For the SAP BusinessObjects Community (BOC), the year 2009 began with a "pop" of a Champagne bottle, and ended off with a "bang!" BOC has grown from just over 30,000 members when it launched in October 2008, to over 332,000 registered members. Here are some other noteable metrics that show how engaged and active the community has become in 2009:

• +120,000 posts in the SAP BusinessObjects topic forums
• +700 blog posts
• +1,500 articles and >6,400 support notes added
• +130,000 subscribers to the SAP BusinessObjects Community Newsletter

The most popular BOC pages have also been some of SCN's favorites:

• Innovation Center
• BOC Homepage
• Support for Crystal Reports, Xcelsius and Interactive Analysis
• Downloads
• Crystal Reports Design
• Xcelsius

To see 2009 detailed community highlights by topic category click here.

We've also seen more value delivered to our community through programs such as the Value-Added Samples and Demos. The SAP BusinessObjects .NET Development Support team has also stepped up community involvement by engaging customers on Twitter (follow them at www.Twitter.com/SAPCRNETSup).

 

New ‘neighborhoods' continue to pop up in our community, hosting conversations and collaboration around specific BusinessObjects topic areas.

• New ‘neighborhoods': SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, Crystal Reports Server, Postalsoft, and Interactive Analysis
• New discussion forums: Crystal Reports Data Connectivity, Xcelsius SDK, Interactive Analysis, and Postalsoft
• Collaborative wikis: BOpedia, BusinessObjects Data Services Tips and Tricks, and BWA and Explorer
• Central top level EIM area on SDN, EPM is now part of BOC and a new BI Best Practices area: Find more details on Kirby's blog.

 

When we met face-to-face with community members at SAP TechEd 2009 in Phoenix and Vienna, we really got to know you! (Sorry, none of our team members were able to make it to Bangalore nor Shanghai, but we hope to be there next year). The SAP BusinessObjects Interactive Area in the TechEd Community Clubhouse was buzzing this year, we're sure it was because of the opportunity to test-drive the SAP BusinessObjects tools, or was it the "Explorer on iPhone demo" and the cool toys we were giving away. Insight Night was also a first for us this year, and based on feedback from those who attended, it we're going to make this a recurring event full of innovation, insight and interaction! we're already discussing how we can make Insight Night even more successful for next year.  

 

At the SAP BusinessObjects User Conference in Dallas, our BOC Xcelsius Community managers collaborated with founders of EverythingXcelsius to hold the "Xcelsius Community Event." By all accounts, this community event was a success, especially because so many of the Xcelsius Gurus were on-hand. See all the pictures from the event, thanks to Natasha Lloyd.

 

BusinessObjects across SAP Community Network

The focus on BusinessObjects hasn't been solely centered around BOC, there are many activities on SCN that have been diversified with BusinessObjects, including:

• The University Alliance: added a Business Intelligence area focused on helping university graduates on getting up to speed on BI and seeking opportunities in the SAP world
• EcoHub: launched in 2008, now contains areas dedicated to BusinessObjects solutions from extending the interactivity of Xcelsius presentation to allowing browsing your BusinessObjects Enterprise desktop within Microsoft Outlook
• VSTE or Virtual SAP TechEd: If you missed the conference this year, you can still catch the sessions with over 20 SAP BusinessObjects sessions covered, including roadmaps and best practices.
• Mentor Program: Last but surely not least has been the BusinessObjects ramp up in the mentor program. BusinessObjects was a big focus this year and we had many BusinessObjects focused sessions as well as in face meetings with the top leads in the BusinessObjects areas including Marge Breya (EVP & GM), Herve Couturier (EVP R&D) and David Meyer (VP Emerging Technologies) to name a few.

 

2010 Outlook: With Every End Comes a New Beginning

A typical end of the year review is a snapshot in time, a chance to look back and forth along a linear path. However, this may not be so true for the BusinessObjects Community this year; there will be some significant changes in 2010 that would be better described with the aged old proverb, ‘With Every End Comes a New beginning'. As such the BusinessObjects Community will undergo a transformation on SCN following several significant themes, here are some of the top ones.

As companies adopt the SAP BI, EIM, EPM and GRC roadmaps a lot of questions have been coming up, on how to migrate, how to take advantage of new offerings and how to best leverage BI. And we've been listening, 2010 will involve the alignment of many areas on the community providing a one story for the products. Complimenting these changes, will be more content on best practices, better insight into the product roadmaps and discussions on how to best integrate BusinessObjects products into your company's business roadmap.

One continual Business Intelligence trend is the constant blurring of skills required to gather information from tools to make effective decisions. A long time ago this required a developer to write a report for a Business User. Any change would require the developer to be re-engaged to modify the report. As BI products evolve the details of the data are being obfuscated from the Business User, to the point where Business Users are now able to build their own reports, dashboards and even queries to get the information they need. In support of this trend, SCN will be focusing heavily on the Business User in 2010. We will be looking at providing an environment that drives Business User BI tool competency while enabling Business User to make better and more informed decisions.

Finally, the community couldn't exist without you, the person, driving the community through contributions, collaboration and a collected crowd wisdom. This year we intend to put a much greater focus on participation and user-contributions to encourage greater collaboration among members.

 

Thank you for all your support throughout the year and look forward to see you getting the most out of the community in 2010.