BPX vs SAP Solutions

[former_member197269]

Hi Moderators,

I am bit confused on how does BPX forums differs from SAP solution forms, as most of the question asked in BPX are related to SAP Solution.

[suresh_datti · Accepted solution]

From what I understand BPX is not the SDN equivalent for a Business/Functional Analyst.. It is intended to go much beyod the realm of the BAs & might evolve with time.. Most of the questions posted in the Business Solutions forums are technical.. pure functional stuff is generally found on the forums in sap.com/community

~Suresh

[marilyn_pratt · Accepted solution]

Thanks Ravi for the question and Suresh for the answer.

It gives an opportunity to speak about something that I have wanted to open up for community discussion and was waiting for a prompt from the community.

Suresh is correct BPX is NOT the SDN equivalent of a Functional Consultant and the intention of the BPX community is to support the BPX role, which will evolve as our BPX community matures, and which is a process-centric rather than an application-centric role.

So thanks for giving me the opportunity to say that we, the moderators and SDN/BPX collaboration team, are often moving forum threads to Business Solution forums where many of the questions are technical and the SAP Solution forums are <i>application</i>-focused: CRM, SCM, SRM, FI, HCM.

I have a blog in the works to try to delineate. As more business professionals begin to implement a process approach, I can see more and more conversations evolving around modeling, design, and further away from traditional ERP questions. The former not the latter is the realm of the BPX.

We are in a transition mode at present. Functional Consultants are used to speaking functional ERP speak and you will even find in the left-nav, a solution page (Supply Chain Management)under BPX to accommodate that. Many folks who would like to see themselves as Business Process Experts are still supporting or consulting within the scope of more traditional apps.

Should we move the solution forums that are on SDN under BPX? Technical questions seem more appropriate for SDN forums as Suresh points out, and for now, the pure functional content does live in sap.com/community.

Does it make sense to have a functional flavor of forums under BPX while we transition?

Let's hear from you, our community.

Certainly it does NOT make sense to put CRM, SCM, SRM, FI, ERP questions into the General BPX discussion thread. That's the reason that we move them to appropriate SAP Solution forums. But it feels like the work of Sisyphus, you know, rolling the stone up the hill only to have it roll down again and again. We move, folks keep posting in the General BPX area.

In fact this very conversation is exactly one that I could see happening in the /community [original link is broken] comments in the thread and let's continue the conversation there.

Paul Taylor wrote: "Often the focus within SDN is more orientated to the technology side without a clear understanding of the business impact or implications of doing so. Therefore perhaps we also need a "Meet the Business" corner for both the indispensable IT folks to meet the dependable business folks so that we all can share common ideas, thoughts and the issues - risks of new paradigms such as ESA - SOA. Maybe then we can agree on the role of BPX as well!"

Marilyn

[former_member197269]

Thanks Marilyn,

It was really an eye opener. What I interpret in a nut shell, BPX is more focus on Business process and improvement rather than just pure programming. Its a forum for continuous improvement of Business process through SAP which would help to add value to its customer.

But being a functional consultant what we do is keeping business process in mind try to map SAP to existing process. So that we can take business process to next level of business re-engineering or better automation & Control.

so what differentiate BPX is its approach to make continues improvement in the process and its design.

Is there anything I missed out.

[marilyn_pratt]

This recent blog, <a href="/people/savitri.sharma/blog/2006/10/03/a-process-flow-for-introducing-and-disseminating-a-business-process-change Process Flow for Introducing and Disseminating A Business Process Change</a> also touches on the topic. One has only to look at vendor neutral spaces like Gartner, to see that BPI (Business Process Improvement) is a hot topic - search- "Business Process Improvement Role Overview"