Another round of updates to the PowerPoint Twitter Tools, including:

• Auto-tweeting
• An additional feedback slide
• An option for secure internal use
• A customizable text-zooming tool
• The ability to set up values in advance (for example, to add the tools into a conference template)

To access all these tools, please go to the main download page: http://www.sapweb20.com/blog/powerpoint-twitter-tools/. Here’s some information about each of the new features:

PowerPoint AutoTweet

The PowerPoint AutoTweet functionality, available as a PowerPoint Add-in, lets you automatically update your twitter status during your presentation.

As you go through your slides in presentation mode, any text in your note pages between the tags [twitter] and [/twitter] will automatically be tweeted when you reach the appropriate slide.

The plugin uses Microsoft VBA (visual basic for applications), so is only supported in PowerPoint for Windows (the idea is based on similar functionality already available for Keynote on the Macintosh).

Checking the “Display success status of tweets” option will show a dialog box during the presentation, telling you whether the tweet was successful or not. It will close automatically after a second or so (the actual time may vary depending on the vagaries of Windows processing).

You can use the twitter feed to reinforce the points you are making in your presentation, or ask the audience questions related to your content, and include a feedback slide later in the presentation to review the audience replies.

New Feedback Slide

Here’s another feedback slide tool for high-tweet locations (web 2.0 conferences, etc.), showing twice as many tweets as the original. Like the original, it auto-refreshes every 30 seconds and supports pagination and custom feeds (for example using a service like http://TidyTweet.com for a moderated feed, or any other atom-based feed).

Secure Internal Use

What if you would like to use the PowerPoint Twitter Tools for an internal meeting, but don’t want to blast your critique of executive strategy over the internet?

One option is to use the open-source microblogging platform from Status.Net (motto: “Your life and your business are your own. Take control of your status.”). You can see an example of this product in action at www.identi.ca

To use the product, you’d need to install a server inside your organization, invite your employees to register, and then use a custom feed such as:

http://yourinternalserver:1088/api/statusnet/tags/timeline/thetagyouwanttofollow.atom

The two feedback slides and the ticker bar all support the use of custom feeds. Unfortunately, some of the status.net feeds don’t include the avatars link, so you only get the text updates using this method (e.g. see the screen shot below using the public feed for the “enterprise20” tag from identi.ca: http://identi.ca/api/statusnet/tags/timeline/enterprise20.atom).

Zoom Text Tool

This tool doesn’t connect directly to twitter just yet, but it’s a nice graphic effect that you can customize with your own words. Here’s a glimpse of what it looks like (this text moves towards the viewer, and you can click on values to move them to the center)

Support for Predefined Values and Templates

Do any of these apply to you?

• You’re tired of entering the same keyword values each time you open the presentation?
• You have a technically-challenged manager, and you need to set the values in advance?
• You’re scared that the audience might – gasp — see the mouse on the screen? (this is a surprisingly common fear among conference organizers)
• You’d like to set up a conference template for others to uses

The answer to all these is to use the setup variables, now supported by most of the tools. To set variables in advance, simple right-click the tool in PowerPoint and add them to the end of the movie name. Here’s a quick list of the variables available:

• “keyword=yoursearchterm” (use %20 instead of a space if you need two words)
• “locked=1” hides the bar for the search term, effectively “locking” it to whatever you’ve pre-set
• “votes=10” to set the maximum number of votes
• “customfeed=1” to enable a custom feed
• “customfeedurl=http://yourcustomfeedurl” to set the value of the custom feed
• “days=4” increases the number of days votes are valid for
• “percentageorvalue=1” to show percentage by default (0 to show value)
• “choice1=YourChoiceText” for the hover-over text on the voting charts (choice1 through choice6, as appropriate – and use %20 instead of a space if you need two words)

For example, if you wanted to set up the feedback slide so that it automatically opened with a search for the tag “#sap”, you can simply right-mouse click on the movie, and add “?keyword=#sap” to the end of the “Movie” Parameter (note that in theory you should use URLencoding of values, e.g. %23 instead of #, but it seems to work anyway)

