Table of Contents

Acknowledgment
Preface
Introduction
Step 1: Why you want to start career in SAP HANA
Step 2: Who is eligible to choose SAP HANA Career?
Step 3: Decide what you want to do in SAP HANA
Step 4: Build Knowledge on HANA
Step 5: Learn Project experiences
Step 6: Create unique skills to sell yourself
Step 7: Update Resume on HANA knowledge
Step 8: Gain Experience & become expert
Conclusion
Acknowledgment
I personally wish to thank you for taking your time to read this book and
learn about starting and embracing your career in SAP HANA. I know that
your time is valuable so I wrote this book as easy, in readable and
straightforward manner. I am sure after reading this book you will get great
confidence and interest that will take your HANA career path into next
level.

Great amount of effort and self-experiences are collected and presented in

this book to educate oneself to start their career journey with SAP HANA.

I would also like to thank my family and friends for all the support they
given to me, especially at times when I needed them most. Also I would
like to say big thanks to my mentor and friend Simon Vukojevic (CEO of
Vupico) who took special attention on reviewing this book and giving a
wonderful look to each line; He has done a wonderful job and it has
contributed greatly.

Lastly, I would like to thank my close friends who encouraged me to write

this book and make it available to people seeking careers in SAP HANA

Magalingam Chandrakumar
SAP HANA Leads
Preface
What to expect in this SAP HANA Career Guide.

Honestly, this is my first book to share my SAP experiences with you, my

valuable readers. So I am very excited and careful in delivering contents for
this book.

Why I wrote this book.

My personal journey with SAP HANA started in 2011 and even today, 6
Years after I found that online resources related to SAP HANA Career path
are very limited and brief, with bits and pieces all over the places. I can see
that SAP HANA Career Questions still cannot be fully answered at online
forums and Blogs. Which triggered me to organize the content and prepare
it for you.

Who will benefit from reading this book?

This book will serve a valuable resource for College graduates and
experienced IT professionals who want to change their career to SAP
HANA. This book is written based on my personal work experiences, and
summarized the output of how my career advice has helped many people
around me to change their career to SAP HANA. Most of the SAP HANA
textbooks in the market are focused on Configuration and Technical details.
This book will not go more into those areas.
This Book has 8 effective baby steps which guides reader to help achieve
Successful Career Transition into SAP HANA career path. I call them baby
steps here because its beginners step for readers to start learn new things in
SAP HANA. These steps require slow and steady process to get you started
on SAP career path.

Motivation
If this book can inspire and help at least 100 people to consider SAP HANA
career transition then the purpose of the book is successful for what it was
made to do.
Introduction
This books is an investment for you. So let’s make sure you get return on
investment by understanding and following the 8 successful Baby steps of
SAP HANA Career path.

I know how difficult to make Career transition without right information.

Not only do you need to continue preforming at your current role but also
concentrate on learn new technology such as SAP HANA in parallel. And
yes everyone has to start somewhere. The good thing is we have great
amount of information and plenty of learning options available in the
market some of which are free online.

Again, this book is not going to explain in detail about what SAP HANA is
and its technical background. Instead we are going to discuss about
 Why you want to start career in SAP HANA
 Who is eligible to choose SAP HANA Career
 what you want to do in SAP HANA
 how to Build Knowledge on HANA
 how to Learn Project experiences
 how to create unique skills
 how to Update Resume on HANA knowledge
 How to Gain Experience & become expert

To give little SAP background, SAP is the World’s largest Provider of

Enterprise application Services (ERP). SAP serves 35,000+ Customers in
more than 180 countries. Each customer has multiple SAP landscapes for
development, testing and production. As I wrote this book, very few
customers have migrated “fully” to HANA database (i.e. around 10,000 on
HANA and 6000 on S/4HANA partially)

With SAP HANA Platform SAP is targeting to remove its dependency on

Databases [DBs] (like ORACLE/MSQL etc.) by year 2025. SAP plans to
stop supporting these DBs by Year 2025. This means that every customer
must move to HANA database by 2025 or pay additional maintenance fees.
This will drive large number of SAP customers moving to HANA (current
and future customers) providing lot of opportunities on the way.
As of July 2016, 10000+ companies have started using SAP HANA. By
2020, this number is expected to be more than double. So, if someone is
thinking to take HANA as next career path, now is the right time because as
demand for SAP HANA skills keep increasing. Due to current lack of SAP
skills in market, makes it easier for anyone to switch to HANA. If you wait
another 1 or 2 years, number of skilled people will increase and it will
become harder to enter HANA Career.

