From the President's Desk By Tim Shearer

Here at B2B, we are committed to making your total experience with us the best in the industry. We have a large group of staff at our Alpharetta headquarters solely focused on making sure we keep things running as smoothly as possible with you. We have heavily invested in technologies to minimize the effort of doing administrative functions such as time and expense submission.

In this issue, we roll out our new Travel Program with Carlson-Wagonlit Travel. CWT is the largest travel agency in the world and is dedicated to supporting the complex needs of the business traveler. A year ago we moved our corporate travel to CWT from American Express and immediately felt the power and focus of CWT. I personally travel in excess of 100,000 miles a year and can personally vouch for their quality of service. We are expanding this program to many of our consultants as an added benefit to you. The high quality service, coupled with their "frequent traveler" program and their high quality online reservation system, should bring benefit to you. As this program rolls out, please take a minute to examine it and give it a try. I think you will like it.

We have many other initiatives underway to help us work together. We are developing a new web-based job alert process that will streamline the communication with you and at the same time make it much simpler for you to evaluate and self-nominate for positions. Please keep your eyes out for the announcement of this new system.

We continue to be committed to all of our past practices that you find valuable. Despite the slow down in the economy, and the subsequent slow down in payments to B2B from our clients, we continue to have the best pay policies to our consultants in the industry. We continue to be the go to provider to our clients thus allowing us to present to our consultants the best opportunities available in the market.

I want you to know that we do not take you for granted. We are committed to your satisfaction and success. If there are any suggestions that you have regarding how we can bring more value to you, please email me direct at tjshearer@b2bworkforce.com. We will review your ideas and input and incorporate them as we can.

Thanks again for supporting B2B Workforce!

B2B Workforce and CWT Travel Team up to Make Your Travels More Rewarding

As a B2B Workforce Consultant "On the Road Again" could be your theme song. After all, travelling to our clients' locations, and serving them on site, is part of the job. However, we all know that planning, booking and executing that necessary travel often is not without hassle. In partnership with Carlson Wagonlit Travel, B2B Workforce would like to remove the hassle from your business travel and add back in a little reward. You will receive "Reward Bucks" to spend, and a chance to win a Royal Caribbean Cruse with each trip you book!

Sweet Rewards. You will receive 15 Reward Bucks each time you book by phone and 10 Reward Bucks each time you book on-line. Reward Bucks are redeemable at the on-line reward catalogue. A Carlson Wagonlit representative will give you access to the on-line catalogue after you book your first trip. Each booking will also count for one chance to win a 4 day Royal Caribbean Cruise! So, the more you book, the greater your chances of setting sail in the Caribbean.

Our new Travel Rewards Program will harness the power of the large volume of travel done by our B2B Consultants, allowing us to take advantage of volume discounts, and better manage expenses. Best of all, the Travel Rewards Program passes the rewards on to you, the travelers, our B2B Consultants!

It's the Gift that keeps on giving, whether you are currently working for B2B Workforce or not! Of course our goal is to help you grow your career project after project. However, should you choose to seek opportunities outside of B2B Workforce, we encourage you to continue booking travel through Carlson Wagonlit, and continue reaping those Travel Rewards!

Here is how it works:

For On-Boarding Consultants: A representative will be calling you from Carlson Wagonlit to answer any questions you may have and to help you setup your profile on www.carlsonwagonlit.info. Once your profile is complete you will receive a password via email for, Trip Manager, the on-line booking tool.

For Currently Billing Consultants: Log onto www.carlsonwagonlit.info to create a profile and get started. You can also contact Jean Decker at jdecker@b2bworkforce for a list of Carlson Wagonlit Travel Rewards agents that can assist you.

Make Your Reservations. B2B Workforce Travelers can do this a number of ways:

• Using Trip Manager- Online
• Phoning In (800-741-4116)
• Emailing

Stay Tuned. We will be creating a webpage with Frequently Asked Questions and other information and updates on the Travel Rewards program on our website www.b2bworkforce.com. There will be a link to the new page posted in the Consultant Center.

An industry leader, with numerous accolades, Carlson Wagonlit Travel has been our trusted travel partner since 2006. We are very excited to share the benefits of our partnership with our B2B Consultants!

