AFSUG Business Analytics Newsletter: Here's to the End of a Great Year!

[Former Member]

Dear Business Analytics Community! Exactly a year ago, we wrote an Open Letter urging you to help us build a Business Analytics Special Interest Group. Judging by your feedback, your attendance at SIG Events, Webinars, etc. we believe that the Community has spoken, our Business Analytics SIG is alive! As we wind down the year, we wanted to thank you for your participation this year and your contribution towards making this SIG a huge success! Before we all take a much needed break, here's some info we thought you would find useful:

Business Analytics wins AFSUG SIG of the Year Award We are proud to be recognised as the AFSUG SIG of the Year. The Awards Dinner was held at Indaba Hotel in Johannesburg on 2nd Dec. The Trophy was handed over by Cuan Kloppers,  Chairman, AFSUG Board of Directors to the Business Analytics SIG Steercom. Your participation in this year's SIG has truly contributed to this achievement. Unfortunately the pressure is on as other SIGs have vowed to get their hands on the trophy in 2014! NEVER!!!!

Looking for Volunteers We are currently doing a drive to bring new AFSUG volunteers with fresh ideas and the passion to get on board and contribute to the community! Should you be interested or wish to nominate a colleague or anyone you think has the necessary passion and attitude, please click below to do so. Please click here to nominate

SIG Event in JHB/CPT The Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town SIG Meetings took place on the 12th/13th Nov. Thank you to the speakers and everyone who attended! Two prizes were awarded:- -    - The BI's Got Talent award went to Leslie Pels.   - The Business Analytics SIG Member of the Year went to Louis De Gouveia who presented a Webcast and attended all SIG Events in Johannesburg. Louis writes various blogs on SCN and has a strong online presence. If you missed it, no worries, check out this Storify! (Remember all presentations from the SIG Events are available on the AFSUG Website in the Member-only zone.)

SAP Analytics Innovation Community Call: Exploring the BI Roadmap SAP recently held a live and interactive community call with Ty Miller, VP BI Solution Management, SAP and Ian Treleaven, Senior Product Owner,  BI Suite Performance, SAP. They call was aimed at helping participants get into the nitty-gritty of how to understand their data through “agile visualization". This was the first in the SAP Analytics Innovation Community Call Series. Catch the recording here or use the hashtag #askSAP on Twitter to see what went down!! (You will need to register first before you can access the recording)

SAPBusinessobjectsBI.com SAP unveiled their sapbusinessobjectsbi.com website in September 2013. It offers the opportunity to:- Explore What's New in Business Intelligence View Customer Stories Upgrade Resources for you to understand and get started with an BI4.x Upgrade Access to the BI Academy for free video tutorials

What's NEW? SAP Business Objects Design Studio 1.2 SBOP Design Studio 1.2 has been released on 21 November 2013. All the release information that you need is in this blog post It contains links to :- - What's New - Installation, Configuration, Security and Administration Information - Application Designer Guide to help you get started INTERVIEW: Where is Predictive Analytics Going? Wondering where predictive is going? Timo Elliot, SAP Analytics Evangelist interviews John MacGregor VP of Predictive on the latest trends.

Our Wish for the Business Analytics SIG for 2014 is that we continue to build a spirit of Ubuntu(community)! Wishing you all a fantastic and much deserved break over the festive season! Business Analytics Steering Committee