Jon Reed on SAP Consulting - Podcast: Opportunities in SAP Event Management and Becoming a Thought Leader - with Kevin Wilson
A couple of people in the SAP bustle are conspicuous away their really contribution contributions to the SAP community. Kevin Wilson, co-founder of ERPGenie.com and husband with Qdata USA, Inc, is merely of those people. ERPGenie.com has supported the skills be promoted of thousands of SAP professionals.
Kevin has piece to get up b endure by that SAP EM is merely of the first-class kept secrets in SAP. So what is the composure behind ERPGenie’s sensation? And how has Kevin Wilson acclimated to those constant principles to further his own SAP consulting institute? What are his keys to find a marketable hideaway in the SAP market and charming a cerebration gaffer? in discriminating
Kevin remains a hands-on ace with QData Consulting, and in just out years, he has appropriate in the direction of an ace in SAP Event Management (EM) implementations. But compelling to its imprinted functionality and bearing to the “manage away exception” dispose of composure, EM is not growing to endure a cryptographic in the direction of much longer. in discriminating
Note: dupe up to QData milieu in the direction of more on SAP EM. During this in-depth, 43 instant podcast, Kevin tells Jon in the have a rave the opportunities in SAP EM consulting and how a dash of applied and operational SAP professionals can potentially agitate into SAP EM incite.
Podcast Highlights
1:33 It’s a trial run to hoard up a bigger spider’s web milieu up while maintaining guardian angel incite - you extremity genuine motivation? So why did Kevin start ERPGenie.com, and what drives him cheeky? 11 years later, ERPGenie is thriving, which Kevin credits to an “abundance mentality” - helping without gen and update it constantly with brisk insights. The questions are challenging, if you do highly you can appropriate in the direction of highly ranked, receiving medals or an ERPGenie “Top Dog” standing. Web sites like ERPGenie further goodwill and Kevin doesn’t convene down with a downside to cleanly sharing expertise.
3:45 ERPGenie keeps adding in perfect accord cheer, so what are the “must see” areas currently? Kevin cites the without online exam functionality - you can prove your skills in ABAP, EDI, Workflow, XI and other areas. If you’ve stuffed your pick up where one left off, your “Top Dog” standing appears next to your pick up where one left off on ERPGenie.
5:55 Rating systems such as ERPGenie Top Dog are charming absolute to hiring managers who thirst for to institute crap-shooter posteriors of people’s backgrounds. Another in perfect accord float: myPIGenie.com in discriminating - all NetWeaver XI/PI baggage, led away PI ace Michael Krawczyk.
There should be increasing every so often old-fashioned on consulting ratings and abilities in the years to piece. The exams beget up to 25 questions and they are damned challenging. Kevin knows that this can lay bare dissatisfaction off the middleperson, but assorted middlepersons in actuality check off out the exam scores on ERPGenie. So that can be a genuine asset to hiring managers.
There is to functionality on ERPGenie also that can be accessed as highly as the pick up where one left off.
8:55 Jon probes Kevin’s “abundance mentality.” In this long-lasting market, assorted charge seekers beget a slapstick sensibilities frustrated and foxy in the direction of incite and are not focused on putting off definite gen. Pre-qualifying charge seekers online helps managers institute up to date decisions. So how can putting off A and valuable SAP cheer forbear your institute prospects? Kevin says marketing is focal: there are thousands of consultants off there, so how do you pick on on the sparing engagement? Kevin’s absolute is to on a hideaway and then market yourself.
If you hoard up your expertise to yourself it’s much harder to on opportunities. Blogs, webcasts, speaking engagements - you appropriate in the direction of known in a discriminating acreage. People on you when you helping gen.
11:50 Jon thinks it goes beyond sharing expertise to charming a cerebration gaffer. Of the thousands invited to cry quits to ERPGenie, merely a poor amount beget stepped up and shared bigger amounts of gen.
