Advise needed on switching from SAP Basis to something else

[former_member611124]

Hello,

I need some advice.

After working in SAP Basis support for about 4 and half years I took a career break to start a family.

I’m now looking to get back to work (after a few years off) but I really don’t want to go back to doing SAP Basis.

To be perfectly honest it’s the On-call and the out-of-hours/weekend work that I don’t want to go back to… it doesn't fit in with having a young family... even though I realise no job in IT is truly 9-5! 🙂

Before I did SAP Basis, I did a few years of Oracle database support (again involved being on-call). I also have some C programming experience, and my Oracle PL/SQL use to be quite strong (though that was quite some time ago).

Basically, my IT experience has predominately been of a technical nature not functional.

Anyway I would like to stick with SAP but just need some guidance about what other (technical) SAP areas might suit me best with my skills background.

Oh and by the way I do realise my best chance of getting a job would be to stick with SAP Basis, but I would still like to give it a go moving out of Basis into something else.

Your thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

Sofia

[TammyPowlas]

Hi Sofia - as always "it depends" on your location, market, etc.

S/4HANA is popular and so is SuccessFactors. Many SuccessFactors consultants work from home.

You can check the free OpenSAP courses at open.sap.com to see what interests you. I'm not a Basis person myself, but I did enjoy the HANA Admin course (that would be popular too)

[former_member611124]

Hi Tammy,

Thanks for your reply.

I did look at S/4HANA but got the impression it required strong knowledge/experience in finance ie a knowledge of financial accounting and a good knowledge of the financial modules.

I also looked at CRM but again it's best suited for someone from a sales/marketing background.

For someone with my background the impression I got reading forums is that I need to stick with technical sap modules?

[former_member611124]

Working in SAP Basis I did have some exposure to SAP BW (mainly installation, and ETL) against Oracle database... so I thought SAP BW on HANA or SAP BW/4HANA might be a possibility, but I read somewhere that you may need some knowledge of ABAP for this?

[TammyPowlas]

Sofia - ABAP helps with BW, but it is not required. There's a BW/4HANA Open SAP course

[former_member611124]

Hi Tammy,

I had a look through the Open SAP courses and the "Modern Data Warehousing with SAP BW/4HANA" course sounds perfect for me!... unfortunately it ran from Nov 6th to Dec 4th last year so I've missed it 😞

Being off work for the last few years and not having ever taken any open sap course... do you know if they re-run courses or if there's a way of accessing the course training videos/material after a course has ended?

[TammyPowlas]

Hi Sofia - good to hear. I enjoyed the course myself. Of course you can take the course in self-paced mode at any time.

[former_member611124]

I have one more quick question Tammy... in the OpenSAP F&Qs it says in self-paced mode you cannot earn a Record of Achievement Certificate just a confirmation of participation... do you know if OpenSAP re-run courses?

Thank you by the way for your help 🙂

[former_member611124]

Ahh... seems you can still attain a Record of Acheivement Certificate for courses that have ended but you have to purchase a re-activation code from SAP Store or Amazon for $59 (around £45).

Also spotted one course with the word "Repeat" in brackets in the course description so I guess they do repeat courses but there's no guarantee and you don't know when.

[TammyPowlas]

Hi Sofia - yes, sometimes Open SAP repeats courses. I'm pinging claire.donelon who helps with Open SAP questions.

I like self-paced mode as there's no pressure of completing the weekly assignments.

[Claire_Devereux]

Hi Sofia,

(Thanks to tammy.powlas3 for adding me in).

All of the content in openSAP courses remain available in self-paced mode, so you can still access the videos and self-tests and you can read the discussions that took place during a course.

You can earn a Confirmation of Participation in a course, whether it's in live or self-paced mode - you get this when you've completed at least 50% of the course content.

To earn a Record of Achievement, you need to complete the weekly assignments and final exam during a live course and earn at least 50% of the overall course points. You can reactivate the assignments and final exam with a code as you mentioned. At the moment, I'm not aware of plans to repeat the BW course but we have a 50% off sale on codes starting March 25 . You could start the course and learn the content now and buy the code on sale to reactivate the assignments later. Once you receive the code and enter it in the system, you'll have eight weeks to complete the assignments and final exam.

Reactivating the assignments to earn a Record of Achievement is completely optional - you can access all content to gain the knowledge free of charge.

If you have any other questions about openSAP, I'll be happy to help.

Kind regards,

Claire

[former_member611124]

Hi Tammy... yes I think self-paced mode will suit me best too.

Hi Claire... many thanks for your message and for explaining so clearly how it all works 🙂

I have started downloading the course material (videos/slides) to view offline and go through at my own pace... if I have any more questions on openSAP I'll be sure to message you.

Best regards

Sofia