Vol. 1/12 - September 2012
Welcome to the ACT Newsletter.
The SAP BusinessObjects BI Team is passionate about helping every organization build an information-driven culture and are constantly on the lookout for ways in which to better achieve that goal. This is why we have started the ACT Newsletter. This newsletter will not be about products, features or end-user tips and tricks. It will provide you with valuable content that will help you drive your organizational business intelligence strategy.
In this issue, and the coming monthly publications, you will find links and articles about becoming an analytics-driven organization. You will find everything from industry trends, to strategies for selling your business and customers on the value of BI, as well as information on how to make the most of what SAP has to offer.
We look forward to sharing real-life examples of how teams of people are breaking through organizational and cultural barriers to change how businesses are making decisions. We are excited about where the technology and market is going and we hope you are too. Here we plan to keep you on the pulse of it and provide information you can use to be part of the revolution.
Saskia Battersby, GM BI Solution Management
FEATURED CONTENT |
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Why BI strategy matters? – A study by WCI Consulting
Good ideas often begin with a vision of a conclusion of how we would like something to be. Yet when contemplating a business intelligence (BI) solution, it is common for business professionals to focus on the tools they want to achieve their goal, and not the vision itself. In fact in many cases, it is easy to lose site of the vision completely. When we work with clients who are still searching for BI success, and really drill down into how their vision of success should be defined, it generally comes back to end user adoption. While this vision may sound simplistic, it is often quite elusive. In order to achieve this vision a strategy is required.
WCI Consulting recently conducted a business analytics forum. We spent two days with clients talking about BI tools and how best to utilize them. A common theme ran throughout those discussions; many were focused on tools rather than strategy. Dashboards, big data, ad hoc, report writers, data warehouses, ETL, databases were being thrown around and it quickly became clear why BI success has become difficult. WCI believes that it is essential to cut through this noise by developing a clear strategy that focuses on business results, and then discover the tools that will make it work.
Better Business, Not Just Better Analytics – Timo Elliott
"There’s been a transformation in analytics technology. Companies must look beyond the obvious benefits and use it to transform the way they do business.”
Analytics technology is changing fast, but we’re only starting to scratch the surface of the new business opportunities. New “big data” technologies include in-memory computing, NoSQL / Hadoop, in-database calculations, column stores, and massively parallel architectures, and. The combination of these technologies provides an opportunity to access massive amounts of a greater variety of data, faster, and more flexibly. Data is easier to access and manipulate than ever, thanks to improvements in self-service data discovery, mobile interfaces, and predictive analytics. We can now provide more intuitive data access to more people, in more places. Clearly, organizations can improve the way they do analytics with this new technology – but the real opportunity is using it to rethink the way they do business.
Making the most of SAP Support –Tim Coffman
SAP has an on-going commitment to our customer’s success. We recognize that for our software to be part of that success it needs to be running at its best. After feedback from our customers on challenges with making the most of our software and our support organization, particularly our classic BusinessObjects BI customers, we created a portfolio of tools to allow customers to engage more easily with support, reduce time to resolution and be aware of early indicators of challenges to avoid the support cycle all together. We call this collection of tools Remote Supportability. They are available to you today, as part of your on-going support and maintenance package. You can learn more about how to leverage, implement and make the most of these tools in this comprehensive blog and discussion forum.
Wisdom of Crowds – Business Intelligence Market Study
Anyone who is responsible for helping their organization run better should already be familiar with Howard Dresner. Dresner is a renowned analyst in the business intelligence industry and is the head researcher at Dresner Advisory Services, LLC.
Dresner recently delivered an insightful keynote at the SAP Analytics Forum which took place in June, 2012. In the keynote, Dresner shares the key findings from the latest, “Wisdom of Crowds – Business Intelligence Market Study.” The content includes emerging trends on the adoption of business intelligence in enterprise organizations as well as insight into developments in key growth areas of BI – namely mobility and big data.
Dresner is active in social media and can be followed on Twitter at (@howarddresner). He also hosts the #BIWisdom TweetChat each Friday at 1:00 PM ET.
CUSTOMER STORIES |
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Celestica – Delivering Strategic Value Through Business Analytics
As a leader in the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry, Celestica is at the crossroads between many global supply chains, which puts the company in the unique position of having access to a significant amount of cross-industry supply chain data.Celestica recognized this data could deliver competitive advantage, and in 2009 launched an ambitious, company-wide analytics program with the objective of leveraging business analytics to drive business improvements and deliver value to its customers.
Learn how Cisco uses SAP BusinessObjects BI 4:
PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENTS |
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- Important SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 SP2 update information
- SAP Visual Intelligence 1.0.3 is now available on Service Marketplace, download the free trial here
- SAP BusinessObjects Explorer 4.0.8 for iPad
- SAP BusinessObjects Mobile 4.2 for iPad/iPhone
UPCOMING EVENTS & WEBINARS |
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- Registration open for SAP TechEd 2012 Las Vegas,October 15–19
- Registration open for SAPPHIRE NOW & SAP TechEd in Madrid, Spain, November 13-16
- SAP BusinessObjects User Conference in Orlando, Florida, Sep 10 - 13
- TDWI World Conference Series-Agile in Boston, MA, Sep 16-21
- Reporting & Analytics 2012 in Las Vegas, Oct 29-31
OTHER NEWS |
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Join and watch the SAP BusinessObjects User Conference keynote presentations online
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