APO or CRM Career Options ?

[Former Member]

Hi,

I m a SAP SD Certified guy with one year exp. on SAP SD Support and prior to that i have Five years experience as a Sales and Marketing Executive.

But it seems that the in the current market there is very optimal need of SD Consultants , companies are asking for more cross functional or for SD consultant who has knowledge of CRM or APO.

I wanted to ask with my experience of 1 year support, should I go for APO now or shall I gain a little more experience before moving towards APO or CRM?

[srinivas_krishnamoorthy]

It is an interesting question you have asked. With just one year of SD support, I am not sure if you are familiar with the internals of SD. (This may sound like a rude remark). It easily takes 3-4 years to criss-cross SD. Some of my friends took one full year to become an ace in Pricing of SD.

On the choice between APO and CRM, the latter is anyday a better choice. Check the traffic in the latter forum and compare it with the former. It is a decent proxy of the market. There are companies in this world who will be focusing their energy on Marketing/front-end side of things rather than the backend of their organization like supply chain. Many organizations have honestly not been able reap tangible measurable benefits out of supply chain products.

Check also the annual report and other investment relationship materials in SAP site(http://www.sap.com/about/investor/reports/annualreport/2006/pdf/2006_SAP_Annual_Report.pdf). I am eagerly awaiting the one for 2007. The report does give feelers on the size of this new dimension market and the kind of development commitment it puts into each of these areas.

[Former Member]

Hi,

Thanx for your reply, I also know that the SD module is so vast that u cannot master it within a year, but I am in a dilemma ,as ,nowadays I am seeing that only being a functional consultant, may not be of that demand as it used to be some 2-3 years back. But some of my friends who also are fresher like me in SAP SD and who are working in MNC are getting trained in the CRM or Business One Tech.

With emerging SAP technologies people are upgarding their skills. Thats why I had asked that in future if I wanted to gain any skills which technology I should pursue.

Actually I have very little Idea about BPX , SCM,APO or CRM, but everywhere I see people talking about these technologies. It would be of great help if someone can explain in general about the above technologies....... which will be beneficial for a SD person ...... and in general what will be the expenses one has to incur to gain the same in some Training inst.. in India.

Thanx Again,

BB

[Former Member]

Hi,

I guess you should be the one answering your question as only you are the one who knows your capability.

I suggest you start in GATP module of APO which is tighly bonded with SD module if you would choose APO.

Good Luck!