ASUG Annual Conference Pre-Conference Sessions with SAP Mentors

Posted by Tammy Powlas Mar 3, 2013

This year's ASUG Annual Conference Pre-Conference sessions will be held Monday, May 13th and there are a few hosted by SAP Mentors, which I am highlighting below, for your consideration

Hopefully you will consider attending one of them.

ASUG Pre-Conference Sessions with SAP Mentors

This is by no means a comprehensive list, just a few sessions by SAP Mentors sessions that I found.

SAP BusinessObjects BI4.1 with SAP BW and SAP ERP - Everything You Need in One Day

SAP Mentor and SCN Top Contributor Ingo Hilgefort is leading this hands-on workshop. This is the only pre-conference that is also a hands-on session

Full-Day Seminar
Monday, May 13, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
$595.00 ASUG Member/$695.00 Non-Member

SAP BusinessObjects 4.1 is the latest BI suite release from SAP and offers a broad set of BI tools to choose from. Each tool has its own special focus in the area of reporting and analytics. This hands-on seminar is a series of activities focused on SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 products in combination with SAP BW and SAP ERP.

Attendees will learn to use the different products from the SAP BusinessObjects BI suite 4.1 in combination with SAP data. Participants will also learn how to use a set of common criteria to select the right tool for the right job.

The seminar will provide you with a hands-on experience for the following products:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SAP Mobile Platform - Solution Strategy, Deep Dive, Implementation Tools, and Project Tips to Ensure Adoption Success

SAP Mentor Susan Keohan who is also an ASUG Volunteer, will be facilitating

Full-Day Seminar
Monday, May 13, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
$495.00 ASUG Member/$595.00 Non-Member

This seminar will share the latest news and developments in the SAP Mobile Platform - including Afaria, Syclo, mobile apps, and more. Learn how each of the different components of SAP's mobile platform can mobilize your enterprise processes, which ones are required, and how they integrate with SAP's portfolio of business solutions.

Then, get hands-on and learn how to work with SAP mobile solutions by mobilizing one of the most commonly used SAP functions - processing workflows for leave requests, shopping cart approvals, and more - using the latest version of SAP Business Workflow Mobility.

The seminar will wrap up with a panel of project experts and customers who will share their tips for project success, user adoption and lessons learned that be applied for your next mobility project.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Refresh and Build a User-Friendly UI with SAP's Latest User Productivity Tools and Solutions

SAP Mentor Yariv Zur with others

Half-Day Seminar
Monday, May 13, 8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
$345.00 ASUG Member/$445.00 Non-Member

This seminar will review enhancements and functionalities coming from SAP for User Interface and User Productivity helping you deal with pain points around content management, usability, external facing presence, and collaboration. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet and interact with SAP's UI Solution Management team as well as other customers and partners helping build coherent strategies for refreshing user interfaces. With specific examples, including the latest version of the SAP NetWeaver Business Client and content from SAP’s rapid-deployment solutions, attendees can see how a team can easily build beautiful user interfaces leveraging standard content provided by SAP.

Presenters will discuss role-based UI, navigation in SAP Netweaver Business Client 4.0, using Page Builder to build Welcome Page and Application Landing Pages, and how to leverage Personal Object Worklists, the Side Panel and more.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

There may be more SAP Mentors leading/working/facilitating pre-conference sessions, but these are the ones I know about today. Consider adding them to your ASUG Annual Conference agenda today. Register here.

A Year in Review: Looking back at 2012 via T-Shirts

Posted by Tammy Powlas Dec 29, 2012

What an exciting year on so many fronts. Overall I am grateful for all the opportunities that came my way.

First up, ASUG:

I didn’t get this ASUG shirt this year – I didn’t have any room in my luggage to fit the current year shirt. Still it was a busy year with ASUG Influence Councils, webcasts, ASUG Annual Conference, TechEd, and the BusinessObjects User Conference.

Someone once said “you get what you put into ASUG” – well for sure I spend time on ASUG but what I get back in return is more. ASUG Influence Councils are the hidden treasures of ASUG; it took me several years to realize this but it is a great opportunity for long-term relationships with SAP and other customers.

At this year’s ASUG sessions at SAP TechEd SAP’s Christina Miller strongly encouraged us to select more customer sessions; the feedback we received last year was that customer stories were missing. We worked hard to correct that.

This is a shirt I received from Ingo Hilgefort for his website http://www.mastering-sap-and-businessobjects.com/

On this website you will find BI4 recordings and blogs, especially dealing to BI4 SAP integration.

I liked the high quality of Ingo’s books, even before meeting him in person a few years ago. This year he offered me a chance to review his BI4 SAP Press books:

Reporting an Analysis with BusinessObjects

Integrating SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.x with SAP NetWeaver

and his new ground-breaking interactive Mastering SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, Edition for OLAP With SAP NetWeaver BW which is available via iTunes or iBooks . It is the first interactive eBook on BI4 for the iPad for only $24.99. The eBook is easy to use and read that my 10 year nephew can review it on the iPad

I am grateful to Ingo for all the opportunities and mostly he always encourages to me to reach higher and aim higher. Ingo encouraged me to attend Mastering BI in Australia last August – an incredible event run by the wonderful Eventful Group. I thank him for being a mentor to me.

