still working with SAP, 20 years and counting, still in the game!

Not been here in a while!!! Lots has happened since then, got fed up working for my old company, my skills were dying, this has to be a lesson in the SAP world, you have to keep on moving to make sure you stay on top with your skills, since my last post, i changed jobs, moved to an SAP consultancy, right now, i am on my 2nd assignment doing SAP SD retail, first time i am working with retail so its a fresh challenge and change from the norm, working for a top 5 clothing company in the world, household brand in Europe, Americas and Asia, i work in a department that ensures articles, prices, promotions are sent to stores daily and at the end of the day, we receive sales information back into SAP and we distribute this data to BI and other platforms, going to be interesting, should make my CV very attractive after a year or 2!

a ''white'' man an angel?? hmmm so a black man cant be an agel? that man must stay off crack!!!

SAP is big business world wide, it is not for the faint hearted!! even in the UK, prospective SAP consultants complain about lack of opportunities, a career that is well paid will typically be hard for anyone to break in

How to transform yourself from a fresher to an expert SAP Consultant?
Posted by Ravi Sankar Venna in SAP Certification on Jul 3, 2013 7:39:34 AM

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You cannot transform yourself from a fresher to an expert SAP Consultant in overnight. It needs lot of commitment, dedication, sacrifice, effort, expertise and ability to become a reliable SAP Consultant. Unfortunately, there is no short cut to achieve this. Many people are of the opinion that the SAP Certification would bridge this gap however, in fact, it is not. SAP Certification would probably give you a better marketability, however, it does not make you complete SAP Consultant. For that matter, none of the Certifications in the market can you make you an expert consultant . Many people have asked me that they are interested in SAP and wanted to know how to become a good SAP Consultant? Unfortunately, there is no short cut to become an expert SAP Consultant. There could be some people who followed short cut methods to become SAP Consultants, however, unfortunately, those consultants are only paper consultants. SAP Consultant jobs are lucrative, at the same time, they are mixed with hard work, lot of sacrifices, enormous amount of reading and flexibility to adopt new situations. Those consultants who have the real passion can only become the recognized consultants, remaining all become just workers working for salary. Your reputation lies in your hands by helping the people across the borders. You need to stretch yourself to level of helping people with selflessness and give them the real guidance possible.



There are number of qualities that are required to become a successful SAP Consultant. good education, business process knowledge, good configuration skills, communication, team playing, understanding the business needs, quality documentation, reading ability, sharing knowledge and many more. A certification cannot make you a successful consultant in a day, however, it would help you in your life long career journey. Nothing can replace your hard work. To become a great SAP consultant is a long term process, learning new points on a daily basis and constructing a palace of knowledge over a period is key to your success. The way SAP is coming up with new technologies, it is always difficult for the consultants to maintain that pace throughout their career. If you have a great listening quality, then you will always be open to learn new things. Learning is a process of life and there is no end to it. It is the greatest quality of any good quality SAP consultant. Furthermore, you should always willing to share the knowledge, rather than hiding it in your head. Many SAP consultants, lacking this great quality. The more you share, your knowledge would be doubled, unlike money.



Many people have asked me how I can become a good SAP Consultant. My only answer is passion. Without passion, we cannot be successful in what we do. I see myself SAP Consultancy is also skill like swimming. Before I learn swimming, I was always wondering how the people swim. Though I was so passionate for swimming, I did not know how to swim it. Once I learned swimming, then compete with other people and learning all other new skills. Similarly, the people who aspiring to become a good SAP Consultant, also must be wonder, how can they become a good SAP Consultant. Read as much as you can, practice whenever you find time and listen to what mentors are saying. Never feel you have reached a pinnacle once you become a SAP Consultant. Becoming SAP Consultant is not the end of story, it is the start of new life and new journey. New life also gives you more challenges, more awards, rewards, and sacrifices to achieve what you want in life. Learning new skill is always a challenge, to become a master in that skill it would take years together. Therefore, to become a great consultant, learn SAP with authority and do not keep any gaps in conceptual knowledge and basic fundamentals. If your fundamentals are strong, then you can build a great palace.



Many people try to fake / exaggerate their CVs to become consultants. Never try to do such things. It would hunt you for life. What you know is what you know. What you do not know is what you do not know. There is always a tomorrow to learn something new and exciting. There is no shame to accept that you do not know something. There is no hard and fast rule that you should know everything in this world. It is unlikely and not possible. There are also many people who are really reluctant to share their knowledge. Furthermore, they would discourage the people who are intending to share the knowledge with true spirit. Forget about SAP Consultant, being a social animal, every individual in the society has an ethical responsibility to share something and help the society. The life is only fruitful when you share something to this world and help the fellow human beings. If we are only taking and fail to give anything back to the society, then there is no difference between animal and us.



Though following qualities are not comprehensive list to become a good SAP consultant, however, they would immensely helpful in their life long journey.







Good Education



Strong Education is the great foundation for any knowledge based profession. Just becoming a graduate or becoming a MBA is not everything, cannot be called as a good education. Always stretch yourself to toughest professional courses, which will take your knowledge levels to a new a level. Always try for the new professional courses, which test the waters. You should have a zeal from the childhood to have good education. Good education does not mean that studying in great B-schools. Good education always comes from within the individual, that spirit would push you towards learning new skills, subjects and technologies. Unless, you have strong inclination towards learning and education, it is always not possible to become a good consultant. For example, if you are a chartered accountant or management accountant, it would always immensely help you to become a good financial consultant.



