KEYNOTE PRESENTERS

The last two years have been tumultuous. The global economic crisis has shaken the confidence of many managers and they are increasingly looking to their finance team and SAP systems to help effectively manage in a turbulent and uncertain world. In this thought-provoking keynote address, David Axson, author of the recently published book "The Management Mythbuster" (Wiley 2010) will explore some of the demands now being placed upon finance teams and the new best practices that are emerging such as:

• Dynamic, technology-enabled real time performance management
• Rapid re-forecasting based upon the real time flow of business activity
• Integration of enterprise risk management into the financial management process
• Integrating scenario and contingency planning into the management process
• Leverage off technology to deliver more timely and relevant business information that directly leads to faster, more confident decision-making

David Axson is an acknowledged expert in the field of business performance management. His new book "The Management Mythbuster" was published January 2010. He is also the author of the best selling book, Best Practices in Planning and Performance Management and a noted speaker having delivered presentations in more than 35 countries over the last two years. Prior to his current role as an advisor, consultant and author, David spent 12 years with The Hackett Group of which he was a cofounder and Chief Operating Officer and helped lead the company from start-up to an IPO in six years. He also served as Head of Corporate Planning at Bank of America where he was charged with a fundamental redesign of the company’s planning and forecasting processes.

In order to derive strategic advantage from your SAP financials system, you have to pay attention in equal measure to the overall objectives and the fundamental building blocks. To chart the direction you must have a clear vision of the role of finance in your organisation. To get there you must build a foundation which will support that vision.

Andrew will discuss how 7-Eleven structured their use of SAP’s financials solution based on a view of the finance function as an integrator of process across the organisation and how this became effective only after they learnt:

• How ownership of master data is key to building underlying accuracy
• How the entity model is critical to strategic reporting
• How none of this works without the right relationship between Finance and IT

SAP release: ECC6 & BI 7.0
Original go-live date: April 1999

Andrew has been the Chief Financial Officer for 7-Eleven Stores since 1995. Andrew’s first exposure to major IT projects came in the early 1980s during his time at home builder and construction company AV Jennings. Originally recruited to a role in financial planning and investment analysis, he became involved in projects which led not only to an overhaul of financial systems at Jennings but also to automation of previously manual systems in the areas of workflow, estimating and ordering.

In 1986, he joined the music and consumer electronics retailer, Brashs - leaving as Finance Director prior to taking on his current post. Throughout this period Andrew remained active in systems development. Under his management, Brashs was one of the pioneers of modern merchandise management systems with its successful implementation of the JDA MMS package. He was project sponsor for 7-Eleven’s SAP implementation (IS-Retail plus financial systems) in 1999 and was instrumental in developing the project which saw 7-Eleven role out a new generation of store systems in 2003-04. More recently he has had a lead role in the integration of process surrounding the re-engineering of 7-Eleven’s supply chain and the introduction of its e-services offering.

AGL is Australia’s largest and most successful integrated energy company, supplying gas and electricity to over 3 million Australian households and businesses. Between 2005 and 2009 AGL replaced its myriad of billing and CRM systems with a single platform - SAP IS-U and CRM. At the same time, SAP BI 7 was installed, with high expectations for its contribution to the decision making capabilities of the business. This presentation will cover the progress of AGL to date in leveraging its SAP BI investment and the specific challenges that have been met and overcome along the journey - with a twist.

Content areas include, but are most certainly not limited to:

• Valuing the investment in reporting and analysis: BI business case approval by your Board and Senior Managers (alternative title: how to get your grandpa to give you five bucks)
• Defining what is really necessary to report on: Business Requirement Specification in the real world (alternative title: rolling the dice with your ongoing employment)
• Autonomous and independent performance management: driving real business change through information (alternative title: what you and J.Edgar Hoover have in common)
• The best reporting system in the world: decision making is the purpose of all data, warehousing, reporting and analysis (alternative title: why the weatherman is better at my job than I am); and
  most importantly
• The meaning of life: what Conan the Barbarian can teach us about why we are her (alternative title: the power of the flesh - no not that sort... - vs. the power of steel)

SAP release: 4.6c & BI 7.0
Original go-live date: December 2007

Mark's current role involves managing a large scale implementation of SAP BI over newly introduced SAP IS-U, CRM and ECC6 source systems. Previously he was the Business Intelligence and Reporting Manager for Medibank Private. Prior to that Mark developed a broad range of experiences in varied roles in business intelligence such as performance analyst with a Telco, statistician and modeller with insurances and financial services, database design and construction consultant, performance management and business strategy consultant in general insurances. He has a proven track record in practical, high impact information  management and a uniquely humanised view of what successful BI is and how to achieve it.

United Group Limited (UGL) is a provider of essential services. In 2009 UGL merged several shared functions to create a single Shared Service organisation delivering Business Services (AP, AR, Expense Management and Fleet Management), Payroll, ICT, Procurement and Health Services. By taking a process and lifecycle view of operations within it's engineering businesses, UGL is now leveraging it's implementation of SAP to support the delivery of the following Shared Service objectives:

• Drive standardisation, consistency and optimisation of back office and repeatable functions within UGL
• Maximise the efficiency of the Shared Services overhead operating costs within UGL and reduce costs where possible
• Operate transparently against defined SLA’s and budgets
• Work with the UGL businesses to identify opportunities to create value in shared functions
• Improve the actual value of the services delivered by UGL Shared Services

SAP release: ECC6 & BW 7.0
Original go-live date: June 2001

Adam is the Executive General Manager of UGL Shared Services, which includes Business Services (Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Expense Management and Fleet Management), Payroll, ICT, Procurement and Health Services. Prior to joining UGL he worked for SAP Australia as well as numerous SAP customers in a consulting capacity. Before moving into the SAP market he was a Process Control Engineer for Honeywell and BHP.