Customer Reviews

Mastering the SAP Business Information Warehouse: Leveraging the Business Intelligence Capabilities of SAP NetWeaver

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book does a good job of explaining BW concepts and theory. But there is no hands on guidance or step by step walkthroughs. After I understand the general workflow and overview of what is supposed to happen, I needed other books and guidance to figure out the specifics of what needs to get done.

For an SAP expert new to cubes and associated concepts, this would probably be very helpful. For someone like myself, who has used a few other BI/cube products, but is new to SAP, this book is a poor choice.

For anyone about to dip a cautious toe into the ocean known as SAP BW for the first time, this book is an extremely handy guide. It is very difficult to extract a meaningful overview of BW from the SAP documentation, which is oriented to very specific tasks, and which discusses everything in language that manages to be abstract and jargon-filled at the same time. An immediately useful aspect of the book is an appendix that provides a guide to the many SAP acronyms. Terminology unique to SAP BW is extensive and often bewildering to the newcomer, especially since there is a tendency for SAP to apply terms to specific concepts in a very idiosyncratic way. This book is very helpful to the reader already familiar with DW/BI concepts who is trying to comprehend the SAP way of doing things. The architectural overview is also excellent, especially since it provides insights into which components are required and which are optional, often in the context of the historical evolution of the SAP BW product family. I am very glad to have found this book, which has considerably clarified my understanding of this technology.

This book does an excellent job of decoding the architecture of SAP BW/NetWeaver BI. I use the term "decoding" because SAP naming conventions are arcane to say the least. After reading this book you will have a much better understanding of how all SAP's data warehouse components work together, as well as to be able map SAP terms to industry standard terms. I found Chapter 7, "Data Access, Analysis and Information Distribution," to be particularly helpful in learning how third-party BI tools connect to SAP BW. The authors demonstrate a high degree of technical expertise, along with a very clear and succinct writing style. This is the best book I've read about SAP BW/NetWeaver.

If you are new to SAP or BW, do not read this book. No step by steps or walkthroughs. I had to constantly goto help.sap.com to understand the concepts.

I had the first edition of the Book and some of the best ideas of SAP BW I indeed picked from this book. This is certainly for people more interested in the architecture of SAP BW not so much for people looking to build Step by Step. Highly recommended for people who are looking to design from first principles (offcourse from a Software package point of view) of how SAP BW core is coded and behave. Wish it may have covered the extraction bit, for standard areas atleast, in much more details though.

This book is a gem - an asset to professionals or starters in SAP BW. Not surprising given the credentials of the authors. But there are many very very serious typo errors. Obviously there was little or no proof reading done. Its a shame on Wiley publications !

This gives you good functional overview but not details for developers.

Comprei o livro baseado nos comentários, e nas informações divulgadas pela editora. Na contracapa a editora escreve: "the most updated information on how to use SAP BW to design, build, deploy, populate, access, analyze, present, and administer data." Na verdade, em vez de "how to use" deveriam escrever "theoretical guide". Eu fiz um dos cursos de BW da SAP, aquele que ensina a trabalhar com as queries de BW e ferramentas relacionadas. No curso aprendemos a trabalhar com os infocubos, mas não a criá-los. Como o livro recomendava a si mesmo para os leitores que querem informações sobre como fazer o design achei que seria interessante. Vou no índice procurar por "infocubes, design": sabem quantas páginas tem? Uma (1), apenas descrevendo teoricamente o que é um infocubo. O livro mais decepcionante que comprei nos últimos anos.