Few of the reputed companies already using HANA are

 Coca-Cola, Asian Paints, Procter & Gamble, HONDA, Nissan,
LIXIL
 Colgate, Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited, Dell, Adidas,
AshokLeyland
 Walmart, Vodafone, SanDisk, Unilever, Lenovo, DANONE,
Cisco, Jaguar

Before we get into career plan, let’s have high level understanding of What
SAP HANA platform is. Here is the chart from SAP presenting evolution of
SAP HANA

Evolution of SAP HANA

We all know there are different SAP HANA Platform Products available in
the market
 SAP HANA(In memory DB & Platform)
  SAP BW on HANA(for Data warehousing)
 SAP BW4/HANA(new generation Data warehousing)
 SAP Business suite on HANA (for ERP, CRM, and SRM etc.)
 SAP Simple finance powered by HANA(ERP Simple Finance on
HANA)
 SAP S4 HANA(ERP applications sitting on HANA Platform)
 SAP HANA Cloud Platform (2017/3, newly SAP Cloud Platform-
Public Cloud)
 SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud Platform(SAP Managed Cloud
platform- Private Cloud)

All above are different products for SAP even though the name HANA is
commonly used because all these products or applications are based on SAP
HANA Database. Above Last two products are Cloud platform products. In
this book we are going to focus more on SAP HANA platform and not on
Products.
(The latest version of HANA Platform is HANA 2.0 SPS01 released
2017/05)

Let’s have quick glance about what is HANA later let’s explore why the
need for HANA and why is that companies are interested from HANA.
What is SAP HANA
As you may already know, SAP HANA is game changing in-memory
database, it is also Next Generation Platform for digital transformation that
can leverage Data and Database management technology, Advances
Analytical capabilities, and intuitive application tools to develop new
innovative applications to meet your business strategic objectives.
SAP HANA platform has below 4 Main Services and released for on-
Premise, Cloud and Hybrid (Support both)
 Application Services
 Processing Services
 Integration Services
 Database services

 Application Services
 SAP HANA platform includes application services to build web
based applications and support open development standards such as
Java, JavaScript, C++, Node, JS, SQL, JSON, ADO.NET, JDBC,
ODBC, OData, HTML5, MDX, XML/A
 Webserver Supports Server side JavaScript and OData.
 Fiori UX libraries allow developers to build beautiful HTML5
User interface that are accessible from any device.
 Built in Application life cycle management tools helps to perform
version control, bundle, transport and install application
  Processing Services
 SAP HANA platform also includes processing capabilities that
enable advanced analytics on diverse type of data. Optimize graph,
planning and rules applications on the data
 Empower your business via built-in predictive analytics, business
functions and data quality

 Integration Services
 Organizations generate and store data in multiple systems. SAP
HANA platform includes integration services to handle various
integration strategies from variety of data sources. It can access
information stored in data silos while keeping the data in place
 Help Replicate and move any type of data in real time to the cloud
and on premise when necessary
 Capture and analysis live data streams and route to appropriate
storage or dashboard
 Synchronize data between HANA and thousands of remote
database (SQL Anywhere, Ultra lite)
 Multiple access points from HANA to Hadoop data: thru spark,
Hive, HDFS and Map Reduce

 Database services
 SAP HANA Platform is an ACID Complaint
 Turns data into real time information
 No database tuning required for complex and adhoc queries
 Run transactions and Analytics together on one system and one
copy of data
 Ready for cloud, Hybrid or On-Premise deployment
 Not limited by the size of memory

Few challenges in Business

All these years we are seeing different challenges in Business like
 Inadequate access to real time operational information
 Need to react faster to events impacting business
 Need to do analytics from different system.
  Need Simple and Scalable platform to run business.
 Need to reduce IT complexity
 Need to improve business process
 Need to quickly uncover trends and patterns to differentiate with
competitors

SAP HANA provide solution for most of the above business challenges.
Few reasons why companies want to choose SAP HANA is as follows

No Business SAP HANA Solution

needs
1 Speed Can manage massive volume of data at high
speed.
2 Agility Enable real time interactions across value chain
3 Any data Gain insights from structured and unstructured
data
4 Analytics/ Unlock new insights with predictive and
Insight machine learning analysis
5 Application Run next generation applications on SAP
HANA
6 Cloud Platform as a service providing unique in
memory database and business application
services
7 Innovation Innovation as a service to integrate, extend and
customize SAP applications
8 Simplicity Manager fewer layers and landscape for lower
costs. Store data only once.
9 Value Innovate without disruptions and add value to
legacy investments
Step 1: Why you want to start career in SAP HANA
Understanding Step 1 is very important because this is going to tell you
why you should consider to change your career path to SAP HANA. Many
people think HANA is more difficult to work and very stressful. Few think
that they will lose their existing expertise if they move to SAP HANA.
That’s not true. Experience learned from other technologies will always
have some similarities with other IT projects you have worked on.

For example if person works on functional or industry specific SAP

technology and move to SAP HANA platform, she/he will have functional
expertise skill along with HANA skills. Functional and business skills are
more generic and available. Technology is something which changes
frequently through innovation.

