July, 2016
From the Editor
I hope you find this issue of the Newsletter informative. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for future BW Newsletters
Bill Stewart
Reporting News
We’re Hiring!
Are you looking for a new career challenge? Would you like to work as a member of a team? Do you have solid analytical skills and the ability to communicate clearly? If so, this could be the opportunity you have been looking for!
We are in the process of hiring a BW Functional Analyst; someone who will be an integral part of the support, sustainment and enhancement activities of the Business Warehouse team.
The position requires an understanding of business needs and key systems data, metrics, and reporting requirements. This individual will be responsible for discovering, validating, documenting and communicating business processes and requirements associated with SAP BW. Ideally, the successful candidate will be experienced with BW financial reports and have a solid understanding of Boston University financial processes.
The position description is available at this address on the BU Jobs site. For more information, please visit the site and follow the instructions to indicate your interest.
Data Export to Excel not Working as Expected
Several employees recently reported a problem they had experienced when attempting to export BW data to Excel: their exported files were empty. It turns out the problem affects only some people using Internet Explorer (IE). The problem is still being investigated. In the meantime, follow these steps to avoid the problem when using IE:
1. Clear the browser cache following the instructions here: https://www.bu.edu/tech/support/browsers/clear-cache/windows/
2. Add *.bu.edu to Intranet sites in the menu for Internet Options/Security (view brief video tutorial)
When it comes to exporting to Excel, follow these steps:
1. Click the Export to Microsoft Excel button
2. Select Save instead of the usual Open option
3. When the message “ZANALYSIS.PATTERN download has completed” is displayed, select Open
4. Your data will now be available
Training Calendar
July/August Training Opportunities
Upcoming Intermediate-level Workshop
HCM Employee Model Reporting – available to Payroll Coordinators and Managers, the reports examined in this workshop provide access to vast amounts of master data and enable users to develop answers to their various personnel administration and organizational management questions.
Introductory Workshops offered this month
As always, an assortment of introductory workshops will be offered. These sessions present to new employees – or employees assigned a new business role – the fundamentals of reporting for a particular subject area. The sessions are a great way to review material, too. Even if you previously attended an intro session, you are likely to learn new things about reporting – or to be reminded of concepts that you had forgotten.
Click on any of the following links for a course description and/or to register for an upcoming session:
Supplier Resource Management Reporting
Labor Distribution (Payroll) Reporting
Tips & Tricks
Some of these Tips may be new to you, while others may be familiar. Regardless, we hope you find value in these and future Tips, even if we do no more than remind you of the existence of tools you once knew about but had since forgotten.
Note: all of the Tips posted in BW newsletters are archived on this page.
Navigating to the BUworks Portal
It was recently pointed out to me that many employees who rely on BUworks for their work navigate to the portal in a roundabout manner. They go first to the online help area and then click on the link on that page. Did you know that there is a simpler way to get there? Just use the URL www.bu.edu/buworkscentral. That’s easy to remember; so easy, in fact, that you don’t even need to bookmark it! Oh, and to make it even easier, you can drop the “www” part and just enter bu.edu/buworkscentral.
Tips Archive
Mention is made each month that the tips presented in this and previous issues of the BW Newsletter are archived. However, I want to make the reminder even more explicit. Take a minute or two to visit the BW Newsletter Archival page and see what is available. There are currently over 20 entries that range from techniques that you might use every time you run a BW report to esoteric tips that you may seldom (or never) use. Regardless, it’s worth a periodic visit to the page to see if there is anything that may make your life easier. This is a page worthy of a bookmark!
End Notes
Custom Training Sessions
Have you ever thought that it would be really useful if you could get members of your department together with a trainer to focus on BUworks functionality that is specific to the work your department does? I’m happy to work with any department or group that would like to develop and conduct a custom basic- or intermediate-level reporting training session. There are only two requirements for such a session: (1) input from the group is necessary to develop a relevant agenda, and (2) the group should include four or more employees. If you’re interested in discussing the development of a custom session for your department or school/college, contact me via email or give me a call at 617-353-6382.
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