Living the Fancy Life? Indeed!

I was recently lunching with a CIO and she shared a letter that her daughter wrote for a school project.  It said something like my Mom said I should be a Software Engineer because I like to live the fancy life.  I really loved that – but it struck me as so ironic as I reflected on what she was imagining.

My path was circumstantial.  One of my main strengths is adventure. When I started my university stint, I wanted to be an accountant. I thought that was going to be the fancy life. I wasn’t too deep into my studies to quickly realize that this was too structured for me.  So I decided to change gears to computer science. Punch cards and assembly language shortly turned me off that track too and then I went back to the business school and stumbled across Operational Research as a major.  It seemed to combine mathematical theories with computers and business processes but with room for creativity - I found my "thing".  Although I had really no idea what to do with that degree yet I was proud to have, at the time, a unique major.  Some of my school mates went into industrial engineering while others became logisticians.  My first job had me in a rotational program at ITW starting as an Expeditor, Materials Manager, Procurement Manager, Warehouse Supervisor, Shop Floor Manager and then Production Control Manager.  The term 'Supply Chain' wasn’t even an official term until 1982 and was barely muttered by most - but the concept of course dated back to pre-historic times. (The History of supply chain management, Dec. 05, 2021)

After learning all these supply chain topics, I became certified in APICS, taught classes at night and the weekends to earn a few extra $ and then I moved to another manufacturing company, a division of Raytheon, to implement the software that I knew well from my rotational program called ASK MANMAN, a MRP Suite started by Sandy Kurtzig (Ask Computer Systems).  It was a great suite of integrated solutions (Finance, CRM, SCM, and Analytics). Taking this company live, was when I truly realized this was my calling and wanted to work directly for ASK to help other customers become successful using “boxed” software.  Hence began the start of my “fancy life”.  While formally our role was not yet called a solution engineer, simply consulting / presales – it was also probably not what most would consider “fancy”.  It was an amazing culture and we had fun!  It was a young group of professionals (in-training); we spent a lot of time on the road working with customers (and in bars) but we were the “pioneers” in this business of software selling and deployment. 

In 1994, after 6 years of fun with people that are now my lifelong friends, ASK was sold to Computer Associates. Most employees left and took a package.   It was the perfect storm.  ASK was struggling, and new technology players were in the market looking for talent as the industry moved to client server environments. The opportunities were amazing.  It was then I decided to take my fancy life to a German company, I knew very little about at the time, called SAP (SAP History | About SAP). 

SAP North America shipped us out to the American Airlines Flight Attendant training Center in Dallas for an 8-week boot camp to learn the software. (Dallas 1- see picture above).  Before phones, before laptops, it was old school!  Nothing fancy there – except for the soft serve ice cream machine and a hole in the fence on the compound that led to a local bar.  I chose to focus on MM/PP (Materials Management and Product Planning) – since those were my roots.  I later used one of my name tags in the bathroom while my kids were potty training – it read PP Instructor. Since then, I continued to learn, develop, sell and deploy many solutions that truly helped companies run better.

Time Flies:  30 years later, I look back at that time. I raised 2 awesome kids while at SAP.  They afforded me 3 months maternity leave (and at that time it was unheard of) but always supporting the flexibility that a working single Mom needed. I smile as I walk by the rooms today dedicated to Nursing Mothers because back in the day – 28 years ago, we made makeshift rooms in storage closets.  I remember my daughter making this funny video with some phone filter/app when she was 11 mimicking me as a manager, a road warrior, and speaking "SAPenese" – she grew up thinking that this was the norm.  I love that as women in supply chain, technology and the work force in general that we have progressed immensely! I recently told a colleague, “we have earned the right to wear loafers!” which sums up my thoughts on both women in the workforce and saving our feet!

I never thought I would stay at a technology company for so long – but SAP has offered me the chance to continue my passion for learning and mentoring in a variety of roles.  Every few years I took a new role, new challenges and opportunities.  Working with great minded people both inside and outside of what has become an amazing network of companies. 

Today - here I am, again at a perfect storm.  An inflection point between being offered an attractive VERP, with technology changes that are going to revolutionize the software industry. I see my idol Hasso Plattner, one of the SAP founding founders is also retiring from his post. I too am choosing to move on but this time perhaps not far. I truly believe that SAP is in the right position for tremendous growth and has embraced the changes it needs to be successful in the future.   I am planning to still be part of this amazing ecosystem in some capacity.  I am so indebted to SAP for the opportunities it has created for me, the unbound ability to continuously learn and grow and for all the “riches” of people I have had the honor to work alongside to drive these changes.  We worked hard but play hard too.  Those are the memories that I’m really going to treasure into my even older age.  While I am no longer the pioneer (Women in Supply Chain / Software Engineer) I agree with that CIO’s daughter – I indeed have lived the ”fancy life”!

1 The History of supply chain management, Dec. 05, 2021

2 Ask Computer Systems

3 SAP History | About SAP