SAP BusinessObjects Explorer on iPhone

Today, I came across an iPhone/iPad app for SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. It's available for free in iTunes. I decided to give it a shot on my iPhone and ended up liking it :).

It's just 1.9 MB in size and fast to launch unlike some of the other iPhone apps. It is preconfigured with three sample data sets being pulled from the SAP's demo server.

Please note that you will need an internet connection as there is no data available off-line on this app.

Now, let me take you through a series of screenshots to demonstrate how this app works.

Selecting one of the sample data sets.

A bar graph showing revenue by year.

In the above screenshot, following 5 options are available.

Option 1 - Tabular view
Option 2 - Top "n" records
Option 3 - Chart type (Vertical & horizontal bar charts, Radar chart, Pie chart, Line chart, Surface chart, Cloud chart and treemap chart.)
Option 4 - Add favorites
Option 5 - Email feature


A pie chart for revenue bye year and sending the same over an e-mail.

E-mail page.

Filtering the data only for years 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Pie chart only for years 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Drill down on year 2006 to get numbers by the quarters.

Revenue by quarter after drill down.

Search feature - Free text search on the data sets.

In addition, it can also fetch data sets/visualization from SAP BI OnDemand. I have my free Personal Edition account on http://bi.ondemand.com as mentioned in my earlier post. I pointed the app to my account and was able to download the data sets and visualization on the iPhone.

My sample data sets from BI OnDemand account.

Bar chart

Cloud chart.

The missing feature - support for portrait mode.  I think it should have been standard for BI apps. 

However, I think it's a great step by SAP towards its journey to On-Device. As iPhone is increasingly adopted in the enterprises and Sybase now in SAP's kitty, we can expect more such apps from SAP.

SAP SDN link - http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/innovation-center?rid=/webcontent/uuid/706569f0-989c-2c10-5ca4-e945dc3368e3

Hands on with SAP BI OnDemand

SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand is a cloud based offering of BI solutions. I have mentioned about this in my earlier post. Today, just to get familiar, I tried few things.  I signed up for the BI OnDemand Personal Edition which is free.

I created data sets by uploading couple of spreadsheets viz. Customer_Data and Customers_Reservations.

Once data sets were available, I could explore the data using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. See the below screenshot.

Visualizations can be created by a single click from the Explorer window.

Finally, I put my demo visualizations on a single dashboard.

SAP buys Sybase for $5.8 billion

"With this transaction, SAP will dramatically expand its addressable market by making available its market-leading solutions to hundreds of millions of mobile users, combining the world’s best business software with the world’s most powerful mobile infrastructure platform," said Bill McDermott, Co-CEO, SAP and member of the SAP Executive Board.

This is in line with what Peter Gartenberg(MD, SAP India) shared with us yesterday(refer  my previous post). SAP wants to be on On-Device  to increase its market share.


Refer Google/Twitter/Bing results for more information that's pouring in :).


Some of the URLs for reference.


http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/12/confirmed-sap-to-acquire-sybase-for-5-8-billion/
http://www.wirelessweek.com/News/Feeds/2010/05/wireless-sap-buys-sybase-for-58b/

SAP RIG event takeaways - SAP BOE XIR4 (aka Aurora), BI on-demand & SAP On-Device

Today, I attended SAP RIG(Regional Implementation Group) customer appreciation event held here at Mumbai. I would like to share some key takeaways from it.

Aurora is here !!  Aurora is SAP internal project code for SAP BOE(BusinessObjects Enterprise) XIR4 and will be released in q4 FY 2010. It is a next major release for BOE.

Following are some of the interesting additions/changes in BOE XIR4 release -

(1) Central auditing - Yes, it's here. Auditing of individual servers won't be required going forward.

(2) Search 

 - Searches Explorer contents in addition to BOE contents

 - Document and metadata search

 - Cluster aware indexing

 - Near real time & scheduled indexing

 - Public SDK

 - Open Search support

 - Integration with SAP Netweaver search, Google Appliance and Sharepoint

(3) Integration with Solution Manager.

(4) WebI is renamed to Interactive Analysis. Infoview with improved UI is now called BI LaunchPad. Import wizard is replaced with Java based utility called Upgrade Manager.

In addition, they talked about their SaaS offering BI on-demand. SAP has hosted(i.e. in cloud) all BusinessObjects BI solutions on their servers in US. All these solutions are offered on demand and follow SaaS model. They are planning to come up with BI on-demand servers in Japan as well.

