Thesis topic in HANA : ERP HANA or BW HANA

[Former Member]

Dear All,

   Iam a masters student and want to do my thesis in In-Memory/HANA topic. I had initial discussion with my thesis guide and he asked me to decide if I would like to do in ERP-HANA with a specific module like Sales/logistics. or in BW-HANA (more technical like multi sources,ETL ,etc).

I have worked in Basis (installations,upgrades,migrations) & PI for 3.5 years and then for 6 months in MM(with ABAP). I have studied and performed BI project for 6 months during my masters course.

Could some body guide me where I can find more details on these topics. And also suggest me what topics in HANA will suit my past experience.

Thanks a lot in advance!

[Former Member]

Vit SAP,

My recommendation is to contanct your closes SAP sales office and ask to speak to their presales folks. My experience is that they're more than willing to talk with you about that basics. That could get you a basic grounding in the topic.

There's not a lot published on HANA yet. You can probably download the install guide at service.sap.com/instguides. You can check SDN for HANA specific areas. There's one class which is oriented primarily to BI data modelers which you could take.

Google is, of course,your friend in this endevour. A quick search led me to http://www.sap.com/solutions/technology/in-memory-computing-platform/hana/overview/index.epx which might have ideas you can leverage for your thesis. There are 8 use cases listed at the bottom of that page. If it were me, I'd read through those, pick one, then find the real customer upon which the case was based and ask if they'd let me work with them to study their case from a more rigorous academic perspective.

Given your Basis background, though, perhaps a more fundamental technology comparison between traditional relational databases and HANA's hybrid relational/columnar database architecture might be more appropriate. (If this is for an MBA, I understand that perhaps the technical details may not be as interesting as the business application of the technology, so from that perspective you're stuck with what your adviser prefers.)

Hope this helps!

Best regards,

   --Tom

[Former Member]

Dear Thomas,

   Appreciate your quick response!

I shall check the link you have provided. Also, yes my master course is Business Information systems. I would avoid, very technical topics. Also, i would do my thesis with a SAP BI partner company, hence I will get access to the systems and materials also.

I believe that BI cant be standalone and hence to be successful BI consultant, one needs domain knowledge also. Feel free to correct me or add more advice.

Thanks again!

Vit

[Former Member]

I'm not sure what you mean when you say that BI can't be standalone. SAP BI is a data warehouse. It doesn't care where you get your data. It's easier to set up extractors and there are more "out of the box" cubes that you can use if you connect to an SAP product, but you can use SAP BI (or any of SAP's data warehousing tools) independent of whatever else you have. Many of SAP's current data warehousing tools carry the Business Objects brand name since BO was a standalone company prior to SAP's purchase.

If you mean that a data warehouse isn't very useful without a transactional system to generate data, then that is correct for BI and any other data warehouse. To be a successful BI consultant, you need to understand data modeling and/or BI system administration and/or the ABAP related to creating extractors or whatnot. There are three possible paths, but many BI consultants exist as a hybrid of two or more of the paths.

BI consultants often work with functional module experts (FI, SD, MM, etc) and/or functional component experts (CRM, SRM, etc) in order to better understand how to extract or model data, but domain expertise (in, for example, FI) isn't really a success factor.

Hope that helps!

Best regards,

   --Tom

[Former Member]

I ran across this today. Scroll to the bottom. SAP will explicitly work with you on your Master's thesis.

http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/our-company/innovation/research/jobs/index.epx

Enjoy!

  --Tom

[Former Member]

Hello Thomas,

     Thanks for your time!

What I was looking for was "but domain expertise (in, for example, FI) isn't really a success factor."

Well, Iam confused now really, what my project guide meant when he said chose one of the topics between "ERP-HANA" and "BW-HANA".. Iam still hunting for info on SDN, got few hours to inform my guide 😕

Ya, regarding the SAP internships. I have already been offered a thesis/intership from a company itself.. I cannot switch to SAP AG now

Let me know if you can understand by "HANA-ERP" vs "BW-HANA".

Thanks again!

vit

[Former Member]

Hi,

   Well I got it..

SAP NetWeaver BW with SAP HANA: or SAP ERP with replication of data in SAP HANA

so, I need to choose a topic within this.. any advice!

Thanks!

vit

[Former Member]

A must read blog

http://scn.sap.com/thread/1959085

[Former Member]

Hi Vit,

Any luck with the theses, what is it finally based on? did it went well??

Let me know I am working on a similar project, struggling with my thesis statement!!!

Many Thanks,

Nitin

[Former Member]

Hi Vit,

Did you able to find thesis on SAP BI.

Even Im doing my masters and searching for thesis on SAP BI.

Could you provide some information.

Thanks

[Former Member]

same here

[Former Member]

same here too! need some last minute help on discussion/evaluation of SAP HANA Platform as a service! Thanks.