SAP CRM7.0 Ehp 1&2 e-learning courses: first impressions

[nicolas_busson]

I've always been impressed by the quality of all SAP PRESS books I've read... but was running out of new things to read lately, so I decided to make an investment and buy two e-learning courses, 350€ each (= 1000$):

OCR71_95 SAP EhP1 for SAP CRM 7.0

OCR72_96 SAP EhP2 for SAP CRM 7.0

This is definitely far more expensive than any SAP PRESS book you can get, and as everything is online, no printed version of the documents will be delivered.

So what do you got for 1000$ ?

Well you will be granted access to 1,6Go of documents! Which is huge. But surprisingly, as you can see in the picture below, there is no comparison between EhP1 and EhP2 documentation:

The above picture is a graphical representation of the space used on my hard drive after I downloaded both courses' content on my PC (I used scanner to create this picture). That's a fact: both courses are the same price, but one is more than 5 times bigger than the other.

And there is more: you won't find any "SAP marketing/self selling" stuff in OCR71 session, but only very valuable information. On the contrary, in OCR72 approximately 15% of the content is dealing with the same kind of slides that you see in every SAP training starting with:

"Today's customers are empowered like never before..."

"Executives are faced with highly volatile economic conditions..."

"Economic concerns are affecting business activity..."

etc.

For sure, this kind of assertion and the very nice picture that comes with it doesn't teach you anything about EhP2 functionalities.

So I think it is clear now that I'm definitely not convinced about OCR72: I won't recommend it.

Would I recommend OCR71 then? The answer is yes... but if you're used to SAPPress purchasing experience, prepare for a BIG change:

First of all, one would expect to buy an e-learning course with nearly a one-click action (i.e. select the course, give your credit card number and off we go). Well, not this time: on the french SAP training website, you cannot pay online by credit card number. No kidding: you must know how to enter your whole credit card information into one 10-characters-long field:

So before you can access your online session you'll have to wait for your paper invoice, send back your payment, etc. Come on: we are talking about e-learning session here!

That's why I decided to use the website from another country. There I was offered the possibility to pay by credit card, and had to wait for a confirmation email with detailed information on how to access the online content. I placed my order on the 6th of October around 6PM, and was expecting this email on the 6th of October 7PM.

No email received on the 6th of October.

No email received on the 7th of October.

No email received on the 8th of October.

No email received on the 9th of October.

...

I sent an email to SAP education support on the 10th of October to ask why it was taking so much time to activate my account... and received an answer within 2 hours with my brand new credentials. Could I finally start my online course?

NO. I was facing error: "No authorization to access this content".

Since then I've been struggling to make it work. And as you can see from my inbox, this is a full time job :smile: :

What do all those messages say ? Let me sum it up very quickly :

From	To	Details
SAP education	Me	"- Dear customer, invoice is paid. Access is granted. Contact SAP support for any issue".
Me	SAP support	"- May you please help me: I'm facing authorization issues"
SAP support	Me	"- Thanks for contacting SAP. We are processing your request".
SAP support	SAP education	"- Let the customer know when access is activated".
SAP education	Me	"- Access activated, sorry for inconvenience".
Me	All SAP	"- Still facing the same issue. Please help".
SAP support	Me	"- Thanks for contacting SAP. We are processing your request".
SAP support	Me	"- Activation may take a while, please try again in a few hours".
Me	SAP support	"- Thanks. Now I can attend the session, but still facing errors when accessing documents. Here is my user id/pwd"
SAP support	Me	"- Thanks for contacting SAP. We are processing your request"
SAP support	Me	"- Dear customer check this 5 pages guide to adapt your browser settings. If the issue persists, send your user/pwd"
Me	SAP support	"- Before I change my settings, may you please confirm that you can access those documents from your location?"
SAP suupport	Me	...
SAP support	Me	"- Indeed there seems to be an error on our side. Issue sent to the person responsible"
...	...	...
SAP support	Me	"- Dear customer, we changed something. May you please try again?"
Me	Sap support	"- Still facing the same issue"
...	...	...

Looks like a usual OSS message, doesn't it?

:wink:

Good news is: someone is answering my messages within decent delay.

Bad news is: issue still open, and I will probably not book any online course ever again.

That being said, OCR71 is very good. But if you're looking for the best value, check out SAPPress website.

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Updated on the 17th of October :

I still do not have access to all e-learning courses' content. But more important, my account was debited 423,50€ instead of 350€... so beware the small line saying "price does not include local taxes" (and I find it very strange to be charged VAT for Belgium when the invoice is sent to France, but I'm not really familiar with European laws in this regard), and do not trust the confirmation screen where you enter your credit card number that says: "total to pay = 350" :mad:

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Updated on the 25th of October :

After a few days someone at SAP support told me I would be reimbursed 423,50€ and charged 350€ only (as mentioned on the validation screen of my order). But my bank account was debited twice: first time on the 15th of October (423,50€), and a second time on the 22nd (350€). I was never credited 423,23€ as expected. Sent a mail to SAP on the 23rd but still waiting for an answer. I can't believe it, must be a nightmare.

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Updated on the 30th of November :

Here I am more than one month later: still fighting to get my money back. After a countless number of emails, I got the promise from the accounting department that I would receive a check for the reimbursement of the money that was erroneously debited on my bank account. I couldn't imagine I would face so many difficulties at each and EVERY stage of chain. But the good thing is: now I'll probably look at CEOs complaining about SAP with far more compassion than I used to...

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Updated on the 18th of December :

I've just received my statement of account: I was finally credited the money that had been erroneously debited (423,50€) on the 10th of December. No comment.

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