potential. PM
Is AI Good for Low-Code, or a Low-Code Killer?
Bill Doerrfeld over at Acceleration Economy writes about AI and low-code tools, based on the O'Reilly report Low-Code and No-Code in the Workplace. In the last few years, we've seen low-code development tools explode in popularity and capability…only to find that in the last few months, generative AI completely eclipses that excitement level by promising to be something with broad applications across many technologies. The author of this post himself is EXTREMELY guilty of jumping on hype trains for both of these areas, and furthermore expresses his deep apologies to readers certainly sick of hearing about them.
(Now I'll go ahead and wreck that apology by continuing to focus on them.)
Doerrfeld points out that though the low-code hype machine is well-oiled and running smoothly, the report finds that the benefits to non-developers remains narrow at best. "All these findings demonstrate something we've been saying for a while - low-code is no silver bullet. It has a limit."
If your business problem can be represented in words, and the solution can be expressed in sequences of tokens - then generative AI is an ever-improving multi-tool for getting solution tokens from problem words. Low-code tools' viability will partly rest on how well those solution tokens can be quickly and dependably generated from natural language. PM
SAP Career Advice for Young’uns
Folks, it’s this time of the year again when a new wave of bright-eyed graduates hits the Cliffs of Job Market. Even though the young are typically not keen on listening to advice, it does not deter mature professionals like me from offering it. So here it goes.
Don’t believe that SAP is a “get rich quick” scheme. You can have a fulfilling and well-compensated job in the SAP ecosystem but median compensation is comparable to many other IT jobs.
SAP certification is not a guarantee of employment. In fact, there is nothing [legal] I can think of that would allow anyone to “buy into” an SAP related job. Acquire skills rather than badges.
Have a good understanding of what type of work you like and don’t like. There are many different jobs in the SAP ecosystem but also many surprised Pikachu social media posts like “I got hired as an SAP consultant but am now stuck doing basic ABAP work”. Ask upfront what your responsibilities will be.
Taking chances and making mistakes is OK. The perfect time to do that is now, when you are young and unburdened with responsibilities. If a job doesn’t work out, you can always find another one.
When you start first SAP job, you will not know everything. You might even feel like you know nothing. It’s normal. You’re just at the beginning of the journey and there are so many things to discover. What is important is to keep going, no matter what. Safe travels! JP
The Remote Work Battle Rages On
The Verge reports that an internal Google memo indicates the company doesn't want people working fully remote anymore. This follows a similar memo from Meta notifying employees that by September they'll need to come into the office three days a week.
I'm a little conflicted by this. On the one hand, I can understand the thought that it supports collaborative work to have people co-located in the same physical space. I can think of many times in my career that just wandering over to someone's desk and having a deep conversation led to great results in both people's work. I also think that many younger employees who joined the workforce near COVID-times have truly missed out on a lot of ways to develop their careers. So I see a return-to-work argument from that angle.
But I can't help thinking that the benefits of being home (or otherwise remote at your preference) outweigh those at-work factors. I get to be home when my daughter leaves for school and when she comes home - an increase in family time that my parents didn't get to have. I can save gas and traffic time (thereby reducing stress) by skipping the commute. And I've gotten pretty darn good at remote collaboration with video conferencing and remote work tools. On balance, I think remote work has benefitted me more than hindered me - and I think many many information workers would agree with me.
If remote work is good for people's minds, bodies, and families - then we should endeavor to maintain it. Even if there's an argument that it's better for businesses…well, I don't think all things should be geared towards the betterment of businesses. We should mesh that together with the betterment of people. PM
Red Math Redemption
My personal relationship with Math is complicated. I loved Math in school and it seemed natural to pursue a related degree afterwards. But I very quickly realized that I’m actually “just not that into you” with Math, so I left and then started over with what is an equivalent of modern-day Information Systems degree. Even here, Math was inescapable, of course. And to add insult to injury, our professor clearly was more passionate about getting knowledge into our heads than we were about learning.
After getting the passing grades, I quickly stuffed this knowledge into the dark corners of my mind together with memories of 12-hour exam days (story for another time). But still, every time someone makes a weird flex about how Math is super important for programmers, I get a feeling that I missed something.
If you are in the same boat, 10 Math Concepts for Programmers offers a chance for redemption. Like all other Fireship videos, it is brilliant in explaining complex concepts simply. It also helped me to understand that (a) for SAP developers, Accounting is more important than Math; (b) how Math concepts actually relate to other software development. Highly recommended for great ROI on your 10 minute investment. JP
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As always, this is the most brilliant stuff ever put down. I can't believe how amazing these authors are