Mustafa Bensan – SCN Member of the Month August 2015

Tell us a bit about yourself, where you live, what kind of work you do, and other things you would like to share with the community (hobbies, fun facts)?
I grew up in Australia and come from a Turkish heritage.  I am based in Sydney and enjoy the seaside and outdoor Aussie lifestyle it offers.

Cricket in Sydney

Sight seeing in Turkey

Work-wise, I specialise in Business Intelligence with a focus on data visualisation and analytical apps.  I graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Economics degree but given my interest in programming which emerged when I was in high school, commenced my career at Accenture (then known as Andersen Consulting) in 1990.  My first SAP project involved implementing an Activity Based Costing system on R/2, so I guess that takes me back to the early days.  Subsequently I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to explore the world with assignments in South Korea, the US and Spain over a period of 10 years.

Fun fact:  I took a sabbatical from consulting to launch a movie rental start-up in Istanbul, Turkey for a few years before returning to the world of SAP in Australia.

Having focused on Management and Cost Accounting functional consulting in my SAP ERP days, a transition to BI (first BW and then BusinessObjects) was a logical next step.  I established a new software start-up here in Australia named  iPerceive to focus on developing BI related add-ons as part of the SAP PartnerEdge Program for Application Development, an endeavour which keeps me interested and challenged.

In terms of hobbies, I enjoy digital photography and creative pursuits such as drawing but can’t seem to find as much time as I would like to indulge in them.  Social tennis, running and long walks keep me active while my nieces and nephews keep me both active and entertained 🙂 .

When did you become a member of SCN and which areas are you most active in?
I joined the SCN in my current role in May of 2013.  I am most active in the SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio  space where I enjoy writing blogs and answering questions.  Since SDK development is a particular interest, I am also a member of the Design Studio SDK Development Community.

I noticed your level of activity in the community over the last year has been increasing steadily… I’ve also noticed you haven’t completed many of our missions… so I gather the increase is not due to gamification:) What motivates you to contribute so actively and how do you find the time?

I must admit I’ll have to plead ignorance on the missions aspect but now that you mention it, it’s probably something I should familiarise myself with as part of the gamification incentive 🙂 .  What motivates me is the positive feedback I receive for my blogs and responses to questions.  As for how I find the time, it’s a balance between personal time and having the flexibility to contribute as part of my day-to-day work.

In addition to what’s already covered in the Rules of Engagement, do you have any advice to new members on SCN “etiquette?”

When posting questions, they will receive more effective feedback from the community by describing their issue clearly and concisely with examples, while demonstrating that they have also done their own research into resolving the issue.

Your Design Studio Innovation Series has been quite popular.  Tell us more about how the series got started and your plans for the next topics.
I had noticed that most of the blogs in this space consisted ofhow-to’s relating to existing functionality.  To complement this content, I thought it would be interesting to start the Innovation Series as a platform for engaging the community in discussion about opportunities to improve Design Studio through product innovation, particularly with enhancements to the SDK that would allow customers and partners to push the boundaries of developing creative solutions for business requirements.

The blogs then also served as a point of reference for corresponding suggestions I raised in the Design Studio Idea Place.  In this context, rather than presenting ideas as a simple wish list my goal was to provide examples of detailed use cases to demonstrate the genuine need for and benefits of such enhancements.

The blog series has since evolved to also include discussions about how to address specific requirements with SDK Community components as well as reviews of significant new features in Design Studio. Next topics I have in mind for the Innovation Series include a discussion of feature enhancements for universe data sources as well as considerations for implementing offline mobile functionality.

Will you be back at SAP TechEd this year? Any speaking engagements planned?

Yes.  I’m excited to have been given the opportunity to present Session BA123 Apply a Fresh Face to Your BI Apps with SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio in which I’ll be discussing how to build Fiori-like BI apps.

UPDATE… If you are thinking of attending his session, this might convince you! Mustafa is a passionate speaker… Check out this introduction he shared with me that he prepared for a DemoJam in Melborne!

Is there an SCN member you admire (OK… you can name a few)? And for what reason?
I’ve enjoyed engaging with many SCN members but if I were to name a few, I should mention:

• Rock star and genius are words that come to mind in relation to Michael Howles and Karol Kalisz.  The contributions they come up with as part of the Design Studio SDK Development Community never cease to amaze me;
• I appreciate the ongoing words of encouragement and support from Tammy Powlas;
• I’m grateful for the SDK related feedback from Reiner Hille-Doering;
• Jeroen van der A, Lars Schubert and Deepu Sasidharan for their collaborative spirit and interesting discussions.

Are you on Twitter?
Yes.  My Twitter handle is @MustafaBensan.

Every month, a member of the SAP Community Network is recognized for exemplary behavior: sharing knowledge with peers, being helpful and taking on additional tasks to support community engagement. See the list of previous members recognized on the SCN Member of The Month Hall of Fame.