SAP Platform

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

SAP Online Super Summit 2012

Dear SAPiens and aspirant SAPiens.

A very exciting opportunity for all of you. Join the World's leading experts for one day exclusive online event (HANA, CRM and Finance, 12 hours)

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Is SAP Certification Worth the Money?

By John Reed

This is a very hard question to answer, in part because money is relative. If you have plenty of cash stashed away, then you can never go wrong with an investment in SAP certification. But, few of us fit into that category. That means we need a clearer understanding of how SAP certification fits into our career strategy. SAP certification is full of controversy because of the contrast between the importance of certification versus hands-on SAP skills. In this blog entry, I’ll summarize some of my views on SAP certification and hopefully we can get some comments going on this topic also.

The SAP certification debate took on some new life not long ago in a blog post that SearchSAP.com Site Editor Demir Barlas posted that soon became alengthy discussion thread. I recommend you check out that thread to get a well-rounded view of the issue. In that particular case, the certification question was focused on the value of certification for so-called "freshers," or folks who are new to the SAP market. But of course SAP certification concerns all SAP professionals, whether you are new to the field or looking for an added edge in the market.

Certification was also a hot topic at Sapphire again this year, in part because of the desire on the part of the SAP community to understand SAP’s new three-tiered certification strategy. Some people like to frame the SAP certification issue in terms of whether SAP certification is a rip-off, and I have done that before myself. But I think the best way to look at SAP certification is to ask if it’s overrated or not. And the answer to that question is, "it depends." In terms of a "quick fix" to immediately break into SAP or change your SAP career fortunes, I think SAP certification is overrated. But in terms of a savvy way to enhance your marketability in a long-term sense, I think SAP certification may even be underrated.

Let me review a few of the key points I have said about SAP certification over the years.
Here are some highlights from the first comment I made to Demir’s entry about certification on SearchSAP.com:

"I read this certification article and comments with great interest. I have served as the resident SAP career expert on SearchSAP.com since 2002, and I’ve been answering questions about the marketability of SAP certification since 1995.I continue to field continual questions on the value of training and certification both on SearchSAP.com and on my own web site, JonERP.com.

Obviously from this blog, this topic remains a heated point of debate, as it should be. SAP training and certification is a significant investment for an individual SAP professional, and to this day, I feel that too many people dive headlong into that investment without weighing their options carefully. (Of course, some people are fortunate enough to get their training and/or certification paid for by their employers, in which case, it is more of a no-brainer to go ahead and do it).

There is obviously no one right answer to the question of the value of SAP certification. You can find examples of those who have had success with SAP certification and at the same time, you can find plenty of examples of those who invested in SAP certification and ultimately could not land an SAP job based on that certification. I’ve heard from those folks and they are not a happy group.

It’s helpful to understand how SAP certification fits into the supply and demand of the marketplace. Back in the 1990s, it was possible to land an SAP job with "certification only" because there weren’t enough experienced consultants, and "Big Six firms" on large project sites were able to field teams with plenty of junior-level consultants who did not have any hands-on SAP experience other than their classroom certifications.

The power of certification in the SAP market has changed largely because most of these "entry level" consulting positions on client sites are gone forever. Most SAP customers are sophisticated enough to expect more seasoned SAP pros with actual SAP project experience. And there are fewer "big bang" type implementations where companies just open the floodgates and hire hundreds of consultants regardless of experience level. As a result, even though the SAP consulting market is very healthy, the power of SAP certification to land that all-important first project has diminished over the years, and I don’t expect that power to return.

Before we go further with my comments, it’s helpful to understand that SAP has also been adding to its certification levels. The classic level of SAP certification is now called the "Associate" level. SAP is now rolling out the "Professional" level certification in many areas. This is a more rigorous certification program and as such, may eventually carry more weight in the marketplace, we will have to see. There is a third level of certification on the way also, called the "Master" level. It is rumored that this level will likely involve some measurement of project experience. If this comes to pass, I would not be surprised if this higher level of certification carries much more weight.

Certification is interesting from the vantage point of hype. Sometimes I have found that SAP hypes its own certification, but often, I find that it’s the job seekers themselves who latch onto certification and hype it for themselves. Demir is absolutely right in his post: many aspiring SAP professionals view certification as the easy (if expensive) way to open a door into the SAP field that is not always easy to open.

