What is SAP?

SAP originated from system applications and data processing products. SAP is not only the name of the company, but also the name of its ERP software.

Founded in 1972 and headquartered in Waldorf Astoria, Germany, SAP is the world's largest provider of enterprise management and collaborative e-commerce solutions and the third largest independent software provider. Currently, SAP has more than 29,000 employees in more than 50 countries. SAP has more than 65,438+08,800 customers, more than 56,000 system installation points and more than 654,380 million end users in more than 65,438+020 countries and regions. Over 80% of Fortune 500 companies are using SAP management solutions.

SAP (System, Application and Product in Data Processing) is a pioneer of ERP solutions, which can provide comprehensive solutions for enterprises of various industries and sizes. Since 1972, the effectiveness and feasibility of its software have been verified by tens of thousands of users in dozens of countries. And through these customers continue to promote the use. Therefore, SAP has a wide employment space in all walks of life.

I copied the back, but it makes sense.

Experience of SAP consultants

I have promised to write you a little about my experience as an SAP consultant. Today, I am a little free. I think of my promise to you, so I'd better start writing early so as not to forget my words for a long time.

I haven't been in this industry for a long time, but I feel deeply. I want to share it here, I hope it's good for you!

Divided into the following topics:

1. Some simple concepts.

2. How to become an SAP consultant?

3. How to become an excellent FICO consultant?

4. Survival status of 4.SAP consultants.

5.Fico consultant's tasks at different stages.

6. Conclusion

Several simple concepts: key users, IT users and end users.

1. Key users: In the SAP project, the key

Users are the backbone of the customer's business, responsible for delivering the key requirements in the internal field of the enterprise to the module consultants in the project, and are also the key testers in the system testing stage. For FICO, it is usually some experienced accountants and financial managers. key

The user fully grasps the operation of SAP foreground, is responsible for the operation training of END users, is the contact between consultants and end users, and collects and explains END to consultants.

The needs of users.

2.IT users: members of the customer's IT department, usually with a good computer foundation, get information from KEY during the project implementation.

Obtain business knowledge in related fields from users and SAP knowledge and skills of related modules from consultants; information technology

Users fully grasp the front and back operations of SAP, and are responsible for solving technical problems in the use of SAP. In the process of project implementation, he is the consultant's right-hand man, and as an internal consultant after the project, he analyzes the new business needs of the enterprise and gives solutions.

3. End users: end users of enterprise SAP, general business personnel, managers at all levels, etc. As long as the SAP users in the enterprise are not key users, IT.

Users can be called end users. End-users are the initial proponents of customer needs, and the ultimate goal of SAP system planning is to meet their needs. Every aspect of daily business.

Users only use some related operations of SAP foreground. For FICO, end

Users can be divided into general ledger, A/R, A/P, assets, cashier, cost and financial manager. Everyone generally only has some front desk operations.

It can be seen from the above concepts that IT users are most likely to become SAP consultants, followed by key users and terminals.

Users, as can be seen from the statistics of a website, among FICO consultants, IT background and financial background account for half.

2. How to become an SAP consultant:

1. IT can be inferred that IT users are the easiest consultants, because usually IT

Users are familiar with SAP's technical knowledge, relevant business knowledge and project implementation process, and it should be easy to apply as a junior consultant. For some keys that are interested in SAP.

Users, because of their rich business knowledge and understanding of SAP system foreground business, are relatively easy to become department-level consultants, and the end users are poor. To conclude

Users need great efforts. It is better to become a key user first, and then it will be easier to become a consultant. After the implementation of SAP in many large companies, the turnover of personnel is very fast, which is the key to IT users.

The user churn rate is very high, and it is difficult for newcomers to be key users or IT users. End users interested in SAP can try it at this time.

2. Without any foundation, if you have received training from SAP Consulting Institute and obtained PA certificate, it is easy to apply for becoming a consultant; The tuition fee of SAP Consulting College is extremely high, and the training is usually funded by enterprises. You can imagine how strict the breach of contract agreement behind this training will be, and you may not get this certificate after training. There are various other training companies that provide training for students, but it will be better if there is a project internship, but no company can guarantee students' project internship opportunities, and even if there is, the cost is absolutely high.