Business Process Knowledge



Good SAP consultant should always have sound business process knowledge. What is this business process knowledge? The process surrounded at each business activity / item. To make it simpler, when you are working in an organisation, you would see number of jumbling words. For example, credit note, debit note, invoice, bank statement, good received note, inventory control, stock taking, balance sheet, profit and loss account, trail balance, purchase returns, production, planning, forecasting, budget, cash flow statement, cost sheet, funds flow, standard cost, marginal cost, fixed cost, materials, purchases, hedging, negotiable instruments, inter-bank clearing, banking operations, petty cash, procurement, purchase order, purchase requisition and what not. Now the question is how can I improve my business process knowledge? Business processes are dynamic and need not necessarily they are same within the industry. It may change from company to company. You need to understand each such word in detail and understand the business process flow surrounded by it. The important things to know is what is the triggering point for this activity and what are the subsequent business activities that are going to be followed. If you work, on these items, over a period of time, you would get good base of business process knowledge.




Configuration Skills



Configuration Skills are the most important skills for any SAP Consultant. Unless, you master in this area, you are not going to get the confidence in any project and you will be dependent on other people. You should be master yourself not only just configuring the system, but also needs to understand the impact from end user point of view. There are number of consultants reluctant to put their hands on the key board, however, intended to become master consultants, that is never going to be happened. I have observed number of consultants, they would never take the ownership of doing anything on SAP system, however, sit next to you by just watching and talking. If you are going into that mode, you are never going to be a SAP Consultant. The number of times you are going to configure and follow the business process / end user documents, it would give great confidence. Therefore, try to gather configuration documents and do as much practice as you can. Exploring the options in system gives you enough confidence, as the troubleshooting skills are very required for SAP Consulting profession.





SAP Help



SAP Help is like a Bible. Every day start reading sap help. http://help.sap.com SAP help is written with utmost care by experts. The more number of times that you are reading it would give enormous conceptual clarity. Whatever be level of your skill and knowledge in SAP, you should never forget reading SAP Help. SAP Consultants who mastered has spent thousands of hours reading this. You need to have many years reading on daily basis and it is not an easy job. Many people find it difficult to read huge amount of text regularly and religiously. At one point when the consultants become good in their own area, they tend to ignore reading this. They would refer only as and when required. However, in my opinion, reading SAP Help is habit that needs to be practiced in case if you need to transform yourself to a great consultant.





SAP Community Network






Over the years, SAP Community Network http://scn.sap.com/ has transformed itself to a rich source of SAP knowledge. SAP should itself feel proud of what a great platform that they have created to bring together the thousands of consultants across the globe. Points etc. has motivated number of people to contribute to the great extent. More than points, it is knowledge that is being shared through forums, articles, blogs, videos etc. are really amazing. Without being part of SAP Community Network, I do not consider you as a SAP Consultant. You may be highly knowledgeable, however, without that being shared for the community, there is really not much value. I do not think you would get any better platform to share your knowledge than this and get recognized. It is always worth to contribute / read the forums on a daily basis. This good habit would keep yourself with good amount of knowledge. Please do not only ask questions, try to share / answer whatever you can. There are number of people only tend to ask questions, but never tend to give answers. This is a very bad practice, life is to share and help. Just asking questions would make you nowhere.










Service Market Place






There is no better place than Service Market Place https://service.sap.com for SAP Consultants. It is really surprising to know that there are many certified consultants who do not even know where to login and how to login to this great resource. I understand you need to have the logon credentials to access this, if you do not have one, please ask your SAP Basis administrators. If you are already certified, please ask SAP Education / Help Desk, they would give your password. There is not just one type of document. For everything, you would be asked to refer a particular SAP Note, without having access to this, you could never know what the Note says. This is not just for referring notes, when you need to raise OSS (Online SAP Support) notes for your customers. It is not just limited to these things, it has everything. I cannot imagine a SAP consultant without having access to this great place.





SAP Best Practices Building Blocks






Being new to the consultant world, people tend to configure the system and test end user transactions how it works. However, there is no idea where to start and how to integrate between various modules. SAP Best Practices Building blocks would give a great amount of confidence to the consultant, as they provide the detailed configuration documents, business process documents and scenario overviews etc. The following link would be helpful. There are different versions of it. It contains guides across industry / country. If you have problem in accessing the following links, use Internet Explorer (IE) rather than google chrome browser. If you configure various scenarios in your demo system and test as per the business process documents, then your confidence levels will be immensely increased. The number of times you configure various scenarios, you would be mastered in that area.



http://help.sap.com/bp_bl604/BL_DE/html/Content_Library_BL_EN_DE.htm

http://help.sap.com/bp_bblibrary/470/BBlibrary_start.htm


















Networking






21st Century has started with Professional Networking / Social Network. You cannot imagine anybody without having linkedin / twitter / facebook. You always need to maintain the network and develop them over a period. Being knowledgeable is half of your task, whereas maintaining professional network is the other half. Both are like two sides of the same coin. Linkedin the best professional network site, everybody should have one and keep your profile up to date. You profile is the snapshot of your skills, education and achievements etc. If you give a name of a person, people tend to search in linkedin. If you do not have linkedin account, then they would think either you are fake or you do not exist. It is really awful to work in a professional organisation and do not have an up to date linkedin account. Personally, if I cannot see a person in linkedin, I surely believe, that person is a fake. Therefore, please update your linkedin profile, have good professional network and try to get recommendations from others.











