Steve Lucas and Adam Binnie of SAP

Hi Folks,

The most anticipated event of the ASUG SAP BusinessObjects conference is finally here and its BIGGER and BETTER!

We are excited to formally announce the Official SAP BI4 Release Party (aka the 3rd Annual Xcelsius Gurus Reception), hosted by none other than myself Mico Yuk (founder of Benchmarkers.com and EverythingXcelsius.com) and the infamous Steve Lucas, Global GM & Senior Executive of the SAP Business Analytics & Technology Portfolio!

If you attended our event in previous years, you probably know that it looks more like a Vegas nightclub on Friday night than a regular ‘boring’ corporate event.  We plan to keep it that way (just don’t tell our sponsors at SAP ).

Now for the long awaited details:

• Location: ASUG SAP BusinessObjects User Conference (Orlando, FL)
• Hosts: Steve Lucas & Mico Yuk
• Date/Time: Tuesday, October 11, from 6:30-9:30pm EST
• Room – (Final details will be sent in confirmation email on 9/29)
• Attendee Count: 250 (space is limited)
• Special Guests – Bridgette Chambers (ASUG CEO) and much more!
• Prizes – 3 door prizes (just drop your business card in at the door to enter), BI4 Video Confession prizes!
• BI4 Video Contest - Submit your videos now, or take them at the event to gain a chance to win an iPad2.  More details by clicking here!
• Features – 2 Open Bars, Open Buffet, networking tables..
• How to RSVP: Please send an email with ‘RSVP’ in the subject to events@everythingxcelsius.com by Wednesday, October 5, 2011.
• IMPORTANT! –  You MUST be REGISTERED for the ASUG SAP BusinessObjects conference to attend this event. Space is limited and we are always booked to capacity within 48 hours of this notice, so please send in your RSVP as soon as possible. Confirmation details will be sent out via email prior to the event with instructions on where to pickup your wrist band. All registered guests will be required to show a wristband upon entrance without exception.

Sponsored in part by SAP, the event promises to provide a host of surprise guest, as well as a BI4 video confession booth where customers can tell their story to win exciting prizes, a chance to network with fellow SAP BusinessObjects community members and the SAP BI team, door prizes, 2 open bars and an open buffet! Let’s also not forget it’s ASUG’s 20th Anniversary celebration!

We would also like put in a call for volunteers, if interested please send an email to gurus@everythingxcelsius.com. We can’t wait to see you! Thanks!

A SPECIAL THANK YOU to Kurt Bilafer, Jason Rose, Sanjay Poonen and of course my wonderful co-host Steve Lucas of the SAP BI Team, and Bridgette Chambers and her right-hand man Richard Zepeda of the ASUG team for making this event possible! Thanks for supporting our community!

Mico Yuk is a 2010 SAP Mentor and the founder of the Xcelsius Guru Network, the Everything Xcelsius blog, and co-founder of Benchmarkers Business Intelligence. To learn more about her, please visit her about page.

Here are 3 reasons why you should attend (IMO):

• Mico’s Part – In case you have never heard me speak, I love to rock the crowd.  This is no different.  I get to open the event by introducing all of the other speakers and also laying the foundation down on how to scope and plan one’s dashboards.  The feedback I got form the first hour from a few attendees was simple: “This was worth the entire cost Mico”.
• Two Hands-On Sessions: It also features 2-hard core hands on sessions that include building a dashboard and using other exciting features in BI4.0 with SAP’s very own Matt Lloyd and Decision First Technologies, Chris Hickman
• World Class Speakers – fellow Xcelsius Gurus, Chris Hickman of Decision First Technologies (who is an SAP BusinessObjects ace and provides deep insight on all BOE related topics), Dr. Bjarne Berg of Comerit (who is an SAP BW and Xcelsius specialist), Matt Lloyd of SAP (not sure there is anyone who knows the Xcelsius platform better, we go back many years), Emily Mui of SAP (another old friend who handles the marketing of the product and has deep insight and answers for customers regarding the roadmap), then myself Mico Yuk (just the biggest Xcelsius groupie that ever lived)
• I must add the 100% Money-back Guarantee though I can assure you, NO ONE will use it. We had a 97% referral rate from the Chicago event!
• Much more – Panel discussions, Governance and Performance Tips

Here is a pic from the Chicago event, just so you can see how packed and intense these sessions were.  Energy was amazing.  Even I learned a few things!

