on 04-14-2014 9:43 PM
Some evangelists predict the 'death of the consultant' as is there. To what extent we will be affected by this revolution?
"With the availabilty of the HANA technology, exisiting business processes become real-time, process steps become obsolete, new process will evolve that were not possible so far and companies will invent new business models based on new products and services - all that requireed consultants who support that transition!"
Michael Lamade (OpenSAP Team)
"Future does not have to be an increment of the past."
Dr. Vishal Sikka, quoting Alan Kay in "An Introduction to SAP HANA"
What do you think?
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Hi Gilson,
Henrique is right. Could you move the discussion to SAP NetWeaver BW Powered by SAP HANA and also change the status so we can get more responds.
Regards Jon
Yeap, the question was open and wide. Naturally we talk about BW for different reasons but we also can reach consultants from ERP, Netweaver… Henrique made important considerations above and I am taking a time to look the links posted. From my point of view, even SAP BW, at a first impression, being the first ‘victim’, consultants from this side have some competitive advantages: we have a better understanding of database and modeling; we have always been exposed to new technologies (Portal, Java, Visual Composer, BO, ETLs tools etc.). So, we are not so ‘contaminated’ with a mainly process-oriented system.
Mr Gilson,
You are the best! I am a big fan of yours!
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Of course, any future predictions will most likely be off by a lot. But one piece is kinda clear to me: the consulting companies need to reinvent themselves. The kind of service that has made them make big money until 2010 isn't gonna cut it in the next decade. Commodity development services are likely to be less and less needed, as the development platforms mature, while more "thinking minds" will be required to drive these less descriptive and more cognitive newer platforms. Those companies that are able to shift from a development-oriented business model to an added-value services model, with revenue generating consultants (such as data scientists who are able to identify and overcome margin leaks) being the rule and not the exception (as they are today) are gonna be the leading companies in the future.
Best regards,
Henrique.
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Hi Gilson,
Henrique is right, Could you imagine a job was being posted and this by a consultancy company who want everything. This the job title: SAP BW (BPC-APO-BO, BODS & SAP HANA Studio).
The most impacted area at the minute is SAP BW. Orcle DB and any database is being replace by SAP HANA Database. The SAP HANA studio is a front end which enable you to creat Agile Data Mate and this for Agile data modelling.
Regards Jon
Henrique,
This is the high point of your opinion: Commodity development services are likely to be less and less needed, as the development platforms mature, while more "thinking minds" will be required to drive these less descriptive and more cognitive newer platforms. Working as a consultant and as well as in business, I have a vision of how hard is going to be to have consultants understanding new roles. In other forum this question brought a lot of ideas, information and insights. I am going to post some of these here.
Kind Regards,
Gilson
Jon,
SAP BW is the first ‘victim’. OLAP and OLTP are merged in this new platform and the first idea is ‘BW is not needed anymore’. However Mr. Michael Lamade states: there are several aspects that determine, whether the usage of BW still makes sense e.g. to which degree historical data are used in the reports, whether BW is used to consolidate data (also 3rd party) across systems, whether customer needs a full EDW, complexity of analytical calculations, etc…
On the other hand, talking about Lamade’s comment, in a long term even these usages for SAP BW will be replaced or even put aside.
The funny thing: SAP HANA, out here, was viewed at the begging as a ‘reporting tool’, a kind of reporting accelerator. The second idea was SAP HANA as a database and finally we arrived in a comprehension of SAP HANA as a new concept. We have to learn a lot!
Regards,
Gilson
Found this clip on Youtube SAP BW to Stay. Do you believe anything he says?
SAP BW is Here to Stay! - YouTube
Regards Jon
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Your input is very much appreciated and welcome.
Regards Jon
I don't believe BW is really dying as a "modeling environment".
What might probably happen is for BW to disappear as an additional persistence layer (the BW Box), i.e. the Embedded BW scenario tends to gain more and more visibility. With virtual infoproviders and transformations being pushed down to the HANA layer, you can get pretty much the same results than a persistent BW with very good performance and 1/10th of the data footprint (zero replication).
This is already true today. Check for example the details on the analytical applications on top of SFIN (Smart Financials) 1.0. SFIN is the new FI module (aka HANA GL), rebuilt from scratch on top of HANA. i.e it is the first piece of ERP that was not adapted but born on top of an in-memory architecture. It was what HANA was developed for in the first place (i.e. the next-generation SAP ERP architecture). And its analytical applications, for example the new SAP Smart Cash Management app, are completely built on top of Virtual Infoproviders in Embedded BW (i.e. BW as a LDW, Logical Data Warehouse). This means the modeling skills of BW Consultants are not gonna disappear, they'll still be required since BW infoproviders on top of VIPs, Composite Providers, BEx Queries etc. are all gonna be there for a long, long time.
More details on SFIN analytical apps:
Smart Financials 1.0 – SAP Help Portal Page
https://websmp102.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/011000358700000164402014E/SmartFinancials_RN_EN.pdf
BI Content for SAP Smart Cash Management - SAP Library
Adaptations for Smart Financials Planning Applications - Integrated Business Planning - SAP Library
SAP delivers the following planning applications:
- Cost center planning on years and periods
- Project planning on years and periods
- Internal order planning on years and periods
- Market segment planning on years and periods
- Profit center planning on years and periods
- Functional area planning on years and periods
- P&L planning on years and periods
These applications consist of “local” BI content. “Local” means that this BI content is shipped with the Smart Financials system and not with the “central” BI content. Local content runs on the ERP system directly using the “Embedded BW” and does not need a separate BW installation. The content for Smart Financials planning consists of HANA views, InfoProviders, MultiProviders, Aggregation Levels, Queries, Filters, Planning functions, Planning sequences, and Analysis Workbooks.
Another point is that this means that the investments that SAP customers have made on top of BW are also going to be protected.
They just need to adapt the Data Source layer to the new ODP (Operational Data Provisioning) concept and the rest will pretty much work as is.
The same adaptions are being made by SAP in the standard BI Content.
Best regards,
Henrique.
Hi Gilson,
why not become an evangelist like them and start predicting other consultants' death?
Just a thought...
gm
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Hi Jon,
I am not interested only as a consultant. I am working with business models, recruitment industry and new profiles in SAP Hana Environments, and sales strategies. Such a big change can affect different sectors and my challenge is trying to anticipate possible opportunities. In 1999/2000 I wrote my Master thesis (University of Westminster, London) about 'The Realization of e-commerce via mobile platforms'. The realization took around 5 – 7 years to become a full reality. Was my predictions corrected? Not at all!
Kind Regards!
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