Sharing Knowledge






There are number of people who are very reluctant to share their knowledge. You will only be recognized when you share your knowledge with your clients, colleagues and the community around you. If you do not share your knowledge, the knowledge inside you will be rusted over a period of time. Therefore, always open to learn to new things at the same go for an extra mile to share the knowledge with others. I have been negatively criticized by some of my friends / colleagues for writing blogs. When the whole world is writing blogs, why cannot we? I may not be expert in writing blogs, if anybody is being motivated with my blog, the very purpose of my task is accomplished. It is not required to have great amount of knowledge to share, but you should have wonderful heart. If you just work for yourself, earn yourself and educate yourself, then you would never get an identity in the world. Remove every barrier around you and start using your fullest potential to share the knowledge.










Communication Skills



Last, but not the least is Communication Skills. 90% of success to your career is dependent on your communications. Do not underestimate the power of communication skills in your career. It is not that everybody would have great amount of communication skills. It all depends on the natural skills, environment you grown up, the education you have undertaken etc. If you think you do not have them, then try to develop over a period of time. Communication Skills are not just talking in English, being a SAP Consultant you should always learn to talk both in Business Language and Technical Language. When you go to client places, it is always expected to talk to them in business language. At the same you should also have good command on the technical abilities when you are conveying to the other consultants. Nobody is perfect in this world, keep pushing yourself to fill the gaps in this area.

whats the latest in your SAP career, this thread is quiet, have people realised that there are no cutting corners in the SAP world, have people realised SAP career can take up to 10 years before you start earning decent money?? whats your thoughts?

thats really good but the inevitable will surely happen one day!! I am happy that at least he has lived past all his oppressors, 27 years in prison and came out stronger, thats my hero!!

@BAKAREAAT: dont give up! i know it could be frustrating, every SAP consultant has been through that cycle of hardship, actually that is when you know good things are about to happen! i have been 6 months out of work before, know a few consultants with the same situation, is your linkedin profile up to date?? have yuou tried the likes of careerjet? jobserve? planet recruit? i will suggest you need to build a good profile on these websites, it is likely a client could sponsor your visa, you could certainly look at other African countries like South Africa, Angola, even the middle east have loads of SAP opportunities, you should channel you energy into doing some research, getting CV up to date, networking on linkedin, building contacts, surely an opportunity will definitely come, I have explained in previous threads why it is might be difficult to get an SAP contract in Nigeria, what these multi-national companies do is outsource the implementation partners to foreign firms, usually Indian who bring in their own experts, i mean, think about the perks, daily rates of up to 1000 US dollars a day depending on expertise, housing, expenses, flights, maybe a bonus, so these people are highly unlikely to let others come in, especially Nigerian consultants, this does not apply to everyone, there are certainly many Nigerians SAP consultants with good project experience and have good jobs in Nigeria, you have built your platform which is the certification, now build on that, i dont have any certification and i dont intend to take the exams unless it becomes a major requirement, i do have over 14 years experience, this is what gets the roles, not pieces of paper, remember SAP certification is multiple choice questions, answer some correctly, pass mark like 50%, you are in there! does this offer you real life experience? no! if certifcations were based on real life situations, like a would be consultant actually taking part in a project through its life cycle phase, that will be a better judge of a consultant capabilities, maybe SAP need to change their exam format, too many people are passing the exams, so it seems it has become almost worthless if you ask me, back in the early 90s, an SAP certification was to kill for! pass and you got an instant job, same with MCP, MCSE, CISCO, internet boom era, that period has sadly come to pass, real life begins

hope this helps!!!

top 10 myths about SAP certification!!! hope this helps people who are any illusion that passing SAP certification is the road to untold riches!!



SAP Certification has helped many individuals to achieve their career goals. Many consultants have achieved decent breakthrough in SAP arena or updated their current skill set. SAP Certification is not the ultimate the thing in your career. There is definitely something beyond this. By saying this, I would like to point out some of the myths regarding the SAP Certification. I am in no way disputing the value of SAP Certification and it has its own merits, as I have done 6 different certifications from SAP. These are purely my personal opinion and I would like to invite if there are any contradicting views. There might have been many websites discussed regarding this topic. Any overlapping with my thoughts is just coincidental.






1. SAP is Certification will give definite job guarantee






Many people are with the intention; passing SAP Certification will give them a definite job. SAP Certification has helped many people, particularly in the past, to achieve their goals in their career and cherished their dreams. That does not mean that SAP Certification will give guaranteed job for everybody who has passed. Having said this, people going for SAP Certification, it is recommended to have the domain knowledge in particular functional area. In the initial booming days of SAP, many people are able to achieve the jobs based on SAP Certification, but those days are gone now. The number of certified consultants got increased day by day in the market and the companies are more matured to look for practical experience rather than just a certification. If the people think that just passing SAP certification will give a guaranteed job, then they may have to rethink.






