May – Share a story month

Get inspired by Krzysztof Łuka, who shares his story of Mentorship from the Mentor’s perspective and Michał Ibrom, who has been Krzysztof’s admirer and Mentee for over a year now.

All our Int4 integration experts like Michał Michalski, Michał Jakubowicz, Michał Rohnka, Mateusz Adamus, Mateusz Nowak, Krzysztof Łuka and many more are for sure role models to our Int4 team and tremendous business partners to our customers.

Reading time: 5 minutes

Krzysztof Łuka

If you are reading this piece, I suppose you may be interested in Int4, SAP integration, mentoring, what brought me to the place where I am, and how this can all be beneficial to your colleagues, your business partners and yourself. Hopefully, I will cover it all 🙂

I have been in the IT sector for 21 years, out of which I have spent 15 years in the SAP world. My adventure with SAP started for me when I was a Junior SD Consultant working on ERP and SD related projects. During that year, I dived into SAP so profoundly that I smoothly moved on to the ABAP developer role. Do not get me wrong; it means taking time to study hard and broaden your skill set. 😉

As I am a curious type of person, I saw my faults and lack of knowledge on the business side. So with that awareness, I could not pass by MM, FI and WM modules without understanding the concepts of it for me to be able to serve my Clients better and support functional teams as much as I could.

That is how my Senior ABAP Consultant role started my career with Int4 in 2014. Wojciech Lukowski, Michał Krawczyk, and Michał Kowalczewski had at that time been running Int4 for three years and they asked me to join the Int4 Team and grow with them.
The three board members were the Mentors to me, each in a different way.

Michał Krawczyk aka “Krawiec” – I’ve known him since high school. Seeing your friend achieving such great things and becoming a worldwide known expert was a true inspiration to me. He showed me that the sky’s the limit.

Michał Kowalczewski aka “Kowal” – He has always impressed me with the ability to combine his technical expertise with a customer and business oriented approach – something very unique but essential in our business, which I try to follow in my work.

Wojciech Lukowski aka “Wojtek” – Wojtek is one of the most hard working people I’ve known. Thanks to that and his extraordinary analytical skills he has always amazed me with the way he would find answers to any topics/challenges anyone could struggle with.

And hey 😉 you do not have to call someone a Mentor officially to be in this kind of relationship. As long as you are curious and ask the famous Simon Sinek’s question Why?, you will find yourself in a pool of knowledge daily, especially in the Int4 environment.

It’s beneficial without a doubt to have such outstanding experts by your side like Michał Jakubowicz, Michal Rohnka and others. They were the ones who drove me every step of the way further in my development and thanks to whom I am a three time SAP Press author as well.

The Mentorship culture at Int4 encourages you to develop yourself and others constantly. We are a team of people who do not like to stop growing. We continuously learn via one-on-one mentoring, group mentoring, training based mentoring, executive mentoring, and you would be surprised by reverse mentoring.

Michał Ibrom

Yes, reverse mentoring means that you may learn something from your Mentee. And that is where Michał Ibrom, my Mentee, played a crucial role in making our Int4 IFTT tool more user friendly, e.g. For those who are curious what the Int4 IFTT tool does, well, it’s the best tool to automate integration in the market. (you will find more info here).

Coming back to Michał and our mentorship relationship. My first advice to myself and you would be to stay open; the mentorship relationship is a two-way ticket; you may learn from each other, create better products and services, and constantly grow and develop your skills. Second, challenge yourself, do not be afraid to pass tasks to your Mentees or team members; they have worked with you, learnt from you and are ready to make some effort. Give them the grounds and let them be free to support you, and you will be surprised with the outcome.

I have learned at Int4, through all those years from the excellent team that I am a part of, that following our values: competences, relationships, and balance makes us better at every angle in our lives.

The post Kris and Michał Int4 Mentorship Story appeared first on INT4.

May – Share a story month

Get inspired by Donatella Nezereab who shares her story of Mentorship in her life from her Mentee perspective.

We at Int4 believe that development is in our hands, however, seeking out for role models like Michał Krawczyk, Eng Swee Yeoh, Agasthuri Baladandapani or Krzysztof Łuka and many more Masters at Int4 benefits us every day to become our better selves.

Reading time: 5 minutes

Have you ever heard of the saying that iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens and influences another?  Well, That has been my journey and definition of mentorship, and I would like to take you on a bit of a trip with me. I hope you are ready for it.

First and foremost, let me introduce myself. My name is Donatella Nezereab, a quirky young lady with boundless dreams and a legacy I go all out to build every day; and a fun fact about me is that I always need to have a cup of chai in the morning. 

Well, now that formalities are in order, let’s kick off our journey with a little back story of how I came to embrace mentorship.  We start our journey with a young Donatella, aged ten, within the buzzing city of Nairobi, Kenya, on my way home with my mother from school. As we were heading home, we just so happened to cross paths with my mother’s mentor of life and career when she was young.

