The Daily Vanguard

What It Takes To Become An SAP FICO Consultant?

SAP Finance/ Controlling (FICO) is the giant on whose shoulders the SAP organisation has made its name. Any finance related functions can be easily made with sterling efficiency. It is one of the most well-known products of the firm. A plethora of organisations have seen the offerings of SAP FICO and have realised its potential use to solve a variety of problems. This has caused a steady increase in demand of this software.

The tool is very promising and versatile, which comes at a cost of needing professionals to be able to use it in scenarios as needed by firms. Sometimes, they must be able to realise which problems can be solved by SAP FICO. Thus, along with the software, experts that can use it are also rising in demand. To bag a role as a consultant, one must know what type of SAP FI interview questions would be asked and be prepared to answer them on the spot while being considered for hire.

The prerequisites for this would be lessons in accounting and basic finance. Some accounting principles can prove very useful to individuals as they can then oversee operations and understand how best to optimise and solve problems. This becomes absolutely mandatory for people without any background in finance and accounting as a majority of concepts in SAP FICO relies on these principles.

Looking at the way the software works and can be used to solve problems, the future scope for any consultant seems very promising as the demand seems to keep rising and this is a profession where experience can take one a lot of places. Freshers might find it a bit challenging as the learning curves are really steep. Building up their knowledge would seem like the best bet they have at the moment. Areas where they can focus on can be clearer through case studies, understanding transaction flows and then some configurations.

Understanding the reasoning behind some process design choices in some business lines or industries is paramount to succeeding here as a consultant. Once that’s done, mapping this understanding to the SAP design flow would be the last hurdle to overcome. Design analysis should be the main focus after the application has been decided. Mainly how, why and what exactly was built.

Design and configuration work would be categorised under an implementation project, needing the most experienced and skilled individuals. The support projects however, are less taxing and thus have a relatively lesser work responsibility. If they can manage their time well, these individuals can spend some time apart from work to grow and learn more about concepts and reasoning behind some of the designs. Once enough confidence is built up, it can be recommended that they look into access to an IDES system and then build a personal setup to practice on.

FICO is an old application, some newer ones like Simple Finance which is based off from HANA is gaining traction today. A strong base in FICO and any of these newer skills, they can expand one’s arsenal of tools, which raises employability.