Remarks

This article omits the background description and foreshadowing, and only translates part of the key content

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Three common roles of SAP consultants

Function Advisor
Technical Adviser
basis consultant

The reason why technical consultants are used instead of ABAP consultants is that the responsibilities of developers are not only ABAP development, but also participate in the fields of ABAP, SAPUI5, HANA, SAP Cloud Platform, Integration (PI/PO), Analytics, etc.

SAP's biggest changes and challenges

Application and development of HANA data
Transformation from SAP ECC to HANA
Incorporate SAP Gateway and Odata Services into the scope of system integration
SAP FIORI as the main user front-end interface
Cloud revolution, from the local to deploy SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) change
New digital transformation system, like SuccessFactors , Ariba and C/4HANA

In the above list, the most important thing is the issuance of SCP. SAP has concentrated a lot of energy on its cloud strategy. We can see some relatively big changes, such as digital transformation solutions for different services and product releases, which have been replaced. Or migrate to CPI ( SAP Cloud Platform Integration ) or SAC ( SAP Analytics Cloud ).

Cloud strategy has brought many benefits to SAP, the following are the more important points

Reduced system maintenance and support costs
Increase revenue through service usage fees instead of traditional user licenses
Better adapt to standard processes and implement them quickly
Easier to expand the list of services in different fields

Cloud transformation also has many benefits for consultants. This may seem contradictory, because changes mean that consultants need to learn more new knowledge to keep up with market needs and directions; from another perspective, this means that SAP Stepping out of the comfort zone and devoting yourself to a brand-new technical field to keep up with the changes in the market is the best way to expand the scope of business and win the competition; for consultants, we no longer use outdated concepts and technologies Come to work in case we are left behind in other IT markets.

The way to upgrade skills

Learning path

There are three official ways for SAP consultants to learn new knowledge

SAP Press official bookstore, including e-book reading and physical book sales
SAP Learning Hub official training and certification platform
Open SAP provides an introduction to the latest SAP technologies and products, including SCP, FIORI, HANA, etc.

Function Advisor

S/4HANA and digital transformation

The upgrade from ECC to S/4HANA is a topic that functional consultants need to discuss, but when it comes to other systems such as SuccessFactors , Ariba and C/4HANA , it will bring considerable difficulties. This requires consultants to have all the products provided by SAP With a certain understanding, I think it has the following two aspects:

Simplification and reconstruction of modules

The biggest change in the FI financial module, some common tables are no longer used, and many processes have been updated; the impact is positive, but functional consultants should focus on these changes

Brand new UI interface

With the emergence of SAP FIORI and SAP UI5, we are no longer limited to SAP GUI, and many transaction codes have also been replaced by beautiful web interfaces. One of SAP FIORI's main goals is to reduce textual transactions and provide a brief application interface for each individual role. For these changes, functional consultants need to understand the new features of the system to provide the best user experience

Configuration and expansion through SAP cloud application

SPRO is no longer the only configuration and extension tool. SAP provides a series of FIORI interfaces for system customization; at the same time, function consultants must also have a certain understanding of SAP Cloud Platform Extension Factory

Basis Advisor

The cloud strategy makes infrastructure and software services controlled by SAP, which is not good news for Basis consultants, but on-premise deployment still has a large market, which can focus on the following aspects

Specific SAP component installation
Instance installation of third-party cloud service providers

Technical Adviser

SAP Flowers && SAPUI5

SAP FIORI is based on 5 principles: role-based, adaptive, simple, coherent, and comfortable. The main purpose is to reduce textual transactions and simplify the interface of different users.

The basis of all new web programs of SAP UI5 , based on Javascript, can be developed through ADT plug-in or Web IDE, and the rest of the UI is realized through WDA and screen personalization