Yes, that's right. I'm thankful for SAP.
For some of you, you're thinking that I'm thankful for the sweet, thick syrupy stuff that comes out of a tree, and I'm telling you just how thankful because I've spelled it in all CAPS.
But some of you are just geeky enough that you know I'm not talking about a potential pancake topping. I am instead talking about an ERP system known as SAP.
For those of you who thought this post was going to be about syrup, you're now a) ready to stop reading altogether; b) not sure what an ERP system is; or c) off in the kitchen making pancakes because this talk of sap and syrup has made you hungry and pancakes are much more interesting.
I get each one of those. And any time > 6 years ago, I would have been right there with you. So with that in mind, I will try to do my best to make this as un-geek as possible while still explaining why I am thankful for SAP.
SAP has changed my life. Quite literally. It has changed my language. It has changed how I think about business. It has changed how I think about people.
It has changed my language. I now use words and phrases like org change management and negative regression testing and configuration and development, quality and production and vendor returns and workflow and system triggers and business process all the time these days. Acronyms have become my best friend - MM, PP, QM, WM (not to be confused with Walmart), MRP, SD, FI, CO, MDM, RFC, ECC, ECD, ECQ, ECP, SLOC, RF, PIR and PIR (two totally different things), ABAP and the list can go on and on, but most of you have skipped on to the next paragraph already. Yes, this is the way I talk now - verbally and in print. Most of my Google searches these days involve words and acronyms like the above. Hello, my name is Deb, and Geeks R Us.
It has changed how I think about business. In all honesty, I wouldn't say that I have been guilty of silo thinking about business - where it's all about me and my department getting our things done and the rest of the organization is on their own once I throw it over the wall. But since SAP is what I do for a living now, about all I think about is the business process - how an activity or business moves from one department to the next through the system (SAP) so that when demand comes in for a product that we sell, it gets purchased, built, inspected, warehoused, labeled, shipped, paid for and invoiced correctly. And when we have a new way of selling that product or buying it or building it, I am part of a team of folks who sit and geek out...er, I mean, think about how that new process will work.
It has changed how I think about people. I remember 2008 like it was 9/11. In fact, in my lifetimes on this earth, I "tell time" by the births of my children, whether I was nursing a baby at that time, my divorce, 9/11 and the SAP Project in 2008. Truly. And when I started 2008 I would have never imagined a day that I would have been typing in a blog about being thankful for SAP. Because at that point I felt like I had been dropped in Germany without so much as a language dictionary, much less a Rosetta Stone. And I also thought that this was a nearly impossible system to understand - it wasn't user friendly and it was so integrated that there was no way to change it - trust me, there were tears at night. But now? After having worked with it for almost 6 years? I have come to realize that when we have a new process that needs to be implemented (another one of those common words in my language these days), getting the system set up correctly is only about 20% of the battle. The other 80% is getting people trained and using it. Adopting the new tools or way of thinking about a process. That ugly word...CHANGING. (Some of you feel the pain of that word, and think I'm being mean to even mention that SAP has changed how I think about people.) But it has. I don't mean any mean girl-ness in this. It has simply made me realize that I need to be more conscious of the people side of system things. It does us no good to design a process in the system, no matter how slick or well thought out, if people don't get it, use it, or work around it.
It has changed how I think about people in one other, significant way. The SAP community it just that - a community. Almost a sub-culture in some ways, made up of people who have lived through a 2008 experience of their own so for the most part, they are open to teaching and helping each other out. Sure, there may be the cutthroat folks out there, but most are more than willing to offer ideas, documentation, links, books, you name it, to help when you're faced with a new crisis or issue or process. I will always be grateful for those who have patiently taught me, my first MM consultant, my first PP consultant, my capacity planning consultant, the team of folks I am blessed enough to work with everyday, others that I met in 2008 and are still friends with at least on FB (and who gave me one of the most extravagant birthdays of my life).
Yep, I'm thankful for SAP. It has changed my life in good ways - very good ways. Given me a skill set that can bode well career wise and opened my mind to new challenges, new ideas and ways of thinking almost everyday.
Signed,
SAP Geek and Proud!
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