"The Latest on the SAP Business Objects Roadmap, the Relevance of BI in a Downturn, and SAP Business Objects Skills Development"
Podcast Interview Date: January 14, 2009
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What's the latest on the SAP Business Objects roadmap? How can BI have a positive impact for SAP customers in a difficult economy? And what are the skills needed to implement NetWeaver BI products? To get to the bottom of these questions, I had the opportunity to interview Franz Aman, VP of Intelligence Platform Product Marketing for SAP Business Objects. In this podcast, Franz speaks frankly about the challenges SAP customers are facing and how BO tools can help. 

During this thirty minute podcast, Jon and Franz address the following topics and more:

- Franz's background and his current leadership role in SAP Intelligence Platform Product Marketing, which includes information management products and BI tools and capabilities from both the SAP and BO side, including BIA.

- The latest on the BO product roadmap. Franz points out that we are not waiting on any new releases in order for customers to take advantage of the combined product line. There were small areas of overlap between the two products, but those have been addressed. An example of the product synergy is the combined EIM (Enterprise Information Management) suite.

- There will be no further investment in the BEx toolkit and Report Designer and Web Application Designer, but that has been made clear on the roadmap and has been accounted for. The best of BEx analyzer will be combined with the best of BO Voyager. An improved user experience and improved back end integration tool kit is part of the benefit that will come out of the combined product line. (see frequently asked questions about the SAP BO roadmap).

- After Franz addressed one major customer concern (roadmap and product phase outs), Jon gives Franz the chance to clear up any misconceptions about the other SAP customer concern on BO: pricing. Franz fields questions from SAP customers about the "value add" of BO, often phrased as: "haven't I paid for BI before?". Franz points out that there are new user tools like Polestar that have never been offered before. Polestar gives a "Google Earth" style open query view of the customer data that is not comparable with any products that have been available in the past. Report Designer will give way to Crystal Reports, and the capabilities and ease of use are significantly improved. Same with ad hoc reporting via Web Intelligence, something that has not been available in the classic BW offering.

- Franz believes that the extra value is a bargain at the bundled package pricing, much more affordable than buying bits and pieces. He has received good feedback on this pricing from SAP customers. ("This is not your grandfather's BI.") Franz also brings up the importance of BI in a struggling economy, where accurate data for informed and confident decisions is essential for survival. "SAP customers can count on the best BI toolkit in the marketplace."

- Jon asks Franz to go further into today's economy and the relevance of BI. Jon starts by saying that those who are involved in the enterprise software field were hoping that the new year would start out with a loosening of IT budgets and a bit of forward momentum. Instead, the signs so far point to a continued period of sluggish spending and perhaps even a "bunker mentality" by some companies. Layoffs from major players like IBM and Microsoft cloud the picture further. How can Business Objects make a difference in this kind of economy? Franz talks about the understandably cautious nature of corporate spending, but once again, a recent Gartner survey showed that Business Intelligence is once again the number one priority of CIOs.

- Companies continue to invest in BI because it continues to help them even in a difficult economy. It helps you to address questions such as "who are your best customers?" and "how do you reduce the cycle time to those customers?" SAP has done some research with The Economist on C-level executives. A big percentage say that they do not have the best information to make crucial decisions. This means both up-to-date dashboards and trends analysis, which points to the importance of BI in any economy. That's why customer interest level in BI is still very high.

- The second half of the podcast shifts to an SAP BO skills focus. Jon asks Franz for his view on the skills needed for individuals and project teams. Franz emphasizes that in a shifting economy, it's crucial for individuals to remain as marketable to their employers as possible, and learning BI tools is a great way to do that. BI helps companies get the most out of the ERP investments they have already made, so it makes perfect sense to add this to the skill set. Learn how to treat data properly and ensure everyone has access to that data for better decision-making. Learn the SAP BI tools needed to make this happen.

- For the technical professional, Franz emphasizes the importance of understanding business motivations. "Don't just ask for requirements." Sometimes business users have a had time articulating what they need. If you can learn how to draw their business needs out of them and realize that in terms of BI functionality, you are in better shape skillwise. Learn how to ask better questions and understand marketing to get a sense of how to spread "good news" internally. This is very effective for skill set development.

- Jon asks Franz a question that has come up on SAP's online communities: what about functional SAP folks? Should they all be concerned with BI and working to add BI to their skill sets, or are BI roles primarily still technical or focused roles rather than something to add to all SAP skill sets? How does BI impact, say, a classic SAP Financials or HR consultant? Franz recommends: move away from guesstimates and gut feel and learn how to measure data and make decisions based on that data ("you can't manage what you can't measure.") Understand KPIs and the measures you need to take to drive certain outcomes.

- Franz makes a memorable point: at any business meeting, regardless of how soft-spoken or low-ranking the person is, whenever that person comes in with the hard data: the discussion takes a turn. Data means professional credibility. Franz has seen this on many occasions. All arguments can sound convincing, but data shifts the discussion. Be the person around the table who has the data and knows. Companies that make decisions based on data are more successful, the same is true for individuals. Another key tip: no function is an island. Understand overall company strategy and reach beyond your focus area.

- Jon summarizes BI career advice from Franz: know the tools but also understand the business strategy that drives the tools. Understand the SAP Business Objects roadmap so you'll know the right tool for the job. SAP Business Objects user conferences are very important as well, in particular, exchanging best practices with customers and "becoming a better BI geek."

- In the last segment, Jon asks Franz about "BI as a Service" and the trend this year towards looking at Software as a Service (SaaS), perhaps due to the downturn. Franz explains that Business Objects was one of the first to look at BI on demand, and they have more than 200,000 subscribers already. Traditionally, customers want to deploy on-premise due to data volumes, firewall concerns, etc. But, it's also important to engage outside the firewall - thus a hybrid model can be effective.

- Also, smaller companies have historically preferred on demand BI for budgetary reasons. In these economic times, larger companies are also looking at pay-as-you-go BI models. Franz says that SAP's approach is to sit down with each customer and look at how BI as a service fits into a range of possible options.

- Franz explains how to contact him and invites further comments and feedback. He also recommends the Business Objects Community on SCN for those who want to get more involved.