Career Path of XI consultant

Dear friends
I am a new comer in this field. So, I really need your help about how to grow up to be a XI consultant.
Currently, I am certified as SD and ABAP consultant.
I have workflow and IDoc experience. And also business senario knowledge such as finance, cost and logistics(mm/sd).
So, what more I should learn?
BIT standard material?
Thank you very much in advance.

Hi Minghan,
You should go through the BIT standard material to give you an idea of what XI is, and how you can work with it. Along with that, if you should learn about XML. Optionally, you could also learn about protocols like SOAP and XSLT.
But, as always, the best way to reinforce your learning is by practice. So get access to an XI sandbox system, and start doing things on it. There are plenty of practice and demo scenarios available from SAP that will serve as an excellent starting point for you.
Cheers
Manish

Similar Messages

Career path for a XI consultant

Hi all,
I would like to know what is the career path for a XI consultant. (like, abapers can become techno-consultants after some time). Is there any chance for xi consultant to go to functional side? Or what other options, does a XI consultant have?

Hi Aarthi,
From your question it seems that you already have experience on XI. There is no much scope in XI to at functional side. Functional people are basically meant for functional modules or for determining the functionality of the application for the developers. In XI best thing is to be a XI architect.
Role of XI architect is very important in defining the system landscape, indentifying the requirement, requirement gathering and many more. Just focus on this role and I think you have a very bright opportunities ahead.
Regards,
Subhasha

What is the best way to build a career path where I can evolve into an SAP role instead of one that is Customer Service based?

In October 2011, my previous employer converted to SAP, as the rest of the worldwide entities were already using SAP. At that time, I was an Order Coordinator, where my job role was to process all of the Inside/Outside Sales Representatives orders for the US. Because of my keen attention to detail, the speed in which I learn new roles and general IT knowledge, I was asked to be the SAP SuperUser for our Financial Operations team. I quickly began to learn the roles of Order-to-Cash, Customer Master Data, Pricing Conditions, Contracts, some Material Master Data, and even Customer/Material Pricing Audits. I also performed manual customer billing in SAP until the automatic modules were implemented. Knowledge of these roles created a need for me to become a trainer to my team, where the SAP Consultants left off. After only working in SAP for the few months after the conversion started, I evolved out of an Order Coordinator rights of access and was given a not-so-typical role as an "analyst". I had more than a firefighter role in SAP, as my normal log in credentials gave me full rights to all of these modules and even special reporting. Our parent global company realized necessity for my role and followed proper protocol to authorize the access changes to still meet the SOx regulations. Prior to using SAP, I never thought I'd fall in love with it and enjoy my job so much, but it happened! Despite my previous employer's less than perfect data that was copied into SAP, we managed to have an efficient ongoing process to clean it all up. I became more of a liaison between Financial Operations and our IT Dept/SAP Consultants. I "translated" the technical steps that IT/SAP Consultants were trying to teach everyone and trained my Financial Operations team in a way they would understand. I truly enjoyed my job, even at our most difficult moments.
However, after all of the fun I was having while working in SAP and truly gaining a ton of useful experience and knowledge, "life" happened and I had an opportunity to move from Atlanta, GA to southern California. I've searched for months to find a new career here in California with a company that I could continue my learning experiences and become more proficient in SAP, but I'm a little lost. My search to find jobs have only given me possibilities in Customer Service positions or ones that are SAP sales/programming based. I'm floating in limbo and looking for help from the SAP community on where I can go from here to get back into a career path with SAP.
I'm 28 years old and I'm currently finishing my Associate degree in Business Administration. I'm a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), certified with the Help-Desk Institute as a Support Center Analyst, and also completed my previous employer's Quality Advocate Certification which focused on Six Sigma and Lean concepts. Prior to leaving the company, I was being considered for a company sponsored training in the Six Sigma Green or Black Belt program. I've recently started working a contract position as a Customer Service Rep, processing orders, but the company will be completing an SAP conversion in May 2013; so only a few months away. The problem I have in this position is that I feel frustrated in learning their current software when their entire team seems to have their own personal ways of doing their job. I prefer to have structure and perform job duties the right way, then building on that to make the job more streamlined. I spoke with my recruiter but he feels I may be a bit premature on feelings about working in this contract position. I may be just feeling a little impatient in having to wait another 3 months to see if the company may even hire me on permanently and what role I would have with SAP, beyond Customer Service Rep. I'm hoping to get some direction from the SAP community on where I might focus my attention in learning SAP. My hope is to find a position working with SAP like the one I enjoyed so much back in GA. I'm even considering options to learn the programming side. I think SAP is a great software package once people understand how it's designed, or can be designed, to work.
Please help!!
I'd be happy to provide my resume to anyone willing to review it and give me some pointers. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I appreciate the length and detail of your post. I struggle answering questions from folks who give too little info. It's refreshing to have too much info for a change.
I'll summarize your post and give suggestions:
You have very strong end user experience, almost bordering on support level SD knowledge. You have experience with the way that at least one company implemented SAP SD but don't have many years of experience with different approaches, so you can't pitch yourself as someone who's "been-there, done-that" outside of the SD world and you can't bill yourself as having SD functional knowledge to the extend that you could be a consultant for SAP SD. (See FAQ: Different Career Paths in SAP for descriptions of different traditional SAP career paths.)
You've moved to Southern California, which is chock full of companies using SAP, by the way, and you're having a hard time finding the right job. Your education is probably going to be problematic at this point. Most SAP related jobs require a Bachelor's Degree at a minimum. Definitely keep on going with your degree. I don't know where you're doing your associate's degree, but you might want to look in to Cal State Fullerton, which has an *excellent* SAP focused business degree program. (http://business.fullerton.edu/).
You've found work at a company but had to start over at a lower level of responsibility. Since the job you just landed will be transitioning to SAP in 3 months, you have an opportunity to repeat your previous rise by volunteering to be a super-user again. Alternatively, you could talk to the group within your company and express your desire to help out supporting the system from the back end. Traditionally, companies lose a few folks immediately following an implementation, so there's a good chance that if you make your desires and skills known, that you'll be able to move onto the support team once a position opens up.
All of the above assumes that you want to continue on the functional side of SD. You didn't mention any aptitude or preference for programming. It is certainly easier to get programming jobs than functional jobs (see How did you get your start in SAP?), but it seems like you really enjoyed the functional side of SAP. I do *not* recommend learning an SAP skill for which you have no desire simply to get a job, hoping that you can switch later. Use the skills you have to get the job you really want, doing something that really excites you. It's far to easy to fall into a job simply because it's there and get trapped and burned out.
Hope this helps!
Best regards,
--Tom

