SAP User ID

As I’ve mentioned in previous postings, a SAP User ID is now required if you want to take a SAP Business Objects exam.

I regularly receive emails asking how you go about getting one of these ID’s, especially if you are not a partner/customer.

Note that this blog is not connected with SAP so I can’t tell you for sure. However, two options seem to work:

1. Register at the following link. This will take you to the SAP site where you can register your details.
or
2. Call the SAP education department in your country

It takes a couple of weeks to get the User ID through, so be patient.

New Certification Exams – Data Integrator now added

Further information regarding the new Business Objects exams. Data Integrator is going to be added to the list of available exams.

More info can be found here.

Note that existing BOCP holders do not need to recertify:

“…individuals holding a current valid BusinessObjects certification will not need to recertify.”

Also nice to see that existing holders of the BOCP certifcation can use the new titles:

‘…those holding the valid BusinessObjects certification in the latest release are entitled to use the SAP Associate certification logo and title but no new certificates will be issued.”

One thing to point out though, if you are BOCP-BOE certified to XIR2 and haven’t yet taken the XI3 upgrade SABE501, you may want to do it before the exam is removed:

“If a test taker is certified on BusinessObjects Certified Professional – Business Objects Enterprise XI R2 and requires only the XI 3.0 upgrade exam (SABE 501) to qualify for the XI 3.0 certificate what should he/she do?

To avoid taking the full certification exam after the retirement of the XI 3.0 upgrade exam the final exam should be taken prior to its retirement at the end of April.”

Get your skates on! There may be limited places in your chosen test centre.

New Certification Exams – Part 2

Following on from my recent post about the new SAP Business Objects exams, I spotted a link to a FAQ.

Some interesting items to bring to your attention:

1. It would appear that you no longer need to take 3 papers/tests to earn the SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.x certification. Those that have the BOCP-BOE certification will be aware that we had to sit 3 exams, or 4 if you have brought your skills up to XI3 level.

2. Those with an existing BOCP certification do not need to re-qualify. Phew!

3. If you have BOCP-BOE at XIR2 level and haven’t sat SABE501 to take you up to XI3 level, you need to hurry. To quote
“To avoid taking the full certification exam after the retirement of the XI 3-1 upgrade exam the final exam should be taken prior to its retirement at the end of April.”

4. Those holding BOCP can use the title SAP Associate. Again, to quote:
“…those holding the existing certification BusinessObjects certification are entitled to use the SAP Associate certification logo and title.” (Personally I prefer BOCP-BOE – Certified Professional. Sounds better than Associate don’t you think?)

5. You still need a SAP S-User ID to take the exams.

6. For those that are looking to find out where their certificate is, and I know that there are many of you..
“On successfully passing the exam, the certificate will be sent to the test taker within 4-6 weeks. For queries please contact kps.businessobjects.kt@sap.com.”

7. It looks like the exams will become more expensive.

So basically, if you are working through your BOCP exams, get them done by April 2010.

If you haven’t upgraded your BOCP to XI3, get the SABE501 exam out of the way by April 2010.

If you are considering taking the exams and haven’t started BOCP yet, you might want to consider the SAP Associate exam instead of the four exams needed for BOCP.

More details can be found in this FAQ.

SA410 e-learning

In between my client assignments, I’ve been working through the SA410 e-learning course.

To say that I am disappointed with it’s content is a massive understatement. These materials are expensive and I am finding that much of the material in this course is a repetition of the SA210 and SA310 courses. It has left me feeling that something is missing.

I’ve checked through the requirements for the exam, and I feel I have covered all aspects.  I can help but feel that I’ve been short changed by the SA410 e-learning course. Perhaps the classroom based course is different?

I’ll soon find out. I’m taking the SA410 exam later this week. I feel prepared, so hopefully I won’t get any surprises.

SABE310 in the bag

I passed SABE310 today! Thats the second of three towards the BOCP certification.

This exam required a lot of preparation on my part, as there was a lot of material to study. The exam consisted of 50 questions in multiple choice format. Slightly more time was allowed than the SABE210 exam.

For this particular exam, I am glad I took the e-learning course. It helped me a lot. Looking over the PDF guides, I think I would have struggled to get all the necessary information.

I’m now preparing for the final exam – SABE410.

Business Objects Exams

A couple of people have asked me how and where they can take the Business Objects exams.

