Skills for the next generation data warehouse SAP BW/4HANA

[arundec]

SAP BW/4HANA is SAP’s next generation data warehouse, optimized to run only on SAP HANA. It is SAP’s most powerful data warehouse to date and adds in-memory processing to provide incredible performance and new levels of simplicity.

Since the arrival of the game changing SAP HANA, it was only a matter of time before BW would be reinvented to power high performance data acquisition and analytics. But BW/4HANA is about more than just speed. It has lost the complexity that was needed to support non-HANA databases, meaning modelling has become simpler, which in turn has lead to greater agility.

Whilst it holds on to many of the design principles first developed with classic BW, BW/4HANA is a brand new solution with a fresh approach. It is critical to invest in BW/4HANA education for your employees to maximize the full potential of your BW/4HANA implementation. Experienced BW team members must “unlearn” some approaches which are no longer optimal for BW/4HANA, learning instead new techniques to ensure the HANA in-memory engines do all the heavy work.

Those who are already experienced with classic BW should upgrade their skills now, so they are fully prepared to participate in BW/4HANA projects. This means :

• Using the new BW/4HANA user interfaces that have been redesigned to support modelling data models and data flows, query building and administration.


• Working with new modelling approaches which lean heavily towards a virtualised data warehouse and mixing SQL based data models from native HANA.


• Using the new best practices for BW/4HANA with LSA++, instead of the old LSA


• Taking advantage of the staggering data integration possibilities. BW/4HANA can consume any type of data, from anywhere. You need to learn how to connect both physical and virtual data sources


• Understanding how to manage data temperatures. What is hot, warm, cool, cold data? We’ll show you.

To begin your BW/4HANA journey,  a great place to start is the openSAP course ‘BW/4HANA in a Nutshell’. This provides a high level overview and builds a great foundation. You should then move on to develop core BW/4HANA skills by taking further SAP Education courses where you will go deeper and develop practical skills with plenty of hands-on opportunities.

If you already have SAP BW experience you should follow one of our new delta courses - the detailed 5 day BW462 , for those upskilling from classic (non-HANA) BW, or the 2 day DBW4H for those upskilling from BW Powered by HANA. Both delta courses bring you to the same outcome: new skills in BW/4HANA so you are fully prepared to be an effective member of the project team.

We have also just launched a new certification - E_BW4HANA_13  - SAP Certified Application Specialist - SAP BW to SAP BW/4HANA (based on the BW462 course), so consultants can gain a qualification to prove their knowledge.

But what if you are completely new to BW?  We  have been busy developing courses suitable  for those without any SAP BW background, to cover all key areas of BW/4HANA.  Already available are the BW405 (Query Design) and BW410 (Data Warehousing), with courses for Data Modeling (BW430) and Data Acquisition (BW450) expected in Q1 2018.

Don’t forget, we also have an active SAP Learning Room in SAP Learning Hub -  ‘SAP BW powered by SAP HANA & SAP BW/4HANA Learning Room’. This room has many members already benefiting from the support and guidance of BW/4HANA instructors and experts.

 

[MarkGreen]

Thanks for the guidance, Christine.
I have delivered BW classes from the very first version (1.2a) in 1998 and have alway been very excited to see the new releases arrive and help students upskill.  Occasionally, with minor releases, it was possible to learn on the job about the new features between releases, or just read about them in the documentation. But BW/4HANA is VERY different to classic BW in just about all areas - BEx has been replaced, Data Warehousing Workbench has been replaced, Infocubes have gone away and new InfoProviders have arrived. Also BW modeling meets HANA modeling to create a new hybrid type of modeling.  I deliver BW/4HANA classes and can tell you that the classroom is the best way to upgrade your skills in a face-to-face environment with the experts.  Hope to see you in class.
Mark

[former_member285717]

Christine

Thanks for your blog , very informative !  I would like to ask , if BW462 is also offered in Learning Hub ?

 

[arundec]

 

Hi Nina, glad you found the blog helpful!

BW462 is indeed available in the Learning Hub as an e-book - and we also have SAP Live Access available for this course so Learning Hub learners can get hands-on system experience while they are working through the course content.

[former_member285717]

Hi Christine,

 

Thanks for your information.

 

Ning

[former_member557171]

Hi Christine

I'd like to get an update on your courses regarding people with no BW skills at all. To this date you offer BW405 and BW410 and want to offer BW430 in Q1 2018 and BW450 in Q2 2018.

