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Confusion Between SAP Module Selection

Former Member
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665

Hi SAP Gurus/Experts/Friends and Colleagues,

I am looking for doing something is SAP as my career. However I am a pretty confused with the so many SAP products. I am giving you following details along with my queries and confusion.

Academic Qualification

CA Intermidiate

B.Com (Hons)

Commerce with Maths

* Always been good in practical subjects like Accounts, Mathematics & Income Tax...etc.

Work Qualification

8 years plus experience in Accounting domain for General Accounting- Profile Closing Reporting and Reconciliation

Skills & Behavior

1) Good with numbers however I am good with number not because I like but because I am good with Logical Thinking.

2) Pretty good with  Excel in terms of speed and logical thinking over data

3) Although I am from accounting background but I am always inclined towards IT more I grab and learn and understand computer interface very quickly. Something which I see if its related to computer grabs in my mind so quick I guess its all because of my love towards IT

4) People in my team call me tech guru/ excel guru/as I always possess more information for IT related stuff and help them in that regard. For all my computer related knowledge is not from any course but from practical learning from people like you who taught me and guided me.

5) Little knowledge about VBA. Can create macros, read VBA code a little bit and mould it for my own use. However not in a great scale or indepth level.

6) I get bore doing same kind of work and need some breath and a slight change after every 1.5 years or so.. and urge gets in to learn something new or new task or new research is the major reason.

7) I love to learn stuff if it is related to IT specially.

😎 My team says I am a great teacher as well coz the way I explain them is not taught by any one else. Believe me I have got to know this from many. This is because when I understand thing I understand it in some way and I teach them the same way and help them to answer their own.

Now I read forum contains peoples views on SAP hot module. Many people has advised to do SAP HANA,BI and BO along with some functional module. Can you please help If I am capable to learn HANA, BI and BO. What basic programming language need to learn to understand HANA, BI and BO better? I thought BI and BO same. Aint it? and it it easy to get expertise in HANA, BI and BO.

From some goggling I got to know I should be doing SAP FICO and I downloaded videos for SAP FICO. Not to offend any one and sorry for my little knowledge. What I understood and observed is that its like creating companies books in SAP. Like creating company, entity currency, fiscal calender, assigning rights, chart of accounts etc. Its seems easy and a little monotonous to me. Where there is no scope for research or learning. Like if anything or any account is behaving wrong I cannot see what could went wrong in back end because of which its an error or like this. Here what support people come into picture.

I am looking to learn and make my career in module where Either I have been assigned some SAP project and instructed me to work on it complete and then move it to next assignments for more learning and challenges. OR I am employed by any company for support like one of my friend which is basically from IT and is having experience in database administration for Linux based accounting software called Putty in Australia and on long term assignment in support for Client called Woolworths (big known company) in Sydney for 2-3 years. I am not saying I need out of country job but where I can works as a support team. An another little known frnd works in wipro and is in SAP BI.. haven't got much to hear from him but he says he works on something called crystal reports and now gets a good salary package and small support assignments as well.

This is the maximum I could elaborate my dilemma.

I request everyone to find sometime to read this and help me to guide over my confusion. I would appreciate your valuable suggestion to build my career in SAP.

Regards

Rahul

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Former Member
0 Kudos
494

Hello Rahul,

Imagine there is a hot new sport called CriBaseball, which is a hybrid of Cricket and Baseball. The new leagues are forming up and all of the teams are desparately looking for the best players. Now... who has the best chance of getting a slot on the team? Is it someone who has played neither Baseball nor Cricket professionally but maybe has some experience playing one or the other with some guys in the neighborhood? Or is it rather someone who has played pro or semi- professionally in either Cricket or Baseball for the last 10 years?

I think we can both agree that the pro/semi-pro player has the edge. This is why it is fairly useless to ask "What is hot in the market right now?" It's hot because the companies all need someone with that skillset or something very close to that skillset, right now. They don't want someone who has heard about it, or been trained on it but never had any experience. They want serious, hard-core professionals who either have that exact experience or have closely related experience.

Yes, you could learn HANA, Business Objects, and/or Business Warehouse, but you don't really have the background to support it. You seem to know mostly FICO. Play to your strengths. Perhaps SAP FICO will come as easily to you as you seem to think, but talk to some experienced SAP FICO consultants and you'll probably find that they all say that any given module in SAP is 100 miles wide and 100 miles deep. There's plenty there to keep you actively learning for years to come.

