*Please note, I stole this title from a previous blog which is now called Getting access to an SAP system when you don’t have an SAP job already – System Access , but I changed the other blog title in order to extend the series. I apologize if this causes confusion.

There are a couple questions/requests that pop up fairly frequently:

1. I just graduated from (college, MBA, etc) or I’ve been in industry for a while and am now interested in a career in SAP, but no one will hire me without SAP experience and I can’t get SAP experience until I’m hired.  I addressed this one in a previous blog, Advice for Recent College Graduates,  and again in this post.  (I wrote a blog for students who have not yet graduated as well, Advice for Students Interested in a Career in SAP.  Also, be sure to read Getting into SAP – From the perspective of a prospective consultant by Terry Choo for a fascinating account of a mid-career switch in progress!
2. How do I get access to a system on which I can practice? (Getting access to an SAP system when you don’t have an SAP job already – System Access )
3. How should I study for the certification exam? (Good person.) What questions are on the exam? (Cheater.)  I’ll address these in a future blog. Ravi Sankar Venna addressed this recently in his blog, How to Approach and Pass a SAP Certification.

I’m not a big fan of folks laying out a lot of their own money for training prior to getting a job (more about this in Advice for Recent College Graduates).

However, I am in favor of educating yourself in order to make better career decisions. In this blog series, I’m going to cover ways to become educated and I’ll try to start with the free approaches and gradually move to the more expensive approaches. Due to the length, I’ve had to split this post into several posts.This blog will only cover web sites.

First the outline:

• Web sites
• Books
• Classes
  • Authorized classes

    • Normal classes

    • Academy track

    • eAcademy

    • University Alliance

  • Unauthorized Classes
    • Unauthorized training centers
• System Access

Now the detail:

Web Sites

There are a million web sites that talk about SAP. The problem is that it is difficult to find a simple introduction for folks who have absolutely no knowledge of SAP and it is difficult to get an orderly introduction where one concept builds on the next (classes are better for that). Obviously the following is not a complete list, but I’ll try to list out a few of the most popular. I will be happy to update this list if folks have favorite websites and you leave them in the comments.

• Best general overview of ECC modules I’ve been able to find
  • http://www.sap-erp.com/general/sap-module-overview.html
• More high level overviews
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_ERP
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_R/3
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetWeaver
• Official SAP reference sites
  • http://help.sap.com/ – The definitive reference source on the web.
  • http://service.sap.com (requires logon)
    • There are quicklinks that lead to in depth topic areas. These are my go-to source when I want in-depth, official information presented in an easy-to-digest package. (There are often presentations at the quicklink areas as opposed to reading the help.)

    • https://service.sap.com/notes   – Place to search for information that may be newer/changed from the previously published information. Also the place to go when you think the software is not functioning properly.

    • https://service.sap.com/erp – great place to start for anything having to do with SAP ERP. There are subsections here for all of the basic modules.
    • https://service.sap.com/bmet – SAP Business Maps can be used to get a visual overview of SAP functionality. They’re broken down into industry maps, cross-industry maps, and Netweaver maps. Unless your primary interest is a specific industry, like Retail, I recommend starting with the Cross-Industry maps. The Netweaver maps are of most interest to Basis folks, programmers, and Project Managers.
    • http://solutioncomposer.sap.com/socoview(bD1lbiZjPTAwMSZkPW1pbg==)/render.asp?id=82087E7A8EB94E1F885C5A1F62C789FB&fragID=&packageid=DE042984DB3725F19515001A64D3F462&iv= – the Business Map for SAP ERP. I recommend starting with this one before exploring the other maps

• Community Sites
  • SCN
    • http://scn.sap.com  – Yes, I know, you’re already here, but it doesn’t hurt to point out again that SCN is an awesome source for information.
  • SAP User Groups
    • I’m a huge fan of SAP User groups. There’s nothing better than meeting with a group of colleagues and discussing SAP problems and solutions.
    • http://www.sapusergroups.com/ and/or SAP User Groups Worldwideby Jason Lax.  (Thanks Osvaldo for the second reference!)
      • These pages have links to the various user groups available world wide. (including the two below)
    • http://www.asug.com/ – America’s SAP User group. Sponsors both regional and national meetings and has national meetings merged with SAPphire and SAPTechEd.
    • http://www.dsag.de/dsaghome/dsag.html – Germany’s SAP user group.
  • Other Community sites
    • http://sap.toolbox.com – Nice site. I tend to lurk in the career forum, answering questions.
    • http://www.sapfans.com/ –  This isn’t a site I’ve used much, but I’m going to be taking a look over the next few weeks.
    • http://www.saptechies.com/ – This isn’t a site I’ve used much either, but I’m going to be taking a look over the next few weeks.
    • http://www.linkedin.com/  –  I personally find that the SAP forums that I’ve seen on Linked In have an annoyingly small signal to noise ratio (more noise than signal), but I do follow the education forum.  If you have a forum you’ve found helpful, please link it in the comments.
    • https://twitter.com/  – Twitter. I’m fairly new to twitter but reliable sources tell me that if you follow the #SAP hashtag, you’ll get great tidbits and news items of interest to folks in the SAP world. I can be found/followed on twitter @thomas_dulaney

Hopefully this is enough to get you started. Please link your favorite sites in the comments!

Best regards,

  –Tom