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Thoroughly Updated and Expanded!
Includes New Coverage on Cloud Computing for SAP!
In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, you’ll master the latest updates on SAP, and discover how to succeed with it in real business and technical environments! Using this book’s straightforward, step-by-step approach, you’ll learn through practical hands-on examples and case studies based on SAP’s free demonstration software. Each lesson builds on what you’ve already learned, giving you a strong real-world foundation with both the business and technical sides of SAP. Leading SAP architect and consultant George Anderson starts with the absolute basics…thoroughly covers core business, reporting, and administration tasks…and takes you all the way to the cutting edge, including how the cloud might
be used to support SAP environments.
Step-by-Step instructions carefully walk you through the most common SAP tasks.
Quizzes and Exercises at the end of each chapter help you test your knowledge.
By the Way notes present interesting information related to the discussion.
Did You Know? tips offer advice or show you easier ways to perform tasks.
Watch Out! cautions alert you to possible problems and give you advice on how to avoid them.
Learn how to…
Dr. George W. Anderson, senior architect and SAP Basis Consultant for Microsoft Services, specializes in designing and optimizing mission-critical platforms for SAP and other enterprise applications. He’s passionate about developing architectural patterns and tools capable of enabling the kind of business agility that IT has been promising for years and businesses today need more than ever. A certified SAP
technical consultant, PMI PMP, and long-time MCSE, his books include SAP Implementation Unleashed and the popular SAP Planning: Best Practices in Implementation.
Category: SAP Covers: SAP User Level: Beginning–Intermediate
IntroductionIntroduction
Welcome to the newly updated Sams Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours, your teach-yourself guide to learning one of the most sophisticated and far-reaching set of enterprise solutions available on the market today. And congratulations—you've been paying attention. Over the last few years, we have seen software packages become popular overnight, fading back into obscurity just as quickly. Through every storm that the dot-com bubble, tragedy of September 11, period of global recession, and unparalleled growth of the Internet era mustered, though, it's been impossible not to notice how one company and its products consistently stayed the course. That company is SAP, and its most popular products and technologies are mainstays throughout much of corporate America and indeed the world—R/3, NetWeaver, mySAP ERP, Business Warehouse, Advanced Planner and Optimizer, Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise Portal, and much more. In fact, upwards of 30 products or technical components make up SAP's stable of software solutions today. It is hard to believe that merely a few short years ago, there were only two.
SAP is nothing if not revolutionary. Since 2001, we have witnessed something remarkable, almost unbelievable. The market leader in its industry looked inward and evaluated its core competencies, looked outward at its competitors and paid attention, and then made the necessary adjustments to maintain its market leadership. It didn't shrink back and "rightsize" around one or two things it did well, or waffle back and forth between leadership visionaries and their predictions of the future. Instead, faster than a ship its size has any business doing, SAP modified course headings without ever straying too far off course. SAP navigated the whole best-of-breed debacle, charted a wide path around the "sell services, not products" trend, embraced Java instead of circumventing it in favor of its own legacy development language, and all the while sped full steam ahead toward a vision of always-on, always-accessible, and eminently adaptable enterprise computing.
Yet, on a number of fronts, SAP remains a model of evolution as well as revolution, explaining at once why this company claims leadership in nearly every market in which it competes. SAP is not content to leave well enough alone. It's not content to hang its hat on market share and product award laurels that, immediately following product announcement, only begin to age at Internet speed. SAP's product design philosophy, its attention to underlying architecture models, and most of all its customer focus, has created the third largest software company in the world. SAP is not afraid to embrace new technologies and computing models, or to embrace new ways of getting work done. NetWeaver proves this: SAP has taken the specialization and integration it has done so well, and added adaptability and agility to the mix. Boldly claiming that the future belongs to Web Services and the rapid adaptation of business processes that such technology enables, SAP has given the world a platform that is not only immediately useful, but ready for the long haul. And its boldness will serve SAP well, especially in light of the fact that SAP is equally concerned with maintaining support for legacy technologies.