And here’s an example of the text to add in order to get a locked-down, custom moderated feed:
“?locked=1&customfeed=1&customfeedurl=http://timoelliott.tidytweet.com/SAPWeb20.atom”

Here’s the result – note that the search term can no longer be changed:

To see which values are valid for which movies, click on the “embed” button, and view the options for the embedded HTML:

To access all these tools, please go to the main download page: http://www.sapweb20.com/blog/powerpoint-twitter-tools/

I’ve posted a new set of tools to the PowerPoint Twitter Tools pages. The new features include:

• Moderated tweets
• New tool to tweet directly from PowerPoint
• New “mood meter” tool
• New voting pie chart tool

Moderated Tweets and New Feedback Slide Options

Are you scared of your audience? Me neither. But when I recently asked several senior executives if they were interested in using the PowerPoint Twitter Tools in their conference presentations, the reaction was identical, three times in a row: “Wow, that’s a great idea!”, followed by “but maybe not this time…”

The biggest fear was that people would tweet something inappropriate, and it would appear during the presentation (profanity, swear words, “your presentation sucks”, etc.).

I think the fear is overblown (if anything, putting the “backchannel” on the front screen helps make it more civilized, and if it’s in the twitter feed much of your audience is already seeing it), but to keep the sensitive exec types happy, I’ve introduced the ability to have moderated tweets, thanks to a new “custom feed” option, and the services of TidyTweet.com.

To use the service, you first sign up for a free account at the beta TidyTweet site, which gives you full control over the twitter stream you’d like to show – you can automatically filter out profanities, users you don’t like, likely spam accounts, etc., and even decide manually on a tweet-by-tweet basis what gets shown.

Once you’ve set up your account, you can use the new “custom feed” option at the bottom of the screen, and paste in the URL of the RSS feed provided by TidyTweet (supported in both the feedback slide, and the twitter ticker bar).

Now only the moderated tweets will appear in your slides (if you’ve chosen manual filtering, you’ll need a colleague in the room who can log into the TidyTweet site and moderate as you present). But remember, the filtering only works for the slides, not for any audience members who are on Twitter directly – if you decide not to show a “tough tweet”, the presenter may be only one who’s not aware of it.

To be fair, there are always some bad apples out there. Here are some of the good reasons I can think of for moderating a big keynote:

• Attention-seekers who might revel in the notoriety of disrupting a big keynote
• Spam artists that jump onto any trending topic
• Consultants and others than can’t resist using the forum to pretend to ask a question while actually pitching their products/expertise
• Way-off-topic posts that sneak through if you have an ambiguous search term (e.g. “#sap” misses a lot of SAP-related content, while “sap” has a lot of junk)

Also, note that the custom feed doesn’t have to be used only for moderation – it can be any RSS feed you like (although certain aspects of the slide might not be supported, such as the people icons). For example, you can use it for more advanced Twitter options, using all the advanced search operators, such as the ability to combine tweets from several different people (e.g. http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?from=businessobjects+OR+sapnetwork+OR+_sapcrm)

In addition, there are several other new features in the feedback slide:

• The texts now automatically highlights the search term, and you can click directly on any mentioned links to open them in a new web page.
• The addition of the “page” indicator in the lower left makes it easy to step back through older tweets.
• A new “locked” option is now available for advanced users who want to embed the feedback slide into presentations with the options preset and invisible (for example, in order to provide it as a standard slide for a conference template, locked to the conference hashtag). More instructions will be available shortly in the “advanced” section of the Instructions page.

Tweet Directly from PowerPoint

I’m not sure what circumstances a presenter might want to do this, but it was a request, so here it is… To use it, simply add the bar to your slides, fill in the message to tweet and press “send tweet”.

PowerPoint will prompt you to enter your username and password for twitter, then send off your message.

