What inspired you to have a career in SAP?

I was fortunate to be provided with the opportunity to work in SAP, when AusNet embarked on a Business Transformation journey, to be more customer focussed and a process driven organisation. At the time, I was in a Portfolio Management role, managing and governing the IT Portfolio of Projects. I was asked to establish the PMO for a Business Transformation (SAP Implementation). The Program ran for approximately 2.5 years. It was a business lead Program, that was run extremely well, with many business SME’s defining the ‘as is’ and ‘to be’ state for their respective business process areas.

Tell us about your career journey in tech / SAP to date?

Over the past 22 years, I have worked in Technology environments (Financial Services & Utilities Industries), predominately in Portfolio and Program PMO Management. My passion is specifically in the establishment of PMO’s and creating structure and ways of working for Transformational Programs. It is also my strength.

During my tenure at AusNet Services, I was provided with an opportunity to establish a Program PMO for a Business Transformation SAP Implementation, including asset management, core business processes and corporate functions. The Program was delivered, on time and on budget and received an Industry award '2015 ANZ ISG Paragon Award' for AusNet Services and Capgemini (Systems Integrator Partner) in recognition for the 'Best Sourcing Transformation'.

 In parallel to running the Program PMO, I was also provided with an opportunity to establish a new business function, to provide business support (process & data), on the deployment of SAP. The function was the catalyst for the process and data governance program implementation, providing linkages between Governance Councils, Process and Data Owners and Operational teams. 

The role of the PDS team extended to, establishing and managing the following services to the business:

1. Master data services: including, data standards creation and maintenance, master data administration, bulk data upload facilitation, data remediation services, data governance/quality.

2. Business process services: including, business improvement change requests and pipeline management (including a prioritisation process), establishment and facilitation of Business Improvement Change Panel (BICP), custodian of Business Process Design (BPD) documents, identification of business process gaps and facilitation of improvements. 

3. SAP training and communication services: including, training facilitation to improve SAP education, Asset Learner Library content custodian (course content refresh). Communications related to Business Improvements Change Requests implemented and communications to support Process Leads.

4. SAP User Security: including, role security maintenance and administration and job design support services.

The support provided to the business users by the PDS team, was critical post SAP implementation, due to the enormity of change in the ways of working. It provided a central contact point and support structure for end users.

The team served its purpose, and when SAP was fully embedded (some 2 years later), the PDS teams’ functions were dispersed back into the business, and the team was disbanded.

What is the best thing about working in SAP technology?

SAP enables end to end business processes to be implemented across an organisation. This major feature has enabled each operational team to understand bottle necks in the business process. There is process transparency, of work pending, and work completed within the business process. It provides an organisation with data in one source system, which can lead to further improvements in business processes. Having a source system, not only provides transparency but also underpins accountability. 

SAP is customisable to meet an organisations business process needs, although in my experience maintaining the SAP standards is more conducive to streamlined processes across and enterprise.

Other benefits of SAP technology include:

- Ability to Integrates with other systems

- Improved data quality over time

- Promotes a continuous improvement culture

- Implement standardised process across the different lines of business (gas, electricity & transmission)

- Allows for data analytics to be implemented

- Allows for Fiori apps (front end apps) to be built to improve the end users experience.

What inspirational words would you offer to other people looking for a career in SAP?

Working with SAP, has provided me with integrated knowledge of the AusNet business. Although I had worked in the business for a number of years, this program provided me with a better understanding of the end to end business processes. This has been invaluable for my knowledge and professional development.

What advice would you give to a woman working in the SAP ecosystem and looking to advance her career?

Although I had limited knowledge of SAP, prior to commencing the SAP Transformational Program, I soon discovered that Business SME’s were going to be the experts in their respective business processes. They defined how business users would interact with the SAP system, to align to works management processes and corporate function processes. The Technical guys, had the technical experience and provided recommendations for best practice, and the Solution Architect provided governance on the solution aspects. Everyone did their job, and the value for me, was that I got to experience first-hand all of these aspects to some degree. This provided me with well-rounded exposure across the whole program, and has been invaluable to build my knowledge of the business (processes) and the system.

My advice to any women considering a career in SAP, is to absolutely take the opportunity. SAP is a global application and widely used.

What can we all do to inspire more women into working with SAP?

Promoting the diversity in the roles that can be undertaken in SAP. There are varied career options for women, including business SME’s from the various areas of the business, including corporate systems, works and asset management, technical roles, leadership and management roles, PMO roles.

What female inspiration have you had in your career?

I have experienced some very strong leadership from female leaders in IT, although the majority of my leaders have been male. My experiences on the whole, have been very positive with both male and female leaders. It basically comes down to delivering, irrespective of gender. Women in IT have supported me, guided me, and provide me with the platform to continue my path in IT projects.