On 12th June 2013 the UK and Ireland SAP User Group held the June Special Interest Group meeting for Business One customers. 30+ Business One users gathered at the Manchester Metropolitan University for a day of SAP Business One related sessions. The Manchester Metropolitan University Business School is a great venue for sessions like this, the inside has a resemblance to The Death Star!
The Busines One Chariman, Martin Lewis, introduced the day and handed over to newly appointed SAP Mentor and Business One Evangelist, Richard Duffy. Richard had just arrived in Manilla and talked to us via Google Hangout. The only slight frustration was that our microphone and camera did not work so communication with richard was via keyboard. Richard talked about the plans for Business One and it was reassuring to hear that, although SAP are putting a lot of money in to HANA development, SAP Business One on SQL server is in the long term product roadmap. "We want to give Business One users the choice to utilise the power of HANA, either Analytics or full ERP. SAP are making HANA very affordable for Business One users but we are not going to force anyone to take it." Said Duffy. Richard went on to offer all Business One users access to his demo databases where users can get cloud access to the new version 9 of SAP, Business One an HANA and SAP Business One Cloud via his Academy www.sapbusinessoneacademy.com Richard spoke for an hour and had the audeince captivated. We really hope he will make a personal appearance at the Annual Confernece in November.
Next up it was the SAP Mentors Update. I spoke about why I think it is important for Business One users that we now have two Mentors representing Business One. SAP are really increasing the importance of Business One in their porfolio of products and we are no longer the poor relation to the Business Suite family. I talked about ideas to get more SME representation at SAP events like TechEd and Sapphire Now with the Business One users sounding interested. We then jumped in to the SAP Community Network to recap on how to ask questions and post blogs in the SAP Business One space. We talked about the SAP Idea Place and encouraged users to post ideas then let me know so I can promote it within the SAP Community.
I then put my SAP User hat on and presented about why we are looking to buy Coresuite Mobile Application for SAP Business One. My company is Zoedale Plc and we are a Value Added Reseller of Solenoid Valves and Actuators in the UK. We have 5 Sales People who need to get access to SAP from customer sites to check sales history, stock levels and place orders. I handed over to Steven Ditmore from Coresuite who showed the family of products including The Country Package which can be used to customise Business One and includes some nice reports and an Enterprise Search similar to the one found in SAP HANA.
After lunch, Business One user Peter Linton from Industrial Lubricants company Metalube talked about how he taught himself SQL Queries. Peter is a great example of how intuitive SAP Business One can be, he now uses SQL Queries to report on many aspects of his business that just wouldn't be posisble without an understanding of SQL. We highly recommend the book Mastering SQL Queries by Gordon Du as it is great for learning the basics then moves on to more tips and tricks.
All in all the users said they had a really good day and the content was good. We had lots or audience participation and the users shared their experiences with SAP Business One and helped each other find solutions they can take back to their businesses. This is one of the appeals of the User Group, you get to meet other people using the same software as you and share stories and experiences.
Our next SIG is at the UK and Ireland SAP User Group Annual Conference in November. More details will follow.
