training

SAP implementation/upgrade tips

Implementing or upgrading SAP can make or break not only a CIO’s career but also impact the financial position of a company. This is a major issue going into TechEd 2008, where plenty of discussion will be devoted to the finer points of ensuring a successful SAP implementation or upgrade. We looked back through the SearchSAP archive to find five particularly helpful pointers on this topic. Whether you’re a CIO, an SAP consultant, or a member of an SAP project team, studying this content will give you a leg up on understanding — and avoiding — the pitfalls while executing on the best practices.

Important points for planning an R/3 upgrade project: These 10 tips, ranging from the big picture (understanding your system landscape) to important details (dealing obsolete ABAP statements) offer a conceptual foundation for SAP R/3 upgrades.

Ten critical steps when undertaking an SAP upgrade: This high-level overview of the SAP upgrade process gives you tips on everything from how to prepare your organization to how to handle the SAP graphical user interface front-end.

SAP consulting versus SAP support for upgrades: Partners are one of the most important success factors in an SAP upgrade or implementation. This article will clue you in to the distinct services you can expect from SAP consulting and SAP support.

SAP implementation challenges, potential pitfalls: SAP end user Rosenthal USA achieved a successful SAP implementation by avoiding common pitfalls and adopting best practices. As a smaller company, Rosenthal USA offers helpful tips for negotiating with VARs and other strategies for driving down the price of an SAP implementation or upgrade.

Podcast: Run SAP and Solution Manager. Implementing or upgrading SAP is only half the battle. In order to keep your business running, and to optimize your SAP ROI, you have to learn how to run your SAP solutions in the most efficient possible. Fortunately, SAP can help you do this with the Run SAP methodology and the Solution Manager tool.

If you have follow-up questions generated by this content, don’t hesitate to leave your comments below.

Demir Barlas, Site Editor

Learn SAP without spending all your money

Editor’s Note: Last month, SearchSAP Expert Axel Angeli offered his take on how to get into SAP Basis. A reader responded by asking Axel how, when SAP prices for individual Basis access start at 2,000 euros, aspiring SAP functional consultants and technology consultants in Central and Eastern Europe could afford to get into Basis. This blog post is Axel’s response, which contains valuable information for anyone who wants to learn SAP without spending too much money.

Axel Angeli: In my earlier response, I just pointed out what the official SAP price is to get the software in your hands. Of course, there are many commercial training offers out there in the market, delivered by companies who have SAP licenses and can set prices at their own discretion. [Online SAP training is also available--Editor]

Regarding pricing, you have to understand that even the consultants from Eastern countries (such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania) stream into Western Europe (mainly Germany) and work there for rates that are between 500-800 euros per day. Educated Basis consultants do not really compete with low-wage workers in Poland but offer themselves as cheaper alternatives to the local German, French and British consultants. Even in Poland, an SAP consultant gets paid 400 euros per day and more, so we have to think in price ranges of a week’s freelance tariff.

Remember that you are free to share the SAP training investment with other students. In Germany, for example, there is the DSAK (Deutsche SAP Arbeitskreis), in which over 100 members share a single SAP instance. So the individual cost for acquiring SAP licenses is negligible. Your logical path here is to find as many peers as possible, start a union that wants to learn SAP — like an “Association of Polish SAP Consultants” — and share the costs of the SAP license, hardware and administration of the system.

For a low-budget quick start, you can also try out the essentials of Basis admin by using the SAP Miniwas ABAP Trial. This is free to download and use on a single PC by a single user. It has all Basis components installed, but lacks configuration features such as choosing a database and defining your own variations of creating an instance. But, generally, it has all features built in. Check out SAP SDN’s download section to find it.

Axel Angeli, SearchSAP Expert

How to get started in SAP

The demand for SAP technology and functional consultants is near an all-time high. However, if you don’t already have an SAP job, building an SAP career remains a difficult undertaking.

