I have attended many SAP Education training courses over the years and have seen the training material evolve. Recently I attended a SAP Business Objects Universe training course and I was surprised by differences to traditional SAP Education. This blog highlights some of the key differences. For the people who have not undertakes traditional SAP training courses it is usually "death by PowerPoint". Participants are provided with printed materials which include copies and slides with notes under each slide. The detail of content can vary from a few bullet points to a page of notes. The notes are always positive in regards to SAP and often include some marketing inferences. Some courses the manuals can be used as a reference independently while others there are not enough detail. The BOBJ training had no PowerPoints which completely surprised me. There were diagrams in the manual but these were not projected onto a screen. The manual was detailed and indicated what the solution could and could not do. Also the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches. Both styles of courses include summary questions at the end of each section. Both types of training courses included hands on exercises. However with the traditional training the instructor demonstrates the exercise first and then allows the participants to attempt the exercise. However the traditional training course exercises are poorly written and most participants quickly learn to follow the solution training script. The BOBJ exercises were clear and did not have separate exercise and solution. I prefered the BOBJ style course but would have liked to have some PowerPoints displayed. From a general perception in regards to BOBJ and SAP education is that BOBJ realise that is all about skills rather than revenue. Unfortunately SAP Education do not have the same priority. BOBJ and their community are increasingly providing quality training resources free of charge via SCN. There is access to free trials to undertake self learning. It was a breath of fresh air when SAP Education launched their Learning On Demand Portal and included access to a SAP ECC system with an IDES data similiar to that used in training courses. They charged approximately $80 per month for access. However in true SAP Education fashion they have now restricted access to the portal to customers who have registered on a training course have subscriptions.