This is regarding the career suggestion between ERP consulting and ERP sales or presales.

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for reading this post as this would not give any knowledge to you but would help for my career progression.
I am presently working as SAP consultant in PP module in an MNC . I always had interest towards sales or pre-sales in the field of SAP.
I do not have idea why i want to shift y career path. But probably due to Monetary concerns.
I now want to know which career path is ore better and fruitful either SAP consulting or SAP sales or Pre-sales.
I have experience of 2 yrs as SAP consultant. I hold B.tech in mechanical and MBA in operations and systems.
It would be very appreciable if some one clarifies my ambiguity in between choosing the above mentioned careers.
Thanks!
Chaitanya.

Hi Krishna,
Let me answer your questions:
Interest & ability are not same. Some people might be interested but they have not done anything which actually proves the fact that the person is already established to make the call.
Are you interested in sales or consulting. If you say, you are interested in sales as they will give you more money then the next question you should ask yourself is, have you already enabled yourself to do the Pre sales or sales job.
Prerequisite to do Pre Sales/Sales job:
First: You should have good high level solutioning knowledge.
Second: You should be passionate to work on different industries.
Third: You should have already done 15/20 RFP.
Fourth: You have already worked as SME for some of the high level solutions that's given to client.
Fifth: You have already established yourself as a solution architect.
Sixth: You have more or less have good integration high level exposure.
Seventh: You are ready to travel with very short notices and always readdy with baggage.
You have mentioned that you have 2 years experience as SAP Consultant and with this much experience as consultant is probably not a very wise thought to move your career to presales.
So I would say consider the pre sales or sales option after you have at least 5 years or so and you have quite seen the functional side clearly. Though its not a very hard and first rules but it helps if you think in this way.
Let me know in case you have any other queries or need any clarifications.
Thanks & Regards
Subhasish

