What is SAP PI/PO and how do you learn it with training (2024)

Do you wish to participate in SAP training courses? Are you new to the world of SAP? Before you dive into a comprehensive SAP PI/PO course, make sure you understand all the fundamental facts regarding SAP.

First things first. For all those new to this field, I will first answer the most important SAP-related questions:

SAP PI/PO (Process Integration/Process Orchestration) is a tool that allows you to integrate solutions. It makes it easy to synchronize data between different systems. Let’s say you are using the SAP ERP system, and you wish to integrate with the CRM system. To do that, you should use PI, which enables the user to perform integrations easily, with a standard tool that allows you to maintain all the different connections in one place.

You can also synchronize data to a warehouse system, where you want to send all the information regarding orders: which of them are being generated, how they are used, and when they should be shipped.

Because work becomes easier and more hassle-free if developers and organizations have one tool that can be used for a variety of different integrations, as opposed to several divergent tools being used for smaller tasks. The customers who are specifically targeted are those who already use SAP ERP – they already know that SAP developers are doing a great job at developing useful integration tools.

As with every other field, one needs to be an expert in certain areas in order to become a successful integration developer. First, you need to find out how SAP tools work – in other words, you need SAP training. You need to understand what components do; you also need to know how you can use them. When all of this is clear, you can move on to the next step.

After receiving all the necessary information and training, you should start experimenting. Your knowledge has to be put into practice. Don’t worry if your first experiments aren’t perfectly well-rounded integrations. You need the experimentation phase in order to transition from student to expert. In this phase, you will need to wrap your head around different contexts. You will undoubtedly ask yourself: “What works in this particular scenario?” or “How can I make this work?”. When you become able to answer your own questions with confidence, you have reached the next phase of your SAP experience.

The third step is implementation. This is the phase in which you begin to work on real-life scenarios. From this point on, you have to oversee projects from start to finish. You have to follow through on the entire integration process, and you also have to be able to tell what works in a certain situation. Furthermore, you actually have to make it work, as there is less room for error than in the previous phase.

How much time does it take to master SAP? When can you start selling yourself as an SAP consultant?

In order to become a professional, you need to learn for quite some time. SAP PI/PO training is essential, and it doesn’t last for ages. It’s a fact that you cannot become an expert overnight, but you can use various methods to speed up the learning process – SAP videos and tutorials are available online.

Many students ask me how much time will it take for them to be able to work as freelance SAP consultants (including training). I cannot provide a definitive answer, but I can tell you how much time it took for me: at first, I received some SAP PI training, and worked with the tool and other components for a couple of months; then, I was assigned a real project – I worked on it for about a year. During that period of time, I became much more proficient in SAP. It became easier to tell what can de done in certain situations; I came to understand the tool I was using, along with its components and features.

Judging from my own experience, I’d say you have to work in this field for at least 6 months before you can handle things on your own, without anyone else’s help. To reach true proficiency, you will need approximately 6 months to 1 year of SAP work. I’d recommend you wait for up to 3 years before starting your career as a freelance SAP consultant. There’s no nice way of putting it: companies are looking for experience, and an experience of at least 3 years is required to make executives notice you. In the meantime, you can become a valuable asset of your company as an in-house developer. I create a the topic of learning and i suggest that you take a look at it because it does provide lots of useful answers on how longtime it takes to learn SAP PI/PO.

Which backgrounds are a good starting point for an SAP professional?

I generally see people coming from two backgrounds: one group is made up of ABAP developers, while the other one consists of Java professionals.

Skilled ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) developers who have a few years’ experience often say that they don’t do as much ABAP work as they used to do, or that their work has been outsourced (for a number of different reasons). One of the things ABAP developers will miss is the object-oriented approach in some cases; however, good ABAP developers should already have some experience with such situations. I have seen many ABAP developers being somewhat frustrated with PI because the integration that can be done using this tool is a lot different from the ABAP package.

I started out as a Java developer. The challenge? You need to learn how to work in an SAP ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) context. This is the area you should focus on when switching from Java to SAP. As a Java developer, you have many advantages when it comes to mappings and user-defined functions.

Obviously, you can learn SAP even if your background is a bit different, e.g. JavaScript or .NET – I’d first recommend looking into Java and SAP ERP.Entries from the direction of JavaScript or .NET are not very common; nevertheless, those who follow this route can still become very good SAP developers after a period of 6 months to 1 year.

What to look for in an SAP Training Course?

