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1. Why is
SAP such a Hot Field Currently? |
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2. What are
BIW and BW? Why do they have a significant role in
Enterprise Resource Planning? |
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3. How can a
new comer easily learn SAP FI/CO? |
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4. What is
SAP Solution Manager ? |
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5. What is
SAP NetWeaver? |
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6. What are
the the pros and cons of mySAP ERP 2004 vs. R/3
Enterprise.? |
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7. What are
the market and future of SRM consultant? |
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8. What are
the HOTTEST Fields in SAP? |
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9. What's
the Future for Plant Management,? |
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Why is SAP such a Hot Field Currently?
The biggest advantage of SAP R/3, over the other
available solutions, was the real integration between
such integral business functions as finance, sales,
purchasing, production, and human resources (HR). R/3
served as one central place to keep materials, customer
information, invoices, and more.
Switching to SAP R/3 was quite a change and not easy to
implement since many companies had departments, each
with its own individual sets of data. Merging all of the
data and different processes was quite difficult for the
first project teams. But, the huge number of
installations shows that companies were waiting for such
integration and getting much needed returns.
In addition to R/3, SAP launched many other important
products for making the job of managing both big and
small enterprises easier. This makes SAP one of the best
ERP solution providers and a highly-respected name in
industry.
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What are BIW and BW? Why do they have a significant role
in Enterprise Resource Planning?
BIW from SAP
is previous version of BW. BIW 1.0,.......And from BIW
2.0 onwards it is known as BW. ie., BW 3.0A, 3.0B, 3.5,
........And now it is BI 7.0. These are all version
different product of Data warehousing solution from SAP.
BW is a datawarehousing solution for [decision making,
analysis] in Business (Enterprise resource Planning),..
For more information log on to www.sap.com.
BIW
and BW have a significant role in Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) because of the way industries expect data
to be flexible and need to run reports exploring the
resources and data in an effective manner. In addition,
because of the mySAp.cpm invention, the role of the BW
has received wide publicity and has therefore increased
in demand.
Now SAP BIW or BW takes on a new role as SAP BI which is
fully integrated with the Netweaver stack. This would
lead to better integration with the Netweaver stack and
make SAP BI an integral part of any SAP Implementation
with SAP BI driving the reporting layer. |
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How can a
new comer easily learn SAP FI/CO?
Domain
experience in Financial Accounting and Cost Accounting
with a minimum of 1 year Industry experience or
knowledge of the work flow in Accounting and Costing
Departments within an Organization. Working Knowledge in
any of the RDBMS like Oracle to enable him to know about
data storage and retrieval.
Firstly
relevant Academic Qualification like B.Com, M.Com, MBA
Fin, CA, ICWA. Along with academic Qualification you
need to have Domain Expertise. This includes knowing:
* What the entries are
* How to prepare the P&L and Balance Sheet
* What is Accounts Payable
* What is Accounts receivable, Asset Management and
Knowledge on Costing.
Concepts of the subject is much required than other
things.
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SAP Solution Manager ?
SAP Solution
Manager is a robust tool to manage your entire Project
Landscape with the functionalities to define Project
Roadmap, Landscape, Control Configuration by Processes
and Scenarios, Perform Testing and Operationalise your
solution. It can also act as a Document Management
System, Issue Tracking System with Change Control
Processes, Business Process Monitoring and Solution
Monitoring capabilities.
The SAP Solution Manager supports you throughout the
entire lifecycle of your solutions, from the Business
Blueprint thru configuration to production operation. It
provides central access to tools methods and
preconfigured content that you can use during the
evaluation, implementation, and productive operation of
your systems.
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What is SAP NetWeaver?
SAP NetWeaver is a business oriented integration
platform, able to streamline current IT solutions and
infrastructure. Microsoft .NET, Sun's J2EE, and IBM
WebSphere can be used along with SAP Netweaver. SAP
NetWeaver consists of 4 main layers: people integration
(with components Multi Channel Access, Portal &
Collaboration), information integration (with components
Business Intelligence, Knowledge Management, Master Data
Management), Process Integration (with the integration
broker, business process management) and the application
platform (with the Web Application Server - J2EE & ABAP).
Over those 4 main layers you have the composite
application framework and life cycle management.