3. Without any foundation and PA certificate, it is even more difficult to be an SAP consultant. What I want to emphasize to you is how to become an SAP consultant in this situation.

After the training of this course, I feel that even if the application level of SAP is worse, if the content we practice in class can pass, SAP.

There should be no problem with the front desk operation. Compared with people who don't understand SAP, you already know it very well. If you practice a little, apply for a key user of an enterprise.

Absolutely not a problem. If it is better, you can directly apply for some consulting companies. Of course, don't choose a top company, it requires you to have more other strengths.

Nowadays, enterprises seem to have high conditions when recruiting KEY USER, but I believe you just need to tell them that you already have the key of a company.

Users have more than one year's experience. In the interview, you can't beat the concept of front desk operation and SAP. It is very likely that you will become a key user and become the key to SAP.

Users are actually very comfortable, and even many consultants finally choose to be key users of enterprises. When you become a key,

If USER is implemented in the enterprise, you are fully qualified to be a consultant, and the rest is how to show your understanding of SAP to the consulting company you want to go to.

For several students who are engaged in ABAP, I suggest that you enter a consulting company to be an ABAP consultant, and then start studying as a project and module consultant. Many ABAP consultants in our company are transformed into module consultants in this way, and if you can master ABAP and understand SAP business modules, the level of ABAP is also very valuable!

There are many ways to become an SAP consultant, but only if you are eager to develop in this field. We often say: where there is a will, there is a way. Yes, I believe this sentence very much. You can do it if you want to. And I absolutely believe that we students will start consulting soon, you know, everyone's starting point was the same before!

3. How to become an excellent FICO consultant;

FICO consultants must participate in almost all SAP projects and be related to almost all modules. Personally, FICO consultants have great potential for development.

1.

FICO's characteristics: almost every project's PP is different, so it is very hard and tiring to do it, while FICO's almost every project is similar, and FI is not so flexible. Everything should be set up and operated in a way that conforms to the accounting system. CO has great flexibility, but it is this flexibility that gives consultants more room to play, which is also the perceived value of customers. FICO has little to argue about. FI's practice is always standard, and CO's flexibility usually exceeds customers' expectations.

2. As a FICO consultant, the first is the financial guidance of other module consultants. The business process of other modules involves the financial part, and finance can finally decide the choice. After all, finance is an external requirement and it is difficult to be flexible. If the financial impact of a logistics business does not conform to the accounting system, it will undoubtedly be cancelled. Therefore, in many cases, the new process proposed by logistics consultants (PP, MM, SD) must seek the opinions of financial consultants, which requires financial consultants.

3. As a FICO consultant, it is not enough to talk about SAP with customers. It is necessary to communicate with the financial manager in business. Customers sometimes question some operations of SAP, and we should explain them from the perspective of financial principles. Understanding customer needs requires consultants to have some basic financial knowledge. In the project, if the customer feels that the consultant does not understand finance, once the authority is questioned, then the next project will be very hard.

4. SEM, EIS and BW extending from the financial part are the development direction of information system. If you master the financial part, you will have a clearer understanding of the principles and objectives of an enterprise operation.

From the above, we can know that if you want to be an excellent financial consultant and have financial knowledge, you must know some common SAP logistics modules, so you need to work hard. All this is exactly what you should have as an excellent FICO consultant. To do this, we need attitude and hard work.

You can see all kinds of consultants, but being proficient in a certain module of SAP is completely different from being an excellent or senior consultant. How much knowledge of SAP module, overall knowledge of SAP, project implementation experience, customer communication ability, work enthusiasm and attitude … If you want to be an excellent consultant, you must do well in these aspects!

Four. The living condition of SAP consulting industry;

1.

