Two decades ago, our community began officially with the launch of the SAP Developer Network (SDN). In the 20 years that followed, I’ve been part of the community’s constant evolution — sometimes involved directly, other times contributing peripherally, but never far away. I watched SDN become SAP Community Network (SCN), witnessed SCN transform into the platform known as SAP Community, saw SAP Community expand even further with the addition of groups.
My personal community journey perhaps culminated in 2018, when I took on the leadership role for the Community & Influencers team. And in the 4 years that followed — not to mention the 16 years that came before — I’ve seen my share of ups and downs with community features and activity, as well as familiar names come and go…and even come back.
With 20 years of rich history, the community — whether known as SDN, SCN, or SAP Community — has always sought to provide a home for the best and the brightest of the SAP world, many of whom have gone through their own personal community journeys following their own individual career paths. And when these long-time members suddenly found themselves stepping away from SAP for a while before returning — or remaining within the industry, but with a new employer — they may have had to create a new community profile to replace an inactive account.
For the longest time, we have heard great contributors bemoan the loss of an account — along with its accomplishments — when they’ve been forced to start over in the community with a new profile. Account linking offered some remedy by showcasing badges previously earned and content previously published, but it could not replace what members really wanted: the ability to merge their accounts into one active profile.
As a team, we have pursued the ability to merge account for years, but with limited success, and often relying on manual efforts by very generous folks behind the scenes…
That is until now!
In 2023, the year we celebrate our community’s 20th anniversary, I’m happy to announce that we can also now celebrate the arrival of account merging. If you have more than one SAP Community profile, you can now merge them into a single account leveraging your SAP Universal ID.
With the new process, you can now merge the content associated with your community accounts (S/P) into a single account. To start the process you can access it through your SAP Universal ID.
What is SAP Universal ID?
SAP Universal ID provides a single, life-long access point to SAP systems. It allows you to link your existing SAP legacy accounts (S/P users) under a single profile and take control of your personal SAP identity. With SAP Universal ID, you maintain one account, even if you change roles or employers.
Click here for more information about SAP Universal ID and to set up your profile.
What about merging accounts?
The account merging process is a tool to merge the content associated with your different community accounts (S/P) into a single account. To use the tool, you must:
- Have an SAP Universal ID
- Link the accounts that you want to consolidate
- You should have at least one P account
- You should have logged in to SAP Community Answers with your P account at least once
Get started with merging those accounts
Account consolidation is a three-step process:
- Link your profiles: you can link your profiles via your SAP Universal ID Account Manager or via the ‘profile linking’ feature in your SAP Community profile.
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- SAP Universal ID Account Manager: only active accounts can be linked, and you should have access to the email that is linked to your account to authenticate yourself if needed.
- SAP Community profile: inactive accounts (inactive, non-deleted) can be linked provided you have your user ID and password.
- SAP Community IT support can help link inactive accounts if you don’t remember your credentials.
- Select a primary account: you can select your primary account in the Account Consolidation area. You can only have one primary account and once you make your selection, it cannot be reversed. The primary account can only be an account associated with a P user-ID since you have control over who accesses your account.
- Select the account to be merged and trigger the merge process: you can select one or multiple accounts to be merged at a time.
For more information about the process, click here.
Important information for S-users
If you are an S-user, please note S-user accounts are set to expire since SAP Universal ID will be THE default authentication method of the future when logging into SAP sites and platforms. Therefore,
- If you are an S-user with one account: go ahead and create your SAP Universal ID now so you won’t lose the content and history associated with your current profile.
- If you are an S-user with multiple accounts: create your SAP Universal ID, link your S-user accounts as part of the setup process or via the SAP Universal ID Account Manager, and use the Account Consolidation tool to merge your accounts (see previous section).
For additional information, visit the SAP Community SAP Universal ID FAQs page.
What information will be consolidated?
Regardless of your type of user (S/P), consolidated information includes:
- Reputation: Karma credits, missions, badges, roles
- Content: blog posts, answers, questions, comments
- Activity: likes, votes
- People: followers, following
- Subscriptions: people, content (blog posts, questions), tags
Final considerations
- Content consolidation is a one-time, irreversible process.
- Once the merging process has started, you will not be able to access your accounts or create any content until the consolidation is completed. The process can take between 30 mins to 24 hours.
- You can merge one or more accounts at a time.
- If you need help with the consolidation process, please reach out to SAP Support.
As part of the SAP Community’s 20th anniversary, we’re excited to share this news with you! If you have multiple accounts, please follow the instructions above to merge them, then join us in celebrating 20 years of community! Look to connect with members in locations near you. Join the Community Spirit initiative. Share your favorite pictures and memories of your journey with the community. And stay tuned for additional updates and activities to celebrate the community’s anniversary this year.
Additionally, use your SAP Universal ID to log into SAP Learning and get started with your next Learning Journey. Because even though the community’s journey is 20 years old, the trip is far from over — and there are many, many more great years to come. I look forward to sharing them with you!
