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SAP Career Questions for B2B Workforce, May 2008 edition I have been an SAP techno-functional consultant for the past 10 years. I have worked in various modules. I wanted to move to completely functional. Although I don't have direct experience in configuration, I know practically most of the settings. I am basically an Industrial Engineer and love Manufacturing. (I have been mostly in manufacturing industries) I wanted to move into SAP SCM/APO - the 5.0 version seems to be the latest and greatest as a functional. I was planning on doing the certification as well next month. I wanted to know if there are opportunities out there for people like me...little experience on paper, but hands on project experience on PP and various modules. JR: This is a great question because it raises so many different issues that are of importance to SAP professionals: the technical-to-functional transition, the marketability of supply chain management, the value of certification, and the importance of configuration skills. Let's take a look at each one of these. You are not unlike many SAP professionals in that your "end destination" is different than your current role. Whenever you are trying to move into a role that is different from the one you have now, you may be talking about more than one job change. For example, moving from technical to functional as a PP person is one job change, moving from PP to APO is another job change. You might be able to make both those moves at the same time, but if you have trouble, then break them down and make one move at a time. The lesson here is: go for your ultimate job first, but if that doesn't work out, don't get discouraged. At that point, break it down and pursue the next step in your skills evolution. In your case, you may have some difficulty becoming an APO consultant overnight. Why? Because you don't have hard core functional configuration skills yet. Even though you have picked up some of these skills on the fly, you really need to have strong configuration skills to succeed as a functional consultant in today's market. So if you have any trouble landing the ultimate job you are seeking, then I would suggest making the transition to PP functional first, and get the configuration skills on that side where you already have some strong experience. Once you are totally functional, with excellent configuration skills, you could look again at pursuing the APO product if that is where your true interests lie. The thing you want to take away from this is that the less companies have to train you from day one on the job, the better your chance of landing the role you seek. In the case of a PP functional role, you already know enough to hit the ground running. You have mentioned the idea of APO certification as a way of jump starting this process. Although I think that certification can be overrated as a way of breaking into SAP, I do think it is a very useful investment for experienced SAP professionals like yourself who are trying to break into new areas. Just be forewarned that the certification you obtain may not lead to an immediate career opportunity. Think of it more as a long term investment, a way to expand your knowledge base and market connections. If that way of looking at certification works for you, then I think certification could help you. Finally, you ask about SCM and APO. APO is a tricky area to recommend because it is mostly dominated by senior consultants. Its very product but also complex. For that reason, I don't think of APO as the ideal destination for SAP consultants who don't already have deep APO skills. Remember that SAP SCM is an umbrella product - there are three official products underneath it: APO (Advanced Planner and Optimizer), EM (Event Management), and ICH (Inventory Collaboration Hub). Although there are not many jobs for EM and ICH yet, it may be that you can get in on the ground floor with "ACH" more than APO, since it is such a new product. I find ICH appealing because it is a web-based inventory collaboration product, and Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) is one of the key components. VMI is a growth area, and from what I understand so far, the implementations for VMI are not as extensive as APO, so that's appealing to SAP Managers who feel pressure to show a solid ROI for their projects sooner rather than later. Also remember that the way SAP positions SCM, it includes a number of components that we can think of as enhanced ERP. After all, doesn't supply chain management also include warehouse management, transportation and distribution? It may be that these areas, all part of the classic ERP product, are more fruitful areas to explore. Companies are feeling an urgency about optimizing their logistics execution, and the APO piece might be a later part of that strategy they would pursue down the line, whereas enhanced logistics and distribution might be more of an immediate priority. I like how you are determined to pursue the area of SAP you are most passionately interested in, that's something many people overlook in favor of just chasing what's hot. In your case, you are passionate about supply chain management, but within that broad area, you now want to spend more time determining which SAP products are most in demand within SCM. APO may well be your final destination, but I suspect you will find some other SCM stepping stones worth mastering along the way. What is the project management career path for a technical SAP consultant? JR: SAP project management is an interesting career path. In the early stages, you don't have to do anything different than any other hands-on SAP consultant. You start by taking hand-on assignments, either on an hourly or salaried basis. But, once you are clear on your goal of getting into SAP project management, then you need to start changing your trajectory. Your next step is to focus on taking team lead consultant positions. Even if you have to take a lower rate (unlikely) or travel farther (more likely) to get that first team lead exposure, go for it. The goal is to get that first team lead assignment under your belt. Of course, when you reach the point where you are ready for team lead positions, you don't have to remain a consultant; you could take a perm position as well. The path from team lead to project management will now take you away from hourly work in most cases. It's very rare for companies to hire project managers on an hourly basis, especially those looking for their first break. Your options are twofold: you can go for a project management position working full time for an SAP customer, or you can pursue a similar role with an SAP consultancy. When in doubt, I would go for the project management role with an outside consultancy. This will give you more exposure to SAP implementation methodologies over the course of multiple projects - a real resume builder! Now, you may be wondering if you have to move away from your hands-on SAP skills to become a project manager. In most cases, the answer to that question is yes. That's why you need to do a real gut-check when you reach that point in your career and ask yourself if that is going to be the right move for you. Once you leave your hands-on SAP skills behind, it's not easy to get back into that part of the game. I've seen many try, and it's not simple. So you want to make sure you are ready to make that project management transition before you accept that first "hands-off" position. Of course, there are some project management roles that allow you to keep a hands-on aspect as well. In my experience, project management roles at midsize SAP companies are the ones most likely to have the flexibility to allow you to wear many hats and keep doing the hands-on work also. Project management is not for everyone, obviously, and I have simplified the stepping stones to get it all in one career question. One thing I recommend if you want to be an SAP project manager in this day and age is to make sure you have a strong financial education also. You need to understand the ROI (Return on Investment) objectives of the projects you are on. As important as it is for technical SAP project managers to stay on top of all the latest NetWeaver tools, I think some "boardroom savvy" really pays off for those technical project managers who want to be viewed as a strategic asset and not a "line item expense." My final comment is that once you reach the SAP project management level, you face another fork in the road, or, in my view, three forks. One option is simply to stay at the project management level, where you can thrive for a decade or more. The other two forks depend on whether you are pursuing project management roles from the vantage point of a consulting firm or an SAP end customer. From an SAP end customer perspective, the CIO-level role is obviously the destination if you want to keep moving up. On the service and delivery side, a "partner level" role, or its equivalent, could be the objective. Of course, I'm simplifying these choices greatly - many SAP project managers have gone on to start their own third party software and or service firms also. I hope this answer gave you a better sense of how to approach project management from a technical perspective. Ask the SAP Career Expert Archive