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What are the the pros and cons of mySAP ERP 2004 vs. R/3
Enterprise.?
R/3 4.0,
4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 5.0 and still counting …There are many
names for the same product, so 4.7 was called Enterprise
1.0 and 5.0 Enterprise 2.0. Someone in SAP marketing had
the cunning idea to call ERP 2004 in analogy to
Netweaver '04 etc. So ERP 2004 is Enterprise. Full stop.
Regarding your description, there is nothing to debate.
The recommendation cannot be anything other than to
install the very latest release available the moment you
enter the pre-go live tests. Currently, Enterprise 2.0
is the current release and that is the one you want. We
are very considerate in balancing pros and cons when
making major decisions, but when it comes to release
policy or upgrades we are very rigid in saying: Take the
latest release you can get hold of.
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What are
the market and future of SRM consultant?
I like the future of mySAP SRM. One thing we have to
understand is that we can never truly predict the health
of a particular area of SAP, because the complexities of
supply and demand for a particular kind of SAP
consultant are never easy to predict.
My feeling
about functional areas of SAP is that it's going to be
important to be more than a "configuration specialist."
To be an exceptional SAP consultant, if you pursue any
area, SRM included, you want to master the best
practices involved in Supplier Relationship Management.
And then you want to be able to configure the SRM
functionality to meet the needs of particular
industries. It's the combination of deep configuration
and industry knowledge that will keep you marketable. So
choose a growth area, but make sure it also connects
strongly to your professional interests. I think SRM
would suit you well as such a focus. |
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What are the HOTTEST fields in SAP?
I'm glad you asked about the "red hot" areas of SAP.
There isn't one red hot area in SAP. However, some areas
are definitely in higher demand than others. I did poll
a couple of staffing firms recently, and the verdict was
that the hottest area is the new General Ledger in 5.0
and especially 6.0. Any core Financials skills are hot
due to the upgrade scenarios.
We're also seeing a lot of action with BW upgrades from
BW 3.5 to the BI 7.0 platform. We're also seeing some
MDM work in release 5.5, as well as SAP HCM. XI
installation work is also creating business. The slower
area of consulting are, surprisingly, the mySAP Business
Suite (CRM, SEM, PLM, SRM) areas that used to have so
much sizzle. ABAP and Supply Chain (APO) work is even
slower - though I would say that in the case of ABAP,
the issue is not so much lack of work as the fact that
ABAP work has been globalized, thus driving rates down.
So, from the areas you described above, SAP HCM is
probably the hottest. But your core skills lie in other
areas. The best compromise might be your MM work.
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What
is the Future of Plant Management?
PM is a strange area. For ten years or so, 1995 to 2005,
it sort of crept along -- some steady consulting demand
but nothing special. More recently, I've seen an uptick
in the demand for PM skills and knowledge. At SAPtips,
we've had a lot of requests in the last year for PM
articles.
I suspect there are two main reasons for this. First, as
companies become more mature in their SAP installs, they
are finding more time to leverage the complementary
modules that expand the core functionality. Second, I
suspect that PM is benefiting from the continued trend
towards looking to one software provider for your
enterprise functionality. Companies are more and more
interested in kicking out best-of-breed programs and
implementing whatever the main provider, Oracle or SAP
or what have you, has to offer, even if there is a
functionality gap. And we're seeing that functionality
gap lessen over time as SAP improves its PM
functionality and integration across the SCM and
Logistics Execution platform.
I like PM as an SAP consulting niche, but I only like it
as an exclusive focus for the real five year and over
experts in PM. Otherwise, I'd suggest combining your PM
skills with a core area of SAP. I could see MM/PM being
a good combination for you for example. MM work would
give you more core exposure along with your PM niche.
Often you see PM combined with SM (Service Management).
I don't like this as much because SM is a niche module
also. But it may be that SM/PM would also lead you into
CRM, where some of SAP's advanced service functionality
now lies, and that could be of real value.
The bottom line is that plants aren't going away, and
the need to pull plant management systems into the ERP
system is more important than ever now. So yes, I like
the future of PM, but be careful to balance
specialization with a core skill, at least until you
reach the point of being one of the real experts in a
particular field.
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