As you are aware SAP HANA has become the fastest growing software
product in the world. So there is no surprise in plenty of career
opportunities in this field.
SAP has released HANA as platform and database on which entire
applications will function in future. Also HANA remains as one of the best
platform that offers to improve business, hence every customer is interested
to invest in this new platform. The growth in SAP HANA career
opportunities are steadily increasing and it is expected to continue in long
run.

Few reasons why you want to start career in SAP HANA is

 SAP HANA consultants receive higher on average salaries
compared to other technologies
  Have the chance to work with software that shows more
creativity.
 Easy to work due to HANA graphical interfaces, removing
dependency on coding.
 New cutting edge technology to support current and future
business opportunities
 Can experience the innovation in digital world (mobile, IOT etc.).
 Less competition in HANA market due to lack of skills
 Work for some best companies in the world.
 Will enjoy greater career options going ahead due to cloud
extension and integrations.

Even though there are few in memory solutions and database products in
the market, SAP is clear and proven leader in memory technology that can
enable and support growth of next generation enterprise business.
Step 2: Who is eligible to choose SAP HANA
Career?
Since HANA Core is database platform, it helps if you already know
database concepts and have basic understanding of SQL or SQLScript.
Even if you don’t already have database experience don’t worry, it’s not so
hard to learn and start your career in SAP HANA. All that you need is
willing positive attitude to embrace on HANA career path.

College graduates, other DB technology professionals (Oracle, DB2,

MySQL, and Teradata), Application/Technology consultants
(PeopleSoft/non-SAP/Microsoft, Hadoop) & SAP professionals can also
choose HANA as Career path. One thing need to understand is HANA
Platform is going to be more technical so people who are not interested in
technical areas need to evaluate your interest again and see how you fit into
HANA Platform ecosystem.

Having said that, we cannot completely avoid or ignore functional

knowledge people in choosing HANA platform as career, because having
functional background experience for HANA expert is advantage to
participating and executing SAP HANA projects. I should say people who
have functional expertise can excel better along with technical skills.

SAP professionals like ABAP consultants, functional experts will have

more value, knowledge and visibility over SAP landscape that will help
HANA projects while thinking big picture on how to best support business
requirements.
Step 3: Decide what you want to do in SAP HANA
What you want to do in SAP HANA is very important for you to decide
before you step up your new career. Let’s identify what role fits you best.

There are different roles inside HANA Platform you can choose from that
would best suited your current and desired set of skills. The role name may
differ sometimes based on country or project.

For any HANA related project below 6 roles are important. Let’s have a
look
 HANA Project Manager
 HANA Architect/Lead/Techno functional Consultant
 HANA Technical Consultant/System admin role
 HANA Development Consultant/ Application developer
 HANA Security Consultant
 SAP BW on HANA Consultant and BO consultant

Here the title consultant is used in the roles assuming below responsibilities
 Lead the planning, design, implementation and support of SAP
HANA based solutions.
 HANA consultant is responsible for rolling out technical and
functional knowledge to the Project team.
 Takes part in decisions on topics like Security, Performance,
Installation, Product shipment etc.
 An excellent verbal and written communication skill is required
because HANA consultant also needs to interact with both business and
technical stakeholders of company.

Now let’s see what each role is demanding and match your expectations
with these roles
  HANA Project Manager
For any implementation project, Project Manager (PM) is crucial role to
play.
From my experience, I feel HANA PM in addition to strong project
management skills should already have good knowledge of HANA and
good understanding of Business process and functions. HANA Project
execution is little different from traditional SAP project execution due to its
landscape and object transport life cycle management. PM should also have
exposure to ASAP, PMBOK, PRINCE2 Agile methodology and choose
right approach for right project situation. Project execution approach is the
key.

In my experience most of the HANA project implementation is

combination of both ASAP methodology and with some components of
agile development methodology. But not necessary every project need to
include agile approach, it’s decided based on your project scope, timelines
and business requirements.. Agile is used mostly when the business
requirements are hard to finalize, scope changes are frequent, and
implementing new technologies.

Main responsibilities of HANA PM will include

 Reporting to Steering committee stakeholders. Interact, inform
and influence the decision makers and executives as it relates to SAP
HANA project decisions.
 Problem solving skills and techniques, ability to quickly learn and
comprehend technology landscape and design options
 Ability to speak about industry trends or Business challenges
 Tracking Status, Schedules, Dependencies and Deliverables
including Project management documents like WBS, Governance plan,
Communication plan, and Issues.
 Competence skills on HANA to handle new implementations or
upgrade projects
 PM is the captain of the ship, the more experience in surrounding
systems like ERP, BI and Legacy systems and business knowledge, the
more successful HANA project will be.
 Scope and budget management
 Minimum 5-6 Years of Project execution experience is desired.
 
