Podcast: A Look Inside the SAP BusinessObjects Community: A BOC Community Podcast - 7.5 MB (approx. 15 minutes) In this BusinessObjects Community podcast, Jon Reed of JonERP.com interviews me about the impressive growth of the BusinessObjects Community (BOC) and about the community features that are driving so much participation. For those partners who are seeking increased visibility for their third party BI products, will be interested in the discussions about leveraging BOC and EcoHub.
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THE PODCAST:
[Write-up from Jon]
In this BusinessObjects Community podcast, Jon Reed of JonERP.com interviews Kuhan Milroy, Director of the SAP BusinessObjects Community. Jon asks Kuhan about the impressive growth of the BusinessObjects Community (BOC) and about the community features that are driving so much participation. Kuhan also shares the details of the Polestar OnDemand contest taking place at InnoCentive, with a $20,000 prize for the winner (deadline April 7, 2009). For those partners who are seeking increased visibility for their third party BI products, Kuhan also talks about the connections between BOC and EcoHub.
During the podcast, Jon asks Kuhan for the inside scoop on which BOC topics are taking off in the forums, and how SAP professionals can get hands-on exposure to BusinessObjects products online. The guys also get into a discussion about why the BusinessObjects Community is not just for technical users, and how BI is shifting from an IT-centric topic to a corporate priority shared by technical and business users.
Podcast Highlights
(:37) Kuhan's role in the BusinessObjects Community and the rapid growth of the community from October 2008 to the present. BOC has grown from 40,000 registered users to 220,000, and the community is growing at a rate of 5,000 per week. A wide range of folks are participating, from Crystal Reports experts to SDN and BPX community members.
(2:15) Overview of the different ways to get involved: BO portal pages, articles, sample dashboards, webinars, forums, and e-learning. The weekly webinars and newsletters are good ways to get started.
(3:21) The BusinessObjects forums are hopping! There are 24 forums - some of the hot topics are: Crystal Reports and Eclipse and the Business Objects and SAP area. Many SAP-BO integration questions are being asked regarding Xcelsius and doing queries against BW.
(6:05) SAP users need hands-on training to keep their edge. The BusinessObjects Community has hands-on products that can be used on a free trial basis, including Crystal Reports, Xcelsius, and Business Objects Edge. You get a 30 day trial license when you download.
(7:22) There is currently a Polestar on Demand competition going on at Innocentive right now and SCN members can participate in. Polestar on Demand is currently in beta, and there is a $20,000 challenge to build a connected from a cloud solution to a data source. There is currently an April 7 deadline on the contest.
(9:22) EcoHub, another important new part of the SAP online community, is being connected to the BOC community. EcoHub partners can post solutions using SAP BO products such as Xcelsius. This is a great way for partners to develop usefull add-on SAP BO products and get visibility for them in the Ecohub partner community.
(11:15) Jon asks Kuhan about the relevance of the BusinessObjects Community to functional SAP professional. Kuhan refers to Gartner's prediction that 40 percent of BI spending is going to shift from IT to business users, and he gives examples of how functional business users can get involved with BOC.
(13:42) Kuhan announces that around the time of this podcast release, the new Innovation Labs offerings will be announced. The BOC community is a great way to get answers on new SAP BO products. User forums are an ideal way to get a handle on this new functionality and address BI challenges.
Thanks to Jon for running the podcast.
http://www.jonerp.com/
Cheers
Kuhan
