Thanks everyone for the information

Hi it will be nice to write your threads in English as everyone here are not yoruba or even nigerians

Thanks everyone

Hi All,

I am just reading thru this discussion on SAP.

Am a fresh graduate of Computer sci with prof cert in Server and Netwrk Adm. I want do move to Database Administration and will like to lay my hands on SAP , though i dont have an idea of where to start from . Pls Markos and Kiwi, Can you advise me pls on what to do as a first timer and where to start from , my id is bukolavictoria@yahoo.com

Your response is highly appreciated.

@Buckkie

what you need is in here,take your time and go through all the post.
Do you want to combine SAP with DBA?

I suggest you go for your DBA training first,couse is a very tedious course,i have been on it now for good three months,still cracking!

I noticed that most of the SAP job been advertised in Nigeria ,they always mentioned that OCP is an added advantage(check NLNG site for their recent SAP job advert),so go for your DBA Training,after that,you can switch to SAP training



Good luck

For all aspiring SAP consultants, all the answers you need are in here, all you need is browse through these 17 pages, all questions will be answered

@Roland pet and Makkos ,

Tnx 4 ur response

Your wellcome buckkie,

Thanks to Markos for all his good kindness.

Want to learn SAP?, Need a live system to dirty your hands and practice on?
The following SAP systems are available.

ERP 2007 with ECC 6.0 IDES on windows 2003. (64 Bit System)
ERP 2004 with ECC 5.0 on windows 2003. (32 Bit System)
BI 7.0 IDES on windows 2003 (64 Bit System)
Solution Manager 3.2 on windows 2003 (32 bit system)
Solution Manager 4.0 on Windows 2008 (64 bit system)
NetWeaver 6.40 on Windows 2000 (32 bit system)
Netweaver 7.0 on windows 2003 (64 bit system)
SRM 4.0 (2004) on windows 2000 (32 bit system)
CRM 4.0 (2004) on windows 2000 (32 bit system)

Each installation comes on 250GB disk and is valid for 4 weeks.
Linux versions are available.
The vmware versions are also available. (These versions are renewable for a lifetime if you know how to use vmware).
Contact: Martinsite on 08099896898.
Only serious enquiries please.

Hello Guys,
happy new year to everyone,hope all the SAP BASIS guys are enjoying their studies,

felix

HI SAP people, any good news to share? anyone taken the exams?

I have definitely learned a lot since I started studying

Hi Kiwi 992,Markos,Felixv and Co.Not to forget SAP bloggers.U ppl are doing great on this Forum.Arguably,i Can't find any other career thread as rich as this.I will appreciate if you could assist with the  decoded SAP R/3 IDES  ECC 6.0 link and useful materials on my email , greatbayoom4ever@yahoo.com.So as to implement it on the PC ,hone my skills,network,engage in capacity building and transfer knowledge. Kindly,help out with SAP Forum group link as well.I will opt for self Study.More so,I[b] will appreciate more guide & gist on a suitable career [/b] route for my interest in being an SAP Consultant with background from Maths/Comp. Sci .Currently,under going CCNA/PMP training.Am in PH,working as a Maintanance Co-ordinator with  the telecoms, hoping to Consult for a spectrum of Coys across the Telecom,Oil & Gas and a host of others.Looking forward to your  candid response.Aside insight into SAP BASIS,Netweaver  and security/Role Designs.Considering an Aspect saleable in Nigeria(perhaps SAP BASIS,NETWeaver and possibly OS-DB being from Comp. Sci background as earlier mentioned,AG(need to be enlightened on this),thereafter i can decide to take my skill across the shores, whichever.Many thanks nice folks

@bayoom:::::::

greetings,

You stated that you are currently doing your ccna/pmp and now you want to migrate to SAP BASIS,Netweaver  and security/Role Designs.

Bro
you really have to make up your mind on your career path, cisco , ccna is good.i just dont see how you can combine that with project management.Maybe if you are lucky to get a Network design job, (but would you need PMP)

Now to SAP BASIS or Netweaver and security

Most basis guys would have operating system and database skills,as SAP sits on any operating system,this could be unix or windows.Most large companys use Unix,this is definately more stable and my favorite , i really dislike windows environments.And again unix is predominately 64bit.SAP applications need alot of memory to run and windows tends to have an issue with memory address space.

