Welcome to your December News
Chairman's Note
Welcome to this month's newsletter, I hope you are keeping safe and well.
UKISUG Connect was a remarkable success, even with the challenges we faced including Storm Arwen and the Omicron variant. This was a fantastic opportunity to network and we were happy to see how many of our members were able to attend despite these challenges. We wish to thank our speakers, members and partners for their support which made this the success it was. Read our CEO, Craig Dale's, thoughts here. Our latest season of podcasts is drawing to a close, over the last year they have become an integral part of the learning the User Group provides. The 2021 podcasts have covered a very wide range of SAP topics and personal support through well being sessions. If you get a quiet moment over the Christmas and New Year holidays they are well worth a listen. I am pleased to announce that we have a new whitepaper launching, this is a deep dive into the Cost of Change and it is due to be released before Christmas. Keep your eye on the member section of our website for its launch and in the meantime, listen to our latest podcast episode on the same subject.
I would like to say a big thank you to our back-office team and our volunteers, without you we would not have delivered an amazing conference and numerous SIGs and webinars throughout the year. Planning is already well underway for next year and we have some great events lined up.
Our volunteer Special Interest Group Chairs are looking at the 2022 programme. Please engage with them via SAP Jam or email Robyn on topics you would like to see us cover next year and even better, let us know if you have a story to share!
We hope you all have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Paul Cooper Chairman
Don’t Let a Cyberattack Ruin Your Holiday Season
In 2021, Onapsis saw a record number of ransomware and cyberattacks on organisations across the globe. From manufacturing to healthcare to utilities — no industry is immune. The impact has been substantial and far reaching, disrupting global services and supply chains. And cybercriminals aren’t taking a holiday break.
While cyberattacks are an everyday threat, security researchers have witnessed a concerning trend: Major ransomware attacks occur on weekends and holidays when there are fewer IT and security staff working. November and December see a 70% average increase in attempted ransomware attacks compared to January and February.
As you prepare for the 2021 holiday season, evaluate whether you have the right tools, processes, and people in place to protect your most critical assets against this uptick. Particular attention must be paid to business-critical SAP applications — the systems that underpin core functions such as finance, production, HR, and operations. These critical resources are not protected by traditional defense-in-depth security deployments or vulnerability management programs. And SAP & Onapsis threat intelligence reveals that malicious actors are specifically and actively targeting these unprotected systems.
Consider the following:
To learn more about mitigating the threat of ransomware to business-critical SAP applications, read this whitepaper from SAP & Onapsis.
UKISUG Connect After 18 months, it was a true pleasure to see so many new and returning faces at Connect 2021. With Storm Arwen and the Omicron variant, we appreciate every single one of you that turned out and made this year’s conference fantastic! From our keynotes to the roaring SUGFEST, it was a joy from start to finish.
Firstly, a big thank you to the ICC for hosting us once again and ensuring that the conference was Covid safe. Secondly, our events team for putting together an amazing three days! And lastly, a huge thank you, to you! Our partner sponsors, speakers, volunteers and delegates, without you there wouldn’t be a conference, and it is your passion and dedication that makes the UKISUG community what it is!
Thank you all for a fantastic three days!
Connect Presentations: If you’d like to download a presentation, be it one you attended or one you missed, all is not lost! You can download presentations from the App by adding them to your Conference Bag from the Agenda. Once added, go into your Conference Bag, click on the three dots at the top of the screen and select Receive Conference Bag. Your selected presentations will then be emailed to you.
Connect Charity: At this year’s conference we worked to raise money for the Anthony Nolan Charity. Started 45 years ago, Anthony Nolan’s aim is to save and improve the lives of those in need of a stem cell transplant, literally saving the lives of those with blood cancer. For more information on the charity, their research and their mission, visit the Anthony Nolan website.
We had several ways to donate this year, our ‘SWAG’ stand, charity prize draw, and our charity bike challenge that saw us and you cycle the 144 miles from our team office in Teesside to the ICC in Birmingham. Each avenue was a great success, and we can’t thank you enough for helping us!
Firstly, our ‘SWAG’ stand was filled with User Group branded goods. Whilst this branded ‘swag’ was free, small donations were welcome. Thanks to your generosity, we raised a fantastic £266 via our JustGiving page, and relieved some stress on our storage room.
If you visited the UKISUG stand there was also the chance to buy raffle tickets for our Charity Prize Draw, and be in with a chance to win a great selection of prizes; a £250 Love2Shop Voucher, an Amazon Echo Show, and a Drone were just some of the prizes up for grabs! We had some very happy winners, and we were even happier to have raised £1,111!
Now, the real challenge, where we asked you to help us cycle the distance from Stockton to Birmingham, a whopping 144 miles. With every mile cycled, UKISUG donated £10 and if we hit the 144 milestone, we would double it. Unfortunately, Sir Chris Hoy wasn’t available for the conference, however with your efforts we were able to beat our target! A huge £2940 to add to our final amount.
We did the maths, and the final amount came to an outstanding £4,317! This incredible amount will enable the Anthony Nolan Charity to place 103 people onto the stem cell register.
A truly amazing amount, and a massive thank you is owed to every one of you who contributed, however you did so!
Connect 2022 We have events running throughout the year, but if you’re interested in booking for next year’s conference then good news! Tickets for UKISUG Connect 2022 are available now, at a special early-bird rate of £499! Hit the button below and join us in Birmingham! For those delegates who attended this year, watch out as we'll be sending you a special code very soon to book for only £450.
Your 2022 Events Calendar has now launched! Whilst we are running virtual events again in 2002, we are also looking at bringing back a number of face to face events, so check the event pages for more information. FEBRUARY 8th Higher Ed & Research 9th Cyber Security 9th Irish HR & Payroll 15th Ireland 16th Payroll 17th SAP Concur
MARCH 2nd & 3rd UX Workshop 8th SuccessFactors 9th Support (ADLM) 15th S/4 HANA 16th Supply Chain Management 17th Security (ACS) 23rd Public Sector 24th Maintenance & Service Man APRIL 5th Analytics Symposium 6th Real Estate 7th Document & Data Man 26th Business One 27th Developers 28th Training & Change Man
We are on holiday from 4.00 pm on Tuesday 21st December and back in the office at 8.30 am on Tuesday 4th January 2022.
With Best Wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from your User Group team.
Latest News Search SAP - SAP strives to attract app developers with BTP Diginomica - Laing O’Rourke upgrades to SAP S/4HANA and has sights set on cloud Computer Weekly - IT Priorities 2022: ERP gets back on the horse E-3 Magazine - UKISUG Identifies Main Driver For Using RISE With SAP Computer Weekly - UKISUG 2021: S/4 Hana skills deficit and legacy custom code hamper migration ERP Today - UKISUG CONNECT 2021 – S/4HANA, RISE and customer relationships Diginomica - UKISUG Connect 2021 - SAP RISE needs use cases, clarity and a refined purpose UK and Ireland SAP User Group
+44(0)1642 309930
Email not displaying correctly? View Online |