The Different Types of SAP Consultants and How They Affect Project Success

The Different Types of SAP Consultants and How They Affect Project Success

For a better understanding of the risks and mistakes that impact SAP implementations, I want to explain in a very simple way how I visualize, name, and classify SAP consultants nowadays, defining in general and SAP Consultant as a person who helps implement, maintain, migrate, expand, install, or customize any SAP business solution.

In the SAP world, I see four different types of consultants

“SAP Techies”: I am not going to speak a lot about them as I think they don’t really manage projects or implementations, and as such, are rarely the reason for a mistake. Typically, SAP Techies are programmers, ABAP specialists, Basis specialists, or software architects specializing in SAP solutions or trainer’s. Sometimes they are used as the “tool” that causes project mistakes, but this is mainly because of the wrong decision on the part of their managers. These folks are always needed in any stage of SAP projects or implementations. The real secret is to have a good plan to utilize them effectively.

“SAP Implementers”: These are the most frequently found “consultants” in the SAP world (and for my part, I do not consider them the best SAP consultants). These consultants know the product very well and understand most of the flags and parameters. They can very easily solve technical problems and set parameters on very complex problems, but they are typically very much oriented to specific modules and limited functionality. They do not tend to see the integration and overall process importance of an SAP solution. These narrow-view consultants typically came from being programmers or analysts, or else have been certified after obtaining a degree but before gaining practical experience in business. They are useful in large projects with a good number of consultants, where the process definitions or the development of the Business Blueprint are taken on by “SAP Business Consultants” or in conjunction with “SAP Process Consultants”.

“SAP Process Consultants”: These consultants typically have very good knowledge of the processes and the problems of the real job. Most of them are people from the company installing SAP, and so they don't usually have a deep knowledge of information systems. They may have participated internally in an SAP Project, but they do not have a very deep knowledge of technical issues or they don’t tend to like computers or technical themes. You find these folks in companies as key "super" users or internal consultants, and they often need continuous assistance from “SAP Implementers” or “SAP Business Consultants”. They are essential in new implementations to transmit the history, reality, and plans for the future of the company where the project is taking place. If you extrapolate these consultants to the early non-IT World, they can be compared to the Process Reengineering Consultants.

“SAP Business Consultants”: In my view, these are the most complete SAP consultants. A cross between Implementers and Process Consultants, they understand very well the underlying business processes and can give some advice on best business practices. They are not the best technicians, but they can solve any technical problem because they understand the SAP philosophy. They are able to work effectively with technical teams to address functionality gaps and customize SAP solutions. They can discuss technical issues because they have a clear understanding of the depths of SAP's functionality and can easily investigate technical solutions as needed. They always make a cost-benefit analysis of the implementation of a tool, functionality, or process, before going to the technical solution.

As you can see, all these kinds of consultants are important for different jobs, for different kinds of projects, and for different kinds of companies. As a general rule, the smaller the company, the higher the business complexity, or the longer you are using IT business solutions, the more you need the fourth type of Business Consultants. Process Consultants are very important during the definition of business models, during the creation of the solution maps or business landscapes, and for process reengineering when you use SAP solutions. It is always better to use these consultants as and when need rather hire them first phase (blue print ) to final preparation. In my view in BBP stage you need Process Consultants to write ‘as is ‘ which is a process or defining the current process next stage you need business consultants and technical consultants to take project ahead. Sap implementers can supplement on need basis but not in the first phase later phases.