As for the lifestyle you have identified: yes, those are basically the two options. Either get a job as back-office support troubleshooting SAP and/or configuring SAP for small projects or get a job as an SAP Consultant and move from customer to customer implementing SAP FICO. The problem will be getting your initial break into the business. Again, employers want to hire folks who already have the SAP skills rather than hire someone who only has SAP training but no practical experience.

The Training Institutes will tell you that all you need is to pay them a large sum of money, take their training class, and get SAP Certified to get a job. This is not generally true. Do some searching on this site for the word "institute" and you'll find post after post of folks who quit their jobs, got certified, and then spent long months, if not years waiting to get even an interview.

Use the skills you have to get a job at a company which runs SAP, even if your initial job is only as an end user and slowly and deliberately push your career into jobs with more and more involvement. It will take time, but it is likely the best approach.

I hope this helps!

Best regards,

  --Tom

10 REPLIES 10

Former Member
0 Kudos
495

Hello Rahul,

Imagine there is a hot new sport called CriBaseball, which is a hybrid of Cricket and Baseball. The new leagues are forming up and all of the teams are desparately looking for the best players. Now... who has the best chance of getting a slot on the team? Is it someone who has played neither Baseball nor Cricket professionally but maybe has some experience playing one or the other with some guys in the neighborhood? Or is it rather someone who has played pro or semi- professionally in either Cricket or Baseball for the last 10 years?

I think we can both agree that the pro/semi-pro player has the edge. This is why it is fairly useless to ask "What is hot in the market right now?" It's hot because the companies all need someone with that skillset or something very close to that skillset, right now. They don't want someone who has heard about it, or been trained on it but never had any experience. They want serious, hard-core professionals who either have that exact experience or have closely related experience.

Yes, you could learn HANA, Business Objects, and/or Business Warehouse, but you don't really have the background to support it. You seem to know mostly FICO. Play to your strengths. Perhaps SAP FICO will come as easily to you as you seem to think, but talk to some experienced SAP FICO consultants and you'll probably find that they all say that any given module in SAP is 100 miles wide and 100 miles deep. There's plenty there to keep you actively learning for years to come.

As for the lifestyle you have identified: yes, those are basically the two options. Either get a job as back-office support troubleshooting SAP and/or configuring SAP for small projects or get a job as an SAP Consultant and move from customer to customer implementing SAP FICO. The problem will be getting your initial break into the business. Again, employers want to hire folks who already have the SAP skills rather than hire someone who only has SAP training but no practical experience.

The Training Institutes will tell you that all you need is to pay them a large sum of money, take their training class, and get SAP Certified to get a job. This is not generally true. Do some searching on this site for the word "institute" and you'll find post after post of folks who quit their jobs, got certified, and then spent long months, if not years waiting to get even an interview.

Use the skills you have to get a job at a company which runs SAP, even if your initial job is only as an end user and slowly and deliberately push your career into jobs with more and more involvement. It will take time, but it is likely the best approach.

I hope this helps!

Best regards,

  --Tom

0 Kudos
494

Hi Thomas,

I hope your are doing well.

First of all many thanks for your prompt reply. Now coming to the topic, I must appreciate your way to provide solution. If I summarize your answer I can say that you have emphasized on the practical experience more than just the bookish knowledge. Thats what I have always believed in. Infact whatever I have learnt today, wherever I am and whatever I am earning is all because of my practical experience more than what I have studied. However in your overall answer you have slightly missed some of my personality traits. Your answer mainly focused on my query.

Yes I agree I have seen many people who have done SAP certification and are sitting Idle for many months. To be very honest, I certainly cannot leave my job.. I am the only person my family and my family economy is dependent on. Due to this factor I have also stopped taking risk. So I cannot take risk of quitting job however I am ready to take calculated risk. Here what I thought. I will try to learn from the videos available on the net along with basic fundamental courses from near by small Institutes. Then I will look for part time jobs in SAP where I am ready to work for free of cost coz I want to gain practical experience. I have heard Big companies help their employees to get certified at their cost. so may be I don't need go for the certification of my own. Will see it later.

To be very honest I understand practical more quickly then to bookish knowledge.I would be lucky if someone will hire me part time to assist in SAP where I will learn and I don't need money for that

Coz thats a give an take.

