tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47337443476855337542024-03-14T00:25:39.449+05:30Another Blog on SAPR/2 -> R/3 -> ERP -> mySAP -> SAP Business Suite -> Business ByDesignSonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02970910569581264340noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733744347685533754.post-14197966557758943582008-02-03T17:32:00.000+05:302008-02-03T17:45:51.375+05:30SAP-related Employment Options and Careers<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <!-- MAIN CONTENT STARTS HERE --> <p><span style="font-size:100%;">SAP R/3 and other SAP products such as BW, APO, CRM are very comprehensive and complex, both in terms of the IT and the business dimension. A typical ‘SAP-expert’ has very good business knowledge and SAP-skills in either one to two functional modules of SAP R/3 (e.g. FI/CO and SD) or in one of the ‘new dimension solutions’ (e.g. BW). In addition, he or she will have a basic understanding of all other modules and products (Note: Understanding the new dimension products always requires a basic understanding of SAP R/3).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:100%;">Becoming an ‘SAP-expert’ requires, above all, good knowledge of business processes and a substantial amount of SAP-training. In addition to that, becoming an ‘SAP-consultant’ requires good communication skills, project management skills, and problem solving capacity. These three aspects are usually gained through and evidenced by job experience in general and (SAP) project experience in particular.</span></p><h1><span style="font-size:100%;">Employment Options</span></h1> <p><span style="font-size:100%;">From all the above-mentioned it is clear that you will not be an SAP-consultant once you have finished some or even all of the subjects mentioned above. The subjects will, however, be of great value for you, if you pursue one of the following options:</span></p> <ol><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Apply for any business position in companies currently using or intending to implement SAP products or similar products of other vendors (if your strengths are in ‘business’).<br /><br />Your SAP-skills and IS-knowledge will be regarded as a very valuable ‘add-on’ to your profile and might make the decisive difference! The practical exposure to those products will also be the basis for other employment options (after 6 to 12 months) either inside this company (e.g. functional SAP-leader) or in other companies (including SAP-consultancies).<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Apply for any more IT-related position in companies currently using or intending to implement SAP products or similar products of other vendors (if your strengths are in ‘IS’).<br /><br />Your SAP-skills and business-knowledge will be regarded as a very valuable ‘add-on’ to your profile and might make the decisive difference! The practical exposure to those products will also be the basis for other employment options (after 6 to 12 months) either inside this company (e.g. SAP-basis administrator, functional SAP-leader) or in other companies (including SAP-consultancies).<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Pursue a career as ‘SAP-expert’<br /><br />Your SAP-skills and business-knowledge will be regarded as a very valuable ‘starting-point’, but you will require further training and exposure to the software. You can achieve this either through option 1 or 2, or by finding a company or consultancy who is willing to invest in you, or by investing in your SAP-skills .<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Pursue a career as ‘SAP-consultant’<br /><br />Your SAP-skills and business-knowledge will be regarded as a very valuable ‘starting-point’, but you will require further training and exposure to the software. You can achieve this either through option 1 or 2, or by finding a consultancy that is willing to invest in you, i.e. employs you as project assistant and trains you. Investing in your SAP-skills might be helpful, but you would still lack ‘SAP-project experience’!</span></li></ol> <h1><span style="font-size:100%;">Concluding Recommendations</span></h1> <ul><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Be aware that you have learnt a lot more than you would learn in standard SAP-training courses, but still be realistic: You will not be an SAP-consultant right away, and you will not be able to apply for a typical ‘SAP-contract position’ (These are positions advertised by job-agencies who want to make quick money by hiring experienced people who do not need any training and not even guidance and supervision).</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Pursue option 1 or 2. They are not only the best basis for 3 and 4, but also valuable if you do not intend to go for 3 or 4.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">When you seek an employment (option 1 or 2), search for companies who are first of all looking for business or IT-skills (or maybe other skills, such as special language skills). From those short-listed, pick those that have SAP/ERP-skills as required or optional ‘special skills’.