Today, SAP AG is the market leader in enterprise application software based on client/server and more recently Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) or more precisely Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA) technology—the latter of which is SAP's take on SOA. As the number one vendor of standard business-application software in the world, SAP AG's products are used by thousands of companies across more than a hundred countries, from multi-national global entities to small/medium business concerns determined to succeed in a global marketplace. And with solutions spanning industry verticals, SAP is also the undisputed leader in providing comprehensive solutions for companies of all sizes and within all industry sectors.
Picking up this book represents a confident step in the right direction. You are going with the market leader, the model of endurance, the preeminent technology frontrunner and enterprise solution enabler. As a result, after about 24 hours of reading, you will possess a solid foundation upon which to build greater capabilities or even a career in SAP. Your knowledge foundation will be broad, certainly, and in need of much bolstering in one direction or the other. But the beauty of the whole thing is that you'll be aware of these directions—career options and choices that will enable you to grow and manage your own career in a direction of your choosing. You'll know where you want to go. That alone is enough to get you on the road toward making something happen.
And in the meantime, your 24-hour investment will likely serve you well in your current employment position, too. Armed with insight, skills, understanding, and a broad sense of the "big picture" facing nearly every company in business today, you'll no longer look at computing solutions and the people who use and manage them in the same way again. That will make you a valuable asset to your employer, and perhaps the envy of your co-workers.
What's New in This Edition
Sams Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours is divided into 24 chapters that can each be completed in about an hour. This book covers everything you need to become well acquainted with the core SAP products and components that are often collectively referred to simply as SAP. The book is organized to provide visibility into key facets of SAP terminology, usage, configuration, deployment, administration, and more. As such, it is necessarily general at times rather than exceedingly detailed, although a certain amount of depth in much of the subject matter is purposely provided where deemed critical to further your understanding. In this structure may be found the book's true value—the content herein is broad enough to paint a picture most anyone can understand, yet deep enough to provide more than an introduction to the subject matter. Certainly, more detailed books abound; use this book as a stepping stone to those various other texts dedicated to SAP architecture, implementation, programming, configuration, administration, performance tuning, and so on.
Who Should Read This Book
Sams Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours begins with the basics and terminology surrounding SAP, SAP NetWeaver, and ESA, and from there begins the process of carefully building upon your new knowledge to piece together the complex world of SAP. The pace of the book is designed to provide a solid foundation such that you understand the more advanced topics covered later in the book. In this way, the novice may quickly realize what it means to plan for, deploy, and use SAP, in the process unleashing the power that comes with understanding how all the pieces of the puzzle come together to solve business problems. With this understanding also comes an appreciation of the role that colleagues and partners play with their regard to SAP—perspectives of SAP end users, system administrators, business planners, will ultimately make more sense as you work your way through the book.
Organization of This Book
Thus, from the basics surrounding SAP, to implementation planning and system navigation, to creating your own SAP reports and using the many different SAP components that make up NetWeaver and mySAP business suite today, this book is ideal for people at all levels of education, experience, and familiarity with SAP. Combined with its real-world examples, along with figures, tables, graphics, and actual SAP user-interface screenshots, Sams Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours serves as an excellent launch pad for using and managing SAP in the real world of business and IT.
To test and reinforce your knowledge, each hour concludes with a Q&A, and Quiz section. These sections provide you an opportunity to put your newfound knowledge and understanding both to the test and into practice. And with the answers to the quiz questions found at the back of the book, it is an easy matter to verify your knowledge and hone in on particularly troublesome topics.
Finally, most hours include an Exercises section as well. Specifically, for those hours that are user-focused or that lend themselves to real-world application, a set of open-ended exercises are designed to get you familiar or comfortable with a particular area. There's no wrong answer when it comes to these exercises (indeed, there are no answers provided); instead, the knowledge you gain as you work through the exercises helps you build upon the foundation provided that hour.
I hope you enjoy the updated Sams Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours, and learning the new world of SAP. Good luck and regards!
Conventions Used in This Book
Text that you type appears as bold monospace and text that appears on your screen is presented in monospace type.
In addition to this, the following icons are used to introduce other pertinent information used in this book.
Note - A By the Way presents interesting pieces of information related to the surrounding discussion.
Tip - A Did you Know? offers advice or teaches an easier way to do something.