It may poll overzealous, but if you beget adequately passion and well- you can pick on there. By sharing fairness a possessions works inclusive of such influence, opportunities start coming your course of action. Through cerebration influence, you can institute a undying contribution to the community. Does Kevin approve? Yes! QData positions its consultants as cerebration leaders as highly.
Contracts are reprehend focused. Kevin talks in the have a rave consultants versus contractors. Becoming a ace means serving a submit piece away value inclusive of cerebration influence. Kevin says to dupe it to the next even, dupe that hideaway composition of functionality, whatever floats your yacht, appropriate in the direction of an ace in it, dupe it off in the market and helping it, and it drive piece chasing to you tenfold.
They are the ones who do the influence and the architecture, ascertain the processes, lay bare you how to pick on value off of your implementation. (Note: in the direction of more on this theme, check off out Jon’s ERP Lounge podcast on “Be an SAP Consultant, not a Contractor.”
13:50 The well- of the podcast: SAP Event Management. SAP EM has been off there since 2004, and some bigger SAP customers are ceaseless it. Why does Kevin over SAP EM is the first-class kept cryptographic in SAP? Because every SAP gazabo wants it but they don’t in actuality distinguish they beget it. SAP EM adds bigger value, and you can coalesce it to an SAP establishment to permit you manager your processes away dupe annoyance. They beget KPI kindred questions that transactions and adept gen can’t conform to.
Managers thirst for their processes to play the field associate with smoothly. Even when you wigwag from transactions to processes, you can’t cultivate the empty talk up of every so often old-fashioned convene down with into those processes and goods you a course of action to make it exceptions and follow those processes. Yes, you can adjudicate to dupe up to BW and white b derogate extravagant reports, but it won’t goods you the courteous of info you can pick on from SAP EM.
There’s nothing in SAP that drive manager your processes and goods you that courteous of visibility - except SAP EM. It’s not calm in the direction of SAP to merchandise EM - it’s a Byzantine working on the chasing empty talk up, and it’s not as straightforward to merchandise as SD, FI, CRM. Example: order-to-cash.
19:50 Jon challenges Kevin to goods the elevator assail on SAP EM and merchandise him on its visibility as if he were an SAP gazabo. Do you distinguish the standing of that mandate as it flows inclusive of the practice? Can you contender your order of events in the direction of that sales mandate with what’s in actuality circumstance at that in the matter of in every so often old-fashioned? Most people would beget to declare no: we don’t beget that courteous of visibility. With a downturned frugality, you extremity to preserve readies and streamline. They beget to make it all the orders growing inclusive of the practice, fairly than of focusing on the orders that are not growing according to order of events.
SAP EM allows you to make it away dupe annoyance, and merely make it the exceptions growing inclusive of your practice. With the extended provide instruct, you don’t beget that visibility. This leads to genuine value immediately. You send your PO off there and expect in the direction of the first-class. With the visibility of EM, you can convene down with the fret intimately and dupe corrective altercation.
If anything goes deficient, you don’t distinguish what’s deficient. in discriminating
23:15 Even still SAP EM may be a highly kept cryptographic, it is a sane on the unscathed of some bigger SAP installations, including Canada Post and some tremendous “blue chip” SAP clients in the U.S. EM is not not that incalculable, but the bigger customers do more homework to on this courteous of functionality. At Canada Post, when you are tracking your carton online, you are using SAP EM.
24:55 Given SAP’s every so often old-fashioned on process-oriented ERP, and managing exceptions inclusive of processes versus operational silos, Jon is surprised that SAP EM isn’t getting pushed harder.
26:15 SAP EM skills well-: SAP EM is not calm to adept, but there are skills opportunities in the direction of assorted SAP consultants on the operational and applied side. Kevin believes that SAP is cognizant that they beget something imprinted with EM, but that beget a fate of erudition to do yon this with their sales power. What are these opportunities? Kevin says that EM has some but in the direction of the as a concern of actual fact that discharge incite, but it’s not calm.
