Learning SAP BW 7.4 Basics

In the past year, I was intensively learning BPC while participating in projects and doing prototypes. I’m sure, there is still a lot to learn, but at this point I feel comfortable with almost every functional area of BPC including Logic Script. So while polishing my BPC skills in my work, I decided to start my journey with SAP Business Warehouse.

From my observations, BW knowledge is a highly demanded skill for BPC consultants no matter you are coming from finance or IT. Well, for IT guys it is mandatory. Another consideration I have is related to BW Integrated Planning, a sub-module of SAP Business Warehouse. It is the core of BPC “Embedded” for which I have already shared my thoughts concerning EPM road maps. I believe BW-IP will be a “must have knowledge” for every successful BPC consultant in the coming years.

So far, my experience with SAP BW was limited. I followed a guide which helped me to create essential objects for loading CSV file to BW. I don’t count other experience such as displaying the data in the cube, etc. Considering everything above I decided to look for a resource which will help me to acquire basic BW skills. My primary requirement was to look for source based on SAP BW 7.4. I bought the following book for that purpose, and I think it did an excellent job.

SAP BW 7.4—Practical Guide

It is 850 pages book which took me around 45-50 hours to read and follow the exercises. The book is written throughout a basic sales scenario which you have the chance to build on your server following screenshots while reading explanations for the related objects. It is certainly a method which I prefer and works quite well. Most of the SAP courses are built on that base.

I read already several SAP Press books, and I have to say, this book is one of the best. It is not perfect as there is a certain amount of misleading or non-complete screen guides, but for most of the part, it is a good choice. I like the parts with BW Modelling, BW Data Acquisition, BW Administration and the creation of BEx queries. The part on Integrated Planning was a bit incomplete regarding the steps to reproduce the planning model, particularly the building of Filters and Aggregations.

I highly recommend that book to anyone looking for an excellent resource to dive into SAP BW 7.4. Don’t expect that this book will make you an expert. It will just familiarize you with the basics of SAP BW and will give you an overview information about SAP Business Objects BI suite. The material in the book covers many topics for which in comparison SAP provides BW305 and BW310 (TBW10). In addition SAP offers TBW30, TBW50, TBW60 and BW370. Each of the mentioned courses is covered in 5 days and provide a material with around 500 pages.

Based on the facts as noted earlier, don’t expect this book to provide the same content as six instructor-led SAP courses worth 18k+ EUR. The book will give you an excellent foundation which will help you either to jump directly to BW370 Integrated Planning or just to give you the whole picture. When you are familiar with the overall solution, you will be able to ask the instructor the right questions helping you to get advanced knowledge.

My plans are to improve my BW-IP and BPC Embedded skills, but before that I am still considering whether or not to dive deeply in BW Modelling, Data Acquisition and Administration. I have the latest course materials for BW 7.4 version 10 for TBW10, TBW30, TBW50 and TBW60. I also have BW362 BW 7.4 on HANA and BW370 Integrated Planning again for BW 7.4 . In the next several days, my intentions are to try to read TBW* courses and eventually decide whether or not to attend certification exam – C_TBW60_74 (SAP Certified Application Associate – Modeling and Data Management with SAP BW 7.4).

Let me know what you think in the comments section. Enjoy and have fun as I do 🙂