For a number of years now, SAP offered a vast range of its TechEd sessions in a recorded format, so keen consultants can review sessions or visit those sessions post-TechEd which they were not able to attend during the convention.

SAP now however changed the delivery format of its virtual TechEd sessions from a DVD delivery to a internet-based format. Whilst at first this sounds great, I am not sure how SAP can claim that “Virtual SAP TechEd ’06 lets you learn anytime, anywhere.“, which is clearly untrue, as you need an internet connection for it.

In addition, in the site’s FAQ it says: “SAP TechEd ’06 (…) full-conference registrants who paid for a full conference pass receive access to Virtual SAP TechEd ’06 until Dec 31, 2007 as part of the conference registration package“. So this means you will not be able to review the sessions beyond that date (so can they claim anytime?).

Whilst fortunately all this comes at a slightly cheaper price, it remains a dissapointing service that is of a lesser overall quality than the old DVD-based deliveries. Registrants for the convention in Europe pay £1600+ (flight not included) to visit TechEd for 3 days – they can expect more for their money.

[UPDATE] Amir Blich of SAP responded to my post on SDN as follows:

Thanks for your feedback.
I just released a blog discussing the PAZ program. You can find references to some of your remarks there.

There are always pros and cons when changing delivery channels and I understand you found the DVD sets valuable, but I hope you can find additional value in the online format.

As for the time limitation, before the end of the year, a new TechEd conference will reveal new and updated content. If you attend TechEd regularly, you should have uninterrupted access to the latest TechEd content. If not, as you state, all the latest content is available to you at a reasonable cost.

Let us know of additional ways to enhance the value of PAZ

Regards,
Amir.

As Amir quite rightly says, there are always pros and cons about moves such as this. I just tend to disagree on this one. For this purpose, introducing the PAZ must save SAP some money when compared to a DVD delivery. The community will have to see if this is being reflected in attendance fees. Follow the rest of the SDN thread here.

One of the most exciting (and equally dreaded) books for ABAPers has undergone a major overhaul. Or, according to the author Horst Keller, a complete rewrite.

“This book is the sequel to ABAP Objects: An Introduction to Programming SAP Applications from the SAP PRESS series. Instead of producing a reworked third edition of the Introduction, we have written a new book … In this book, we are offering our readers a compendium of modern ABAP programming and of the key possibilities of the ABAP Application Server in SAP NetWeaver. Modern ABAP programming means programming with ABAP Objects. Contrary to the previous book, ABAP Objects are no longer treated as an addition to classical ABAP, but rather as the underlying programming model.

Whilst I would say that this is probably not the most eagerly awaited book within the SAP Developer Community (no pun intended), it certainly is one of the most important book releases for SAP Development Consultants since -well- the release of earlier version of the book. Since the first version has been released, a lot has changed in SAP Development land. New WAS, WebDynpro, SOA – to name but a few areas.

One thing that always annoyed me about the original book was that almost 50% of it covers basics of the ABAP programming language, which was a pretty redundant part for me.

Sounds like Keller didn’t include this part in his latest, re-written book on ABAP OO. It is also worth noting that this March 2007 release comes along (just like its predecessor) with a SAP Netweaver Testdrive (MiniSAP), which saves you from downloading it from SDN.

Gentlemen, please start your engines !

[UPDATE] One thing I obvioulsy forgot about was that the books has already been released in German (also makes it EUR 10.00 cheaper).