So I wanted to give you all an update on what’s been happening in the last few months, as well as try and kick start my blogging career yet again.

One recent event was that I finally completed the certification exams for BOCP-BODI, that is, Data Integrator.  You may remember I posted about how difficult the first exam was – well the second was a lot harder, and I guess I was a little lucky with some of the questions.  I’ve found the certification exams are really a good measure for how well you know the software; if you’ve only been using it for a short time, don’t expect to be able to pass exams easily.  You only need to look at ‘the certification thread‘ on the BOB Forum to get an idea of how many people think they need help with certifications.

So I was very proud to be able to get the certification, and it means that I now have all four certifications that SAP BusinessObjects offer.  Hopefully they’ll release more in the near future.  I’d love to see a certification around Universe Design, as I feel that is much more important that the end reporting tool, like Web Intelligence.  Do you think there is a need for any other certifications?  Maybe Xcelsius? =)

Next up, I attended the 2009 Mastering Business Objects conference recently, held in Sydney Australia.  It was a two day conference, held at the Manly Hotel, on the beach.  Key highlights for me were meeting three great people, Timo Elliott, Dave Rathbun, and Jamie Oswald.  It was also great that most of the people I met were on either XI R2, or XI 3.x.  I did Twitter through most of the conference, so skip back a few pages and check out some of the live tweets at http://twitter.com/joshyf.

Myself with Dave Rathbun

Lastly for this post, I’d like to expand a little on a recent Proof of Concept that I undertook for a utility in Western Australia.  The scope was reasonably large given the time frame.  It was a three week engagement, with reporting required off SAP BW cubes and Oracle 10g databases, using the SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 full stack.  This included Web Intelligence, Crystal Reports, Xcelsius, Polestar (soon to be called Explorer), Live Office, BI Widgets and more.  The POC was a great success, with a lot of value add being provided because of the quick development time with BusinessObjects.

The client especially loved how they could leverage the investment in the Universes with Polestar.  You have a universe, just index it and voila.  They also really appreciated the drill-through ability – we demonstrated drill through from Xcelsius into both Polestar and Web Intelligence.

That about wraps it up for this post.  If you like the content I put up, I’d love to hear any suggestions about how I could improve my blog posts.  Would you like more technical content, more walkthroughs?

- Josh

I sat the Web Intelligence XI 3.x Level Two exam last week and passed, which means I’m now a BusinessObjects Certified Professional in Web Intelligence XI 3.x.  This is a new certification from BusinessObjects and covers the new Web Intelligence features, as well as the old, and also some universe features.  I’ve noticed that recently BusinessObjects have stepped up the complexity of the exams and I’ve find both the Webi and Data Integrator exams to be more difficult than the older Crystal Reports and Admin exams.

However, I also noticed, especially during the Level 2 exam, several mistakes about the questions, including errors in Webi formulas.

I also recently got hold of a pre-release copy of Polestar XI 3.1.  I have to say, without having spent much time with it, I’m impressed with the improvements they’ve made to Polestar.  It feels more stable, and has some nice new features.

A word of warning however, during the install (I performed it on two different servers runnning XI 3.1), major problems occurred with the deployment of the new WAR files into Tomcat.  The Polestar install replaces, or creates, the following WAR files for:

• InfoViewApp
• InfoViewAppActions
• CmcApp
• CmcAppActions
• PlatformServices
• polestar
• polestar_help
• polestar_tutorial
• PolestarAppActions

However, Tomcat doesn’t successfully deploy these WAR files, and the above Tomcat directories, when viewed, are empty, so to the end-user, both InfoView and the CMC stop responding, and you can’t access them.  This can be resolved by undeploying, then redeploying, the affected WAR files.  I used the Lambda Probe (http://www.lambdaprobe.org/d/index.htm) to do this, but it can also be done by deleting the affected directories within the ‘webapps’ folder, and copying the above WAR files into the ‘webapps’ directory.  Tomcat should then deploy the WAR files automatically.

Apart from the issue described above (a major one BusinessObjects are now trying to work into a hot fix), Polestar seems stable and has some great new features.  When I get to play and experiment with it more, I will post a more detailed description.

EDIT:  I also forgot to mention that SAP BusinessObjects also released an online demo version of Polestar that anyone can play with.  Find it here (http://polestar.ondemand.com/polestar/).

- Josh

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.)

Before I went away however, I sat the first exam for the Business Objects Certified Professional certification for Data Integrator – and managed to pass! Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like a training course will be released anytime soon to match the second BOCP-DI exam, and I’ve got lots of other stuff to look at, including doing the 2008 update to my BOCP-CR.

