By Khaled Musilhy, Director of Globalization Services, SAP

The wait finally seemed to be over after a 15-hour flight. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the airport, I finally found myself standing in front of an immigration officer who I expected to stamp my passport, but instead rejected my entry into the country.

In this era of digitization, backed by powerful technologies, it never crossed my mind that I’d be denied entry due to an invalid visa status, following a system failure in updating the database.

Read more

By Dr. Gerd Ehrhardt, SAP Globalization Services

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. While taking that first step may not be easy, the path it takes you down will lead to true accomplishment.

Anyone who has prepared for a marathon can tell you that “traditional” training techniques may be effective, but they are also inefficient and time-consuming. Today, thanks to innovation in athletic sciences, anyone can train like a professional. Read more

By Ferose VR, SVP and Head of Globalization Services, SAP

Many giving people follow one simple mantra: ‘Give more than you can take and do more than you speak.’

But the narrative around giving has been uni-dimensional, centered mainly on philanthropy. Actually, ‘giving’ is an idea mentioned in most religious scriptures. Author Sanjay Agarwal’s Daan and Other Giving Traditions in India explores the ‘giving’ traditions of major religious groups in India — Hinduism, Islam and Christianity.

While reading the numerous narratives around giving, one question has intrigued me: can one break down the DNA of a giver? Having met many amazing givers, I believe the following attributes spur their actions:

Giving is contextual: When a beggar in Kerala donated Rs 84 (a dollar equivalent) — his entire wealth — to the Chief Minister’s Flood Relief Fund, he gave up everything he had. How do you compare that with Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg giving away a portion of their wealth (in billions of dollars)? Can it even be compared? Giving is not only about how much you give but also about how much you are willing to give up.

Long-term vs short-term impact: How does an act of giving ripple out? What is its afterlife, its half-life period? Imagine you need money to pay your college fees or else you’d have to drop out. Help arriving at that moment will change your whole life. An act of giving with a long-term impact has a greater half-life.

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In the area of online translation projects, project managers at SAP Language Services have harmonized different email templates used for translation project announcements and kick-offs. The changes are the following:

• The email subject now first lists the translation type (documentation / support package), followed by the information "Translation Start"/"Final worklist available" and the like.


• The email body does not contain any tables any longer, in order to allow translation agencies who use plain text and macros to smoothly handle our emails. All relevant information can still be found in the email subject and on the project page (e.g. project name, project ID, system, client, relevant languages)


• All deadlines are now pulled automatically from our project database so that date formats should be the same in all cases.

We hope that this facilitates the effort on your side.