ROLES IN SAP

Functional
o Also known as: configurer, configurator
o Specialize in the business processes (Financial, Controlling, Human Resources, Materials
Management, Production Planning, etc)
o Background: business undergraduate and/or MBA degrees. Additional certifications (CPA,
CPIM, etc) are also helpful.
o Job duties: conduct workshops to gather requirements, present options, assist in the
decision making process, then translate business decisions into SAP configuration.
Functional specialists also write functional specifications and design rationales.
o Required skills: good social skills, strong written and oral skills, good with public speaking,
strong knowledge of functional processes

BI
o Also known as: data modeler, reporting specialist
o Specialize in converting raw data into reports, dashboards, and graphics for the folks who
will analyze the data and make decisions.
o Background: business undergraduate and/or MBA degrees. Technical classes in data
modelling are helpful. Programming experience can also be a plus.
o Job duties: Interview request owner for requirements, translate functional requirements
into technical requirements, use various tools to generate reports, dashboards, or other
summaries.
o Required skills: strong written skills, analytic mind
Technical (Development)
o Also known as: developer, ABAPer, "tools" consultant (haven't heard this last one outside of
SAP America though), java developer
o Use programming to fill gaps in the business process. Create Workflow, Reports, Interfaces,
Conversions, Enhancements, and Forms (WRICEF)
o Background:Business undergraduate or computer science undergraduate, programming
classes or experience required.
o Job duties: Translate functional specifications into technical specifications. Translate
technical specifications into code.
o Required skills: strong analytical skills, programming experience
o Note: Conversion is a huge part of implementations and typically the conversion function
does continue to some degree post go-live. Often conversion is large enough to be
considered separately from the rest of development during implementations.
Technical (Basis)
o Also known as: Basis, Netweaver System Administrator, SAP Admin
o Administer SAP systems: installation, infrastructure design, backup & recovery, high
availability, networking, etc
o Background: undergraduate degree. Operating System and/or Database certifications
helpful
o Job duties: Gather technical requirements, present options, assist in the decision making
process, then translate technical business decisions into SAP infrastructure.
o Required skills: Strong written and oral skills, strong analytical/troubleshooting skills, ability
to work under pressure

Technical (Security)
o Also known as: Security, Information Assurance specialist
o Design security, create and administer users
o Background: undergraduate degree. Experience with OS/DB user administration helpful.
o Job duties: Gather security requirements, design segregation of duties strategy, then
translate security decisions into SAP security configuration.
o Required skills: good interview skills (to interview employees and determine requirements),
strong written and oral skills

Project Management
o Also known as: PM, Team Lead
o Manage scope, cost, schedule, risk, quality, resources, and communications.
o Background: business undergraduate and/or MBA degrees. Often start as Functional. PMI or
other Project Management certification helpful.
o Job duties: Manage scope, cost, schedule, risk, quality, resources, and
communications.Basically, attend a ridiculous number of meetings and do whatever it takes
to keep the project moving forward on schedule and on budget at the required quality.
o Required skills: Excellent social and negotiation skills, strong written and oral skills, good
with public speaking, strong knowledge of project management theory and practice

Testing
o Also known as: testers, Quality Control
o Test the processes either in an automated or manual fashion. Report the results to project
management. Coordinate issue resolution with necessary configurers, developers, etc
o Background: undergraduate
o Job duties: Organize testing, conduct testing, report test results, follow up on test
resolution.
o Required skills: strong written and oral skills, strong detail orientation

Training
o Also known as: trainer, Organizational Change Management
o Responsible for creating end user training materials and delivering training prior to go-live
o Background: business undergraduate and/or MBA degrees. Additional certifications (CPA,
CPIM, etc) are also helpful.
o Job duties: Work with functionals to understand processes as configured and create training
materials, stage data and exercieses, conduct training
o Required skills: Excellent public speaking/training skills, very strong written and oral skills