I’ve managed to volunteer to do a part on the next BOUG meeting, to talk on Migrating from 6.5 to XI. I’m going to talk (briefly) on best practices (like know XI), what to do in preparation and during the migration, and what not to do. The meeting is next week, 11th June.

One of things I’ll mention in the ‘what not to do’ section is the Content Search, which is packaged as part of the Productivity Pack with SP2. The Content Search indexes (runs) all the reports and universes. So, if you suddenly import 500 reports into the new XI system, and you don’t have any limits set on how many Deski reports can run at any one time (set in the CMC, under Deski Report Server), the service runs unchecked trying to index all the new reports and the system resources max out – definitely scary for your IT administrators.

Have you had any experiences like this with migrations?

I stumbled across an IM client that pulls in MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, Facebook and others – Digsby (digsby.com). I’m now using it for all IM, it’s very nice being able to chat to people on Facebook and MSN all through the same client (plus the skins are nice).

Anyway, what have I been up to in BI? I’ve been doing some universe updates in 5.1.6 (old school!). And have begun doing the e-learning so I can go for the my BOCP-CR 2008 Update. The changes in Crystal Reports 2008 are very nice actually. Things like optional parameters, dynamic sorting and, of course, the ability to embed SWF files (read: Xcelsius 2008 SWF’s) and link them to data are fantastic. Now I just have to learn how to use it all! =)

I’ve been doing lots of troubleshooting recently as well, with Business Objects Enterprise XI R2 SP2. I’ve been deploying a three-tier system for a Tier 1 company and, to say the least, their security is a wee bit tight. Our administrator’s aren’t allowed to log in as administrators on the VMs, so you can’t run the CCM, see processes or do any kind of helpful troubleshooting. It now seems that even services running as ‘Local Service’ have limited rights – for instance, the Output File Repository Server is returning error messages about free disk space, even though it’s 70 GB or so free.

Ah, the joys of working with IT teams =)

I also got followed by a certain person who led me to this website: gooddata.com. Very interesting video about their product, but I’m not too sure how many larger companies would send their trusted data to another company. Still, it looks like a nice product.

- Josh

I *think* so because I can’t seem to get anyone to confirm for me I’ve done all the pre-requisites to becoming a Migration Specialist. You can no longer do the Migrating from 5.x and 6.x to XI R2 course in a classroom – in Australia, that is.

So I completed the following courses/exams online:

• BO 6.5 Accredited System Admin Exam
• Migrating 5.x and 6.x to XI R2 course
• Migration Application Foundation 6.x to XI R2 course

I already have my BOCP for Business Objects Enterprise.

I’m pretty sure that is all that is required. But, if you know differently, let me know!

On a side point, I test-rode a 2005 Buell Lightning (1200) on Saturday morning. Insane amount of power, and seeing as I didn’t go quicker than 80km/h (residential zones!) I didn’t get to play with more than two gears… Still, very nice – though I think I like the look of the Firebolt more than the Lightning…

I was first introduced to Business Intelligence in 2001, when I started working for a small engineering company. One of my primary responsibilities was to maintain the existing Crystal Reports (v8.5) and Crystal Enterprise (v8). Mind you, I was only 17, but very eager to learn. I undertook all the Crystal training courses and slowly learnt all I could. We migrated to v9 of both CR and CE, then v10, then finally XI.

I worked a lot with the backend of MapInfo’s GIS product (Access), and also Sybiz Vision (FoxPro – yuck!).

In early 2007, I decided to take the plunge and started employment with Power Business Systems (now CSG), as a Business Intelligence Consultant. By this time, I was totally at ease with both Crystal XI and Crystal Reports Server XI. I quickly upskilled with Webi, Deski, Universes, Data Integrator, and the more advanced administration of Business Objects Enterprise.

Over the past year I’ve handled most of the training for CSG, which includes:

• Crystal Reports XI-R2 Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced
• Desktop Intelligence XI-R2 Beginner and Advanced
• Web Intelligence XI-R2 Beginner and Advanced
• Universe Designer XI-R2
• Business Objects Enterprise Administration (Users and Content, Admin Servers, and Designing and Deploying a Solution)
• Data Integrator XI-R2

I have attained both my Business Objects Certified Professional – Crystal Reports (BOCP-CR) and Business Objects Certified Professional – Business Objects Enterprise (BOCP-BOE) which are the only two currently available certifications for Business Objects Professionals.

I also am accredited to train Webi, Deski, Universe Design and Data Integrator (there are no certifications for these yet).

I was privileged to attend the 2007 Business Objects Insight held in Sydney, where the upcoming release of XI-R3 was announced.

- Josh