As part of SAP’s Certification & Education Influence Council, SAP Mentors have been working with SAP to create more awareness around education and certification. This ASUG BI4 webcast is part of that awareness campaign, in coordination with the ASUG Documentation & Training Special Interest Group. Yesterday’s webcast was provided by kenneth.schieffer and Joel Gilbert of SAP.
Agenda:
- Updates in SAP BI Training Curriculum
- Instructor’s Insights from the Classroom
- Q&A
This was an interactive webcast with polls. First question:
What is most important benefit of SAP Education training courses? Attendees responded as follows:
Figure 1
Figure 1 (done using SAP Visual Intelligence ) shows that most attendees attend class for the instructor's knowledge or hands-on practice. Few attend SAP classes for certification purposes.
Figure 2: Source: SAP
SAP said there is "room to grow" for availability of advanced SAP BI Training. They said there are challenges with sessions to run against BEx queries in classes. The SAP speakers recommended that you read course descriptions for desired training outcomes
The path to align certification program with consulting roles - SAP feels this is moving in the right direction, with the Job Task Analysis studies taking place.
Figure 3: Source: SAP
The SAP speakers reviewed the information shown in Figure 3. The lower right corner shows the codes of classes being offered – e.g. ILT = Instructor Led Training
Joel said there are currently three certifications for BI:
- Crystal
- BI Platform
- Web Intelligence
Joel said SAP is working on Job Task Analysis for Data Services for certification.
They said to use OKP or Online Knowledge Product for latest & greatest training.
Figure 4: Source: SAP
Note if you have trouble reading Figure 4, please go to https://training.sap.com/us/en/courses-and-curricula/certficationpartner for more information.
The Associate level certification is what is currently offered. The focus of that test is on features of tool and use cases.
Figure 5: Source: SAP
Figure 5 shows Online Knowledge Product management training offered. Note there is currently no instructor lead training for Predictive Analysis or Visual Intelligence.
In the SAP Business Intelligence (SAPBIE) class they only connect to BW using Analysis Office. Other tools are data agnostic.
Course BO100 is the “one stop shop” for BW/BI integration
Figure 7: Source SAP
Figure 7 shows BI platform courses and that BOE330 course is instructor lead
Joel said every person should take BOE310 – the “Grand Central Station”
Joel also recommended the BOID10 and 20 Information Design Tool classes as the interface has changed. Also see Q&A below for more information on this.
Figure 8: Source: SAP
Figure 8 shows all courses will be updated post Feature Pack 3 and they are offering training for Design Studio and Analysis OLAP.
SAP Education is thinking of offering a 2 day course for Analysis Office/OLAP
Figure 9: Source: SAP
Figure 9 shows the pros and the cons of virtual live classroom training. Joel said that now half the courses he teaches are virtual, and the rest are in-person. He feels it is trending to virtual
Now on to another interactive poll that attendees answered:
What is perception of Virtual Live Training?
Figure 10
Figure 10 shows most attendees have not tried Virtual training yet.
Figure 11: Source: SAP
Joel reviewed virtual live classroom recommendations shown in Figure 11. He suggests a dual monitor and reviewed the “Prepare, Partner & Participate” suggestions.
Question & Answer
Q: What languages are the training sessions delivered in?
A: In North America, we teach everything in English. Other countries will teach in their native language.
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Q: What about instructor led courses for SAP BOBJ Information Steward?
A: They are available - see this link: https://training.sap.com/us/en/course/tzim4i-sap-information-steward-classroom-096-us-en/
TZIM4I - offered in mid-Jan
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Q: Any option for running e-Classrooms on Weekends so that active consultants don't loose "billable days"...?
A: Our NA Thanks for the question. Our NA Portfolio team is constantly evaluating this and other delivery options outside of the methods used today.
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Q: Can you explain where you use the term "BI" versus "Business Objects" at this point? Would you say that generally the term BI is surplanting the SBOP other than in the long marketing names?
A: Please see this blog post http://blogs.sap.com/analytics/2011/02/03/sap-businessobjects-business-intelligence-renaming/
Please see official SAP BI roadmap at https://websmp104.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/011000358700000650752012E.pdf (Service MarketPlace logon required) - BI per the roadmap right now does not include BW
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Q: How much does it cost?
A: Please go to training.sap.com and look up the course codes for costs. Costs may differ based on delivery options
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The following open unanswered questions (because we ran out of time) were sent to the speakers, and Joel has answered below:
Q: Is there a dedicated Training-Path for EXPERIENCED Business Objects / Crystal Developers who have ZERO experience with SAP ECC or BW back-ends..? What is the road-map for people with those Skills to learn more about using them within the SAP ECC / BW world?
A: BO100 would be current best bet. Also follow Ingo Hilgefort’s blogs. Some report designers could certainly benefit from learning about the BW Query Designer, as well.
Q: Will "realistic" on-line PRACTICE Exams become available for the SAP-BOBJ certifications soon..? The Certs exams didn't seem to "line-up" with Classroom Courses / quizes..?
A: For the Associate Level exams, every question should be derived from the content of the courses or other resources listed in the appropriate certification guide. Current process is for exam designers to pull ten or so representative questions from the test pool after the beta testers have taken (and vetted) ALL questions. The selected ten are posted on the certification web site and are no longer part of the actual test, but ought to be a fair approximation of the difficulty and coverage of the actual exam. And remember, you don’t have to get every question correct to pass the exam.
Q: Any plan to add BOE320/330 for non-Windows deployments..?
A: No. However, the “windows-specific” content for both courses is quite small (>10%), especially now in recent versions as more functionality has moved from Central Configuration Manager to Central Management Console. Honestly, it is more likely that “for Windows” will simply be dropped from the course title. In sum, the current BOE320 course is an excellent foundation for server management of the BI Platform regardless of OS.
Q: Any plans for a IDT course specifically for experianced universe designers? It would be hard to sit through all the basics covered in the prior BOU310/320 classes just to learn the specifics of the new tool.
A: No current plans for “delta” training for Universe Designer to Information Design Tool.
After the webcast, I remembered Cindi Howson's recent book mentioned in this blog: Book Report: Mastering SAP BusinessObjects BI4 Feature Pack 3 - in this book Cindi covers the deltas between the Universe Designer and the Information Design Tool.
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