SAP certification and training is one way to prepare yourself for an SAP job, but recently readers are asking us how to choose between the various options available. One way to begin is by taking two classes directly from SAP:

SAP NetWeaver is SAP’s technological foundation and the core of all SAP foundations. As such, it’s a good investment to take SAPNW and SAPTEC classes directly from SAP. SAPNW is a three-day course, offered in dozens of countries, that will introduce you not only to the NetWeaver interface and fundamentals, but also to SAP’s service-oriented architecture, exchange infrastructure (XI), portal infrastructure (PI), enterprise portal, application server, Run SAP and business intelligence (BI). Aspiring SAP consultants who take this course might find that their classmates are actual SAP end users, so there is an opportunity to network.

After taking SAPNW, sign up for SAPTEC, a three-day course that digs more deeply into the SAP NetWeaver Application Server (SAP NetWeaverAS). Perhaps the most valuable part of this course is it overview of the SAP development process, an indispensable skill in the SAP world.

Together, these courses are comparable in cost to the money third-party SAP certification providers are charging for certificates in countries such as India, and add more value to an SAP job seeker’s resume.

Once you’ve caught up on NetWeaver, whether on the basis of SAP training or self-study, don’t forget to ask us your more targeted questions about developing an SAP NetWeaver career in particular or an SAP career in general.

Demir Barlas, Site Editor

Most popular SAP skills

The topic of SAP skills has been a hot issue of late. For those interested in this topic, the U.K.’s ITjobswatch provides a list of the most popular SAP skills and other data that will be very pertinent to the average SAP Web developer, software developer, and consultant. Here is a sampling of the most interesting data, with the rest available here:

SAP Application Development

1. SAP XI
2. SAP Basis
3. .NET
4. J2EE
5. XML

SAP Business Applications

1. SAP FI/CO
2. SAP HR
3. SAP SD
4. SAP CRM
5. SAP MM

Programming Languages

1. ABAP
2. SQL
3. Java
4. SAPscript
5. C#

Processes and Methodologies

1. ERP
2. BI
3. CRM
4. Project Management
5. SAP Implementation

Although this data pertains to the U.K., both the maturity of that market and the sample space of the survey suggest that it may also reflect conditions in the U.S. market.

Demir Barlas, Site Editor

The SAP training lie

There are no authorized SAP training partners.

That seems like an odd claim to make given the large number of companies claiming to provide authorized SAP training–Genovate, for example, and dozens of other companies based in South and East Asia. But the fact of the matter is that SAP itself does not officially recognize, let alone authorize, any of these companies as training partners. The partner category closest to this function is “education,” which SAP defines more as the ramping up of existing SAP end users than as the generic training of aspiring SAP developers. Becoming an authorized SAP education partner is difficult; only one company in the U.S., RWD Technologies, is qualified in this category. Naturally, SAP training is provided on an ad hoc, on demand basis by consultants and integrators, but this service is also much closer to SAP’s category of “education” than to the current marketplace understanding of “training,” which is most frequently used in the aspiring SAP developer context.

Yet, somehow, companies such as Genovate continue to claim that they are authorized SAP training partners. Genovate isn’t even mentioned on SAP.com, but on the SAP Developer Network, SDN, the company is regularly described as being an “authorized” SAP training partner.

Either SAP countenances Genovate’s claims in some indirect way or SAP doesn’t bother to address the messaging issues raised by these de facto members of the ecosystem. Either way, it’s a disservice to the marketplace. Walldorf’s mighty legal machine should forbid companies from claiming to be authorized SAP training partners, because such claims do not accord to SAP’s own partner taxonomy or to SAP’s rigid standards for partner authorization. In fact, such claims exist largely to separate vast numbers of gullible Indian technology graduates from their hard-earned money by building the impression that SAP itself confers legitimacy on “training” companies.

The big news in the SAP world this week is the severe shortage of skills; along with Foote Partners, we’ll be exploring this subject in an upcoming podcast and articles. As far as SAP customers are concerned, the existence of shady training companies is contributing to the influx of inexperienced (and, in some cases, fraudulent) SAP techies into the marketplace. When SAP skills get diluted, projects fail.