Be prepared for hardship; Can you bear this hard work? Consultants earn a lot of money, but they are also extremely hard. Investment consultants on Wall Street and consultants of big companies always sleep only three or four hours a day for three or four days. Fortunately, SAP consultants are not so hard. In addition to the online stage, they usually work overtime until eight or nine o'clock for the project. But the problem is that everyone must have heard of the profoundness of SAP, and practitioners can't stop it, especially those who are new to this industry. ?

2.

You have to bear a lot of pressure: you will definitely experience this link. There are many demands from customers, and some of you don't know whether SAP can be realized or not, and you can't find help from others, so you have to test yourself, but you can't tell customers that you don't understand. You have to read a lot of documents and turn an unfamiliar thing into a very familiar thing in a short time.

3.

Everything depends on yourself: don't expect any help from the company, and don't expect any significant help from others. No one will patiently explain to you the various connections within SAP. Questions you ask other senior consultants should be asked by seeking confirmation. For example, you can ask:

A .. Can a special requirement be realized in the system?

B can a function be realized in a certain way, and what are the potential risks?

C. Is a requirement usually realized in this way in the system?

D have you sent any relevant documents (configuration files, operation manuals)?

Such questions are easy for others to answer your questions based on experience.

Everyone's time is precious, so you need to get information from him to confirm some of your ideas, instead of letting him tell you how to do it in detail, so you need to make more efforts to think and read some materials when preparing questions. Only in this way can your technology grow rapidly, because sometimes, excessive dependence will also form a habit.

4.

Frequent business trips: Few projects are held in our city, so business trips are commonplace. If it is a project in a nearby province or province, it is not a problem to go home every week. If you need to fly in a distant area, better companies will allow free round-trip once every two weeks, and many companies even allow free round-trip once a month.

So you can think about it, is this kind of life tolerable for you, like it, or prefer it because of high income? Be sure to consider from your own reality! I have seen some counselors' wives divorced and their girlfriends broke up because of this line of work, and some counselors' parents need to take care of them because they are old. In short, we must first weigh whether they can bear it once they live like that.

Verb (short for verb). FICO consultant's tasks at different stages.

Generally speaking, no matter what project implementation methodology is adopted, the overall project implementation process is basically the same. I have explained to you in class that there are five stages in project implementation: project preparation, blueprint design, system implementation, online preparation, system switching and online support. Let me introduce FICO's tasks at each stage:

1.

Project preparation: this stage is usually regarded as the summary of the preliminary work of the project, marked by the project kick-off meeting, including the setting of project plan, project charter, organizational structure, personnel responsibilities, project working environment, etc. At this point, the consultant has not even fully entered the project, and usually the consultant can be present when the project kick-off meeting is held.

2. Blueprint design: This stage mainly completes the design of the customer's future process. As a FICO consultant, the main things you should do are as follows:

A. SAP FICO concept training for key users and IT users.

Summarize a training, which is usually based on IDES system, mainly to let customers master the basic concepts of SAP and have a basic understanding of the operation and operation of SAP.

B.

Status Survey: Investigate the status quo of financial sub-functions such as general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, fixed assets, cost planning and accounting, and learn more about customers' needs in all aspects. At this stage, consultants should communicate frequently, so as to grasp the needs of customers more comprehensively.

C.

Blueprint design: Comparing the gap between existing processes and SAP standard processes, financial processes are usually standard, and special needs can be given special consideration. At this stage, the consultant has to write blueprint documents, which is also the stage of the biggest conflict between the client and the consultant. The key to success is to guide customers' needs and reduce their unrealistic expectations of the project.

This stage is extremely painful for junior consultants. You should spend a lot of time preparing a lot of things you don't know in your spare time to make customers trust you. You just need to be fully prepared, and these all require a lot of energy.

3.

System realization: At this stage, the process involved in blueprint design needs more technical work, that is, system configuration, to be realized in SAP system. After configuration, the consultant should conduct internal testing, and after the basic process test is no problem, the unit test and integration test should be carried out. This is the process of unit testing.