Need help in choosing ideal career path

Sir/Madam,
I have done two PG's
MBA with Specialization in Human Resource Management (correspondence Mode)
M.Com with Specialization in Financial Analysis (University Campus / Regular)
And I have experience in Field Operations Department as Team Leader for three years
Now I'm in a bit confusion, in choosing ideal career path
Weather to go with HR or Finance side
And I wish/plan to do SAP module
The question which is making making my brain come out is, in present market situation and with future perspective...
Which path (HR or Finance) have better growth, pay scale & future...
Please help me... I'll be waiting for your invaluable suggestions and information...
Thanks a million in advance..
Raghuram Alla
<<email ID removed>>
Edited by: kishan P on Feb 21, 2012 2:28 AM

I have written an article on IT toolbox which gives folks new to SAP an idea of what a typical career path looks like. It can be found at http://it.toolbox.com/wiki/index.php/Advice_for_Recent_College_Graduates_(aka_%22Freshers%22).
Here's the short version
college > entry level non-SAP job (3-5 years) > entry level job as SAP end user (3 to 5 years) > SAP training and/or SAP certification (on the job or nights & weekends) > entry level SAP configuration job (1 to 3 years) > at this point you can branch to either entry level SAP consulting or to mid level SAP configuration with a company.
You seem to be at step two of the process. It's time for you to look for a job and an end user with a company that is either already running SAP or is in the process of implementing SAP. If you are extremely lucky and land a job with a company in the process of implementing and they're willing to include you on the implementation team as someone who knows the business processes in general but not SAP, then you can shortcut a bit, but that involves a bit of luck.
Please don't choose your future career based on what random folks tell you the future is in a forum. Regardless of anyone's predictions, the correct choice is the area about which you feel most passionate. Neither HR nor FI are going away any time soon, so your passion for one topic or the other will drive you to learn more and become a vital part of any company you join. Passion is the key.
I hope this helps!
Best regards,
-Tom

Oracle Techno Functional module career path suggestions

Hi,
My educational background is BE(Computers) and MBA (Banking and insurance). At present I am working as QA lead and have 5 years of work experience in QA. But I want to switch my career path from QA to Oracle techno functional consultant with oracle finance module. Can anybody please suggest what will be my future prospects or career path for this. I wanted to sign up for a oracle techno functional training but before this wanted to get some expert advise if this will be beneficial. Any help in this matter will be deeply appreciated.

I was an accoutant by trade 1991-1999 and started learning DB concepts and reporting in general. I was able to get a job writing crystal reports for Solomon accounting package. That led to support for the accounting package. That was in 2000.
Our company purchased the Oracle ERP suite in 2003, so i was able to go to train and be here for implementation and go live. I was lucky in that i was able to get training. You have a good business background, which is very important for functional analysts. The tough part is too get a foot in the door in a company that uses Oracle.

SAP HR Career Path

Dears ,
Please i want to ask you regarding the career path of a sap hr consultant , is it a good choice to work on vendors all the time or to move some period to a customer side ,, and what's the career path for this job ?
Moved from SAP HCM to Career Center
Edited by: Sikindar on Sep 23, 2011 2:27 PM

thnx skindiar for your help
but what's a bout the business part which will be much more in the customer side ?
also what a consultant career path would be ? i mean after being a consultant for 3 years as example , what's next

XI Career Path..

Hi XI Guru's
I need a advice from SAP XI Guru's.
I have around 2 years of SAP XI experience and would like to know going forward what can be the career paths for SAP XI Consultants.
Thanks..

Hi Snehal,
If you want to grow into the EAI domain, you can consider picking up other middleware technologies like Tibco, Biztalk etc. Else, if you want to continue with SAP domain, you can go for Portals, BI, MDM and slowly move toward Enterprise SOA.
See an SAP centric discussion here - [SAP Consulting Market Outlook in 2008|http://www.riyaz.net/blog/index.php/2008/03/28/sap-consulting-market-outlook-in-2008/].
Regards,
Riyaz

RE: Help deciding Career Path for SAP

Hi all
My name is Shaun and I am currently studying as a Bachelor in Economics, Majoring in Accounting and Economic History.
I am currently on the way to complete my degree soon. and I currently started utilising SAP and would like to explore which avenue I could go
I am not sure whether I want to do a CA or should I just go straight and be a SAP Certified Consultant.
Here are my questions
1) are there career paths which I can use to be in SAP where I can directly be a SAP Consultant without doing CA
2) If I decide to go CA and become a SAP Certified Consultant, what are my options?
3) What are the available options for Financial & Accounting Management but utilising SAP
I do apologise if I have given any ambiguity, more than happy to help specify if need be
I await anyones response! Much apppreciated
Regards
Shaun

