The SAP Developer Network, SDN, has just rolled out a new subscription program that might be of interest to those learning NetWeaver development. The package is a one-year subscription bundle that gives SAP professionals and beginners alike a full development toolset for ABAP and Java with the latest patches, test environments, and fringe benefits on the SDN site. The subscription costs $2,300 per year (no monthly option available) and is currently only available in USA and Germany.

Those going to TechEd in Las Vegas next week will probably hear more about it there; stay tuned as we cover this more in-depth from the event front lines.

Matt Danielsson
Editor

Late yesterday, more information came out about Oracle’s lawsuit against SAP. Nothing too exciting, mostly timeline and scope issues.

The trial date has been set for February 9, 2009. Oracle was looking for a September 2009 start. According to this Bloomberg.com article, SAP seemed pleased:

“The judge has found a reasonable means for a speedy trial,” SAP’s Walldorf, Germany-based spokesman Frank Hartmann said in a phone interview today. “He also found it reasonable to limit the discovery phase and that is overall sensible.”

Seems funny that February 2009 is considered “speedy,” but what do we know? So, we checked in with Hillard Sterling, an IT litigator with Chicago’s Freeborn & Peters LLP, who has weighed in on the lawsuit before to get his $.02. Here’s what he had to say:

The judge’s schedule is aggressive yet manageable given the circumstances. This case will require both parties to produce and examine millions of pages of documents, then depose witnesses with the key documents, the interesting needles in the massive haystack. It will take tremendous effort to get all those documents by July 2008, and then absorb the information and take the many depositions. That being said, the schedule is realistic, and the parties should be able to accomplish their tasks and prepare for the trial set for February 2009.

Does this trial date or the limiting of witness interviews (20 for each side) and forensic experts (3 each) have an impact on the assumption by many that the case will be settled before ever getting a verdict?

“Of course, it is likely that the case would settle sometime before trial, or maybe even during it,” Sterling said. “We probably won’t see any settlement, though, until the parties make significant inroads through discovery and gather the evidence that they believe will exact the most settlement leverage.”

Jon Franke
News Editor

Our latest guest column on how to get your SAP career started comes from Mark Smithson, President and Principal Consultant, MHS Systems Consulting, Inc.

Know your ABAP
What does a beginner need to know in order to get started on the right foot as an SAP forms developer?

Well, I don’t think I need to explain here how to break into the SAP, or ABAP world. By the time you start working with SAP forms, which fall into a specialized sub-area, it is likely you have already done that. Besides, there is a lot of excellent advice already posted elsewhere (such as on this site) on the basics. So the following assumes you’ve already positioned yourself to start working as a developer on an SAP forms project.

Manage expectations
First off, manage expectations. If this is your first forms project, you are swimming in foreign waters, so don’t start acting like a lifeguard — you’ll only be setting yourself up to fail. Be honest and realistic with yourself and with the rest of your project team. Expressions such as “please bear with me — I’m new to this” will go a long way. If you are in over your head, do not be afraid to ask for help. Stuck on a Zebra label? Thrown by a requirement to create a ‘new hire’ form in HR? Need to print a multi-language form — with double-byte characters — from scratch? Think of this as an exciting opportunity to learn something new. Tap resources both within and external to your organization. If you feel that you need to take a class or schedule some one-on-one time with an expert, tell it to your manager. And don’t just tell it - sell it. Explain why it makes sense for your company to make that investment in you, how it will benefit them long-term.

Understand the context
Next, as you get deeper into the project requirements, be sure to understand the context. Different functional areas were created by different folks at SAP. ‘Messages’ in one module will be ‘Output’ in another and ‘Correspondence’ in yet another. Thus, there is no single unified approach to populating forms and generating test data. However, there are a few things you can do to improve your chance of success. Take the time you need to properly identify the relevant print structures, tables, preconfigured forms and driver programs available, and study them. Then pick the most advanced forms tool which will support your objective, leveraging any existing code you can. Generally speaking, the newest tool available is Adobe forms, followed by Smart Forms and then SAPscript.

More SAP forms tips
Here are a few other miscellaneous tips: Get a hold of a decent forms ruler, and map out the coordinates of your form off-line ahead of time. In addition, you should make it a priority to learn how to trouble-shoot; know the various debugging tools available and how to use them. Ideally, you also ought to be proficient in ABAP, as typically an ABAP driver program is wrapped around a form.

Finally, be proactive as you encounter challenges. It’s all right to admit “I don’t know the answer”, so long as you follow it up with…”and so I will find out.” A positive attitude will carry you a long way to shore.

Mark is our resident expert on SAPscript and Smart Forms. Please submit SAP forms-related question here, while career-related questions should be directed to Jon Reed.

