Learning SAP when you don’t have an SAP job already – Books
This is Part two of a four part (currently) series. The full setup is in the first post, 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:
Books
By far the most active publisher in the SAP space is (not surprisingly) SAP Press. Whether you are looking for overview books or detail books, SAP Press probably has what you need. I prefer buying my books directly from SAP Press whenever possible, because for a little extra money they let you get both the electronic version of the book as well as the physical version of the book. This means that I can keep my hardcopy in my primary office, but still have access to the book when I’m on the road. This has proved exceedingly helpful on several occasions. The only downside is that the soft copy of the book is, to the best of my knowledge, only available through the SAP Press website. I’d love to have the option of viewing it on my kindle, but so far I don’t think that’s an option.
Having said that, I have also set up an Amazon Affiliate Bookstore for those who want to an easy way to view all of the books I’ve assembled. While SAP Press does publish the lion’s share of good SAP books on the market today, there are still a few books out there by other publishers and this was an easy way to put them all together in one site. Full disclosure: if anyone buys a book directly from the book site I put together, Amazon kicks some of the proceeds back to me. Any and all proceeds generated are going to be split between a college fund for my kids and Juvenile Diabetes research charities.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of SAP books. I’ve restricted myself to book published since 2009. Any older than that and the books tend to be a little too far out of date. I have not read all of these books and inclusion on these lists should not be construed as a personal endorsement unless otherwise indicated. My intent was to gather a quick list of books that would serve someone trying to learn SAP for the first time. Please check the feedback on SAP Press and/or Amazon to get information from folks who have actually read any particular book. If you know of a book that belongs on one of these lists, please let me know in the comment section and I will be happy to update my lists (especially Plant Maintenance). If you’ve read one of these books and want to leave a comment about it, please do! Also leave comments at SAP Press and Amazon as well as very few SAP books receive much love in the feedback department.
If you are thinking of starting a career in SAP but don’t know which SAP ECC Module or SAP component is right for you. Start with the books in Overviews for Business Professionals or Overview for IT Professionals book. I have lists for SAP ECC modules Financials/Controlling, Material Management, Plant Maintenance, Production Planning, and Sales and Distribution but have not yet put together lists for any of the components: Supply Chain Management, Supplier Relationship Management, Customer Relationship Management, Business Intelligence, Portal, Business Objects, etc. These lists are a work in progress so if you’d like one of the missing ones prioritized, just let me know.
Overviews for Business Professionals
These books discuss the entire breadth of SAP functionality, including the various components (SCM, SRM, CRM, etc) and the modules of SAP’s Core Product, ECC (FI, MM, PP, SD, etc). They also talk about the various toolkits you get within SAP Netweaver (BI, Portal, Basis, etc). If you are interested in SAP but aren’t really sure which component or module best suites your interest, this is the list for you!
Overviews for IT Professionals
These books are aimed at IT professionals considering SAP implementation for the first time. They provide a broad overview of the functionality and technology involved.
Configuration – Financials and Controlling
These books cover the basic topics required to configure and use SAP Financials and/or SAP Controlling Module in SAP Enterprise Central Component (formerly SAP R/3). These books cover the basics for folks who want to work on a project team to support an SAP implementation and/or for folks who work to support an SAP ECC system that is already live.
Configuration – Material Management
These books cover the basic topics required to configure and use SAP Materials Management Module in SAP Enterprise Central Component (formerly SAP R/3). These books cover the basics for folks who want to work on a project team to support an SAP implementation and/or for folks who work to support an SAP ECC system that is already live.
Configuration – Plant Maintenance
These books cover the basic topics required to configure and use SAP Plant Maintenance Module in SAP Enterprise Central Component (formerly SAP R/3). These books cover the basics for folks who want to work on a project team to support an SAP implementation and/or for folks who work to support an SAP ECC system that is already live.
Configuration – Production Planning
These books cover the basic topics required to configure and use SAP Production Planning Module in SAP Enterprise Central Component (formerly SAP R/3). These books cover the basics for folks who want to work on a project team to support an SAP implementation and/or for folks who work to support an SAP ECC system that is already live.
Configuration – Sales and Distribution
These books cover the basic topics required to configure and use SAP Sales and Distribution Module in SAP Enterprise Central Component (formerly SAP R/3). These books cover the basics for folks who want to work on a project team to support an SAP implementation and/or for folks who work to support an SAP ECC system that is already live.
Netweaver System Administration (a.k.a. Basis) – Introduction
These books cover all the basic functions you need to know in order to be a generic SAP System Administrator. Most of the books focus on the traditional ABAP stack duties. At least one is useful if you are interested in the JAVA stack equivalent duties. All make excellent reference books if you are already familiar with the fundamentals.
