What is The One Tool Every SAP Consultant Should Master?
This is one of the hardest questions you could possibly ask me, because SAP is so vast that there is never one tool that will suit every SAP consultant. The best approach is to assess your current skill set, figure out where SAP is headed with its new eSOA architecture, and make sure you bridge that “skills gap” before you get left behind. But having said that, you asked the question and I’m going to try to give you a good answer.
To make matters more challenging, in the NetWeaver and eSOA era, there are all kinds of nifty SAP tools to add to your skill set. From Visual Composer to the NetWeaver Composition Environment (CE), from Enterprise Modeler (formerly Aris for NetWeaver) to Master Data Management (MDM), there’s all kinds of tools you could expand your skills for greater marketability. Of course, which tool you pursue next will depend on the opportunities on your project and the focus of your current skill set.
But keeping in mind that one-size-never-fits-all in SAP, one tool stands out above the others: Solution Manager. What I can tell you after having attended dozens of workshops at SAPPHIRE and TechEd, as well as sitting through more SAP webcasts than a rational person would advise, is that Solution Manager gets mentioned more than any other tool. SAP certainly features Solution Manager prominently on its own web site.
I find that what SAP chooses to feature and promote is always a good thing to pay attention to. For example, trying finding the words “ABAP” or “Basis” on SAP’s Solutions pages. Now, this does NOT mean that ABAP and Basis are dying skill sets. It simply means that SAP is not emphasizing these areas. This choice in emphasis falls in line with SAP trying to hide the underlying complexity of the technology from the users, who simply want to get their work done anyhow without digging for loose wires.
My own car is a good analogy here: if I pop the hood of my car, I see the simplest and cleanest looking engine layout of any car I have ever owned. And yet the underlying complexity is far greater. But I do not need to see it or understand it to run my car. SAP wants its business users to feel the same way about SAP. So when we see Solution Manager featured so prominently on SAP’s web site, we know that it fits in with where SAP is headed next.
The reason I like Solution Manager so much is that it applies to many different SAP contexts. It’s a bridge between pre-NetWeaver SAP, NetWeaver SAP, and the eSOA and BI/analytics era also. You can use Solution Manager to manage your SAP upgrade, and then you can use it for performance management and optimization after the upgrade. Solution Manager even contains a comprehensive SAP change management program for handling the cultural and role changes involved in new SAP rollouts.
Of course, there are many different components within Solution Manager, which means there is a lot to learn. But that also means you can approach Solution Manager from many different directions, including technical change control management, testing, IT and application support, and even diagnostic “root cause analysis.”
One nice thing about Solution Manager is that you can get access to some version of it on almost any version of SAP from 4.7 onward. And if you need exposure to it and don’t have project access, firms such as Michael Management are now offering Solution Manager training for very affordable prices.
Solution Manager also positions you to get involved with cutting edge eSOA projects. You can generate “process objects” with Solution Manager, allowing you to begin the road towards composite application development. You can also port data from Solution Manager into Master Data Management (MDM) for number-crunching and KPI analysis.
For what it’s worth, this is not just my opinion. In the last couple of months, most SAP “experts” I have talked with have brought up Solution Manager as a key part of SAP’s technical strategy and an important area for SAP consultants to get a handle on.
As SAP continues its push towards a “Business Process Platform,” it is also making an effort to automate routine processes and provide a central spot for managing system performance and business processes. More and more, it looks like Solution Manager will be integral to this vision. So until I see something different, you can assume that I consider Solution Manager to be the best all-purpose tool you could possibly add to an SAP skill set.
March 6th, 2008 at 1:58 pm...
Hi Jon,
Let me first congratulate you on building a site which exclusively caters to sap skills and careers and answers a lot of doubts young and senior sap consultants have about what skills to have and get trained on.
I love visiting your website almost everyday to check out whether there is something new and what are the future trends in sap skills and careers .I am sure many of those who have visited this site have got hooked to it.
Solution Manager is that product which when talked about appears less attractive but when you take time and try and explore it and you seem to appreciate it more .
March 7th, 2008 at 3:33 pm...
Hi Srinivas.
Thanks for the kind words about the site. I am very passionate about creating something of value that can make a difference in the lives of SAP consultants of all experience levels. This site is a fulfillment of a dream and with the support of folks like yourself it can be a resource for years to come, so I really appreciate you doing what you are doing.
Letting folks know about the site is one of the best things you can do to help me and ensure I can keep my client load low and my focus on this site high for fresh content! The more people spend time on this site, the more I can focus on it and the more we can all gain from it! So thanks.
As far as checking the site for updates, I do try to update it as frequently as possible and we are fine tuning content on the site almost every day.
In particular, I am responding to any blog comments just about daily and I do try to add new Career Blog entries frequently also.
Other major updates are added to the home page and the career center as they are added.
If you are into RSS technology, there are a couple things you can do to track the career blog:
SAP Career Blog Posting Feed (receive all of Jon’s SAP Career Blog entries)
http://www.jonerp.com/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=20&feed=rss2
SAP Comment Blog Posting Feed (receive all of the comments posted to the Career Blog)
http://www.jonerp.com/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=20&feed=comments-rss2
So, if those feeds help you easily keep track of the site, feel free to use them. For an RSS reader feed, I like Google Reader a lot.
Registered members of my site get access to my podcast RSS feed also.
As for Solution Manager, I think SAP tools often undergo an evolution from “what the heck is this?” to “wow, this is pretty amazing!” Solution Manager is important to keep a close eye on, and many people I respect in the market feel strongly about its increasing importance in SAP landscapes.
Good luck out there and stay in touch!
- Jon Reed -
March 10th, 2008 at 12:36 pm...
Hello Jon,
I also want to say thank you for such a wonderful site with great information ..
I am new in the world of SAP and kinda of lost …. Any advice in what steps to take ..
Thanks,
Sam.
March 12th, 2008 at 1:37 am...
Hey Sam…
It’s easy to get lost in the world of SAP. If I was starting SAP from scratch, I would probably order the “NetWeaver for Dummies” and “mySAP ERP for Dummies” books off of Amazon.
Then, I would spend some time on good SAP news sites like SearchSAP.com: http://www.SearchSAP.com
Once I got a bit more comfortable with talking SAP, I would start hanging out on SAP community sites, such as:
The discussion forums of SAPfans.com:
http://www.sapfans.com
and the SAP community at ITToolbox: http://www.sap.ittoolbox.com
Once I got more comfortable with that, then you might want to register for this site and start listening to all my podcasts, these will give you a good feel for the SAP consulting and job market, because that’s the focus of what I do on my podcasts.
From there, I recommend registering on SAP.com and spending some time listening to the webcasts in the business events section:
http://www.sap.com/community/events/events_listing.epx
These webcasts get a bit more technical than what I tend to do, but that’s great background for you.
Once you have all that down, I think you’re ready to get deeper into the community.
At this point, I would register for SAP’s online communities:
SDN: http://sdn.sap.com
and
BPX: http://bpx.sap.com
(You can register for both at once)
Perhaps by this point you can start getting more involved in these community discussions, and gradually hone your SAP interest and what you want to be focusing on.
You may also want to read my posts in this blog on breaking into SAP:
http://www.jonerp.com/component/option,com_jd-wp/Itemid,20/cat,9/
I hope this step-by-step process for educating yourself on SAP is helpful to you.
You may also want to check out my guided tour for getting your SAP career questions answered:
http://www.trailfire.com/jonreed/marks/184239
Good luck!
- Jon Reed -