Sap

Trizo

Could someone please explain to me what exactly SAP is, I know that it’s something to do with integrating information systems etc… but could someone break it down into a better answer?

Also how do you go about getting into a SAP job? most of the jobs iv seen are looking for maybe 2-3 years experience but I have yet to see a graduate position or training in a position?

Any information would be appreciated Cheers.

KdjaCL

Its a highly modifiable database system which can cater to almost every business.


Wow Sap should use that as their slogan
You can buy books on it but also do courses and be tested by SAP.
Mate of mine works there loves says it a good place to work.
kdjac

seamus

http://www.sap.com/index.aspx

SAP is one big huge database-driven system that's designed to manage all aspects of a business. It has functions for stock purchase, equipment purchase, payroll, HR, asset management, pretyt much everything. Think of anything that a business needs to organise (employee leave for example) and SAP will have a section dedicated to organising it. The real genius in this software is that all depts are integrated. So quite often HR and the Finance dept need to be two separate depts. It doesn't matter with SAP. If HR start something (hire someone new, who needs to be paid obviously), then any other depts needed - Finance need to organise payment, IT need to organise equipment - will automatically be notified by the SAP system.

It's quite tough to describe until you see it.

It's also easily the worst application ever written for Microsoft Windows - that's saying a lot. It user-friendlyness ranks in the negative it's so godawful, the GUI is completely non-intuitive nor helpful, and the help system, well lets say that the help system is the least helpful thing I have ever encountered. It provides absolutely zero data for troubleshooting in the normal sense.

This is of course, intentional. Once a company pays millions for the basic system, they then have the option of paying further millions to customise it to make it user-useable, and more hundreds of thousands on support contracts and training for existing IT staff, since even the most experienced sys admin would look at this and go, "What. The. Fuck."

There's good money in knowing it though.

michaelanthony

SAP is Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP) software. It basically lets you input a set of information once during the whole lifecycle of what that information relates to. You can then manipulate that information and carry it forward to the next stage right through to the end stage.

For example you can create a purchase order by inputting new data. Then carry that forward to production planning in your factory or materials management. You then can carry that information to sales orders. You can then post the information to your financials and so on.

There are specific solutions for different industres too. Like Oil, Aerospace and defence, Apparel and Footware, Healthcare, Country Specific solutions(tax) and so on.

SAP in Dublin take on a lot of young people as Support consultants who are out of college for 1 or 2 years.

Trizo

Cool cheers guys I kind of have a good idea of it now, I looked at the site michaelanthony you say they take in a lot of graduates in as Support consultants is this a good role does it lead to anything? Also are they difficult to get a job with?

Third_Echelon

I work for SAP in Dublin. It was my first job out of college, so they do hire graduates with not a lot of experience. Im here about 18 months now.

Pay is market average, of course you always could do with more. The benefits are really good. Free lunch every day, so you are saving yourself about 2000 EURO over a year straight away. You get a benefits 'pot' which is usually around 2000->3000 euro depending on certain aspects, so you can get healthcare, gym, shares, savings, tax free bus/luas tickets etc, and you can take the remainder in cash.... Bonuses per annum are about 10% of base salary... It is also a flexible working environment so you have core hours of 10am->3.30pm monday to thursday and 10am->2.30pm on a friday. You have to work 38 hours in a week, so you add the remainder either side of your core hours... very handy indeed especially on a Friday as you can leave at 2.30pm if you have your hours done....

As the other posters have mentioned here the main SAP product is R/3 (RealTime 3), which is the ERP package. This is their 'bread and butter' with regards to revenue and this is where everybody starts as a new hire.
They have lots of other types of products such as CRM packages, BW (Business Warehouse), APO (Advanced Planning and Optimisation), EP (Enterprise Portals) etc etc, so there is many areas to move to after R/3..

Ok now to explain the job.....

As a new hire support consultant there are 2 areas that you can go into:
Message Solving and Service Delivery. (Im in Service Delivery)

Message Solving
Does exactly what it says on the tin.. you solve customer messages.

When you start you will join an R/3 team. Each team is dedicated to a module. Modules in R/3 would be the various types of packages such as Sales & Distribution (SD), Materials Management (MM), Financials (FI), Production Planning (PP), Treasury (TR) etc etc..
You will solve customer problems that are assigned to you by searching knowledge bases and past customer messages for similar problems etc. You will have lots of help in your team with this anyway.

Service Delivery
Maintenance is where the money is for SAP. It accounts for 40% of SAP's income so its a very important aspect for their survival.
In service delivery you will be performing maintenance sessions for customers.
You will log onto their system remotely when performing the session. You will collect data from their system and download it into the tools you are given to help perform the session.
During a week you will be given 4 session days in your calendar. Some sessions are 1 day, some 2 days.
Types of sessions:
EarlyWatch-> Standard maintenance session for an R/3 system. You will analyse and make recommendations for:
Hardware: Is the hardware adequate for the workload
Workload Distribution: Is the workload distributed evenly over the servers?
Database: Perform database checks and look for bottlenecks and also offer recommendations on performance and administration
R/3: Make recommendations for R/3 parameters
OS: Make recommendations for OS parameters and best performance setup
Expensive SQL: Analyse expensive SQL statements to reduce the load that they are causing on the system. This will help reduce the I/O on disks, memory etc and help improve response times.

GoingLive Sessions
These sessions are performed when a new system is going live or when a customer is upgrading from one release to a new release:
It is made up of 3 sessions. They are:
GoingLive Analysis -> Performed 4 weeks before go live date to analyse project. Will hardware be adequate for workload? Parameter recommendations etc.
GoingLive Optimisation -> Performed just before go live to iron out any performance issues or bottlenecks with certain transactions in the modules etc.
GoingLive Verification -> Performed 4 weeks after go live to ensure that all is well on the system since it has gone into full production. This is the same as an EarlyWatch.

These are the main session types. There are also sessions for when customer are migrating their OS or DB to another vendor (UNIX to Windows, MSSQL to Oracle etc).

Usually support consultants will stay in the R/3 area for about 1 year to 18 months and then move on to different products or stay on in R/3 and go into a higher position.

All in all they are a great company to work for and i haven't regretted it at all. great bunch of people to work with and there is always opportunity for travel.

If you need any more info PM me. They are actually hiring again, so you can send me your CV and ill pop it straight into HR and make sure they give you a call.....