SAP BI or SAP FICO

[Former Member]

Hi,

I hold a Bachelors degree in computers and have a year experience in Software Developing(Used Data Warehousing). I also hold a MBA degree in Finance and currently working as a "Business Analyst" from past 6 months. Now I want to make a career in SAP, but confused whether I should go for SAP BI or SAP FICO. For a background as mine would you suggest SAP BI or SAP FICO as a successful career? Please suggest....and thanks for your suggestions in advance.

Thanks

Nikhil

[Former Member]

Hi Nikhil,

SAP FICO module deals with Finance(FI) and Controlling(CO) modules of SAP ERP system. They areintegrated with  Sales and Distribution Module ( SD) and Materials management (MM) module. SAP BI/BW are SAP Add-On Module.

In SAP, we have two roads to travel : Technical and Functional module. Think before you proceed. If you are willing to go to SAP FICO. Explore more in SAP FICO and then you can proceed. If you think if you can sail in SAP boat, definitely you can sail till the end of your career. SAP BI module involves importing data from different repositories/databases and If you are interested in that, you can proceed with that. Each and every module in SAP is having different flavour and taste.

Reference:

http://scn.sap.com/community/uac/student-council/blog/2013/11/15/guideline-for-selecting-a-sap-modul...

Actually, I am from SAP PI module and I have some idea about other modules too. Currently I heared from many consultants SAP BI is hot. You can proceed with that. If you are willing to go to SAP FICO do some more research then proceed.

All the best!

Regards

Hari Suseelan

[Former Member]

Sir,

I did some research on both the modules FICO as well as BI, and was suggested BI module even by SAP certified  institutes. (My inclination is towards BI too )

I have one last doubt in mind, is SAP BI purely technical module or is it a techno functional module.

Thanks

Nikhil

[Former Member]

Nikhil,

BI has both technical and "functional" aspects. On the more technical end, "Basis" (System Administrators) consultants install and do the software level configuration of the system and it's connectivity with other systems. There is a specialty within Basis for folks that love dealing with databases at a fundamental level (database administrators) and BI seems to need more DBA attention than other SAP components. HANA is an alternate database technology (columnar vs. traditional relational) that is newer and "hot". I don't recommend that new folks try to jump on the "hot" topics as more experience folks are also attracted to "hot" areas and have a significant advantage over new folks.

Once you get away from the bits and bytes of installing/monitoring/maintaining the DB, you get to the more "functional" roles. In ECC, this would mean that you would need to understand the business processes and the pros and cons of various approaches to help customers make decisions and then you would need to know how to convert those decisions into SAP configuration using the SAP configuration tools.

In BI, "functional" folks are generally helping to design queries on large data-sets. You'll have to understand how the data is used by the other components, the business processes, and how to get the data out in a form that is palatable to the user. This has many similarities to what ABAP report writers do in the other modules (ECC, SRM, etc) but instead of writing code, you use the query generation tools. It's less technical than ABAP because you're not coding, but more technical than traditional functional work in the other modules because you have to have a pretty good understanding of data and some understanding of user interface design to make sure the end result is palatable. You still have to have some of the traditional functional skills in blueprinting and figuring out how the BI reporting is going to fit into an overall process stream.

Some of the "functional" folks in this space are actually trained in analytics and data warehouse/data cube design. They are generally considered more "technical" and thus like to be called techno/functional.

There are also ABAPers (developers) who work in the BI space, writing extractors to get the data from the other components and such. Often developers will become "functional" BI experts, writing queries and such because the skill-set overlap is pretty high. When they do, they like to be called "techno/functional".

So in summary, while there is a range of technical and functional roles in all SAP modules, the lines between them are blurrier in the BI space, resulting in a lot of folks being called "techno/functional" who really mean different things. Makes for confusing conversations.

Hope this helps!

Best regards,

--Tom

P.S. Take advice from the institutes with a grain of salt. Some of the less ethical institutes push folks into whatever class has the least number of students and/or is starting soon so they can fill their classrooms. Those bad institutes don't seem to care about the devastation that results when someone gets trained in a module for which they have no aptitude and/or true interest. You can find some horror stories in the Blogs for folks interested in Certification or just in learning SAP functionality section of SAP Career Blog Links

-td

[Former Member]

Thanks Sir.

[former_member183424]

FICO is much better for your career as you have done MBA in finance..

First choose FI module, learn about FI module, when you got much knowledge about FI module, then go for CO module...

You can very well understand about the financial matter... So I suggest choose FI/CO module..

[Former Member]

Hi Nikhil,

In addition to the blog Mr. Hari's mentioned (Guideline for selecting a SAP Module for your Career. by Rounak Ghodke) , you may want to take a look at FAQ: What's the best module for me?

In a nutshell, you should  choose the specialty which you believe is most interesting to you (e.g.about which you are most passionate). Careers are long. Fads and market conditions are temporary. Your interest and passion is what makes your career enjoyable/successful in the long run.

Hope this helps!

Best regards,

--Tom

[Former Member]

Hi Nikhil,

I am currently working in SAP BI project. SAP BI is both technical and functional. But now a days BW on SAP HANA is newer technology which has SAP HANA as database.

Since you have done MBA in Finance, it will definitely add advantage on the aspects of understanding the functionality in core modules.

Regards,

Priyanka

[Former Member]

So is it correct to assume I should go for SAP BI (Functional) and can SAP HANA be done at a later stage.

Regards

Nikhil

[Former Member]

Yes Nikhil.

I would suggest you should go for SAP BI (Functional ) and then SAP HANA.