SAP (Skill Review)

This review is for SAP as a skill (not for SAP company in Banglore).

What is SAP as a technology/skill?
SAP makes business suites or applications that can be used for managing business needs of companies. There are various modules in SAP and all these can be customized for different needs of companies. These modules are business solution products made by SAP AG. For example, take SAP HR Payroll, apparently any company in this world can use this for generating employee pay slips, but laws and salary structure differ from country to country and company to company, all this needs certain level of customization.
SAP sells these products and services companies like IBM, TCS implement them for companies. The time taken for initial implementation for these suites can be as long as year or two depending on the size of data to be migrated. Supposing the company was using paper/book for managing the processes, the time period can be longer, as it has to be designed by consultants after understanding the needs of the client. And most importantly the client has to agree to the solution. These modules cover all the needs of the clients and require customization, but maintaining these applications can be huge job with ever changing business needs. Many of the projects for foreign clients can be maintenance of these business suites. For Indian clients these can be pure implementation projects.

What are the different roles in SAP projects?

Roles/Position are

1) Program Manager
2) Lead
3) Architect
4) Functional Consultant - A functional consultant evaluates the demands in talking with the customer's representatives, transforms the essence into an abstract and algorithmic business model. Hence, he identifies the use cases and transforms them into logical and technical views.
5) Technical Consultant

What are the different SAP modules/skills?

Following are the various SAP modules; the names are self-explanatory and it can be inferred what business need they are meant for.
1) SAP MM (Materials Management)
2) SAP SRM (Supplier Relationship Management)
3) SAP SD (Sales & Distribution)
4) SAP FI/CO (Finance & Controlling)
5) SAP PP (Production Planning)
6) SAP SCM (Supply Chain Management)
7) SAP BW (Business Information Warehouse)
8) SAP BASIS
9) SAP WM (Warehouse Management)
10) SAP HR (Human Resource/Payroll)
11) SAP PS (Project System)
12) SAP APO (Advanced Planner and Optimizer)
13) SAP CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
14) SAP HCM (Human Capital Management)
15) SAP BCM (Business-Change-Management)
16) SAP BCS (Business Communication Services)
17) SAP PM (Plant Maintenance)
18) SAP AM (Asset Management)
19) SAP xMII (xApp Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence)
20) SAP SEM (Strategic Enterprise Management)
21) SAP BPS (Business Planning and Simulation)
22) SAP PLM (Product Lifecycle Management)
23) SAP EHS (Environment, Health, and Safety)
24) SAP QM (Quality Management)
25) SAP (Mobile Infrastructure)
26) SAP (Exchange Infrastructure)
27) SAP SOLMAN (Solution Manager)
28) SAP WAS (Web Application Server)
29) SAP Netweaver
30) SAP EP (Enterprise Portal)
31) SAP ALE (Application Link Enabling information)
32) SAP ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) – ABAP is a programming language and used with other modules, like ABAP netweaver.

Knowledge in following areas can help you for respective modules

Asset Management (AM):
* Purchase
* Sale
* Depreciation
* Tracking

Controlling (CD):
* Cost elements
* Cost centers
* Profit Centers
* Internal Orders
* Activity based costing
* Product Costing

Cross Applications (CA).
* Work Flow (WF)
* Business Information Ware house (BW)
* Office
* Industry Solutions
* Work place
* New Dimension products

Financial Accounting (FI). :
* General Ledger
* Book close
* Tax
* Accounts receivable
* Accounts Payable
* Consolidation
* Special Ledger

Project systems (PS):
* Plant shut downs
* Make to order
* Third-party billing
* Human resources

Plant Maintenance (PM):
* Labor
* Down time & outages
* Material

Material Management (MM):
* Requisitions
* Purchase Orders
* Accounts Payable
* Goods receipt
* Inventory Management

Sales and Distribution (SD):
* From order to delivery
* Shop Floor
* Sales orders
* Pricing
* Picking
* Shipping
* Packing

Quality Management (QM):
* Planning
* Inspections
* Executions
* Certificates

Production planning (PP):
* Capacity Planning
* Master production scheduling
* RFQ

Which is the best SAP module?

Best SAP skill will depend on your background, if you have worked as recruiter, SAP HR will be the best for you. SAP CRM, SAP HR, SAP BIW (great in Europe and North America), SAP- FI/CO, SAP –ABAP, SAP –MM, SAP – SD, ABAP are the hottest ones.

Where can I get job in SAP skills?

All services companies have requirements in SAP skills including IBM Global Services, HCL Infosystems, Wipro, and TCS.