BI on-demand can be integrated with other SaaS platforms like Salesforce.com. Data is extracted from Salesforce and stored in BI on-demand for reporting/dashboarding purpose.

I signed up for the Personal Edition which is free. UI looks neat. Refer the screenshot below.

 I plan to try it out soon to see how it works :).


Also, SAP India MD Peter Gartenberg introduced their new focus area On-Device. Like On-Premise and On-Demand, On-Device is SAP's one of the most important focus areas. Idea is to make all SAP solutions compatible with the mobile devices like BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, Windows Mobile, Android, etc.


Finally, the event was held at Sun-n-Sand hotel.

It is located right next to the Juhu beach :).

Developing the skills you need to succeed as an international leader

I just completed this article from April 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review(pg 109). It was a good read and highlights the importance of what they call a global mind-set in order to succeed as an international leader.

Global mind-set has three components -

• Intellectual Capital - General knowledge and capacity to learn.
• Psychological Capital - Openness to differences and capacity for change.
• Social Capital - Ability to build trusting relationships with and among people who are different from you.

These components are each defined by three specific attributes. One can assess their readiness for an overseas leadership role.

• Intellectual Capital attributes - Global business savvy, Cognitive complexity, Cosmopolitan outlook
• Psychological Capital attributes - Passion for diversity, Thirst for adventure, Self assurance
• Social Capital attributes - Intercultural empathy, Interpersonal impact, Diplomacy

Authors also recommend ways to improve global mind-set which I think are quite useful.

Couple of my favorite lines from the article -

"The world may be flat in terms of technology and interconnection. But it is still quite bumpy in the sense that employees from different part of the globe may work in very different ways."

"The fact that I know more about you does not mean that I like you or I want to work with you."


Definitely a recommended read.

Change Management - Being at the epicenter

Currently, I can say that my team is going through a very important organizational change. I do not wish to write specifics of the change here. But I want to share my first hand experience, observations and conclusions on the Change Management process.

According to me communication and people management, before/during/after the change, are two of the most important CSF(critical success factors).

Communication

A clear communication across the organization about the change is extremely important.

Communication should clearly convey -

1) Change - Primary change and other supporting changes.

2) Benefits to the organization

3) Impact on the teams/individuals - Positive or negative. It can be communicated in separate targeted communications.

People Management

During the change management process, people are -

1) Super curious

2) Over anxious

Ever since the change has been declared, I have been receiving many calls/e-mails with queries, speculation, rumors and so on. Good communication would help in setting the expectations but in-person workshops/floor meeting would be very very effective.

In addition, execution approach for change management is one thing that requires the most of the thinking and planning. There can be two below mentioned approaches for Change Management.

(1) Think of all the possible problems that can arise and incorporate them while designing the change(roles, responsibilities, etc.). For example, prepare a comprehensive RACI(Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) matrix well in advance.

(2) Start with the bare minimum structure in place and then build on top of it. More of an "agile" way of working.

After this first hand experience, I hope to handle changes better going forward.

Internal knowledge discovery through Analyst Relations

I have been involved in Analyst Relations activities at my company for two years now. Establishing and managing relationships with various analysts firms(Investor/Research/Third party) is very important specially in the IT industry.

Analyst firms usually come up with their surveys/questionnaires/waves on an annual basis. These waves are either specific to solution area (ERP, CRM, BI, etc.) or geography (APAC, North America, Europe, etc.). They reach out to major players in the industry and invite them in this annual exercise. Participating companies need to provide their capabilities and credentials relevant to the specific wave/area. Survey generally contains questions which are both, qualitative and quantitative. Answers to these questions help Analysts firms to evaluate the participants.

Apart from being a very important branding exercise for the participants, it gives an excellent opportunity to dig deeper in their own companies and have the visibility of the kind of work is being done at the ground level. The slices/dices of data points that needs to provided during this exercise is such that it requires connecting with all on going projects(across the board) individually. According to me, such interactions with the projects, is extremely enriching due to following two reasons.

1) Such interactions are rare in a year.
2) Information is as accurate as possible.

I am sure people from large organizations would appreciate this :). It's not that companies do not engage in periodic reporting of activities from bottom to top. But in a company with 150k+ employees, complete information often do not reach the corporate teams.

I think for companies, this internal knowledge discovery helps immensely for pursuing new opportunities.

Completed Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2010 !!

Today, I completed my first Marathon :). It was a great run of 21 kms covering the new Bandra-Worli sea link. Here is the route map.