Earlier this month, theCUBE was at EMC World 2014 in Las Vegas, with two live broadcasts brought to you by SiliconANGLE. In this interview, Henrik Wagner, Americas Theatre Lead at SAP, EMC and Phil Loewen, Head of SAP Technology at Fritz & Macziol Group, sat down with Jeff Frick to discuss the #EMCElect and #SAPMentors programs.

Starting off with EMC Elect, Wagner detailed the program established in 2013, currently comprising about 100 members consisting of EMC evangelists that include employees, partners and customers. With the common themes of engagement, leadership and social media, the goal of EMC Elect is to help customers innovate and solve problems.

Moving on to the SAP Mentors program, Loewen explained that it was established in order for SAP community leaders to act as a channel of communication between themselves, freelancers, partners and customers. Consisting of about 150 members worldwide, members discuss new advances as well as opportunities within the ecosystem. By leveraging EMC and SAP, the program opens up a new channel for a bilateral communication platform between the hardware vendor and the software maker.

Facilitating all sectors

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Frick asked how the SAP Mentors program percolates down to the people in the trenches, those that are actually getting the work done, and how they can take advantage of the program.

Loewen said that, to become an SAP mentor, you have to be active and visible in the SAP community and also looked upon as someone who can be easily approached for any questions, comments or feedback in regards to a certain product. Being able to channel down towards the individual and, at the same time, communicate with mentors who have direct links to the product management and executive board levels, helps facilitate all departments of an organization.

• The program in action

To offer insight on how this program can be used and what benefit it provides, Loewen used the announcement of VMware and SAP HANA being able to go productive on VMware for the premise of an example. He said that being able to facilitate the voice of the EMC community together with the voice of the SAP community, and allowing them to interact with each other on a very open level is going to help advance the product, as well as make it more visible to the end user. If a person has any questions, he or she will have a direct channel to receive direct feedback and communication.

• Product reaction from Managers

In terms of how receptive SAP and EMC product managers are to this bilateral mentorship channel, Loewen insisted that feedback is welcomed. He said SAP has various conferences throughout the year where mentors get together, adding they also have meetings with executive board level members and product managers, supporting a direct channel of communication.

• Solving problems and removing barriers

Wagner said that he met Loewen on a social media site a few years ago, which gave the two the opportunity to get to know each other and start collaborating. Through this, he found that getting to know EMC Elect members and SAP Mentors is a huge benefit for the ecosystem.

He added that it’s also a benefit for customers. EMC Elect members and SAP mentors are learning about what’s going on at SAP, EMC and the entire ecosystem. This allows mentors to better help customers solve problems, remove barriers and, ultimately, innovate faster.