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purchase of sap press books

former_member186940
Participant
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Hello All,

I have gone though few sample indexes of books published by SAP Galileo Press. Most of those books have been rewarded with higher user ratings but there is no other way to find whether those books are really helpful or not. Prices are little higher for me. Thus before buying i thought to ask this in this forum.

Have you bought any book from sap press, if yes which one and would you recommend me to buy one.

Regards,

Amol

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Answers (5)

Answers (5)

SimoneMilesi
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The issue is always the same, hard to master, one: knowing the right question to do.
Or in our case: choosing the right tool to learn.


As many others stated, books can be useful or dangerous, as well training can be the light in the darkness as well a total waste of time (i remember the 4 days of my life i lost in BC400 course: reading the course manual was simplier and quicker).

It's up to you, your experience and your background understand what's better.
It's easy? Not at all. But falling, raising and trying again learning from past mistakes is what makes you a valuable "worker" in IT world.

Jelena
Active Contributor
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Simone Milesi wrote:

(i remember the 4 days of my life i lost in BC400 course: reading the course manual was simplier and quicker).

Can't say the manual was simpler (although we might have taken the course at different times and it may have changed), but I agree it was too stretched out. With the training a lot depends on the instructor too - we had two distinctly different ones. But with the book it's as good as it gets.

former_member182378
Active Contributor
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Amol,

Rather than buying a book, try to find a good trainer / mentor. In this case a WM consultant, s/he will guide you with all these things.

TW

former_member182297
Participant
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TW Typewriter wrote:

Amol,

.........................

For SD the book is Glynn C Williams.

..............................

............................

TW

Hi TW Typewriter,

In one of your earlier replies you said about Glyn C Williams book.

I would not recommend that either to a fresher. It is not for those who want to learn SAP as a beginner. It is written in a complex way where the author mixes various topics without going into depth in each page,it is still difficult for me even after so many years. I dont know about others but I never quite enjoyed reading Glynn C Williams.

The main problem with that book is not is meant for beginners but still recommended widely by all as a text book to learn SAP SD!!

It is only for those who knows all the basics and ins & outs of SAP SD etc etc. I wont divulge any more on these as I myself struggled a lot to get this understanding.

VeselinaPeykova
Active Contributor
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Hello Pradip,

a seemingly random idea: maybe you can use the knowledge and experience from your journey into SAP SD to write a blog, comparing the different sources to learn the SD topics in the view of the different learning styles and backgrounds people can have.

It would not only be extremely helpful to newcomers, but also to you, as it can make you even more aware of the way you process information and pick the best approach if/when you choose to step into new areas.

former_member182378
Active Contributor
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Pradip,

Thanks for giving your opinion about this book by Glynn C Williams!

Your review is correct and an other person's review (which is different from yours) is also correct.

Your post encouraged me to go down the path of - changes to ways (tools) of learning, with increase in experience at a particular job, my expectation from a book vis-a-vis its price, selective reading and extraction of the good and leave the rest.

I will stop my reply here because I feel that we are not addressing a "question" which will benefit someone.

Please continue with your direct and candid comments.

TW

former_member182378
Active Contributor
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Amol,

Suggestion right off the bat - don't make SAP press book your main source of learning!

For SD the book is Glynn C Williams.

Agree with Veselina that the training material, for example TSCM60, TSCM62 are very beneficial.

Agree with Pradip that SAP Press books are not worth their price and some have errors / typo etc.

Conclusion, I would recommend you to not buy SAP press books.

For learning, *SCM* pdfs and lots of practice in sandbox and participation in SCN (I would encourage you to take a thread and work on it for weeks, for your self learning)

TW

former_member186940
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Hello All,

thank you for your kind words, I have bought Transportation Management book by SAP press and its totally worth it.

regards,

Amol

former_member182297
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Hi Amol,

The same question was hovering in my mind like you initially & there was no one to guide me. So after reading all the reviews in amazon/flipkart etc time & again, at last, I decided to purchase some costly books of SAP Press (a few from Galileo Press) in SAP SD module(since I was learning Sales & Distribution module).

In short, I would say most the SAP Press books are useless with very basic information. Even the "Practial guide on Sales & Distr. in SAP ERP" by Matt Chudy,Castedo,Lopez (Rheinwork Publishing)was of no use. They donot provide much practical help & it is now gethering dust in one corner of my room among piles of other "redundant" books.

Then I purchased "Effective Pricing " by Rajen Iyer/Suresh V. ,also to say this book has many critical mistakes and even after a few editions they seem to have ignored doing some proof-reading.

Again another useless book not worth the price.

Whats more I have to buy through Credit Cards and now paying EMI's for 1 year. The books have only 200 to max. 500 pages ,yet they cost around 5000INR!!! And even those 200-500 pages dont hold that much info that will cost so much money. Nor has it helped me learn SAP SD better or made it easier for me. And if you email the authors though they write in book their email ids for any help or suggestions ,they dont even care  to reply back a "Hi". I think they are afraid to reply because of so many errors in their books. It is like this free SAP forum ,you write something then some *** person deletes your post because it hurts "THEIR" interests.

