Almost ten years ago, Alex Rooney, Vice President, Vision33 US, asked me to start a regular weekly webcast about SAP Business One. He named this new endeavor “Wednesday Web Chat.” I didn’t know how important it would become, but Wednesday Web Chat has affected customers and consultants worldwide. Wherever I travel – visiting customers, attending conferences or events, etc. – someone always mentions Wednesday Web Chat. After ten years, it’s humbling and exciting when a new acquaintance tells me they’ve been listening to me on Wednesday Web Chat for years.
When Wednesday Web Chat began, we couldn’t fathom the reach this weekly presentation would eventually have – we were simply aiming for live attendance. During the first seven years, we recorded 50 episodes, and for three years, we’ve been recording 27 episodes. That’s 431 episodes of Wednesday Web Chat and, with an average live attendance of 12 people per episode, that’s 5,172 attendees in the last ten years.
We post the episodes on YouTube and the Vision33 website for our customers to review at their leisure. A year ago, I asked our marketing department to see how often the average episode was viewed during a year; we learned that a typical episode was viewed 2,000 times in one year on YouTube. If we apply that finding to all 431 episodes, it’s possible that Wednesday Web Chat has been viewed 862,000 times in the past ten years!
It’s safe to say that Alex Rooney had a great idea. Wednesday Web Chat is one of the most significant contributions I’ve made in my career at Vision33.
In that time, certain themes have emerged as audience favorites. A compatriot at Vision33 did some research and helped me rank the most popular topics of Wednesday Web Chat. Below are the top 7 favorite topics.
For years, I’ve conducted in-person training sessions that hundreds of people have attended, so this is no surprise to me. The challenge was making them available to enough people. Last year, we created a landing page dedicated to distributing eight Crystal Reports lessons to a much larger audience. If you want to learn how to use Crystal Reports Designer in SAP Business One, go here for eight unique lessons about Crystal Reports Designer (and many other resources).
For years, the most popular episode of Wednesday Web Chat was about Queries, so we put numerous videos and other resources about Queries in our new Resource Center. To access the Resource Center and find those resources, you must log in, then use the search function. Type “Query” in the search bar and hit enter for a list of 13 resources you can view or download. Or, type “Queries” in the search bar for a list of 45 resources, including sample queries you can download.
Resource Center – Login if you already have a username and password or request access to set up a new account. Use the search bar to look for a topic or check out the category boxes.
Accounting is the language of business, and financial topics are extremely popular with SAP Business One users. In the Resource Center, you’ll find videos about every financial topic imaginable and some highly detailed documents you can download. Once logged in to the Resource Center, do the following to find financial topics.
The second-most popular presentation was about Bills of Materials. Due to this popularity, we created two additional special presentations focused on the topic. Each has a landing page with the video presentation and additional deliverables. Just click the link below, fill out the form on the landing page, and off you go.
BOM Presentation
SAP Business One came to North America in 2003; since then, there have been at least 12 major version releases. Each has added features and functions that have led to 400+ improvements to the software. For most of the past ten years, Wednesday Web Chat has created a “What’s New” series when a new version is released and made those episodes available to the public. These video demonstrations help users understand the new features and functions and determine their usefulness. Just type “What’s New” in the Resource Center search bar to see a list of 57 recordings with descriptions that will help you zero in on a feature and the version it was released in. You may find the same topic in two versions because some new features took several versions to reach maturity.
Another popular theme is the tricks that make using SAP Business One easier and faster. Whether it’s on a Wednesday Web Chat or at a conference, the Tips and Tricks presentations always have a big audience. Just type “Tips” or “Tricks” in the search bar of the Resource Center to find a small treasure trove of recordings.
One favorite of mine has a different title – search for “top 10” to check out the Top 10 Hidden Features in SAP Business One.
The Basics series is an excellent resource for anyone starting with SAP Business One or refreshing their understanding of a topic. If you search “Basic,” you’ll see a list of the 14 members of the SAP Business One Basics series. Search “Series” and then sort to see a list with 27 additional topics. In total, there are 41 topics that cover almost every aspect of SAP Business One basics.
Wednesday Web Chat remains a core strategy for Vision33 to communicate with customers regularly and effectively. During these days that have been so greatly affected by the coronavirus, we also use Wednesday Web Chat presentations to encourage our customers. We hope you’ll find these resources helpful.
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