Are you also going to add a certificate based on these four courses (with similar effort to the SAP Certified Application Associate - Modeling and Data Acquisition with SAP BW 7.5 powered by SAP HANA)? If yes, can I expect this certificate to be available shortly after the last course?

 

Thanks for your answer

David Fleischlin

 

[arundec]

Hi David,

Thanks for the question.

Happy to tell you that yes, a certification is planned, and development is planned once the BW430 and BW450 are complete.

I'll update the blog again once available

Christine

[former_member557171]

Hi Christine,

Thanks for your answer.

Do you have any estimate on when this certificate is available? I'm planning ahead and have the option to take an exam around October 2018. Do you think I could do the BW/4HANA certificate (from the "become fully competent" tree) or don't you like to make a guess as it is hard to tell how long it's development takes?

 

Thanks,

David

[arundec]

Hi David, currently we estimate that the certification based on the BW405/BW410/BW430/BW450 should be available end Q2/beginning Q3.  Please bear in mind that this is just an estimate and dates could change.

Christine

[former_member304509]

 

Hi Christine,

Please note that, I was looking for the certification on BW4HANA as I am a experienced BW Consultant and wanted to do certification in the Latest version. So for this we see that there is a  Prerequisite is C_TBW50H_75 for attempting this Certification E_BW4HANA108.

So as per the earlier discussions above on the same, Certification C_BW4HANA_14 is for the Target Audience who don't have BW Knowledge at all. And when comparing the Course details of C_TBW50H_75  and C_BW4HANA_14 the topics are almost same.

So for a experienced Consultant why can't he directly go for doing Certification E_BW4HANA108 instead of doing the Prerequisite and then going for this Certification. Here we need to do 2 Certifications.

Could you please answer the Question as below:- I think same repeat question

1. Is it better to do C_TBW50H_75  or C_BW4HANA_14 ( as these 2 are for Audiences with No BW Knowledge) first and then attempt to do E_BW4HANA108. Little bit confusing, as it is with the Fees for 2 Certifications.


2. And all these Certificates C_TBW50H_75 ; C_BW4HANA_14 and E_BW4HANA108 are all based on Cloud (Certificates).

Thanks in Advance,
Dinesh

[SBrueck]

Hi Dinesh,

You can easily see based on the course code on which level of difficulty the certification is build. So every cert which starts with a "C_" is an Associate Certification (for beginners). All certifications starting with an "E_" are Specialist certifications (much more complicated and detailed questions, only for experts).

To get a Specialist certification, you have to successfully pass an Associate Certification. So this means, you always have to take a minimum of two certs when you want to get a Specialist Certification.

Of course they cover all BW/4HANA, but with a different level of complexity and difficulty in the questions.

I hope this could answer your question!

Regards,

Sabrina

[former_member605086]

Hi Christine , I see below in SAP store

With CER006 – SAP Certification in the Cloud, you can take up to six exams attempts of your choice in one year 

 

Does it mean that if I take eg: C_BW4HANA_14 and failed , do  I have another 5 attempts ? Or each exam should be different. Thanks

 

-Sam

[arundec]

Hi Sam,

You can have up to 3 attempts at the same exam - hopefully you wouldn't need them though!!  The 6 attempts can be used for different exams, with a maximum of 3 attempts on the same certification.

You can also check the certification page on our webshop - https://training.sap.com/certification/

There is lots of useful information here, including a link to Frequently Asked Questoins

Hope this helps

Christine

[former_member605086]

Thanks Christine. I purchased the CER006 and wanting to write C_BW4HANA_14 & E_BW4HANA108.

 

The prerequisite to write E_BW4HANA108.  is I need to finish one of (C_TBW55_73, C_TBW60_74, C_TBW50H_75). Can you please confirm if I write C_BW4HANA_14 am I eligible for E_BW4HANA108. Thanks

 

 

Regards

Sam

[arundec]

Hi Sam,

C_BW4HANA_14 isn't one of the pre-reqs for E_BW4HANA108 - they are really for different target audiences.  E_BW4HANA108 is for those who are upskilling from earlier BW products to BW/4HANA (and is based on training content which covers the delta).  C_BW4HANA_14 is based on training content which mainly targets those without an earlier BW product background, who are learning everything about BW/4HANA, from scratch.

If you become certified in C_BW4HANA_14 - you wouldn't need E_BW4HANA108 - because you have proven that you know your stuff in BW/4HANA 🙂

Hope this explains

Christine

[former_member605086]

Thanks Christine for the helpful info...