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It has been far too long since I blogged. Sorry for that. Time just keeps slipping, as Professor Farnsworth once said (avid Futurama fan here). Work and life are keeping me really busy, and work especially is taking me in new directions.

Recently I have been involved in Enterprise Data Warehouse strategy reviews, and complete end-to-end install and designs for Edge Professional, including building data marts from core systems. Really interesting stuff, and I have got to practice my DI (now Data Services) skills. Even more interesting has been the chance to use Data Services to design and implement data marts with SCD Type 2 (Slowly Changing Dimensions), and using Changed Data Capture.

It’s amazing to look back to when I joined this employer (only two years ago), and my role at the time was Crystal Reports, and that was it. My experience was limited to Crystal Reports XI, with Crystal Reports Server, albeit limited experience with CR Server.

However, I really enjoy my job, and I think that is what has helped me, within two years, to gain my certification in both Business Objects Enterprise XI 3.0 and Crystal Reports 2008, as well as becoming a certified Migration Specialist. I was promoted to a Senior Consultant and now am doing things that I only would have dreamed of two years ago. In short, a huge shift in role and responsibility.

I put it down to, mainly, loving BI. I love the potential of BI, the way you can help small and large organisations grow their business and make better business decisions. And it’s just so cool, you can’t forget that. Even when you are just a Crystal cowboy, slapping together reports for a client in the minimum amount of time (not really best practice of course), you are still making a big difference, and getting job satisfaction. Hearing the words ‘we’ve never been able to look at it that way before’ – I’m sure all BI people have heard that – is great.

Taking it a step further though, and using best practices, designing and documenting, keeping to standards, encouraging the use of bigger and better tools, and growing the BI culture within an organisation is what I really enjoy.

I love my job. I think I’m very lucky. What about you?

(PS – Under three months and I’m going to be a dad. Wow.)

Do you ever have problems keeping up with the flow of data? Not just in general, RSS feeds and emails and Facebook – I find myself part of a more specialised IT sector, Business Intelligence, and so you would think it would be easier it keep up.

But no, more and more, there are always new products being released, service packs to test, other toolsets to try out and compare, and training to do to keep up. It’s a good thing I enjoy it so much, otherwise I think I’d drown in it all.

Right now, I’m trying to find time to install XI 3.0 on an domain-controlled VM, and then get SSO working through Tomcat. I’ve always found SSO through IIS very easy, but Tomcat is a little harder and so I’d like to getting it working end-to-end myself to make sure I’m familiar with the process.

Today I also found out that BO are running a beta for XI 3.1 and their new LifeCycle Manager tool. This is something that I as a BO consultant have been waiting for – the Import Wizard is useful for specific tasks, but as a LCM tool, doesn’t really live up to expectations.

I’ve requested to join the beta so I can try out the new tool and give BO some feedback on it. I’ll hopefully try to post some comments about it.

Last week I presented at the Western Australian Business Objects User Group. The topic was ‘Migrating from 6.5 to XI – Do’s, Don’ts and Best Practices’.

It was quite a high-level presentation that focussed more on best practices around how to undertake a migration, rather than how to use the Import Wizard and other technical information.

Some of the main points were:

• Point of view – a migration from 6.5 to XI entails a complete change in architecture. So you are going from one platform, to a different one. It is important to keep this in mind, because if you expect to apply a ‘service-pack’ type upgrade, then you will be sorely disappointed.
• Resources – plenty of good resources are available from both Business Objects and the BOB Forum, which can help you prepare for the migration. Hiring or consulting a BO Migration Specialist will also be worth the money. A Migration Specialist is a BO 6.5 Systems Administrator, a BO Certified Professional in BOE XI, and have undertaken additional training in migrations.
• Testing – it’s definitely important when going from 6.5 to XI, as the calculation methods have changed. This is even more of a necessity when converting to Webi.

Here is a link to the PowerPoint I presented. As I did a migration last week, and am doing one this week too, it seems I’m living and breathing migrations at the moment!

How have you found migrations? Are you hesitant to undertake one?