I managed to contact one author called Mathias Liebich for his book on Pricing & since my first two emails praised him & his book he was very happy I felt and enthusiastically replied to my email though no technical help I got from in those first two emails . After that when I wrote asking whether some printing mistakes or errors, or for suggestions he never again cared to reply.

And as per my opinion ,again his book is over-charged & it should not be so costly. Also the information provided is very little to help one to be a master in Pricing . It is not an "Ultimate guide in pricing" as he and others among his fans claim. It is lacking step-by-step approach & many places it is not clear how to get to the next step.

IN GIST, THERE ARE MANY CHEAPER BOOKS FROM OTHER PUBLISHERS (OR SOMETIMES NO BOOKS AT ALL IN SOME CASES SO THE READERS ARE FORCED TO BUY THESE USELESS SAP-PRESS BOOKS AT SUCH A HIGH PRICE)SO RATHER NOT BUY SUCH COSTLY SAP PRESS BOOKS. THE SAP-PRESS CAN EASILY BE CALLED AS "REDUNDANT" AS THERE ARE MUCH BETTER NOTES OR ARTICLES AVAILABLE IN INTERNET OR FROM OTHER PUBLISHERS. THE QUALITY IS POOR AS IT DOESN'T COVER THE ENTIRE TOPICS  OR FOR PRACTICAL GUIDES ALL THE STEPS ARE NOT THERE . SO IT IS NOT VERY ADVISABLE TO INVEST IN SUCH COSTLY SAP-PRESS BOOKS WHICH HAVE VERY LITTLE "QUALITY " CONTENT IN THEM. THIS IS MY ADVICE.

Thanks & Regards

VeselinaPeykova
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Hello Pradip,

I have never bought SAP Press books - I could not afford them at the time (the ones I have laid my hands on, I have borrowed from friends/colleagues).

Probably your frustration arises from the fact that you had different expectation from the books than I had.

When I read Warehouse Management with SAP ERP: Functionality and Technical Configuration, I approached it as an additional material to review after taking the official SAP training course and it was useful to me in this context.

In terms of initial education - nothing beats the official training (speaking of SCM630): the material is well structured, you have a system to play in, we were extremely fortunate to have a trainer with huge cross-modular experience, who took the time to answer many questions related to integration topics, gave us some hints on how to approach specific problems in our systems etc. At that time I had very little exposure to the standard WMS functionality and the training was a great place to start.

After you take a SAP course the main benefit is psychological - you have no right to make excuses 'I don't know that', you have to find a way to do your job!

And here comes the really hard part - get access to a sandbox, prototype, read more SAP help, read SCN blogs, dig into SAP notes, read the source code, work on real projects, experiment,.

I have never attended any SAP SD training and I have not read the books you refer to, and yet, I managed to learn a lot from SAP help, notes, SCN, prototyping, project implementation.

You had the option to read the book excerpts from the official site and check the representation style and the quality of the content before you purchased the titles. Were the reading samples so vastly different from the rest of the book?

Books, even the best ones, can only give you some foundation and a food for thought, nothing more.

stephenjohannes
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I didn't write that book and it sounds like you didn't get value.  All I know at least for the book I wrote which is probably too expensive for you since it's not free, I invested 400+ hours of my personal time in writing my book.  All the information in my book I admit is buried within SCN and other sources and if you rather spend the hours collecting and understanding the mean of those resources that than spend any money I encourage that.

I personally couldn't cover everything, but for a reasonable price in my local currency you get the equivalency of about two to three days topics if you sat down with me in person.  I also actually answer e-mails most of the time, but I do have full-time job, spouse and children so sometimes I do fall behind.  I even had a twitter account for my book to send questions which normally will popup on my mobile device.

Once again sorry that book didn't meet your expectations and the author didn't respond.  But I wanted to let everyone else know that there are some authors of some of those books who really do care, put a lot of effort in building content and actually are responsive.

Take care,

Stephen

Jelena
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But what exactly did you expect from those books? Step-by-step screenshots for every SD scenario imaginable?

I bought "Enhancing the Quality of ABAP Development" back in 2005 and also Paul Hardy's "ABAP to the Future". Both books are worth their weight in gold IMHO. The SAP Press books are more expensive than an average book because they are "niche" products (it's not possible to sell as many SAP books as some fiction novels). Compared to the SAP professional's salary in the developed countries these books are quite affordable (they are also cheaper on Amazon). And in the US they can be easily returned to the seller if they didn't provide the expected satisfaction.

