Is SAP Business One knowledge good enough for BI or XI?

Is SAP Business One knowledge good enough for BI or XI?

I am a certified consultant in SBO and have done up to three implementations in my current company. I am also an Oracle certified professional who handles various information system projects. I wanted to break into SAP BI or XI in the next month or so and was wondering, with my current qualifications how could I go about doing that?

Should I get certified first in one of these areas then try and get a job in SBO initially then hope for a break in BI or integration, or should I just apply for BI or XI positions -- though most of these require quite a bit of experience?

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I am a little skeptical about Business One consulting opportunities. More than any other SAP product, Business One is meant to run "out of the box" with minimum customization. When you're talking about very affordable, fast implementations requiring little (or no) customization, that means the consulting role will be limited in duration and scope. So I would be careful about assuming that Business One is going to generate much consulting business.

If you're really interested in working in the SMB market, I'd recommend focusing on All-in-One consulting. All-in-One, of course, is the SAP product geared towards the higher end of the SMB market. All-in-One resembles SAP ERP in its functionality much more than Business One does, and All-in-One also takes significantly longer to implement. This means there is great potential for on-site consulting.

Having answered that part of your question, let me address where you should focus your energies in terms of breaking into BI or XI. I don't know a lot about your background. BI might be a more appropriate target if you have a database or data warehousing background, and EAI if you have a systems admin and application integration background. But either way, the best way to go about getting your first break in the SAP field is to get hired on a full time basis with a company that is implementing SAP. Ideally, this will be a company that is in the early stages of implementing, and in your case, it is in the SMB market space.

As to whether you need certification to pull this off, I don't believe you do. However, if getting certified is within your budget, then it might give you an extra edge of marketability.

This was first published in September 2007