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Choose a career in SAP MM or SCM APO?

Former Member
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Hi Dear my SAP friends,

I am planning to shift to SAP as a entry level functional consultant.

I have bachelor and master degree on industrial engineering and supply chain management. And I have been certified by APICS CPIM and CSCP recently. I have two years experience in manufacturing/logistics industry as inventory planner and analyst. When I was in school, I got through the SAP certification program on major ECC modules (Terp 10). However, I have never touched it after then.

Because of domain experience, I would like to pick up either SAP MM/PP or SCM APO DP/SNP as my first step in SAP. So I want to know, which practice has the highest demand and value in the market right now? APO is good, but it seems it require a lot of hands on experience in demand planning, which I do not have right now. SAP MM has been in the market for more than 20 years and I am not so sure about its market trend in next couple of years.

Can anyone give me some suggestions?

Thanks!


Sean


1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Former Member
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658

Hello Sean,

My response on the lines of current and future demand of consultants in a specific module of SAP. Remember, an organization that has already implemented an ERP solutions would normally need consultants for the new modules that it is going to implement and the requirement for consultants in the existing modules won't be many unless someone quits.

Certain modules like ( MM, SD, Logistics etc can't be ignored as they form the core activities of any business, so what I would suggest you is to take sometime and think of the module that you like the most and also see the possibilities of openings in it and then take a decision. There are many people who start with a module and the move on to others for various reasons such as (interest, demand, better prospects and $$). You are the best judge of what you should do, but after due consideration and doing a good home work.

Good Luck.

Nagarajan

6 REPLIES 6

former_member184701
Active Contributor
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658

MM is more perspective, later you'll join the APO

good luck.

former_member213836
Active Participant
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658

Hi Sean,

Since you have done APICS, CPIM and CSCP, Plus MBA in Supply Chain Management I would suggest you to choose SCM-APO/DP/SNC/SNP. You will be better be able to utilize you experience and the degree in APO rather than MM.

APO is niche skills and MM is generic. You can check the web for demand and all the related stuff.

Regards,

Niranjan

ravi_malpani
Active Participant
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658

Hi Sean,

I started as entry level functional consultant in APO. I also came in with a background of 2 years in Manufacturing (in process design) and Masters in Operations Management.

In my opinion it's not a pre-requisite to have lot of hands on experience in demand planning to work on APO. In fact, your background with CPIM and CSCP together with Masters in SCM make a perfect combination to be in APO. Initially you will have to put a lot of efforts to understand the application. An exposure to 2-3 different clients / projects in a period of 1-2 years will go a long way in defining your concepts in APO.

All the best!

Regards,
Ravi

mohsinabbasi007
Active Contributor
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658

Dear Sean,

I think you know about SAP importance very well, what i suggest you to do is to avail the opportunity in what ever Module SAP(MM, APO & SCM), Reason behind is that some time person thinks some thing else and in actual he is doing or getting opportunity other than he actually thought. You have to adapt yourself accordingly as per my experience, Only change is permanent in this world, so once you come into this field, you will definitely get more and more opportunity, where you can think lot to select. I have seen very rare persons who think of some thing and get it. At this stage you just need to avail opportunity in SAP.

I hope you get my point after reading this.

Best of Luck

Best Regards

Mohsin Abbasi

Former Member
0 Kudos
659

Hello Sean,

My response on the lines of current and future demand of consultants in a specific module of SAP. Remember, an organization that has already implemented an ERP solutions would normally need consultants for the new modules that it is going to implement and the requirement for consultants in the existing modules won't be many unless someone quits.

Certain modules like ( MM, SD, Logistics etc can't be ignored as they form the core activities of any business, so what I would suggest you is to take sometime and think of the module that you like the most and also see the possibilities of openings in it and then take a decision. There are many people who start with a module and the move on to others for various reasons such as (interest, demand, better prospects and $$). You are the best judge of what you should do, but after due consideration and doing a good home work.

Good Luck.

Nagarajan

Former Member
0 Kudos
658

I would suggest you to start with SAP MM. You mention that MM has been in market for decades and I would add that it will always remain so. On these lines, in cases like global economic downturns it is the newer "non-core" modules which lose focus of clients but the core modules like MM/PP will always be there without choice. But this may not be the only criteria to decide...

If you have to work on APO, you must have sound knowledge of MM module. It is so because most of master data of APO are maintained in ECC modules like MM! So you can not be an APO consultant without knowing MM while you can very well be an MM consultant without knowing APO. Therefore, I suggest you should have plunge into MM and may be explore its own fields like warehouse management and other niche areas. After spending some years into MM, you can better decide if you should join APO and it will be much better prepared move for you!