Database,i guess Oracle is more popular than most,but DB2 and MS SQL are commonly used as well,

Now for the BASIS GURUS, performance tunning and debugging is also a required skill, and some project management skills (obviously not the PMP level, lol)

I did include a link to the netweaver trial software in one of my earlier posts,its a nice package and its comes with MaxDB,this is SAP's own database.

I dont think you need an OCP to be a medium level basis guy,am not sure why NLNG mentioned that in their advert,this is because from an SAP perspective you would not be using any ORACLE TOOLS for administration.we have all the tools needed.

Security, this is a specialized skill,and most security guys i have met have been doing this for years.obviously once you decide to become an SAP security expert its what you would stick with,you would need the ordinary certfication exam first then proceed to do the security exam.Most of the skills are learnt on the job due to the different roles you are required to master, these roles are application specific,


now the painful part is the fact that most SAP constellations are dual stack,this means there would be a java environment,you cant get away from this,enterprise portal is probably one of the most popular SAP applications in the market place now, that brings its own problems and opportunities.if you are like me and did poxy pascal and visual basic in uni, then you had better learn some java,its a requirement.and its common in interviews nowadays.the reason is that older basis guys hate it and they are always looking for a young stud to dump the java stuff on.Common java applications are XI and EP.There is also a purely java SAP   instance using the sun java engine.This can be downloaded from the SDN SAP website.

We are hoping that SAP makes more inroads into the Nigerian marketplace,but unfortunately this hasnt and is still not the case,this is an expensive application,and the required skillsets are sadly lacking in Nigeria.Its just been announced in Germany that one of the biggest banks would be using SAP SOFTWARE to run the banking services,this is big news for us,considering that there are established banking software vendors out there.If the banks in Nigeria start investing in SAP then the jobs would materialize.



thanks

Felix
Snr Technical consultant
SAP AMERICAS

@bayoom

greetings,

I see that you are currently doing the cisco ccna exam,but why PMP?, are you hoping to manage large CISCO implementations,anyway, lets talk SAP

now that you are considering SAP BASIS OR NETWEAR AND SECURITY,I guess I had better break it down,

your ccna would actually help,this is because you would hardly come across an organisation that does not have a lan or wan and SAP applications are pure client server based.
But you need operation system and database skills to start with.Unix is very popular,this is because of the fact that it is mostly 64bit and pretty stable.Also there is now specialized hardware called LPARS,these suit a unix environment.You can learn unix commands by installing linux at home and doing a 3 day course on unix script writing.you will learn about the korn and c shells, and alot more,
Windows is also used in medium sized companys and most would also use microsft clustering software.Just helped a customer out an escalation due to the cluster crashing, interesting, !!!.

databases.,Oracle is obviously the most popular database used with SAP,this is due to the available skill set out there,there are many oracle gurus out there looking for work,so its common to see them add SAP basis to their skillset.DB2 and MS SQL is also popular as well,

security,this is a very specialized area,actually its now called the professional level skillset, you would need the ordinary technical exam first then the security exam,most of the skills are learnt on site,this is due to the number of roles you need to master,and these roles are application specific.

Now for the basis gurus, these are the money bags KIWI was referring too, you need kool performance tunning and debugging skills,these are the guys who are called when SAP is running slow,or when a 'business process is running slow', a business process is a collection of SAP transactions required to achieve a business requirement.It takes years to get to this level,you definately need abap and good sql tunning skills.

now the pain, Java, there is a hardly any SAP constellation where there is no java instance.EP, enterprise portal is probably one of our more popular applications and it runs on java.I can gurantee that there is no interview that you would attend that a java question would not come up.This is because the older basis guys hate java and they are always looking for a young stud to the dump java on.

well enough said,

check out sdn.sap.com
register and download the trial netweaver software,its free for 30days and you can always renew the license,

felix
snr technical consultant
sap americas,

SAP roles in Nigeria

http://www.careerjet.hk/wsearch/jobs?s=sap&l=Nigeria&lid=113795

My good god Brodas, sorry for disconnecting for long,been sucked in deep by other stuffs.
Am back for good now on SAP and would encourage any one that has the dream never to let it go,
@nnaiah, Time will tell, !!!

