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What SAP HANA Certifications Should Matter When Vetting a Vendor

August 15, 2023

Complex enterprise software solutions like SAP HANA require competent vendor support. This makes SAP HANA certifications useful in gauging a prospective vendor’s qualifications. With the right partner, your organization can gain the most value from this powerful software.

When assessing a vendor, look at both their SAP certifications and their business experience. An SAP consultant with many deployments under management and relevant certifications will ensure the success of your projects. For instance, Approyo has multiple SAP HANA certifications. This consultancy helps businesses innovate cost-effectively and with agility.

SAP HANA certifications cover several related areas, from administration and data modeling to hardware. Each certification tests an SAP expert’s skills, vouching for their abilities in the relevant activities. When you see a consultant has the necessary certifications, you can be sure you’re working with a trustworthy partner.

In today’s fast-paced data age, it’s essential to have processing speed and volume enabled by efficient use of HANA for business intelligence.

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SAP HANA is the new in-memory database management system that accelerates business. It supports enterprise resource planning (ERP) for many of today’s leading companies. HANA consolidates numerous data sources to provide unparalleled insights. However, it’s a sophisticated system that benefits from the support of knowledgeable experts.

SAP HANA certifications attest to a vendor’s SAP HANA skills, knowledge, and experience. That trust means clients can be confident they’re receiving effective solutions.

An SAP expert enables you to manage the modern in-memory database HANA. Proven know-how lets them deliver the support your organization needs to leverage technology to generate revenue. What’s more, certified consultants boost the productivity of companies using SAP HANA by applying their understanding of the system’s ins and outs. They’ll optimize performance to make your enterprise solution more responsive in the context of your business operations.

Because SAP HANA certifications require learning and experience, these experts will have already seen the common pitfalls. So, they can resolve problems fast and keep downtime to a minimum. They’re also familiar with industry best practices and will help businesses extract functionality you’d otherwise not know about from the system.

Similarly, certified consultants stay on top of innovations in the SAP HANA field. They’ll use their up-to-the-minute information to add new features that benefit your organization. That’s a key way to gain a competitive advantage over companies that lack certified support—grab hold of advances before the trend becomes stale.

As you can see, working with a consultant holding SAP HANA certifications results in a lower total cost of operations. Instead of inefficiently struggling with complex enterprise technology, you’ll cruise along under the guidance of demonstrated expertise.

Types of SAP HANA Certifications

Choosing the right SAP vendor is crucial. It involves selecting an established firm that understands security and has the flexibility to respond to your needs. You can evaluate a potential partner by looking at which types of SAP HANA certifications they hold, if any.

There are several different categories of SAP HANA certifications available, and each category targets specific needs and capabilities. When vetting vendors, it’s important to consider the certifications relevant to how you’ll work with the vendor. For instance, if you’re hiring a company to administer your SAP HANA deployment, then SAP HANA admin certifications are important.

The types of SAP HANA certifications cover implementation and administration as well as software development. There are also more specialized areas of certification relating to this enterprise system. Each category contributes to certain parts of the deployment. Together, they assure organizations of a high-quality project.

SAP HANA Admin Certifications

There are three main types of SAP HANA certifications pertaining to administration:

  • HANA admin certifications
  • HANA modeling certifications
  • SAP Certified Technology Associate

HANA Admin Certifications

The HANA admin certifications tell you a consultant has experience managing SAP HANA systems. By holding these certifications, one shows a comprehensive knowledge of administrative duties like installing SAP HANA systems, configuring and monitoring the solution, and conducting backup and recovery activities.

The credential covers other relevant admin tasks as well, such as managing system users and optimizing system performance. All in all, the certified expert has what it takes to maintain a functional SAP HANA environment.

If any problems occur, the administrator has the necessary knowledge and understanding to identify and resolve the problems. As a result, the HANA admin certifications mean organizations can trust they’ll have a reliably operating solution. Given the complexity of this software, it’s critical to have confidence in system stability.

Gaining HANA admin certifications requires numerous courses. It encompasses the installation and operation of SAP HANA, including performance tuning. In addition, one becomes capable of administering high-availability systems with disaster tolerance.

Data migration is also covered. Organizations may need to upgrade from older software to SAP HANA. Certified consultants like Approyo help conduct safe and efficient migrations. IT professionals can also be certified in authorizations and other advanced topics.

After gaining HANA admin certifications, it remains important to stay on top of developments. After all, the enterprise software platform constantly evolves. Features like cloud databases and dynamic tiering are growing more relevant by the day. So, certificate holders should keep their skills and knowledge up-to-date and continue learning new material.

HANA Modeling Certifications

The HANA modeling certifications validate a consultant’s ability to handle data modeling. Essentially, data modeling is the process of translating business requirements into the necessary data architecture. This activity works on multiple levels:

  • First, the general nature of data needed for operations
  • Then, the specific logical structure of said data
  • Finally, the precise arrangement of database tables, access rights, and so forth

SAP HANA depends on rigorous data modeling, so it’s imperative to have an expert on hand. With HANA modeling certifications, you know the consultant can design data models and then instantiate them in SAP HANA effectively.