2. SAP Certification will give you definite & good ROI



There is no standard yardstick that every SAP Certification will give you a good Return on Investment (ROI). SAP Certification might have helped many when they are intending to jump into SAP Consulting Career or a job in SAP market. Nowadays, the skills are getting redundant very quickly; hence, each certification may not give you good amount of ROI. There are many people invested huge amounts into SAP Certification by taking bank loans, but miserably failed to get any returns out of it. Please do not be under the impression, if you go to SAP Training for 5 weeks and pass the Certification you may recoup the investment within a year or so. It may definitely not happen in all the cases. You should be prepared to see the other side of the coin.



3. In order to get a SAP Job - SAP Certification is a must






There are many people in the market who are non certified, earning good amount of money than the Certified Consultants. Therefore, Certification is not a must for you to fetch a job in the market. However, if there are two people shortlisted with the similar skills and experience, probably, in such situations, the Certification will give you an edge. Otherwise, the customers are looking for the people who can effectively deliver the goods without certification. It is not my intention to tell that the certified people are incompetent. You will find number of knowledgeable people in Certified Community. You will also find many people who believe they are extraordinary in their own area of SAP, but failed when it comes to passing SAP Certification. Then they start blaming the SAP Certification itself or the people who have passed the SAP Certification (LOL).



4. With SAP Certification - you will be successful in interview






SAP Certification courses are structured in systematic way, hence, it gives you very good fundamental knowledge regarding the concepts. They would be really helpful in order to pass your SAP Certification, if you go through the curricula in a religious manner. However, this will not give you any guarantee that you are going to be successful in an interview. Reason could be the interviews might have been conducted on different parameters to see your overall skills, but not just your Certification. Certification may keep you in better position to explain the fundamental knowledge gained during the course of Certification, but it may not meet all the expectations of an interview. Even with certification under your belt, you do not even know what type of questions the interviewer is asking for.



5. With SAP Certification - you will deliver the customer commitments






SAP Certification is a good starting point in your journey of career. It would give you good knowledge about the functionality of the system. Particularly, if you are fresher in SAP area, it would take some years to understand complete end to end business processes. By the time, you might have completed few projects. But even you will feel that you are missing the overall view of such complexity in the system. Probably, SAP Certification will give you knowledge in a particular area. Whereas, SAP is tightly integrated system between different modules, so you may not be able to visualise the total picture. With number of projects under your belt over a period of time, you will gain such high level knowledge. If your current role expects to go beyond your certification to deliver the commitments from other modules, you may feel the pain. But, definitely, you need to take this an opportunity to learn new things.



6. SAP Certification will give you "high-paying" jobs






There is a misconception that as soon as you are certified by SAP, you will get “high paying” job immediately. There are number of certified consultants failed to make an entry into SAP area. In my opinion, they are mainly unsuccessful because they have viewed SAP as a 25 days course. It only helped them to put that SAP Certification in their in CV in bold and italic. Except very few lucky people, many number of certified consultants are really struggled a lot to make an entry into SAP consulting world, including me not an exception to this. If somebody is thinking that SAP Certification will give you an immediate “high paying” SAP job, probably, you are under the misconception.






7. SAP Certification is an ultimate thing in your career






Many people think that doing SAP Certification is ultimate thing in life. When you are on a learning spree, SAP Certification is just a negligible part in your total career. If you have enough financial resource and attitude, you would see yourself with a new SAP Certification every month. At the end of the story, SAP Certification is just a multiple choice question test. If your fundamentals are clear, I do not see any reason in not clearing the SAP Certification. The SAP Certification you have done may become redundant in next couple of years. I have done my first certification in SAP FICO 4.6C in 2003, but if you now a days, no customer is using this system. Unfortunately, some people stop learning new things and pretend themselves as if they are the masters in everything. But, as a professional, you should keep your learning habits on for your entire career. Do not just look for SAP Certification, try to think beyond that.



8. SAP Certification may give you good jobs in your area






I have read this point somewhere in an article. The first thing as an SAP Consultant you should visualise yourself as a “travel freak”. Certification may not always give you the job in your nearby area. If you are in offshore location, probably, you may get job in your preferred location, as every major offshore city is flooded with SAP consulting companies. No client will be intending to pay you money unless you go to onsite and deliver the expectations. There may be a small exception to this for the people who are supporting SAP systems through remote support. But, as an SAP consultant, you should always pack your bags, away from home, eat food whatever you get and sleep wherever you can. If you think your SAP Certification will get you a good 9 to 5 job in your area, it may not be true always.



9. With SAP Certification you may start doing Contract Jobs






Contracting concept you mostly see in Western countries. This concept is getting familiar in Offshore / Eastern countries too. Contracting jobs are lucrative at the same time they are strenuous when compared to permanent jobs. By saying this, I am in no way demeaning the importance of the Permanent Jobs. Many people think that just by completing SAP Certification, they can land up in Contract jobs. But, the things always will not work in that way. The expectations in Contract Jobs are much higher; therefore, you need to check your calibre to handle the roles. No Certification will help in delivering the results within the deadly time lines.



