I haven’t read this specific book but in general Espresso Tutorials “First Steps” books are good and short. They’re also cheap in Kindle version. https://www.amazon.com/First-Steps-SAP-beginners-guide-ebook/dp/B016KFFOZE
You could also try browsing some older blogs in the Career tag on SAP Community website (aka SCN). There were some explaining the modules. I don’t have a link, unfortunately, after they changed the platform it’s hard to find anything. But maybe Google to the rescue?
Marketing/MIS major @ GVSU and TERP10 certified. In terms of learning material regarding FI/CO, Professor Magal's text Business Process Integration with SAP ERP (https://www.amazon.com/Business-Process-Integration-SAP-ERP-ebook/dp/B00BL828LY/ref=la_B001JSHIYS_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1477241900&sr=1-3) is dense but effective. First two chapters introduce you to both FI/CO, and the remaining go into detail regarding process integration (procurement, production, fulfillment, etc.). Again it's a bit of an investment, but worth it if you'd want a detailed overview of practical SAP instances. There's other texts by the same author to if it proves too intensive!
Hello! Welcome to the world of SAP BC!
I have this SAP R/3 Handbook and though we no longer call SAP systems as R/3 and a lot has changed, the basic (basis?) concepts are still useful.
I also bought this book many years ago SAP Implementation Unleashed and again though some tech can be considered obsolete, the basic concepts of implementing SAP starting from infrastructure planning to go-live are covered in this book.
Take note that the books above were published pre-HANA but as a basis guy you want to be as flexible as possible regarding different OS/DB combinations as if they are just "soft skills" like Microsoft Office lol! While other companies would hire a separate database administrator for mssql and oracle, as a basis guy you will be expected to do both.
For more "modern" topics there are tons you can find at sap-press.com which covers HANA, Fiori etc.
Since you've just started, your main priority now is to be knowledgeable about your current landscape. For example,if you are still running SAP on Oracle then you need to focus on mastering Oracle on SAP since this is another demon.
Basis takes years to be proficient due to different combinations of os/db and infrastructure combinations and SAP tools are constantly evolving. You won't have much time to read books from cover to cover but they are still good references.
As a Basis guy you will be exposed to different SAP products (not just the classic Netweaver) and you have you have to learn them as fast possible. You can't master them like the back of your hand but the goal is you should quickly understand the concepts so that you will know what to look for when you are teoubleshooting or deploying.
I bought a couple copies of this book.. http://www.amazon.com/Extended-Warehouse-Management-Functionality-Configuration/dp/1592293042/ref=la_B00L9VZN1U_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1445835824&sr=1-1 But.. holy christ $300 to 1k? I got two for $75 each in 2013. I worked with Frank (one of the authors) when we rolled out EWM. The book that has a pocket watch is more a big example of how you make a simple warehouse, but it doesn't explain what the field settings actually do that well. This book is much better at helping understand the intricacies of trying to translate what the options are in the tables. There's plenty of strange settings that you really couldn't guess what exactly they do by just the descriptions and I won't say it's all encompassing, but this was a better resource than what we could find online.
Hi there!
There is a book that is supposed to be good. :) It's only $10 on Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/What-Earth-IDoc-Jelena-Perfiljeva-ebook/dp/B01BQTFDXM
"about Production order splitting" is not an IDoc question though and neither book nor udemy course will cover it. "how to manage Idoc's based on order type" - that also seems to be an oddly specific functional questions. The book definitely covers the IDoc monitoring, management, and error handling. But again, neither book nor course will explain very specific business scenarios.
If you want to learn IDoc basics and general concepts, e.g. what IDocs are and how they work, then both book and course could be helpful. But if you have questions regarding very specific process that your organization uses IDocs for then you would be wiser to just ask someone locally.
Good luck!
- Jelena
To clarify, "other databases" just means the current business suite ERP6, SCM7, etc, which are supported until 2025. S4HANA will require HANA.