SAP in the news

SAP's Business Objects Q2 growth rate probably best in five years: Click here

SAP Retains Market-Share Lead in CRM: Click here

SAP raises its forecasts for revenue and profit margin: Click here

Jon Reed Interviews Sue Martin of SAP on SAP Certification, Presented by B2B Workforce. "News and Insights on SAP Certification"

The value of SAP certification for SAP professionals might be the most frequently asked career question of all time. In this special edition podcast, we discuss the key issues in SAP certification with Sue Martin, Global Certification Portfolio Manager for SAP. During the podcast, Jon Reed poses the "hot button" SAP certification topics that he always wanted to ask, including Sue's take on the relevance of SAP certification to hiring managers, and the value of SAP certification for those trying to break into SAP. Sue also explains the new three tiered SAP certification program.

To listen Click here

Ask the SAP Career Expert

Q:"Please let me know the hottest module in SAP."

JR: Let me approach this question in terms of the core SAP modules. For the first time ever, I will attempt to rank all the core modules from hottest to least hot. I'm not going to count Business Suite applications this time around.

Just remember one thing: sometimes what is hot is not a particular module, but which combination of modules are used. For example, MM and PP are not as hot as some areas, but taken together as "Logistics" with a bit of SD thrown in, they can be very hot. Then there are areas like Project Systems (PS), which are not necessarily super hot but are definitely good niches. So, your background goes a long way towards determining what you should be pursuing - not just what's hot.

With that disclaimer in mind, let's have a look at some of the hottest modules in SAP, ranked in terms of their relative consulting demand:

1. FI/CO (Financials) - Driven by the core upgrades, Financials is still the hottest thing going. There are some interesting niches emerging too, from Treasury to Funds Management (Public Sector), Fixed Assets/Asset Accountings, FI/Travel Management, and, perhaps the most-hyped, Financial Supply Chain Management (FSCM). And of course, many of the CO (costing) components have high demand as well. Then of course in the core FI, there is the new General Ledger, which is a source of need for those upgrading to ERP 6.

Click Here to read the rest of Jon's answer to this question and more.

Oracle in the news

Oracle rushes out WebLogic patch: Click here

3PAR Joins Oracle Unbreakable Linux Program: Click here

Helpstream Joins the Oracle(R) PartnerNetwork: Click here

Health Tip from WebMD

Relief for Allergies While Traveling
Try these tips for allergy relief on the road.

Living with allergies at home is hard enough. But traveling with allergies raises a whole new set of challenges in getting relief for allergies. Whether you travel every week for business or just once a year to visit the grandparents, it's important to head out prepared. Traveling with allergies doesn't have to be torture!

Allergy Sufferers: Plan Ahead for Travel
Getting relief from your allergies while you're on the road starts before you take a step out the door. First, think about your destination. What allergens and irritants are common where you're going right now?

Check the pollen counts at your destination. (Worldwide counts are available from the Allergy Nursing web site at http://www.allergynursing.com/climate/pollen.html/.) Plan your packing with allergies in mind.

• Pack all the medications you'll need in your purse or carry-on bag -- something you'll have at hand in the car, in your train seat, or on the flight. Bring a day's worth of extra doses just in case you're delayed.
• Keep medications in their original packaging to avoid running afoul of the Transportation Security Administration if you're flying. You should be allowed to check all types of medication through the security checkpoint. If it's in three-ounce or smaller quantities, you can put it in a clear quart-sized bag as you do with shampoo and perfume -- but give the meds their own bag, separate from cosmetics and other liquids. If your liquid or gel medications are in larger quantities, put them in a separate bag and declare them separately to the screener.

To view the full article on WebMD.com: Click here

FUN STUFF

Are there any Scrabulous players out there? For those who have never heard of it, Scrabulous is an on-line multi-player word game much like the traditional Scrabble board game. Until recently Scrabulous was available to users of the popular social networking website facebook.com. For more information about the copyright and trademark lawsuit filed against the creators of Scrabulous click here.

For those who had been playing Scrabulous on Facebook and are disappointed it is no longer available, we have good news! You can play at scrabulous.com. All you need to do to set up an account is provide a valid email address. You can play live on-line or by email.

Need someone to play with? Send an email game to playscrabulous@gmail.com and play with our newsletter team.