10. Learn SAP only for Certification and Job






Many people think that learn SAP for Certification and get a job. If you are thinking to learn SAP just for Certification and job only, then I would suggest you may better skip to learn SAP. Learn SAP with passion and this passion should drive your career. I would believe everybody should maintain the passion throughout their careers. It is easy in theory but very difficult in practice. At certain age in your career, it may not be possible to maintain the same amount of passion in your career, due to socio, economic and physical reasons. But, by that time, you would have become a master in your own areas within SAP. Learn SAP with passion, if you are only looking SAP for Certification and Job, probably, SAP is not the right path for you.

greatgeo: @markros

Thank you for the encouragment as to what it take to learn SAP sir am a collage fresh graduate of electrical/eletronics in my final year I measure in telecoms I can repair computers interms of hardware and solfwears then some electronics and I love these things I want to go into fulltime in telecom how do I start?where do I start? Where can I do some intership that can help to expand in the of computer,eletronics and telecoms .what area would you advice me to follow to get the basic knowledge so I can do something I love and be happy sir? Thank you sir

Hi, well if you go through the entire SAP forum, you will find out where your skills could be used in SAP, goodluck!

Certification was the big thing in the 90s, that was the key to untold wealth and riches in the SAP world, these days, times have changed, certification is so devalued, every tom, dick and harry has SAP certification, not trying to water down anyone achievements in here, its hard work to pass that certification, these days its all about experience, lifecycle implementation, there are so many business aspects, processes certification will hardly teach you, real life situations, trouble shootings, i once suffered from my lack of configuration experience early in my career but i just kept on going, even working in obscure parts of the UK just to get the experience, i have been just as frustrated as some people in here, the key word is not to give up!!, SAP implementations in Nigeria, not really clued in that department but i suggest multinational companies usually outsource this to foreign partners who usually come with their consultants, SAP world is still a closed society to speak, any profession that is lucrative is likely not to let people in, SAP will test your willpower, preserverance becomes the key, not giving up, i have been working with SAP for nearly 14 years in Europe and the UK, i have come along way, maybe now, i can see the fruits of my hardwork, it is the dream of every consultant to have companies or consultancies chasing them rather than the other way round, this is exactly how i built my SAP network, at least 100 SAP recruitment agencies have my profile, i have built an extensive network in linkedin, this has started working for me now, it takes time, dont give up, if you do, then i will suggest you are in it just for the money!!!!

The skill to have in 2013 is when you have knowledge of all ERP core modules from SD,MM,FI,CO and probably BI for reporting, you can add PP,seems like companies these days would rather hire consultants with a multiple set of skills to save costs, back in the days, they will hire 1 specialist from each module, it is worthwhile knowing how all the modules integrate with each other so you get the full picture, these days there is so much terminology from P2P, B2B, Order to cash, order fufillment, supply chain, Variant functionality, EDI, transport management, product costing, ESS, too many business processes to mention, the best consultants these days are those that understand different business scenarios and processes and can translate this in the live environment, how many consultantds in here are skilled in LSMW?? migrating data from a legacy system into SAP??

Could not have said any better, the SAP world is definitely getting tougher by the day, a lot of people are getting certified which is not a bad thing, however most companies require experience, multiple life cycle implementation, i dont know much about the Nigerian SAP market, i assume only the big multi-nationals can afford the software and they use the same implementation partners which are often in Europe or Asia, it was tough for me as well, I am not certified and it is not on top of my agenda to seek certification but i stress i have plenty experience, over 14 years and counting, i can now add BW to my reusme, as a user i must stress, was not involved in implementation, my core modules are SD MM and integration with FI CO and PP, took me a while to get where i am today, a lot of frustrations along the way, once i was out of work for nearly 6 months!! it was savings that saw me through, as you get more experience i guess you will become attractive to prospective clients and recruitment agencies, it surely takes time and dedication, for those who think of using SAP as a means to get rich, this is 2012 not 1997, you will definitely struggle as you have the wrong mindset right from the beginning, SAP can be a rewarding career for those who are prepared to do everything it takes, it has surely taken me to places beyound my wildest dreams and allowed me to indulge in my favourite past time which is travelling, any advice?? for those with foreign contacts, try and seek roles outside Nigeria, i hear there are a few SAP roles in places like UAE, Dubai for example, Qatar, once you get your big breakthrough, everything else starts to fall into place, also expand your SAP network, join similar groups in linkedin for example, you might get a lucky break in there, if you decide to give up, then it means SAP was never for you in the first place, you were probably motivated by the monetary gains!! lets put it this way, a career that can earn a freelance consultant over 10K pounds a month will surely attract loads of people, at the same, the people in there will never help others to get a foot in, I have been at the receiving end of people i thought will help out, i could easily be selfish but i choose not to, you never know when you might need help, SAP consultants can be very selfish, they want all the top rates for themselves, I have a few SAP friends that live the dream life, 1st class travels around Europe, worldwide, beautiful apartments in the UK, Europe, expenses paid by clients, a typical working holiday could be a 12 months contract in an exotic location like Miami, all expenses paid for, or it could be Dubai which is often the case, sometimes clients pay for relocation of your family, pay fees, bills, accomodation and you get a high tax free income every month, for those that like to dream, hope this helps, this is no fiction, i have been fortunate to enjoy what i pointed out, it can surely be your turn next but you have to put it everything that is required to get in there

hope this helps!!!