 HANA Architect (Lead /Techno functional Consultant)
The next crucial role in the project is HANA architect. HANA Architect
can also be called as Project lead or techno functional Consultant to lead
and control the entire project. This role demands wide background like
database management, data services, ETL, ERP and BI (BW&BO) along
with the strong HANA development and integration skills.

Few main roles of HANA Architect

 Ability to synthesize the technical needs to the business
requirements
 Implement project life cycle management best practices like
object transport, Approval process, user management
(create/delete/change process)
 Design and define HANA views and data modeling, Data Flow
for ER Model
 Have to strategically plan the System landscape and Roadmap of
end state
 Should have extensive experience on multiple technologies like
ERP, SAP HANA, SAP BODS, SAP BO, SAP BW etc. because in real
business scenario HANA has to integrate with many systems like ETL
tool, Data warehousing system or Analytical tools.
 Define architecture guidelines and best practices for the overall
program
 Provide recommendation on Platforms and tools for data
management, ingestion, and interface designs and data consumption.
 Strong Experience in Performance Tuning and Query
Optimization
 Must have strong Database (SQL) Background
 Must have strong knowledge different of defining Project
lifecycle.

This role might not be right fit for beginners as this role need deep
understanding of technical area and functional experience.

 HANA Technical Consultant (HANA Administrator/Basis role)

As HANA Admin consultant, you will be responsible to design, implement,
deliver and support a wide variety of SAP HANA solutions to help achieve
clear business goals. A key objective will be to analyze, adapt and
continuously improve existing approaches to create solutions that more
effectively resolve complex business problems. As a successful consultant,
you’ll maintain an authoritative understanding of SAP applications process
design; SAP application design; SAP application technical architecture; and
end-to-end SAP data management.
This is mostly technical role, would work mostly using SAP HANA Client
tools like HANA studio to Configure and monitor the system logs and
Alerts.

Should have below skills or experience

 HANA platform specific OS Linux
 SAP HANA installation or migration
 Knowledge of SAP Basis is advantage.
 Knowledge of other DBs or SAP is plus.
 Previous OS/DB migration experience is plus
 Data service ETL integration and configuration
 Resolve Performance issue and enable Backup/recovery
 Strong Knowledge and Experience in Security Administration
(Roles, Authorization, User Management) for ECC, BW and HANA
 Strong Knowledge of Administration for HANA, SLT and Data
Services

People who already have SAP Basis or System administration experience

would be the best fit here. Even if you have experience in installing DB or
any platform can consider role and catchup other knowledge. This role will
undertake the HANA platform installation and Migration activities. But
that’s not the end as a Consultant you should also know how to do
Technical sizing for the HANA System and integration of Interface systems
like ERP BW and BO etc.
The more you know around technical areas of HANA, the more you can
play in project as consultant. OS/DB migration itself is big topic and it is
expected from consultant to have high level understanding of OS/DB
migration to consider during HANA migration.
For example if current customer having SAP ERP with DB oracle and OS
windows, they need to migrate to DB HANA and OS Linux by default so
OS/DB migration skills during SAP implementation will be added
advantage.
  HANA Development Consultant or Application developer
This is more of Application development role to develop HANA models or
Views.
Most apt for Software Development or programming background people
One should understand the difference between in traditional 3-tier
application and SAP HANA XS 2-tier application. Traditional 3-Tier
approach is about Client, Application Server (having application code) and
Database. HANA 2-Tier approach is having Client and Database platform
where native Hana application code is developed inside Database platform.
Developing HANA specific application inside SAP HANA will help
provide opportunity to lower cost of development and ownership
 Creating HANA Models and Views
 Developing HANA XS Application
 Creating CDS Views
 Developing ABAP for HANA
 Data Replication(SLT configuration/ETL integration)
 BW, ABAP development knowledge is big plus
 SQL Code, PAL/R library development

SAP Provides HANA developer’s guide that you can download following
this link
https://cloudplatform.sap.com/content/dam/website/saphana/en_us/Technol
ogy%20Documents/SAP_HANA_Developer_Guide_en.pdf

Just make sure to stay up to date with new features of SAP HANA since
with every introduction of new Support pack. SAP adds new functionality
that can impact your development or modeling approach. This is very good
developer’s guide that will help you understand SAP HANA, modeling
approaches, Authorization, Options to Persist data, Procedures etc. Strongly
recommend that you download a copy and read it.
  HANA Security Consultant
In every HANA project Security should be implemented in Design phase
based on business and technical requirements and there are enough
opportunities to gain experiences.
Security is key for any business if not implemented correctly it may expose
organizations data to people who should not have access to it. Right
governance and Security approach should be in place for every SAP HANA
project.
Very few people with knowledge of SAP HANA security are there in the
market. Most of the time technical consultant or development consultant
also will pick up experience on Security and play that role in the project.
Some of the key responsibilities of SAP HANA Security experts are
 Customized roles in native HANA database (DB) for Developers,
Modelers, Administrators, Power users, and end users.
 knowledge and experience to control, and restrict access to
HANA DB objects based on package
 Ability to setup security at data level to restrict access to data
based on functional roles.
 Provide system privilege, Object Privileges and Analytic
privileges.
 Create schema level access control on HANA DB.
 Business Warehouse (BW) and HANA security administration
experience.
 integrate SAP BW level security on HANA DB, integrate
Business Objects (BOBJ) Security on HANA,
 Experience working with HANA Studio and HANA Live, HANA
Life Cycle Manager and Transport Mechanism
 Troubleshooting and tracing ability to resolves issues related to
the security issues.
 Administrative tasks related to HANA Security. HANA user
authentication and single sign on (SSO) setup.

