ZDNet highlights the new AI experiences coming to Microsoft 365 applications, called “Context IQ”. It starts with helpful but small improvements to Microsoft Editor, for example helping users figure out and find the right files to attach and share, or quickly recommend meeting times when all participants are available. And – this is a neat one – Context IQ will also be able to do autocomplete on useful info tidbits like frequent flyer numbers. (I am ALWAYS AND FOREVER opening up a stupid saved-off file somewhere that has my frequent flyer info.)

A while back I got preview access to the incredible GPT-3 natural language model API from OpenAI. It is gobsmacking what that can produce, given some nudging prompts. About a year ago, Microsoft got exclusive licensing for it. Since then, natural language capabilities (like the above Context IQ) have begun to trickle into Microsoft or Microsoft-acquired products: Power Apps Ideas, GitHub Copilot (using a descendant of GPT-3), and Azure OpenAI Service. I don’t know if Context IQ uses GPT-3 specifically, but it is abundantly clear that, if you want it, AI-assisted writing is here. PM

Paul, it’s not stupid if it works! Just sayin’. 🙂 JP

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There wasn’t a grand announcement on this subject so far, but this rather important information was brought to light on social media by several “whistleblowers”. Those with SAP admin privileges received an email last week with a benign subject “Enhanced Email Validation and Security Checks”. The email contained several announcements regarding changes in SAP user account maintenance. The highlights: in 2022, all new SIDs will need to be linked to Universal ID; allowed company email domains are to be maintained in SAP Support portal; shared email addresses will not be allowed for SIDs. 

SAP Universal ID is a great idea on paper and is meant to solve many woes of SAP professionals juggling multiple PIDs/SIDs due to job changes, for example. However, the feedback from early adopters have been mixed with several issues reported online. (I hope that SAP will make it a priority to stabilize Universal ID functionality.) Also, the “enhanced email validation” is rather questionable. How would SAP tell whether an email is shared or not? Perhaps biometrics soon will be an answer to everything? JP

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I’ve never thought of Google as a company that “gets” enterprise. I mean – Google is itself an enterprise, sure, but their focus and culture hasn’t always rhymed with “enterprise”. At least in terms of IT.

But the last year or so has showed a different side to the story. CEO Sundar Pichai says in the earnings call linked above: “I think we are very, very focused on industry-value propositions…and that’s really helped us get some of the bigger deals.” Seems like hiring Thomas Kurian as CEO of Google Cloud was prescient.

In my development work outside of SAP, I love Google Cloud Platform capabilities and tools. I’m hoping that further inroads into enterprise will let me have fun stitching them together again. PM

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Any respectable rock concert has an opening act and SAP TechEd conference has an opener in the form of SAP Devtoberfest. If you missed the live developer dance-offs and geek-outery that’s been going on there, check out the event’s GitHub page. More buttoned-up part of the event included “themed” weeks: development best practices, Security, Cloud, Analytics, and front-end development.

Even if your reaction to the theme “Cloud-native in the SAP world” is a reflective eye-roll, I highly recommend two presentations from that week: Microservices are Probably Not What You Think They Are and Pour Some Serverless On Me.

These days it’s hard to tell what is a buzzword and what actually matters. Unlike SAP Leonardo (RIP), microservice architecture is the thing that SAP developers should be paying attention to. No matter how long SAP continues to maintain on-premise ERP systems, the future of development is Cloud or, at minimum, hybrid. And microservice architecture plays a significant role in it.

My two main takeaways from the presentation were:

• not to confuse re-use with decoupling;
• “microservices maximize speed, not cost”.

We might think that a function module is something like a “microservice” in ABAP but it’s simply not. The decoupling technique in the demo felt counter-intuitive, almost foreign to a traditional developer. This means that using microservices will mean not just things to learn but things to un-learn as well. JP

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In the last weeks, both Microsoft and The Artist Formerly Known as Facebook came out with the announcements of their respective versions of “metaverse”. Metaverse is a form of immersive online reality where one could step into to collaborate, work, and play with others. Corporatey Microsoft’s Metaverse seems to pursue the “kitten lawyer” vibe with the avatars that, for some reason, are missing the lower part of the body. Much cooler Facebook’s version looks like it came straight out of Ready Player One movie. I’m very curious if SAP will announce its own Metaverse at the upcoming SAP TechEd conference. 

While adding Unity engine to my skillset would be fun and add serious cred with my 12-year-old, I’m not looking forward to connecting Microsoft’s Multiverse with SAP’s Multiverse (name is TBD and will be changed soon anyway) plus all the applications that “shadow IT” invested already at each client. As Joshua Greenbaum put it, this process “would have more seams than a circus tent”. Strap in, folks, this Metaverse thing will be a bumpy ride. JP

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Any respectable rock concert has an opening act and SAP TechEd conference has an opener in the form of SAP Devtoberfest. If you missed the live developer dance-offs and geek-outery that’s been going on there, check out the event’s GitHub page. More buttoned-up part of the event included “themed” weeks: development best practices, Security, Cloud, Analytics, and front-end development.

Even if your reaction to the theme “Cloud-native in the SAP world” is a reflective eye-roll, I highly recommend two presentations from that week: Microservices are Probably Not What You Think They Are and Pour Some Serverless On Me.

These days it’s hard to tell what is a buzzword and what actually matters. Unlike SAP Leonardo (RIP), microservice architecture is the thing that SAP developers should be paying attention to. No matter how long SAP continues to maintain on-premise ERP systems, the future of development is Cloud or, at minimum, hybrid. And microservice architecture plays a significant role in it.

My two main takeaways from the presentation were:

• not to confuse re-use with decoupling;
• “microservices maximize speed, not cost”.

We might think that a function module is something like a “microservice” in ABAP but it’s simply not. The decoupling technique in the demo felt counter-intuitive, almost foreign to a traditional developer. This means that using microservices will mean not just things to learn but things to un-learn as well. JP

Don’t miss our latest issue!