North American Cartesis User Group

• In December 2007 the Business Specification document will be complete for the new planning product scheduled to be released in June 2008. This document will give details of what will be included in the release.

• The SAP acquisition of BO will have no impact on the 2008 planning release.

• Mark C. said each institution should discuss with BO what release of the Plan systems they should go to.

• The question of what release(s) will be supported going forward was not finalized according to Mark. Johnson Financial was told the 4.x releases will come off support in 2008.

• BO announced the release of Crystal 2008.

• Pia Thompson (hosts our web-site) got approval to have our web site added to the BO user group site. I will update the group when this is complete.

If adding the group to the BO list of user groups significantly increases our numbers we will have to continue to formalize this group to get more people involved. Any volunteers?

Key and RBC are testing the 5.x release.

A new company joined the User Group. Hexion Specialty Chemicals is a Finance user. They have planning but have not installed it. Welcome!

Below is a list of questions the group would like to present to Mark Corsetti. Let me know your comments on the list and I will send it to Mark for his reply. If he wants to address the group I will set up a November call, otherwise I will forward his replies to the group:

• We need a complete list of the support schedule for all the existing releases.

• When will the December announcement to the Group be made public?

• What is the plan for communications to the customers going forward? We get no formal communications regarding releases, problems or new products.

• Who is working with BO from the client side in the development of the June release product? Are any of our requested enhancements included?

Johnson Financial would like to start sub-groups to discuss problems, ask questions and share tips.

August 22, 2007

Attendees:

M&T Bank,BONY/Mellon, Key Bank, Citizens Banking, RBC, Community America, Johnson Financial,Harris Bank Parker Hinnifin, Xenon Consulting

Agenda

Roll call

Jeff Stevens please make sure to register on our web site: www.nacug.com

Updates from Mark Corsetti and Trevor Walker from Cartesis/Business Objects (BO):

Mark Corsetti is now the manager of the EPM suite for North America.
Mark Macaluso is the head of services for EPM for North America.
Trevor Walker is the head of product marketing worldwide for EPM.
For now, continue to use the Cartesis web site for customer support issues.
Sept. 30 th 2007 BO will ship a release of the Cartesis products integrated into the BO suite. This release will be supported for 4 5 years.
June 2008 a new release of BO planning will have the best of Cartesis and the existing BO planning software.
Existing Cartesis customers will not have to upgrade to the 2008 version.
Releases will still be about every 6 months.
Trevor spoke about continued quality improvements now they have the BO funding.
Trevor is going to get back to us by August 31 st on the following:
- Will there be additional cost to upgrade to the June 2008 release?
- What release will the users have to upgrade to in order to get the 4 5 years of support? Does is have to be the Sept. 2007 release?
- When BO supports the old release for 4 5 years will that include bug fixes and new enhancements?
- A documented clear conversion path to upgrade.
- If the Data Integrator product will work for planning as well as consolidations?
- Trevor is going to discuss the NACUG list of enhancements with the head of product management and let us know how they will be included in the road map.
- Trevor will get the product Manager for Planning in contact with RCB regarding security around file system objects.

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June 14, 2007

Discussion Topics

- A recap of the Cartesis User Conference (Connect 2007) that took place in May.
- The Group reviewed what release of the Cartesis platform each institution is working with in production and test environments.
- A discussion regarding how the Business Objects acquisition of Cartesis will effect the Group.
- The Group requested each member institution to put together a list of their top 3 problems/concerns with Cartesis. The replies will be compiled and sent to Business Objects and Cartesis for their review and response. The frustration level with communications, release quality and over all customer support prompted this action.
The next meeting will be scheduled after the problem/concern letter has been sent to Business Objects/Cartesis. The Group will review their response and discuss next steps.

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