Hi Asif,
Given your educational background, SAP CRM(Customer Relationship Mgmt) & SAP SRM will be a good choice for you to pursue your career in SAP.
Please check out blogs in this community site to have a detailed formal knowledge on these modules.
Regards,
Gopal

HCM- PD (mass upload of career paths)

Hi Experts...
I am working on carrer & Succession planning in PD.
I have developed career paths based on jobs (TCode for creating career path is - OOQ4).
Need to upload 500 such paths....but its not possible through LSMW....as the screen is using Network & hierarchy tool ....please guide me a solution to upload these career path in R/3 system ( ECC 6.0)
Regards
Anupama

Hi Anupama,
the XI/PI forum is not the correct place for this thread.
Try creating a thread in the correct forum, e.g.
ERP HCM (HR)
Regards
Kenny Scott
XI/PI Forum Moderator

PD - mass upload of career paths

Hi Experts...
I am working on carrer & Succession planning in PD.
I have developed career paths based on jobs (TCode for creating career path is - OOQ4).
Need to upload 500 such paths....but its not possible through LSMW ....as the screen is using Network & hierarchy tool ....please guide me a solution to upload these career path in R/3 system ( ECC 6.0)..i dont know if it is possible through BDC ..but i guess it wont record ....
Regards
Anupama

Hi Anupama,
the XI/PI forum is not the correct place for this thread.
Try creating a thread in the correct forum, e.g.
ERP HCM (HR)
Regards
Kenny Scott
XI/PI Forum Moderator

How to start a career path in Sap

Hi, i need advice in selecting Sap career path. I am a Eng.(ECE) degree holder(2005). I have 2+ years of experience in Development(Java). I am not working for the 5 Years. I want to start my career on SAP. Would anyone please advice me for selecting a SAP module and where to start?
Please advice me in this
Thank you
Dhivya

Hi Dhivya,
I saw your post and thought of responding you, it might be late but still I am replying to your query.
You should take sometime in exploring the different modules available in SAP and the modules currently high in demand. This will help you in taking a module to start learning/training.
The most important thing to keep in mind while taking a module to proceed is the job opportunity and your interest in that area.
Thank you,
Nagarajan Viswanathan

On SAP career path

Hi everyone am a SAPling. My highest academic background is Masters in I.T. I need an expert advice on SAP career path and specific SAP module to take to accomplish this. Presently i am running a training program in CCNA.

Ambareesh Jonnavittula wrote:
Reward me points if the data shared is useful.
Thank you,
Ambareesh J.
Please don't ask for the points.
Here is the link added by Ambareesh..
SAP Career Blog Links
Message was edited by: Chandra Shekhar Agarwal

How to start career in Success factor consultant

How to get into career on Success factor consultant after SAP certification? Which are the Training Partners of Success Factors?

Dear friends Reddy HCM and Johan T
Personal information not allowed...
Please read the rules and engagement The SCN Rules of Engagement | SCN
Regards
Dev

PD::Career Path Don't display Duration of Object(C/S) on Network Graphics

Dear Gurus
respect n regards to you....
I have problem related to "Network Graphics-Display Career Items" Tcode OOQ4.
I have created a career "Management Trainee to Manager HR".
Manager HR
AM HR
MTO
On each position employee have to serve for 3 years. I have done this for each position via "Maintain Duration"
My client wants that this duration should display with object beside name of the position/job in "Display Career Items" or when we want to take a print of selected career.
for example, I want each Object in career path should display like below
AM HR
3 Years
Kindly help in this...
best regards

Dear Gurus
respect n regards to you....
I have problem related to "Network Graphics-Display Career Items" Tcode OOQ4.
I have created a career "Management Trainee to Manager HR".
Manager HR
AM HR
MTO
On each position employee have to serve for 3 years. I have done this for each position via "Maintain Duration"
My client wants that this duration should display with object beside name of the position/job in "Display Career Items" or when we want to take a print of selected career.
for example, I want each Object in career path should display like below
AM HR
3 Years
Kindly help in this...
best regards

Career Path of XI consultant

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for