Learning SAP when you don’t have an SAP job already – Web Sites
*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:
- 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!
- 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 )
- 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
- Authorized classes
- 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
- More high level overviews
- 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
- SCN
Hopefully this is enough to get you started. Please link your favorite sites in the comments!
Best regards,
–Tom
Thanks Tom for posting the nice article! It is really helpful.
This article will be very to me a student studying a Grad Dip in ERP. Thank you
Thanx for the post :).
Great article! Thanks Tom !!!
Thank you Hemraj, Alison, Jannus, and Osvaldo! I appreciate your kind comments. Please do return as you run across additional sites and leave them in the comments. I will update this blog from time to time as I find additional sites as well. I'm so happy you all found this helpful!
Best regards,
--Tom
All right, maybe you could add this excellent doc: "SAP User Groups Worldwide" by Jason Lax.
He mention all ASUG groups!
Regards,
Osvaldo
Thanks Osvaldo! I updated the blog. If you come across any more I missed, please keep them coming! -td
Hi Thomas,
I am Currently working as Business analyst and now I would change my carrer to SAP. I have fair knowledge of SAP SD and SAP POS . For last two years I am not working in SAP . I did my MBA in Marketing and now inclination is towards SAP CRM. Request you to please let me know which module in SAP CRM will best for me to enter in SAP world.
Is SAP CRM will be good for future or should I start learning any other SAP Module.
Please guide me ..
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Abhishek
Hello Abhishek,
How long did you work with SAP SD and/or SAP POS? Why wouldn't you continue working in one of those two disciplines? SAP SD and SAP CRM are very closely related. I would recommend continuing to work on SAP SD until you have time to do the research to figure out which SAP CRM module suites you best. Any of the SAP modules (SAP ECC SD, SAP ECC, MM, SAP ECC PP, etc) and/or components (SAP CRM, SAP SRM, SAP SCM, etc) can provide a wonderful, long term career if you have passion for the subject. The best thing for you to do is to really invest the time to learn what functionality resides in what module or component. Please see Learning SAP when you don't have an SAP job already - Books if none of the web sites in this blog did the trick for you.
Hope this helps!
Best regards,
--Tom
Hi Thomas,
Many thanks for this blog.
Question:
What should be the username and password when someone clicks on this link : https://service.sap.com/erp
brgds,
George
It requires an SAP Service Marketplace ID, also known as an "S-number" or "OSS ID". To get one, I think you have to be working for an SAP customer or partner. I should update the blog to make note of that. You might be able to get similar information from the public side of the house at http://www.sap.com/erp. The public side is typically heavier on the marketing-speech. Sorry.
Hope that helps!
Best regards,
--Tom
Thank you Tom, this is an excellent post....this post not only helps the people who don't have SAP job but also helps everyone who has an SAP job with curiosity to learn more.................
Thanks Naveen! I really appreciate the feedback! -td
Thank you Tom, the post was very helpful to me...actually in working in SAP BI for 2.5 years and mostly involved in support activities like process chain correction,BEX analyser and solving the diffrent types of issues during loading. I have sound knowledge of ABAP and BI , would like to learn about HANA or SAP mobilty services along with this day to day activities I perform.
Can you Please guide me how can this be done!
Thanks in Advance
Regards
Vilas Kamath
Check this blog as well.
http://www.learnsaptips.com
Thanks Tom for your great effort, this helps a lot
Thanks Tom for sharing. Very useful information.....
Keep up the good work 🙂
Thanks for the post.
Regards
thanks thomas for all your efforts for this kudos blog i can say it's online sap library 😉
Regards,
Harish
Hello,
Great information for every SAPian.
all the best Erwin
Dear Thomas Dulaney,
Thanks for your idea and effort.
I appreciate your presentation skills.
Regards,
Siva kumar.
You can also check this free online training for beginners: ABAP StarterKit Online Training
You get there for free:
Hi,
my name is Raju from Hyderabad. and also completed my B.com degree
I have completed sap fico recently and I could not find any jobs related sap from the past months. kindly help me out to find a job and give me any advice on what I supposed to do
thanking you,