Programming – Introduction
These books are suitable for folks who are interested in learning ABAP for the first time. Knowledge of other programming languages is helpful but not required. These books also make great reference books to have on your shelf when you need to refresh your memory.
SAP Implementation
These books don’t talk about SAP’s functionality as much as how to implement SAP successfully. SAP projects are large and large projects are prone to running over time and over budget unless carefully managed. These books attempt to provide Best Practice advice and methodology hints in order to maximize your chance at on-time and on-budget implementation.
Again, please let me know if there are any books or categories you think I should add!
Hope this helps!
Best regards,
–Tom
Find the rest of my blogs at http://scn.sap.com/people/thomas.dulaney/content
Follow me on Twitter @thomas_dulaney
Great article Thomas but unfortunately most of the amazon links are not working. Can you please add the book title, author etc: so i can search it myself.
Also if you could suggest some roadmap to get started with SCM - Supply Chain Management, Procurement and Warehouse Management.
Apologies, if i have missed it on the article.
Hi Sana,
I just tested all the links again and they all work for me, but I wonder if Amazon restricts them to the United States only. If so, that is a real bummer. I'll have to redo the whole blog. Argh. Hopefully someone else will chime in with whether or not the links work for them and if so (or if not) what country s/he is in.
Do me a favor and see if this link works for you: http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/byauthor/AENKDX7V1GQ3W/ref=pd_ys_sf_lf_lm
The Amazon website is built from the listmania lists, but it may have the same country restrictions.
If you have no background at all in SAP, I'd start with one of the books from the "Overview of SAP Functionality for Business Professionals" list. If you have some experience, understanding of SAP already, then the books you want are on the "Configuration - PP" list.
SAP Press has a number of books available for SCM. Hopefully that link will work for you.
But just in case none of the links above work for you. Here are some titles you might want to look at more closely. I haven't read any of them, so I can't endorse any title specifically, unfortunately.
Discover SAP SCM
ISBN: 978-1-59229-305-6
Author(s): Shaun Snapp
Production Planning with SAP APO (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 978-1-59229-354-4
Author(s): Jochen Balla and Frank Layer
Supply Chain Management Based on SAP Systems: Order Management in Manufacturing Companies (SAP Excellence) [Paperback]
Gerhard F. Knolmayer (Author), Peter Mertens (Author), Alexander Zeier (Author)
Production Planning and Control with SAP ERP (2nd Edition) [Hardcover]
Jorg Thomas Dickersbach (Author), Gerhard Keller (Author)
As for a roadmap, I may need more information to properly give you a path, but do realize that SCM is really an extension of the concepts in SAP ECC MM and PP. Many SCM consultants started life as MM or PP consultants.
If you check the curriculum map for SCM PP and Manufacturing, you'll see the classes available for certification if you want to attend an Academy track. If you can't/don't want to attend an Academy, you can check the competency tab of the certification and find the other classes that you can take to find equivalent information. You can also drill down through those links and compare to the Table of Contents of the various books to make sure that all the areas are covered if you're going to use the books to study for certification.
Hope these help! Sorry for the link troubles!
Best regards,
--Tom
P.S. If you do purchase and read any of these (or other) books. Please feel free to leave a review here for others. Thanks!
Thansk alot Thomas and appreciate your prompt reply. What a luck, all links are working now (bit strange, why didn they work yesterday)
Again thanks for the guidance on SCM. I knew that SCM has now alot more functionality and processes involved as what it use to be 10 years ago but i am still looking at some course / book that basically covers off basic of it e:g; some basic MM course.
if any idea, please share it here.
So far according to my search, i found few links on scn, where i can download pdf of the MM books by SAP press but they are all published in 2001, so there is a chance that new functionality might be added after.
here is the link
http://help.sap.com/printdocu/core/Print46c/en/data/pdf
one can see, there is a whole suite of pdf's for individual modules. I just thought, its not bad to start with especially thinking the perspective that its for free.. 🙂
Also i found very good reviews about this book
Materials Management with SAP ERP: Functionality and Technical Configuration (3rd Edition) By Martin Murray
http://astore.amazon.com/sacane-20/detail/1592293581
I am really keen to give it a go.
Hi Sana,
There is a lot of material out there but getting hands on on a system I believe is the key. If you can get that then your learning becomes so much more fun interactive and interesting.
Definitely in MM a lot has changed and a lot keeps changing. I did a certification in ECC6 EHP4 and I believe in just a years time EHP7 is already out and about. Have to update myself on the enhancements.
Regards
Sameer A Siddiqui