Founded in March 2003 by a small number of companies who run SAP systems including Arco, G&A Jewellery and Carlsberg UK, the SAP Northern User Forum was formed to give focus in the northern region for users. In addition, the group wanted to hold regular meetings to share knowledge and skills and to discuss business issues and experiences with other companies that were committed to their SAP applications. Today, the Forum has built a community of around 70 organisations across the region.

The Forum meets on a quarterly basis to discuss their day to day SAP issues, headaches and practices in a relaxed, informal environment. Additionally, it provides members the opportunity to discuss key business subjects and help them learn how to get maximum return on their SAP system. SAP itself is involved in the Forum and attends meetings to communicate their product and business strategies and their future developments. At events, members are encouraged to recommend hot topics around technology and business issues for future discussion; some of the past forum agenda’s have included sessions around;- internal CRM & Hothousing, RFID, SAP Netweaver, Business Intelligence and Portals.

Forum members also host meetings at their offices in order to demonstrate successful management and development of their systems. It provides an excellent environment for other members to ask questions, learn about other SAP implementations, offer and seek advice.

The Forum is now starting to provide real benefits to its members - not only by gaining knowledge at the sessions, but by building mutually beneficial relationships and networking opportunities with other users.

The next SAP Northern User Forum will be held on Thursday 10th July 2008 in Huddersfield. If you would like to attend, please click below or email Kate Starling on kate.starling@csiltd.co.uk