Please guide me on SAP Career Path

[Former Member]

Dear SAP Community members,

I am a new entrant to this community and believe me or not, I am overwhelmed with the quality and depth of information that is being exchanged between the members. This is an excellent knowledge sharing platform with very good ethics.

Please guide 'your's truely' on a SAP Career path

I have > 6 years experience in IT dept of a life insurance company.

My role typically includes:

• The experience spans extensive interaction with customers in gathering, analyzing, validating and preparing business requirement requirements.
• Extensive interaction with the technical team on technical approach to the requirement, analyzing, negotiating and validating on effort estimates.
• Functional validation of the PLSQL queries and basic knowledge on SQL queries to self view the required data from the tables.
• Assisting production support team on technical approach on escalated concerns related to the applications.
• Reviewing Test cases and ensuring they are in accordance with the requirements and assist the overall process by activities such as Change and Defect management and conducting User Acceptance Testing.
• Involved in all the stages of the SDLC in the projects.

I do not have any programming knowledge but am well aware with the Application layers, terminologies and their use.

I want to do a specialized career in SAP. Can I do this ? Which module would be the best platform for me to launch a career with SAP.

I am well aware of the life insurance processes , but my role is neither a core functional nor a core technical role. How can I branch into either of these modules to put my career on track ?

With Regards,

Subhadip

[Former Member]

Hello,

After reading your profile i came to some conclusion.

You have some knowledge of SQL means data base.Testing and the process.

And good knowledge of SDLC process.

So as per SAP concern, you don't have any specialized knowledge. But will you be interested in SAP ABAP testing ?  Or if you are good in Technical coding then can try with ABAP also.

We have some functional module is SAP as well.. But don't prefer you to go with some functional module.

[Former Member]

Hi Subhadip,

My suggestion will be if  you have  pure DB Knowledge  on SQL you can Choose Either

HANA / BO .

IF you are interested in Testing in SAP we Have

SAP TESTING : I Don't Have knowledge on SAP TESTING, Just go through google it and once, i think this might be suitable for your carrier.(TESTING)

Regards,

Giri

[Former Member]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. SAP testing will also require know how of the modules at some level.

1.Can SAP BI be done without programming knowledge?

2. If I am able to procure a BA role in some IT company,  can that open up the SAP insurance career path for me.? (by means of on the job training)

[Former Member]

For SAP BI also you need to have enough knowledge of SAP, Ya but it's a functional module of SAP so not much technical/programming.

[Former Member]

Ok, so when you say enough knowledge of SAP , please elaborate this aspect. If i do a course on SAP BI , what are the challenges that I need to overcome to complete & understand the course successfully to land with the first job on SAP BI

[Former Member]

Enough Knowledge means apart from SAP BI, of you must have some basic knowledge to use SAP, knowledge of Some Tcodes, some Screens,  very common for SAP.

And there is some very recent threads on which we discussed about SAP BI. You can follow that thread.

--ChanS 

[Former Member]

HI,

Can you send me some link to download these prerequisites which may give me some idea on this?

So can It be concluded this way: SAP BI can be pursued without programming knowledge, but SAP common terminologies need to be learnt effectively.

[Former Member]

Here is one link

And Google is there,biggest source of all links

It have a lot of links, some of them is related to ABAP, so if you want you can ignore them but some is useful for you..

[Former Member]

HI subahadip,

For bi related info just go through below link you will get all details with in single document.

http://scn.sap.com/community/data-warehousing/netweaver-bw/blog/2012/10/11/learning-sap-bw-everythin...

Regards,
Giri

[Former Member]

Dear Subhadip,

Hearty welcome to this world of SAP!!.

SAP would certainly embrace you for the interest that you have shown which is evident by your query. I would suggest you to get trained in one of the SAP Modules like SD, PP, WM etc. Google more for the details on the modules in SAP.

However, My recommendation to you would be to get trained in SAP FICO(Finance & Controlling) as you must definitely be aware of Finance Domain, reason being you associated with Life Insurance related activities for 6 long years. So, you would not have much difficulty in the Domain training of FICO. A brief training on technical aspects of FICO would certainly be of a great help to you.

My best wishes to you for a successful career ahead!!

Happy Learning!!!