Matt Danielsson
Editor

Say goodbye to “A1S.” It is now called SAP Business ByDesign.

CEO Henning Kagermann kicked off the much-anticipated, whirl-wind event with an almost-cameo 10-minute keynote.

“It is the most important announcement of my career I’m making today,” the not-usually-prone-to-hyperbole Kagermann announced to a packed Nokia Theatre in Manhattan.

Some details we’ve learned so far:

• Pricing will be $149 per user per month for a minimum of 25 users per company. A value pack-type option of a limited version will be offered at $54 for a set of five users.
• Designed to slot in between Business One and All-in-One in companies with 100-500 users.
• The product is currently in the pilot customer stage in the US.
• For more information, SAP set up a Website at www.sap.com/sme

Peter Zencke, an SAP board member kicked off his portion of the program by echoing the thoughts of many in the room: “Yes it was a journey.”

In fact, the real meat of the event should be Zencke’s keynote which promises to have “product demonstrations.” We brought our digital camera, so if lighting allows, we’ll have some screen shots.

Then it’s on to the customer panel, which is scheduled to run for all of 20 minutes before Léo Apotheker’s 10 minute keynote.

If no big news breaks, we’ll plan on posting later today with a wrap-up of the customer panel, Zenke and Apotheker’s thoughts, and said screen shots.

Jon Franke
News Editor

Do you have a clever ABAP workaround to share? Know a slick way to optimize the latest BI tools? Then take a few minutes to share your knowledge for a chance to win one of two great book bundles courtesy of SAP Press.

Prize option #1: SAP developer’s bundle

• ABAP Objects
• SAP Exchange Infrastructure
• SAP NetWeaver/Microsoft .NET Interoperability
• SAP Enterprise Portal — Technology and Programming

Prize option #2: SAP analyst/planner’s bundle

• SAP System Landscape Optimization
• SAP Performance Optimization Guide
• SAP xApp Analytics
• Inventory Optimization with SAP

The contest runs until October 31, 2007, and you may submit more than one entry. Click here for full contest details.

Good luck!

Matt Danielsson
Editor

H1B visas, the golden ticket for foreign IT workers wishing to join the American workforce, has had a turbulent year. On one side, industry heavyweights like Bill Gates pushed hard to increase the number of H1B visas, while IT unions and local politicians pushed back to preserve jobs and decent salaries for U.S. citizens. We covered this quite a bit earlier this year, but as spring gave way to summer, it all seemed to fizzle out into the old status quo.

Well, not quite. You may have caught an eWeek article last week about how new legislation is set to bump up the cost of H1B visas significantly, from $3,500 to $5,000 per application, and a slew of new measures to protect American IT workers’ interests.

Today, InformationWeek reported that 13 state governors have banded together to lobby Congress and Senate for — you guessed it — increasing the number of H1B visas. This is a new level of escalation we have not seen before. Time will tell what impact, if any, this will have, but I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that the last word on the issue has not been said yet. Whichever side you root for, stay tuned as we watch for the next move in this high-stakes chess game.

Matt Danielsson
Editor

We recently ran an article where ABAP expert Rehan Zaidi shared some best practices for breaking into professional SAP application development. But more information is always better, so we checked in with Matthew Billingham, our resident ABAP guru on the Ask the Expert panel, to see if he had anything to add. Here’s what he had to say about ABAP job prospects, certification programs and getting your foot in the SAP door.

ABAP certification
ABAP certification only demonstrates that a certain level of knowledge has been achieved. It does not give any indication of how to apply that knowledge, and certainly does not demonstrate that the certificate holder has any ability at the generic art of programming. If I was recruiting a trainee developer, then certification would be a plus, because I’d have some assurance that they at least could talk using some of the same terms as me. But the value of real-life experience quickly overtakes any certification; if you can show two or more years of good results, whether you have certification or not is completely irrelevant.

Breaking into the field
That leads us to the next issue: Getting your foot in the door. As you probably know, this is and always has been the hardest part of the SAP world. The best bet as a newbie is to go through a consultancy. Or, if you’ve already got some commercial skill, finding a company that uses that skill but also uses SAP, and angle for some cross training. ABAP is different from many programming languages in that it doesn’t just sit in a vacuum, waiting for applications to be developed. The applications are already there - in the shape of the classic R/3 modules, BW, SEM etc. Our job is to make those applications do more than originally designed by SAP. That requires understanding of those applications; the data structures, the flows etc. And you only get that through hands-on experience.