Hi All,

Please can anyone please help me with the link to download the IDES ECC 6.0

I have registered with amaderforum but i have not been activated by the administrator hence unable to access any online resources

Ejoo e sanu aje , adiresi mi ni ajaooluwaseun ni yahoo dot com(Please help out time is running out, that's my address)

@ Scorpio1

hope you 've been able to get an SAP role now? if not don't give up, it's not over until you win

Cheers!

currently working on an SAP inter-company project due to go-live in May, lots of data to be configured from SD, FI and CO-PA, working for a small company so they utilise every SAP experience you have, if you happen to be multi-skilled, believe small sized companies will take advantage, sometimes i find it difficult switching from SD to FI to CO-PA, controlling, MM,although it gives you an advantage to see the whole picture, it does not make you a master of one module, has anyone experienced this?? any multi-skilled SAP consultants in here??

I have this offer and I only have access to 15 of these.:
SAP training material for any certification track and SAP ECC IDES, SAP ECC IS-Oil IDES
will cost NGN50000 or £200.00

upon receipt of payment you'll get a download link to download the Training Material,
The install disks will be sent by courier from the UK where I am based.

No need to waste your money in SAP academies, Read this and pay for the exams only and become SAP certified for Free.

what do i need to do to be apart of the offer?

@ALL, Pls beware of scammers,do not send money to someone you do not know,ok.
@Stealth01, No role yet cos Terp10 is not really mainstream now ,though it gets you ahead and into the broil, Training for my PM certification now, do contact "Nnaiah" for the home training S/W on your system.

Cheers all,
Naija 4 life!!!

Everyone is an SAP expert, the bottom line is this without experience in SAP you can have 100 certifications and it wont matter. the issue is in Nigeria there are not enough implementation projects and ones that are going on
are not being staffed correctly, the reason for this is that we implement technology for the sake of it and in line with any kind of strategy and also there is an infrastructure issue which hampers most projects. SAP is not a follow the leader technology and is not a fad, take TERP10 for example that is a course with no value but people still rush and certify in it. What Nigeria needs are proper mentors from people who know what they r doing and have been in trenches thay would be able to tell you how to approach the industry without having to line anyones pockets including SAP. The assumption that this vocation will make yu lots of money is a wrong one, and if you follow it for money you'll be seriously disappointed.

To all of you interested in getting into SAP, it is a good area to get into, for technology people have a look at BASIS for Developers have a look at ABAP and for Business people have a look at any of the core functional areas.
BASIS is a lot easier if you have background in Network administration and know database management
ABAP is a lot easier if you come from a programming background especially JAVA is very beneficial
FUNCTIONAL is a lot easier if you have some business process knowledge in a particular area

New Dimenesion things like BW CRM are also areas worth looking at
BW has 2 areas functional designers that build information and write queries and BW developers that also write extractors and integrate BW with other modules, Financial reporting is most in demand hance you have lots of FI consultants that have ventured into BW
CRM is more for Sales and helpdesk people and covers a wide range of skills, but is most beneficial if you have both functional and technical knowledge.

Project based work is what makes you a proper consultant and thats what gives you your edge, breaking in requires carefull planning, demand and supply, and luck, but then you can make you own luck.