Caution - A Watch Out! advises you about potential problems and helps you steer clear of disaster.
© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Introduction 1
Part I: Introduction to SAP
HOUR 1: SAP Explained 7
Overview of SAP: The Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
SAP Business Applications or Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The SAP Client Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Running SAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
HOUR 2: SAP Business Basics 17
Business Architecture and the Business Roadmap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
ASAP and Business Blueprinting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
The Business Perspective...................................................................................................................................................22
Other Perspectives: Mapping Business Needs to SAP Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Combining the Four Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
HOUR 3: SAP Technology Basics 29
SAP Technology 101: SAP Basis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
SAP Hardware Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
SAP-Supported Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Database Basics for SAP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
HOUR 4: SAP Project Basics 43
SAP Project Implementation Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
SAP Realization: Resources and Timelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Accessing Your New SAP Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Typical Day-to-Day Business Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
PART II: SAP Applications and Components
HOUR 5: Overview of SAP Applications and Components 53
SAP Business Suite Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
SAP NetWeaver Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Small and Medium Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
SAP Business One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
SAP Business ByDesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
SAP All-in-One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Selecting the “Best” SAP Solution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Choosing SAP SME Offerings over Business Suite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
HOUR 6: SAP NetWeaver: The Foundation for SAP 71
A Brief History of SAP NetWeaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The SAP NetWeaver Umbrella: Six Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Strategic Benefits of NetWeaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
SAP NetWeaver Building Blocks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Bringing It All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
HOUR 7: SAP ERP: SAP’s Core Product 85
The Evolution of SAP ERP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
SAP ERP Business Scenarios and Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
HOUR 8: The SAP Business Suite and Other SAP Applications 103
SAP Innovations 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
SAP Supply Chain Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
SAP Customer Relationship Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
SAP PLM: A Platform for Product Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
SAP Supplier Relationship Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
SAP Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
SAP Service and Asset Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Part III: SAP for Business Users
HOUR 9: A Business User’s Perspective on Implementing SAP 117
The Business User’s Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
The SAP Project Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
HOUR 10: Logging On and Using SAP’s User Interface 127
Logging On to Access SAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
SAPGUI Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Navigation Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Understanding and Using Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Display Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Screen Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Using the Windows Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
HOUR 11: SAP User Roles and Authorizations 147
What Is SAP Security? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Overview of SAP Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
SAP Authorizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
HOUR 12: Using SAP to Do Your Job 157
Which SAP User Interface Is Best? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
WinGUI Configuration and Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
The Customizing of Local Layout Button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
New Visual Design Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Clipboard Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Font Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Status Field’s System Information Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Printing from SAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Using Your SAPGUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
HOUR 13: Reporting and Query Basics 175
Reporting Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
General Report Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
SAP Reporting Tools (SAP Query, InfoSet Query, Ad Hoc Query, and QuickViewer) . . . . . . . . 181
SAP Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Understanding the InfoSet (Ad Hoc) Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Understanding the QuickViewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
HOUR 14: Extending SAP with Microsoft and Other Products 195
SAP Integration with Desktop Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
SAP Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Using %pc to Download Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Integrating SAP with Office: Quick References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Integrating SAP with Microsoft SharePoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Introduction to Microsoft Duet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Introduction to Duet Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Using OpenText with SAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Using SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Integrating Microsoft Directory with SAP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Part IV: SAP for IT Professionals
HOUR 15: A Project Manager’s Perspective on Implementing SAP 215
SAP and the ASAP Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
The Project Management Office. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Assembling the Project Team. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
SAP Project Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Contemporary Tools and Methodologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Project Closeout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
HOUR 16: A Basis Professional’s Perspective on SAP 231
Shifting Focus: From Business to Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Installation Master Guides and SAP Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Setting the Stage: The SAP Landscape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Architecture and Sizing Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
