I have two years experience in materials management and production. I have one SAP R/3 4.7 implementation experience in materials management. I would like to know whether mySAP ERP would help me in the future, and if so, should I be more keen on mySAP SCM or APO?

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Well, the general rule in SAP is that you want to get skills in the latest and greatest versions of SAP, so, going for mySAP ERP experience -- which is sometimes called 5.0 -- makes sense. I am under the impression that you would actually want to get mySAP Business Suite experience, since that is the version of mySAP that includes all the add-on product suites like supply chain and CRM. I may be wrong, this all seems to change at the drop of a press release.

In terms of choosing between SCM and APO, that's an interesting question. I've been trying to figure out SAP's so-called "Supply Chain Management" (SCM) product for years. In my opinion, APO is really the only fully-formed product in that area, so there's really no competition. SCM, as far as I can tell, is really just a bunch of functionality pulled from different pre-existing SAP components and modules and dressed up a little bit. Since the APO market hasn't been that hot lately, perhaps due to the complexity and cost of APO installs, your best bet is to continue to get broader supply chain experience in SAP combined with some APO exposure. At this point, I have yet to meet a real SAP "SCM" consultant that is not just an MM consultant in disguise, but I like your overall thinking of where you're headed. If you can continue to use your MM-related skills -- but in the latest versions of SAP -- you should be in a good position when and if more supply chain management products from SAP emerge.

This was first published in March 2005

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