So it’s really in everyone’s interest for SAP to hit hard at the so-called “authorized” training partners, particularly those in India. The point isn’t to stop these companies from operating, it’s to remove the impression that they have SAP’s mark of approval. At that point, let the marketplace decide their fate.

Demir Barlas, Site Editor

The end of IT

Everyone knows about the bottom-up pressure on in-house IT — namely, that IT outsourcing has made it cheaper and more efficient to move basic functions such as maintenance and testing outside the four walls of the enterprise. After ten years, this can’t be called a trend anymore; for enterprises, it’s now a best practice to move tactical in-house IT employees elsewhere, whether to an IT outsourcing partner or to a captive center offshore. After all, most enterprises are not in the IT business, and especially not in the tactical IT business.

There are plenty of signs that there is top-down pressure on in-house IT as well. In three separate conversations — with consultancy Sapient, and with SAP executives Zia Yusuf and Richard Probst — we’ve heard that the top tier of IT discipline is going to be changing is well. This isn’t just an abstract notion; SAP and its partners are engineering real products in such a way as to change the discipline.

The change afoot is that higher-level IT people will have to gain increasing knowledge of business processes. To put it another way, t he business-IT war is over and business won. From now on, IT will have to speak the language of business.

SAP’s products are taking on a process-centric hue, with workflows, continuous refinement, drag-and-drop modeling, and other aspects of business process management. No matter how abstruse the technology at the core of these products, they speak business language and are designed to be usable by process experts, not coders.

As cyberpunk author William Gibson famously said, the future is already here, but it isn’t widely distributed yet. When we talk to people who used to refer to ‘IT departments,’ we are beginning to hear about ‘centers of business enablement,’ ‘process competence,’ and the like instead.

To IT people: learn your code, but remember that you have to learn the language of business processes. The old-style IT department is dead.

Demir Barlas, Site Editor

The ERP Success Checklist

A recent academic paper–Chan and Lui, “Rescuing Troubled Software Projects by Team Transformation…”–discussed the components of ERP failure. The paper presented a handy checklist for what to do to help ensure a successful ERP project. Here it is, in no particular order of importance:

• Top management support.
• Realistic project objective.
• Right ERP strategy.
• Suitable ERP software and hardware.
• Stable requirements or business processes during implementation.
• Alignment with specific requirements.
• Relatively rapid implementations.
• Remaining within budget and scheduling constraints.
• Good technical support from the vendor.
• Good project management.
• No task conflicts among team members.
• Lack of culture clash.
• Non-bureaucratic project organization.
• Correct estimation of staff learning curve.
• Positive user characteristics.
• User involvement.
• Honest information policy (no circulation of unfounded rumors).
• Timely data migration.
• Adequate technical know-how.
• Non-problematic technology base.

At a very high level, this serves as a checklist of ways to avoid ERP failure, which has become a hot topic again, thanks to the SAP-Waste Management imbroglio.

Demir Barlas, Site Editor

SAP certification: not worth much?

In India, many IT newcomers, known there as “freshers,” are more eager than ever to break into the SAP market, and often turn to third-party SAP certification as a way of doing so.

Typical of the expectation that certification leads to SAP work was a post on SAP’s SDN that read, “I have a friend of mine…[who] has a functional expereince [sic] of 10 years in sales with L.I.C and he has done SAP SD Certification in the month of November, from Genovate Mumbai he has still not got placed and he is lookin for his first SAP Break.”

Anyone who follows SAP forums or mail groups will be intimately acquainted with variations on this message: Which certification will get me an SAP job? The question gets asked over and over because the answer is too unpleasant for people to accept: Only actual SAP experience is a valid qualification. For people who can’t get on an SAP team in their current position, or endure the prospect of waiting five years or more to transition to a company implementing SAP, this is a traumatic answer. Psychically, it is easier to believe that an SAP foothold can be bought instead.