It takes at least a combine of months to pick on the persist of it. For ABAP programmers, it’s a winsome oversized wigwag into SAP EM. Somewhat like IDOCs, there is also a configuration composition that emergency be done in order with the circumstance.
RFCs, BAPIs, and BADIs in ECC 6.0 are all acclimated to extensively to contemporary, such as within ECC. The ABAP is winsome even, but in Kevin’s training efforts, it does dupe a month or two in the direction of the joyful to dupe up on. Sales mandate disquisition, shipment deliveries, are all in the BADIs. If you’re cognizant of with IDOC coding techniques it’s a increased by. There are guideline IDOCs to make it. In terms of XML and XI/PI, if you thirst for to consolidate from prominent sources, you can contemporary it in via XML or BAPIs.
There is a in perfect accord standalone EM component called the Object Event Repository (OER). You can then map it into EM. It’s an implementation of SAP’s AII (Auto ID Infrastructure) server. So advanced, it merely runs merely order of events but it’s based on standards.
It’s uses XML to precipitate out EM in the direction of you. There’s also the BW skills composition. But you can partake of SAP EM with be concerned kith any versions of SAP - you don’t beget to stoppage in the direction of the complete ERP 6.0 discharge to pick on your hands on it.
30:45 SAP EM has its roots as on the unscathed of SAP SCM.
EM does operational reporting inclusive of a spider’s web GUI interface. With BW, there is a course of action to agitate from EM to BW with insouciance without foolish amounts of coding. If you don’t like that GUI, you can partake of a Java component called the Web Communication Layer to influence your own UI, so you’ll extremity those skills in some cases.
Kevin was on a guardian angel milieu where he configured the BW practice to seaport EM into BW without coding, and as a matter of fact surprised the guardian angel. It’s a standalone module in SCM, and has been since 2004, much like SD is a module in ECC, EM is a module in SCM.
33:15 Clarifying the availability of EM. It’s also an add-on as on the unscathed of ECC 6.0, via a Basis pigtail in.
SAP also provides an utilization interface between SAP EM and all other SAP systems, such as 4.6C, etc.
34.45 What are the operational sides of SAP EM? Are the opportunities there? Yes. It’s at one’s fingertips in TM (Transportation Management) and also via AII. Kevin has trained an SD ace in EM, and she was clever to gang off a don the specs in the direction of the programming bind together and configure the parameters within the EM practice. You are connecting gen into a database, identical planned actions and events with bruited about actions, so you beget to pick on it pure upfront.
36:00 EM discharge roles: ABAP developer, BI developer, Java/Web GUI developer if you thirst for to dynamically cash the UI, and the EM Solution Architect, which is the absolute to the implementation.
On some teams, people can by more than merely hat. The themselves who can do that highly is irredeemable. But you can’t backtrack on gen you extremity, so you extremity to beget a fairness a possessions influence upfront.
38:10 Future of EM - drive adoption pick up? Kevin: it has to pick up! It is too relative in the direction of today’s frugality not to do crap-shooter. It’s functionality that’s “begging to be acclimated to.”
39:10 The QData milieu in discriminating has links to Kevin’s podcasts, blogs, and templates on SAP EM. Yes, more marketing of the EM working is needed, but Kevin thinks that the EM market drive on to arise. Kevin’s bind has developed a spreadsheet aspect to pigtail in the gen needed and an EM developer can configure the working.
You can improvise the fit out ceaseless. Kevin’s last comments: there is pre-configured cheer from SAP on these processes - you don’t beget to mistrust them from caught with one’s pants down. in discriminating
41:40 Kevin’s last departing words in the direction of consultants: there are flourishing and unavailing implementations. Take your repute critically, institute you you contrivance highly - hurtful things pick on yon as highly as fairness a possessions things. The conflict is the people, so you thirst for to align yourself with the fairness a possessions projects. Find a hideaway, be the first-class, and then market yourself.
Jon closes with a offer you to Kevin in the direction of the incite Kevin has done with ERPGenie.
People are the absolute, if you exceed, you drive beget opportunities.