ISUG, the International Sybase User Group, has rebranded as ISUG-TECH, the Independent SAP Technical User Group, to better reflect its mission. “Once SAP fully absorbed Sybase in 2012, it made sense to make the change to reflect the new identity,” Mike Harrold, executive director of ISUG-TECH, tells 5 Minute Briefing. “We also felt that it was critical to stress two aspects of our organization: that we are independent, and that our focus is technical. The latter in particular delineates us from the other SAP user groups which tend to be more focused on the business end users and not the developers, DBAs, and other technologists that are behind the scenes making everything work.”
The membership of ISUG accepted the recommendation of the board of directors and voted to change the name of the organization to ISUG-TECH at its Annual General Meeting on December 11, 2012.
The name change reflects the evolving role of the organization within the larger SAP ecosystem. “We remain committed to and focused upon the technical aspects of the SAP software acquired as part of the Sybase purchase, but at the same time we see a need for a similar offering for some of the SAP products as well. HANA is great example of this, of course,” says Harrold. Other aspects of how the user group’s focus may change will depend on SAP and its products and how they are positioned, adds Harrold, noting for example that SAP is currently focused on attracting developers so ISUG-TECH needs to mirror that emphasis in its member offerings, as well.
Looking ahead, Harrold says ISUG-TECH’s number-one goal is to grow its membership and one of the ways the group is doing that is by increasing the readership of the ISUG-TECH journal. “We now offer a free 'Associate Reader' membership which enables those members to read the current issue of the journal through our new eReader format without having to pay a fee. Accessing older issues and the full archives still requires a membership fee (starting as low as $69) and we believe that as people read the free version they'll see the value in paying for a full subscription. We expect this will help drive the direction of the content not only in that publication but across the rest of our member website as well and best enable us to meet the needs of our members.”
For more information on ISUG-TECH, or to become a member, please visit the ISUG-TECH website.