If you already have background on Security you should invest time into
learning SAP HANA specific security features.
  HANA BW on HANA & BO consultant
If you notice above roles can find BW and BO are the skills demanded
along with HANA roles. Generally if you are working on HANA core
system you will not need BW or BO and ERP skills. But in real scenario
most of case we need to integrate HANA with ERP system and Data
warehousing BW to enable Analytics.

This role is played in scenario where customer uses HANA as Native DB

for BW system. Below skills are desired from BW on HANA/BO
Consultants during the implementation
 SAP BW and ETL process, Data warehousing
 SAP BO (business object tools - BEx Analyzer, Web Intelligence,
Design Studio, Analysis for Office, Lumira).
 BI requirement gathering Skills
 SAP ERP ABAP skills are advantage
 HANA modeling and View creation
 HANA SQL Skills
 SLA++ architecture approach
If you are from SAP BW or Data warehouse background and interested to
learn HANA, this is the role you should concentrate on.
Step 4: Build Knowledge on HANA
Now you know what role is apt for you to get into HANA career.
How can you work parallel with your current job and build your Career in
HANA?

Here are the various ways you can build your HANA knowledge. HANA
tutorials and information are spread across all below categories
 Online resources
 Books
 YouTube
 ELearning
 Training and Certification
 Networking
If you are so serious about embracing HANA career, I personally
recommend taking SAP HANA certification. Your SAP certification will
talk for you till you get more experience in projects. Generally certification
is not enough to get job in HANA career, experience does matter. But it will
be your first step of success and selling point for you.

These are SAP portal related information. Are you aware of this
information?
No SAP Portals Link
1 SAP HANA Products https://www.sap.com/products/hana.html
(Basic/Fundamentals)
2 SAP Training www.Training.sap.com
3 Open SAP https://open.sap.com/
This can be your one-stop shop
to mastering most of the
trending SAP technologies. You
can enroll for the various
courses on HANA. There are
specific timeline for the courses
and most of them can be
downloaded once they are
available.
4 The SAP HANA Academy https://www.youtube.com/user/saphanaacademy
YouTube Channel
5 SAP Community Network https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/WHP
6 SAP Blogs https://blogs.sap.com/
7 SAP E-Learning https://performancemanager.successfactors.eu/login?
check your company whether company=learninghub&loginMethod=PWD
there is any license for E-
Learning can read all SAP
training eBooks and handbooks
and some E-learning materials
8 SAP JAM for collaboration https://jam4.sapjam.com/extranet/jamatsap.com
SAP Jam is a platform that
enables SAP customers and
partners to interact with SAP
employees and collaborate with
them in online groups upon
invitation.
9 SAP Help Portal https://help.sap.com/viewer/p/SAP_HANA_PLATFORM
For new releases and
Installation/Migration
documentation download

Few online HANA tutorials and FAQ Blogs

No Content URL
1 HANA Tutorials http://www.tutorialspoint.com/sap_hana/
http://saphanatutorial.com/sap-hana-database-
introduction/
http://www.saphanacentral.com/p/prerequisite-to-learn-
sap-hana.html
https://sap-certification.info/how-to-learn-sap-for-free/

2 Good FAQ Blogs https://blogs.sap.com/2013/06/25/want-to-learn-sap-

hanawhere-to-startcertification/
https://blogs.sap.com/2017/05/17/blog-posts-by-the-sap-
hana-academy/
Books for references. See if you have these books in e-book kindle version.
No Books Book name Comments

1 HANA SAP HANA: An Introduction (SPS 12) (4th Dr Berg worked

fundamentals Edition) (SAP PRESS) by Bjarne Berg with me on BW on
HANA project few
years back, and he
have good
explanation in his
books.
2 For Project SAP HANA for Project Managers by Jay Kay Recommended
Managers EBook/Hardcopy (not so many books
in the market)
3 For HANA Learn HANA in 1 Day: Definitive Guide to Highly
technical Learn SAP HANA for Beginners Kindle Edition Recommended
Consultants by Krishna Rungta

SAP HANA Administration (HANA Admin) Recommended

(SAP PRESS)

