Understanding the Enterprise Systems Environment

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/understanding-the-enterprise-systems-environment

Introduction

**Course Review: Understanding the Enterprise Systems Environment on Coursera** **Overview** The "Understanding the Enterprise Systems Environment" course on Coursera is a significant part of the SAP Technology Consultant Professional Certificate program. As the second course in the series, it builds upon foundational concepts and dives deep into the complex yet crucial digital landscape of enterprise systems. The course is designed to equip participants with a robust understanding of business processes, organizational alignment, and the intricate technologies that facilitate successful digital transformation. **Course Structure and Content** This course spans five comprehensive modules, each meticulously crafted to enhance the learners' comprehension of enterprise systems, especially within the context of SAP technologies. 1. **Introduction to SAP and the Digital Landscape** - In this initial module, you will discover the role of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, cloud-based infrastructures, and advanced analytics in digital transformation. The course emphasizes the need for businesses not only to modify their processes but also to reshape their organizational culture. With cloud solutions becoming a core component of modern business strategies, this section offers valuable insights into various service models and the benefits of data analytics. 2. **Business Process and Organizational Readiness** - This module focuses on the integration of people, processes, tools, and technologies crucial for digital transformation. You will learn about setting transformation goals, tracking KPIs, and understanding the five stages of business maturity. This foundational knowledge will aid in appreciating how intertwined business requirements and goals are, and how readiness impacts successful change implementation. 3. **Understanding System Design and Development** - A significant portion of the course is dedicated to understanding system architecture and development. Learners will explore concepts such as cloud architecture, elastic computing, and programming essentials. This section is particularly beneficial for aspiring consultants, as it also delves into customer experience considerations in solution design. 4. **SAP Platform and Cloud** - This module offers a granular look into the SAP technologies themselves. It covers essential aspects of application development, integration, and the core of SAP’s cloud strategy. Understanding SAP HANA and the Business Technology Platform (BTP) is key for anyone looking to work within SAP ecosystems, and this module tackles these topics comprehensively. 5. **Case Study Project: SAP Customer Analysis** - One of the standout features of this course is its hands-on approach. The final module asks learners to apply their acquired knowledge in a practical case study focusing on Royal Greenland’s SAP BTP implementation. This real-world application of skills not only solidifies understanding but also enhances analytical capabilities—essential for any technology consultant. **Learning Approach and Features** The course employs a well-structured learning approach, encouraging both theoretical understanding and practical application. The combination of video lectures, written resources, quizzes, and a collaborative project promotes a rich learning experience. Additionally, the opportunity to review peers’ submissions allows for an engaging learning community where feedback is exchanged, fostering growth and improvement. **Recommendation** I highly recommend the "Understanding the Enterprise Systems Environment" course for professionals seeking to deepen their knowledge of enterprise systems, particularly those interested in SAP solutions. Whether you are an aspiring SAP consultant, an IT professional looking to pivot towards enterprise solutions, or a business leader seeking a better understanding of digital transformation, this course offers invaluable insights and practical experiences. Taking this course can significantly enhance your ability to navigate the complexities of digital transformation in modern business environments, making it a worthy investment in your professional development. It effectively balances broad theoretical concepts with specific technological applications, ensuring that you leave equipped to tackle real-world challenges in the enterprise systems landscape.

Syllabus

Introduction to SAP and the Digital Landscape

In this module, you will learn how enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, cloud-based infrastructure, and advanced analytics underpin digital transformation. Digital transformation requires not just a transformation of a business’s processes and models but also organizational and cultural transformation. Cloud-based infrastructure is an essential component of successful digital transformation. The cloud offers different service and deployment models that allow businesses to plan their move to the cloud keeping their specific needs in mind. The growth in data generation means explosive growth in the potential for examining that data for new insights. You will learn how data analytics and data science help businesses generate insights from massive volumes of data and the measures they consider to ensure the security and privacy of data. You will learn about the customer journey and how customer experience systems shape and provide business, technical, and data analysis context.

In this module, you will learn what impact digital transformation has on a company, its business processes, and its tools. To digitally transform, all aspects of a company need to be integrated, including people, processes, tools, and technology. To improve readiness for transformation, businesses must set goals, prepare the organization, identify KPIs for tracking progress, and prepare people and skills. Companies can take early steps for digital transformation by determining the starting point, defining priorities, building a road map, and preparing their teams. You will be able to appreciate how business requirements are linked to business goals. A company’s maturity impacts its readiness for change and the form of change it could benefit from most. In this module, you will learn about the five stages of business maturity, from the initial entrepreneur stage to the stage where an organization is stable, organized, and operationally structured.

In this module, you will learn about system architecture and how data modeling helps build the overall architecture design of a system – from the high-level or abstract view to the technical details. You will explore the relationship between cloud architecture and systems design and appreciate the importance of cloud architecture and systems design when consulting with clients. You will also learn about operating systems, platforms, data and data sets, and databases and their types. Elastic computing is the ability to dynamically adjust computer processing, memory, and storage resources to match changing business demands. In this module, you will cover the benefits of elastic computing and learn about the compute and data storage elasticity provided by SAP HANA Cloud. You will learn about various programming languages, development tools, APIs, and their use cases. Customer experience shapes solution design by providing a context for the business, technical, and data analysis factors involved. RISE with SAP is a commercial offering that gives customers the core enterprise resource planning and additional bundled capability to move to the cloud faster and painlessly. The SAP Activate methodology provides the customer with a roadmap for implementing SAP solutions. You will also learn how cloud-native technologies, microservices, and service meshes modernize application development. Lastly, you will learn about security governance, common cybersecurity threats, and the five pillars of managing cyber risks.

This module will teach you about the key SAP application, development, and programming models. Application development can be broken into three key aspects: environment, languages, and integration with other systems. You will learn about the capabilities of SAP HANA, including database management, database administration, data security, multi-model processing, application development, and data virtualization.   You will revisit the service and deployment models that the cloud provides and learn about the key drivers of SAP’s cloud strategy. SAP’s cloud strategy draws on the elements of flexibility, availability, reliability, and innovation provided by the cloud.   The core of SAP’s cloud architecture and its services to customers is the SAP Business Technology Platform or BTP.  BTP is a collection of SAP’s on-premises and cloud products and services. You will gain an understanding of the four pillars, or solutions, of SAP BTP, including application development, integration, data and analytics, and artificial intelligence. You will learn about the key cloud architecture elements and tools used in SAP environments.  Lastly, you will also learn about SAP HANA Cloud, the cloud-based data foundation for BTP, and SAP Analytics Cloud, the analytics and planning solution of BTP. 

Module 5 is where you will apply what you have learned in this course. You'll complete your case study project - analyzing the Royal Greenland SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) implementation. Earlier in the course, you reviewed the case study materials to uncover the customer's digital transformation goals. You also learnt more about SAP BTP's capabilities. In this module, you'll review the end-to-end SAP solution. You'll assess how the solution helps Royal Greenland to meet its digital transformation goals and become an intelligent and sustainable enterprise. You will develop a deck to summarize and present your findings to the customer. You will review submissions from other learners, providing them feedback and receiving feedback on your work. Finally, you'll take the graded quiz for the course.