Mark Finnern - SAP Sapphire 2011 - theCUBE
Channel: SiliconANGLE theCUBE
Date: 2012-04-27

Mark Finnern (SAP) with John Furrier and Dave Vellante at SAP Sapphire 2011.
John Furrier and Dave Vellante sit down with Mark Finnern at SAP Sapphire 2011 to discuss the mentor program at SAP and SAP Labs and the update on the latest patches, buttons, what the mentors are doing and the buzz highlights. For those that might not know, Finnern explains the role of the mentors is to know "SAP inside and out and all of the ground floor, are good communicators and have proof of community spirit, and what they often do is bring the local community together in SAP inside tracks and the passion comes across," through badges on the polo shirts they wear with their Twitter handle on the back. Furrier calls them the Navy Seals of SAP—highly trained operatives.

The mentors, on their own time, created a certification type program and brought it to SAP with the outcome resulting in the creation of a certification group. For the first time, customers, education and SAP employees came together to create the background of a certification and what would be desired in such a program.

Furrier asks what a couple of the coolest things Finnern's done at SAP Sapphire 2011, Finnern immediately starts with an app that a friend in Germany had created, an "SAP Mentor Outreach, an Android App where you can search for mentors, find them, and the cool thing is did for Android, and others helped him to put it out for iPhone..." making it available on the cutting edge technology, and proving the point and purpose of the mentors. The social events have also been pretty cool, with one thing that SAP does a half hour before the show closes is a daily wrap-up with the mentors to discuss what they should check out, what they've learned, what's going on, and where they can experience the expertise of the day. The vibe the people are really exciting about is Hannah and the happenings in the mobile space

Finnern points out the best way to reach the mentors, or to see what it is they're working on, is either through their Twitter handles, or a search of SAP Mentors website.