At that very moment, as they both reminisced about the good old days and as mama thanked her mentor for the tremendous impact he made in her life. I noticed a glow on her face and sparkles in her eyes that I could not forget, and in those few minutes, as though it was fate. In my young heart, a seed was planted that I would like to have the same glow and sparkle as mama did as she spoke to her mentor. As innocent as it was, it was the trigger that started my journey to seek out a life of mentorship in each area of my life.

As I grew up, I drew up a plan that I  would want to have a teacher in these four areas in my life. These areas are skills development, career, life/personal relationship, and spirituality. Having defined my mentorship areas, I began the journey and went on without a hinge; however, with all trips, at some point, you are bound to encounter storms, and one must decide to brave it out or seek shelter. Some of the challenges I faced were;

Despite the challenges, I have manoeuvred well, built character, made mistakes, and those mistakes have been my most outstanding mentors, as Steve Marabolis once said. However, as a young 22-year-old lady still developing in my career, I struggled to find a suitable mentor in the professional arena. Nonetheless, the toil soon came to an end when I joined Int4 right after completing my bachelor’s degree.

Why did my search come to an end, you may ask? Well, I will share with you a couple of reasons why;

These same reasons become the newfound treasure that I was searching for and would like to explore, and at no time in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be part of a team of people who constantly are seeking to develop one another and grow. In these few months being part of Int4, I have been challenged, provoked always to aim high and entrusted with responsibilities that I thought I was too young for; however, at Int4, there is no such thing as too young. Some of the things I have benefited from this experience are;

With that, I would like to say my journey continues, and your journey might be underway, as we look forward to seeing how the story goes on from here for all of us when it comes to mentorship. I conclude with this maxim that to do what you have never done before, and you have to become who you have never been. And to become someone you have never been, you need someone who has already been there and done that.

The post A Lifelong Voyage of Mentorship appeared first on INT4.

What will you find in this blog post?

In this article, we will walk through the various ways of educating the members of the SAP Community by Int4 Team. I will prove that Int4 is the most prolific company when it comes to sharing knowledge about SAP integration and tell you a few words about:

Reading time: 8 minutes

Introduction

It’s not a secret that at Int4 we bet on knowledge sharing. Our priority is to provide the SAP Community with value in the form of educational content. We do our best to spread our experience in accessible and interesting ways, so you can learn with us and make your work easier and more effective. Giving you useful tips and solutions makes us feel satisfied and motivated to develop ourselves.

With 2 SAP Mentors, 10 SAP PRESS authors, and over 30 specialists on board, we grow every single day and share what we’ve learned with you!

Let’s take a look at the sources of knowledge provided by the Int4 Team.

SAP PRESS books by Int4

We’re proud that at Int4 we’ve already got 10 SAP PRESS authors (and we’re sure that it’s not the end!). With Int4 SAP PRESS publications, we help you explore SAP integrations and find solutions to the issues you face.

I never planned on writing a book but when Michał Krawczyk came with such an opportunity, I decided to take it. Writing a book makes you study the topic thoroughly, so it is an amazing opportunity to learn. That also gives a lot of confidence when using this knowledge in your daily consulting work. Writing a book is very different from our daily work. It does take time, and it is the free time that you use for this but in the end, seeing your name on a book, is worth the effort.

Krzysztof Łuka – SAP Integration Architect

Int4 SAP PRESS authors are a group of experienced SAP integration professionals, with a wide range of technical skills. All of them are determined and full of passion. Their decisions about writing the books are always dictated by the willingness to impact the SAP Community and support the readers in making the next steps in the right direction.

The authors of SAP PRESS publications from the Int4 Team are normally SAP consultants who face various challenges and issues while doing their everyday work. Their persistence in pursuing goals and constant development helps them overcome any difficulties and find the answers that they can share with you in the books.

You can find all the Int4 SAP PRESS publications on the special SAP PRESS page dedicated to our books: https://bit.ly/2Nn7a0n.

Articles by Int4

Besides the SAP PRESS books, our consultants share the written word in the form of blog posts. Int4 blog is a repository of SAP integration knowledge. Every week we release a new, educational content full of practical hints, tested solutions, and innovative ideas. At the moment, there are over 120 (!) blog posts that you can read on our website – and we’re not going to slow down!

Blogging is a perfect way to show our personality, experience, and keep you up to date with the news in the area of SAP integration and automation. We’re happy that so many of you visit our blog on a regular basis and engage in discussions with us. It confirms our belief that our articles are a significant piece of content in the SAP world.

