We recently sat down with one of our senior-level SAP consultants to gain insight into her experience helping a large pharmaceutical company navigate complex data migration, management, and analysis objectives as they moved from legacy systems to SAP S/4HANA. Read on to learn more!
Q: What are your day-to-day responsibilities in the client’s SAP landscape?
A: As the dual maintenance coordinator, I’m responsible for assisting with the migration from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA. On a daily basis, this involves working closely with the master data team to facilitate efficient data entry and analysis and navigate each step of the migration process from start to finish.
Q: What is the nature of the client’s SAP support resources?
A: Most of their SAP support comes from internal resources with extensive experience in both the SAP system landscape and overall data management strategy. They have established a strong foundation for internal training, support, and documentation to ensure members of each team can support the legacy ECC system while also operating the new S/4HANA system efficiently.
Q: How has your experience been working with the client’s internal team?
A: I’ve always felt really comfortable and welcome on the team. Despite having less experience in the SAP landscape than most of the other members of the master data and solution delivery teams, I have been able to gain insight from their previous experience and improve my overall understanding of the SAP environment.
Q: How has the client’s project been organized? How are roles identified and managed?
A: The data migration process has been separated into two separate phases. The first involved initial system assessment, data entry, and migration from their existing legacy system. The second will be more focused on uploading the data into the new S/4HANA system, conducting validation for new data entry, and facilitating effective user acceptance testing for the new system.
Q: Have you faced any major challenges in your current role? How are they addressed?
A: Overall, there have been no major hiccups in the process. For any data entry or validation errors that occur, our team has been really good at proactively identifying and finding the root causes of key issues. Migrating data in such high volumes is definitely hard to make sure everything goes as planned, but we’ve done a good job foreseeing issues and working to resolve them before they have a chance to affect the rest of the system.
Q: Is there anything that has helped you successfully navigate project phases?
A: Our team is very close-knit and we have a broad range of experience across both the SAP and overall manufacturing landscapes. Our team’s diverse experience has allowed us to maintain effective communication throughout each phase and ensure all team members stay on track with their individual responsibilities.
Q: Do you have any advice for younger professionals interested in a similar role?
A: I think it’s important to be open to not knowing what you’re doing early on in your career. Open-mindedness and communication helped me be more willing to learn from those with more experience and dive head-first into whatever project I’ve been involved in. It’s been really helpful to get to know the team I’m working with, understand their specific experience, and soak up all the knowledge they are willing to share.
Q: What new skills or experiences have you gained or acquired from this role?
A: Coming into a corporate environment, I had no clue what to expect. One of the most beneficial things I’ve learned is to just buy into whatever role I’m involved in while I’m there and try to learn as much as I can about any relevant technical or business areas. I’ve also gained a lot of valuable knowledge from my colleagues about both the SAP ECC and S/4HANA environments.
Q: How has this role impacted your long-term career goals?
A: In this role, I’ve realized how important it is to understand that no role, project, or task is permanent, so it’s important to get in and learn as much as you can about the organization and technology. It’s also made me realize that there’s so much more to the SAP landscape than I realized, so I’m excited to continue learning and gaining new insight in the future.
