XI certification - which one?

Question

Hi,
We are an ISV in the area of Trim Optinization (used in the SAP Mill Products scenarios), a SAP partner, and have a product which is already certified on .Net Connector, but not as PBNW. We now want to go for PBNW certification, but are unsure which option to choose.
We don't have any java prgramming experience in our company, and we want to produce a meaningfull integration which we can resell. We were looking at the NW-XI option (3), but having read up on this, I am not sure that this is appropriate, as we are not really writing a new "technical adaptor". We could integrate our application via XML, but this looks more like the NW-XI-CNT (option 2). The problem with option 2 is that it appears that you must also have the EP-BP, which means having java experience. Also, we can't see much value in writing "iViews" for our product, as it has a complex GUI which probably could not be represented in such views.
For clarity, our application normally runs on it's own server, and is integrated to SAP APO via standard BAPI calls. The trim planner may also carry out detailed block planning in APO PPDS before and after Trim Planning.
We also have other questions: -
1. How can we get a SAP landscape with the appropriate SCM + R/3 + DIMP installed to develop and test the integration, and is it included in the price of certification?
2. What training courses will we need to?
3. What is the overall cost, including certification, landscape, training etc.
We previously certified or product, X-Trim/APS with Christoph Claus at the ICC in Walldorf - maybe Christoph can help us with these decisions (I see that he answers a lot of postings in this forum : -)
Kind Regards,
Chris Brookes.

Answer 1

Hi Chris,
You can read my Blog for more information about SAP XI adapter creation:
/people/john.ta2/blog/2006/12/20/to-create-or-not-to-create-an-sap-xi-adapter
But I agree that option 2 is most likely what you are looking for.  PBNW requires that more than one SAP NetWeaver technology is used.  It would be simple to just use SAP Enterprise Portal to display some e.g. information, status change, list current information related to a user, etc.  Very little Java programming (to none) is required for creating your iView.  Look at this Blog for example:
Application Integrator to integrate URL iViews - /people/markus.pfeffer/blog/2005/12/14/integrating-your-web-front-ends-into-the-sap-enterprise-portal-using-the-application-integrator
Also, try to encourage some of your team members to learn Java since it will add to their technical skill sets and can only make them shine!
In regards to your questions:
1. Please look at our Developer Package (DPA) for the pricing of our SAP hosted environment for your development:
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn?rid=/webcontent/uuid/15330f73-0501-0010-d59e-8a32e220b2ed [original link is broken]
2. There are training course for SAP NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure (XI) which you can prepare for or you can look at the online eLearning course on SDN's Exchange Infrastructure area.
3. After deciding how many systems you need (depending on how you answer) to answer #1 and its price, factor the cost of training courses or eLearning (free), and adding the cost of the certification exam for option 2, you will have your answer.
I hope this helps! 
Regards,
John Ta