SAP HANA for Beginners

[former_member93896]

Everyone has to start somewhere. And yes, I was a SAP HANA beginner at one time, too (going back to the first days of SAP BW Accelerator). The great news is that we have a wealth of information and plenty of learning opportunities about SAP HANA out there and much of it is available for free!

Are you new to and want to learn about SAP HANA? Congratulations and welcome to the SAP HANA community! In the world of SAP HANA, you want to learn fast, of course. So in the spirit of "Accelerated Learning" (Four Phases of Learning), I suggest a few steps for you to get started. Just understand that you can spend hours or days behind each link below and get lost in cyberspace. Bookmark this blog so you always have a place to come back to continue your SAP HANA journey.

Note: This blog covers SAP HANA as a database and platform. We will have to cover learning about specific applications that run on top of SAP HANA another time.

Phase 1: Explore

As a first step, browse the SAP websites and see what others have done or plan to do with SAP HANA. This can be very exciting especially if have some aha-moments like "Wow, I didn't think this was possible" or "Awesome, I will try this myself" or even better "Spectacular, I will use SAP HANA for my start-up company and become rich".

• SAP HANA Solutions Overview


• SAP HANA Database Features and Capabilities


• SAP HANA Customer Success Stories and Use Cases


• SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud


• SAP Cloud Platform running on SAP HANA

Phase 2: Learn

By now you should have an understanding of what you can or want to do with SAP HANA and you wish to know more about in-memory technology and the SAP HANA solution. There are many different learning styles. Pick the one that suites you most.

• SAP HANA Essentials (eBook)


• SAP HANA: An Introduction (Hardcopy Book)


• SAP HANA Training and Certification Program (Classroom and E-Learning)


• SAP HANA Academy (E-learning)


• Many Books about SAP HANA (Hard-copy and Kindle, SAP Press)


• Open Online Courses for SAP HANA / SAP Cloud Platform


• In-Memory Data Management by Hasso Plattner Institut (Online Course)

Phase 3: Exercise

If you haven't done so, now is the perfect time to register on two SAP websites that are essential for your success. This will give you access to a tremendous amount of SAP HANA know-how and the ability to collaborate with like minded 'HANAnauts'. And it's free!

• Try SAP HANA (free!)


• SAP HANA Developer Center


• SAP Cloud Platform Developer Center


• Free developer account on SAP Cloud Platform


• SAP Community Network

So far it has been all theory and it's time to "get your hands dirty". Again there are various options available from instructor led classroom training to try-it-yourself SAP HANA in the cloud environments.

• Tutorials for SAP HANA (more free stuff!)


• SAP HANA related sessions at SAP TechEd (Lectures and Hands-on) / SAP TechEd Online / SAP TechEd Archives


• The HANA Seminar by SAPinsider

At this point everything is still pretty new for you and a long URL is better than a short memory. Be sure to bookmark the online documentation or download it in PDF format to your computer (but be sure to check back regularly - at least for every SAP HANA support package stack which are currently released every six months). You also want to save links to the SAP Community Network and this website where you can collaborate with other who have paved the path before you.

• SAP HANA Software (Online Documentation)


• SAP Cloud Platform


• SAP Community for SAP HANA (Discussion Forum)

You might have questions or get stuck during your project. No problem. Help is just a few clicks away.

• SAP HANA Developer Center (Post a Question)


• SAP HANA Ask the Expert (E-mail your Question)

Phase 4: Implement

Your company decided to license and implement SAP HANA. Congratulations again! You are officially an SAP Customer (if you haven't been already before) and with it you get access to more resources.