So you’re looking for SAP PI/PO training. A good course will offer you an overview of all the SAP components you will have to use as a developer.

The training course needs to cover the connections that exist between SAP components; it also needs to offer detailed information in regards to every aspect of the development process.

You must be shown how to create all the data types, objects, and mappings. When it comes to mappings, it is important to have someone explain things to you; namely, you will need to learn what contexts are, how they work, and what you can use them for.

You also need to learn how to configure scenarios. Furthermore, you need to learn how to monitor the solutions you create.

You also need to get in touch with an experienced developer, who can point out what works and what doesn’t. When you’re a newbie, the help of a more experienced SAP professional can greatly increase your learning speed. A good instructor can offer step-by-step guidance through the entire platform; the content you receive should also make sense to you.

You can enroll in different types of training courses – you can opt for an online SAP course, where you follow a structured course and solve the exercises yourself, or you could choose an in-house instruction session, where you sit in a room together with other trainees, and learn from a flesh-and-blood instructor.

The following sections covers all the different areas that you must master if you want to become a great SAP PI/PO developer. If you look for any SAP PI/PO training or courses you need to find one that covers all the properties as listed here. You can see my introduction course on SAP PI/PO hereit does cover all of the important steps.

System Landscape Directory

Before you can develop anything, you must achieve proficiency in certain areas of SAP. First, you need to learn about the SLD (System Landscape Directory). This is where all the components, all your systems and landscapes are registered. It is the place where you create and define Software Component Versions to be used in your development work. Software Component Versions are also connected to Technical Systems in the SLD.

You need to know what’s in your landscape, what kinds of systems exist, and how they relate to one another. You have to know all about Business Systems, Technical Systems, Products, and Software Component Versions.

Enterprise Service Repository

The Enterprise Services Repository contains a lot of different components. All development starts with Software Component Versions, which are imported from the SLD.

Next, Namespaces need to be created. This is where you can place your development. Namespaces can be either HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) or URN (Uniform Resource Name), e.g. http://figaf.com/pi/invoice or urn::figaf-com:pi:invoice. The two types provide an easy method of separating the namespaces that were created; this way you can make sure that the development work done for different scenarios gets placed differently, therefore making it easier for you to find what you’re looking for.

The next step is to find the place where Development Objects are stored, therefore Service Interfaces need to be created. These are the interfaces that clients are able to call. Operations can be done in these interfaces, e.g. SOAP operations, in case of which you have to create operations under each scenario. You can expose more things in one Service Interface. For all development, you need to use Service Interfaces for both the sending and the receiving party.

The next step consists of creating Data Types. They can be created using several methods. The Message Interface contains Data Types defined in the PI system – this is the generally accepted approach to development if you have to define the data in the PI system. On the other hand, XSD/WSDL can also be used to define Data Types.

The next stop is Operation Mappings – you have to get from one Service Interface operation to the other. You can select what type of mappings you want to use – XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) or Java mappings, in which you can create a Java code that converts XML files. You can also use Message Mappings, which are built-in PI mapping tools that allow you to create mappings, and ensure that you create data in the correct way. This tool offers an easy way of mapping from one XML document to another.

What happens in the Directory?

The Directory is the place where scenarios are configured. Systems are involved in the integration – these can either be created in the Directory or imported from the SLD. The system you choose is a virtual representations of the system you are using, so users can easily access it.

Communication Channels are also present in the Directory. These are used for describing how interfaces are supposed to work, and how files should be handled. If it’s a SOAP service you wish to call, you need to insert the username and password required for sending data to the service.

In order to connect all the Business Components, an ICO (Integrated Configurations Object) must be created; this takes data from one system with a Communication Channel and Service Interface, converts it to another message format, and eventually delivers it to another system.

Processes

The key difference with the PO vs the PI system is the proces capabilities. The PO gives the user an option to model process in BPMN. BPMN is a standard that allows the developer to orchestrate process that involve multiply different messages and interaction withthe user.

Monitoring/Runtime

Once all the previously described steps have been completed, the developer must make sure the runtime works. Monitoring and alerting tools should be used. Monitoring is required as an on-going safety measure, while alerts should be triggered in case of certain errors.

I am confident this extra information will help you choose the course that is best suited for your needs. If you are truly interested in SAP PI/PO, and stay motivated throughout the learning process, you will become a successful developer regardless of the learning method you choose. Whether you prefer online video tutorials or fast-paced PI/PO instructions and courses, I wish you good luck in your SAP-related endeavours!