Corona recovery and visibility

The news of the continuation of the home office, the permission to choose one's workplace at will, worries me. The SAP community has worked extremely well for many years because people are in contact with each other, communicate and learn from each other.

The home office and modern technologies such as video conferencing and voice mailboxes have brought lively exchanges to a standstill. But the SAP community itself needs more communication and information than ever before.

What had happened? I received a study on the IT consulting market in Germany from the market research institute Lünendonk. As always, it was of outstanding journalistic quality. But because I didn't just want Lünendonk to have its say in my report, but also the numerous SAP partners mentioned, I went to our Head of Sales and Marketing.

Andrea Schramm knows the names and people at the SAP partners better than I do. So I asked Andrea Schramm for editorial help: She was to call the 20 or so companies and ask for a donation of words plus a photo. The result was sobering. In 90 percent, no one was available, not even the phone was picked up.

The E-3 platform is part of the SAP community. Contact with SAP partners - whether management, marketing or press department - is very important to us. Together with the partners, we see ourselves as a community of values that does information and education work for SAP's existing customers. If those responsible for communications, whether press or marketing, can no longer be reached, it becomes difficult to fulfill the educational mission.

We are a small team and help each other. I have no fear of contact in a discourse with marketing managers. My journalistic judgment does not suffer from ad and banner bookings.

We are a special interest magazine focused on the SAP community, and that's how everyone at E-3 Publishing wants to communicate with SAP partners. Marketing departments that don't give out phone numbers and only have generic email addresses are sabotaging this important discourse of the SAP community.

What is it about? The goal is information and education for and with the SAP community. For this, we need open and transparent communication channels. We want to be able to implement a layout idea with heads from the community and suitable statements quickly and unbureaucratically. To do this, however, a minimum level of accessibility must be guaranteed. With my understanding of work-life balance and home office, I want to stay in touch with SAP partners despite everything.

There is definitely a risk of alienation. The pandemic has imposed many restrictions on us, some of which are necessary. We should use the incipient opening to counteract further alienation. Andrea Schramm (+49/8654-77130-15) and I (+49/8654-77130-21) are looking forward to any contact, suggestions and ideas on how we can jointly tailor the E-3 platform even better to the wishes and needs of SAP's existing customers.