There's now a not-bad followup article: SAP's S4/HANA master plan: The lingering questions
There are loads of SAP podcasts.. SAP has a few, Jenn Morgan has her own, and I know a few specialists have them too.
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https://anchor.fm/sap-community-podcast/episodes/Episode-1---Interview-with-DJ-Adams-e1ac40
Beat you can easily do is to get a book: SAP MM-Functionality and Technical Configuration https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1592290728/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_8RA5C7QMM412R5W2PS1Z
Free training resources are hard to cover by especially for functional areas.
I would follow the techniques from Mark Russinovich given in the webseries Case of the Unexplained.
I've stopped listening to Vendors tell me how an application works and why it freezes until I work with a developer and a debugger. Without the source and the debugger, it can be difficult but not impossible to figure out what happened or happening.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963887
Since you say its communicating over a network it would be fairly helpful to get a dump of non-encrypted traffic between your application and the 'server'. I use wireshark. http://www.wireshark.org/
I've used the techniques from Mark R, and my own experience to troubleshoot vendor/enterprise applications, and have found success. It will be a shot in the dark, but you will be working with more data than you had before.
I would suggest Process Monitor, and process explorer, and maybe windbg to troubleshoot. Maybe even get a .NET Reflector tool to see some source if you can understand it.
As others mentioned, you need to find to which SAP product you’re migrating exactly.
SAP works very well with EDI, actually. You will still need some EDI translator / middleware. Your experience with EDI will be quite valuable for the migration project. Some books to consider on this subject:
For understanding how SAP and MM work in general, Udemy.com has some great if dry classes on how basic to advanced processing in MM work and the fundamental design which helps you be a superuser. They frequently go on sale for just $10-15 so don't buy when they are at $200.
There will be somethings that are specific to how your business operates and unfortunately there is no way but to get that info from either your team or your IT support team. Each implementation of SAP is both configured and customized for that business. But a course for Udemy or the free documentation at Guru99.com can help you understand what the different tcodes and documents are. Once you understand the basics you can ask better questions to your team mates.
Our organisation has recently implemented JIRA Service Desk to provide our customers with support after go-live. I imagine we'll be rolling it (or something similar) out for UAT tracking in the near future too.
If the hiring manager is aware of your lack of experience then they don’t expect you to have any knowledge and likely plan to train you on the job.
EDI analyst jobs I’ve seen are for most part about coordination and communication. EDI has been around for ages and it’s all about electronic data exchange. E.g. company A is doing tons of business with company B and they decide instead of sending paper or faxes/emails around, let’s just send each other data in the files (for example). Obviously to do that, you need not just the means to transfer data but also a common format. This is where EDI standards come in. Even though company A runs SAP and company B say Oracle, an EDI translator (special software) can translate one format into the other, so that both companies can process the business data electronically.
In SAP, IDoc (special data container) is used for the purposes of such data exchange. So, your job could be either to work with the EDI translator or monitor IDocs etc. to make sure everything processed smoothly.
If you do get the job, invest in this book: https://www.amazon.com/What-Earth-IDoc-Jelena-Perfiljeva-ebook/dp/B01BQTFDXM
If you have access to an SAP system at work then you could learn there. Developer key is needed in ECC systems, SAP did away with it in S4, thankfully. There are some free resources, as other comments suggested, but there is also a book for beginners: https://www.amazon.com/ABAP-Introduction-Beginners-Programming-Second/dp/1493218808
If you can’t practice at work then trial ABAP system to the rescue.
SAP does have training but it’s very expensive and I wouldn’t say very effective. ABAP basics class I believe is still BC400.
you can also check out this book on amazon for a detailed guide on SAP BPC.
Thanks, someone has to do it .. if ever interested in reading up a bit on the financial-perspective for ERP adoption, selection and implementation - this book does a pretty good job of giving an over view. It is written mostly by Deloittians, and doesn't go into SAP specifics per se, but it is a nice project overview.