FAQs about my job ...
people always ask me what i do for a living; that is, for money. i hate this question for a few reasons, but the main one is that it is very difficult to explain what i do. if i tell the long version, i am greeted with blank looks and boredom; if i tell the short version, it sounds like i install Microsoft Office for a living. so, here are some frequently asked questions about my job; to clarify for my friends, and to defer the question to my blog the next time i am asked!
who do you work for?
IBM. out of university i started with a company called OmniLogic, we were purchased by PriceWaterhouseCoopers Consulting, and they were purchased by IBM. my job did not change with any of these acquisitions.
but didn’t you work for Nestle?
i am a consultant. this means that i work for one company (see above), and they loan me out to help other companies, my “clients”. so when you hear that i have a “new job”, i actually have the same job, but at a new client.
what do you do for these clients?
i am an SAP consultant (pronounced like an acronym, not like “sap” from a tree.) SAP is a huge german company that produces software for big business. most of the large corporations in the world use this software (something like 90% of the Fortune 500.) The main piece of software produced by SAP is called “R/3”, but most people just call it “SAP”.
what is SAP?
SAP is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. behind the scenes it is a huge database that collects information and helps everyone in the company share this information. attached to the database are transaction screens that employees from the different parts of the company use to do their jobs.
SAP is split up into different “modules”. They are called modules because SAP is very modular ... you can choose to use only one part of it, or dozens of parts, depending on which business processes you want the system to handle. The main modules are Finance, Controlling, Sales & Distribution, Materials Management, and Production Planning.
An example of a typical series of integrated transactions in SAP [this section is kinda long ... skip it if you're bored]:
a customer service representative receives an order for 10 widgets. she opens the “sales order” screen in SAP and types in the details of what her customer is ordering. the system immediately checks the company inventory to see if there are 10 widgets in the warehouse. if there are no widgets in the warehouse ...
a production planner opens his session of SAP and it tells him that he will be short 10 widgets if he doesn’t produce them this week. he schedules a production order in SAP to produce the widgets on Friday. the system immediately checks if the components required to make 10 widgets are in stock. if the components are not in stock ...
a purchasing manager opens his session of SAP and it tells him that he must order components for 10 widgets. he creates a purchase order for the parts with his preferred vendor, and the system automatically faxes that purchase order to the vendor ...
a truck arrives at the company loading dock with a bunch of parts. the receiving department opens a session of SAP and confirms receipt of the parts. the purchase order for the parts is automatically closed. the inventory of the parts in automatically updated in the system, as is the “asset” account in the financial books. the accounts payable department is automatically sent a request to pay the vendor for the parts.
10 widgets are produced and this fact is entered into SAP by the production foreman. the parts used are automatically depleted from inventory, the inventory of widgets is increased, the labour used in producing them is automatically posted as a labour expense in the financial books, and the shipping department is notified that the 10 widgets are ready to send to the customer who ordered them. the widgets are shipped, and the books are updated again accordingly (decrease inventory account, increase revenue account, etc.)
That was a long example ... but what the hell do YOU do?!
i work with the production planning module. when a client decides that they want to implement this module (usually along with others), we begin a project with the client. we create a project team, comprised of SAP consultants and people from their business. i sit with people from their business and try to ascertain how their production planning process works and what they want the new system to do. i then work with them to create prototype after prototype, getting more and more detailed until we have correctly modeled their business process into the system. when we’re done, we test the system for bugs, train the employees on how to use it, and eventually turn the system on for everyone to use. this is called the “go-live”. a typical project lasts between 6 and 18 months.
So you’re a programmer?
no. most companies have very similar business processes. for example, most manufacturing companies use sales orders, production orders, and purchase orders like in the example above. SAP comes ready to work for any type of business, but needs to be “configured” (by me) to the specific needs of the client. sometimes the system can’t do exactly what the client wants, so we have to create custom programs to help out. i don’t write these, but i help design them.
Don’t you teach courses as well?
yes, sometimes i give training to clients who have just chosen to implement SAP, but whose employees don’t really know how it works. in this case i go in and provide “intro to SAP” courses, where the people can get into the system directly and learn the basics of how it works. i usually teach these courses when i am between clients.
When you are “between clients” do you still get paid? (sorry, i get asked this a lot)
i am a salaried employee of IBM. my pay does not fluctuate with how much of my time IBM can bill to clients ... however if i was ever sitting in the office for too long without a client to work for, i would be fired pretty quickly.
see why i don’t like the question “what do you do for a living?” ;)
who do you work for?