It’s hard to argue that SAP certification is an absolute waste of money and time. It all depends on how much money and time you have. But when we consider the value of certification, I think the biggest determining factor is: how many SAP jobs require certification? The answer is: only a small percentage. Project references are so much more important, as others commenting on this blog entry have noted. And even those jobs that require SAP certification also tend to require a number of years in the SAP field as well.

Friday, July 20, 2012

5 Reasons Why SAP Is The Best ERP System

In today's challenging business environment, best-run companies have clarity across all aspects of their business, which allows them to act quickly with increased insight, efficiency, and flexibility. This is particularly true if your business includes SAP.

SAP is the world's largest business software company and the third-largest independent software provider in terms of revenues. Even though the competition is fierce with a lot of new entrants in the marketplace from large and small vendors over this time, SAP is still a leader in enterprise software. Here are some reasons which explain why SAP continues to be the market leader in the enterprise space:

1. The first reason is simply the fact that SAP solutions are scalable and can be customized according to the evolving business requirements of an enterprise. It can be easily integrated with future applications giving users a significant competitive advantage in the market. SAP solutions have become integral to the foundation of international businesses, as almost half of the world's Fortune1000 companies have implemented ERP solutions from SAP.

2. SAP has been mainly focusing on enterprise applications for the last 30 years, the area where they hold the market leader spot today across the globe. While the other large ERP software vendors, tend to have multiple business focuses - like, databases as an example.

3. SAP continues to focus its ERP applications on maximizing resources, reducing costs and optimizing performance that is customized for businesses and industries. SAP provides a comprehensive range of business software and enterprise applications - designed for global operations and supported with globalization services - to empower every aspect of your business.

4. SAP architecture is extremely strong with a process-centric focus and a foundation that operates in real time communication with enterprise wide business processes that is highly flexible.

5. Lastly, with the experience of the last 30 years SAP has afforded their enterprise applications to be extremely industry and business specific. They have already built and refined these industry specific solutions with real customers and real implementations carrying the knowledge base and enhancing their technology and application offerings each year for the last three decades.

Please read more

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Top 10 reasons why people are so mad for SAP Certification

By Ravi Sankar Venna

SAP Certification is the most sought after certifications in the Information Technology (IT) world. In every nook and corner of the world, it has created tremendous buzz among the IT professionals. Probably, SAP Certification is one of the most criticised certifications, but at the same, it is one of the biggest dreams for number of individuals. Many people have criticised in many ways by writing blogs, articles and even books. But, nobody can rule out the craze that it has created in this fast moving IT world. SAP Certification is one of the most successful IT certifications in the recent past. Either directly or indirectly, it has given employment to millions of people across the globe. Though, there are many contenders for the top certification position from Microsoft, Cisco, Sun and Oracle, but still people go so mad for this SAP Certification. SAP Certification is undoubtedly the number one product based IT certification in the current market trend. If you see the number of people enrolling for SAP Certification across the globe is a benchmark for other certifications.

Read more

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Five Mistakes SAP Job Seekers Make!

Friday, June 29, 2012

Where Can You Learn SAP?

Why you need to be a SAP professional- watch this short video by SAP University Alliances: Insights on SAP Professional Careers.

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/a048bb79-c6f3-2c10-80be-8d102ec7de31&overridelayout=true

SAP Courses at Universities by SAP University Alliances

A Complete list of SAP University Alliance Partner
http://uaaroundtheworld.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/overview(bD1lbiZjPTEwMQ==)/start.htm

AUSTRALIA

1.Victoria University's Faculty of Business and Law

http://www.business.vu.edu.au/sap/

2. University of Technology Sydney

http://www.business.uts.edu.au/accounting/courses/sap/courses.html

3. Monash University

http://www.monash.edu.au/ohs/training/training-records-sap.html

4. University of Southern Queensland

http://www.usq.edu.au/course/specification/2011/ACC3101-S1-2011-ONC-SPRNG.html

SPAIN

Graduate Certificate in SAP ERP (only in Spainsh Language)
Autonomous University of Barcelona
http://www.uab.es/servlet/Satellite/postgraduate/graduate-certificate-in-sap-erp/basic-details-1217916968009.html/param1-1714_en/param2-2004/

