Innovate & Change IT conference

The conferences are held by REALTECH throughout Germany and are tailored towards SAP user companies that wish to deepen their knowledge in the field of Change and Release Management. These conferences combine presentations, workshops, and live demos thus facilitating rapid and sound knowledge transfer. The focus will be on establishing enterprise-wide Change and Release Management in complex SAP environments. REALTECH is very pleased to welcome Dr. Ralf Keuper as a renowned guest speaker and expert. Dr. Kneuper is a CMMI lead appraiser and coordinator of the "German CMMI Lead Appraiser and Instructor Board" (CLIB) and has written a reference book on CMMI. Furthermore, he is an author and/or editor of approximately 40 publications on software engineering and quality management. The workshops give participants the opportunity to find out how to address the everyday challenges of Change and Release Management.

New SAP monitoring webinar dates

The demands on SAP monitoring are constantly increasing. Particularly in times of economic turmoil, it is absolutely necessary to identify performance bottlenecks in business processes and to initiate measures to secure the quality of your IT investments. Turn to our seasoned experts to find out how to efficiently monitor your SAP NetWeaver environment in order to achieve maximum system availability.

A total of five SAP monitoring webinars will be held during the first half of 2009 and are entirely free of charge! At the end of each online session, we will give you ample opportunity to interact with our monitoring professionals.

Dates and registration:
• April 1, 2009, 10.00am – 11.30am
• April 22, 2009, 10.00am – 11.30am
• May 13, 2009, 10.00am – 11.30am
• May 27, 2009, 10.00am – 11.30am
• July 1, 2009, 10.00am – 11.30am

Moreover, every participant will also receive a free copy of "First Aid for SAP Systems"! It is a reference guide that summarizes the SAP Basis project experience gained over the past ten years.

Target audience: Heads of IT and SAP administrators

More Meet the Experts Breakfast Sessions coming up soon

On February 28, REALTECH launched its new series of Meet the Experts events, the first of which was immediately fully booked.

The event sparked great interest and demand which was in no small part due to the often hotly disputed issue of SAP Solution Manager. The combination of presentations and discussions allowed for an inspiring exchange between the 30 participants. In addition to outlining the level of maturity of SAP Solution Manager, REALTECH also presented clear strategies and possible roadmaps for using the solution.
Due to the overwhelming success of the events, additional breakfast sessions will be held in March:

March 17, 2009
REALTECH Meet the Experts Breakfast Session Berlin
March 18, 2009
REALTECH Meet the Experts Breakfast Session Düsseldorf
March 24, 2009
REALTECH Meet the Experts Breakfast Session Stuttgart
March 25, 2009
REALTECH Meet the Experts Breakfast Session Munich

Be sure to register today, there are only a few slots left!

Companies are cutting their IT budgets

According to an IT study published by the German newspaper Handelsblatt and the management consultancy Droege & Comp., companies are cutting their IT spending in the face of the current economic crisis and ongoing uncertainty. This was the result of the IT study 2009 that was presented by Handelsblatt and Droege & Comp. on March 4 at CeBIT. It shows that the IT budgets of the surveyed companies will be reduced by 4.2%.
"Generally, IT budgets are declining.. The good news, however, is that there are still companies that are investing all the more in this time of crisis," said Torsten Frankenberger, a partner at Droege & Comp.

The study also shows that of the 322 companies in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland that were surveyed, 43% will cut their IT investments, of which 15% will cut them by one-tenth or even more. On the other hand, 34% said that they are planning to step up their investments despite the current crisis. 11% of those companies even indicated that they are going to increase their spending by 10% and more. A large portion of these investments will go towards expanding their business, that is, growth. This means that the sales departments will get the lion's share of the funds. This trend continues from last year.

According to the study, business process harmonization, infrastructure consolidation, application clean-up, and establishing IT process efficiency are the top priorities for IT decision makers in 2009. Consequently, the objective of companies is to bring higher quality to their IT budgets. REALTECH adapted its portfolio accordingly as early as Q4 2008, thus providing the perfect foundation for the better use of IT budgets.

CeBIT 2009: Crises as a driver of change

A lot has been said and written about the world's largest technology trade show over the past days and weeks. REALTECH, too, once again participated in 2009!

Some 4,300 companies from 69 countries came to this year's CeBIT. As a consequence of the current economic slowdown, participation dropped by almost 20% to approximately 400,000 as compared to last year.

REALTECH joined 25 other employers and 5 human resources consultancies at the job & career forum that was sponsored by the German trade journal "Computerwoche". REALTECH's representatives talked to potential employees and were able to make the company known as an employer to professionally experienced visitors. Many graduates and young professionals had already done their own research on REALTECH before coming to CeBIT, which allowed them to take an informed approach to these professional exchanges.

Naturally, the economic and financial crisis was widely talked about by trade visitors and exhibitors. And although there was no flood of visitors, the quality of the talks had notably improved. Some visitors had even taken a few days off work to talk to potential suppliers and partners at CeBIT.

IA4SP and RAAD in St. Leon-Rot, Germany: Opportunities 2009 – Market Potential and Strategies for SAP Partners

On March 17, St. Leon-Rot in Germany hosted the "Opportunities 2009 – Market Potential and Strategies for SAP Partners" event. In addition to various companies working in the field of SAP, REALTECH was also present. The event featured a number of presentations that dealt with SAP's partner Econet and, primarily, with the current situation of the IT market in Germany.
The studies that were presented at the event showed once more that IT budgets are becoming ever tighter. 41% of IT managers, for example, expect that the financial crisis will have adverse effects on the IT investments of their companies. Particularly those projects that have not yet been planned and budgeted for 2009 in 2008 will be difficult to realize. This will affect the individual industries to various extents. Strong SAP industries such as the automotive, mechanical engineering, and retail industry in particular expect the most significant investment cuts.

From REALTECH's perspective, this confirmed its emphasis on the five hot topics for 2009. With its focus on

• Migrationen & Upgrades
• SAP Solution Manager and Run SAP
• Human Capital Management
• SAP GRC and Identity Management
• SAP Business Intelligence and Management Cockpits
REALTECH chose the topics that analysts regard as those with the biggest potential for 2009.