4 HANA SAP HANA Advanced Modeling Highly

Development by Dominique Alfermann, Stefan Hartmann and Recommended
Benedikt Engel
SAP HANA Advanced Data Modeling Recommended
(SAP PRESS) by Pranav Wankawala
and Hansen Chen
ABAP Development for SAP HANA (2nd Recommended
Edition) by Hermann Gahm and Thorsten
Schneider
Real Time Analytics with SAP HANA by Vinay Recommended
Singh

SQL: The Complete Reference, Second Edition Recommended

by James R. Groff and Paul N. Weinberg
5 For BW on SAP BW on HANA by Christian Savelli Recommended
HANA
SAP BW to HANA Migration Handbook by Joe Highly
Darlak and Bjarne Berg Recommended
6 For Security SAP HANA Security Guide (SAP PRESS) by Recommended
Jonathan Haun
7 For SAP HANA SAP HANA Certification Guide (SAP PRESS) Recommended
Certification by Rudi de Louw
SAP Certified Application Associate - SAP Highly
HANA (Edition 2016) Recommended
By Canon, S and NS Thind
SAP Certified Application Specialist - SAP BW Highly
on SAP HANA Recommended

 HANA Environment for Practice

SAP provides free trial account to use HANA platform on your laptop or
PC, build your first application and try our more advanced capabilities.
 Free version of SAP HANA, Express Edition
Free version of SAP HANA, Express Edition will help you to access
environment.
https://www.sap.com/developer/topics/sap-hana.html#freetrial

 Free environment for SAP Cloud platform

You can register and login the SAP cloud platform to explore the look and
feel experience of the platform.
https://account.hanatrial.ondemand.com/

See if you can learn some of the skills mentioned below during your Career
Transition.
 HANA XS application Development based on programming
JavaScript, CSS, HTML/XML and Java programing for Cloud platform
 Tools like HANA studio, Eclipse, Web IDE, UI5, OData
 Fiori development for new platform
 R Script and Predictive analysis and Analytical tools are
advantage
  Understanding of new SAP products like Hybris, Sucesssfactors,
Concur, Field glass etc. to know how they can be integrate with SAP S4
HANA to achieve end to end business

Few other things to consider to make SAP Networks

 Attend SAP HANA conferences like Sapphire, TechEd etc.
 Build network of SAP HANA friends and colleagues
 Start building online SAP HANA profile on SDN, Blogs, and
LinkedIn
 Join SAP HANA meetups in your area
Step 5: Learn Project experiences
I believe now you learned what to study and where to study the HANA
materials
Reading HANA materials and Training is good but not enough to work in
project. You must learn how the HANA Projects are executed in real life.
This is one of the hardest part for beginners to learn about it.

If you have friends or colleagues who already worked on HANA project,

speak to them about their project experiences and few lessons learnt like
what was the Scope of the project, what deliverables they prepared, what
was the Team structure and team member activities etc. This will help you
gain valuable understanding of what activities you are supposed to do and
what deliverables are expected in project timeline.

It’s true unless you work in project you may not feel the real taste of how
projects are executed and what happens especially when timeliness are
tight. But that’s ok it’s not too far for you if you already followed baby step
4
If your company already have SAP HANA implemented you can explore
the project deliverables, speak to team who has executed it, ask for HANA
training, user access etc.

If you already have access to the SAPHANA environment you can practice
different scenarios like below to get more familiar.
 HANA Studio and View Creation
 HANA administration
 SQL Script/Procedures
 R Programming
For more complex scenarios it might more difficult to execute with your
trial environment since those scenarios require integration with other
systems like BODS Tool, BO tools (WEBI) BW system, Hadoop tools
 ETL BO Data services (Integration with ERP, BW and Legacy
systems)
 Analytic Reports on HANA (BO)
 BW on HANA
 Hadoop Integration
The more you practice sample scenarios and relate with projects you get
more probability and confidence to explain during job interviews

Create different real scenarios and see what challenges you are facing and
how you are solving the issues
You should also know how to fix the issues when defect is raised, what are
the steps that will help you resolve the issues?
Learn how to get connected with SAP Community/blog, SAP OSS tickets
and SAP Support Portal and how it help you resolve the issues. Search SAP
notes and interpreting SAP Notes is also a skill to learn.

Creating Test environment and practice is another challenge, recently SAP

has provided Express edition developer trial environment to install locally
on your PC or laptop and experience the look and feel of SAP HANA. Why
not start trying?
https://www.sap.com/developer/tutorials/hxe-ua-installing-vm-image.html
Step 6: Create unique skills to sell yourself
How can you create unique skills to be competitive in the market?