SAP Technical Readiness and Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Staffing and Operational Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
HOUR 17: A Developer’s Perspective on SAP 243
Programming Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Developer and SAP Methodologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Configuration and the SAP IMG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Different Views of the IMG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Additional IMG Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
HOUR 18: SAP Technical Installation 257
Installation Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
SAP Installation Planning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Infrastructure Readiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Performing a Real-World SAP Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Post-Installation Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Installing the SAP Trial Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Introducing SAP Single Sign-On. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
HOUR 19: SAP and the Cloud 279
Introduction to the Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Cloud Consumer Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Cloud Service Provider Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Brief History of Computing and the Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Bringing Together SAP and the Cloud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
HOUR 20: SAP System Administration and Management 301
Administering SAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Managing the SAP System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
HOUR 21: SAP Enhancements, Upgrades, and More 317
Setting the Stage: Making Changes to SAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Enhancement and Upgrade Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
More on SAP Upgrades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
High-Level Project Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Part V: SAP Careers
HOUR 22: SAP Careers for the Business Professional 329
What Exactly Is an SAP Business Professional?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Where Do I Look? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
More Details. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Preparing for a Business Career in SAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
HOUR 23: SAP Careers for the IT Professional 343
SAP, Its Partners, and Its Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
What Types of Opportunities Are Available? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Preparing for a Career in SAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Working on the Intangibles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
HOUR 24: Other Resources and Closing Thoughts 353
Professional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Internet Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
SAP Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Employment and Career Opportunities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Part VI: Appendixes
A Case Study Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
B SAP Acronyms and Common Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
TOC, 9780672335426, 4/29.11
Anonymous
Posted Fri Aug 18 00:00:00 EDT 2006
This book is an ideal starter for beginners in SAP: users, 'techies', and system admins. It gives a good introduction to SAP across a breadth of areas, including all of the different applications availabel by SAP today. Like ECC, supply chain, data warehouses, exchange, CRM and much more. I like it better than the 'Dummies' approach. It's not full of technical speak, but still provides a substantial and very broad technical background. And I like that I can read any chapter in any order without missing background informtation necessary to understand the chapter.
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Tue Aug 14 00:00:00 EDT 2007
Reading this book makes SAP very comprehensible. It gives you insights on different branches and evolution of SAP. For a career path on SAP this serves as a bridge that will connect you to SAP dimension as if you already have access on SAP.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Daniel_Innowera
Posted Thu Feb 14 00:00:00 EST 2013
I have spent most of my career completely on the MSFT side and several years actually on the Compound (LC1/ Las Colinas, TX0 working
in or for the the Mother Ship-Microsoft. So last year when I made the jump to the Dark Side-SAP, boy, was I a fish out of water, a sheep in
dangerous pastures. From the ground up, everything was different, the language, the initials, the actual meaning of words and ways of
doing things. I never thought I would make it on my own, I needed a mentor, a guide, a help to navigate whole new seas of data.
George is a god-send. What a treat and treasure to help me in very manageable bites-chapter by chapter - learn and retain the skills to ensure success in the SAP world.I most heartily recommend this read if you are new to the SAP world wanting to transition over to the oldest and fastest growing ERP system in the world. Invaluable find.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Thu Feb 14 00:00:00 EST 2013
As someone who comes to SAP from an Oracle and Peoplesoft perspective it was really helpful to see how Mr. Anderson adds a perspective of the SAP users that I have found to be very accurate of the prevailing opinions of SAP. If you are looking for something that gives you the relevance and working business knowledge of SAP you'll find this book invaluable. While I come from a sales perspective, I believe business and technical users can gain a broad understanding of SAP in a short investment of time. Nice job!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.RyanMont
Posted Thu Feb 14 00:00:00 EST 2013
I just want to say thank you for the insights I learned in your book. As someone who is new to the industry, this really helped me understand the nuances of the SAP world, and helping me understand the core reasons of why many of my new employer’s targets choose SAP over alternatives, such as Oracle or legacy systems. SAP ERP is definitely intimidating to understand looking from the outside in, so it was very useful to have your book as a resource.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Mon Feb 23 00:00:00 EST 2009
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Posted Mon Apr 04 00:00:00 EDT 2011
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Posted Thu Oct 16 00:00:00 EDT 2008
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Posted Wed May 23 00:00:00 EDT 2012
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Overview
Thoroughly Updated and Expanded!
Includes New Coverage on Cloud Computing for SAP!
In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, you’ll master the latest updates on SAP, and discover how to succeed with it in real business and technical environments! Using this book’s straightforward, step-by-step approach, you’ll learn through practical hands-on examples and case studies based on SAP’s free demonstration software. Each lesson builds on what you’ve ...