Of course, I could never afford those books back in my former home country where they would be the equivalent of 20% my monthly salary. I can totally empathize with you on that part, but surely you must understand this is not the publisher's or author's fault that there is such income inequality. (As a side note - I do feel though that publishers might want to think about it and come up with some solution to make these books more affordable in certain countries. Otherwise the books copies are just getting distributed illegally.)

Since I became an author myself recently (shameless self-promotion), I feel these books are actually dirt cheap. I've been always complaining that tomatoes get more expensive every year at a local farmers market. Then we started growing our own in the backyard. And now I think the tomatoes should cost about $50. Each!

I'm a bit confused why you seem to feel that the book also entitles the buyer to unlimited free consulting from the author (if I understood you correctly). Most likely it was not what the authors had in mind when they posted their emails.

And I'm confused by your expertise level as well - at first you stated that you're learning SD but then you seem to feel qualified to identify some errors in the books. If you already know that much I'm confused (yet again) why you chose to purchase the books...

VeselinaPeykova
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As to the typos...

Back in the days I worked for a small publishing company.

It really depends on the exact arrangement in the contract for issuing a book.

Sometimes you get the forms ready to be used in offset, sometimes you get the files in *.cdr and you prepare the forms, sometimes you get a word document, that you use to create the *.cdr, sometimes the author chooses to use a separate company for proof-reading and formatting the initial document etc.

In general, we strongly encouraged the authors to use our services for proof-reading, even though the profit margin for this service was not that high, because it is our name that gets printed there as well and we did not wish that the company is associated with low-quality product.

If typos are really that common in SAP Press books, then I am genuinely surprised that they don't try to enforce higher standards, because, as a well-know company, they could say to the author: 'Give us the permission to proof-read the content and fix the typing errors, otherwise we would not publish it.'

I could be wrong and it is possible this is not how business operates in the rest of Europe, but good reputation is also an asset, so investing in it makes sense to me.

former_member182421
Active Contributor

Well...as I already said:


In my case I have more than 12 sap books and the only regret I have is I've rushed in some titles which doesn't really apply in my daily basis.

Some books are even better than SAP training material as it comes with real experience and I like them because some of them has it's own souls (You won't find that on SAP Education material ),

I bought the "Practial guide on Sales & Distr. in SAP ERP"  last year and it's a very conceptual book which filled some GAPs quicker and cheaper than a SAP training, but first I downloaded a sample, I readed it and then I went for it. No complains from my side, but hey, that's my opinon based on a background a situations and a specific needs. It can't be applied to the whole world.

As some other people said those are complementary sources of learning but I wouldn't do a general rule like "SAP Press are better, or SAP training material rulez!" In some particulary cases SAP Press will fit better your demands and in other SAP education, but you can also find a third option....none of them.

I honestly believe is a duty of the consumer to investigate and do the right questions before a purchase, otherwise you can find a product which doesn't fit your expectations, having SCN as source of opinions is more than enough, you can get the feedback about it as you got it in this discussion.

My experience with the authors it was good, they were friendly and tried to answer my questions, not allways as fast as I needed but I understand they have a life and some times your question could be lost in space.

There are better publishers for a more affordable price? I will be more than happy to read a blog about that.

Cheers!

Luis

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Hey Luis,

Thank you for your comments on the "Practial guide on Sales & Distribution in SAP ERP" book. I am one of the authors and it's always good to hear some feedback from the people who has read the book.

For Amol,

As SAP Press Authors, we try to explain things based on our professional experience. Compared to SAP's training material, we might cover some extra topics or not cover some that we don't consider that you would use. But always trying to add our personal experience for each topic.

Now, I know that I can't speak for all Authors, but I think in general that's what you will find as an added value for buying a SAPPress book.

SAPPress also has the option of paying a yearly subscription with unlimited access to their full collection. You may take a look and see if that is something that you would consider. It's expensive, but you can reference any book.

Cheers,

Luis Castedo.

maheshkumar_komatineni
Active Participant
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Hi Amol,

i also have the same issue. i tried to find any discussion forums outside scn. i am not able to find anything. but buying a sap press book is always a good idea.

then which area of sap you belong to plz mention that based on that members will respond.

Regards,

Venkat.

stephenjohannes
Active Contributor
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Yep you really need to tell people what books you are looking at buying so they can offer more specific advice.  There have been several reviews of SAP Press books written on SCN, and occasionally you might run into a book author .

former_member186940
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Hello Stephen Johnson, @venkateswararao bolla ,

thank you for your reply,

I am looking for Warehouse Management and Transportation Management books from SAP Press. If I get any first hand review from any user it will help me to make up my mind.

Regards,

amol

former_member182421
Active Contributor
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If there's no review on SAP Presso or silly reviews which are considered like none, you can try to send a message to SAP Press guys if they can publish a sample of the book, checking the author style and the index  I guess you can reduce the risk of buying something which maybe you regret, In my case I have more than 12 sap books and the only regret I have is I've rushed in some titles which doesn't really apply in my daily basis.

Cheers!

Luis