Hi All,
I would like to welcome you on the quarterly round-up of the second quarter of 2010.
So what's new?
- For this quarter, I have interviewed Zal Parchem. He's an Independent Consultant for Project Management, Implementations, and Support.
You can find the full inteview below /community [original link is broken]
The Forums went very well in the last quarter and show due to eastern and early summer vacation a small decrease.- Wiki
- The free SAP Business One ...To Go - for Release 8.8 eBook (252 pages) has been released, which contains a detailed introduction to SAP Business One 8.8.
- The former SAP Business One FAQ section has been transformed to the SAP Business One in Action Catalogue. This catalog is designed to aid persons who sell, implement, customise and use SAP Business One. You will find precise descriptions of otherwise lesser known functionalities with examples of how to apply them, detailed instructions on how to set up specific business processes, workarounds for presently unavailable features and much more.
- Hardware vendors from IBM and Hewlett-Packard have updated their best practise recommendations for setup and sizing, in the Best Practise System Setup and Sizing Wiki.
- The SAP Business One Wiki offers now a list of all known Social Media channels about SAP Business One. We would appreciate any addition made by you.
15 Blogs were written in the Q2/ 2010; one of the most viewed blogs is the blog about: How to track who is the current user logged into SAP Business One?.
- Top Contributors
Rank Name Points 1 Gordon Du 3.649 2 http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/bc?u=jpfvyxu4m30%3dJános Nagy 902 3 Kerstin Pauquet 829
- Top Companies
Rank Name Points 1 itelligence.hu 902 2 cid.cl 546 3 mosaic.co.hu 396
- Top Contributors
- Interview with our Top Contributor
Hello and welcome Zal
Congratulations on your great work around contributing to the SAP Business One Community in the second quarter of 2010.
Could you tell us some details about yourself and past experiences?
For the past nine years I have worked as an Independent Consultant for Project Management, Implementations, and Support. Five years ago a mutual friend introduced me to a Partner looking for a Consultant with solid business knowledge and the drive to learn the technical aspects of SAP B1. I was fortunate enough to take an SAP B1 introduction course at the Pennsylvania campus with a great Instructor, Lea Dvir, and to come in contact with Marilyn Pratt (Marilyn does so much who can quantify it?). Starting with the first installation of SAP B1, I picked up quite a few technical skills (SQL, DTW, etc.) that have rounded me out to be effective in all of the phases of Implementation and Support of SAP B1.
Before becoming an Independent Consultant I worked in Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies at the management level in both the User and IT departments. I “retired” at an early age to pursue some of my personal passions and interests. Being independent allows me to work and to pursue those interests, along with working on SAP B1.
What does a typical work day look like for you?
There are no typical work days for an Independent, even when executing the plan for implementing SAP B1. The closest definition of typical is: I get up extremely early in the morning, between 3 and 4, review what needs to be done, set my goals for the day, and am on the go until 6 at night, many times even later. And that is seven days a week. But hardly a day goes by that I do not learn some new point with the business and/or technical aspects of SAP B1; either through self-study or by going to the forums to review the threads and postings. Crystal Reports is my current area of self-study – a great move by SAP to include it as part of Version 8.8 for the Users!
I have looked at the other packages for small and medium sized companies and SAP B1 is, head and shoulders, a vast cut above the rest of the other packages. That is probably the main reason I can devote my time to working with Customers and Partners in using SAP B1. It is a good data and financially driven system which covers the entire spectrum of business. I know most folks think the “R3” world is the best place to be as a consultant, but I enjoy working throughout the entire business processes of a company from start to finish. For that, SAP B1 is excellent! Of course, I have suggestions and ideas on how to improve the workings of SAP B1 and the Community Network, but SAP seems to be doing a great job in moving these areas in the right direction.
How does the SAP Community Network support you in your work?
In January 2010 the SAP Business One Core forum reached a million hits. New Wiki content and new Blogs on SAP Business One keep growing. The Experts on the Phone Newsletter has just been resurrected as Business One in Action. Those are just a few of the points that indicate how the SAP Community Network goes out of its way to greatly support me in my work (along with all of the other members who participate).
I commented on the January million hits and would just rephrase what I said then about the benefits and support: 1) the Community provides me the opportunity to “get ahead of the curve” in areas where I can improve my effectiveness or where I might run into problems, 2) sometimes I can run through and/or create a scenario found on the Community and gain a better understanding of how to resolve or to implement the scenario (in the SAP-provided demo database), 3) most of the time I provide the right answer for an individual in the forums and get to share that with others who are visiting later on, 4) tremendous support and help from those around me when I have a question, and 5) I get rewards (points and the satisfaction of helping someone along the way) – maybe I will get an SAP T-Shirt or something the next time I am in Germany!
Although I might be one of the major contributors to the Community for SAP B1 for this quarter, believe me, there are many SAP and non-SAP folks who have been doing an excellent job year after year and they deserve the great thanks to how this Community has developed. And thanks should be given to anyone else who has helped someone in this Community; makes no difference if a person has 10 or 100,000 points, the act of taking the time to help someone deserves our thanks to them!
Thank you Zal for giving us detailed information about you and your work as an Independent Consultant for Project Management, Implementations, and Support.