Sapphire videos: SAP customers talk about application strategies in '09

IT isn't standing still in this recession. SAP customers continue to work on IT projects, according to interviews with several customers on the show floor at Sapphire 2009. Application strategies include doing projects with fewer people, or looking to leverage more of the functionality from software they've already deployed.

"We thought about it, and we came to the conclusion that we did not want to participate in this economic downturn," said George Rimnac, vice president, CIO of Grainger, a business-to-business distributor, during a panel on IT strategy in this economy. Grainger had just implemented an SOA-based application with an easy-to-use interface for its customer service agents. "From an IT perspective, my organization is bigger and has a larger backlog of work than we ever have."

In the following short video clips, SAP customers talk about the projects they're working on this year -- and their strategies for getting them accomplished in this economy.

SAP Sapphire 2009 videos

SAP customers talk IT strategy in '09, part 1
SAP Sapphire attendees Sophie Fournier-Larke and Thomas Schmidt talk about EnXco's SAP ERP implementation in this video. EnXco is solar and wind power company based in Escondido, Calif.

SAP customers talk IT strategy in '09, part 2
SAP Sapphire attendee Paris Fogle, senior systems specialist with Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated, talks about his company's SAP mobile project in this video.

SAP customers talk IT strategy in '09, part 3
SAP Sapphire attendee Cristina B. Tungul of Purdue Pharma talks about the company's SAP Human Capital Management (HCM) and SAP Advanced Planner and Optimization (APO) projects in this video. Tungul is associate director, ERP systems, SAP development at the Totowa, N.J.-based pharmaceutical company.