Over the last couple of months we have had a couple of Open Days at the Talis offices focussed on Talis Decisions. These have been well attended – there must have been 35 – 40 people attending across the two events. From the feedback we received afterwards, the events also appear to have been much appreciated by those who came.

For me the most interesting part of these days has been the reasons folk have given for attending. For many there seems to be a desire to get more out of Talis Decisions. The kinds of things people have been saying are:

• “…come to see if what we are doing is right”
• “…looking to pick up tricks for using it – been using it the same way since it came out…”
• ”…don’t feel we are getting the best out of it…”
• “…looking for hints and tips…”
• “…want to understand what more can be done in Talis Decisions than in the earlier [v5i] versions of Business Objects…”
• “…know we aren’t using it to its full extent…”
• “…interested in worked examples…”
• “…want to know how to get more out of it…”
• “…like to reduce our use of Excel for management reporting…”
• “…want to understand the kinds of things it will do…”

Accordingly as part of the day, there was a top-to-bottom worked example around stock management and Brian Crampton did a “clinic” on report authoring based on some of the questions raised by attendees. We are also planning to supplement the existing Training videos with a 2 or 3 additional ones that look at Talis Decisions from that slightly higher level of “what kinds of things can you do with it” rather than just “this is how you create a chart, build a variable or schedule a document”.

If you attended one of these days, we would be interested to know whether what you learned has turned out to be helpful in practice. If you didn’t, attend would this kind of event be something that you would hope to attend if we held further ones in the future?