Apr 29 2008 12:02PM GMT

SAPPHIRE preview: Cool ASUG sessions

Jack Danahy Profile: JackDanahy

This is the second SAPPHIRE in which SAP and ASUG will present together. For attendees, this means a wealth of sessions, networking opportunities, and demos in the same location, but at the possible cost of creating some scheduling complexities. How do you decide which of the hundreds of sessions to attend?

I asked that question to Cyndi Leamon, chief learning officer with ASUG, this morning, and she reminded attendees to make use of the automated scheduling features on the SAPPHIRE and ASUG registration sites. This feature allows you to pull up sessions based on your corporate role, the functionality or topics in which you are interested, or the community of which you’re a part. I also asked Cyndi to give our readers a heads-up on key ASUG sessions at SAPPHIRE and got the following tips:

1. There will be two pre-conference sessions devoted to Business Objects, the business intelligence vendor acquired by SAP. Attendees will have a chance to learn about the Business Objects roadmap, understand its role in enterprise performance management, and access working Business Objects software in dedicated kiosks.

2. There are also two pre-conference sessions on the subject of enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA), which few people know anything about but which is transforming the architecture and infrastructure of enterprise applications. One session will be a basic information session (completing the in-conference SOA 101 session) and the other will be a boot camp for architects to understand SOA integration, value tips, and best practices.

3 . Check out Session 5604 to learn about the value proposition for upgrading to SAP. This is always a red-hot topic, and anyone even remotely interested in an upgrade should be at this session.

See you all at SAPPHIRE next week!

Demir Barlas, Site Editor