When Corning Incorporated began to architect its SAP BTP platform, the company needed to align stakeholders, architects, developers, and future end-users to ensure a successful implementation.
As an influential IT Solutions Architect at Corning, Tom Gee was asked to champion the platform as Product Owner and Domain Architect. He began by introducing the platform internally, informing small teams about the company's intended uses for SAP Business Technology Platform. Given their prior implementation of similar technologies, it was important for Corning to follow a “crawl, walk, run” approach and understand the use cases enabled by SAP BTP, as well as the value it could enable, especially when undertaking ERP transformation.
“Initially, my goal was to establish a ‘Community of Practice’ for Solution Architects, allowing us to discuss the technical needs from our various lines of business, understand their requirements for success, and encourage collaboration to create reusable solutions in BTP,” Gee explained in a recent interview with ASUG.
To accomplish this, Gee established Corning’s “BTP Center for Enablement,” or “C4E,” initially targeting five senior SAP Solution Architects at the organization. He believed that enlisting reputable individuals, who had developed existing SAP solutions within Corning for decades, to communicate the importance of the platform would be more persuasive than his own assertions. The initiative started with monthly C4E sessions but has since expanded in scale and scope, gaining popularity across the organization.
C4E In Action
Gee's initial sessions focused primarily on information sharing and collaboration, encouraging discussions around BTP and identifying common interests and needs across the business. These sessions helped teams identify the required services and build the necessary skills to configure and successfully adopt the platform.
The scope of these sessions soon expanded to include topics on application development and integration as well as defining and socializing the roles and responsibilities for BTP as a platform. Each C4E session lasts one hour, with additional follow-up sessions scheduled as needed. What began as a monthly meeting has now evolved into various types of C4E sessions and meetings held at least three times per month.
As the platform gained traction through word of mouth, internal teams expressed significant interest in using SAP BTP. This method has proven effective, with the C4E group growing to become a completely cross-functional “BTP Community” of over 160 participants.
To keep everyone updated and aligned, Gee re-hosts general BTP overview sessions and provides a dedicated session each month to share all upcoming BTP-related training sessions and workshops for that month. This recurring session also provides a common setting to provide platform updates and announce project statuses, new projects, and additional areas of interest. All C4E sessions are recorded and shared so that employees can revisit them at any time or if they have scheduling conflicts.
“In corporate life, we expect that not everyone will be able to join every session,” he noted, adding that he typically prefers recorded sessions as they can be watched at an accelerated playback speed to optimize his time.
Structuring The Team
Gee organized his BTP Center for Enablement (C4E) using Microsoft Teams, which provides a single location for centralized file access and communication regarding “all things BTP.” He chose Teams due to Corning’s existing use of Microsoft products and its robust and well-integrated capabilities for such communication and collaboration.
Another advantage of Microsoft Teams is the automatic creation of a backend SharePoint Online site for C4E-related file storage, including version control, eliminating additional configuration or infrastructure needs. Within Teams, Gee defined simple and intuitive navigation and naming structures for content, including directories named Active Projects, Meeting Recordings, Implementations, Roles and Responsibilities, Reference Architectures, and Roadmap. MS Teams also dynamically generates an email distribution list of C4E group members, which is used for future meeting invitations.
On Teams, Gee also openly shares ASUG and SAP webinars, resources, local chapter events, and upcoming workshops centrally, most of which are included in memberships that Corning holds and help workers upskill and grow their knowledge on BTP. Frequenting events such as last year's ASUG Tech Connect, where Gee spoke about Corning’s C4E, he also brings back valuable insights to Corning and encourages others from his organization to do the same any time they attend a technology community event.
Gee also engages with different business lines individually across the corporation to provide BTP overviews and identify how SAP BTP can assist in various capacities, thus gaining organizational buy-in and disseminating information effectively. Understanding the value-drivers for each business helps to identify additional use cases for BTP and support ongoing POC efforts.
Expert Advice
Gee has advice to offer based on his experience leading the C4E. As a “team of one” spearheading this initiative, he leverages support from Corning's BTP Customer Success Partner (CSP) at SAP, who helps him to better understand SAP BTP and share knowledge within Corning’s BTP C4E community effectively. Corning’s BTP CSP helps coordinate experts to host C4E sessions dedicated to specific topics of interest within Corning. This promotes curiosity as well as allowing for the evaluation of additional scenarios where BTP would provide value to the organization.
Gee also stresses the importance of creating quality presentations that can be referenced and reused again and again. As the C4E expands, he continues to maintain consistent branding on slides and publications with internally recognizable SAP BTP logos, ensuring a cohesive experience.
Additionally, he dedicates time each week to maintain an "intake" process that records who requested which services, who reviewed the request, who approved it, and any security concerns that arose. This formal system ensures that all findings from the discovery and onboarding process are documented and retrievable in the future, preventing any information from being lost once implementation occurs.
Next Steps
Corning is still progressing with implementing SAP BTP services and enhancing the internal team’s knowledge and skills. Gee has identified key BTP services of interest; he also created and manages Corning’s SAP BTP Center of Excellence (CoE), comprised of members from each core SAP function, including IT HR, Supply Chain (ECC + S/4), MDG, IT Finance, Corporate Compliance, IT Information Security, and more. The BTP CoE acts as a governance team and oversees new use cases, POC efforts, and establishes SAP BTP usage best practices. Although CoE meetings are less frequent than C4E sessions, they still convene monthly to ensure alignment.
For the larger C4E group, Gee eventually aims to host weekly consulting hours to address any roadblocks or questions from teams who are in the process of building solutions within BTP. He also plans to provide more hands-on training opportunities for Corning’s technical teams.
For instance, a highly successful one-day workshop held in Charlotte, North Carolina, saw participation from 30 Corning staff and 5 SAP experts, discussing potential BTP use cases and working on solution designs. Based on the positive feedback from that session, there is strong demand for similar training sessions in the future, with more time dedicated for hands-on solution building.
As Corning adopts and integrates additional services into its SAP BTP landscape, Gee and the BTP CoE will continue defining platform best practices and ensure that all standards are openly communicated to members of the BTP Center for Enablement (C4E).
Continuous and consistent socialization and engagement with the C4E has resulted in powerful momentum within Corning, as well as a shared desire to learn more about the SAP Business Technology Platform. This momentum is expected to continue, as more and more users continue to join the C4E and bring additional value-driving use cases to the team.