</span></li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table>Sonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02970910569581264340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733744347685533754.post-68980559392563578072008-01-19T12:01:00.000+05:302008-02-03T17:48:20.706+05:30Six important things for future BPEs<span style="font-size:100%;">BUSINESS PROCESS EXPERTS<br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-size:100%;">1. End-to-end business process know-how will be more important than "silo" functional knowledge in just one area. </span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">2. BPM tool expertise </span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">3. "Soft Skills" -- the ability to be a customer-facing SAP professional who understands business strategy, rather than a "cubicle coder." Soft skills are about having the savvy to be a "marriage counselor" between IT and the business user community, according to ten Vaanholt. </span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">4. Industry knowledge -- SAP professionals need to cultivate more industry focus, rather than jumping around from project to project across many industries. </span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">5. Web 2.0 skills </span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">6. SAP product knowledge -- traditional SAP product knowledge, with a good understanding of the NetWeaver architecture and the delivery of future upgrades via "enhancement packages." </span></li></ul>Sonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02970910569581264340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733744347685533754.post-88644272721964513642008-01-19T11:50:00.000+05:302008-01-19T12:06:03.433+05:30Which SAP skills are going to be important for consultants to have in 2008 and beyond?<p><span style="font-size:100%;">We're entering the eSOA and NetWeaver era of SAP. But what does that mean for SAP professionals? </span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;"> eSOA (enterprise service-oriented architecture) is a vast umbrella of emerging technologies, and NetWeaver is a broad technical landscape with a number of different components.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;">Today's SAP professional faces a much more immediate challenge: How do you make the right project choices and obtain the skills you need to stay marketable? </span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;">One goal in creating this list was to avoid generalities. For example, we know that it's important to get SAP upgrade experience, so it's useless to list that. But are there tools commonly used in upgrades we can get exposure to? That's where this list can help. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;"><b>2008 and beyond</b></span> </p><p> <span style="font-size:100%;"><b>Solution Manager --</b> It's one of the few bridges between pre-NetWeaver SAP, NetWeaver SAP, and the eSOA and analytics era -- you don't have to be on the latest version of SAP to get access to this tool.<br />You can use Solution Manager to manage your SAP upgrade, and then for performance management and optimization afterward. Solution Manager even contains a comprehensive change management program for handling the cultural and role changes involved in new SAP rollouts.<br />Solution Manager also positions you to get involved with cutting-edge eSOA projects. You can generate "process objects" with Solution Manager, allowing you to start down the road toward composite application development. You can also port data from Solution Manager into Master Data Management (MDM) for number-crunching. As SAP continues its push toward a "business process platform," it is also making an effort to automate routine processes and provide a central spot for managing system performance and business processes. More and more, it looks as if Solution Manager will be integral to this vision. </span></p><p> <span style="font-size:100%;"><b>BI/BW MDX (Multi-Dimensional Expression Language) --</b> We can all agree that the core ERP functional areas are hot, because core upgrades are driving demand for those skills. We also know that BI/BW (Business Intelligence/Business Warehouse) is a major area of consulting growth -- all the reader polls put BI/BW skills well ahead of xApps or eSOA.<br />A lot of SAP folks haven't heard of BW MDX, but it's a key to creating SOA-driven "mashups" that leverage the BW environment. And the best thing? You don't have to be running on BI 7.0 to use MDX. Any BW application from 3.x onward that runs on some flavor on NetWeaver can "express an MDX."<br />There is a general trend toward using BI-driven mashups, and MDX allows you to take advantage of third-party best-of-breed content and "mash" it with your internal data. This might be the easiest way to get involved in SOA and generate instant value that can be used to build momentum for more eSOA projects.<br />If you can't get access to MDX right away and you're an SAP technical type, you can still gear up for eventual MDX work by getting more involved with XML and XML/A, an XML for Analysis tool. </span></p><p> <span style="font-size:100%;"><b>NetWeaver Composition Environment (CE) --</b> The NetWeaver CE is SAP's versatile Java-based environment that now ships with NetWeaver 7.1. Just because CE is a Java EE 5 platform doesn't mean that SAP is abandoning ABAP, but skills in the CE toolkit are going to be valuable.<br />Why include a product as vast as CE? Because unlike most SAP products, you can test drive CE on your own, right from the <a href="https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/500e7034-d86d-2a10-7481-b46a67b8c67e" target="_blank">SAP Developer Network</a>.<br />CE has many different components. Its strongly recommend spending time with the Enterprise Service Repository, the NetWeaver Application Studio, and of course Web Dynpro. Also make sure to check out the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio, which is now based on Eclipse 3.3. I would suggest that even functional types spend a bit of time with the modeling environments within CE, especially Visual Composer. </span></p><p> <span style="font-size:100%;"><b>Visual Composer --</b> Visual Composer has gotten a bit lost in the skills shuffle due to the emphasis on more glamorous BPM (business process management) tools. But make no mistake, it is very powerful for both functional and technical consultants.<br />Visual Composer is not just for building slick GUIs, it's great for taking advantage of the mashup power of SAP Analytics. A technical expert may be needed to drive these model designs home, but there is a lot that a functional (or technical) person can do within the Visual Composer environment. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;"> Admittedly, Visual Composer is not as easy to get your hands on as some SAP tools. There are currently two versions: Visual Composer 6.0 was made available as part of NetWeaver 7.0, and with NetWeaver 7.1, Visual Composer ships as part of the NetWeaver Composition Environment. </span></p>Sonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02970910569581264340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733744347685533754.post-3750467763765985202008-01-19T11:42:00.000+05:302008-01-19T11:48:18.335+05:30SAP & Oracle's battle heats upOracle's $8.5 billion acquisition of BEA Systems Inc. is likely to rekindle the battle for middleware supremacy, according to one IT industry analyst. But it's tough to predict who will come out on top. <p>Oracle's Fusion and SAP's NetWeaver middleware platforms both have their strengths, according to Dennis Callaghan, an analyst with New York's 451 Group. But the acquisition of San Jose, Calif.-based BEA gives Oracle an edge, in that it proves the company is a viable middleware vendor that is committed to openness. </p><p> Oracle's purchases of major software players like PeopleSoft, Hyperion and Siebel Systems have forced the company to become more open than SAP in recent years, Callaghan said, and BEA gives Oracle some serious middleware street credit. </p><p>The answer to the question of whether SAP is a stronger middleware player than Oracle really comes down to who is being asked and where that person's application investments lie, Callaghan said. </p><p> At their cores, he continued, Fusion and NetWeaver middleware are integration and business process management software layers built for the application environments of Oracle and SAP, respectively. </p><p>"Both will connect their own applications with other applications fairly well. But you're not going to buy NetWeaver if you don't have, or plan to have, an investment in SAP business applications," he said. "Similarly, you won't buy Fusion Middleware if you don't have, or plan to [make], an investment in Oracle applications." </p><p> Oracle could, however, have an edge in mixed applications environments, Callaghan explained. </p><p>"NetWeaver is great in an SAP-centric environment," he said. "If you're a bit more [prone to] best-of-breed/heterogeneous/open standards on the applications side, you're better off with third-party middleware, and Oracle will clearly have that now." </p><p>For example, he said, thanks to the BEA acquisition, Infor or Lawson business applications users might consider Oracle middleware for the first time without fear of having to migrate wholesale to Oracle applications in the future. </p><p>"Oracle will now be able to make the case that they're better equipped to handle mixed environments, that they're less likely to lock you into using their applications," he said. "The WebLogic application server is a better and more widely used product than anything Oracle or SAP had offered before." </p><p>Java-based NetWeaver is currently more open than it has been in the past, but Callaghan suggested that SAP might benefit from a similar acquisition designed to make the platform even more open. </p><p> "SAP would need to acquire Tibco to effectively counter this move," he said. "That would be a pretty significant strategic shift for them; but it's a possibility." </p><p>According to Callaghan, SAP and NetWeaver have distinct advantages when it comes to business process management technology, an area that hasn't been a strong point for Oracle. </p><p>"Oracle will get [the BPM technology] BEA got when it bought Fuego, which isn't bad, but that of course will require some integration with the Oracle applications family," he said. "I'd say SAP is ahead there." </p><p> Also, if Oracle is not careful, its many acquisitions could lead to confusion among customers, Callaghan said. </p><p> "I think we counted about four different portal products Oracle's going to have after this acquisition, which is just confusing," he said. "So I'd give SAP an edge there, at least in the short term." </p><p> The bottom line is that it's tough to say which platform is superior, Fusion or NetWeaver, Callaghan said.</p>"Consolidation always creates opportunities to look at new vendors," Callaghan said. "So it never hurts to consider alternatives when there is any uncertainty about future product development plans."Sonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02970910569581264340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733744347685533754.post-41533267375210264632007-11-19T19:48:00.001+05:302007-11-19T19:50:26.025+05:30Authorized training Centers of SAP in IndiaSAP has set up a community of Education Partners across India that offer well-designed and accessible training on SAP technologies. Prospective learners should always check the accreditation of any education centre prior to parting with any fees. SAP’s training partners in India are -<br /><ul><li>Siemens Information Systems Limited, </li><li>Genovate Solutions (I) Pvt. Ltd, Delphi Computech Pvt Ltd., </li><li>VC ERP Consulting Pvt. Ltd, </li><li>Kauf Solutions India Pvt. Ltd, </li><li>Boston Software Consultants India Pvt Ltd, </li><li>BITECH and Cognizant Technology Solutions India Private Limited. </li></ul><br />SAP training centres are located across India in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai,, Nasik, Mangalore, Mysore, Chandigarh, Vishakapatnam, Madurai, Cochin, and Coimbatore. Students can contact SAP at <a href="mailto:education.india@sap.com" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">education.india@sap.com</span></a> for any queries they might have.Sonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02970910569581264340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733744347685533754.post-88100212139191111172007-11-18T14:51:00.000+05:302007-11-18T14:56:27.725+05:30what's the latest on the future of ABAP?ABAP is not as dead as some might think.