Regards,

Ram

[Former Member]

Dear Sir,

Thank you very much for the insight thrown into this discussion. You have shown me a new direction. I have a 'Q' here. definitely I do have idea on the receivables (premium amount) & disbursement (claims, surrenders), I am sure doing this wil also help me in future to do sub modules like (Collection and disbursement- sub ledger of the GL of FICO module) of SAP Insurance.

Hope I will get a job after the course as I am not a CA by qualification ( who are given preference for these modules) but an B.E. and MBA.

Regards,

Subhadip

[Former Member]

Dear Subhadip,

You definitely need not consider this to be a constraint at all. There are numerous instances that I have seen where an ABAP'er who is just a B.E is trained in FICO and they are doing exceptionally well in this module. They were the ones who did not even know what a GL is. I would say you are certainly more capable than them in terms of qualification and experience.

So, my advice to you:  Stop worrying!! The power of belief would definitely take you places. Trust yourself and your strengths and I will see you growing up the ladder!! Who knows tomorrow I will get a chance with you where you will throw the requirement at me Hahah..

Best Wishes,

Ram.

[Former Member]

Dear Sir,

Thank you ! I am also checking with the various SAP education partners. each one of them have come up with a different option. 1 centre says PS, one says ABAP, some more are still to follow.

The above is the most genuine and logical advice I have rec'd You must be a very experienced person (as I do not know about your professional background) who has replied both at IQ and EQ level.

As This will be change of career track for better career growth, I hope job oppurtunities will be there and I will be considered as a SAP fresher .in next 6 to 7 months. Will they give any weightage to my present experience?

Regards,

Subhadip

[Former Member]

Dear Subhadip,

People would certainly acknowledge your expertise and experience in your current domain. However, you would still be seen as a fresher in the SAP module that you would be trained in. That is how it is supposed to be. But, that truly is not a problem..... Each one has to struggle in the initial days of their career. For you, this is the beginning of a new career... So, be ready to accept different kinds of criticism and comments. I am sure for a person with so much work experience(though in a different domain all together) will not have a problem managing this..

I personally feel that you would pick up things much faster than the actual freshers as you have an experience of around 5-6 years to your credit. So, Dont worry about anything... Get going..Pull up your socks and work hard, really hard.. I am sure you will do it brother...

Quote for you: 'Tough times dont last forever, but tough people do..'.  And you seem to be a tough guy to me ..

Best Wishes,

Ram.

[Former Member]

Dear Sir,

One of the institute is suggesting me for SAP BI. There view point is BI is the functional module as I have a functional experience and you have to use the tools for data acquisition,modelling , report layout, creating query definitions. Is this also a good option? BO is a technical aspect as it involves database,jobs, procedures, ETL, etc.I certainly do not fit for BO with a non-technical b/g. Is BI a good option? being a MBA , analysis of data is also a very imp aspect of this module. what is your view on this?

Considering FICO, FI (Finacial Accounting) and CO (Management accounting) are now 2 different modules along with seperate exams.

Please advise on above.

regards,

Subhadip

[Former Member]

HI subhadip,

Bi is techno functional, u need to have Technical knowledge of BI.

My suggestion will be if you have basic knowledge on SQL you can Learn HANA and BO Easily.

Regards,

Giri

[Former Member]

Dearest Subhadip,

Sorry about the delay in replying to your query. I donot see you active these days in SCN. Hope everything is fine!!!

Coming to your question, You are very right when you say SAP BI demands you to have technical knowledge of Procedures and other data analysis tools. Given the fact that you are not very comfortable with technical aspects of BI as you donot have a technical background, this truly is not a very wise decision.

I still recommend you to stick on to FICO as this would definitely take you to greater heights.

Let me know on what your final decision is. Let your instinct take a call. All the very best.

Warm Regards,

Ram

P.S: Do not leave the thread open if your query is answered. If you need more details, you can mail me.  

[former_member184701]

dear, did you hear about SAP HR ? I am talking about the Human Resources.

[Former Member]

Hi, No HR domain experience hence this is completely ruled out. This will be a bottleneck during the time of placement.

[former_member10771]

Hi,

Why dont you try SAP for insurance. Since you have worked in insurance domain.

[Former Member]

HI Amit,

SAP Insurance training is presently not available in India. the only way to get a hands on experience is by joining an IT company who have projects related to implementation of SAP Insurance projects & provided I am a team member of that project team.