Philadelphia is coming up in just 7-days and we are almost sold out. Same goes for Vegas as far as I know.  As you know we always want to ensure our community is well taken care of.  So for those of you who sign up from reading this blog by 9/30 to ANY of the locations, you will get a complimentary free 6-month membership to the new BusinessObjects Expert website (high quality content) as a THANK YOU from EverythingXcelsius.com.  We created this deal especially for you and it is NOT available elsewhere, not even on the actual registration website. Sign up now!

Complimentary FREE 6 month Subscription to the BusinessObjects Expert Website (using our URL)

Note you MUST USE the specific URL in this blog to get the FREE membership.  Cut and paste into your browser if it is not working:  http://www.xcelsiusbootcamp.com/homePage.cfm?usergroup=bbi-us. (Please note, upon completion of  registration to the bootcamp, you will receive a notification within 24-48 hours with instructions on how to signup for the free 6-month subscription.)

I look forward to seeing all of you, so drop me a line if you plan to attend. I have another huge announcement this week for the ASUG SAPBusinessObjects User Conference attendees about our exclusive BI4 Release Party and how to RSVP. Stay tuned!

Ciao,

Mico Yuk

Mico Yuk is a 2010 SAP Mentor and the founder of the Xcelsius Guru Network, the Everything Xcelsius blog, and co-founder of Benchmarkers Business Intelligence. To learn more about her, please visit her about page.

With less than 3 days left for the SAPPHIRENOW / ASUG2011 Conference in Orlando, FL,  I just wanted to do a quick check-in. Before I get to my schedule, I wanted to share my interview from 2 weeks ago with Liz Brenner: “Follow the Leader: Living Her Dream- the Brave Mico Yuk“, for those of who that want to find out more about me. I also want to thank Liz for such an awesome job!

Now to the matter at hand! Below is a list of events where you can find me, along with my role in CAPS (this reflects about 1/4 of my schedule, so I really hope to meet with as many of you as I can).

Monday, May 16th

• SPEAKER: SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (formerly Xcelsius) Gurus- FAQ session | Time: 3:00 to 4:00 pm | Location: Broadcast Center 2 (ASUG booth on the show floor)
  • How to leverage SAP BusinesObjects dashboards in your organization
  • Why SAP BusinessObjects dashboard is the best tool for your organization
  • How and when to integrate it with the other tools in the SAP BusinessObjects Suite of software
  • How and when to use the most popular connectivity options
• JUDGE/JUROR: SAP HANA InnoJam Final | Time: 6:00 to 11:00pm |  Location:  Hilton Hotel (next to convention center)

Tuesday, May 17th

• MODERATOR: ASUG’s 1st Women’s Leadership Breakfast Panel | Time: 7:00 to 9:00 am | Location: Dux Room at the Peabody Hotel
• SPEAKER: Xcelsius Gurus Dashboard Methodology 101- 7 Proven Steps to successfully developing your SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard (Xcelsius) with Ryan Goodman | Time: 3:00 to 4:00 pm | Location: S322- Benchmarking Sessions
  • Step 1: Scoping- Gathering Requirements
  • Step 2: Mock up Design (Excel Data Policy)
  • Step 3: Universe Creation (Data Validation)
  • Step 4: Data Connectivity (Ex: QaaWS, Live Office, Cross Domain Policy)
  • Step 5: User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
  • Step 6: Production (Dashboard Launch)
  • Step 7: Change Management (Training & Knowledge Transfer)

Wednesday, May18th

• INTERVIEWER: Live Interview with Bridgette Chambers (CEO, America’s SAP User’ Group) | Time: 4:30 to 5:00 pm | Location: ASUG Studio

I also want to thank all the folks at SAP and ASUG that have been working with me over the last couple of weeks to make this all possible! Look forward to seeing everyone there!

