Not sure to get into BI or not, analysing how difficult it is

Question

Hello friends,
Please provide some information to make an informed decision.
I am currently working as a SAP Operator where my duties include
•     Monitoring the SAP systems (sm37,db02,sm66,su01) majority of them being BASIS transactions
•     XI monitoring via SXMB_MONI, checking inbound and outbound queues (smq1, smq2)
Although my question has nothing to do with my job responsibilities, I wanted you to know my work experience
I have 3 months of some experience in SAP SD end user….
The other day I told my friend I intend to do SAP SD certification to work as an SD consultant and he goes why don’t you get into BI, as it is very much in demand which made me thinking that he is right.
He justified it by telling SD has been since long and BI sits on Net weaver platform which is a new technology probably around 2003.
In an article by Jon reed he recommends it as a hot skill to have for 2008
My question is
•     What skills should one have to be a good BI Consultant (like good logic, understanding etc)
•     How technical is BI
•     Is programming involved with BI?
•     Is it too difficult or you could get along with it in time?
•     What is your recommendation and suggestion?
Thanks heaps for reading the above….

Answer 1

Hi Rasiq,
Warm Welcome to BW...
• What skills should one have to be a good BI Consultant (like good logic, understanding etc)?
-->BW Consultant should be able to understand the Business first and then he should be capable in create/maintain Business logics. The main thing is he/she should understand the Functionality of the Business well and Implement the same with his BI skills.
• How technical is BI?
-->BI is both technical and functional one. One should develop logic how to generate reports based on the implementation of the business. You need to write some ABAP routines which help your work more effective.
• Is programming involved with BI?
--> Yes, Programming is involved in BI. As i said, ABAP routines play major part in BI. You need not to know much about ABAP but little knowledge about that is necessary.
• Is it too difficult or you could get along with it in time?
--> One may face difficulty during initial stages but if they get command over the tool, you can have Fun at work. You can easily cope up with the tool as you have some experience in SAP other modules.
• What is your recommendation and suggestion?
I suggest you to attend BI Training by SAP Labs which helps you the most and you can get the most of it. The duration of the training will be 5 Weeks if you go for the whole BI. For time being, refer the below URL's which helps u lot.
First you need to concentrate on Modelling part. For that i hope these links will helps you.
Modeling:http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/EN/80/1a60cae07211d2acb80000e829fbfe/content.htm
Data Acquisition:http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/EN/e9/6bf2d90e533f409ee56d3f586c325a/content.htm
Transformation:http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/EN/f8/7913426e48db2ce10000000a1550b0/content.htm
Data Distrubtion:http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/EN/c5/85e5414f070640e10000000a1550b0/content.htm
Data Warehouse Management:http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/EN/20/a894ed07e75648ba5cf7c876430589/content.htm
Data Warehousing: Step by Step:http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/en/fc/1251421705be30e10000000a155106/content.htm
Then for Reporting...
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw2004s/helpdata/en/5b/30d43b0527a17be10000000a114084/frameset.htm
Check out the following links for BW 7.0
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04s/helpdata/en/a4/1be541f321c717e10000000a155106/frameset.htm
/people/michael.eacrett/blog/2006/06/07/whats-new-in-sap-netweaver-702004s--an-introduction-to-the-functionality-deltas-and-major-changes
http://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/Articles/NW2004s_what_is_new.ppt
Almost All BI 7.0 Books and Material.
bw 7.0
Hope these helps u...
Regards,
KK.