I think they need to start a new thread for SAP training, sometimes i just feel some of them are sub-standard and possible spams and scams, if you want to enquire about the official SAP certified training centres in Nigeria, just google, you will see up to 10 places in Nigeria

What brought me to this thread was experiences of other qualified consultants like Kiwi and a host of others, It was nice reading how other consultants got into SAP, what modules they work with, highlights of their career, where SAP has taken to, some have travelled worldwide, benefits have been very good, sometimes people say SAP has made them live beyound their wildest dreams, things that they could never imagine, sitting with fellow professionals worldwide, you feel a level of importance, my personal highlight was training my colleagues in Beijing, sort of knowledge transfer, that fact i am black ( nothing about race) in Beijing if horror stories are anything to go by, you will understand that certain black people are not respected there, walking into our office, the regular stares until they saw what i could do, then from stares to admiration and respect! i can go on and on about where SAP has taken me to, regular vacations to tourists hotspots worldwide, regular business class travel, a sense of personal fufilment, at the same time i will also stress the hardwork it took me to get to this level, i started out in 1998, 14 years down the line, I have a working knowledge with core ERP modules from SD, MM, FI, CO, PP, SRM,CRM, BW, some travel management experience, implementation projects, support, enhancement, supply chain management, I have never worked in the Nigerian market, i was born and brought up in the UK so i dont have any perception of the local Nigerian market but i do know first hand that the Indians have cornered that market and will not let anyone in, its very lucrative, I think its important to share your hardwork with your sucess stories, it gives people hope, we like to dream, i could even post vacation pictures as proof of my hard work if i wanted to, but like i said, SAP is a white collar job, at least in Europe, it is probably the highest paid IT career at the monent, both at freelancing and permanent opportunity level, they will make it hard for people to get a foot in, I am sure there are many jobs i have done where i am the only black in the building, one of my old jobs in Sweden, we had 4 Black peope on the project, 3 were of Nigerian heritage ( all raised in the UK) and an Ethiopian, like someone pointed out this thread has become so predictable and boring, all you see are training adverts, all types of get rich schemes, sometimes people take it a step to far and send you personal mails, some even tried to add me on facebook, that was way out of line, i posted things here for the benefits of everyone so all the information you need is right in here, the best thing you can give is your time, as in writing a few lines, i have my private life and i will keep it this way, any questions, should be kept right here, please let us hear more sucess stories, not the types where a prospective SAP consultant has a degree in chemical engineering and wants a career in finance or SD, these types of people are opportunists are in it for the money! SAP has a way of weeding out these types of people, they will never have a good career in SAP, i know this much!!

Not been in here for a while, been extremely busy with projects, eventhough I am an SD MM consultant, i guess these days, the new SAP terminology calls it supply chain management, they take elements of order fufillment, supply, logistics, order management, production planning, warehouse management for manufacturing companies, my clients are a manufacturing organisation which means we use production planning for our products, we use a lean warehouse management system for creating storage spaces( storage bins) we still the classic sales and distribution to create orders, deliver and bill customers, we also have an added function of inter-company billing to bill other sales organisations who order our products on behalf of their customers, since we sell products with different components, we use Bills of material to handle this, I have also set up material variants for our sales BOMs so other Sales Org can create similar products and use variant matching functionality to create sales orders, another mini project i am handling is service & repairs for goods sent back from customers, we have to create notification slips, quotations, orders based on warranty, goodwill or free repairs, also involved in an invoice scanning project for finance where supplier invoices are automatically scanned and matched in our system, apart from this, i handle users request to either change or improve SAP functionality, we have recently signed off a BW implementation project, this will be handled by our SAP implementation partners, so that project is likely to be implemented in different phases, BW or BI is a very important business tool to collect data on the business, the SAP standard reporting is so limited and we tend to end up creating a lot of business reports using SQVI or getting our ABAP resource to create reports, so it seems BW is the way forward, also it will add another skillset to my already bulging CV, so it seems i will be ever so busy in the next coming months, we also have issues with integration points between SD-MM FI-CO PP as well, a good consultant these days is supposed to recognise that SAP shares real time data and a sales order for example will have elements taken from materials master, purchasing, MRP, production planning, invoicing ( billing) costs involved posted to either cost centres or profit centres, SAP has definitely come a long way, i can rememeber the early times of versions 3.1 back in the 90s, SAP is still a rewarding career for those that put in all the hard work in order to get there, I have been working with SAP since 1998 and i have come a long way, never worked in Nigeria so dont really know how the market is but i do hear good things, i guess all one needs to do is pass the exams, have good networking skills, build a profile in Linkedin, jobserve, monster.com and hope a company will give you the opportunity to grow and become a top consultant

Tuition fees for foreign students has been abolished!! you will have to pay, think people need to research before they waste their time!!

vivaladiva - spot on!!! you have just hit the nail on the head, to make it in British society, get the good well paid professional jobs, they ask a lot of questions at interviews, some technical, some personal, yes you might have the right qualifications but what about your social skills, people dont understands that what gets you top marks, i once got a job because i told the interviewer that i loved music and was sometimes a part-time DJ, it happens he was in a band as well, so at least we will have a lot to talk about, get my drift!!! its not bad these days though, many Nigerians have integrated into british society without losing their traditions, culture, its really important, to be honest, the white man controls the economy, you have to think like them to get into well qualified and highly paid roles, did not really care to be called a sell out or whatever stupid Nigerians call you, i take vacations at least 2 times a year, it broadens your horizons, you see how other people live, i have friends in every nationality in this planet, when you get exposed working for international companies, it helps your own personal skills, have to deal with different cultures and what not, there is nothing wrong in hanging out with Nigerians, it is when you limit yourself to everything African or Nigerians, believe you will suffer in the UK, you will watch the world go past you, some people get resentful but they only have themselves to blame, also living in those black ghettos, sorry, no offence, you will never catch me dead there, been there, done that, once you have reached middle class status and start living a good life, you tend to move and live in different circles!!

