Start a Successful Career with SAP Skills

But where exactly does it lead you?

High demand, diverse job offers and a considerable sa- As an SAP consultant, you finally choose between three
lary – SAP consultants are sought-after like never be- areas of activity: Business Consultancy, Solution Con-
fore. The on-going success of SAP AG causes more and sultancy, and Technology Consultancy. Business con-
more companies to use SAP software. Or, vice versa, sultants analyse a company’s business processes and
more companies buying SAP software causes SAP to recognise necessary changes that will help to improve
be so successful. From which perspective you might them by means of SAP software. Solution consultants
see it, it is a fact that with the number of SAP custo- actually present the different SAP modules and help
mers rising, the demand for qualified SAP consultants companies to find the right solution that matches their
becomes higher as well. But what exactly do you do as needs. Technology consultants help to create the basis
an SAP consultant? Where do you work? And what if for the SAP products: They are the executors of what
you do not want to work as a consultant? the so-called Service-Oriented Architecture by imple-
menting the system and customizing the software in
SAP AG counts more than 183.000 customers world- order to mirror the company’s business processes.
wide in 2012 and there is no prospect of an end to this
success story. New technologies such as Business By-
Design and HANA, an In-Memory technology that al-
lows filtering and analysing terabytes of data in real
time, are becoming increasingly important. But also
classical applications such as CRM and BI have not yet
seized to trigger new customers. SAP is constantly wor-
king on new products and improving their old ones.
That means, more and more customers need to be
supported and consulted. Therefore, evermore con-
sultants are necessary.

“SAP Consultant”, however, is not an official job title.

There is no ready-made way of education. What you
need, though, is knowledge of economic matters as
well as technical know-how, e.g. from Informatics or
Engineering. On top of that, you need a good grasp of
different SAP modules. You can acquire a lot of this du-
ring internships and extra curricula SAP courses aside
your regular studies. Additionally, social skills are as
important as a good degree and practical knowledge of
the subject matter. As a third aspect, work experience
plays a distinctive role for consultants and because
most graduates have not yet gained any or enough
work experience, a trainee program is a good way to
do the first steps into the world of consulting. Trainee
positions can be found directly at SAP as well as at all
kinds of consultancies (Accenture, IBM, T-Systems etc.)
and big enterprises (in-house consulting is very wides-
pread these days).
As a consultant, you can either be employed by a con-
sultancy which means that you will be working on va-
rying projects and with varying clients from all over the
world. Or you can be employed by a company to be an
in-house consultant. In both cases, it cannot be narro-
wed down which field a company has to be active in in
order to offer jobs for SAP consultants.
Considering the number of 183.000 SAP customers,
SAP consultants are sought-after in companies of all
kinds of areas and of any size. Self-employment is ano-
ther good alternative. Due to the high demand for SAP
consultants, the order situation is very good and so is
the salary.
Not Anyone Wants to be a Consultant
SAP-skills are of great importance for a successful care-
er, but you do not have to feel pushed into consultan-
cy after acquiring them. SAP-skills are important in al-
most all other positions today: Marketing, Controlling,
Human Resources… Every business process can be – or
is – represented in an SAP System. So, if you have no
interest in supporting a customer by implementing a
new system for his company, you might still be inte-
rested in knowing how to use this system. Acquiring
this knowledge on-the-job is hard work and it prevents
you from taking job-related tasks in the first weeks and
months at your new position. Thus, leaving the univer-
sity with SAP-skills will make it easier for you to handle
a foreign SAP system at your future employer. By im-
plication, that means that a company is more likely to
employ you when you can start with your tasks right
away and do not spend much time on acquiring SAP-
skills anymore.
Which field of SAP is the most suitable for you de-
pends on the expectations you have about your career
path. The general SAP product most companies use is
SAP ERP. All further SAP knowledge is built upon that.
Without any former experience in SAP, you are well-
advised to start with SAP ERP and then decide what’s
next. SAP CRM is the most interesting for people who
plan going into marketing. SAP PPS (Manufacturing)
matches your needs when you wish to go into process
engineering or product management, and ABAP is for
those who are planning to become software develo-
pers and want to make direct changes to an SAP sys-
tem by using this programming language. SAP BI is the
most suitable if your goal is to become a business ana-
lyst and/or manager at some point. BI is a tool for data
warehousing (being an informative system in contrast
to ERP, CRM or SCM being operative systems). It helps
structuring and analysing data, which helps managers
to make valid decisions in order to improve processes
of any kind.
You see, there is an SAP product for all areas within a
company and you are very likely to face at least one
of them during your future career. Preparing for that
cannot be the wrong decision!
SAP Skills Help You Starting a Career – No Matter in Which Field
To constantly offer the best counselling possible, SAP
consultants need to be very well-trained in the use of
different SAP modules. Due to new programs and ver-
sions coming up, “life-long learning” is inevitable. Also
for employees who use SAP software products, further
training is part of the job because as technology chan-
ges, their users have to stay up-to-date with it. Starting
to develop an understanding of SAP software whilst
still at university increases every graduate’s career op-
portunities. Being able to show an SAP certification
when applying for a job is always a big bonus. On top
of that, erp4students gives you the chance to acquire
Contact
In case you have any further questions, or you want to
inquire in detail about a course or the project in gene-
ral, we are very happy to help you. You are welcome to
visit our website, send us an email or call us directly.
Website: www.erp4students.eu
Email: info@erp4students.eu
Phone: +49 (0) 201 – 183 40 22
Project Manager:
Pouyan Khatami, Dipl. Wirt.-Inf.
a second certificate (by the University of Duisburg-Es-
sen) that states your practical skills on the system. An
SAP certificate proves your knowledge of SAP theory. It
does not say that you can actually use the system. That
is why the university certificate from Duisburg-Essen is
so valuable.
Your future employer will see that you will not need
extensive on-the-job training, no expensive SAP in-
house trainings and that you will be able to start with
your actual job right away. These are strong arguments
in your favour.
erp4students
In a close cooperation with SAP University Alliances,
erp4students wants to give you the best SAP educa-
tion you can get aside your regular studies. For more
than five years erp4students has been offering SAP e-
learning courses and helped more than 1.400 students
to become certified by SAP. Take the chance as well: In-
crease your career opportunities and prepare yourself
for your future job by acquiring invaluable SAP-skills!