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March, 2007
In This
Issue:
APOS Receives Partner of the
Year Award
Webinar - APOS BI Tools
Overview
Distribution Server - New
Product Announcement
APOS Featured on Diamond Business Objects Community Web Site
Case Study - Genlyte Supply Division
User Group Participation
APOS BI Tools Suite
Custom Development
for Unique Requirements
APOS Solutions News is
published approximately once a month, to share information about
how APOS BI Tools and services are
extending the Business Objects platform for companies like yours.
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http://www.apos.com/Company/SolutionsNewsletter/APOS Solutions News
03-2007.htm?source=nl
APOS
Awarded Business Objects Partner of the Year Award
*Recognition
At the recent Business
Objects Partner Conference held in Charleston, South Carolina, APOS
was presented with a Partner of the Year Award. The award announced
was for "Most Innovative Use of Technology".
Receiving the award on
behalf of the whole APOS team was Warren Kobbeltvedt, VP Sales -
West Region.
"This award is a
testament to the creative development and commitment exhibited by
our whole APOS team" . . . Dan Clements, President, APOS Systems.
"Your development of the
ESRI Integration Kit certainly made the difference and is a
great asset to our relationship with ESRI" . . . Peter Harborow,
Business Objects, Senior Partner Manager, OEM
"With this new
integration between our two products, Business Objects and ESRI
customers are now able to seamlessly access and interact with the
valuable data contained within ESRI ArcGIS using BusinessObjects XI
Release 2," said Wyatt Mullin, vice president of global ISV sales at
Business Objects. "In doing so, customers will be able to better
analyze their geospatial data in order to uncover new insights and
improve decision making."
APOS BI
Tools Overview Webinar
*Learn more about current APOS solutions
Webcasts - Fri, Mar 16 or Thur, Apr 5
Join us
for one these
webcasts covering an overview of the APOS BI Tools
suite for the BusinessObjects XI platform.
The main purpose of these webinars is to
provide high level information to help you better assess the range
of current solutions available.
Learn how APOS BI Tools can help
you leverage and extend the value of your business intelligence
investment.
Date: Friday, Mar 16, 2006 
Time: 10 am PST, 1 pm EST, 6 pm GMT
Date: Thursday, Apr 5, 2006
Time: 9 am EST, 2 pm GMT
Speakers:
Allan Pym, VP Sales - Eastern Region, APOS Systems Inc.
Warren Kobbeltvedt, VP Sales - Western Region, APOS Systems Inc.
Distribution Server for
BusinessObjects XI
*Beta now available
Distribution Server
for BusinessObjects XI Release 2 provides BusinessObjects users with
many powerful options for Report Distribution when scheduling their
Crystal, Web Intelligence and Desktop Intelligence reports. A beta
version is now available.
Key Features
• send successful instances to multiple destinations and formats in
one pass
• schedule to e-mail and e-mail as content
• schedule to FTP and network file location
• schedule to multiple printers -
support for Web
Intelligence, Desktop Intelligence or
Crystal Reports
• add view/edit passwords to doc, xls, or pdf output
• pdf output security – restrict editing, printing options and more
• zip (with password) multiple files (multiple versions of the same
report in multiple formats) into one file or individual files
• send email as content with text and html parts for better email
client compatibility
• expanded output format - beyond those supported in InfoView (HTML,
XML, appended CSV)
• distribute instances only if the report contains data
• control distribution through quick commands, parameters or custom
properties
• log success/failure of instances to event log and/or a file
• notification on success/failure as instances in your inbox in
InfoView
To view a more
complete web demo of Distribution Server and how it works, please
visit here.
For more information on joining this beta program for this exciting
new APOS BI Tool, please
visit here.
APOS Featured on Diamond Business Objects Community Web Site
*APOS BI Tools Feature
Focused on
developers, the new
Diamond Business Objects Community
web site provides valuable news, forums, developer libraries, a code library,
tips/tricks, helpful links and more.
And now, APOS BI Tools
are featured on this site, check it out at:
http://diamond.businessobjects.com/partnerspotlight
Case Study -
Genlyte Supply Division
*Cool
customer
|
"...Throughout the whole testing
process, APOS support was superb! I
was pleased with their
responsiveness and knowledge of
Crystal Reports and the APOS tool. I
was convinced that Bursting Manager
was the solution the Supply Division
was looking for." |
 |
 |
APOS BI Tools Used:
APOS InfoScheduler for BusinessObjects XI R2
Background:
Genlyte Supply Division consists of
three companies (brands); Crescent
Lighting, Stonco Lighting and ExceLine. They manufacture a wide
array of indoor and outdoor lighting
products that serve the commercial,
residential and industrial markets.
Supply Division is focused on
providing lighting products that
exceed customer expectations. They
offer service and support that is
timely, courteous and competent. The
Supply Division prides itself on
continual improvement of processes
and products while maintaining
compliance with applicable
regulatory, customer specified and
industrial design engineering
requirements.