This irrational optimism is part of the reason that third-party SAP training and certification companies like Genovate prosper. Genovate, which does most of its business in India, routinely charges $3,142 for single SAP courses lasting about ten days. That’s more money than the average Indian makes in a year, and the ten days of simulations are a far cry from the three years of actual experience that employers are seeking.

It’s important to note that, at least on the surface, Genovate doesn’t market itself as an SAP job placement service. Many Genovate trainees are working professionals who come for job-relevant training, a perfectly legitimate and value-added service. But many Genovate trainees are also “freshers” who think that certification will get them an SAP job. These people clearly haven’t done their research, or else they’d know that, in the SAP job market, Genovate certification (unlike actual project experience) doesn’t count for anything special.

This raises a question I’d like to ask our readers: In the end, does the SAP certification market function as a kind of tax on ignorance? Is there something shady about it, or does the fault lie entirely with the gullible freshers?

Demir Barlas, Site Editor

DTE’s $120 million SAP overrun

A recent article in Crain’s Detroit Business disclosed that DTE Energy Co. of Michigan posted a $120 million overrun in the cost of its SAP project. DTE, which had budgeted $263 million towards its SAP project in 2003, finished the migration in 2007 at a total cost of $383 million.

While only insiders know exactly why the project finished with such a large cost overrun, it’s possible that DTE could have paid more attention to preparation and training, which studies have revealed to be the most important factors in a successful ERP implementation. For example, DTE apparently elected to upgrade to a newer version of SAP in 2005. Leap-frogging its own original implementation plan suggests that DTE didn’t think hard enough about the project at its inception. Floating intentions can doom otherwise efficient projects.

That said, one shouldn’t minimize the difficulty that DTE faced during its SAP project. David Meador, the company’s CFO, explained on a conference call last month that, “We had systems that we’re replacing that were over 30 years old. In total, we replaced over 160 systems, and it caused some disruption in our operations.”

DTE’s overrun should be a warning to companies facing an SAP migration or upgrade that anything less than optimal training and preparation can result in a tough implementation experience. Educate yourself further by reading this tip on 10 things to watch out for during an SAP implementation and this explanation of the respective roles of SAP service and third-party consulting before and after an upgrade. Also feel free to browse our SAP upgrades and integration topic center for other tips and tricks. The more you know, the less chance you’ll have of becoming the next SAP overrun story.

Demir Barlas, Site Editor

SAP online training: From the source

Did you know that SAP’s online events page is a resource for self-training on SAP? The page is not only a repository of live-event webcasts but also a collection of tips and techniques for SAP consultants, developers, and implementation team members. Everyone from executives looking to build an SAP business case to techies who want to learn about advanced functionality in individual SAP modules can take advantage of hundreds of indexed webcasts, and other supporting materials, to find more detailed information about their needs.

SAP’s online events pages are experiencing a surge in traffic, says SAP VP of Communications Bill Wohl. “Nothing against on-site events, but where we’ve seen the greatest growth is in the online world.” That’s no surprise given the high costs of attending on-site events and live training sessions, which simply aren’t in the budget for many members of the SAP ecosystem. This is particularly true outside Europe and the Americas. Consequently, SAP’s tips and techniques webcasts are attracting a great deal of attention from users in India, with China and Japan also contributing traffic.

Wohl explains that these webcasts, complemented by SAP online forums, are even being used as formal training tools in some contexts. “Consultants and staff people from solutions integrators are using the online environment as a training ground when they bring in new people,” he says. Picture new hires in India, where systems integrators such as Infosys, Wipro, and others run thriving SAP practices, downloading webcasts and hanging out on SAP’s developer forums as part of their professional development.

Accumulating experience with SAP’s online events and developer forums is a no-cost way for developers and consultants to make themselves more attractive to potential clients and employers alike. It’s also a way for executives in smaller and mid-sized businesses, which often lack budgets for conference or training travel, to attain a high-level understanding of SAP (for example, from very specific functionalities such as Bank Relationship Management all the way up to an architectural overview of SAP ERP 6.0) and build a business case for implementation.

Demir Barlas, Site Editor