About the Contributing Authors

Ryan Marples has worked in a variety of roles at Business Objects and formerly Crystal Decisions for six years. His experience in supporting, building, marketing, and selling Crystal-based products makes him an authority on the technology. Today Ryan works with the company's largest customers helping them define and architect successful technology deployments. This is the second book he has helped author for the Crystal community. Ryan resides in Vancouver, Canada.

Naisan Geula manages the Business Objects field sales alliance with Microsoft in North America. He is an avid garage tinkerer, mountain bike mechanic, and gadget-phile, and he lives in rural Washington with his wife and personal zoo. He greatly enjoys the outdoors and watching technology unite humanity and facilitate a more holistic lifestyle.

Bob Coates has been an employee of Business Objects (through the acquisition of Crystal Decisions) for seven years. He is currently a member of the pre-sales department and the Public Sector team in the United States. Bob started working with Crystal Decisions as a technical product specialist and team leader in technical support; he moved on to become a consultant in the professional services organization, and finally moved into his current role in pre-sales. Prior to coming to the technology industry, Bob enjoyed diverse roles as an Infantry Officer in the Canadian Forces Army Reserve (Seaforth Highlanders of Canada), bartender in various bars and restaurants, and a first-aid attendant in a sawmill in Vancouver.

James Edkins is a senior pre-sales consultant for Business Objects. He holds a bachelor's degree in information technology and a post graduate diploma in marketing management. He has been in the information technology sector for more than 10 years and has experience working with the Fortune 500 companies in an ERP, product development, and business intelligence capacity.

Michael Voloshko is a pre-sales consultant for the financial services team at Business Objects and is based in New York City.