Hi Guys,

Hope you lot are doing well, seems many people having taken an interest in SAP, sounds really good!! Nigeria is still a virgin territory with regards to SAP, I am sure in the next 3-6 years, SAP will make huge inroads in Nigeria, there will need specialist to help implement, can also see some newcomers in this forum still ask questions about SAP, all it takes is 35mins-2 hours of your time to go through this thread, by the time you have finished, you will surely know where your skill set fits in the SAP environment, someone asked about Solution manager, its basically a tool used to manage SAP projects, it offers a lot of flexibility, the business process and every step of the implementation is well documented, Solution manager or what we call Solman can also be used to document every day SAP issues, trouble shooting, basically the SAP consultants work on issues assigned to them, the process is like this, an end user who has an account set up in Solman needs a configuration change, they create an issue and give information as to what needs to be changed, sometimes access to Solman are only given to BPO, business process owners, once the issue has been created, it is assigned to the consultant or developer who will fix the issue, they update the issue if they have made changes, unit testing or quality and assurance testing, QA, they re-assign it back to the user, once they are satisfied with the changes, they can close the issue, I guess project managers will find this tool useful as they can document the blueprint, realisation, testing, user testing all the way to go-live, some would-be consultants asked if there are job opportunities abroad, well i am sure there are but they have to be sponsored by foreign recruitment agencies who will get them the neccessary Visas and what not, but then you must have plenty experience, it is however uncommon, a typical implementation in Nigeria will possibly involve some implementation partners like Accenture, Ciber or any preferred supplier, usually it gets outsourced, thats where the Indians come in, not going to talk about this subject as it has been well documented in my earlier threads

SAP are currently buying out other smaller ERP providers or tools which can enhance the SAP landscape, for those that are familiar with crystal reports, medius workflow, even suppliers which SAP dont own, they have a partnership business where these tools are allowed to be synched into SAP for reporting purposes, e.g cognos, they are still the number 1 player in the the ERP business software and will continue to be in the future, seems one has to update their skills frequently to give you the cutting edge, in the next couple of months, i should hopefully add BW / BI to my CV as we are about to implement this and i should be going on training quite soon

Please i will not respond to personal mails, all the answers you need are right in here

I have done a bit of Materials management, the sub-modules are materials masters, purchasing and inventory management, these days, if you are skilled in sales and distribution, they expect you to have MM skills as well, also there is a link with FI and CO, there is also production planning ( material BOMS) aspect to material management, materials management is not an easy module to learn, it all depends how the business source their materials ( goods) if they manufacture their own goods, they will possibly use PP ( production planning, BOMS) if they have third party suppliers, then they will use a limited materials master, maybe a lot of purchasing ( Purchase requisition, purchase orders) then there the goods movement aspect to it as well ( inventory management) this is another important aspect as well as all goods movement are linked to a movement type, some companies also use inter-company stock transfers ( internal stock transfer within 2 different company codes in the same company) to be skilled in MM, they will expect you to know how to configure a business process in the IMG ( SPRO) understand all the tables within MM i.e MARA, MARC,MARM, EKKO, EKPO,, linkage with other core modules that i mentioned , PP, FI, CO, SD, also creating reports for inventory, purchasing, materials, these days there is a lot of MRP usage to control inventory but this leans towards production planning, quite a lot of things to take in but you have to practice in a live scenario, these days everything seems to be leaning towards understanding business process

saw a job advert on jobserve the other day for a senior SAP FI consultant needed in Lagos for 3 months paying between US 600-800 daily plus expenses, if you go on the jobserve website and type SAP and africa, the job advert is listed there unless it has been filled

This thread has become boring in the last couple of months, we want to hear more sucess stories, not people just asking for where they fit into the SAP world, after reading the entire thread dont think anyone needs to be asking these questions unless they are damn right lazy!!

as Nniah pointed out, poor internet connection might not make the e-learning thing worthwhile, i hear Globalcom are launching a high speed broadband connection similar to what we have here in the Uk if not better, this should be good news, SAP relies so much on having a standard high speed connection especially using SAPNET, SDN network, once this is sorted out, i feel the SAP market in Nigeria will be the next big thing for the middle east and Africa region

https://training.sap.com/courses-and-curricula
Company Category
1. Accenture Limited
4th Floor , Chartered Bank Building
Victoria Island - Lagos NIGERIA

Services Partner
2. Bi-TraxAxxent Company Ltd
Plot 12, Block 88 Otunba Ogungbe Cres
Victoria Island LAGOS

Channel Partner - SAP Business One
3. C2G Consulting
Plot 259 Etim Inyang Crescent
Lagos .
Channel Partner - SAP Business One
Channel Partner - SAP All-in-One
Channel Partner - SAP BusinessObjects

4. Deloitte & Touche
7 Town Planning Way
Lagos LAGOS

Services Partner
5. EnterpriseWare Limited
230 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi
Lagos NIGERIA

Channel Partner - SAP All-in-One
6. Expert Edge Software
11b Ligali Ayorinde Street
Lagos

Channel Partner - SAP BusinessObjects
Services Partner
7. ExpertEdge Software and Systems Ltd
11b Ligali Ayorinde Street
Victoria Island LAGOS

