How to Level-up your SAP Cloud Platform Knowledge
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
We all know: Education and lifelong learning are key to success. However, for many it is not as simple as it sounds. In a world, where the amount of published information increases exponentially, where especially in the digital context information gets outdated quickly, it is crucial that the learner finds relevant information easily and that there are suitable formats for different learning types and individual learning conditions. Learning requires time and effort… So, how do you manage, if you work long hours, feel exhausted in the evening and realize that technology is changing at a pace where half-life of knowledge is falling more and more rapidly?
In 2017, I was driving a project jointly with an SAP partner, /N SPRO, to find out, what effective field enablement requires and which learning material might support the knowledge transfer necessary especially for companies who are on the path of digital transformation. As mentioned in the introduction, finding the right source of information and providing it to employees in a way that they can learn in bits and pieces, is key.
Let me give an example: Susan G. has worked as an ERP consultant for years and has recently changed into the role of an SAP Cloud Platform sales advisor, aka presales. Not only does she need to know her company’s own products and innovations (cloud native apps), but understand the underlying technology and the services offered by SAP Cloud Platform or Cloud Foundry. In addition to that, she wants to guide her customers with new technologies and topics. Apart from the product and technology related information, she has to be up-to-date with commercial changes, new ways to subscribe for resources in the cloud and be aware of competitor offerings.
The findings of our project showed, that learning depends a lot on what type of content the learner wants get knowledgeable about… just like you might pick-up Mathematics in a different manner than languages. For Go-to-Market topics, new technologies or commercial details, field related employees prefer to pick-up the latest news at events, in personal meetings or through newsletters or other short text format.
When it comes to product and technology understanding, learning is more intense, as the level of detail is much deeper and the complexity requires more time for understanding and learning. Classroom trainings are not always an option for time and travelling constraints. Therefore, blended learning or e-learning are the most common modes for training and education. With openSAP, an open online learning platform free of charge, people like Susan can deep-dive into the Cloud Platform technology and services, during working breaks in the office or even from home in their free time. Susan started with an online course called “SAP Cloud Platform Essentials”, which gave her a foundation of cloud relevant topics such as architecture, data center strategy, persistence, connectivity, security. After this MOOC (massive open online course) through openSAP she had a broad understanding of the platform and its services. Susan liked the learning experience with openSAP based on short learning videos (about 15-30 minutes) and quizzes that showed her, whether she had understood or memorized the content. She didn’t have the time for the assignments that were offered, but she didn’t plan to get a certificate at this point of time anyway. Over 6 weeks, she spent about 4 hours/week to have a solid basis on SAP Cloud Platform.
Learning Journeys – Great Guidance for Learners
How did Susan hear about this training? Even though the word has spread that the openSAP learning platform, which recently celebrated its 5th anniversary and has become very popular and widely used by IT-related learners, Susan was using the curated collection of learning content offered in the so-called “Learning Journeys” to find this course. These publicly available learning paths provide great guidance for learners: they offer product filters (will be role-based in the near future) and have a well-structured user-experience. They are providing learning content with different formats such as the openSAP courses, tutorials, blogs, links to relevant websites, use-case specific blueprints or webinars. SAP has invested heavily in these learning journeys to help partners, customers and internal learners finding the adequate source of information and learning resource.
SAP Learning Hub – Become fully Competent and Certified
If you would like to get an overview on instructor led trainings and become certified, I recommend that you check out the SAP training offers, which are either subscription based or paid per course / certification. The certification as “SAP Certified Development Associate – SAP Cloud Platform” might be a good asset, if your customers ask for a cloud related skillset.
For professionals who run, implement or support SAP software the SAP Learning Hub offers high-quality content and peer collaboration via social learning, with 24/7 access. In addition to the online learning content, by subscribing to the SAP Learning Hub, you have access to live SAP training systems in a public or private cloud environment. With SAP Live Access you can practice on a live, fully configured SAP system.
I wish you happy learning!
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Ulrike Fempel is a book author and a senior business development manager with over 20 years of global experience in IT. Recognized as significant driver by peers, management as well as partners, she has a passion for sciences. Contact her on Twitter / LinkedIn.
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How well you have penned it .Thanks for writing this useful blog in such simple to understand language. will look for more blogs from you.
Thanks.
Rashmi
Thanks for your comment! That’s great motivation to continue writing in my spare time…
Its my pleasure..yes please keep writing ..keep sharing.Thanks,