Note that the bar uses only “basic authentication”, which means some restrictions apply:

1. The bar’s .swf file must be in the same local directory as your presentation (unlike the other tools, which are automatically pulled from the SAPWeb20.com site as necessary).
2. Whether or not you can use it depends on your computer setup: if you get a #2048 error, your PC or PowerPoint security settings are preventing the login box from appearing (I’ll provide more information on how to fix this once I figure out what’s happening).

PowerPoint Twitter Mood Meter

I designed this tool to accompany debates, or presentations designed to persuade the audience.

It’s a variation on twitter voting – the audience can signal their agreement or disagreement with a proposition, and you can track the sentiment of the audience in real time.

For example: you ask the audience a question (e.g. “does innovation come from small companies, or large companies?”, or “will Web 2.0 transform organizations?”)

In the course of your presentation, the audience can tweet either “@votebytweet warmer myuniqueid” to indicate that that they agree, or “@votebytweet colder myuniqueid” if they disagree, and the indicator in the bar will move to the right (warmer, redder) or to the left (colder, bluer).

Because the bar shows the average of the last n tweets (10 by default), you can use it to track how persuasive you are being with your arguments, as the bar tracks the current “mood”.

As with the ticker bar, this should be installed in the powerpoint slide master if you want to use it across slides. See http://www.sapweb20.com/blog/powerpoint-twitter-tools/instructions for more details

New Pie Chart Voting

A new variation of the voting tool is available, showing a pie chart. Options allow you to customize the text of the options shown next to the chart.

Enjoy the tools, and please keep the feedback coming!

New tool: PowerPoint Crowd Meter

When you want to take a break from using Twitter for interaction, try the PowerPoint Crowd Meter – monitors and displays the noise of the crowd in the room, and shows the maximum volume over the last ten seconds – use it for crowd voting!

New Features

“Quiet” Voting. A new option avoids all your followers having to see your votes. Simply use the format “@tweetbyvote 1 myvote”, where myvote is the ID you’re using for the vote. Try using “xcelsiustweet” if you want to do testing.

More Voting Options. There’s now a choice between seeing the voting results as either percentages or vote totals, with the numbers displayed on top of the bars, and you can click through to a Twitter web page to see the actual votes cast.

Automatic Refresh. The feedback slide and the voting slides now refresh automatically every 30 seconds. Beware of keeping them open for too long, or you may run into issues with Twitter Rate Limiting.

Easy Access to Instructions and Embedding. The widgets now all include information and embed icons that give you access to the instructions page on this site, and the HTML needed to embed the widget in web pages:

Predefined Values. For advanced users, the widgets now include support for Flash variables for predefining certain options, such as the search text that appears in the lower left, the number of votes to be counted, etc. Examine the code available through the embed icon, or see the instructions page for more details.

Please keep your feedback and feature requests coming! http://twitter.com/sapweb20 or timo.elliott@sap.com

In today’s web 2.0 world, sometimes the presenter on stage is the only one who doesn’t know what the audience is thinking – because everybody else is viewing the Twitter stream.

These new prototypes fix that problem, allowing you to give presentations in web 2.0 style, with the comments from your audience appearing directly on the screen, in real time, during your presentation!

Based on the SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius dashboarding technology, but completely free to use, the prototypes can be embedded in any PowerPoint slide deck, and provide a real-time Twitter ticker feed, a Twitter feedback slide, and a set of Twitter voting templates.

Go to the Powerpoint Twitter Tools page on this web site to download the tools!

SAP recently announced its sustainability strategy, including aggressive carbon reduction targets, a new cross-functional sustainability organization, and sustainability solutions for customers. More information is available on SAP’s sustainability pages.

What is Sustainability, Anyway?

Sustainability means different things to different people — the UN Commission on Sustainable Development lists over 40 issues that it can cover, including such topics as “sustainable tourism”, “poverty”, and “mountains”. Given this distinct lack of consensus over what sustainability means, it’s perhaps unsurprising that most organizations are still figuring out what sustainability means for their business and how to implement it.

