What is most important, Application or Business Process Knowledge?

Information Technology is not about knowing one or other technology domain but it is a vast field. As one embarks in this journey, he/she came to know about the complex world that he/she is in. From infrastructure to security, business process management to business intelligence and providing all functionalities in cost effective manner becomes a top priority of any experienced IT professional.

Now I come to the main point. How many times you see an advertisement for IT professional emphasizing on business knowledge? Be fair with yourself! Go through any of job ads and tell me if you find any that asks for knowledge of business process is a must. True, is it not that? All emphasis is on business applications likes of Oracle, SAP and so on……

Actual requirement should be the knowledge of business processes not of business applications. If a person knows how a business process runs, he will be able to run any application and can customize/get it customized according to the requirements. All applications follow same kind of business rules, like how a transaction is completed by Finance, has standard business processes configured to complete it. Not a single application can claim that has its’ ‘proprietary’ processes of its own that is different from others. Difference is the application’s tools and interface that are used to configure it as per business requirement.

If anyone has different opinion, please share it here. It is going to be a great discussion for benefit of all involved in recruiting, HR professional and IT professionals as well.