GERMANY
SAP Corporate master program

Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Master of Business Engineering (MBE)
Master of Science (MSc)
Master of Computer Science (MCompSc)

http://www.sap-corporate-master.com/

SAP International Summer School

Harz University of Applied Science

http://welcome.hs-harz.de/7567.0.html

EUROPE AND AFRICA

University of Duisburg-Essen online SAP program only for students

http://www.erp4students.eu/

UNITED KINGDOM

1.University of Leeds

http://iss.leeds.ac.uk/info/225/training/247/training

2. University of Warwick

http://www.wbs.ac.uk/students/masters/ismi/

3. City University of London

http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/pgcourses/sap/

4. University of Salford Machester

http://intranet.salford.ac.uk/sap/training

5. Brunel University London: Business System Integration with SAP Technology

http://www.brunel.ac.uk/siscm/disc/postgraduates/masters/business-systems-integration-with-sap-technology

6. University of Leicester

http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/staff-development/courses/finance/

7. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

http://onlineshop.strath.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=5&prodid=200&deptid=152&catid=70

8. Birmigham City University

http://www.bcu.ac.uk/courses/enterprise-systems-management

9. Sheffield Hallam University

http://www.shu.ac.uk/prospectus/course/1091/careers/

10. North Umbria University

http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/central/finance/stafflist/sapsupport/sapnewsevents/saptrainingtimetable

11. University of Liverpool

http://www.liv.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/taught/faculty-of-humanities-and-social-sciences/university-of-liverpool-management-school/management-school/taught/e-business-strategy-and-systems-msc/overview/

UNITED STATES

1. Central Michigan University

http://sap.mis.cmich.edu/

2. Georgia Southern University

http://cit.georgiasouthern.edu/is/sapfaq.html

3.Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

http://ucc.uwm.edu/Default.aspx

4. University of Arkansas, USA

http://enterprise.waltoncollege.uark.edu/SAP.asp

5. Rogers State University

http://www.rsu.edu/bartlesville/sap.asp

6. University of Southern California

http://mapp.usc.edu/professionalprograms/ShortCourses/TERP10.htm

7. Penn State Beaver : Pennsylvania University

http://www.br.psu.edu/Academics/Degrees/35228.htm

8. University of Tampa

http://www.ut.edu/sapprep/

9. Texas State University

http://www.txstate.edu/sap/

10. Steinbeis Center of Management and Technology

http://www.scmt.com/en/partners/corporate-programs/sap-mba.html

SINGAPORE

Singapore Management University

http://www2.sis.smu.edu.sg/programme/nextu_professional_courses.asp

INDIA

Ganpat University and Victoria University

http://www.cia-gnu.ac.in/university.php#ciasis

CANANDA

Algonquin College

Athabasca University

British Columbia Institute of Technology

Carleton University

Centennial College

École de Technologie Supérieure

École des Hautes Études Commerciales

École Polytechnique de Montréal

Grant MacEwan College

Humber College

Kwantlen University College

Laurentian University

McMaster University

NAIT

Niagara College

Northern Alberta Institute of Technology

Ryerson Universtiy

SAIT Polytechnic

Seneca College

Sheridan Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning

Southern Alberta Institute of Technology

St. Francis Xavier University

Université de Sherbrooke

Université du Québec à Chicoutimi

Université du Québec à Montréal

University du Quebec en Outaouais

University of Windsor

York University

Note: Please send us your university SAP program details if it is not updated here. Our contact email: sapplatform@sapworld.net.tc

SAP ECC v6.0 SR3 IDES Oracle 10.2.0.2 Download

SAP IDES – the "Internet Demonstration and Evaluation System" in the R/3 System, represents a model company. It consists of an international group with subsidiaries in several countries. IDES contains application data for various business scenarios that can be run in the SAP System. The business processes in the IDES system are designed to reflect real-life business requirements, and have access to many realistic characteristics. IDES uses easy-to-follow business scenarios to show you the comprehensive functions of the R/3 System. The focal point of IDES, however, is not the functionality itself, but the business processes and their integration.

So, download now and learn and practice SAP at your home.