• Get Involved Early: Beta Programs, Early Adopter Care Services, Early Knowledge Transfer


• SAP Enterprise Support Academy


• Deployment & Provisioning of SAP HANA

And if your SAP HANA software does not work as expected and you suspect a product error, don't be afraid to report the incident so SAP Support can analyze the issue:

• SAP Incident Wizard for SAP HANA

Phase 5: Follow

Wait, weren't there four phases to accelerated learning? Right, but it's a fast paced world and SAP HANA is speeding along quite nicely. It's essential to stay in touch and follow along on one or many of our social media channels:

• Read the SAP HANA Blogs (Subscribe to RSS Feed)


• Follow SAP HANA on Twitter


• Like SAP HANA on Facebook


• Watch SAP HANA on YouTube


• Learn SAP HANA via HANA Academy


• View SAP HANA presentations on Slideshare


• Join the LinkedIn Group for SAP HANA

SAP HANA Careers

Many of you would like some advice on how to turn your SAP HANA knowledge into a career and find a job (and make lots of money of course). There are endless opportunities and depending on your background you might want to take a different path to success. Rather than going into detail here, I refer you to an excellent blog series by John Appleby who put together "The SAP HANA Career Guide". Becoming certified will increase your chance of getting hired. Check it out. If you are ready to apply for a job, you might want to take a look at the interview questions that some have compiled.

• "The SAP HANA Career Guide" - Overview


• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) regarding SAP Certification & Career Opportunities


• SAP HANA Interview Questions

Finally, here are some resources for the complete beginners to SAP (That was me over 20 years ago). I like the Blue Book which gives you great insight into the world of SAP projects.

• SAP Blue Book


• Using SAP: A Guide for Beginners and End Users


• Discover SAP

Excellent, you made it through to the end. Overwhelmed? Just start at the top and take it step-by-step and soon you, too, will become an SAP HANA expert. As always we appreciate your feedback. Let us know what's missing or how we can make adopting SAP HANA a more beautiful experience for you.

Best,
Marc Bernard
@marcfbe

Change Log

• February 2014: Now with more and updated links as well as a section on careers around SAP HANA


• April 2016: Completely revised with new and updated links


• June 2017: Updated links


• December 2017: Added link to SAP HANA Academy and fixed some links


• June 2018: Updated links


• November 2018: Updated links

[former_member93896]

Hello Andrzej,
overall, your questions go beyond the scope of this blog. However, SAP HANA has been around for years and ECC (as well as many other applications) is running on top of SAP HANA very successfully and for many thousand customers.

SAP HANA is a database platform and not replacing any application like ECC. What is replacing traditional ECC is SAP S/4HANA and my recommendation is to look into this in great detail. Start at http://sap.com/s4hana. Read about the solution, get trained, and help customers transitioning their old systems to SAP S/4HANA.

Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[former_member93896]

Hi Chandrashekar,
looks to me like it's better to stay on the application side since you're not a "techie". Knowing SAP HANA and SAP BW/BI will be very helpful nevertheless. My recommendation is to look into SAP S/4HANA. Start with Simple Finance and then maybe other modules related to HR/Payroll. This will give you a good understanding on how applications work and run on SAP HANA. At a later point you might also want to look at SAP BW/4HANA to complete your skill set as this will be a combination that many SAP customers will run in the future.

Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[Former Member]

Thank you for your prompt response. Would please share some links S/4HANA. And also certification details. Since I came to know this certification for people who have already real time experience in SAP fico. Please advise me as I am seriously looking forward for change.

[former_member93896]

Start at http://sap.com/s4hana. Please understanddthat this blog is about SAP HANA and I can't give advice beyond that.

Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[Former Member]

hello marc,
i have done the sap hana.when i attended interview they are asking the real time questions.so i want to do the real time work on any company or internship in any company.can you help me for that?

[former_member93896]

Hello Anchal,

you can find details on SAP HANA Real-Time Replication and SAP HANA smart data streaming under the SAP HANA Options:
http://help.sap.com/hana_options?current=hana_platform

Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[Former Member]

Hi Marc,
I work as a derivatives analyst for a stock broking firm, did MBA in finance and marketing. I am looking for a change in my career to IT and not into this line any more, actually I was looking for SAP FICO but after knowing about SAP HANA and reading blogs like this, HANA seems to be a better option comparitively, still in a confused state. Plz help me in picking the right one. And really thanks for sharing this useful information, good start for a newbie. Many online learning resources are available but found this source Tekslate.com as interesting. Suggest me more from your pool.

