SAP NetWeaver For Dummies

Rating:
Summary: ...only because there is no 0 star rating
Review: Content: SAP Marketing.
Style: really for dummies.

Want to know about SAP Netweaver: Ask SAP employees.
Want to waste time: read this book.


Rating:
Summary: Good to just get an overview
Review: I find this book useful as a starting base to understand what's Netweaver all about. From there, you can then do your own in depth research or further studies.

Good as an overview and introductory book.

Rating:
Summary: Great overview book
Review: It's strange that people expect a reference book when they are buying and reviewing a "for dummies" book. This is a great book for it's purpose, giving a solid overview of the building blocks of Netweaver. Everyone who is working in SAP or thinking about the future of business applications or ERP should read this book because it does give a good view of what the future brings. There is a turning point now in the business application world with the web becoming the frontend, portals, webservices, service oriented architecture being some of the buzzwords that will not go away in the next decade or so. Every SAP consultant who is wondering about what Netweaver is all about should get this book since it's the best overview available at the moment.

Rating:
Summary: Excessive cuteness detracts
Review: This book is a good overview of SAP Netweaver, although it takes some careful sifting to determine what is there right now, and what is futureware (I won't call it vapourware because I have little doubt that SAP will deliver on it). Unfortunately the laboured attempt to appear non-technical and more businessy is delivered by means of a jokey cuteness that rapidly becomes irritating and detracts fron the overall package. All of the elements of Netweaver, with the possible exception of Master Data Management are already present in competing technologies, and thankfully for the most part the book does mention the generic name (e.g. Bulletin board) so that the elements of Netweaver can be understood in their context. This saves a lot of brain strain trying to find your way through the marketing.

Rating:
Summary: A useful overview; a dangerous approach
Review: This book presents a very useful overview of NetWeaver's various components and capabilities. Be aware, though, that it only covers *what* NetWeaver can do, not *how* to actually do it, so don't expect a technical reference guide. This is, however, a necessary primer before rolling up your sleeves and digging in. (Besides, NetWeaver is such a huge beast that a thorough technical reference guide printed on paper would probably mean the end of the Amazon rainforrest. Look for such a guide in electronic format).

The book is heavily SAP biased (not surprising, given that one of the authors works for SAP) and hypes NetWeaver almost as the culminating achievement and ultimate destiny of IT. This tone almost became too much for me at times - using phrases such as "The bad news? There IS no bad news!" when describing software does dent the credibility a bit for me. Read it for the useful technical overview; take the hype with a grain of salt.

Finally, this slightly twee approach can be dangerous: readers with a technical background can read between the lines and easily imagine the blood, sweat and tears it takes to implement a system of this magnitude, but the non-technically oriented can easily become seduced by the tone of this book, which glosses over all the gory details and focuses on the happy end results and TCO benefits. This might very well build up unrealistic expectations for readers with a non-technical background. So if you're in that group, please keep in mind that properly installing and configuring the entire NetWeaver platform for any reasonably sized company will not be quite the happy lark the book hints at - even though the book barely mentions this, it WILL be a HUGE effort - even though the end result may very well be worth it.

However, with those cevaeats in mind, this is still a useful overview and primer, once you look past the over-the-top hype.

Rating:
Summary: A useful overview; a dangerous approach
Review: This book provides an excellent overview of SAP's Netweaver, and might be appropriate for an IT manager. But if you're looking for a good technical reference book that you'd have sitting open next to you while developing an XI interface or a Web Services application, keep looking. WIth few exceptions, this book only tells you *what* SAP Netweaver can do, not how to actually go about doing any of it.

Rating:
Summary: Fine for an overview, but not for nuts and bolts
Review: This book provides an excellent overview of SAP's Netweaver, and might be appropriate for an IT manager. But if you're looking for a good technical reference book that you'd have sitting open next to you while developing an XI interface or a Web Services application, keep looking. WIth few exceptions, this book only tells you *what* SAP Netweaver can do, not how to actually go about doing any of it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent read for the whole team
Review: While true the author hits more on what rather than 'how', this is one of those books every sap project manager and technical team member should have, if not just so we can all speak the same language. No, it's not an implementation book (pick up Anderson's SAP planning/best practices book). And no, it's by no means a guide for administrators (see Burleson, Hernandez, or Liane Will's books, among others). It's more important, in that its the consistent foundation you can all build upon.

Rating:
Summary: Finally a book that makes sense about the future of IT!
Review: With waves of Web Services hype that have threatened to drown us all in corporate IT departments, it is amazing that no other leading enterprise software vendor has taken a stab at clarifying things for us "mere mortals". I'm not sure if the title has already been used, but this book could have easily been named "portals for mortals", since it brings concepts that have been thus far conveyed with a bunch of 4 letter words (yes, worse then you think....SOAP, WSDL, HTTP, J2EE...)
If you want to understand how to build a single comprehensive portal platform and tie in all the applications, transactions, information, and business services that exist today all around your company, and that you struggle to even keep up with their function, this book is for you. From basic concepts to valuable tips, it has it all!!!