Please help me to understand what basic programming language I need to learn in order to go for SAP HANA, BI and BO course? Is there a difference between BI and BO? Can you please help me to introduce any of your senior consultant in SAP FICO? I know in now a days world no body is god father and no one would help me to get a job in SAP however I would be thankful if they can help me with the information. Thats would be enough rest of on my Fate, Passion and Hardwork.

Once again thanks a lot for your valuable suggestion. I am looking for same valuable answers from you and your friends and colleagues networked in this portal or may be anonymously .

Regards

Rahul

Former Member
0 Kudos
494

Can anyone contact Ravi Sankar Venna Sir... to shed some lights over this...please

Colleen
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
0 Kudos
494

Hi Rahul

Please have some patience in this community. You received a very detailed and well thought out response from Thomas. You will not get told exactly how to approach activities here. Have you looked through this space and read up on what others have asked?

The main question you ask - and have asked in a few times is trying to know if BW and BO are the same thing. They are not but they do compliment each other.

As you identify yourself as strong on practicalities, perhaps you could Google or Search SCN and SAP website for an overview of what SAP BW and Business Objects Analytics actually is.

If your were to search you will find a wealth of information. As a hint, you searching might have you stumble on Open SAP and Learning Hub Discover (the price of learning is free in these places).

Regards

Colleen

0 Kudos
494

Thanks Colleen,

Thomas Sir comments are precious to me infact everyone who have spent some valuable time over my query is important.. and I am thankful for his thoughts. I am awaiting his reply. I appreciate if you can try to answer my query too.. from your experiences.

I just checked Ravi Sir Profile. I feel he can also share some good information and tips in this regard.

Regards

Rahul

Colleen
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
0 Kudos
494

Hi Rahul

Yes he is very knowledgeable and helpful but so too are many others on the community. He is quite active and if he felt he could contribute (and may just yet) then he will join in without being called up

Good luck on your discovery and learnings. Thank you for taking the effort and setting a high standard on the type of background information to provide. It makes is easier for others to jump in with advise.

Regards

Colleen

0 Kudos
494

Sorry Rahul, I was away last three days and back from Paris yesterday late night.

Being a finance professional, I would not suggest anything other than FICO at the moment. SAP FICO is the good starting point for you. Probably, if you have couple of years in this area, then based on your interested, you may look into BPC considering your interest in VB. Going to BI/BO or any other skills may not be right for your at the moment. If you are really interested, you learn BO along with BPC.

As most of these BI/BO/BPC always refer to SAP FICO fundamentals. Therefore, your FICO is the base module in order to develop your skills.

Hope this helps you.

Kind Regards,

Ravi

0 Kudos
494

I need to ask few questions.. I hope you can help me with..

It's seems SAP FICO is a one time work for any organization.  Once you are done with set up ledgers for client in SAP and integrate it with other module, your work is done... Would there be any thing where sap Consultant can stick with the client for long term in terms of support?  And what kind of support a sap Consultant can provide?

Where as BI has more chances to support client as the client may need various customised reports for which they need support time to time..  Please advise and comment on my understanding...

And many thanks for finding time for my thread and helping me with this..

0 Kudos
494

Hope the following blog would give you good idea about implementation and support processes.

SAP FICO is not a one time job. Being a consultant you will not be associated with one client for life time. If you are with consulting firm, then you need to move and work with different clients. In addition, SAP System is like white elephant, you need to support, there are number of issue that you would see in the system. If is NOT that you implemented then everything is correct. You need to improve the system and fix the error and map new business requirements into the system. Therefore, this is a continuous process.

Whether BI or FICO, both will have future work after implementation, it is based on the requirement. FICO is one time job is myth. You need to support the system for life time.

Hope this helps.

Former Member
0 Kudos
494

Hi Rahul,

You can choose SAP FICO module as you already pursuing CA that would give a great advantage and take your career in a strong way.

Always there is a room for new modules when SAP introduce but SAP FICO saturated and long standing module and pretty good strong long runner.  It means there is no end for this SAP FICO module even for new any SAP Modules.

My previous colleagues who have done CA and become SAP Consultant.  Now they have more than 8 years of experience in SAP.

Always go with what you have already worked / know instead of trying new ones because it takes years to understand basic things in other modules.  SAP FICO is vast so it would take many years to understand full business processes in though, you are very strong in Accounting.

Best of luck.

Regards

GGOPII