In This Issue:

Big Shift to XI R2 Under Way in 2007

New "Introduction to Business Intelligence" Seminar Available

InfoBurst XDS Provides Powerful Add-on for Xcelsius Dashboard Applications

Ask the Expert - Your Business Intelligence Questions Answered

Special Offers for February 2007

Save 10% on Version Manager

Save 25% on Remote BusinessObjects Usage Audit Service

Save $400 + $500 on IBIS 2007 Registration

Up and Coming Events

February 22:

FREE Evening Seminar: Business Intelligence for the Masses

March 1:

SEMIBOUG Meeting

July 29 - August 1:

IBIS 2007 - Registration Now Available!

 

Big Shift to XI R2 Under Way in 2007

While the fourth quarter of 2006 saw more Business Objects customers start or complete migrations to the XI R2 release than any previous quarter, 2007 will be the big XI R2 transition year. InfoSol estimates that about 50% of the Business Objects customer base will migrate to XI R2 in 2007. Many migrations are currently under way and many are due to begin in the coming few months.

For most customers with large numbers of users and reports, one of the biggest issues is determining if all their reports are in use and need to be migrated. Additionally, many installations have large numbers of personal documents, that users have stored locally on their PC's, and they need to determine if these should also be migrated. This activity in itself can be a significant undertaking and cause many weeks of extra work prior to even starting the migration. In one recent 2006 migration, a customer discovered they had 33,000 personal documents to migrate in addition to the 3,000 reports in their BusinessObjects repository.

InfoSol has created a special remote audit service to assist customers in determining which reports are actually in use (stored both centrally and locally), and which users are using them. By using the Enterprise Manager auditing tool, it is possible to view BusinessObjects activity on individual workstations, both on-line and off-line, as well as on servers. Collector agents can be installed on all workstations and servers to be monitored for a period of 30 to 45 days. InfoSol can remotely analyze these files and provide a report identifying all reports and queries executed and by whom (user and/or workstation).

This audit can save customers a lot of time and money and is available immediately through InfoSol. For more information click here.

See also special 25% discount offer on Remote BusinessObjects Usage Audit click here.

New "Introduction to Business Intelligence" Seminar Available

InfoSol has developed a new and exciting 1-day seminar to introduce business managers, executives, and key personnel to the world of Business Intelligence. The seminar, entitled "Introduction to Business Intelligence" provides a guided tour through the often confusing maze of Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing technical terminology, explaining it from both a business and a real-world application perspective.

The seminar comprises of 8 major topics, each delivered in digestible 30 to 45 minute sessions that bring the world of Business Intelligence to life and reveal why it is such a critical and essential component of so many businesses today.

To view the seminar synopsis and major topics click here.

InfoSol will offer the seminar as a public education offering starting in April. To check for the schedule or register to attend click here.

It will also be available for on-site delivery at any location. To request an on-site seminar click here.

The seminar will also be made available through a Virtual Classroom offering via a remote web cast. To request attendance to a Virtual Class seminar click here.

InfoBurst XDS Provides Powerful Add-on for Xcelsius Dashboard Applications

As more customers start to deploy amazing, interactive dashboards using Xcelsius, the need to dynamically share and automatically refresh these dashboards to make them true analytic applications is increasing.

Xcelsius Designer allows you to develop dashboard applications that can connect to commodity data sources via Web Services, XML, or Live Office. However, none of these connectivity options provide automatic refresh of the dashboard. Also, a significant amount of server side coding may be required to pull the data required by the analytics in the dashboard. The new InfoBurst XDS option provides a solution that overcomes these issues and makes shared Xcelsius dashboard applications with hundreds of users and real-time refresh a reality.

InfoBurst XDS can use a Business Objects or Web Intelligence query to generate the data ranges, crosstabs, or other data required by the analytics in the Xcelsius dashboard, and present them in the exact format required as an XML data file stored in virtual memory. InfoBurst, with its powerful time and event driven scheduling capabilities, can continue to refresh this data at any time interval or only when the data has changed. The Xcelsius dashboard viewers point to the XML virtual memory file and can be set to refresh automatically, or on demand, by providing a refresh button on the dashboard itself.

The end result is an Xcelsius Dashboard application that is scalable, performant, and automatically refreshed, making InfoBurst XDS a "must have" for any Xcelsius Application deployment.

Click on the dashboards above to view them in action.

For more information or a free web cast click here.

Ask the Expert - Your Business Intelligence Questions Answered

QUESTION:
In XI R2, when I refresh Web Intelligence or Desktop Intelligence documents, that contain prompts with Lists of Values, I experience long, sometimes unacceptable wait times until the prompts are displayed. What is the cause for this?

ANSWER:
The cause for this problem is the fact that the Lists of Values (LOV) are not persistently retained on the server. It means that once the cache for that particular LOV expires, the list must be repopulated against the database. And each session has a separate cache, which in turn means each user will cause the list to be refreshed each time they use it.

The default technology in BusinessObjects Universes consists of extracting distinct values from whatever the object SQL is. If the object is based on a very large fact table, it may mean that millions of rows have to be scanned for each use of the particular LOV.

