Tag Archives: ISO 9000

Trends of SAP Consultancy

Frankly saying(Murali Krishna Nookella)- I was not a big fan of recommending “hot” SAP areas. The skills chase often leaves a crazy career path behind it. What makes sense is not to chase what’s hot but to add a new skill that logically builds on core experience. There’s a big difference between a natural extension of skills (which looks good on a resume) and the mad pursuit of something new (which tends to look frantic). With that disclaimer in mind, here are some hot (and not so hot) areas that the folks I talked to singled out. Keep in mind that when we say “hot,” we don’t mean that these skills were mentioned in a PowerPoint at a trade show. For our purposes, “hot” means that we’ve seen these skills on actual job orders and placed people with these skills.

Hot areas

  • Core Financials, HR, and to a lesser extent SD/MM on the ECC 5.0 and ECC 6.0 versions of SAP in particular. On the mySAP Financials side, the ECC FI New General Ledger is “very hot.” On the mySAP HCM side, beyond the core HR functions like Payroll and Benefits, advanced HR functionalities like Performance Management and LSO (Learning Solution, e-Learning, etc.) are also in demand.
  • NetWeaver and BI: XI/PI installation, ECC systems upgrade from R/3, BW upgrade from 3.5 to BI 7.0, MDM 5.5.

Warm

  • mySAP Business Suite (SRM, CRM, PLM)
  • Some industry verticals, in particular the retail solutions (IS-Retail and IS-AFS)

Not-so-warm

  • ABAP/Legacy Skills and Supply Chain Planning (APO component of mySAP SCM)

Surprising trend: Has the power of certification returned?

One thing that comes as a bit of a surprise: For the first time in years, I’m hearing firsthand stories about folks who managed to break into SAP armed only with a certification. Recently, I heard from two lucky people who have done it: one on the Financials side and one on the CRM side.

At this point, I haven’t seen enough broad confirmation on this point to recommend certifications again as a way of breaking into SAP, but we can say this much: When folks with only certification are getting consulting jobs, that means the demand for SAP skills is as high as it’s been in years. Just remember that it’s still a “winners and losers” market and that the demand for skills is most likely focused on particular niches, most of them on the functional side of SAP. “Research before you leap” still applies.

The influx of “perm” SAP positions – another sign of a healthy market

A final sign that the SAP market is on the move is the number of companies that are looking to bring in more permanent employees for their in-house SAP teams.

“I’m seeing a lot more demand on the direct placement side than I’ve seen before,” Jerry Walter says. “SAP customers really want to bring quality SAP folks in-house that they can rely on, and this way, the costs aren’t constantly eating up their budget.”Walter does find that companies are having trouble finding this kind of person – another sign that SAP professionals are faced with more appealing options than they’ve had in recent years.

“Going perm” can be a great way to get access to new SAP skills. I’ve seen this approach used by experienced consultants who needed exposure to the latest SAP tools and weren’t able to land the right contract. Some companies, though not all, will offer more skills perks to those who are willing to take a salaried position.

Conclusion: When in doubt, choose skills over rates

It’s hard to write a “one size fits all” article on SAP consulting because the market no longer fits all. But I hope this piece can serve as a foundation, and I’ll expand on these themes in my SearchSAP career-questions-and-answers column in the Ask the Expert section of this Web site.

For a closing piece of advice, I asked Michael Doane to give us one proven tactic for SAP professionals. Without hesitating, he said: “Choose skills before rates.”

Citing the increasing impact of global outsourcing and success of the onshore/offshore mix, Doane feels strongly that consultants have to stay on the cutting edge to stay marketable. “While it’s a hot market out there, if you want to survive in it, you’re going to have to have the skills. Only with the skills will the rates sustain themselves.”

It may sound like simple advice to follow, but it’s not so easy when offers are on the table. It’s a tough call to travel farther and earn less for better skills, but in the global SAP labor pool, skills translate to career security. The SAP market may shift again, but “skills over rates” will never let you down.

Qualities to Check in SAP Consultant !!

Have you ever wondered how you would actually find and hire a professional SAP Consultant? According to Murali Krishna Nookella  If you have a 9 month project coming up with your career on the line, you don’t want a bad consultant! Here is how to do it in a few easy steps.

Method 1 of 2: Checking References
1. Gather references first. References are the bread and butter of any professional who sells his or her services. While it’s possible for consultants to have few or no references, the very best ones usually have outstanding references.
References can be hard! Some SAP consultants get their friends or relatives to be the reference provider. Calling consultant groups for resumes in the first place helps to guarantee honest resumes because their company reputation is on the line.
Make sure to speak with the person who the SAP candidate actually worked for. Go over the candidate’s CV and get the Project Manager’s or IT Director’s name via the company switchboard.
If you feel that the consultant is not forthcoming with the references, be a little wary and ask for the reason/s why. If the consultant is employed but looking to leave his current employer, he will not be too happy to provide his current employer’s name prior to having secured a new position, hence we can understand that he might be a little hesitant, but if there is no “real” reason – simply drop that candidate!

2. Check if the SAP consultant has worked with a former colleague or friend of yours. If so, send them an email or phone them and ask them for their opinion! It’s easier to vet the reliability of references from friends or colleagues than from strangers.
3. Find out who the SAP consultant’s former SAP project team mates were. This can be very helpful as it provides a better understanding of the candidate, due to the fact that every team tend to get to know each others weaknesses and strengths even better than the project manager or IT director does.