[former_member93896]

Hi Ian,

let's put it like this: SAP HANA itself is for techies. Unless you have at least some knowledge in databases and/or programming, you would have to start from zero with a steep learning curve to become "competitive" and turn this into a career. Possible but hard to do (certainly fine when you are entering the job market but not a typical career change option).
Instead look at the many application that run on top of the HANA platform, like SAP S/4HANA Financials or maybe be some more adventurous and check the start-ups who are building on top of SAP HANA: http://startupfocus.saphana.com/gotomarket/
http://startupfocus.saphana.com/program/demo/home/byindustry/Banking

Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[Former Member]

Hi Mac i have 8 years of experience in BPO Sector and Bachelor of Computer Science Background, I wanted to change my career , Kindly suggest can i join Sap Hana Administration or suggest me the correct Course details.

[former_member93896]

Hi Raghavendra,

SAP HANA is an exiting area to build a career on. However, I can't tell you what to do based on such little information (nor am I an HR person or career advisor). Please check out some of the content I provided to see if you like SAP HANA and give it a try.

Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[former_member93896]

Hi Raghavendra,

SAP HANA is an exiting area to build a career on. However, I can’t tell you what to do based on such little information (nor am I an HR person or career advisor). Please check out some of the content I provided to see if you like SAP HANA and give it a try.

Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[Former Member]

Thanku so much mac for the information.
Kindly confirm which module should i proceed first.
Can i start directly from sap hana or any other basics i need to learn before sap hana.
Will i get a job as fresher.

[Former Member]

Hi Marc! Hope U r doing well. i want to know one thing being a sap abap consultant which hana profile is gonna suit me i mean whether BW on Hana will be a viable option for me ? suggest me asap in my address chksourav86@gmail.com

[former_member93896]

Hello Sourav,

many SAP BW and SAP BW/4HANA project require additional ABAP programming to extend and build additional apps on top of the data warehouse. ABAP for HANA skills - especially if you can implement ABAP managed database procedures (AMDP) are good to have.

Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[former_member355262]

Hello Sir, I have 12 years of it experience, i have been newly moved to sap basis section currently using ecc 6. Where do i start, learn sap hana or the current system of the company they are going to move to hana in a few months. Secondly how should i plan my learning to expertise sap basis. Do i start with installation and configuration. Are there softwares available for learning for current customers please guide me?

[Former Member]

Hi Marc,

I am working on SAS software as Developer/Programmer for Finance/credit card domain. But I came to know that SAS has scope mostly in finance and lifesciences. But I was interested in manufacturing analytics so I am now interested to learn SAP HANA. Do you it will be wise to switch from SAS to SAP HANA as both perform has same functionality.

[former_member93896]

Hello Ajay,
SAP HANA is much more powerful than SAS. It's certainly a good investment since many customers around the world are already using SAP HANA (and it integrates with SAS too if that's required).

Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[former_member93896]

Hello Abdul,
those are very general questions. Please try some of the suggestions I mentioned in the blog. As I wrote a lot of it is free!

Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[Former Member]

Hi Marc,

Thanks for the info..
But as I told you i am interested into supply chain analytics so what should I learn in combination of SAP HANA so that I can get to work in the field I want. For your info, I have the knowledge of SAP MM as well and initially was thinking to switch from SAS to SAP MM. Do you think that knowledge of SAP MM along with HANA will help me to land job of my choice.

[former_member93896]

Sorry, but I'm not an expert in supply chain or MM. Please check the SAP Community for those topics and ask your question there.

Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[Former Member]

Hi Marc,
Thank you so much for your valuable suggestions and splendid guidance.
Iam holding 7+ years of experience in ITIL framework(Asset/Change and Problem Management). I did my Masters in Computer Applications in 2009 but never worked on Software technologies. Now i want to switch my career towards SAP HANA. So can you please guide me what would be the best approach and is it a good idea switching career during this phase.

[former_member93896]

Hello Kranthi,

it sounds like a bigger career change but anything is possible if you want it :-). Ask yourself what aspects of SAP HANA are most interesting to you. This will point you into the right direction for getting started and as I replied to many here, just give it a try for free!

Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[Former Member]

Hi Marc,
This is jyothsna srinivas I have gone through your article and looks so much informative for the beginners in SAP. I have 9+ years of exp in testing and i am interested to learn SAP Hana and i dont have coding back ground. Please suggest me how this SAP hana would be useful for me and do i need to go thorugh anything specific features or module on SAP HAna. Based on that i will start. I am very much confused. please help me.