Data modeling is central to exploiting SAP HANA’s analytics and reporting features. Certified consultants, including Approyo, can build data views and data relationships. They’ll also employ best practices to assist your organization with data integration. If you want to see the most incisive insights and the biggest gains possible from SAP HANA’s in-memory platform, look for modeling certifications.

Becoming certified in data modeling includes a course on SAP HANA implementation and modeling. This leads to the SAP Certified Application Associate status. As with the admin certifications, it remains vital to stay current.

Those with modeling certifications should continue their journeys with topics such as query optimization and spatial analysis. Migration also has relevance for data modelers. Then, there are more advanced courses on enterprise architecture design and real-time replication.

SAP Certified Technology Associate

The SAP Certified Technology Associate credentials confirm a consultant’s expertise with SAP products. To attain these certifications, one must have technical abilities with HANA software. It also takes a thorough knowledge of the infrastructure for SAP systems.

The specific capacities necessary for an SAP Certified Technology Associate include monitoring and maintaining systems, fixing technical problems, and optimizing performance. The certification is useful for consultants who support SAP deployments and for organizations using their services. With an SAP Certified Technology Associate, you know the solution will be fast, stable, and secure.

To acquire this certification, one must pass an exam that probes their understanding of SAP HANA. What’s more, an SAP Certified Technology Associate has previously built a more basic foundation of knowledge and should have hands-on experience with real deployments. For that reason, this is a more demanding certification for experienced professionals.

Those who have become Certified Technology Associates know how to install and maintain SAP HANA and have a deep comprehension of database security. Companies often look to this certification as a benchmark of trust and competence.

Hardware Certifications

SAP HANA hardware certifications vouch for the vendor’s IT infrastructure. They affirm the hardware is appropriate to run this enterprise software. SAP technology places quite strict demands on hardware, so it’s important to verify beforehand that your partner has adequate technical resources.

SAP establishes hardware criteria to ensure the speed and stability of its offerings. Each vendor that wants hardware certification must demonstrate their compatibility to SAP’s exacting standards.

A battery of tests measures different facets of the vendor’s hardware. They must pass tests for servers, storage devices, networking equipment, and virtualization. Failing the tests prevents the vendor from attaining SAP hardware certifications.

There are several tiers of testing for the different sizes of HANA installation. Some hardware certifications cover SAP HANA solutions for small and medium businesses. Meanwhile, the certifications for large enterprises necessitate better performance and availability.

Select a vendor with SAP HANA hardware certifications so you’ll know they offer a fast and reliable solution. What’s more, the hardware infrastructure has been confirmed to function correctly with the software you’ll be using. The equipment made it through exhaustive testing to conform to SAP standards.

In addition, hardware certifications mitigate the numerous risks surrounding hardware. Whether incompatible hardware, performance limitations, or unexpected downtime, it’s better to leave these threats to companies not relying on a certified partner.

SAP HANA hardware certifications give you the certainty that you’ll have satisfactory hardware—so the software will run without a hitch. Additionally, these certifications enhance deployment and maintenance because the vendor will employ pre-built configurations and industry best practices to simplify infrastructure.

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SAP HANA Skill Certifications

Professionals can also gain SAP HANA skill certifications to demonstrate their abilities. An individual who has these credentials has been tested on the software platform’s features and use. Skill certifications are valuable for the holders’ career advancement. They also justify clients’ trust in their work.

SAP HANA skill certifications are available for different job responsibilities. They may be held by people working directly for a company that uses enterprise software or for a consulting company such as Approyo.

In addition to becoming a Certified Application Associate, one can strive to become a Certified Development Specialist in ABAP for SAP HANA 2.0 or a Certified Integration Associate. The development accreditation is for programming applications: ABAP is the main programming language for SAP HANA.

As with the Certified Technology Associate, these skill certifications also require one to pass exams. In the case of development specialists, topics on the test include database procedures and the use of SAP HANA artifacts.

For integration associates, the exam measures how well an individual can combine SAP Sales and SAP Service Cloud with the ERP software for HANA. Test takers apply their knowledge with an expert consultant to prove they have the skills businesses need. This certification covers middleware configuration, integration connectivity, and related areas.

All the SAP HANA skill certifications testify to people’s abilities to handle core technical duties in the operation of this enterprise software. Your SAP consulting firm should have a team of proven experts who can address any problem or opportunity.

Trust a Partner With SAP HANA Certifications

An SAP-certified partner will provide consistent results for your organization and find ways to lower costs while enhancing functionality. They’ll also prevent costly mistakes and streamline the solution to produce a more economical and secure IT environment.

SAP software is complex and used for mission-critical data. It’s important to use it responsibly, which means vetting vendors for demonstrated expertise. A vendor should have relevant SAP certifications—such as administration, hardware, and skills—to back their competence. Of course, those certifications focused on areas where you rely on SAP will have more impact.

Approyo is an SAP-certified technology partner. With hundreds of deployments under management, we have the skills and experience to support any needs. Prioritize a certified vendor to maximize the potential of your SAP HANA investment. Contact Approyo now about your project.

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