Channel Partner - SAP All-in-One
8. Fees Limited
11th Floor, Bookshop House
Lagos SHOMOLU

SAP BusinessObjects - Reseller
Channel Partner - SAP BusinessObjects
Channel Partner - SAP All-in-One
9. FutureShock Consulting
Igbodo Street 6
Old G.R.A., Port Harcourt

Services Partner
10. Gigahetz Technologies Limited
Apapa Oshodi E
xpressway
Apapa LAGOS

Services Partner
11. Hartford Green Consulting
45 Saka Tinubu Street
Victoria Island LAGOS

Services Partner
Channel Partner - SAP All-in-One
12. InfoSoft Nigeria Limited
99 Opebi Road, Valley View Plaza, Ikeja
Lagos

Channel Partner - SAP BusinessObjects
13. International Data Management
IDM Building, Oba Akran Avenue
Lagos NIGERIA

Channel Partner - SAP Business One
Channel Partner - SAP All-in-One
14. Oryx Computer Systems Ltd
5 Alhaji , Tokan

Lagos , Nigeria NIGERIA
Channel Partner - SAP All-in-One
Channel Partner - SAP Business One
15. Quanteq Technology Services Ltd
Plot 564/565 Independence Ave
Abuja NIGERIA

Channel Partner - SAP All-in-One
16. Serve Consulting Limited
48 Oduduwa Cresent, GRA Ikeja
Lagos NIGERIA

Services Partner
Channel Partner - SAP All-in-One
17. Slingtone Consulting
Suite 7A, Prince's Court
Lagos NIGERIA


Services Partner
18. Synercom Limited
Plot 2, Isheri Road , Ogba, Ikeja
Lagos NIGERIA
Channel Partner - SAP Business One

19. Tavia Technologies Limited
Wing B, 2nd Floor, Motorways Centre, Motorways Avenue 1
Ikeja, LAGOS

Was not jumping to conclusions, just making an observation, i have been in the SAP game for nearly 12 years, i know a thing or 2!!!!
Company Category
Bi-TraxAxxent Company Ltd
Plot 12, Block 88 Otunba Ogungbe Cres
Victoria Island  LAGOS
Phone: +23423412706215
Fax: +23423412706215

Channel Partner - SAP Business One
C2G Consulting
Plot 259 Etim Inyang Crescent
Lagos  .
Phone: +23414610792
Fax: +23414610793

Channel Partner - SAP BusinessObjects
Channel Partner - SAP All-in-One
Channel Partner - SAP Business One
International Data Management
IDM Building, Oba Akran Avenue
Lagos  NIGERIA
Phone: +23423417750954
Fax: +23423412706583
E-mail: narender.khaira@idmng.com

Channel Partner - SAP Business One
Channel Partner - SAP All-in-One
Oryx Computer Systems Ltd
5 Alhaji , Tokan
Lagos , Nigeria  NIGERIA
Phone: +2347031806379

Channel Partner - SAP All-in-One
Channel Partner - SAP Business One
Synercom Limited
Plot 2, Isheri Road , Ogba, Ikeja
Lagos  NIGERIA
Phone: +23423418994616
E-mail: adewalea@etegrityng.com
Channel Partner - SAP Business One

Hi, been so busy lately, before people spend their hard earned money on these SAP online E academy type courses, pls check the official SAP website to see if they are SAP accredited!!! if they are not, they are probably 3rd party suppliers and no guarantee they are offering genuine SAP education!!!

as far as am concerned, dont think there are any official SAP education providers in Nigeria, if you check the SAP website for Nigeria, it redirects you to the South African local SAP website

Hawaii is expensive, make no doubt about that, to get a proper holiday all inclusive package, a couple, you will looking close to 2000 pounds, flights, hotels travelling from the Uk for example on economy, last year me and my girl spent 18 days which knocked us back 3909 pounds, breakfast was inclusive, this was besides spending money, so we were looking at a good 5000 pounds, this year we went Business class all the way, will not reveal how much this costs, go to BA.com and do the maths yourself, hawaii is definitely worth every penny!!!

[img]http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj204/djmarko1971/Hawaii%202010/IMG_3540.jpg
[/img]

There are black people living in Oahu, was there on vacation last month, funny enough they had a baptist church convention, there were so many africans in honolulu that week, i even overheard Nigerians, Ghanians, carribean people as well, the racial mix in Honolulu must be asian majority, especially japanese, its only a few hours flight from japan, there are some native black hawaiians though or maybe some that moved from the US mainland

Pls if i add anyone to my facebook account, please dont post any questions on my wall asking about SAP related questions, i dont know anyone here personally, any advice about SAP, you should post it in here, i will try to reply if i have the time, my facebook account is for my personal friends and family, if anyone posts any comment to my wall, i will block that person and delete their profile, i cant give anyone advice on the SAP market especially in NIgeria, i dont live there, any job openings i have posted in here are what i have seen from websites like jobserve, i will no longer answer emails either, i prefer to share any information to everyone here rather than a select few, please i am not trying to be arrogant, just practical, good luck anyway!!

that was not me at the SAP roadshow, am in hawaii enjoying a relaxing vacation with my girl, am back in sweden next week

whats the latest in this SAP thread?? any more good news? has anyone passed the certification?? for me its vacation time after 9 months of hard work since i started my new project, hope the weather is good where i end up, well good luck to everyone in here