Jonathan Becher's SAPPHIRE 09 Blog
Jonathan Becher, SVP Marketing for SAP (and my boss), wrote a series of blog postings about the recent SAPPHIRE event. Since these were part of the “Insights at SAPPHIRE” event on the inXpo platform, and the event is now closed, they are no longer accessible. This didn’t strike me a very Web 2.0 result (indeed, I believe this is one big downside of the closed InXpo approach), and we are in the process of figuring out what it would take to get... [Read More...]
The Inevitable Wolfram|Alpha Problem: Semantics
Now that Wolfram|Alpha has launched, I thought I’d go take a look. After failing to find out the average happiness of France vs US (not a supported database yet, apparently), I tried out some of the examples and then checked out the “community” area. Inevitably, Wolfram|Alpha suffers from the same problems that have plagued every attempt to provide answers to human questions using technology since the dawn of computers: semantics, and specifically... [Read More...]
Here Comes Web 3.0: Wolfram|Alpha Launches Today
Wikipedia defines Web 3.0 as the “semantic web”, “making it possible for the web to understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content.” We’ll get a step closer to that vision when Wolfram|Alpha (or maybe just “WolframAlpha” – their web site uses both) launches later today. Wolfram|Alpha is a product from Wolfram Research (famous for its beautiful Mathematica software) that has been generating... [Read More...]
Want to Experience SAP BusinessObjects Explorer? Try This Micro-Finance Demo!
As I mentioned in the previous post, SAP launched the new BusinessObjects Explorer Accelerated product today. You can try out the product and learn how microfinance is helping reduce global poverty by visiting the excellent SAP BusinessObjects Explorer demo at http://microfinance.sap.com. It will challenge you to find answers to a few questions, and you’ll be able to do so, quickly and easily, without any training, using the intuitive new Explorer... [Read More...]
A New Data Architecture for Faster, Better BI: SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
Today at the SAPPHIRE user conference in Orlando, SAP announced it would “revolutionize BI with a new solution that delivers insight at the speed of thought”. The new package is called SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Accelerated, and it combines the search and visualization capabilities of SAP BusinessObjects Polestar (now renamed SAP BusinessObjects Explorer) with SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA). Photo: SAP CEO Léo Apotheker showing that... [Read More...]
SAP BusinessObjects @ SAPPHIRE US ‘09
Over ten thousand people are expected at SAPPHIRE user conference next week in Orlando. Here’s an overview of some of the ways SAP BusinessObjects will be featured at the event: Show floor. The SAPPHIRE show floor is primarily organized by industry and functional area, and so SAP BusinessObjects will be featured throughout the exhibition, at 58 different pods in total. If you’re interested in getting a traditional, product-oriented view of the... [Read More...]
It’s All About KPIs, Whatever You’re Trying to Achieve…
Here’s a quick selection of articles from just the last couple of weeks that show that performance management and key performance indicators are becoming mainstream in a variety of areas: SAP And Enterprise Support SAP has agreed a set of key performance indicators with its user group SUGEN, in order to measure the effectiveness of the controversial SAP Enterprise Support services introduced last year. And there’s real skin in the game: SAP has... [Read More...]
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