What’s New, and Who Should Read This Book?

Like its predecessors, this book is divided into 24 chapters, or “hours,” that can each be completed in about an hour. This book covers everything you need to become well acquainted with the core SAP products and components that are often collectively referred to simply as SAP. The book is organized to provide visibility into key facets of SAP terminology, usage, configuration, deployment, administration, and more. As such, it is necessarily general at times rather than exceedingly detailed, although a certain amount of depth in much of the subject matter is purposely provided where deemed critical to further your understanding. The book serves as several intertwined roadmaps as well. In this structure may be found the book’s true value—the content herein is broad enough to paint a picture most anyone can understand, yet deep enough to provide more than an introduction to the subject matter along several different paths or routes. And the flow of material moves along the same lines, from general to specific, from SAP products and components to post-implementation support and use, and from project management planning and preparation to project realization.

Sams Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours begins with the basics and terminology surrounding SAP, SAP NetWeaver, and what an SAP project looks like, and from there begins the process of carefully building on your newfound knowledge to piece together the complex world of SAP. The pace of the book is designed to provide a solid foundation such that you may grasp the more advanced topics covered later in the book. In this way, the novice may quickly realize what it means to plan for, deploy, and use SAP, in the process unleashing the power that comes with understanding how all the pieces of the puzzle come together to solve business problems. With this understanding also comes an appreciation of the role that SAP’s various partners play with regard to an implementation project—how executive leadership, project management, business applications, technical deployment, and system end users all come together to create and use SAP end-to-end.