Why do I share my SAP knowledge in all those blogs and videos? First of all, in my day to day work, I also use a lot of other materials that are available to fix some issue or find a specific approach on how to fix it. Because of that, I feel the duty that I also have to help other people solve their issues related to the topics I have good expertise in. Another reason is that when you share knowledge with someone, you have to really understand what you want to share and it really broadens and sorts your knowledge about this specific topic. 

Mateusz Nowak – SAP Integration Consultant

Please, remember that we are here for you and we truly care about your problems and needs. We are always ready to listen to you and discuss. Your question or a short conversation can be a wonderful inspiration to write an interesting blog post.

Int4 content on the SAP blog and SAP Community forum

Int4 website is not the only place where you can find the articles and tips provided by our teammates. Int4 SAP experts share their professional experiences also on the official SAP blog and in the SAP Community forum.

I started publishing blog posts on the SAP Community since 2014, and it has had a significant impact on me. Writing helps me get clarity on a subject, as it forces me to know the subject well in order to write something worthwhile for a public audience. Oftentimes, the articles also serve as reference material for myself – I don’t have an elephant’s memory, so writing preserves my knowledge and experience in a tangible way, that I can return to in the future. Lastly, it is a perfect way to build relationships with the community.

Eng Swee Yeoh – SAP Mentor at Int4

Int4 Team is a part of a big SAP family. We are actively involved in discussions that take place on the SAP Community forum and publish articles on the SAP blog. These huge networks unite SAP professionals all over the world and are the perfect places to connect, teach, and learn from each other.

Members of the SAP Community are always eager to give a hand to the colleagues who face any SAP-related issues. We’re glad that we can belong to this group, share our knowledge, and get support whenever we need it.

Int4 Webinars

Writing books and articles are great ways to spread experiences but, in my opinion, hosting the webinar is even better. Why? First of all, live webinars are interactive forms of sharing educational content. They give us an opportunity to answer your questions in real-time, during the Q&A panel.

At Int4 we’ve already hosted a webinar about automated SAP API testing. Although we had to face the challenge of organizing it in less than one month, the event was a huge success thanks to the hard work of the hosts and the Marketing & Sales teams.

During the webinar, authors of the SAP PRESS book “Testing SAP APIs: Strategy and Execution” – Pontus Borgström, Michał Krawczyk, and Korneliusz Kordus presented the benefits of the API testing concept. They explained why and how to implement this solution in the projects and got involved in discussions with the audience.

I love doing and taking part in webinars! There are some of the best places to share knowledge because of multiple reasons. One of them is that presenters can verify the audience with the use of surveys just before the webinar and tailor it for them. The second one is if you leave 20-30 mins at the end for Q&A anyone has a chance to get their question answered either by the presenter or someone else from the audience. 

Michał Krawczyk – SAP Mentor at Int4

In response to the very positive feedback, we decided to organize the next webinars.

You can already register for the second Int4 webinar – “SAP PO migration – preparation activities” by SAP Mentor – Michał Krawczyk & Integration Architect and co-founder of Arianim –  Bruno Konieczny. It will be live in 10 days from now!

Follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date with the information about this and other events.

Podcasts by Int4

Podcasts are another form to connect with the audience on a more personal level. This year, two representatives of the Int4 Team – Michał Krawczyk and Korneliusz Kordus had a chance to exchange their experiences with building a global brand in the IT world during the polish podcast “Porozmawiajmy o IT”.

Podcasting is becoming a more and more appreciated form of educating. The power of this format of the content is the possibility of telling a story anywhere at any time and expressing your personality in a much stronger way than through the written word – and yes, we love it!

Taking part in podcasts gives us a perfect opportunity to have interesting conversations with people who we share passions with. Exchanging experiences, listening to their questions and opinions is really inspiring. It very often sheds a light on the real problems and areas that we should focus on. Such meetings usually result in making new, valuable contacts and generating great ideas. They stimulate our development in new directions. 

Korneliusz Kordus – Head of Consulting

Since today you can also listen to the latest TestGuild’s podcast with Michał Krawczyk. The topic is, already mentioned, SAP PRESS book “Testing SAP APIs – Strategy and Execution”.

You can be sure that we’re going to record a lot of new podcasts in the near future! Is there any particular topic you’d like us to take up? Let us know – we’re open to your suggestions!

Virtualize and automate your SAP testing using Int4 IFTT – openSAP course by Int4

In this article, I can’t pass over one of the best things when it comes to the knowledge sharing that (in my view) we’ve ever done! Of course, I’m writing about our very first openSAP course – “Virtualize and automate your SAP testing using Int4 IFTT”.

The course was created to provide the SAP Community with the most practical and valuable tips and information about test automation. The Fantastic Seven from the Int4 Team (including SAP PRESS authors and SAP Mentor) climbed to the heights of their mentoring (and undeniably acting!) skills to explain the topic and present the possibilities of Int4 IFTT tool. They did tremendous work that resulted in a huge success and very positive feedback from the participants of the training.

