I have decided to take it upon myself to start an SAP course beginning with
the BW module. My background is mostly with networking, hardware and desktop support. I have no SAP
exposure. Please advice if this is the best way to break into the SAP world or if you have a better
suggestion please.
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Hannah Smalltree, Editorial Director
There is no one right way to break into SAP. You need to remember that the key to getting a
foothold into the SAP world is not through training courses, but through hands-on project
experience. If you've read my past columns, you know that I recommend two practical things: head
towards the area of SAP that is most relevant to your current skills, and review the SAP job
openings you see online and compare them with your current skills. This way, you can better
determine which crucial skills you lack and which areas to target. BW training is never a bad idea
because it ties into so many areas of SAP. However, with your current background in networking and
hardware, you should also look to the core areas of SAP system administration, or Basis. To me, you
would bring more value as an SAP network administrator because that's where your current skills
line up. My approach to breaking into SAP is not to take the sexiest course you can find, but to
carefully map your current skills into SAP and fill in the blanks. BW can play a role for you, but
remember that the best SAP BW consultants, on the technical side, either have deep data warehousing
backgrounds or deep SAP programming backgrounds. There are also some good SAP BW administrators,
but often this is a subset of an overall set of Basis-related skills.
This was first published in July 2004