2009 Year in Review

Year In Review Newspaper Headline

2009 has been another interesting year as a business intelligence consultant. The year was fairly balanced between XI R2 and XI 3.0/3.1. Definitely more XI R2 than I would prefer, but I also got to work on a really interesting Xcelsius 2008 dashboard project. I was also able to help several customers with installation, configuration, sizing and security issues, gained some Edge Series and Linux experience, and dusted off my XI R2 migration knowledge.

Regarding certifications, SAP rolled out their new Web Intelligence certification, 2 exams that I passed in March 2009.  In October, I selected to give three breakouts at the SAP BusinessObjects User Conference in Dallas, Texas.  This is the time of year to reflect backwards and set goals forwards for the coming year. The next release of SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise won’t arrive until Q4-2010 at the earliest, so I expect 2010 to be mostly about BOE 3.x.

This year, I achieved Gold Medallion status with Delta, Silver with Marriott, Platinum with Priority Club (mostly Holiday Inn Express) and Diamond with Hilton (mostly Hampton Inn).

Here are the exotic destinations I visited this year.

  • Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  • Columbia, Maryland
  • Dallas, Texas
  • Houston, Texas
  • Lufkin, Texas
  • Memphis, Tennessee
  • Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  • Moline, Illinois
  • Montgomery, Alabama
  • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • San Antonio, Texas
  • Valdosta, Georgia
  • Waterloo, Iowa
  • Westminster, Maryland
  • Wilmington, North Carolina

Thanks to all of the customers that I met for the first time in 2009.  Here’s to a great 2010!

Dallas Marks

Dallas Marks

I am an analytics and cloud architect, author, and trainer. An AWS certified blogger, SAP Mentor Alumni and co-author of the SAP Press book SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence: The Comprehensive Guide, I prefer piano keyboards over computer keyboards when not blogging or tweeting.