Authors: George W. Anderson, Tim Rhodes, Jeff Davis
Publisher: Sams Publishing (www.informit.com/sams)
Published: August 2008
ISBN-10: 0-137-14284-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-137-14284-2
Format: Soft cover, 480 pages
Price: $39.99
A DIY Approach to Mastering SAP
If your company is currently running SAP, or maybe it is intending to implement it in the near future, then one book that can help you to both understand and master SAP is "Sams Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours." Now in its third edition, this particular book consists of a series of 24, one hour, self-taught sessions that busy IT professionals can take advantage of to bring themselves quickly up to speed about SAP itself and the entire SAP project lifecycle.
The content of the book has been divided into the following six parts:
1. An introduction to SAP where readers unfamiliar with the technology can quickly learn the basics of SAP. It's here too that readers can learn about the business decisions that underlie the development of a roadmap for deploying SAP in their company or organization. A sample chapter from this part of the book is available for online reading. Titled "Infrastructure Technology Basics", it discusses the hardware, operating systems, and databases that are required for SAP deployment.
2. An investigation of the different SAP products and components. George Anderson, Tim Rhodes, and Jeff Davis, the authors of "Sams Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours" remind readers that while SAP is undoubtedly the "market share leader for large enterprises", it is also a leader in other parts of the business world too, namely for small and medium businesses (SMB) as well as for the small and midsize enterprise (SME) segment.
3. How to implement SAP. This part of the book tackles SAP implementation from three different angles, firstly, a project management perspective; secondly, a business and functional perspective; and thirdly, from a technical perspective. Two other chapters in this section of the book then respectively discuss SAP development tools (and methodologies) and the relationship between SAP and Enterprise SOA. Anderson, Rhodes, and Davis believe that "a company implementing or upgrading SAP is in a good position to drive the adoption of SOA." Their reasoning is that, "as a natural initiator and owner of SOA (at least initially), an SAP project normally has the executive buy-in and attention of the business and other key stakeholders to put an SOA adoption strategy on good footing."
4. SAP technical considerations. In addition to the material already covered in the book so far, there are also other sorts of technical considerations that need to be taken into account too. It's highly likely that one of your company's most important concerns is integrating SAP with various Microsoft Office applications. Anderson, Rhodes, and Davis explain that such integration means that "additional analysis of your SAP ERP list-based and report-based SAP data sources can be easily accomplished through Microsoft Excel, Access, and so on. And with the latest joint product development between SAP and Microsoft – Duet – this integration continues to grow deeper and more valuable, adding Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, other database sources, and more to the list of Microsoft products that afford better integration with SAP." Two other major technical considerations discussed in this part of the book are firstly, ongoing system administration and operations, and secondly, SAP upgrades and enhancements.
5. Using SAP. This is the part of the book where you learn about how to actually use SAP, beginning with how to set up your initial connection and logging on to the system, along with an overview of the SAP GUI. Examples of other topics that are included in the four chapters that make up this part of the book are SAP screen objects; data entry via SAP screens; printing; customization of the SAP front end; and reporting and query basics.
6. Career prospects with SAP. By the time you've reached this final part of the book, it has probably already occurred to you that, as a result of the knowledge about SAP that you've now gained, it could be worth your while to explore possible SAP-oriented career paths for yourself. To help you to do this, the authors of the book have included what I like to call a "SAP career roadmap" (this roadmap is the focus of the last two chapters of the book). By accessing the information that they have compiled for you there, you will be informed as to where to look for SAP career opportunities, plus you'll learn about the different sorts of specific job roles that may appeal to you within the SAP marketplace. Most importantly, you will also be able to find out what you need to do in order to exploit any SAP career opportunities that you discover. Anderson, Rhodes, and Davis, the authors of "Sams Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours", readily "attest to the fact that there's a slew of challenging and rewarding opportunities available to the willing and able." And while there is no denying that the job market for IT professionals is constantly changing, with new companies appearing and existing companies either being restructured or going out of business, the book's authors are quick to reassure their readers that "SAP professionals are generally in high demand regardless of the economy." Examples of the sorts of SAP career-related resources that have been included in this part of the book are the details of SAP focused magazines, user groups, Web sites, conferences, events, and other books about SAP.
I personally like the style and manner in which the information contained within "Sams Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours" is presented. For instance, each of the chapters concludes with a section devoted to a case study. The case study in question is first introduced at the conclusion of chapter one and is subsequently used throughout the remainder of the book. Using just the one case study like this is an excellent choice by the book's authors because it allows its readers to become familiar with that specific business environment, and therefore not be overwhelmed by having to deal with lots of other business scenarios in different chapters. Readers of the book can then use their new acquired knowledge of SAP to come up with solutions for that particular business. In each of the case study sections, a scenario is put forward and readers are asked to answer questions based on that scenario. For instance, in one scenario, it is stated that the company has recently implemented SAP ERP 2005 on a Microsoft OS and database platform. And since the implementation is new, only a limited level of functionality has been enabled. Furthermore, the company's IT budget for extra SAP enhancements is limited. One of the questions in the case study posed to readers of the book is as follows: how can the company's end users generate low cost reports using only their desktop PCs and no special software tools? [The answers to all of the questions posed in each of the case study sections are provided in the book's appendix.] Other presentation aspects of "Sams Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours" that deserve highlighting include the summary at the conclusion of each chapter plus the following breakout boxes that are freely dispersed throughout the text:
• "By the Way": additional pieces of background information that backup or augment the argument currently being presented.
• "Watch Out!": tidbits of advice that warn you of potential problems or conflicts.
• "Did You Know?": interesting pieces of information that can help readers to round out their knowledge of SAP and which also frequently offer easier ways of completing a task.
As well as "Sams Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours", there are lots of other books in the "24 Hours" series, all of which adhere to a similar physical layout and style of presentation for imparting their information. To see for yourself the range of topics covered by the "24 Hours" series of books, initiate a search using the key words "24 hours" on the site of Sams Publishing, the publisher of the series (www.informit.com/sams).
A bonus when you purchase a copy of "Sams Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours" is that you are also given free access to an online edition of the book. Such access represents a convenient and quick way of searching the book's content for answers to questions that may arise. The online version is also handy when there is a requirement to cut and paste specific parts of the text, for instance, when preparing a user guide, or alternatively, for downloading an entire chapter.