Scenario 2: Should I become a functional or technical consultant?

Scenario 2: Should I become a functional or technical consultant?

Problem Analysis
You keep hearing about functional consultants and technical consultants. But what's the difference? And which one best matches your background?

Problem Solution
SearchSAP.com career expert Jon Reed explains the answer in this expert response:

    Requires Free Membership to View

    When you register, you will start receiving targeted emails from my award-winning team of editorial writers. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest topics and biggest challenges faced by SAP professionals today.

    Hannah Smalltree, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchSAP.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchSAP.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

Technical SAP consultants are generally either programmers or systems administrators, whereas functional consultants bring value by combining particular business process knowledge, such as financial knowledge, with the "know-how" of configuring the aspect of SAP that pertains to that process knowledge. So for example, a functional SAP FI consultant generally has a financials background, and understands how to configure the FI tables in accordance with a user's business processes.

So, if you are a programmer or admin, technical consulting makes the most sense, while if you are a financial or business process guru, look into functional consulting.

What's the difference between a functional and a technical consultant?
Read career and certification FAQs
SAP Job Seeker's Learning Guide

 


Consulting 101

 Home: Introduction
 Scenario 1: I'm considering switching to SAP
 Scenario 2: Should I become a functional or technical consultant?
 Scenario 3: Planning the transition to consulting
 Scenario 4: How can I avoid outsourcing?
 Scenario 5: What's the right area for me to focus on?
 Review: Conclusion and more resources

This was first published in December 2005