By Freya Purnell
SAP Australia, in conjunction with Victoria University, is offering an Apple iPad to the Australian university student who can create the best dashboard using SAP Crystal Dashboard Design.
Now in its second year, the Australian University Dashboard Competition challenges students to create a flexible sales dashboard for Global Bike International (GBI), a fictional world-class bicycle company serving both professional and amateur cyclists.
Entrants must build a dashboard using SAP Crystal Dashboard Design software (formerly Xcelsius) to provide the CEO of GBI with greater insight into sales data and to understand trends in sales performance. The dashboard must provide an overview of how the company is performing each morning, with the information to be displayed in less than five seconds. Entries must include a dashboard and simple end-user manual to explain the functionality and navigation of the dashboard.
SAP has provided several free resources for the competition, including a trial download of SAP Crystal Dashboard Design as well as the SAP Crystal Dashboard Design Tutorial and SAP Crystal Dashboard Design User Guide.
“SAP Crystal Dashboard Design dashboards turn seemingly mundane reporting tasks into a live, up-to-date experience that translates endless amounts of data into valuable, measureable information for businesses,” said Paul Hawking, a competition judge and SAP Academic Programs Director at Victoria University. “This year, we are hoping for creative entries that clearly communicate complex data in a powerful and visually-appealing style.”
This year’s judging panel includes a range of renowned Australian and international judges: Susan Foster, Monash University; Tony De Thomasis, Acclimation (SAP Mentor); Ingo Hilgefort, SAP Canada (SAP Mentor) and Tammy Powlas, Fairfax Water, USA (SAP Mentor).
The winning dashboard’s creators will receive an Apple iPad as a prize, as well as having their dashboard displayed on the SAP website. Last year’s competition winner, Rohini Sreedar, created a standout dashboard that enabled Soccer fans to gain a detailed understanding of the performance of teams competing at the 2011 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. As a result of her winning the competition, Sreedar was offered a part-time position with a specialist provider of SAP technology consulting services.
“Last year’s competition – the first – was an outstanding success,” said Helen Masters, VP Commercial & Growth Markets at SAP. “The entries were of the highest quality and we were thrilled to see the winner and at least one other entrant pick up jobs as a result of impressing with their dashboard skills. We hope the competition this year will inspire a lot more people to demonstrate their dashboarding skills in fun, creative ways that mimic how these tools are used in the business world.”
All entries are due by 10 June 2011 at 5:00 pm. Teams can be made up of individuals or pairs.
SAP BusinessObjects Design software is available for purchase at university bookstores throughout Australia.
The competition is open to all Australian university students. The details of the competition, software downloads and tutorials are available at http://www1.sap.com/australia/about/dashboard_competition/index.epx.