Mico Yuk is a 2010 SAP Mentor and the founder of the Xcelsius Guru Network, the Everything Xcelsius blog, and co-founder of Benchmarkers Business Intelligence. To learn more about her, please visit our About Us page.

We’re doing it again in April!  I’d like to formally announce open registration for our highly successful Xcelsius Advanced Developer Workshop (aka Training) that will take place in Miami, FL on April 19-20, 2011. Conducted by Mike Alexander (author, Crystal Xcelsius for Dummies) and myself, this 2-day event is jammed packed with content and always sold out within a few weeks of announcing.

Last year (see pics below) the training sold out (we even had a waiting list, see how packed it was by viewing our album here!), so we encourage everyone to Register before March 31st , to secure your seat and receive the early bird special SAVINGS OF $200.

On the 1st day, the training will cover Basic Data Connectivity Techniques, including, Advanced Dashboarding Techniques. On the 2nd day, we will cover Advanced Data Connectivity Techniques and much more! We will be also be covering SAP Crystal Dashboard Design. To view the entire agenda go to http://xcelsiustraining.com.

Follow us on Twitter or FaceBook for special announcements, as we will be giving away a free seat again this year. Don’t forget the early bird special ends on March 31st, so register today and save $200.

We look forward to seeing everyone there!!  Email us at gurus at everythingxcelsius.com with any questions.

Mico Yuk is a 2010 SAP Mentor and the founder of the Xcelsius Guru Network, the Everything Xcelsius blog, and co-founder of Benchmarkers Business Intelligence. To learn more about her, please visit our About Us page.

#10 SAP TechEd Conference

Coming in at #10 is the SAP Teched conference in Las Vegas.  There I had the pleasure of co-hosting the Xcelsius hands-on sessions with 2 of my favorite technical guys from the SAP Xcelsius and RIG team, Matt Lloyd and Patrice Lebhan. The event drew in such a crowd that we had to turn away attendees.  I also had the pleasure of doing a live interview with fellow mentor Jamie Oswald (a must watch for those considering attending TechEd in 2011) and former SAP Executive Marge Breya. There aren’t enough lines to explain how great this event was so click on the links below to see firsthand.

• Click here to see pics of the event!
• Click here to view interview #1 with Jamie Oswald and Jason Cao (SAP BusinessObjects Community Leader)
• Click here to view the interview #2 with former SAP Exec Marge Breya and fellow SAP Mentor Karin Tillotson

#9 Xcelsius Advance Training in Dallas

Hosted by Mike Alexander and myself in Dallas, TX this was a jam packed fun event.  This event is traditionally sold out with a waiting list, so if you are interested do write us an email early to get on the list. We are considering doing one on the West and East coast this year due to popular demand.

#8 EverythingXcelsius Blog Design Update

If you visit our site often enough, and our Google statistics show that many of you do, you have probably noticed that a few months ago we made some small updates to the blog’s design. Two major updates include our sleeker image enriched front page now with enhanced social media buttons and our new ‘Resources’ tab which is a one stop shop for Xcelsius related links on the web. You will also notice that our ‘Showcase’ tab now takes you directly to our commercial website to see examples of some of our guru dashboards which takes us to #7!

#7 Launch of our Commercial Website Benchmarkers Business Intelligence

If you’re wondering why this is so far down the list, it’s because we have yet to do an official launch, as we are still making some small adjustments. Expect to hear more about our official commercial website Benchmarkers Business Intelligence, where we work with some of the world’s biggest companies to deliver state of the art BusinessObjects deployments, migrations and implementation being sure to include our well known and best designed dashboards. We will do an official company launch in Feb 2011, but those who wish to find out more can visit our site http://benchmarkers.com to see how other companies are benefiting from our services.

#6 My SAP Mentor Nomination

It is no secret that the acquisition of BOE by SAP took the BOE community by storm in 2008, me included. I was again taking by a storm when I was informed that I had been nominated by the SAP BOE community to become an SAP mentor.   There isn’t enough space in this blog post to document my adventure in the first year as an SAP Mentor, but I will do a better job to document the journey in 2011.