IBM. out of university i started with a company called OmniLogic, we were purchased by PriceWaterhouseCoopers Consulting, and they were purchased by IBM. my job did not change with any of these acquisitions.
but didn’t you work for Nestle?
i am a consultant. this means that i work for one company (see above), and they loan me out to help other companies, my “clients”. so when you hear that i have a “new job”, i actually have the same job, but at a new client.
what do you do for these clients?
i am an SAP consultant (pronounced like an acronym, not like “sap” from a tree.) SAP is a huge german company that produces software for big business. most of the large corporations in the world use this software (something like 90% of the Fortune 500.) The main piece of software produced by SAP is called “R/3”, but most people just call it “SAP”.
what is SAP?
SAP is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. behind the scenes it is a huge database that collects information and helps everyone in the company share this information. attached to the database are transaction screens that employees from the different parts of the company use to do their jobs.
SAP is split up into different “modules”. They are called modules because SAP is very modular ... you can choose to use only one part of it, or dozens of parts, depending on which business processes you want the system to handle. The main modules are Finance, Controlling, Sales & Distribution, Materials Management, and Production Planning.
An example of a typical series of integrated transactions in SAP [this section is kinda long ... skip it if you're bored]:
a customer service representative receives an order for 10 widgets. she opens the “sales order” screen in SAP and types in the details of what her customer is ordering. the system immediately checks the company inventory to see if there are 10 widgets in the warehouse. if there are no widgets in the warehouse ...
a production planner opens his session of SAP and it tells him that he will be short 10 widgets if he doesn’t produce them this week. he schedules a production order in SAP to produce the widgets on Friday. the system immediately checks if the components required to make 10 widgets are in stock. if the components are not in stock ...
a purchasing manager opens his session of SAP and it tells him that he must order components for 10 widgets. he creates a purchase order for the parts with his preferred vendor, and the system automatically faxes that purchase order to the vendor ...
a truck arrives at the company loading dock with a bunch of parts. the receiving department opens a session of SAP and confirms receipt of the parts. the purchase order for the parts is automatically closed. the inventory of the parts in automatically updated in the system, as is the “asset” account in the financial books. the accounts payable department is automatically sent a request to pay the vendor for the parts.
10 widgets are produced and this fact is entered into SAP by the production foreman. the parts used are automatically depleted from inventory, the inventory of widgets is increased, the labour used in producing them is automatically posted as a labour expense in the financial books, and the shipping department is notified that the 10 widgets are ready to send to the customer who ordered them. the widgets are shipped, and the books are updated again accordingly (decrease inventory account, increase revenue account, etc.)
That was a long example ... but what the hell do YOU do?!
i work with the production planning module. when a client decides that they want to implement this module (usually along with others), we begin a project with the client. we create a project team, comprised of SAP consultants and people from their business. i sit with people from their business and try to ascertain how their production planning process works and what they want the new system to do. i then work with them to create prototype after prototype, getting more and more detailed until we have correctly modeled their business process into the system. when we’re done, we test the system for bugs, train the employees on how to use it, and eventually turn the system on for everyone to use. this is called the “go-live”. a typical project lasts between 6 and 18 months.
So you’re a programmer?
no. most companies have very similar business processes. for example, most manufacturing companies use sales orders, production orders, and purchase orders like in the example above. SAP comes ready to work for any type of business, but needs to be “configured” (by me) to the specific needs of the client. sometimes the system can’t do exactly what the client wants, so we have to create custom programs to help out. i don’t write these, but i help design them.
Don’t you teach courses as well?
yes, sometimes i give training to clients who have just chosen to implement SAP, but whose employees don’t really know how it works. in this case i go in and provide “intro to SAP” courses, where the people can get into the system directly and learn the basics of how it works. i usually teach these courses when i am between clients.
When you are “between clients” do you still get paid? (sorry, i get asked this a lot)
i am a salaried employee of IBM. my pay does not fluctuate with how much of my time IBM can bill to clients ... however if i was ever sitting in the office for too long without a client to work for, i would be fired pretty quickly.
see why i don’t like the question “what do you do for a living?” ;)
Labels: work
posited by hereis nowhy at 14:38
1 Comments:
Hey Trevor, this is Michelle's friend Maureen.
All I have to ask is, where the hell were you back in December?! My coworker and I were working on documenting an integration kit for SAP software but neither of us had a clue as to what the heck it was (beyond being a database). Argh. Oh well, we got it done. :)
Cool idea to post your job description. Keep up the good work.
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