Method 2 of 2: Finalizing the Deal
1. Confirm the consultant has expertise on the same modules of SAP as you need. If you are looking for an SAP APO consultant, but the candidate (or their references) talks about work on SAP Financials, then expertise may be lacking.
2. Arrange the first interview only after you have got the required references satisfactorily. Video conferencing is one of the better ways to conduct a first interview. The reason for this is simply that you are able to see the candidate, ensuring you will recognize the consultant once on site.
Once the interview has been conducted and the SAP consultant is a candidate worth hiring, make sure you take note of how he/she deals with the signing of the contract.
Is the candidate careful, quick or awkward? This is a tell tale of how the person will normally act on a project.
3. Following the above procedure, know that some “not so good” consultants will still sneak through the net. Offering an initial short term contract with the possibility of extension enables an easy opt-out clause!

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How to transform yourself from a fresher to an expert SAP Consultant?

According to Murali Krishna Nookella 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

According to Murali Krishna Nookella 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.

Benefits Of SAP In Business

According to Murali Krishna Nookella company and employees can gain these and additional benefits using applications in SAP Business Suite:

  • Enhanced visibility, insight, and decision making – SAP Business Suite applications help you improve visibility into operations and provide one version of business information for improved decision making. By connecting operations with strategy, your company can create and align plans, budgets, and operational reports across organizations and for all business processes.
  • Improved efficiency across mission-critical processes – With extended end-to-end processes, SAP Business Suite applications can help you increase process integrity and increase business and IT efficiency. The applications encourage collaboration within and across company boundaries, so you can use supply chain and sales information from suppliers, distributors, retailers, and customers to improve operations.
  • Increased flexibility for innovation and expansion – SAP Business Suite applications are service-enabled. That means you can innovate and add functionality to the software as needed. Enhancement packages replace upgrades to help you innovate and expand without disrupting business. You can compose and design new processes, implement individual applications according to budget and scope, and integrate non-SAP solutions that address niche needs.
  • Proven, comprehensive support for a long-term competitive edge – SAP is committed to continually enhancing the applications in SAP Business Suite so that they remain the ideal choices for maintaining competitive agility, and attaining operational excellence for large and midsize organizations. Drawing on decades of SAP’s real-world experiences across a wide range of industries, the applications can help you create a highly responsive enterprise that flexibly addresses new marketplace demands, satisfies your customer base, and maintains your competitive advantage over the long term.

Murali Krishan Nookella – Future In SAP QA

Murali Krishna Nookella is a SQP QM consultant. SAP was originally introduced in the 1980s as SAP R/2, which was a system that provided users with a soft real-time business application that could be used with multiple currencies and languages. As client–server systems began to be introduced, SAP brought out a server based version of their software called SAP R/3, henceforth referred to as SAP, which was launched in 1992. SAP also developed a graphical user interface, or GUI, to make the system more user friendly and to move away from the mainframe style user interface.
According to Murali Krishna Nookella in the next 10 years SAP dominated the large business applications market. It was successful primarily because it was extremely flexible. Because SAP was a modular system (meaning that the various functions provided by it could be purchased piecemeal) it was an extremely versatile system. A company could simply purchase modules that they wanted and customize the processes to match the company’s business model. SAP’s flexibility, while one of its greatest strengths is also one of its greatest weaknesses that lead to the SAP audit.
There are three main enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems used in today’s larger businesses: SAP, Oracle, and PeopleSoft. ERP’s are specifically designed to help with the accounting function and the control over various other aspects of the companies business such as sales, delivery, production, human resources, and inventory management. Despite the benefits of ERP’s, there are also many potential pitfalls that companies who turn to ERP’s occasionally fall into.

Murali Krishna Nookella also provides training in SAP QM software development. His mySAP PLM systems have benefitted many manufacturing enterprises in optimizing quality and meeting desired standards.

Murali Krishan Nookella – Leading SAP QM consultant and production management expert

Murali Krishna Nookella is a SAP QM consultant who is well versed in all aspects of Quality Management for business enterprises and meeting their needs related to quality. He specializes in QM for Life Sciences, Recent consumer trends and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). Quality Management is a critical component of PLM as it is all about ensuring that products and processes meet quality standards.

Quality Management is a basic requirement of any manufacturing unit with related operations. QM has three basic components viz. the Total Quality Management (TQM), Industry specific Quality Standards (FDA and Good Manufacturing Practice) and QM standards (ISO 9000). Murali Krishna Nookella develops software based QM solutions for companies and the successful integration of QM into any of the current manufacturing strategies i.e. discrete, repetitive, and Process Industry manufacturing.

The basic areas covered in Quality Management include Quality planning, quality inspection, quality certificate, and quality notification. All these areas are managed by integration of SAP and QM so that there are proper regulatory mechanisms for each step of the operation. Moreover, Quality Management can be integrated into Production Planning where it can be used to control production processes and a step by step inspection of all production stages using Statistical Process Control (SPC). Murali Krishna Nookella has developed a mySAP PLM which gives one the ability to control QM according to production method or manufacturing strategy. All aspects of the Production can be controlled as well as optimal performance and results can be achieved.

Quality Management has always been a crucial aspect of the functioning of any manufacturing enterprise and even more for Production Planning (PP) which is used by companies of the pharma and food sector where stringent quality standards need to be maintained.

Murali Krishna Nookella also provides training in SAP QM software development. His mySAP PLM systems have benefitted many manufacturing enterprises in optimizing quality and meeting desired standards.

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