Are you really a Consultant?
A lot of people claim to be SAP consultants.
In my personal experience, the reality is, there are actually very few consultants in the SAP ecosystem. Not to say there aren’t some amazing consultants out there, but there aren’t many.
Imagine I’m holding my hand up and there is a very small gap between my thumb and finger. That’s how many.?
I am a stickler for language. In fact, my mandate within DalRae Solutions is that we need to be Hyper-Specific with all language that we use. On that basis, the question of whether you are or are not a consultant should probably start with the definition.
Cambridge dictionary defines a consultant as:
In most cases, I find that these supposed “Consultants” will agree to configure or build whatever the customer has asked for. There is zero consulting in that scenario.?
Consulting involves figuring out what the customer does, what their value proposition is, what their problems or pain points are and what are the possible options to achieve a better outcome.
Agreeing to build some poorly thought out band-aid solution is NOT consulting.
Back in the day when I ran my own consultancy my catch phrase was:
The point being? Consulting is about pushing back when the customer, who does not have your domain knowledge, is asking for a suboptimal or short sighted solution.?
It’s OK to say No. That’s what you should be getting paid for.
Tell me, are you a consultant?
Certified SAP S/4HANA Development Architect
1 年Looking through my lens of “development” i go back to the old “programmer”, vs “developer” vs “enabler”. I position myself as an enabler where I fist seek to understand and then challenge any requirement - which usually leads to no development or a redesign based on actual gap vs business need. “Functional” consultants usually find me a pain to work with as I tend to dismiss what is originally spec’d and come up with far superior solutions that actually work for the customer :)
Currently: Happily retired. Part time Lighthouse Tour guide at Cape Schanck Lighthouse. Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia. Past life: Experienced and up to date independent SAP technology professional.
1 年Agree. I was an SAP Consultant. An advisor of what was best to do for the best solution going forward. Now retired. Good luck and go well.
Technology Architect and leader focused on the SAP ecosystem
1 年“So, what are you trying to achieve here?” is both a cliché and yet still underused!
Helping CFOs, CIOs and PMs get greater project visibility & control ??SAP PPM ??Capital Project Management ??Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) ??SAP Integration to InEight, PRISM, BIM, Ariba, P6
1 年When I started in sap the majority of consultants had significant business experience in their module of expertise ...the number of times I see solutions that dont deliver the basic KPI's is astounding! Core principles especially in management accounting are simply not understood by the majority of fico consultants for example!
S/4 HANA Transformation Advisor & Solution Architect
1 年I am not going to lie, but sometimes customers and even SAP themselves are somewhat hard of hearing. As an independent consultant, I am just a nobody when I say something. The bigger wheel just keeps turning because of the 'too-hard-basket'. But that is where I stand back and watch the slow crash and the subsequent spin to make it look good. As of late, I don't even bother with the slow crash and the politics. Put your value as consultant first and do not be led by lesser skilled and lesser knowledgeable decision makers whom do not want to hear the right answer when provided.