What are the Traits of an Excellent SAP BPC Consultant?

SAP BPC (Business Object Planning and Coordination) market has already heated up over the past few years, and there’s a bright prospect for everyone in this field. It is a relatively new tool and hence the greatest challenge is to find good, experienced, and well versed SAP BPC consultants. Through proper SAP BPC training and knowledge, anyone in the field of SAP can become a consultant.

Technical Knowledge ofSAP BPC Helps Satisfy Clients

Good consultants are defined by their actual knowledge of configuring the SAP BPC toolsetas well as by their experience of working with the same. The SAP BPC module is well documented, straightforward, and user-friendly. Having sound knowledge of the tools around the edges, however, can certain make a difference between a solution that could work.

For instance, clients like to be advised on overall system architecture needed for adopting their SAP BPC solution. Their minds are generally clouded with a number of queries. Where to perform reporting? What are the options for connecting to Business objects reporting tools? What are the operating systems needed for BPC components? Which SAP BW versions are compatible with BPC versions?

Clients also expect a SAP BPC consultant to have an updated understanding of different start kits and ways in which these tools can be utilized in various scenarios as the toolsare crucial weapons in the repertoire. SAP has invested a lot in its BPC starter kits that deliver real content that works. While it may not be able to provide all the functionalities needed, it does price a good deal of framework and springboard for the project.

Most importantly, excellent knowledge of SAP BW is also needed. Clients wanting to implement BPC NetWeaver versions are very unlikely to accept any solution that suits them for creating download files on a trial balance from the SAP ECC as well as by using Data Manager for uploading the same. Instead, they want to extract this into NetWeaver BW with the help of sophisticated ETL tools along with business content, and further extract the same automatically into the BPC using BPC Process Chain Types.

Clients also want to ensure that their input schedule doesn’t take too long either for sending or retrieving data. At the first instance, if you want to pass on the problem to the BASIS team, you don’t qualify for a good consultant. Experienced consultants have the knack and confidence to delve into all their problems, be it debugging trough BPC ABAP code, automatically generated SQL analysis, database objects integrity analysis, raising SDN-related questions, raising OSS notes, or browsing through proper SAP notes.

SAP BPC Accounting Systems

SAP BPC projects mean business. BPC consultants are expected to talk to the FP&A team and the CFO directly. However, if they don’t speak the language, it can be a major disadvantage. SAP BPC consultants skilled in both formal accounting and technical field is a rare combination; but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. If your background is purely technical, you can always up-skill in the other areas. There are several SAP BPC training programs and courses that allow consultants to hone their skills and expand their knowledge base.

Consulting Skills Development

There are some challenges related to SAP BPC planning projects, which can test consulting tests, such as:

• How to ensure that the solution can make the life of the end users much easier and that of the central FP&A’s too? How to engage properly with end users in business when they consider your project to be a distraction?


• Ways to handle disagreements as well as circulation discussions that take place in workshops. Ways to ensure you can lead the team of users in the right direction and make some key decisions.


• Clients using spreadsheet model may not be able to understand what is and what isn’t possible with planning solutions like BPC. Bringing clients to a definite level of understanding of tools to make informed decisions is equally important.


• Clients expect consultants to advise them on how others are handling similar issues.


• Clients may even have some pre-conceived ideas about things done in real world.

Finally, it is motivation that matters. Every SAP consultant has certain strengths and weaknesses. To overcome their weaknesses, there should be a bridge strong enough to mend the gaps. Staying motivated is the only way.