At the present day, the course gathered an impressive number of over 6 600 learners, most of whom gained their Records of Achievement.

Making this course for the openSAP platform was a memorable experience. Apart from all the fun we had on the set, between and during the takes, it also allowed me to challenge myself in a new role. In addition to that the most recent events proved that online education will be in greater demand, and for some people, it may be the only way to improve their skills. That makes our course even more meaningful. Together with all the great feedback we have received from the participants it fills me with pride and joy making me think of returning to the studio… someday :). 

Michał Lubczyński – SAP Integration Consultant

As a person who was responsible for the organizational matters and support during the recording days, I can assure you that making an openSAP course for Int4 IFTT was also fun – it’s all thanks to the right set of people. You probably have seen the bloopers. If not – you should definitely make it up!

You’re still more than welcome to join us on this exciting journey! To make it easier, we’ve created the Int4 IFTT Learning Paths that can help you get the answers you’re looking for fast and successfully. We’re waiting for you!

Events Int4 takes part in

Although all the above-mentioned forms of education are great ways to share knowledge, nothing can compare with the face to face meeting.

We take the opportunities to meet you in person and actively participate in the SAP events in different parts of the world. Int4 representatives regularly give lectures, presentations and conduct workshops during such events as SAP TechEd or SAP Inside Track.

Presence at the conferences, fairs, and other SAP events give us a chance to network and exchange ideas and experiences with the members of the SAP Community. Such meetings are always inspiring and motivate us to grow even faster.

We are always there when it comes to cutting edge integration technologies. I believe it is already fair to say that our mission is not only to propagate SAP knowledge but with our experience, influence trends in the SAP integration world. Take SAP API testing and our SAP Press books. There is no better platform like TechEd or other events like SAP Inside Track to show our enthusiasm for what we do. This is the place where we get the chance to meet SAP community members, share ideas, exchange experiences but also get to know new partners or clients. We try not to miss any opportunity to grow and share our insights with the SAP community and this is why we try to attend the events. On the other hand, the bizarre times we live in since March 2020 have shown that SAP and its community is very strong and knows how to leverage the potential of the Internet wisely. Take Sapphire Live, videos, and webinars. I personally wouldn’t trade an eye to eye meet-up at TechEd for a zoom call. Nevertheless, I must admit that I am positively surprised at how much can be accomplished without live contact nowadays.

Michał Michalski – Int4 Partner

Summary

All the examples that I mentioned in this blog post, prove that knowledge sharing is definitely Int4’s thing. As a person responsible for Content Marketing, I must admit that I couldn’t find a better place to manage content sharing. With so many engaged, ambitious, and supportive SAP experts onboard, I can never complain about the number or quality of materials to publish on the Int4 website or LinkedIn company page.

Thank you for creating such valuable and interesting content, Team! It’s a pleasure to work with you! 🙂

Dear Readers – we are open to your feedback. If you have any ideas, suggestions, or just want to ask us about something – drop us a line: marketing@int4.com. We will never leave you without the answer.

Read also

1. Our new SAP Press book – Testing SAP APIs: Strategy and Execution
2. Int4 IFTT – knowledge base

The post Int4 – probably the most prolific company in the world in sharing knowledge about SAP Integration appeared first on INT4.

Introduction

In conjunction with Education & Sharing Day which falls on 5th April 2020 this year, In4 is running a programming challenge as part of our ongoing initiative, #Int4Education, to promote knowledge sharing and lifelong learning.

It is my pleasure to present to all you CPI enthusiasts the programming challenge we have for SAP CPI. The idea is simple – in this blog post I will describe the programming challenge related to CPI, participants submit their solution, and the most creative ones (voted by us internally) will receive a prize – an SAP Press book authored by our Int4 team member(s).

While there is a tinge of competition involved, remember that at the end of the day, the main goals of the challenge are to promote learning and fun :).

Let the Games Begin!

Background

In our integration scenario, we are integrating with the public Northwind OData service. We would like to provide a plain REST service to query the orders from the OData service.

Following is the CPI iFlow that is used in this scenario. A version of it can be downloaded here.

To achieve the querying mechanism, the HTTP query parameters from the sender needs to be converted into the corresponding OData filter criteria. The iFlow accepts dynamic key-value pairs used for querying which should be stored in the property filterCrit used in the OData receiver channel as shown below.

The challenge

Develop a Groovy script to generate the OData filter criteria from the HTTP query parameters. Some of the key aspects of the script should be as follows:

Submission

Following are the details for submission:

Email: academy@int4.com

Deadline: 30 April 2020 – all time zones.

The results of the challenge will be published by 15 May 2020 in a subsequent blog post, and we will contact the winners directly to arrange for delivery of their prize.

The post CPI challenge from SAP Mentor – Eng Swee Yeoh appeared first on INT4.