Customer Reviews

SAP NetWeaver For Dummies

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

 

 

This book presents a very useful overview of NetWeaver's various components and capabilities. Be aware, though, that it only covers *what* NetWeaver can do, not *how* to actually do it, so don't expect a technical reference guide. This is, however, a necessary primer before rolling up your sleeves and digging in. (Besides, NetWeaver is such a huge beast that a thorough technical reference guide printed on paper would probably mean the end of the Amazon rainforrest. Look for such a guide in electronic format).

The book is heavily SAP biased (not surprising, given that one of the authors works for SAP) and hypes NetWeaver almost as the culminating achievement and ultimate destiny of IT. This tone almost became too much for me at times - using phrases such as "The bad news? There IS no bad news!" when describing software does dent the credibility a bit for me. Read it for the useful technical overview; take the hype with a grain of salt.

Finally, this slightly twee approach can be dangerous: readers with a technical background can read between the lines and easily imagine the blood, sweat and tears it takes to implement a system of this magnitude, but the non-technically oriented can easily become seduced by the tone of this book, which glosses over all the gory details and focuses on the happy end results and TCO benefits. This might very well build up unrealistic expectations for readers with a non-technical background. So if you're in that group, please keep in mind that properly installing and configuring the entire NetWeaver platform for any reasonably sized company will not be quite the happy lark the book hints at - even though the book barely mentions this, it WILL be a HUGE effort - even though the end result may very well be worth it.

However, with those cevaeats in mind, this is still a useful overview and primer, once you look past the over-the-top hype.

I got this book to get myself more educated on what SAP Netweaver is all about. I've been doing SAP consulting for over ten years but, like others, feel like I'm not up-to-date with the latest SAP Technologies and products.
After carrying this book around with me for over two months, I'm still not done with it. This is because I keep on getting irritated when I read this book and then I put it down. And I'm not easily irritated. I think I'm at the point where I'm going to put it in a box (with many other books that I DID read) and read something else instead. This book is just wasting my time.

Here's my problems with this book:
1. The writers try to be funny/entertaining all the time. I do like humor, but they do it way, way too much and they are not funny at all.
2. Some of the things they discuss are simple, basic, worthless information that any IT person knows.
3. They make Netweaver seem easy, all-good and the future of IT. I love SAP and I think Netweaver is probably a good platform. But I think this book is overselling it and making unproven claims that may mislead less-experienced people.

This book could have been good if the (useful) content was offered in a different way. Some suggestions if a second edition materializes.
1. Don't try to be funny. Just present the material.
2. Leave out all the unnecessary, useless information. You're not obligated to go over 400 pages. I'd prefer to read a thinner book with just the relevant information.

I don't always give the lowest rating for things I don't like. And this book does have some useful information here and there. But the presentation is just so terrible to me that it makes whatever good it has worthless.

While true the author hits more on what rather than 'how', this is one of those books every sap project manager and technical team member should have, if not just so we can all speak the same language. No, it's not an implementation book (pick up Anderson's SAP planning/best practices book). And no, it's by no means a guide for administrators (see Burleson, Hernandez, or Liane Will's books, among others). It's more important, in that its the consistent foundation you can all build upon.

While the book's attempt at humor irritates me, I still manage to find good information. The author covers a lot of material. Some of it is way too simplistic. Some of it is not deep enough in my opinion. I've picked it up a few times and put it back down, but won't toss it. That being said, I'm still looking for seomthing better (SAP Press doesn't have anything actually good either, despite some new titles).

This book is a good overview of SAP Netweaver, although it takes some careful sifting to determine what is there right now, and what is futureware (I won't call it vapourware because I have little doubt that SAP will deliver on it). Unfortunately the laboured attempt to appear non-technical and more businessy is delivered by means of a jokey cuteness that rapidly becomes irritating and detracts fron the overall package. All of the elements of Netweaver, with the possible exception of Master Data Management are already present in competing technologies, and thankfully for the most part the book does mention the generic name (e.g. Bulletin board) so that the elements of Netweaver can be understood in their context. This saves a lot of brain strain trying to find your way through the marketing.

1)I might have sat with the book if not for their jokes
2)The terminolgy used in definitions and in examples is different.
3)Repeating stuff that is not at all useful.
4)The paragraghs of repition wont work but i dont understand how the pictures also dont work
5)I sincerely request the authors to stop writing text books.

With waves of Web Services hype that have threatened to drown us all in corporate IT departments, it is amazing that no other leading enterprise software vendor has taken a stab at clarifying things for us "mere mortals". I'm not sure if the title has already been used, but this book could have easily been named "portals for mortals", since it brings concepts that have been thus far conveyed with a bunch of 4 letter words (yes, worse then you think....SOAP, WSDL, HTTP, J2EE...)
If you want to understand how to build a single comprehensive portal platform and tie in all the applications, transactions, information, and business services that exist today all around your company, and that you struggle to even keep up with their function, this book is for you. From basic concepts to valuable tips, it has it all!!!

This is the first "for Dummies" book I have read and I was very pleased. The authors did an excellent job explaining all of the elements of SAP NetWeaver and how they inter-relate. As a business executive trying to get my arms around the technology, this was exactly what I needed. It will be valuable reference for the future, as well.

It's strange that people expect a reference book when they are buying and reviewing a "for dummies" book. This is a great book for it's purpose, giving a solid overview of the building blocks of Netweaver. Everyone who is working in SAP or thinking about the future of business applications or ERP should read this book because it does give a good view of what the future brings. There is a turning point now in the business application world with the web becoming the frontend, portals, webservices, service oriented architecture being some of the buzzwords that will not go away in the next decade or so. Every SAP consultant who is wondering about what Netweaver is all about should get this book since it's the best overview available at the moment.

In the sense that it fills up to its title: it's not meant to provide a real indepth insight on technical aspects of a SAP technology or product, but it does give the non-SAP expert a relatively reasonable insight in the SAP NetWeaver proposition and platform/landscape. A minor point is that it already on some aspect outdated, as appearing in 2004. The global architectural ideas of SAP behind the NetWeaver platform however still remain.