Ingo also encouraged me to attend the BI4 Elite training, discussed below

Nic Smith gave me this shirt at Reporting & Analytics event in October. There’s still time for you to enter the Visual Intelligence Data Geek content at sap.com/datageek

I must say I have been using Visual Intelligence a great deal lately; it will read “bad” data that MS Access will not. Unfortunately I am not allowed right now to share more about it. There have been many strides in Visual Intelligence such as Universe 3.x and 4.x support, 32 bit support, and more.

BI4 Elite – this was black belt training in BI4 last month in Vancouver, arranged by Jens Koerner . Jens spoke to me at the last ASUG Annual Conference and I was totally skeptical. I am happy to say this was an incredible event where we all learned so much – not just from SAP but other customer stories as well, which I plan on writing more on what I have learned and implemented as a result.

Both Ingo Hilgefort and Jens did so much for this event - working literally day and night. If this event is offered in 2013 - don't hesitate to sign up for it ASAP.

Last but not certainly not least the Mentor shirt. So many great opportunities come to SAP Mentors and I am grateful to Mark Finnern

Mark Yolton Maria Farrales & others. TechEd Las Vegas was incredible experience allowing Mentors to assist SAP with hands-on sessions. The SAP Inside Tracks (which are not Mentor-only events) were all great whether I presented or simply attended. I neglected to add to the best practices for SAP Inside Track – if Marilyn Pratt arranges an SAP Inside Track you must go – she thinks of everything – food, recording, mingling, and getting the community involved.

All in all it was a busy, productive, fun year.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It - New SAP Mentors Quarterly is Out - How Do you Get a Mentor Shirt?

Posted by Tammy Powlas Sep 7, 2012

Read all about the latest SAP Mentors Quarterly here

The SAP Mentors Quarterly is a community-lead publication with SAP Mentors Otto Gold leading the layout, publication and other SAP Mentors contributing articles. In this edition:

Raquel Cunha talks about her Design Thinking journey
Ivan Femia reviews what happened at the SAP Milan Forum 2012 and talks about the PowerPoint-Free zone at the upcoming 9/22 SAP Inside Track Milan
Tom Cenens talks about what matters most in the Community - can you guess what it is?
Otto Gold writes about the popular Blog It Forward chain, started by Moshe Naveh
Matthias Steiner writes a very moving article on what it takes to be a Mentor

So pick up your FREE edition today! Not to be missed. We welcome your feedback as well.

Hot off the Presses - Announcing SAP Mentors Quarterly, New Edition!

Posted by Tammy Powlas May 24, 2012

Under the guidance and leadership of SAP Mentor Otto Gold the latest SAP Mentors Quarterly is now out for you to review here

Is it past quarter one? Yes, but everyone has been very busy with DKOM, SAPPHIRENOW/ASUG Annual Conference, and multiple Inside Tracks. As always, the SAP Mentors Quarterly appreciates your feedback so send in your comments here.

In this edition, SAP Mentor Martin English talks about licensing with Amazon Web Services. Natascha Thomson writes about Social Media Day in Palo Alto. Andreas Eissmann writes about ByDesign Mobility. In a regular column, Mentor's Mentor, Chris Kernaghan talks about his Mentor(s).

Ivan Femia talks about code exchange, open source, which are some of his passions if you have met him in person. SAP Mentor / ASUG Volunteer Karin Tillotson provides a great article and great pictures on a SAP University Alliance event she attended.

Otto Gold writes thoughtfully about his moral dilemma at the last TechEd. I particularly like his comment that he comes from SCN. As always, the great Blagbert makes some appearances.

Have you missed prior editions of the SAP Mentors Quarterly, a community driven magazine? If so see prior editions here.

Reflections of Being an SAP Mentor, 2 years later...

Posted by Tammy Powlas May 13, 2012

It is hard to believe it has been 2 years since I became a Mentor and for sure life has been busy. I have learned so much along the way and met so many great people. Being an introvert by nature, this has really taken me out of my comfort zone.

I have given more presentations than ever before, and I have learned so much in the process. First I have to thank fellow SAP Mentor Ingo Hilgefort, who has always encouraged me and showed me the value of community contributions. So much of what Ingo does is on his own time, and he has shown me the way. As recently as this week, he continues to be a great role model and "coach" to me.

Two years ago as a new SAP Mentor we were encouraged to shoot videos of our experiences. Here is my first one, and I am glad I did it as it exposed me to usability testing:

This was my first video shoot ever, and since then I have tried to participate in usability testing at any SAP Event. Not only are you exposed to future technologies, it is your opportunity to provide feedback to SAP. Plus there are free gifts . Usability testing slots are still open, sign up today at usability.sap.com if you are attending ASUG Annual Conference/SAPPHIRENOW event.

In these past two years, I've presented at two SAP Inside Track Newtown Square events, two SAP Inside Track Chicago events, one SAP Inside Track DC event and have attended virtual SAP Inside Track events as well. Plus as a Mentor I've had the honor of attending three DKOM's and even presented at two of them. I have presented at SAP TechEd, something I never would have even considered before. It has been a great ride, and today I am still grateful to be an SAP Mentor. I for sure hope others will consider giving back to the community, as you get so much more in return.