#5 SAPPHIRE / ASUG Conference

Making our Top 5 is SAPPHIRE, the biggest SAP sales event of the year. Unfortunately, it was not an option for many BOBJ folks who shied away from the heavy SAP ERP presence. Teaming up with ASUG, SAP managed to pull together one of the best events that we ever attended. There was no shortage of BusinessObjects information, just BOE attendees!

#4 Reportapalooza

Coming in at #4 has to be the first official BusinessObjects virtual competition (at least that we know of). With a name like Reportapalooza how could we forget? We emailed asking for your votes and entries, you won prizes, saw some really cool dashboards and then forgot it existed. While the event may have lasted for a bit too long, we do give SAP an A+ for wanting to engage the community with their software. Recruiting big BOE community names like SAP Mentor Jamie Oswald, known author and blogger, Jim Brogden, and myself, it was the first of its kind. Big KUDOS to the winner, Brian Durning at PepsiCo (also ASUG Crystal Reports Chair). Will SAP do another one next year? Guess we’ll have to wait to see.

#3 EverythingXcelsius Social Links reach 1000+

Making the top 3 has to be the fact that our Twitter and Linkedin Group both exceeded 1,000+ followers this year. We are delighted by the tremendous growth and look forward to having you be a part of our community’s evolution in 2011. Lots of exciting changes in 2011. We truly feel that we host the most passionate community members in the SAP BusinessObjects realm and we appreciate all of you!

#2 SAP BusinessObjects User Conference (aka SBOUC) / 2^nd Annual Xcelsius Gurus Reception

As the only BusinessObjects conference that currently exists (though more are popping up in 2011) this event took off in Orlando with over 1600+ attendees, a far cry from its despicable attendance in Dallas the year before. On-site was the “Who is Who” in the BOE world, along with tons of informational sessions, and keynote demos of the upcoming BOE XI 4.0 release. Most shocking however was the formal announcement by Steve Lucas, SVP for SAP Business Objects North America that BOE had accounted for 52% of SAP sales up to Q3. We also co-hosted the wildly successful 2^nd Annual Xcelsius Gurus Reception with the help and support of the SAP Xcelsius Marketing Team. Pics can be seen here.

#1 SAP Renames Xcelsius

Topping the charts at #1 is of course the Xcelsius name change to SAP Crystal Dashboard Design or #SCDD depending on what day you look on twitter. While some who are in emotional distraught blogged and tweeted that the “Xcelsius name will never die” it is clear that SAP is moving forward with it in an effort to consolidate their Crystal product portfolio. If it is any consolation, SAP took it one step further to leave no rock unturned by also changing the names of long beloved products such as ‘Infoview’ to ‘BI Launchpad’ (1/10/11 Update. Correction – Web Intelligence will not be remained and hence the statement has been removed. Refer to the comments below). They even managed to gain accolade from Gartner who openly criticized SAP for their frequent name changes.

** Just for fun we had to add this video done by fellow SAPMentors,  Jon ERP & Dennis Howlett on this phenomenon!

What to expect in 2011?

1. More Conferences, more coverage…
2. More Gurus covering more topics and products …
3. More Webinars and Collaberations …
4. New Community aka “The Evolution” …
5. Official launch of commercial website Benchmarkers Business Intelligence!

Mico Yuk is a 2010 SAP Mentor and the founder of the Xcelsius Guru Network and the Everything Xcelsius blog. To learn more about her, please visit our About Us page.

• Challenge #1 (Done) – Winner , Mico Yuk (Check out my Coffee Consumption Calculator)
• Challenge #2 (Done) – Winner, Mico Yuk (based on traffic sent to Report a Hero Page)
• Challenge #3 (Done) – Winner, Brian Durning (voted best Crystal Reports Video by Community)
• Challenge #4 (Done) – Winner, David Deitch (voted best Charity Dashboard by Community)
• Challenge #5 (In Progress) – “Reporting Remix” (What this series of blog post is about).
• Community Dashboard Challenge (In Progress) – Voting end tomorrow Nov 12^th for your favorite community dashboard.
• Experts Webinar- ”Behind the Reports” (Recording should be available soon) – You don’t want to miss the important tips and answered questions by the experts!