Users and key users master the starting point of detailed functions of SAP, and conduct functional tests on all business scenarios within their business scope. The unit test document is written in KEY.

The user is ready to record the test process and results, and this document is also the blueprint of the training manual in the next stage of user training. At this stage, the consultant should focus on solving key problems.

The problem of how various business processes proposed by users are represented in the system is also a problem of KEY.

User is the most important step in SAP operation training. After the unit test, the integration test will be carried out. We can test the integration between the two modules first, then solve various problems encountered in small-scale integration, and then carry out large-scale integration, which involves the main scenes of daily operation of enterprises, such as sales forecast, sales order, production plan, procurement, inventory, production, sales, collection and other business cycles, voucher display and query, document circulation and so on. This part is mainly composed of key points.

User execution; Your responsibilities at this stage are:

Work with other module consultants to configure the system and conduct internal testing.

B. Conduct unit test with key users and be responsible for solving various problems in the test.

C. training key users and IT users in basic business process operation.

D key users conduct integration tests, and are responsible for explaining the problems raised by logistics business departments and solving interface problems.

E. Settings of permission roles (there are usually templates, and I gave you a copy of this template).

F develop and test various documents and forms required by customers (communicate with ABAP).

3.

Online preparation: The main work to be done at this stage is the preparation of online data and the training of end users. Data can be divided into static data and dynamic data. Static data can also be called master data, such as customers, suppliers, materials, etc. Dynamic data is data generated by business, such as customer balance and material inventory. For FICO consultants, the static data to be prepared is nothing more than general ledger accounts, corresponding control accounts of customers and suppliers, and bank information. There is also the price information of materials, and the dynamic data is nothing more than the account balance of various accounts. As a FICO consultant, what you need to do at this stage is:

A. Provide data preparation templates to key users, and be responsible for explaining the meaning of each field of the template.

B. Check the quality of data preparation

C. Key users conduct final training for end users, and consultants are responsible for providing support.

At this stage, there will still be configurations, changes, etc. Meet the special needs of customers.

E. Online data switching strategy of the system (I once gave you the data switching strategy).

4. System switching and online support: At this stage, data is imported from the original system into the new system. For logistics business, you must first import the material master data into the system, and then import the BOM.

The technological processes, purchase orders, production orders and sales orders that have not been received have been issued. For the financial part, the most important thing is to balance the general ledger and the subsidiary ledger:

A.

Import the financial data of online time into the new system: for the balance of the general ledger inventory account, it must be reconciled with all the material value details, and the allowable variance should be recorded in the material cost variance account. The balance of fixed assets in the general ledger should be reconciled with the details of fixed assets, and accounts receivable, accounts payable, prepayments and general ledger accounts should be clearly reconciled with the balances of customers and suppliers. You can usually do it with CATT.

B. Operating cost estimation, which generates the standard price of materials from the system, so that the logistics materials can be moved and the cost information can be accurately reflected.

C.

Nissin operation after going online: After going online, all financial vouchers generated by logistics business should be checked to ensure the correct integration of logistics business and finance. Once an operation error is found, it will happen on the same day and be solved on the same day. Finance should pay special attention to the warehouse receiving and dispatching operations, wrong material prices and wrong sports types, which often have a great impact on finance. Such mistakes must be corrected and some reward and punishment measures can be taken when necessary.

D. Monthly closing support after online launch: Generally, the monthly closing of SAP system in the first month of online launch requires on-site guidance of financial consultants, and some business problems exposed during the monthly closing process need to be corrected.

E. Other support after going online: About two weeks after the system went online, the consultant left the client company, and most of the support in the future was solved by telephone, email and VPN remote connection. end

User's questions are passed on to key users and IT users.

As the internal consultant of the enterprise, users will gradually replace the role of FICO consultant, and then they will pass on the problems they can't solve to the consultant, and if the consultant can't solve them, send a message to SAP.

Seeking global support from SAP is such a help chain to ensure the normal operation of SAP system.

You'd better ask a professional training company.