It’s been a few weeks now that our team has been developing the agenda for the upcoming Biz.ONE conference. We took our research report – the product of several months worth of intensive research with Business One users – and used that as the blueprint to find speakers with answers to this community’s needs.
Guiding this process has been our focus on the Top 5 Challenges. I’ve written previously about Challenges 1 and 2, and my colleague Lisette Child wrote on Challenge 3. In this post, let’s take a closer look at Challenge 4: Visibility and Versions.
1. Solutions & Transparency
2. Integration
3. Reporting & Analytics
4. Visibility & Versions
5. Feedback & Support
Due to the nature of Business One’s channel strategy, most users don’t get a lot of direct communication or feedback from SAP. It’s not always easy to find the documentation on version/ feature changes that SAP publishes. For the most part, customers rely on their VAR to provide that context and information. Besides, how helpful is it to know about SAP’s communication when your VAR might not be ready to adopt a new version for several more months?
However, there is merit in having insight into what’s coming down the pipeline. While knowing the roadmap for future aspects of Business One doesn’t affect the day to day operations for most users, there is significant value in understanding where and when new features will be added for the long-term strategy of a business. For instance, version 9.3 will include new functionality for RMA for which some users might be currently looking at an add-on to meet their needs.
It’s incredibly valuable to know that your business might not need to spend that money if RMA will be included out-of-the-box in the next version.
Users want to hear from SAP about the plan for changes to Business One, how new technology will alter the landscape, and what kind of support they can expect over the next months and years regarding their investment. In our research, we heard repeatedly about the importance of topics such as:
- Having clearer visibility into the new features coming in future patches and versions
- Understanding the impact of HANA and what an upgrade path looks like
- Adopting the right technology to meet unique business needs
We’re still crafting this year’s agenda with input and feedback from our advisory committee on the best speakers and sessions that will address topics just like this.
You can expect to hear directly from SAP and give your feedback directly to SAP: a two-way street of communication that the Business One community has never had before.
Be sure to keep an eye on the Biz.ONE website for our full agenda when it’s announced in July, and we’ll see you in Anaheim in October!
-Erick
Producer – Biz.ONE
