Kathryn Butterfuss is an evangelist in the SAP S/4HANA COE for SAP. She has been working in the SAP space for over 20 years. Having started out at Kohler Company in Wisconsin as a test script writer, her passion for quality and value brought on promotions.  She was promoted to a configuration specialist and after a few years, she moved into the consulting world.  Throughout the next 15 years she worked as a consultant and an employee throughout many organizations.  In 2015, her professional world changed.

As a solution architect she was tagged with replacing a very old, out of maintenance SAP ERP system at Briggs & Stratton.  This seems like a normal task for any solution architect however, this turned out to be an adventure.  SAP had audited the organization (Briggs & Stratton) and determined we were using the software, via indirect access, and were not licensed to do so.  This resulted in a $10M price tag. The board of directors at Briggs & Stratton wrote SAP an adversary letter that could have started a difficult legal battle, Kathryn didn’t want that and knew SAP didn’t want that either.

With that and a very cloud focused CIO, Kathryn embraced the challenges and worked together with the CIO to bring the next generation of technology to Briggs & Stratton. This was the introduction to SAP S/4HANA.  SAP’s first attempt to introduce this next generation software was bringing The Big Data bus to parking lot of Briggs and Stratton.  This was intended to raise enthusiasm with the executives, for them to see the power of this next generation solution.  Kathryn was not at ALL an advocate, as a matter of fact she was one of those people who thought,  as a $1.8B company what did I need with a “big data” tool or “in memory” database. The CIO had assigned Kathryn with documenting and organizing the decision around how to move forward. This included software and infrastructure choices.

SAP continued to education Kathryn, attempting to bring her into the fold as an alley for their next generation software.  They brought in some very experienced Industry Account Executives (IAE) who brought in the right people.  These people explained the true value of S/4HANA and the vision of what it would be in the years to come. They explained the roadmap and how it would revolutionize her organization.  They sold her the cloud and S/4 story and she sold the entire organization.

Since 2015 she has been an advocate for S/4HANA and cloud computing.  Having been the customer twice, implemented the software as a system integrator 3 times and implemented the public edition as lighthouse customer, she offers  extensive knowledge of SAP S/4HANA as well as deep knowledge in end to end scenarios that include other parts of the portfolio. This includes SuccessFactors, Concur, SAP Sales Cloud, SAP Service Cloud, Ariba, SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP CPQ.

Kathryn has passion and integrity.  She chooses to use those qualities to work with customers to bring value to them utilizing the SAP technology suite as the tool. Kathryn believes in customers, her ultimate goal is to provide every customer with the extreme value she has found in the intelligent enterprise provided by SAP.

With years of experience in Technology and SAP, she is looking forward to networking and connecting with other like-minded professionals, and to gaining the recognition and credibility of being a member.

Women’s Networking Association Member, Kathryn Butterfuss, can be found on the Association Directory, where she is looking forward to networking with you.

Tracy Ashton  is the Operational Excellence Lead at Piramal Pharma Healthcare, https://www.piramalpharmasolutions.com/.

Passionate about her work, she leads organizations toward creating a work environment that is customer-focused and efficient. She helps to ensure each value added activity is understood with the goal of eliminating  wasteful activities or variation from any process.

In her spare time, she enjoys travel, playing music, and on the horizon looks to continued growth in her profession.

She credits her success to dedication, focus and perseverance, she looks forward to connecting with likeminded professionals.

Marcella Vurro’s company, HADW | PMO Expertise, is offering PMO & Project Management Coaching.

She and her team offer basic and advanced PMO & Project Management trainings (waterfall and agile) to leverage operational excellence for their clients.

Marcella has several years of experience in national and international PMO & Project Management in IT, Marketing Intelligence and Online Marketing, and is an experienced PMO trainer. She holds a Master’s degree (MBA) in International Business Management from Liverpool John Moores University, UK, as well as diplomas in Management Studies and Marketing &Communication and a  degree in Professional Project Management from New York University. In addition, she has a Post grad  degree in Strategic Management from Harvard University, is a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP), and Certified Scum Product Owner & Scrum Master (scrum.org).

She does consulting for several national and international clients from UK, USA, Norway, Algeria, Germany and Switzerland and is successfully working with off-shore teams from India, Vietnam and Singapore. She is a reliable, resilient, highly motivated and analytical team player with a structured approach to tasks. In her spare time she enjoys travel, stock trading, reading, and volunteering.

Women’s Networking Association Member, Marcella Vurro, can be found on the Association Directory, where she is looking forward to networking with you.

Maria Goretti Bello Serans has spent the last 26 years immersed in the creation and launch of multimedia and digital media products, having worked across agencies, corporate and software development groups. She also spent time as an entrepreneur launching Spain’s first DRM streaming video network in 2008.

Having spent nearly 30 years working as product/project lead delivering complex first to market online platforms, mobile apps and interactive immersive environment creative and technical solutions, Maria’s career has led her to lead projects agency side (global agencies under the WPP umbrella group), corporates and software development groups. Her passion is as a creative technologist, defining the concept and setting the product roadmap, leading all teams across the development of the new product to final launch. Primary case studies can be viewed here www.iofusion.org.

On the horizon, she will continue to work on innovation based technology projects but as a Creative Technologist/Consultant rather than leading the teams from ideation to final delivery.

She recently started a stained glass company ‘Arlequina Diseño’ where she can finally replicate her oil paintings into stained glass. She works with colour, symbols and numerology in an alchemical mix to create a piece that will trigger the senses while also filling the space with light and colour. Her work has been selected for an International Exhibition to be held in Venice, Italy from July 12th – August 1st 2021. https://www.itsliquid.com/opening-borders2021-02.html

She would love to collaborate with architects to include stained glass in their designs and currently her commissions are for those who are wanting a specific design in their homes. She started Arlequina Diseño in May 2021 after two years of planning and she is currently based in Galicia Spain where she set up a design studio. Her work can be viewed here www.arlequinadiseño.com.

Women’s Networking Association Member, Maria Goretti Bello Serans, can be found on the Association Directory, where she is looking forward to networking with you.