Research published last year by the Economist Intelligence Unit provides a thorough review of organizations’ sustainability initiatives today – and the extent companies are having difficulty devising useful targets and aligning social and environmental objectives with financial ones. (Additional summaries of the Economist data for North America and Western Europe are available).

There’s a broad consensus that sustainability covers a “triple bottom line” that encompasses social, environmental, and economic dimensions. SAP defines it as “holistically managing economic, social and environmental risks and opportunities for increased profitability”:

• Promoting safety, health, and well-being of people
• Positively impacting the planet via environmental improvements
• Providing benefits for customers, communities and other stakeholders

Sustainability Benefits

Sustainability is rapidly become a business necessity: expected by consumers, enforced by new regulations, and encouraged by economic incentives.

According to the Economist survey, most executives (57%) believe that the benefits of pursuing sustainable practices outweigh the costs, and expect better environmental practices to attract new customers, improve products, and increase profitability.

Sustainability is More Important Than Ever

A more recent Economist Intelligence Unit survey also showed that far from slowing movement towards more sustainability, the current economic turbulence is accelerating the trend, with 47% of respondents planning to reduce carbon emissions and energy use, and 27% planning to create lower-carbon-footprint products.

SAP’s Carbon Footprint

SAP announced it will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions down to 2000 levels by the year 2020 – a total reduction of 51% compared to 2007. SAP published its first Sustainability Report last year, which was rated a “C” by the Global Reporting Initiative. It already leads the software sector in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and appears in the FTSE4Good index. SAP also appears in the Global Challenges Index, which recognizes transparency and anti-corruption efforts, and the Global 100 list of the most sustainable large companies in the world.

SAP has a well-developed internal sustainability program

SAP’s sustainability initiatives include:

SAP Palo Alto

• Eco-efficient buildings: intelligent lighting, solar power, passive cooling systems, waste-water recycling, and rainwater collection. For example, the SAP building in Palo Alto, California has a Silver-level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.
• Subsidized public transportation tickets, new policies to reduce car fleet greenhouse gas emissions, and reduced travel through more extensive use of video conferencing facilities and “virtual events”.
• More efficient air conditioning in a major SAP data center in Germany.
• Recyclable paper and packaging, and internal recycling programs.

SAP’s Sustainability Organization and Framework

Peter Graf, SAP Chief Sustainability Officer

To drive and coordinate all aspects of its sustainability efforts, SAP is forming a new cross-functional sustainability organization, which will be led by Peter Graf, SAP’s first chief sustainability officer and EVP Sustainability Solutions.

The global team will oversee all sustainability-related initiatives, from the creation of solutions that enable sustainable business processes for customers to SAP’s own sustainability operations, including key social, economic and environmental programs.

SAP’s sustainability framework is based on the strategic use of IT as a catalyst for change, and includes:

• SAP solutions to enable sustainable best-run businesses
• Customer-centricity and co-innovation
• SAP as a model for corporate accountability and stewardship

Sustainability Products

SAP wants to help its customers holistically manage sustainability, in areas such as people health and safety, product safety and stewardship, environmental performance, resource efficiency, sustainability performance management, and “green IT”.

Environment, Health, and Safety Management. This new product combines SAP Environment, Health & Safety, SAP Environmental Compliance, SAP REACH Compliance and Technidata Compliance for Products, to help companies with:

• People Health & Safety: Supports the management of Health & Safety, industrial hygiene and occupational health processes, as well as compliance for product safety, hazardous substances, dangerous goods and waste management.
• Emissions Management: Helps to ensure compliance with environmental laws and policies as well as reduce associated costs, efforts and risks on plant and corporate levels.
• Product Safety & Stewardship: Helps to conform with product and material compliance regulations for all industries and secure the right to market products. For 2009, the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals) compliance functionality is available separately to help organizations comply with this new European directive.

Sustainability Performance Management. SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius, Strategy Management, and Risk Management software allows customers to set up sustainability dashboards, define and cascade goals and initiatives, and tie them to sustainability key performance indicators.