Now for a quick recap of the last 2 posts:

• Part 1 – I went over some Q&A on what it would take on a high level to embed your Xcelsius charts and maps into a Crystal Report, as well as some pros and cons of both.
• Part 2 – I went over how to set up your map in Xcelsius so that it can be consumed by Crystal Reports.  I used Google Maps (compliments of Centigon Solutions) for this example as it much more robust than the out box maps in Xcelsius.
• Part 3 (the last one) – I am going to show you the  step-by-step process on how to embed your Xcelsius .swf file into your Crystal Reports.

6 Simple Steps to embed your Xcelsius .swf file into your Crystal Report!

1. Open Crystal Reports 2008 -> Click on blue icon to Embed Flash file

2. The Google Map should appear in your dashboard

3. Right click on the Google Map -> Click ‘Flash Data Expert’ to bind the Crystal Report Data

4. Drag the Label field, in this case ‘Sheet1_.Label’ into the 2^nd row in the ‘Insert Row Labels’ section

5. Drag the Address field, in this case ‘Lat,Long’ into the 1^st row in the ‘Insert Row Labels’ section -> Select ‘OK’. (Note: The map is now connected, so you can see the heat map data display in the preview.)

6. Voila! Your data and your map now appears in your Crystal Report.

As a BONUS, I attached the files that I used for the series.  Click here to download.

Again, just a quick reminder to cast your final votes by tomorrow (11/12) on the 3 dashboards that were submitted by the community to show your support.

Mico Yuk is a 2010 SAP Mentor and the founder of the Xcelsius Guru Network and the Everything Xcelsius blog. To learn more about her, please visit our About Us page

• Challenge #1 (Done) – Winner , Mico Yuk (Check out my Coffee Consumption Calculator)
• Challenge #2 (Done) – Winner, Mico Yuk (based on traffic sent to Report a Hero Page)
• Challenge #3 (Done) – Winner, Brian Durning (voted best Crystal Reports Video by Community)
• Challenge #4 (Done) – Winner, David Deitch (voted best Charity Dashboard by Community)
• Challenge #5 (In Progress) – What this series of blog post is about.
• Community Dashboard Challenge (In Progress) – Vote until Nov 12^th, 2010 for your favorite community dashboard.

In Part 1 of this series I went over some Q&A on what it would take to embed your Xcelsius visualization (in this case a map) into your Crystal Report, as well as some pros and cons.   In Part 2 I am going to cover how to set up your map in Xcelsius so that it can be consumed by Crystal Reports.  For this example we will be using Google Maps (compliments of Centigon Solutions) as it much more robust than the out of box maps in Xcelsius.

5 Simple Step to getting your Xcelsius (aka #SCDD) model ready!

1.       Install Google Maps Plug-in for Xcelsius (more details on how to do this here)

2.       Add the  GMaps Plugin to your Xcelsius dashboard

3. Configure your Excel spreadsheet to hold 2 columns of data for the Google Map: 1) Map Address 2) Map Labels

4.       Go to Data Connections in Xcelsius -> Add the ‘Crystal Reports Data Consumer’ Connection

5.       Configure the ‘Crystal Reports Data Consumer’ Connection so that the ‘Row Headers’ are bound to the  Excel cell area you created in Step #3

In Part 3 I will focus on the final step:  Bringing your Xcelsius Map into Crystal Reports.

One last thing, please don’t forget to cast your votes on the 3 dashboards that were submitted by the community to show your support.

Mico Yuk is a 2010 SAP Mentor and the founder of the Xcelsius Guru Network and the Everything Xcelsius blog. To learn more about her, please visit our About Us page.

• Challenge #1 (Done) – Winner , Mico Yuk (Check out my Coffee Consumption Calculator)
• Challenge #2 (Done) – Winner, Mico Yuk (based on traffic sent to Report a Hero Page)
• Challenge #3 (Done) – Winner, Brian Durning (voted best Crystal Reports Video by Community)
• Challenge #4 (Done) – Winner, Jim Brogden (voted best Charity Dashboard by Community)
• Challenge #5 (In Progress) – What this series of blog post is about!
• Community Dashboard Challenge (In Progress) – You can submit your dashboard by 11/5 to win a very COOL prize!

