SAP BW Project Staffing

Do You Make These Mistakes Staffing Your SAP BW Project? [Mindmap]

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Staffing Your SAP BW Project

Ever wondered what is the optimal way to staff your SAP BW Project?  Is your current SAP BW team working 25 hours a day, 8 days a week, and still falling behind? 

 

Are you even sure what falling behind means on your BW project?  We find that many people are not aware of the specific Roles SAP actually had in mind for staffing a SAP BW Project. 

 

Those Roles include:

 

  • BW Data Extraction Consultant
  • BW Data Access Consultant (Frontend, Web)
  • BW Data Architect, Administrator
  • BW Application Consultant (Business Process Knowledge)
  • BW BASIS (Administration Function)

 

 

Of course, a BW consultant may perform more than one of these roles.   However, we do not usually see the BASIS function combined with the other functions, and we also see SAP BASIS administrators struggle with the SAP BW BASIS function. 

 

Don't make the mistake of not filling these roles or at least making sure your BW Consulting team is covering the role!

 

Use SAP Certified Consultants

 

You might be wondering just what these different SAP BW Roles Do?

 

BW Data Extraction Consultant: 

 

Responsible for identifying and obtaining the data required to satisfy the requirements of the BW Project.

  • Identifies SAP R/3 Data Sources
  • Identifies Data from/to systems such as CRM, APO, SEM and MDM
  • Identifies and sources data from legacy data systems (non-SAP systems within the corporation)
  • Identifies and sources data from external sources of data, for example, D&B, Nielson, Lysine market data (and understands their true meaning)

As might be guessed, having an ABAP skilled person onboard is handy in this role.  However, a SAP Application Consultant can easily work with an ABAP’er to get the data.

 

BW Data Access Consultant:

 

Responsible for determining the business requirements, designing and developing data access solutions for the BW project.

  • BW’s Business Explorer (can be replaced with BOBJ 4)
  • Certified ODBO Clients: Non-SAP data access tools
  • Visual Basic Development (rarely used skillset these days)
  • Web Development, CSS Style Sheet Definition

 

SAP BW Data Architect

 
Responsible for the overall design of the BW project. Will have a broad general knowledge of all SAP Business Processes and deep knowledge in many of them.
    • BW Infocubes
    • Logical Models
    • BW Process Models
    • BW Enterprise Model
    • Responsible for Administration
    • Designs and Ensures Compliance with Established Naming Conventions
    • Will design the KPI Blueprint which provides a roadmap for the various other members of the team.

 

BW Application Consultant

 

Responsible for utilizing BW to satisfy the business requirements identified for the project

If the scope of the BW project is tightly controlled and can use standard BW Business Content, InfoCubes and Queries, the BW Application Consultant may assume the responsibility to perform several roles concurrently. 

With experience, will pick up both SAP functional module expertise, i.e., Materials Management or Financials, as well as Industry Specific expertise, i.e., catch weight management within the Wholesale Food Distribution industry.

 

SAP BW Basis

 
Responsible for the BW Infrastructure and Tuning
    • BW Installation and BASIS Parameters, Patches, Support Packages
    • BW Landscape, Correction and Transportation Settings
    • BW Sizing
    • BW Performance & Tuning
    • BW Authorizations

That is a lot of SAP BW Roles!  We find that it is a lot easier to properly staff a SAP BW project when the clients have a deeper knowledge of the complete SAP BW solution and recommend you take a look at our SAP BW Mindmap to quickly learn about the SAP BW Solution.

 

Click me

 

Of course, if you are in the process of staffing up a SAP BW project, we can help you get it right with the right SAP Resources.

 

The Final Mistake: One mistake planners sometimes overlook is not picking up the phone and talking directly to people who have been through the process you are currently going through. Luckily, this is easy to fix. Give me a call. Let's talk project for a while.

 

Thanks

 

Don't forget to comment or link up!

 

More reading:

Working with SAP BW Consulting [Consultation]

Learn What is Catch Weight Management

Why You Need Functional SAP Consultants on a SAP BW Project

 

Topics from this blog:
SAP BW Consulting Best Practices BW

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Lonnie D. Ayers, PMP

About the Author: Lonnie Ayers is a Hubspot Certified Inbound Marketing consultant, with additional certifications in Hubspot Content Optimization, Hubspot Contextual Marketing, and is a Hubspot Certified Partner. Specialized in demand generation and sales execution, especially in the SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Partner space, he has unique insight into the tough challenges Service Providers face with generating leads and closing sales using the latest digital tools. With 15 years of SAP Program Management experience, and dozens of complex sales engagements under his belt, he helps partners develop and communicate their unique sales proposition. Frequently sought as a public speaker in various events, he is available for both inhouse engagements and remote coaching.
Balanced Scorecard Consultant

He also recently released a book "How to Dominate Any Market - Turbocharging Your Digital Marketing and Sales Results", which is available on Amazon.

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