Real Real-Time Analytics
Here’s a great video from this weeks SAP Influencer Summit featuring the advantages of real-time, in-memory analytics. You can see the full list of recorded keynote sessions here (registration required). If you’re interested in business intelligence and analytics, you’ll find it mentioned in the presentations by Jim Snabe, Vishal Sikka, Marge Breya and John Wookey. The sessions featured interaction with Twitter very heavily, using the... [Read More...]
Grand Prix Business Intelligence
Last week I had the opportunity to attend VRAAAAAAAAAAAOOOMMMM a corporate event at the Belgian VRAAAAAAAAAAOOOOMMMMM Grand Prix, and present an SAP BusinessObjects product overview and roadmap. Unfortunately, the pleasure of having the opportunity to visit the famous Spa circuit, meeting Heikki Kovalainen, and seeing Lewis Hamilton at dinner was a little VRAAAAAAAOOOOOMMMMM drowned out by the constant, annoying VRAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOMMMM sound of race-cars... [Read More...]
Exciting, Risky Business Intelligence in South Africa
I was in South Africa last week for the inaugural meetings of the BI special interest group of the Africa SAP User’s Group (AFSUG). There were two events, one in Cape Town and another in Johannesburg, with Durban dialed in through an Adobe Connect session. There was lots of interest, with so many people wanting to attend that the event over capacity in Cape Town and had to have a second overflow room in Johannesburg. The agenda consisted of: An... [Read More...]
Over 100 Free SAP BusinessObjects Web Seminars
Looking for some free training in these difficult economic times? Here’s a long, long list (OK, so there are “only” 96 of them) of free web seminars courtesy of the SDN BusinessObjects Web Seminar Series and Jason Cao. They cover almost every aspect of the BusinessObjects Intelligence Platform. And if you don’t find what you’re looking for, you can register to be notified by email of upcoming BusinessObjects webinars and suggest topics... [Read More...]
Economist CIO and Technology Leaders Forum, London
I presented yesterday evening at an executive dinner forum for CIOs at Claridge’s in London. The event was part of The Economist Conferences’ CIO and Technology Leaders forum, which brought together CIOs from a diverse range of companies including Rentokil, Rolls-Royce, the Salvation Army, Tube Lines, BAA, and Aston Martin Lagonda. Carla Rapoport of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) took the attendees through the highlights of a new study... [Read More...]
Mastering BusinessObjects Conference, Sydney Australia
The Mastering BusinessObjects 2009 conference was held in Manly, Sydney this week. The location was stunning – Australia has some of the best beaches in the world, and thanks to Pete Collett, who lent me a surfboard, I was able to catch a few waves at day break before heading back into the waterfront conference hotel to deliver my keynote presentations. The two-day event had a packed agenda, including great keynotes from Dave Rathbun of Integra... [Read More...]
Why BI Projects Fail and What To Do About it, Australia
This session was presented at Mastering BusinessObjects 2009 conference in Manly, Sydney. It covers the six main areas that most often lead to BI project failure: Changing the Business People, Not Technology Process, Not Project Value, Not Cost Insight, Not Data Pragmatism, Not Rigid Process The slides are available in pdf format (3.7Mb) and ppt format (15.6Mb) and are posted on SlideShare and Scribd. Read More →
BI Competency Centers, Australia
This session was presented at the Mastering BusinessObjects 2009 conference in Manly, Sydney. It covers: Why have a BI Competency Center BICC Organization and Staffing BICC Functional areas and Key Tasks Creating a BICC Overcoming Common BICC Issues BICC Examples The slides are available in pdf format (2.2Mb) and ppt format (4.6Mb) and are posted on SlideShare and Scribd. Read More →
Transforming BI, Australia
Ian Parker and I presented the first keynote at the Mastering BusinessObjects 2009 conference in Manly, Sydney, standing in for Donald MacCormick. We took turns covering: Why BI is more strategic than ever in a downturn The SAP BusinessObjects vision of helping organizations link strategy and execution Integration and innovation plans including BusinessObjects Explorer and the Social Network Analyzer Prototype The slides are available in pdf format... [Read More...]
Dashboard Web Seminar: Empower Users With Critical Information
I’ve just completed a web seminar on business intelligence dashboard best practice, with Brad Devlin explaining how best to implement SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius. There are almost 900 people registered. Here’s the invitation text: EMPOWER USERS WITH CRITICAL BUSINESS INFORMATION Discover the Power of Interactive Dashboards at this Complimentary Web Seminar What if you could easily view up-to-the-minute, critical business information... [Read More...]

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