Business Objects exams, which can lead to certification, are delivered by Pearson Vue. Pearson Vue have a number of authorised test centres throughout the world, and there is sure to be one close to you.

To register for an exam, visit their website, and select ‘Information Technology’ from the left hand box. Select ‘Business Objects’ from the right hand box. This will lead you to a section detailing the three certifications currently available from Business Objects. For those that don’t know, these are:

• BOCP – BusinessObjects Enterprise
• BOCP – BusinessObjects Data Integrator
• BOCP – Crystal Reports

Information on each of the certifications is available by clicking on the relevant link.

To book an exam, you need to register with Pearson Vue. Once registered, you can schedule a test. This is a straightforward process.

After selecting the exam you want to take, specify a location or area you want to take the exam in. A list of the five closest test centres are displayed. Select a test centre. A list of available dates and appointment times for that test centre are listed. Select a date and time, and then pay for the exam. Once done, you will receive a email confirming your exam date and time. It is important to check that the details are correct.

In the UK, the BOCP-BOE exams are all priced the same – £90 + VAT (£105.75 including VAT). There may be variations to this pricing in other parts of the world – I do not know. Perhaps someone can let me know, and I’ll update this post.

Whether you pass or fail the exam, you are given a printout of your score. This is must be embossed by the test centre. Your results can be viewed within a few hours on your account history on the Pearson Vue website.

Note that if you fail an exam, you can retake the exam as many times as you like. It does not affect your overall certification. However, you must wait five working days before retaking an exam.

So thats a brief overview of the how’s, where’s and how much of the Business Objects exams.

Study hard and good luck!

SABE501V3.0 – XI 3.0 update exam?

I spotted the following while booking my SABE310 exam on the Pearson Vue website today:

“Business Objects Certified Professional – BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.0 – Update”

As suspected, it looks like there will be an XI3.0 update to the BOCP certification. I can’t find any details on the Business Objects website, and as it hasn’t been officially release yet, it might be a while before we get further details.

SA310 e-learning course

I recently completed the SA310 Administering Servers e-learning course.

SA310 is the second of three exams required to earn the BOCP certification.

This is a more comprehensive course and delves into the detail behind each of the Business Objects servers.

It covers all the servers in the BOE setup – Web servers, through to the CMS, FRS, Cache, Job and Program servers. Each chapter discusses the role of each server, configuration options and how various tasks are processed.

Like the previous e-learning course, a series of multiple choice tests are presented at the end of each chapter to test your understanding of the subject matter.

The cost of this course is £790. Note, that there are two SA310 courses available. Make sure you select the R2 version of the course. This will include details on the R2 enhancements.

Following on from this I plan to take the SABE310 exam shortly. Update to follow.

SABE210 – Pass!

I recently took the SABE210 Business Objects Enterprise XIR2 Administering Users & Content exam, and passed! It’s a relief to get the first one out of the way.

The exam consists of 40 multiple choice questions, and you are given 80 minutes to complete the exam. I found that this was more than enough time to go through all the questions thoroughly, and leave sufficient time at the end to review any outstanding questions.

The pass grade is 65%. You get given your score immediately at the end of the exam. As long as you get 65% or over, you have a ‘Pass’ and this is what counts towards the BOCP certification.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I did question whether this exam could be done without taking the classroom or e-learning courses. I think you can. However, I would stress that you need to have a very good working knowledge of BOE at Administrator level. Reading the relevant PDF guides (Admin, Deployment), which you can download for free from the BOBJ support website, will also help.

Having said that, the elearning course does help. It presents the information in a logical manner and provides you with tests at the end of each section. These are of a similar format to the final exam. I found that the elearning course fills in gaps in your knowledge. I also learnt a couple of new things which I plan on implementing on client site.

I’m going to start on the SABE310 Administering Servers elearning exam in the next few days. The SABE310 course looks far more substantial and appears to focus heavily on architecture and configuration. I suspect this means learning about the various parameters that can be set for each server and how they all talk to each other. While I am familiar with what the servers do and process flows, I have to admit that I don’t know all the server parameters by heart.

Due to this, I will be taking this as an e-learning course. Worth noting that this elearning course is more expensive than SABE210, and is normally presented as a 3 day classroom based course. The SABE210 course is normally a 2 day classroom course.

Further updates later in the week.