Here are few tips

 HANA related skills are going to be in a big demand, because
demand is not going to stop at only HANA Platform. Its evolving now
to S4 HANA and Cloud Integration and BW4 HANA, so any exposure
of HANA in terms of S4 Applications will be added advantage.
 Learning about Hadoop with HANA integration is another unique
skills worth to gain.
 Having BO tool WEBI, Lumira, MS Excel experience and BW
understanding is big asset. This will help you engage in BI HANA
projects to create actionable reports
 IOT experience (like Receiving Sensor data or Machine data)
using HANA analytics is also great exposure and skills to drive digital
word
 New Cloud Technologies Public Cloud(SAP Cloud Platform) and
SAP Enterprise Cloud exposure will also be an added advantage
 Learning foreign language skills like learning German, Japanese,
and Chinese or other country languages will provide unique value to
your profile. This will keep you separate from competition in the
market.
 Analytic experience working on R language, Predictive analytics,
Simulation and mathematical model will enable your to take on Data
science roles based HANA Platform technologies
Step 7: Update Resume on HANA knowledge
Now it’s time to update your resume with your HANA experience.

 Include all your HANA self-learning experiences in your Resume

and highlight more about your familiar skills that can use in the project.
 Your resume should highlight that you already have HANA Core
skills and ready to jump into HANA project to gain experience
 This baby step 7 is very important because every hard work you
made to learn HANA skills need to be documented in Resume to show
how confident and skilled you are in that area. Just roughly estimate for
your knowledge, how many hours or days you spend on HANA to gain
those experience.
 Don’t forget to put your SAP HANA training and HANA
certification if you have already undergone. This is going to be your
appeal point to sell you now.
 Also input your foreign language capability in resume so that you
are ready to get bilingual foreign opportunities
 Don’t forget to add any ETL(SAP data services) or SAP
integration(BW or ERP) exposures
 Update your LinkedIn Profile and Resume and get ready when
oppurtunies come.
 Decide if you would like to work for consulting companies, end-
user companies or SAP itself. Tailor your resume to suit companies you
would like to work for.
 Consider SAP HANA support roles as they might be easier way to
enter HANA Space. It will also give you exposure and time to master
HANA
 Share your resume with your friends, colleagues and ask them to
recommend you for any SAP HANA roles suitable for your skills.
SAP HANA opportunities are always available in different countries,
different companies, and different projects. HANA Resource market today
is small comparing to the demand in next few years.
 Check whether your current company is doing any HANA related
support. If you have one you need to raise up to discuss with that project
manager and see if you have any opportunities to join the project
 If you can afford to volunteer on HANA project to gain
experience for a short time it’s a great option to gain actual project
experience that will help you get a HANA Job.

Below are the project options where you can look for openings
 SAP HANA Implementation or support
 SAP BW on HANA implementation or Support
 SAP HANA and Hadoop Integration Project
 SAP Cloud platform Projects
 SAP Enterprise cloud Project
 SAP BI HANA analytics Project
 SAP IOT Digital Analytics on HANA Project
Step 8: Gain Experience & become expert
Congratulations! Let’s assume now you got the opportunities to join the
HANA project. The real fun starts now. Brush up your skills and understand
what your scope of work is in the project

Most people focus more on Technical areas, but can’t give right solution to
business problems. If you ask how many of them can explain real use case
of implementing HANA, you won’t find many. In my experience, very few
know how to explain and sell HANA to the customers.

There are two Major reasons to develop skills in SAP HANA Career Path
1) Understanding the technical HANA platform itself
2) Understanding how to sell HANA to business to gain competitive
advantages for the future
If you know both, you are an expert. because you know how to sell and
implement HANA for right business requirement. Many fail in later part
due to lack of business knowledge or industry experience.

Let me share with you few lessons learned from my previous projects.
 Right mix of resources (HANA, BO, BW, Hadoop, ERP, and
ETL) in the project is critical for the project. Adding multiple skill
resources will increase your cost. Need to see how you can balance the
skills and resources.
 If your project is in countries like China, Japan, Vietnam etc, then
need to make sure bilingual skill availability.
 Master data integration, see if you have siloes system or multiple
legacy system in your project landscape. Different legacy system has
different type of data’s, need deep understanding and Master data
management skills to handle the data without loss of information. If
master data is not clean whole project will be in trouble.
 Deciding Data Management strategy is important, where will you
keep the data, data temperature concepts (hot, warm and cold data),
very important to consider Archiving and data retention strategy. Data
management strategy should be in place before you go live the project.
You need to figure out where you want to keep the hot, warm, cold data
in your landscape. Products like Hadoop and SAP ASE are there in the
market to help you on this.

