SAP Training

[barely_pointless]

Milanbenes,

your're of course correct, the technology is irrevelant ,the environment is very very slow moving, it's also a PRINCE2 environment where they have (her own words) a person "modifying, mixing and concocting" the prince2 templates to match, or not match as the case may be each function according to the random statement generator IT Strategy management robot.
it's very dull, with each template changing "under your feet" so to speak. Dilbert lives here... honest.

On the other hand, the SAP environment is sterile of any shall we say SEAsian "consultancies" so it's a fairly OK place to work, especially directly with the Business who can (or used to) be very quick in delivery, something that I like.

Add to this the gamut of traning ( it's about 6 courses in all) that is just too good for me to turn down (I'm the BI Architect chappie across 10g and I have 2-3 years odd of SAP, FI,CO, and BW (the old one) and the Demand planning app.

I'm an ex Oracle BI wh0re, so the adaptation of the SAP stuff within the BI arena is not too bad for me personally, at least the client is paying my daily rate and giving me almost a month and a half of training, but then nothing happens for a bloody another 6 months!!!! (2009 to be accurate)

I know the value of training is directly based on the usage afterwards, and that just seems a waste to me!!!!

Pondlife, the intro training is certainly powerpoint, but the 5 day "consultant" courses are pretty detailed, especially the ERP DW, OLTP extraction and Modelling + I have access to each system and one of my current projects is a detailed SAP proj on eprocurement and FI, that however is not scheduled to start until 2051.

However , The boredom is making me malicious in my general day to day activities, for example calling a PM out on their milestones and asking for a risk assesment in lieu of their not-updated project plan.

bored..................

[Pondlife]

Now I have just been trained on Netweaver BI 7.0 , Enterprise DW, Query & Analysis , Modelling and Implementation with an option to do more. + I have contacts within SAP for consultants course material.

The problem with SAP courses is that unless you turn up with your own agenda they're pretty crap (too generic and hi level) and just an excuse for permies to slack off on expenses. Likewise for the course material. By itself it has no value and is just a couple of bullet pointed powerpoint slides.

You can either grab as much training as possible and try to blag another contract or try to find some practical application for your knowledge at the current gig.


Edit: Oh yeah, learn .Net instead - the future's bright, the future's .Net

HTH

[DS23]

or less guarrantee of work and more boredom elsewhere.

[milanbenes]

BP,

there is an unwritten rule in this forum that we do not discuss SAP in detail, simply because we want the status quo to remain as it is and we don't want the herd moving in and destroying one of the few remaining comfortable areas of IT.

For your question I think the technology is irrelevant, the question is do you want three years boredom and guaranteed work or less guarantee of work and less boredom elsewhere ?

Milan.

[barely_pointless]

As a contractor any training by the client is valuable, however here's the dilemma, I have been on BW/ SAP DW courses a few years ago (2002) when it was a clunky old beast, did a few implementations of the old BW, then moved away from SAP to Oracle.

Now I have just been trained on Netweaver BI 7.0 , Enterprise DW, Query & Analysis , Modelling and Implementation with an option to do more. + I have contacts within SAP for consultants course material.

My background is in 15 years BI (Oracle mostly, Teradata and SAP), now here's the dliemma, the client is government, so nothing happens very quickly (i.e. 3 years), and well, I get bored pretty quickly (i.e. 3 months).

Would you leave ?