Unfortunately, I fell a bit behind while attending 2 SAP Conferences back to back this month.  Sorry if I let anyone down but I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the support.  I also want to give a huge CONGRATS to our current leader David Deitch who is an Xcelsius beginner turned Guru in this competition!

Now to Challenge #5.  Labeled the ‘Report Remix’ challenge, I am tasked with learning more about Crystal Reports 2008 and sharing it with YOU the community, hence the ‘remix’ which is to take you on the journey with me of learning a new Crystal product .  Below is my official public statement:

So let’s get started with a few simple questions?

Q. How can you integrate Xcelsius flash files into your Crystal Reports?

A. It’s a 2 step process. You first have to configure the Crystal Reports Data Consumer connection in Xcelsius (seen below) and then use the .swf button in Crystal Reports to embed the Xcelsius flash file. (More details on how to setup each will be provided in the next article)

Q. What are the Pros and Cons?

A. Pros – It is no secret that Xcelsius’ ability to handle large amounts of data is VERY limited. By embedding your Xcelsius flash file into Crystal Reports you get to leverage the power of the Crystal engine while utilizing the beautiful graphics in Xcelsius. It’s like having the best of both worlds.  In fact, in my next blog posts I am going to show how to integrate a map in Xcelsius into a Crystal Report.

A. Cons – If your not as familiar with Xcelsius you may have some issues using the ‘Crystal Reports Data Consumer’ connection. It could use some fine tuning (note to the  Product Team )

One more thing! This is your last week to submit your dashboards to the community Reportapalooza competition.  Hope you read this far down,  because if you have something worth seeing I am opening the door to review any entries that you send via email to gurus at everythingxcelsius.com and provide feedback if sent by 10/31 @ 12am EST.

Mico Yuk is a 2010 SAP Mentor and the founder of the Xcelsius Guru Network and the Everything Xcelsius blog. To learn more about her, please visit our About Us page.

Quick blog post, live from Orlando, while we’re getting ready for the ASUG BusinessObjects conference, which starts tomorrow!

I finally got the chance to put my agenda together and below are a list of sessions (sorted by day) that are must attend for all fellow Xcelsius gazelles.  (NOTE: Items highlighted in BLUE are extra sessions that I think every Xcelsius fan should attend.)

Tuesday, Oct 5th, 2010

1. 9:15 AM-10:15 AM: Getting Smart with Xcelsius (Mark Hudson from Antivia.com)
2. 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: Xcelsius + Google Maps + 15 Minutes: A Coding Must-See (Ryan Goodman from Centigon Solutions)
3. 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: Dashboarding: Modular vs. Composite vs. Custom (Matt Hawkins from Kingfisher)
4. 1:30 PM-2:30 PM: Ten Key Xcelsius Dashboard Design Patterns (Loren Abdulezer author Xcelsius 2008)
5. 2:45 PM-3:45 PM: Best Xcelsius Business Dashboards – Case Studies (Paul Grill from Infosol)
6. 4:00 PM-5:00 PM: Influence Council – Dashboarding and Visualization (Scott Leaver from SAP|Bruce Novell chair of Influence Council)
7. 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM: Xcelsius Reception (RSVP Required)

Wednesday, Oct 6th, 2010

1. 10:30 AM-11:30 AM Taking BI Mobile (Emily Mui from SAP Xcelsius Team)
2. 1:30 PM-2:30 PM Best Practices for BI Success (Cindi Howson, reknownd BI Author)
3. 2:45 PM-3:45 PM Visualization for Experts (Donald MacCormick from Antivia)
4. 2:45 PM-3:45 PM Introducing SAP Crystal Solutions (Blair Wheadon SAP Crystal Team)
5. 4:00 PM-5:00 PM Jason Rose and George Mathew present “The Future of SAP BusinessObjects Analytics”
6. 5:45 PM-6:00 PM Are Dashboards the right choice for your organization? – Dashboarding SIG Members

Thursday, Oct 7th, 2010

1. 8:00 AM-9:00 AM True Confessions of an Xcelsius Guru (Scott Strool from Everything Xcelsius / Benchmarkers Business Intelligence)
2. 9:15 AM-10:15 AM Tour of SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise XI 4.0 (Coy Yonce, Crystal Report Product Manager)
3. 11:45 AM-12:45 PM Dashboard Design 2011 (Xcelsius) Release New Features (David Dalley |Donna Dong)

There are a ton of other exciting sessions not mentioned here, but at least this will give the Xcelsius folks a head start. See you there!