Click here to view full tech tip...

Submit your questions to the InfoSol expert by e-mailing infosol@infosol.com. Also, check out our BusinessObjects technical tips by visiting our web site.

Special Offers for February 2007

Save 10% on Version Manager

Version Manager is rapidly becoming the solution of choice for many Business Objects customers looking to implement change control on their BusinessObjects universes and reports. InfoSol is offering a special 10% discount on all Version Manager licenses, maintenance, and services for all purchases in the month of February.

To request a web cast, trial, or quote click here.

Save 25% on Remote BusinessObjects Usage Audit Service

For the month of February, InfoSol is offering a special 25% discount on any BusinessObjects remote Audit service to help you assess your usage of BusinessObjects and reports in use prior to migrating to XI R2.

For more information or a quote click here.

Save $400 + $500 (=$900) on IBIS 2007 Registration

IBIS 2007 is the one BusinessObjects education event not to be missed this year, and InfoSol is offering not one, but two huge discounts for a few lucky individuals.

If you are willing to develop and present a 30-minute presentation or demonstration on some aspect of your BusinessObjects XI R2 environment, and your presentation is selected, InfoSol will give you a $400 credit towards your IBIS 2007 registration. In addition, if you register for IBIS 2007 prior to April 15, you will also receive a $500 discount off your registration. Put the two discounts together and that amounts to a whopping $900 discount, which means you can attend 3 days of the best education, enjoy 3 nights at the luxurious Ritz-Carlton resort with all group meals and events included for just $895.

To submit a synopsis of your topic to present click here.

To register for IBIS 2007 for a $500 Early Bird discount click here.

FREE Evening Seminar

Business Intelligence for the Masses

To Register, click here.

Business Intelligence software and solutions are changing the way corporations and institutions are doing business. It is helping them to operate more efficiently, reduce costs, improve results and generally act smarter.

While large companies have been reaping the benefits of BI for many years, mid-size and small companies have not, for the most part, taken advantage of this amazing technology.



Click here to see this dashboard in action.

Today, Business Intelligence is both affordable and easy to implement. The only hurdle is understanding what it can do for you and why you need it now.

InfoSol is offering a dynamic, one-hour presentation entitled “Business Intelligence for the Masses” to show you what Business Intelligence is, how companies are using it today and to demonstrate examples of Business Intelligence solutions in action.

Do not miss this excellent opportunity to learn about how Business Intelligence can help you.

Refreshments will be provided.

SEMIBOUG Meeting
(Southeast Michigan Business Objects User Group)

Date: Thursday, March 1, 2007

Time: 8:00am - 4:30pm (Registration begins at 8:00am)

Location:
Providence Hospital
16001 W. 9 Mile Road
Southfield, MI 48075

InfoSol will be presenting the following:

Distributed Xcelsius Dashboards
Business Intelligence dashboards showing key business and operation metrics are hot and with the amazing Crystal Xcelsius solution, they just became even hotter. Using Xcelsius, you can quickly create dazzling and effective, animated dashboards and “what if” calculators that can either be dynamically refreshed or embedded in commodity applications. Take this a step further by automatically and intelligently distributing these dashboards and you have the next generation of Business Intelligence. See Distributed Dashboards in action and learn how businesses, large and small, are looking to utilize them.

Push vs. Pull - Business Intelligence Report Distribution with InfoBurst
As more companies see the need to deliver critical information, both within and outside of their companies, they are realizing that the "Pull" model of requesting reports has many limitations. The need to "Push" and deliver reports to people has never been greater and the tools for doing so have never been more powerful and flexible. See why more corporations are turning to InfoBurst for their Business Intelligence report distribution than ever before.

Click here for full details, agenda or to register for the meeting.

IBIS 2007 - Registration Now Available!

IBIS 2007: July 29 - August 1, 2007 at The Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas

InfoSol’s Business Intelligence Seminar (IBIS) delivers an effective combination of Certified BusinessObjects training courses, knowledge exchange seminars and management workshops to help you get the most out of your business intelligence deployment.

IBIS 2007 Offerings will include:

• Optimizing and Managing your XI R2 Environment
• BusinessObjects Certified Training Courses: 
  - Crystal Reports
  - Advanced Crystal Reports
  - Web Intelligence
  - Advanced Web Intelligence
  - BusinessObjects Data Integrator
• Deploying Dashboards in an Enterprise Environment Using Crystal Xcelsius and InfoBurst 
• Introduction to Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing and BusinessObjects for Managers 
• Tips and Tricks
• User Case Studies
• Course Certificates for all Courses and Workshops Attended  

EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION IS JUST $1,295 AND INCLUDES:

• 3 Days of Training, Knowledge Exchange and Workshops 
• 3 Nights of Luxury Accommodations at The Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas Resort
• Group Meals, Scheduled Evening Events, and More...
  

Register on-line now or call InfoSol at 623.707.7600 ext. 120.

Early Bird registration price ends April 15, 2007 (regular registration price is $1,795).

InfoSol Inc.
1831 W. Rose Garden Lane, Suite 8
Phoenix, Arizona  85027
623.707.7600