Which ever route you choose to pursue remember that deleivering enterprise wide application solutions whether its SAP or Oracle, requires for you to be able to understand requirements in the context of the business and that is the true challenge which no training course will teach you.

well said, you enter the SAP market where your background fits, these days everyone wants to get certified without understanding the dynamics of SAP ERP, you end up not understanding the product eventhough you are certified, the best consultants are usually the ones that started as end users and worked their way to superuser or poweruser to funtional consultants / developers, this sort of experience is well sought after if you can translate business requirements into SAP

@ oga markos

with all due respect sir, while the place of hands on experience and specializing in your area of domain cum work experience cannot be overemphasized not all of us have the luxury of first being[b] enduser[/b]s then moving on to become super/power users to become functional consultants/developers like you mentioned especially in a place like Nigeria where only a handful of Companies can afford to implement the software

That's where the IDES application comes in giving access to lots of demo data for the much required hands on experience and business process scenarios

Working your way up the SAP ladder is ideal but ain't realistic for everyone

In an ideal world, dont really know much about the Nigerian market, i guess as you pointed out, you have to revert to IDES if SAP experience is lacking, it does help understand the concept but am afraid without practical real life experience, one will always struggle in SAP, these days SAP is moving into more business process orientation, SAP has evolved from the old R/3 days to enterprise core components, i.e supply chain management, CRM, financials, SRM, HR, BI

well it seems the African market, espcially the Nigerian market has been touted as the next focus of growth in the ERP market, i will expect the big multinationals in the local market to purchase SAP license, so there will be potential jobs for the nigerian aspiring SAP consultants

networking skills must be very good to get a foot in so i guess the certification is one step

IDES is just a demo system though it is useful to help you familiarize yourself with the functions of SAP software it doesn't give you the important thing that it takes to be a consultant and that is domain experience, I'll explain, in order for you to create a Solution for client and advice them on the best possible way of doing things you need to know more than what IDES will give you, in the real world no 2 companies will have the exact same requirement and some are more bespoke than others, the way HR off cycle payroll is handled in Nigeria is very different for how it is handled in the Uk or the US to enble this functionality you would have to understand the requirement of the client and have something to relate it to and thats what the client pays for, if you really want to learn to be consultant find someone experienced to mentor you help you guide your thinking in delivering solutions, its the lack of business knowledge thats making projects in Nigeria fail, SAP integration might sound easy on paper but untill you've actually done when a client has paid 2, 3, 15 millions dollars and you have a totally different kettle of fish. For all you newbies out there ask yourself the fundamental question what happens on my first day on site.
I've been an SAP Consultant for over 13 years and i'll tell anyone who wants to learn SAP to keep doing what they are doing, if you have IDES learn what you can with it, but find a mentor, someone who can teach you how to make sense of all this. SAP might be the how you intend to accomplish the task but the WHY is more important and clients want to know that you can suggest options even when it comes down to configuration or development.

Just got my IDES ECC 6.0 installed on my new IBM R500, just got all my materials for FI/CO. Setting targets for the end of this year to get used to the system. I have been an Oracle e-business user before so all I'm currently learning on SAP are just applicable to Oracle.

Someone should pls wish me goodluck.

hi everyone

itz been a while.

I've had my IDES for almost a year, and i nid som mentor on itz usage. am t echnical so going into BASIS. i nid som1 dt cud put me thru. i intend to purchase lyk 4 systems and do a network to the systems thus kinda creating a real life scenario, but i nid som1 to put me thru dis process.


i reside at wuse, abuja. plz if u knw of any1 around, cud u lemme knw. fanx.

my london number +44 7759504034
text or call me is you have any questions regarding starting a SAP career
and if you have any questions regarding the software and training materials being offered
mentoring and internship in Nigeria would probably cost a bit but I'm sure we can arrange
an internship to work on live SAP HR project as an associate but would cost the participants a fair bit,

email me gofestac@yahoo.com

markos:

currently working on an SAP inter-company project due to go-live in May, lots of data to be configured from SD, FI and CO-PA, working for a small company so they utilise every SAP experience you have, if you happen to be multi-skilled, believe small sized companies will take advantage, sometimes i find it difficult switching from SD to FI to CO-PA, controlling, MM,although it gives you an advantage to see the whole picture, it does not make you a master of one module, has anyone experienced this?? any multi-skilled SAP consultants in here??

@Markos
on my last project i supported end users on fico, sd, mm and copa, i may be of help, but it has been a while as i am preoccupied with my kids
, am also thinking of getting sap access b4 i enter rat race again. lol