This past week, SAP’s Srikanth Rao gave an update of how the ASUG SAP BusinessObjects Mobile BI Influence Council impacted the product in 2012 and how he wants to obtain input from ASUG in the future on this solution.  Here are some of the ways ASUG members influenced SAP:

Figure 1: Source: SAP

Figure 1 shows the enhancements for Web Intelligence on mobile, annotations, URL sharing, geo analysis. Srikanth said the Council from last year provided input into these innovations.

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Figure 2 shows enhancements made to the Mobile BI solution resulting from the ASUG Influence Council had inputs to SAP.  Several calls were held with ASUG Influence Council members reviewing the changes shown above.

Figure 3: Source: SAP

Figure 3 shows more innovations that were included in the Mobile BI product and the ASUG Mobile BI Influence Council heard about them first, as SAP was developing the product.

Now SAP and ASUG are relaunching this Mobile BI Influence Council but it will operate a little different this time, according to Srikanth: 

This council discuss content specific enhancements in respective influence council where will have a dedicated session for mobile

• ASUG SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence (WebI) Influence Council
• ASUG SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio Influence Council
• ASUG SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Casual User Influence Council
• Dashboarding and Visualization Influence Council

This Mobile BI council would focus on app as a container

Figure 5: Source: SAP

Figure 5 shows the goals of the council.  Note to provide feedback you must attend the calls to give your feedback.  Be open to discussion and new ideas as well.  Provide your feedback and painpoints as well.  The side benefit not mentioned in Figure 5 is it is a great opportunity to network with other companies on how they are handling their Mobile BI solution.

Action/Next Steps:

So if you are an ASUG Member and are interested in participating, please complete this survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/bi_mobile_ic

Why should you consider ASUG Influence Councils?

I’ll borrow this from Karin Tillotson about ASUG Influence Councils in general:

“Being part of this ASUG Influence Council was an amazing experience.  I was able to not only work with other SAP customers facing the same issues, but, was able to work with and give direct feedback to SAP where they not only provided additional functionality, but, a whole new product to help manage data. This is one example of why I believe in the power of ASUG Influence Councils. “ – Karin Tillotson, ASUG Volunteer and SAP Mentor

For more information on ASUG Influence Councils, please see Karin Tillotson’s blog about the power of ASUG Influence Councils.

Key links provided by Srikanth:

SAP Help

Free Tutorials

Idea Place

You can meet Srikanth in person at ASUG Annual Conference in May.  He is part of the following sessions (and more not listed below):

SAP BusinessObjects Mobile BI Influence Council

SAP BusinessObjects Mobile and Web Intelligence at Coca-Cola Refreshments

There are also more Mobile BI influence sessions – check the Agenda Builder

If you want to learn how to set this up Mobile BI yourself with a hands-on experience, please see more information below:

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

Register here

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

• Crystal Reports for Enterprise
• Web Intelligence
• SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
• SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office
• SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for OLAP
• SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio
• Mobile BI

Ingo has also tweeted that this will include BW on Hana:

#MasteringSAP #BI4 #ASUGBI Learn how to integrate BI 4.1 with BW and BW on HANA – limited seats – register here – bit.ly/10cKIs9

— Ingo Hilgefort (@ihilgefort) April 5, 2013

Register today

Final Word

In summary, ASUG Influence Councils are a unique benefit to ASUG members, allowing members to influence SAP.  I encourage ASUG members to consider joining ASUG Influence Councils.