 Basically for HANA Transformation projects agile methodology

is recommended to adapt quick changes in scope and implementing new
technologies. However this is not must.
In fact most of the project are mix of ASAP and Agile methodology.
 Architect must be on top of project to lead the team and business
based on requirement. Experienced Architect will resolve issues
smoothly.
 HANA System admin(technical Consultant) should work with
Architect to define what your infrastructure and technical architecture
would look like, Technical consultants will also help setup systems and
monitor for any alerts or problem
 Prevention steps like alert configuration or log setting has to be in
place so in case the system goes downtime or get issues you should be
able to find underlying the cause of the problem.
 Configuration of Memory consumption and network is the key for
HANA.
 Setting up Data strategy in your landscape is the key to project
success, decide whether you want to keep data at Hadoop or SAP ASE
or any other environment for future use. Recently Hadoop is
recommend for Data management and future access use of data.
 Maintaining logs and regular interval backup strategy should be in
place
 Plan your upgrades carefully and often since HANA is an
evolving technology and each support pack release brings new
functionality and bug fixes.
 Ask to be given access to all other surrounding system like ERP
or BW on HANA too along with HANA to understand how the data is
flowing and what batch jobs are configured in respecting systems
 HANA developer mostly focus on Modeling and creating views,
it’s good if HANA developer also know how to create BI reports in SAP
BO tools or other tools. Otherwise need to get BO developer help to
create reports.
 HANA developer should have Development strategy in place, like
how tables are accessed inside HANA and how views are created for
transaction and Master Data. Should also have knowledge to configure
persistence data for reports required
 Good developer always should know how to troubleshoot when
there is performance in the report and should be capable to think how
the data provision should be provided to users for Self Service like
when using SAP lumira tool
 HANA Security role is important to design the security for your
HANA project landscape. There are different levels of security in your
Landscape.
Should design Security to define what system access provision to be
provide for Developers, Testers, Admin and Business users. Define and
implement Report level Security and Data level security at HANA
system to avoid inconsistencies. Data accuracy is ensure based on
implementing governance and Security implementation. Avoid this will
create lack of trust in Data and Business users may be reluctant or even
refuse to use the data for their analytics or decision making
 BW on HANA consultant should have strong BW skills with
HANA knowledge to configure data warehouse data and provide data
for Operational reporting and Management reporting. Make sure there is
sufficient experience in developing ERP extractors and experience on
ETL transformation. If your customer doesn’t use Data warehousing,
BW on HANA may not be required in landscape
Conclusion
How do you feel now?
I know career transition can’t happen at overnight, need consistent follow-
up and effort to move your career. But I believe even few steps you follow
in this book will really take you on a path to having career in SAP HANA

To summarize, by following 8 baby steps from the book you will be

progressing in you learning skills and more confident to look for a HANA
opportunities.

Few key points to remember before we close.

 If you feel self-learning is boring or difficult, Take training either
with SAP training or outside Training provider. This will be driver for
your career transition
You should also try exploring below YouTube link if above training is
difficult for you.
https://www.youtube.com/user/saphanaacademy/featured

 Taking certification for beginners may give motivation and

satisfaction that you achieved HANA learning and succeeded. SAP
certificate also will talk for you in the interview. For experience people
Certification may not be required since their HANA experience is the
King.

 Real life experience is the key, see if you can use below SAP
HANA 2.0 express edition(virtual Machine method) in your laptop or
computer and play around to get some look and feel
https://www.sap.com/developer/tutorials/hxe-ua-installing-vm-
image.html

 Always keep current with latest information about HANA, should

be ready to catchup high level information on new products in the
market like HANA2.0, SAP cloud platform, SAP S4 HANA
https://www.sap.com/products/hana/features/whats-new.html
  Join the SAP community and Blog and engage yourself reading
the updates and issues facing with customer places
https://www.sap.com/community.html
https://www.sap.com/community/topic/hana.html

 Update your resume in LinkedIn with HANA Learnings and seek

new opportunities in HANA Space. Experience people are given more
preference its true, but Very few are there in the market to solve the
global business demands in the market. So be ready to take on global
opportunities regardless where they might be. Don’t forget to look
around you to see your friend company or your own company is doing
or planning to do some work related to SAP or SAP HANA

The overall time required to prepare and follow all 8 Baby steps could
roughly estimate from 3 to 6 months. It’s again based on your desire,
aggressiveness and volume of the content you are referring during this time.

All the best for your luck and please feel free to contact me if you have any
questions about HANA Career Progression.
Author

ChandraKumar Magalingam is a senior manager and SAP HANA lead for

EY Advisory & Consulting Japan with a focus on SAP innovation and
Analytics.
Chandrakumar brings more than 16 Years of SAP experience in various
fields starting with ABAP development, Basis administration, Functional
SD role, BI HANA (BW on HANA/BO) and SAP HANA. This range of
implementation experiences has allowed Chandrakumar to work with
clients large and small, across many industries and Business areas.

He is also a Bilingual who can speak both English and Japanese, capable to
communicate within local customer groups and global networks. His focus
is on working with current new edge technologies of SAP HANA related
products like S4 HANA and SAP cloud Platform and help customers to
enable digital transformation in the Japan market to maximize their
Investment on Innovation and Analytics. He is also a frequent speaker at
Major HANA conferences worldwide.

Thank you