Welcome to the Efficient eLearning S A P training series. This video is S A P
Basics - Part 1 - Introduction to S A P. And this is the list of topics we'll be
covering. We'll begin by asking the question "What
is S A P?". We'll then analyse the more important
question "Why should you learn S A P?". And finally, we'll take a look at the
types of jobs that ask for S A P skills.
So, what is S A P? Well, if you search the internet for an answer to this question
you'll most likely find an abundance of lengthy technical explanations so we'll
try to keep our answer brief and easy to understand.
Most large organisations engage in the following activities:
Purchasing (or buying goods and services from suppliers), Accounts Payable
(paying suppliers for goods and services), Sales (or selling goods and services to
customers) and Accounts Receivable (being paid by customers for goods and services).
All of this activity must be recorded somewhere. S A P is effectively a very
large, complex but flexible financial software application that records all of
this activity together with the financial effects of the activities.
These financial postings are usually split into two main types: Financial
Accounting (to be used for external reporting to shareholders and the general
public) and Controlling or Management Accounting (to be used for internal
reporting). Please note most organisations engage in a much broader range of
activities than those outlined above - for example Manufacturing, Plant
Maintenance, Inventory Management and Human Resources. I've intentionally
demonstrated a very basic scenario in order to cover the most commonly used
functionality upfront. Should time permit we'll expand the above example to cover
other areas of the application.
So why should you learn S A P? A significant number of local, state and
federal governments all over the world use S A P and in the private sector the
use of S A P is just as common. If you think about the mobile phone in your
pocket, your mobile phone network, the TV that you watch,
the car that you drive, even the makeup you wear there's a good
chance the company responsible for the product or service uses S A P. The
statistics reported on S A P's website clarify the extent to which the
application is used worldwide.
S A P is used by over 400,000 customers in more than 180 countries and, more
impressively, over 90% of the Forbes Global 2000 uses S A P. So if you're
looking to work for these organisations and are viewing one of their job
advertisements it's likely you'll see the phrases "S A P experience mandatory" or
"S A P experience desirable". Simply accessing some of the more popular job
search sites and typing in the keyword "SAP" will often produce hundreds, sometimes
thousands, of jobs advertised each week. So having S A P skills could very well
give you an edge over competitors when applying for these jobs. And that
highlights another reason S A P skills are so valuable - the skills are
transferable across different countries.
And what types of jobs ask for S A P skills? Well, initially companies
implement S A P then upgrade the software periodically. These implementation and
upgrade projects require large teams with many different roles available. And
here are some examples: S A P Functional Analyst (to configure the
S A P system), S A P Developers (for creating and
changing S A P programs), S A P Business Analysts (to map and document
business processes in S A P), S A P Testers (who use the documented
business processes to test the S A P system),
S A P Trainers (to teach the end users how to complete the documented processes in
S A P), S A P Data Migration Analysts (for
migrating master data and transactional data from the existing system to S A P)
and S A P Support Analysts (who support the end users after S A P has been
implemented or upgraded). Some of these roles are project based only (that is they
finish at the end of the project). However, many organisations build their own teams
for ongoing business as usual S A P requirements. So many of these project
roles can often end up being business as usual roles but once S A P has been
implemented the end users need to use the S A P system to record activities
carried out by the business (for example purchasing and sales) and generate
financial reporting. These are some of the typical end-user roles that require
S A P skills: Purchasing (for creating shopping carts
or purchase requisitions, maintaining purchase orders and posting goods
receipts), Accounts Payable (for parking and posting
vendor invoices and making vendor payment runs),
Sales (creating sales orders and outbound deliveries),
Accounts Receivable (billing, cash receipts and credit management),
Master Data (creating vendors, customers and any other required master data),
Human Resources (organization management and payroll)
and Accountants or Financial Analysts (for financial analysis and reporting,
budgeting and forecasting). Our initial focus in this S A P training series is S A
P Basics. Once we've covered the basics we'll then
move on to the modular areas of S A P functionality like Purchasing and
Accounts Payable. So please stick around and enjoy the
start of your journey on the path to learning S A P and if you like what you
see please subscribe to the channel because the more subscribers and views
the channel gets the more time that can be spent creating quality training
videos. Thanks for watching.