Implementation vs. Support
Implementation
o Implementations involve gathering requirements and implementing those requirements.
o Folks in implementations deal with massive change to an organization.
o Stress level is high, especially near go-live.
o Implementations often require work at nights and on weekends. Frequently
implementations take place on a 4/10 work week, meaning Monday through Thursday, 10
hours per day but Friday is off.
o Consultants and internal company personnel work together to determine requirements and
implement changes. All of the specialties from the first section are typically present.
Support
o "Business as usual", Production Support
o Limited change, usually modifications to existing processes. Support does involve change,
however, as change requests are made and approved.
o Since the system is live, production problems have extremely high status.
o Support personnel tend to work more normal business hours (exception, Basis folks typically
work when others don't, so weekend, night, and holiday work hours should be expected for
Basis personnel)
o Internal personnel only for the most part. Sometimes spot consultants are brought in for
specific issues, but in general all support is handled in-house.
o All of the specialties from the first section are typically present, but sometimes greatly
reduced as compared to implementation (for example, project management team, testing,
and training team might be much smaller post-golive)

Consulting vs. In-house/contractors
Consulting
o Employment Status: Consultants are not employees of the company implementing SAP.
They are brought in for their expertise, both SAP and non-SAP expertise.
o Compensation: Base Salary is typically about the same, perhaps a bit higher than in-house,
but consultants typically receive bonuses which brings overall compensation higher than in-
house. (Note: this is true in the United States. I have seen some data that indicates that
consultants in other countries actually make less money than in-house counterparts. I've not
been able to make much sense of this data.)
o Home-life: high degree of travel. Typically away from home 4 to 5 days per week. Travel
expenses are typically reimbursed and so consultants typically eat well and get to live
perhaps a higher lifestyle than in-house counterparts. Travel can be difficult for family,
however, and divorce rates are typically higher for consultants than for in-house
counterparts.
o Professional Respect: High degree of respect is typical from company management. If a
consultant and an in-house employee disagree, often management will side with the
consultant. Projects can be more easily be "sold" to management by consultants (especially
consulting partners). Consultants with equivalent skills and job responsibilities often have
higher reach into the implementing company.
o Type of work: Consultants typically are involved only in implementations. This can be great if
you primarily enjoy design work. It can be frustrating if you like to see the progression and
"perfection" of a system over time. No "ownership" of the system long term.
o Career progression: Consultants typically have to become project managers and salesmen in
order to make partner in a stereotypical consulting organization. Early career skills
(functional, technical, etc) often don't relate to the skills which enable success in late career
(project management, salesmanship). Consultants *can* specialize and stay in their
specialty but compensation eventually stalls. Consultants who try and miss partner can be
frustrated for long periods of time or even be forced out of their consulting firm (up or out).
Making partner can actually increase work load and stress and is sometimes seen as a mixed
blessing.
o Requirements to start: Generally consulting companies requires at least one if not two or
three complete implementations before they'll hire someone, although some companies
recruit the "best and the brightest" directly from undergraduate and MBA programs.
In-house
o Employment Status: In-house folks are typically employees of the company implementing
SAP, although I include contractors as in house as well. Contractors are hired to conduct
long-term support of a system and are typically treated similar to employees.
o Compensation: In general, overall compensation is lower for in-house employees and
contractors as compared to consultants, but see comment in the consulting section.
o Home life: Typically require little to no travel. Working hours will match those of consultants
(but won't get consultant type compensation) during the implementation but will return to
"normal" post go-live for long term support. In-house employees and contractors typically
have "normal" home-lives, which is generally easier for those with children.
o Professional Respect: At times, in-house employees struggle for respect of management. If a
consultant and an in-house employee disagree, often management will side with the
consultant. Projects can be more easily be "sold" to management by consultants.
o Type of work: Employees/contractors do both implementation and long term support of
system post go-live.
o Career progression: In-house employees have the opportunity to advance within the
company to become management and senior management over time. Contractors are
barred from this type of progression unless they become employees. Contractors typically
have one job and don't change over long periods of time. In-house employees who miss key
promotions can be frustrated for long periods of time. Employees also have the option of
staying in one job for along period of time but at the cost of career and salary stagnation.
o Requirements to start: Generally companies draw from in-house non-SAP support staff to
hire SAP support staff although they do also hire experienced folks from outside. To start
from an inside position, you'll generally have worked for the company for a few years as an
end user or in some related capacity. To start from outside, companies will expect you to
have implemented SAP either as a consultant or as in-house employee at another company.
Companies generally do not recruit from undergraduate or MBA programs directly into their
support organization.

