I recently spoke with Ethan Jewett, Sr. Solution Architect at Mindset to find out what it’s like to be a SAP Mentor. For those of you not familiar with this important program, SAP established the Mentor Program to identify and recognize exceptional members of the SAP ecosystem. SAP selects its Mentors based on candidates’ deep SAP knowledge. Selection is also based on “hands-on” expertise, and their passion to share, educate and influence others. Ethan is one of approximately 87 top influencers (selected by SAP) who are called upon to provide guidance and feedback on SAP technologies and strategies.
It’s an honor to be a SAP Mentor. How did you become part of the program?
I was very active in the SAP ecosystem and shared feedback on SAP products and solutions through blogging and forums. Especially in the BW space, which is how I first got into SAP. Additionally, I was nominated to join the program and have been part of it ever since.
How do you and your colleagues in the SAP Mentor Community collaborate with SAP to advise and help improve products and services?
There are about 9-10 working groups that SAP Mentors can join. Each group is focused on a different topic–and takes a forward-looking approach. Some examples of working groups include SAP Cloud Platform, Analytics, and S/4 HANA.
Each group has a leader from the SAP and Mentor side. We get together remotely for meetings, discussions and to review Point-of-View (POV) documents prepared by SAP. We use tools like Slack to collaborate, share ideas and to provide feedback on POV documents. Mentors have opportunities to get together live with our SAP counterparts and other Mentors at SAP conferences including SAPPHIRE and TechEd.
Can you share some examples of initiatives that you’re working on? or, improvements that have been delivered as a result of SAP Mentor involvement?
That’s a difficult question to answer. However, there are many discussions and conversations underway but they are confidential. Therefore, I’m not able to share details about what we are working on.
As an example of an improvement that has been made, many of the Mentors were very involved in discussions around whether to open source SAPUI5–OpenUI5. Further, SAP Mentors recommended and supported open sourcing and SAP listened. Open sourcing SAPUI5 has been well-received in the SAP Community.
What are you focusing on today and what benefits will it create for SAP customers?
Recently I’ve been very focused on the development practice and importing concepts around development and operations from outside the SAP world into the SAP space. Further, I’ve been giving feedback to make sure SAP platforms are as interoperable as possible with standard tools outside the SAP world. For instance, JavaScript is a set of tools used by most developers. SAPUI5 has historically worked differently than the tools other JavaScript developers use. I’ve been working with other developers to encourage SAP to adopt industry-standard tools wherever possible. Additionally, the benefit of using industry-standard tools is that it’s easier to adopt modern development practices. Which increases development efficiency and decrease manual work and regressions.
In my opinion, SAP development teams are very supportive of this concept but can find themselves constrained by the enterprise environments the software runs in. Because of the variety of SAP enterprise environments that are still out there, they must continue to support a variety of applications that are no longer widely used–such as IE 9. These make it challenging for SAP development teams to fully adopt the most current tools and development practices.
In conclusion, I hope you enjoyed my interview with SAP Mentor, Ethan Jewett. Further: to learn more about the SAP Mentor program or if you have an interest in talking with Ethan or one of Mindset’s Solution Principals, contact us at mindsetstg.wpengine.com.
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