Posts tagged "User Adoption"

5 Reasons Why You Should Use SAP BusinessObjects Universes

Monday, September 27, 2010

1 Comment

5 Reasons Why You Should Use SAP BusinessObjects Universes

In meeting with organizations who are new to SAP BusinessObjects or who are legacy Crystal Reports users, we are often asked the question “Why should I use a Business Objects Universe?”.  To organizations who have worked with universes for a period of time, the advantages and value proposition are clear.  But for organizations who are [...]

Continue reading...

Maintain Peak Performance With a Comprehensive SAP BusinessObjects Health Check

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

0 Comments

Maintain Peak Performance With a Comprehensive SAP BusinessObjects Health Check

We’re about to embark upon a new project to conduct a large-scale health check on one of our client’s primary reporting environments, so I thought it may be beneficial to write about the process we use. Hopefully it will give you some insight into how to conduct a health check, and the benefits your organization [...]

Continue reading...

Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won’t Work (part 5): If I Give Them Ad Hoc Access to Data, They’ll Keep Asking For More

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

0 Comments

Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won’t Work (part 5): If I Give Them Ad Hoc Access to Data, They’ll Keep Asking For More

Back in March I posted “Five Reasons Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won’t Work In Some Organizations“.  In that post, I listed some of the major concerns that I hear from potential clients when the subject of ad hoc reporting is broached.  We’ve already addressed “Our people aren’t smart enough to create their own reports”,  “We [...]

Continue reading...

Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won’t Work (part 4): I Pay People in IT to Create Reports

Thursday, July 15, 2010

1 Comment

Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won’t Work (part 4): I Pay People in IT to Create Reports

One of the other reasons I hear is that managers don't want to train end-users to create reports, since they have folks in IT that already tasked with that. Some report authoring will always need to be handled by IT, due to it's complexity, lack of data availability, etc... But I argue that the lion's share of the development can be handled within each department instead, freeing IT developers to take on other projects critical to the organization.

Continue reading...

Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won’t Work (part 3): I don’t want people poking around in data they shouldn’t have access to

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

1 Comment

Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won’t Work (part 3): I don’t want people poking around in data they shouldn’t have access to

Data security is typically a really a big deal for organizations, and it SHOULD be. Thankfully, SAP BusinessObjects offers a number of ways to provide security around functionality, content and data. With some careful planning and a well-designed SAP BusinessObjects implementation, you can rest assured knowing that users will have access to only the information that they are supposed to see.

Continue reading...

Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won’t Work (part 1): Our People Aren’t Smart Enough

Monday, April 5, 2010

1 Comment

Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won’t Work (part 1): Our People Aren’t Smart Enough

I recently posted an article titled "Five Reasons Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won't Work In Some Organizations". In that article, I listed some of the major concerns that I hear from potential clients when the subject of ad hoc reporting is broached. As promised, I will be addressing each of those concerns and showing how they can be overcome. Today, we begin with the first one: "Our people aren’t smart enough to create their own reports"

Continue reading...

It’s Time to Burn the Ships

Monday, March 22, 2010

0 Comments

It’s Time to Burn the Ships

When we implement a new business intelligence solution for a client, there is always that period where people try to "return to the ship". For a time, most things will be easier to do the old way until that learning curve is crested and it's tempting to retreat to comfort when difficulties arise. To avoid turning around and abandoning your goals, you must make going forward more compelling then going back.

Continue reading...

Five Reasons Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won’t Work in Some Organizations

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

7 Comments

Five Reasons Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won’t Work in Some Organizations

Over the past ten years, I've been a part of literally hundreds of SAP BusinessObjects client demos. I'm always struck, however, when we reach the ad hoc portion of the demo and begin talking about WebIntelligence. While the end-users in the room get excited about having the ability to create their own reports and analysis without waiting on the IT department, we usually get a lot of push-back from the managers and executives in the room.

Continue reading...