Working for a Consulting Company vs. being an Independent Consultant
Working for a Consulting Company
o Somewhat protected from economic downturns, able to collect paycheck while "on the
bench"/"on the beach" (in between assignments)
Independents argue that consulting companies have a history of cutting folks loose the
minute the market gets tight. My observation is that top tier companies will hold on to
consultants for 6 months to a year where smaller companies have less ability/inclination to
hold on to consultants for that long when times are tight. Your mileage may vary on this
one.
Independents argue that higher compensation of being independent allows you to ride out
the patches in between assignments as easily as if a company were paying you to be on the
bench. Your ability to budget for these downtimes makes the difference here.
o Go where you're told, when you're told.
Less responsibility to get yourself busy, but less ability to affect type and duration of
assignments.
More likely to end up at a customer as a bad fit if management doesn't know your skill set
or is incompetent.
It's possible to get "pigeonholed" into the same type of assignment over and over.
Since "beach/bench" time effectively kills your bonus, some view the inability find your own
work extremely frustrating.
o Paid vacation and benefits
o Company pays for training
o Stuck with whatever training/equipment the company chooses to provide.
Independent Consultant
o FREEDOM. Free to choose when to work and for whom to work and rate of compensation.
o Requires more diligence with money.
o Vacation, sick and training time directly affects the bottom line and can encourage some to
limit those times.
o Cost of insurance/benefits are higher.
o Compensation can be much higher since there is no company to skim profit off the top.
o Since number of hours worked directly affects compensation, the temptation to work far
more than the industry average 2000 hours per year by taking on multiple clients or just
putting in long hours for a single client can be irresistible.
o Responsible for your own equipment.
o Training is a double whammy. You have to pay to attend and you lose money because
you're not billing a customer.
o Requires more time to deal with paperwork for invoicing and expenses.
o Different customers can be better or worse at paying in a timely fashion.





SAP ERP MODULES:

1. SAP FI Module- FI stands for Financial Accounting
2. SAP CO Module- CO stands for Controlling
3. SAP PS Module and PS is Project Systems
4. SAP HR Module HR stands for Human Resources
5. SAP PM Module where Plant Maintenance is the PM
6. SAP MM Module MM is Materials Management -
7. SAP QM Module - QM stands for Quality Management
8. SAP PP Module PP is Production Planning
9. SAP SD Module SD is Sales and Distribution
10. SAP BW Module where BW stands for Business (Data) Warehouse
11. SAP EC Module where EC stands for Enterprise Controlling
12. SAP TR Module where TR stands for Treasury
13. SAP IM Module where IM stands for Investment Management
14. SAP QM Module where QM stands for Quality Management
15. SAP IS where IS stands for Industries specific solution
16. SAP Basis
17. SAP ABAP
18. SAP Cross Application Components
19. SAP CRM where CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management
20. SAP SCM where SCM stands for Supply Chain Management
21. SAP PLM where PLM stands for Product Life Cycle Management
22. SAP SRM where SRM stands for Supplier Relationship Management
23. SAP CS where CS stands for Customer Service
24. SAP SEM where SEM stands for STRATEGIC ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT
25. SAP RE where RE stands for Real Estate
26. SAP POS-DM
27. SAP HANA