Thank you,
Jyothsna Srinivas

[Former Member]

Thanks for this write up. But the starter documentation on the SAP HANA Cloud still leaves much to be desired especially for newbies to the SAP Ecosystem. This might not be the right spot but thought I would post it for your perusal - For instance, I tried to create a database with the demo shine data and Configured a user "John" for the SHINE Db.

When logging in via SAP Administrative console I could see two catalogs - one with SAP_HANA_DEMO and the other JOHN. When I tried using a Java example to access data I was unabe to access data on the demo database. Only could access data from tables I can create under the catalog JOHN.

There are no clear examples explaining these in the sources you pointed out esp if one wants to play with the demo data. Apologies if this was the wrong place or I missed out on something clear.

[former_member93896]

Hello Nate,
thanks for the feedback. Have a look at https://answers.sap.com/. There are several threads dealing with this topic. If not, just post your question there, please.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[former_member93896]

Hi Jyothsna,
best thing is to give it a try with some examples. HANA SHINE example application can help or you just create some tables and data models yourself. Alternative would be to join an implementation project as a tester, of course.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[Former Member]

Hi Marc,
thanks for your reply. Could you please suggest me which course should i take first to learn SAP Hana and which one is useful for me for career in SAP Hana.
Can you please provide me the link of HANA SHINE example application and also the SAP system details so that i can start working on that.

I am looking for the basic document for the begineers who would start SAP Hana.

Thank you,
Jyothsna Srinivas

[former_member344752]

WOW !! Cant get any better than this. This is like one stop and get ALL on SAP HANA.

[former_member344752]

Thanks for your effort Marc Bernard.

[Former Member]

hi marc,
i am a sap mm consultant and having a 3.5 year of experience in sap mm ,and i want to move to sap s/4 hana in mm ,is it possoble to move foe a better future.
please suggest me in details.

[former_member93896]

Hello Sunil,

best thing is to learn about SAP S/4HANA and get a job in a project converting from ERP to SAP S/4HANA. Then you will see all the differences (and help resolve them). Find the Simplification List on help.sap.com for SAP S/4HANA to get started.

Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[Former Member]

Hello Marc.. I'd like to know the future of getting started with SAP HANA career. I'm from Computers background and knowledge on Java and PHP. Is there any advantage of existing knowledge to help me proceed with SAP HANA? Suggestions highly appreciated and accepted. Thank You.

[former_member93896]

Hello Bhanu,

check out developers.sap.com. There are many very interesting topics. Get a free SAP HANA express system and try some of the tutorials. Cool stuff!

Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[imran_mohammad_2]

Hi Merc,

I have to 2years experience in SAP ABAP and CRM.I'm want to move to SAP HANA or S/4 HANA.could please suggest me that "Is it right direction to built Future in SAP as ABAP developer?". So can you please guide me what would be the best approach and is it a good idea switching career during this phase.
Thanks and Peace in advance.

Regards,
Imran

[former_member93896]

Hi Imran,

Adding HANA and cloud to your skill is the way to go. Best place to get going for you is https://www.sap.com/developer.htnml. Then check the ABAP, HANA, and cloud sections. There's a lot of work for programmers especially code analysis and adjustments due to system conversion Suite to SAP S/4HANA and BW to SAP BW/4HANA.

Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[MTNguyen]

The URL for SAP HANA Cloud Platform does not exist anymore?!

[former_member93896]

Thanks for the feedback, Minh. I checked all links and fixed a few.

Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[former_member624445]

Hi Marc, I am SAP Basis Administrator with 5 years of experience. I want to switch to HANA, kindly advice on the current version of HANA and the materials i should start with. Also, do you have links where i can download Sap HANA Demo for practice purposes?

[former_member93896]

Hello Manny,

the blog is current. Just start at the top!

Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[former_member565083]

Hello sir
Myself completed BTech in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. Am totally new for SAP. I want to start my career in SAP HANA. What should I do sir. Please suggest me

[former_member93896]

Hello Rahul,
congratulations for your degree! Of course, you can spend some time (and money) on formal training for SAP HANA. However, I suggest to take a look at the links to free material first. If you know a bit about classic relational databases already (SAP HANA is different in many ways), then this can take you very far. Maybe look into some of the great books, too. Best thing to do is to get practical experience, for example with the free developer edition of SAP HANA and SAP HANA Academy. All the best wishes!
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW

[aj19911991]

Hi Marc,

I am a SAP BASIS Consultant and have a experience of around 4 years.I wanted to go into SAP Analytics domain wherein I can use SAP Analytics tools for predictive modeling,forecasting etc. Will it be good for me to learn HANA or can you suggest me how can i move to make my career in analytics domain keeping in mind that I am working as a SAP BASIS Consultant

[former_member93896]

Hello Arihant,

SAP Analytics most often isn't a technical topic. Unless you get into complex data modeling , I don't think it's a great area for more technical people.

My suggestion would be to look into the more technical topics behind analytics, like setting up and configuring HANA options like spatial, text search, or predictive and linking HANA environments to big data (see SAP Data Hub).

Best,
Marc
SAP HANA Competency Center

[Former Member]

Hi Marc,
I want to move to SAP S/4 HANA from Oracle and explore the power of same. Currently I am an Oracle developer having extensive experience in SQL SCRIPT, SQL, PLSQL, Performance Tuning etc. So I am looking for guidance to where to start. Learning SAP S/4 HANA will be enough or some functional module learning also required. So looking for your precious guidance.
Thanking you in advance.
Regards
Abdallah

[former_member93896]

Hello Abdallah,

SAP S/4HANA is an application and does not need any SQL programming and there's little performance tuning required (if at all). You can extend SAP S/4HANA of course or develop applications that complement it. Check SAP Cloud Platform and learn about S/4HANA extension concepts.

However, you skill set better matches native HANA modeling and development. Get started at developers.sap.com!

Best,
Marc
SAP HANA Competence Center

[Former Member]

Dear Marc,

Accept my thanks for the precious guidance. You pinpointed the thing I was looking for that was SAP HANA only. Just last question is the SAP BW4/HANA also a suitable for me along with HANA modelling and development. Or firstly I should go for learning the HANA modelling and development then to SAP BW4/HANA.

Regards
Abdallah

[former_member93896]

Hi Abdallah,
good question. It's probably easier for you do first learn HANA modeling and SQLscript / procedures and then get into SAP BW/4HANA. Have a look at the free openSAP course to see if you like it: https://open.sap.com/courses/bw4h2/
Best,
Marc
SAP HANA Competence Center

[rajpai1495]

Dear Mark ,
I have few doubts .I would be very kind if you answer my 2 questions ?
1. Whether a person not having implementation knowledge of sap R/3 modules cant pursue sap s/4hana modules ? for S/4HANA Functional modules ? Does R/3 modules implementation methods are required as a pre-requisite ?
2. I am not interested in the technical modules such as S/4Hana on ABAP and if I would like to go for rest of S/4Hana Functional modules such as s/4hana simple logistics , finance , sourcing and procurement .....and left ones , so

Do I need to have any of the programming languages skills such as SQL, RDBMS, JAVA......?
for S/4Hana functional modules ? or
Do S/4hana functional consultants need programming languages skills during their full cycle implementation project from start to end at any point of time ?

[former_member93896]

Hi Raj,

The blog is about HANA so your question does not fit here. Nevertheless, you can learn SAP S/4HANA without any previous R/3 knowledge and you don't need any programming skills. Programming does come in handy, when customers want to extend the solution but it's nothing for beginners anyway. Go to training.sap.com where you can find courses for SAP S/4HANA.

Best,
Marc
SAP HANA Competence Center

[Former Member]

Hi Marc,
I found this blog very helpful to everyone who is in SAP or who is not in SAP. I am not in SAP and I have 9 years experience in Software Tester including 3 years in automation testing.
I have one query if you can answer then I would really be very thankful to you.

As I have 9 years experience as Sofatware Tester, now I want to switch to SAP. Earlier I was thingking of Data Analytics career but it requires some logics to create application using some programming languages.
Then I cam across SAP HANA, so can you please let me know that whether its a good choice of learning SAP HANA for data analytics as it requires sql (I know SQL). I will learn some other tools like BW etc with SAP HANA.
WIll this be a good move or not, kindly help me in this.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks
Amit Kumar