Business vs. technical SAP
Historically in SAP, the technical side and business side have been seperate. This is unlike much of the rest of the IT industry, which spawned such roles as the “Analyst Programmer” to have people who could do the technical side, and yet still communicate with the business. A programmer who doesn’t appreciate commercial concerns won’t go far within SAP. An understanding of business processes - or at least, a willingness to understand them - is key to be able to provide the customer with what they need. For clients to productively use the newer tools, such as Visual Composer, they’ll need people with development skills (programming is programming regardless of whether you use a GUI or an editor to write the program) - but these people will have to have business knowledge. I think the paradigm of “Analyst Programmer” has finally made its way into SAP!

Two distinctive traits of good ABAP professionals
In the past five years, I regret to say that while the number of developers has increased in the SAP world, my experience is that the percentage of those that are “good programmers” has declined. And so have the expectations from the more business-oriented part of the industry. Generally, I think we developers don’t have a good reputation. The tendency is to write code that works on day one. Few care what happens on day two. If you want to make a career out of SAP development, rather than just using it as the entry to becoming a functional consultant or manager, then I think you’ll need some distinctive traits to put you ahead of the majority of your programming colleagues. The first of those traits is a deep understanding of business, commercial realities and processes. The second trait is knowing the art of careful program design, so that when your programs need to be changed, you can do so quickly and easily, without introducing more bugs. Keep your focus on these traits, get as much real-life experience as you can, and you’ll be on track for a bright ABAP future.

You can submit development-related questions to Matthew here, while SAP career-related questions should be addressed to Jon Reed.

Matt Danielsson
Editor

We recently ran a news article called “ABAP development done right” that focused on how aspiring ABAP developers should take those first, crucial steps towards a fulfilling career. Well, there’s also a number of people looking to break in as a workflow consultant. Indeed, skilled workflow experts have excellent prospects and may be less in the crosshairs for being outsourced in the years ahead, making this an attractive career option.

We checked in with veteran workflow expert Alon Raskin for some quick tips using the same approach: What does a beginner need to know in order to get started on the right foot as a workflow consultant?

First off, you need to really master the SAP workflow engine. There are many different ways to implement the same thing in SAP, and each approach comes with distinct implications. An ‘under the hood’ understanding of the way the SAP workflow engine does things can be very valuable when deciding how to model a particular business process.

Secondly, a strong technical workflow consultant should also have a strong functional understanding. It may sound strange, but as a workflow consultant, you spend a lot of time modeling business processes so an understanding of those processes is key.

Finally, don’t sweat the certification programs. It’s simply not worth the money and effort. Real-world experience is what counts out there.

Bottom line: Hit the books, make a conscious effort to straddle the technical and functional sides, and above all — do whatever it takes to get your hands dirty as soon as possible.

Matt Danielsson
Editor

RFID, radio frequency identification, is one of those topics that come and go in the news. Unless you’re working with supply chains on a daily basis, RFID may not be at the top of your IT watch list. Well, there are some forces in motion right now that may have an impact on just how pervasive RFID technology will be in the years ahead.

IndustryWeek just reported that China alone is plunking down nearly $2 billion on RFID technology in 2007 — out of a global $5 billion spent on RFID. This is significant in that economy of scale kicks in, where more business equals lower prices as the technology becomes commoditized. The big barrier for widespread RFID usage up until this point has been cost (and reliability, to some degree — another issue that tends to be worked out as business picks up). China’s RFID ambitions may not drive the price of passive chips all the way down to the magic 5-cent barrier, but it’ll certainly help.

Indeed, as a technology in itself, RFID has performed well and has definite business value. Unfortunately, it also comes with a certain stigma, especially when the discussion moves from tagging shipping containers and onto tagging people. You’ve probably heard the benefits of human tagging — hospitals can get immediate medical information from an unconscious patient etc. — but several customer advocates and interest groups have taken offense at the invasion of privacy and potential for abuse.

There is currently a bill underway making California the third state to ban involuntary RFID tagging of humans. The word “involuntary” sounds pretty reassuring, right? However, as digital media law expert Jonathan Handel noted:

The bill only applies to employers and employees. That leaves open a host of other scenarios. One day soon, no doubt, prisoners will be required to be chipped as a condition of parole, probation or house arrest […] registered sex offenders, [then] illegal aliens, welfare recipients, parents concerned with their kids’ safety…

Granted, it’s quite a leap from China’s Olympic Games preparation to parents implanting their kids with RFID tags, but let’s face it: The rise of RFID in commercial settings will inevitably lead to increased options for usage in non-commercial settings. And the baggage that comes with that side of RFID, inevitably impacts the other side as politics, fear and confusion around a new technology tends to muddle the water for all players involved. Let’s hope the market is wise enough to play it safe, ethically and otherwise, in the years ahead.

Matt Danielsson
Editor