Jennifer: - Oh! My God, so, India is in a terrible condition at present. Companies are recruiting MBA guys at a package of 1.8 lacs per annum. After the budget, I think that a farmer can also earn more than 2 lacs per annum. This recession is the right time to upgrade your certifications or learn some new skills, rather than accepting those jobs of low salary. By the way, I have heard that you are doing a course on SAP. What is that?
Tony: - Well, the full form of SAP is“SYSTEM APPLICATION PRODUCT”. The name of the company is SAP AG, as it is a German company. AG term is used in Germany, as like INC term is used in India. It is ERP software. ERP means Enterprise Resource Planning. The main objective of ERP is to integrate all processes like HR, Marketing, Production, IT, Finance etc. to run the organization smoothly.
Neeraj: - No, I don’t agree to your point that ERP is implemented to integrate all processes only. See, there is another department, which is known as Management Information System(MIS). This department creates analytical reports based on the integrated data from all other departments. Based on these reports, from CEO to Junior Executive, everyone tries to take decisions to reach their individual goals. That individual goal ultimately results in fulfilling the mission of the company. Now, consider the present competitive market. The emphasis is now on how fast can you generate analytical report and how fast you can response to that report by taking a particular decision, which can be either yes or no. To speed up the report generation, we don’t want this manual MIS department anymore. Rather, we will automate the entire process. The servers will extract all data from different departments and will create a report automatically. Correct decision at the correct time can fetch you the maximum profit. Correct timing is the key here and that is where the significance of implementation of SAP comes in. It is basically the marriage of Management techniques and Analytical reports, resulting in huge profits.
David: - There are lots of ERP Software like Oracle Financials and others. But, why we will go for SAP only?
Arindam: - Ha ha ha… this is the common question everyone asks. In today’s market scenario, hardly you can figure out the companies which have sustained in the market, without diversification of their business. As a company, if it is in the same business line for generation to generation, and still it is doing profit, then Oracle Financials is the best ERP software for you. But, the moment you are diversifying in the market, then Oracle Financials will fail to serve you. But, SAP has the flexibility to serve you, because if SAP is the Indian Ocean, then Oracle Financials is just the Bay of Bengal.
Tony: - Ya, Arindam is absolutely correct. Not only have that, SAP runs on an R/3 Tier Architecture, which gives an edge. The three servers are Database Servers controlled by DBA or BASIS people, Application Servers controlled by ABAP programmers and Presentation Servers controlled by functional consultants. Now, if you are a Computer or IT Engineer, then you can surely work as an ABAP developer. If you are an OCP certified person having good knowledge on SQL queries or in Networking, then you can work as DBA or BASIS person. If you are a Post-Graduate guy either as a MBA or M-Tech or M.Sc., then you can surely work as the functional or SAP Consultants on your own domain like FI-CO, CRM, BI, MM, HR, etc.
Jennifer: - What are these FI-CO, MM etc? Please explain in details, if you can.
Arindam:- Well, there are around 14 types of main modules in SAP like CRM(Customer Relationship Management), FI-CO(Financial Integrals and Controlling), EP(Enterprise-Portals), SRM(Supplier Relationship Management), SCM(Supply Chain Management, MM( Materials Management), APO(Advanced Planning Optimizer), PLM(Product Lifecycle Management), HCM(Human Capital Management), IP(Integrated Planning), BC(Business Consolidation), BI(Business Intelligence), CPM(Corporate Finance Monitors), SEM(Strategic Enterprise Management) and XI(Exchange Interface). There are many more to come, as SAP is now going to implement modules solely based on International Financial Reporting Structure(IFRS). So, every organization should implement SAP for better efficiency from Raw materials to finished Goods to Customer relations and to retaining key talented people.