Challenge:
Supply Division developed a sales
report using Crystal Reports. The
President and Regional Sales
Managers are able to view these
reports and download the information
from BusinessObjects Enterprise XI
Release 2 into Microsoft Excel to
analyze the business. At month end,
they are required to create smaller
reports based on territory and email
or fax them to the appropriate sales
representative. The preparation and
distribution of the 150 smaller
reports required extensive manual
effort and was very time consuming.
Supply Division wanted to find a way to
create individual report files
accessible to the respective sales
representatives automatically from the
system. They wanted to send smaller
Excel reports to the company intranet
(WIN system). The WIN system serves as
portal for the sales agencies to use
daily to check inventory, order status,
catalog number and customer numbers. As
part of the Supply Division’s efforts
for continual improvement they contacted
APOS Systems to assist with the
solution.
Solution:
The success of this project
required the synergy of many people,
departments and companies which
include Information Technology, Web
Administration, Marketing, Sales
Management, Sales Rep Agencies, and
APOS Systems. Once APOS reviewed
Supply Division’s requirements, it
was agreed that Bursting Manager was
the solution they were looking for.
Bursting Manager was capable of
bursting the sales report from
BusinessObjects Enterprise into the
smaller reports based on parameters
set out by Bill Perlack, Information
Technology Manager, Supply Division.
More
Visit here
to view other APOS case studies.
If you are an existing customer and would like to be featured in one
of our case studies contact
Bev Cutone for more information.
User Group
Participation *Getting the message out
APOS often provides a speaker
for regional Business Objects user groups throughout North America, presenting this
topic:
"Extending BusinessObjects XI Without Custom
Programming"
If your
local users group would like to request a speaker for one of your
upcoming meetings, please contact us at
apos@apos.com.
We're scheduled to participate
in these user groups in the near future:
•
March 15 -
Connecticut
Business Objects User Group, Hartford, CT
•
March 22 -
Upper
Delaware Valley Business Objects User Group, Exton, PA
• May 21-25 - Berlin, Germany, European Business
Objects User Conference
• June
18-22 - San Diego,
California, ESRI International User Conference
• October 15-18 -
Orlando,
Florida, North America Business
Objects User Conference
• October
28-30 -
Sydney, Australia, AsiaPac Business
Objects User Conference
APOS BI Tools Suite *Extend BusinessObjects XI
and Crystal Enterprise
One of our challenges is keeping
our customers and colleagues current on the APOS BI Tools suite as
it grows.
Visit here to request demo download
instructions and our current price list.
Instance Administration
and Scheduling . . .
InfoScheduler - power
batch scheduling from Microsoft Excel
Instance
Manager -
administrator power tool for managing instances
Archive Manager -
report
instance archiving, with restore
capability!
Instance
Monitor - email
notification of failed instances
System Management and Monitoring . . .
Object
Manager - report
promotion, object management, security
maintenance
RealTime Monitor -
powerful SNMP
monitoring & control of servers, with alerts
KPI - metadata for
analysis - who's viewing which reports, license analysis,
server activity monitoring, etc
RunTime Manager - set availability time windows for
Job Servers, Page Servers, etc.
Extending
the Platform . . .
Bursting
Manager - burst a large instance into small ones, burst
one report to many
Distribution
Server
- powerful
post processing capabilities, zip support, password security and
more
Report Package
Booster
-
consolidate reports to password protected
pdf/xls and distribute
AddressBook
Gateway -
integrate Outlook/Exchange with ePortfolio/InfoView 'schedule to
email'
View Time
Security - row level data security without
C++ development
Processing Extension
RAD - fast
track processing extension development
Integration
Kits
. . .
Integration Kit for ESRI -
two-way integration between Business Objects and
ESRI GIS
Crystal Reports BI Tools . .
.
Add-In Wrapper for
BusinessObjects XI Release 2
- Crystal Reports Add-In menu fast track
integration
Solutions supported only
for Crystal Enterprise v.10 and prior . .
.
Dynamic
Parameters -
SQL-based, user-specific pick lists, cascading
parameters
Subscription Manager
- allow users to
manage their own report subscription
Custom Development for
Unique Requirements
If you
have a unique reporting system requirement,
let us know. We love to
work on special projects and regularly save our customers a lot of
time and money by using APOS BI Tools as a fast-track foundation for
a specific customized solution.
Head Office: 285 Fountain
Street South, Cambridge, ON, Canada N3H 1J2
Tel:
519.653.APOS(2767) - Fax: 519.653.8511
Branch Office:
#10 - 35537 Eagle Mountain Drive, Abbotsford,
BC V3G 2Z4
Tel: 604.864.0766 No Toll:
866.629.APOS(2767) Fax: 604.864.4291
Email: apos@apos.com - Web:
www.apos.com
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(c)2007 APOS Systems Inc. All rights reserved.
Business Objects, the Business Objects logo, Crystal Reports,
Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Analysis, WebIntelligence, Desktop
Intelligence and BusinessQuery are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Business Objects and its affiliates in the United
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