<br /><br />At TechEd 2007, Vishal Sikka, SAP's chief technology officer, said that there are still 238 million lines of ABAP code in SAP. The message? ABAP is still entrenched in SAP, and SAP is still entrenched in ABAP. He also noted that while some new SAP programs are written in Java, some are written in ABAP too. <p>Some of the new NetWeaver PI (process integration) functionality was also written in ABAP. You may not see it when you work with PI, but the ABAP is there underneath, keeping things humming along. Some SAP representatives didn't even know whether ABAP was part of NetWeaver at this point, but the SAP Labs team assured me that it is. </p> <p>Thomas Jung of SAP Labs, who writes a <a href="https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/u/251694270" target="_blank"></a>developers' blog on SDN (SAP Developers' Network), said some of the underlying NetWeaver functions were written in ABAP, and of course there is the Web Dynpro for ABAP. Jung also said that the ABAP Workbench is indeed part of NetWeaver and is being equipped with many of the bells and whistles that the Java side of NetWeaver is receiving. </p> <p>So, although it's not going away anytime soon, we can't say that the ABAP outlook is dreamy. ABAP is still a valid part of the SAP landscape, but there's no question that when it comes to designing new enterprise services, Java is the language of choice in most cases. </p> <p>On the other hand, we must remember the warning Sikka gave me during our interview: The entire SAP landscape is changing, and the emphasis on ABAP versus Java is not the right way to understand the transitions that are under way. </p> <p>The design of the new enterprise service-oriented architecture (eSOA) NetWeaver development platform is specifically intended to make the programming language used irrelevant. The eSOA layer is designed to work with any open standard, so between eSOA and PI, programmers should be able to use their environment of choice and be interoperable with SAP. </p> <p>Sikka went further, as did many executives, to stress that SAP's modeling tools (Visual Composer, the upcoming Aris for NetWeaver, as well as a new Eclipse modeling environment) are all designed to change the development process and emphasize the design of reusable components over arduous hand-coded customizations. </p> <p>Soon, these modeling environments may even generate enough automated code to make it possible for the "Business Process Experts" of the future to do all the development work. Some have suggested that as much as 70% of all hand-coding will go away once these tools are fully realized. </p> <p>That goes beyond the ABAP-versus-Java debate to a much broader debate on the future of development work in an SOA and visual modeling world -- inside and outside of SAP. My advice for developers is to try to get their hands on all the new modeling tools and to check out the new composition environment on <span style="text-decoration: underline;">SDN</span> and the BPX community in order to get a better feeling for the convergence of IT and business. </p> <i><br /></i>Sonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02970910569581264340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733744347685533754.post-4033273880562409992007-11-18T14:44:00.000+05:302007-11-18T14:51:14.770+05:30What does the future look like for ABAP developers?<p> </p><p>The future of ABAP (advanced business application programming) is seemingly on every SAP developer's mind. No area of SAP has been harder hit by technical changes than ABAP development, but ABAP is far from dead. </p> <p>Developers point to ominous signs:</p><p>-->All new SAP programs are written in Java (not true)</p><p>-->The NetWeaver CE (composition environment) is an exclusively Java-based environment (true)<br /></p><p>-->the NetWeaver Developer Studio is also almost exclusively Java-based (true)</p><p> When we take the impact of global outsourcing into account as well, we can safely say that it's been a rockier road for ABAP programmers than for any other SAP skill set. </p> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td colspan="2"><img src="http://media.techtarget.com/searchSAP/images/spacer.gif" height="7" width="1" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td> <table style="width: 12px; height: 18px;" align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr class="color4"> <td><br /></td><td style="vertical-align: top;"><br /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td><img src="http://media.techtarget.com/searchSAP/images/spacer.gif" height="1" width="7" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"></td> </tr> </tbody></table>SAP customers don't want to find themselves with a development team that lacks the skills to implement the latest SAP functionality, and SAP programmers are facing enough challenges without having to worry that their skills won't be needed on project sites.<i><br /></i>Sonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02970910569581264340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733744347685533754.post-15332152988153414182007-11-14T19:46:00.000+05:302007-11-14T20:14:37.911+05:30New to SAP?Career switch to SAP involves mix of a lot....<br /><br /> .....a lot everything we contribute to help ourselves and get perfection in our dream niche. Here is the platform we needed!<br /><br />Jus post..<br /> What do you think about SAP in general?<br /> What ERP actually means to you..?<br /> What you are getting confused of?<br /> What is a module..FICO, BI..?<br /> WHATs, WHICHs, WHEREs, WHOs, WHENs(5 Ws)<br /> ..replies are awaiting<br /><br />Giving a start ..an ERP (stands for Enterprise Resource Planning) is an integrated software solution used to manage a company’s resources<br /> MAN MONEY MANAGEMENT MATERIAL MACHINERY<br /><br />SUGG: jus make use of yourselves to pronounce SAP as 'S', 'A', 'P'<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Best Run-Businesses run SAP</span>..thats true 200%Sonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02970910569581264340noreply@blogger.com1