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Hannah Smalltree, Editorial Director
You definitely have some of the financial knowledge that will help you on the FI side, and it sounds like you also have the drive and desire to make it happen. Now, what you need is a good opportunity - and that's the tricky part. The technical to functional SAP transition is a pretty challenging move to make. If you have a good relationship with your current employer - the kind where you are encouraged to talk about your overall career goals and how to make things work - then it's good to have a sit down talk and tell them of your goals on the financial side. In most cases, however, that's not an easy thing to do, and if you're a consultant, then you don't have that option. If you're a consultant now, then it's going to be hard to become a financials consultant while billing clients for your services. Companies just don't want to pay for junior-level consultants anymore, they prefer to have their junior folks in-house. That's why your best bet for getting on the functional side is as a permanent employee for a company that is implementing SAP. As I've noted before, they might not give you a full functional role right away, but over time, as you prove yourself to them, they are more likely to give you more functional responsibilities and roles. It may sound strange to think of yourself as "junior" when you may well have a decent amount of technical skills, but that's how it goes when you try to switch from technical to functional SAP work.
Remember also that there are emerging areas in SAP financials, such as Treasury, Cash Management, Strategic Enterprise Management, etc. You may want to consider investing in training in one of these areas. The training itself might not land you a job right away, but it might help you to position yourself as a serious and motivated functional SAP consultant. And there are some companies, notably smaller firms, where functional and technical roles are combined. It's possible that you could find a techno-functional position with a smaller company where they would be willing to train you a bit in the financial side of SAP since you bring other very useful skills to the table, including 4.7 experience. It may take some work, but those kinds of opportunities are out there if you knock on enough doors and figure out how to make sure companies know that you have skills they can use from day one, even as they train you on the financials side. Good luck.
This was first published in April 2004