Energy Data Management application. Provides utilities the means to manage energy profiles, offer real-time pricing and complex billing, and optimize energy settlements with the goal to improve energy efficiencies. This product enables a “Smart Metering” capability between a utility and its customers.

Recycling Administration application. Helps ensure compliance with worldwide recycling legislation for packaging, batteries and WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment), across SAP and non-SAP software, across the enterprise and beyond, giving businesses the real-time visibility they need to ensure effective business operations and corporate accountability.

Supply Chain Management application. Helps companies plan and design their supply chains, consolidate orders and optimize shipments, thus reducing CO₂ emissions and overall energy consumption.

Product Links:

• SAP Environmental Compliance
• SAP REACH Compliance
• SAP Recycling Administration
• SAP BusinessObjects solutions for governance, risk, and compliance
• SAP Product Lifecycle Management
• Environment, health, and safety compliance management applications

Sustainability 2.0: Collaboration and Co-Innovation

Corporate sustainability pioneers were typically defending themselves against reputational or regulatory risk rather than looking for financial gains. But now leading companies are moving to “sustainability 2.0” – exploiting the new opportunities that have arisen, and working closely with customers and partners on co-innovation.

Successful sustainability requires coordination across the organization, and according to the Economist survey data, relatively few organizations have been able to implement clear standards in all areas of sustainability.

In particular, organizations struggle to apply sustainability policy to the extended supply chain. Over 40% of companies rated their performance in controlling the environmental and human rights standards of their suppliers as below par – worse than any other area – and only one-fifth have implemented supplier controls in the last five years. In addition, organizations are less likely to report on supply chain human rights standards than any other area, and change is unlikely anytime soon: only 35% consider action here an important priority.

This is even more surprising given that there are many public examples of disastrous consequences from socially or environmentally damaging supply chains. Indeed, social auditing arose largely because of the embarrassing behavior of suppliers to developed-world organizations.

The root problem is that today’s global supply chains are very complex, with multiple levels of subcontracting, and there’s little transparency. This makes the chains very hard to “police”. To combat the issue of global supply chain transparency, SAP has been a keen proponent of Business Network Transformation, where companies work more closely with their increasingly interdependent ecosystem of customers, partners, and suppliers to drive transparency, growth and profitability. The drive to sustainability reinforces this trend.

Collaborative Sustainability with SAP

SAP is already working with partners with deep sustainability-related expertise to provide implementations and support co-innovation with customers, and working with technology partners on SAP relevant Green IT benchmarks, projects and standards.

SAP intends to continue collaborating with customers about their current and anticipated needs and seeking co-innovative customers to work with on sustainability. To achieve this, SAP teams will leverage existing communities such as customer communities, Industry Value Networks, Business Process Expert community, SAP EcoHub and Enterprise Services Community, to drive co-innovation activities and channels for sustainability solutions.

In particular, SAP customers and employees are invited to join in the sustainability dialog on the SAP Collaboration Workspace, where you can start discussions, take part in a SAP sustainability survey or view the survey results.

Here are the results of the survey — using SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius, of course:

[kml_flashembed fversion="8.0.0" movie="http://sapvote.com/flash/dashboard.swf" targetclass="flashmovie" publishmethod="static" width="690" height="505"]

[/kml_flashembed]

Looking Forward to the Future

Many organizations are only just beginning to move beyond defensiveness and consider sustainability as a competitive advantage – but it will become much more common.

In the next five years, organizations expect to spend more time on sustainability, communicating their performance to investors and stakeholders, improving the environmental footprint of their current products and services and developing new ones, and improving their own energy efficiency.

For SAP, 2009 will see the release of two further products: Cap & Trade, an extension of the Emissions Management solution set, and a Sustainability Performance Management solution using the BusinessObjects portfolio of business intelligence, risk,  and strategy management products in conjunction with EHS.

A more detailed roadmap and additional products are intended to follow, and the next SAP sustainability report will be released in May 2009.