So I'm using this blog to increase my visibility for potential employers. If I was them, I'd like to know who I'm getting.
They don't seem to be reading this, so, I'm going to add SAP busisness intelligence/business warehousing (that'd be BI/BW for those of you with TLA [Three Letter Abbreviation] Scorecards out there...and BO (that's be Business Objects without a scorecard) which SAP got a hold of sometime last year and is integrating it.
Or maybe they are and are steering clear?
Anyway, a very smart company is training me to to a. gather the reporting requirements, b. find the data elements somewhere in the spaghetti that is any database and c. actually create the reports. Apparently, this will save the SAP owners a boatload of cash by hiring one person to fill two roles- even by paying us a lot of cash. Us out of work BAs get jobs at what recruiters tell me are obscene hourly rates. I can live with that.
But I still need a short to medium term contract gig to pay bills and make sure I don't lose my house.
Companies (HUGE companies, Billion dollar plus) buy SAP and its various 'modules' (think up-selling, like they do at Radio Shack [Need a microphone with that tape recorder, Mister? How about some cassettes and an extra battery to go with that power supply?]) to run the company. Some former IBM-Germany Software Engineers tried to sell IBM on it in the late 80s or early 90s. IBM took a pass (would you expect less from a company that now sells Lotus Notes, AS400s, r6000s and WebSphere?).
With all that data lying around in DB2 and Oracle databases (think really, really big databases, here), someone got the idea of 'warehousing' the data in one place and generating reports from that data. Enter Data Warehousing. At least three other companies offer it and two others offer reporting and data mining skills. But single, soft serve (pun intended) service from one provider seemed like a great idea. It probably is.
And just what kind of hat does a data miner wear? Hard hat for when the boss starts throwing things? A beanie with a propeller to reinforce the stereotype?
So I've taken two whole days of training so far. I've been taught and think I understand the stupid object names (totally confusing- I need to look up the difference between InfoObject and InfoProvider). So....I figure loading a flat file (think spreadsheet with a half dozen columns and a half dozen rows) ought to be a piece of cake- after all, I've designed and specified this ability along with the required field mapping GUI a dozen times for both .Net and J2EE applications.
It took me three and a half days (seven half days) to figure it out in SAP. And I'm not really sure it's there because we haven't gotten to the report making stuff yet.
Actually, I didn't use SAP. The data warehouse and reporting tools aren't in SAP. And SAP isn't SAP. SAP used to be known as R3 and is, in this latest edition, called ECC. I used is a Java-based tool called NetWeaver. So far, the only reason I need to know that is to find useless information in the SAP help website. Otherwise, no one seems to use the term.
What I've learned so far:
They don't seem to be reading this, so, I'm going to add SAP busisness intelligence/business warehousing (that'd be BI/BW for those of you with TLA [Three Letter Abbreviation] Scorecards out there...and BO (that's be Business Objects without a scorecard) which SAP got a hold of sometime last year and is integrating it.
Or maybe they are and are steering clear?
Anyway, a very smart company is training me to to a. gather the reporting requirements, b. find the data elements somewhere in the spaghetti that is any database and c. actually create the reports. Apparently, this will save the SAP owners a boatload of cash by hiring one person to fill two roles- even by paying us a lot of cash. Us out of work BAs get jobs at what recruiters tell me are obscene hourly rates. I can live with that.
But I still need a short to medium term contract gig to pay bills and make sure I don't lose my house.
Companies (HUGE companies, Billion dollar plus) buy SAP and its various 'modules' (think up-selling, like they do at Radio Shack [Need a microphone with that tape recorder, Mister? How about some cassettes and an extra battery to go with that power supply?]) to run the company. Some former IBM-Germany Software Engineers tried to sell IBM on it in the late 80s or early 90s. IBM took a pass (would you expect less from a company that now sells Lotus Notes, AS400s, r6000s and WebSphere?).
With all that data lying around in DB2 and Oracle databases (think really, really big databases, here), someone got the idea of 'warehousing' the data in one place and generating reports from that data. Enter Data Warehousing. At least three other companies offer it and two others offer reporting and data mining skills. But single, soft serve (pun intended) service from one provider seemed like a great idea. It probably is.
And just what kind of hat does a data miner wear? Hard hat for when the boss starts throwing things? A beanie with a propeller to reinforce the stereotype?
So I've taken two whole days of training so far. I've been taught and think I understand the stupid object names (totally confusing- I need to look up the difference between InfoObject and InfoProvider). So....I figure loading a flat file (think spreadsheet with a half dozen columns and a half dozen rows) ought to be a piece of cake- after all, I've designed and specified this ability along with the required field mapping GUI a dozen times for both .Net and J2EE applications.
It took me three and a half days (seven half days) to figure it out in SAP. And I'm not really sure it's there because we haven't gotten to the report making stuff yet.
Actually, I didn't use SAP. The data warehouse and reporting tools aren't in SAP. And SAP isn't SAP. SAP used to be known as R3 and is, in this latest edition, called ECC. I used is a Java-based tool called NetWeaver. So far, the only reason I need to know that is to find useless information in the SAP help website. Otherwise, no one seems to use the term.
What I've learned so far:
- SAP needs someone to come up with better and more intuitive terms and phrasing for this future user. I dunno- maybe have a native speaker of the language eliminate the ambiguity and increase the uniqueness of the object names for starters?
- SAP is so big and does so much and is so granular that no one knows even everything to know about modules. It supports TWO, count 'em TWO application languages (the proprietary ABAP and Java).
- Connecting a series of optional and mandatory objects probably should defined somewhere, step-by-step, and then explain SAP Module and other database connectors and options.
- SAP's 'Star Schema' isn't new or unique- I've had Technical Architects design exactly the same thing for data rich environments to speed queries and system response time. It just makes Query creators who know SQL and typical RDBMS (Relational Database Management Systems) crazy.
- There's a reason anyone with SAP knowledge commands a premium wage.
- I'm really glad about #2 and #5. I spent way too much time satisfying my ego in Radio News before I got smart and moved into IT...and two lengthy lay-offs (after the NASDAQ crunch and this depression) I just might be able to retire after all.
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