Mico Yuk is a 2010 SAP Mentor and the founder of the Xcelsius Guru Network and the Everything Xcelsius blog. To learn more about her, please visit our About Us page.

So you can easily follow my journey through ASUG, I am going to summarize what I call ‘the how ASUG won me over timeline’, one person at a time.

• (May 2010) ASUG Dashboarding SIG Volunteer – I was invited to join earlier this year by the SIG’s chair, my former client and colleague, Gabe Orthous, from McKesson. While the progress with this SIG has been fairly slow, considering the group has only met about twice to date so far, I was surprised to find tenured members, such as Paul Grill of Infosol, whose outspoken persona always shines light on the “real issues”.  The joint webinar I conducted with Ryan Goodman in August is an example of the SIG’s effort to provide quality content to its few hundred members (most of which are from the SAP side).
• (July 2010) ASUG Atlanta Chapter – While having lunch with Gabe and another fellow ASUG Dashboard SIG volunteer, Durgesh Das, I then met Rajeev Kapur (a very friendly, but influential BI leader from Newell Rubbermaid). Tasked with managing both the SAP and BusinessObjects suite in his own environment, Rajeev happened to also be the head of the ASUG Atlanta chapter.  He is responsible for organizing  the local Atlanta ASUG Chapter events that are attended by almost 300 customers and partners. Expressing the need to get more BOE folks to these events, though skeptical, I attended the first on Sept 17^th at the COKE Enterprise with my buddy Durgesh (I documented my entire experience via twitter with photos). In a nutshell, there were 4 segments of sessions from 9-5pm and each segment contained a BusinessObjects session that was not only well attended, but quite informative.  I learned about RoamBI, Crystal Reports integration with Xcelsius, and the BusinessObjects Roadmap. Did I forget to mention, that as a BOE vendor, there was not a shortage of SAP customers who needed help with their BOE implementations? So honestly, I left there wondering, how can I possibly get more BOE folks to see what I saw?  The best was yet to come!
• (Sept 2010) Conversation with ASUG CEO Bridgette Chambers – Triggered by some feedback from the webinar I conducted with Ryan Goodman, (which I will not discuss here due to its irrelevance) I was then contacted by ASUG’s very own CEO, Bridgette Chambers. Like many of you, I had read about her new role as the CEO of ASUG last year, but when her secretary called to set up a call with me, I thought, “OK, maybe these guys are serious about getting BOE folks on board!” Without going into full details of the entire conversation, what stood out to me the most was her absolute focus and determination to win over the BOE community. It honestly left me wondering, “With this type of leadership at the top, why does it seem that ASUG has failed to capture the attention of the BOE community?” Simple answer. They did not choose a BIG ENOUGH SHOVEL to penetrate the heap known as the BOE legacy customers.

Conclusion - At this point, however, I am convinced that there is tremendous value in ASUG, but just unsure how to relay this to our BOE community. I think most will agree, that ASUG did a poor job of transitioning the GBN members when they took over which left the BusinessObjects folks wandering out there, turned off by member fees, a bad ASUG website, a confusing strategy to bring them board, and no visibility into the true value of joining this ‘seemingly’ SAP vested organization.

So my take? If you are a customer the membership is free until the end of the year. Please check it out. I’ve not only gained great friendships and associates, but also new customers and lots of new friends to network with and to exchange knowledge. And because the BOE community is so small, there is a lot of room to really influence what ASUG does. Not to mention, the SAP folks I met have such a deep interest in BusinessObjects. There is no excuse that one will hear about SAP modules all day. I sure did not! I did however, learn a lot about how BusinessObjects work on top of SAP. So I definitely encourage you to join me on this journey folks. See you next week in Orlando!

Mico Yuk is a 2010 SAP Mentor and the founder of the Xcelsius Guru Network and the Everything Xcelsius blog. To learn more about her, please visit, our About Us page.