With ERP systems incorporating financials, order entry, customer service, purchasing, materials management, scheduling, shipping and receiving, inventory management, quality, sales analysis, and still other facets of businesses operating systems, knowing how to fit all of the pieces together is a critical function of sap business analyst jobs.
Standard ERP packages will only get your foot in the door towards better planning and control. It takes specialist, much like one would find in sap business analyst jobs, to be able to come in and review the nuts and bolts of the specific operating mechanics of every business working in an ERP environment. One should always remember when considering implementing an ERP system for their organization that your ERP system should be designed and implemented to support those areas where your company holds a competitive advantage. One does not want to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Those areas where you hold a competitive advantage need to be nurtured by any ERP system implementation or upgrade. Here is where qualified people in sap business analyst jobs are worth their weight in gold. One needs to mimic existing processes and procedures that happen manually by incorporating these methodologies into a viable ERP system. Often this is not a simple task as many ERP systems are created with certain logical algorithms or constraints that will make exact duplication of current work flows difficult. Business analysts are trained and capable of altering or getting new scripts developed that will mirror your existing processes.
Often working as a liaison, or much like an internal consultant, people in sap business analyst jobs are effective at researching along with experts from specific areas of the organization how to setup systems to ease the workload in a particular department without simply shifting the burden to another department in the organization. In a holistic fashion, the analyst understands that fixing a problem in one area to create another problem in different area is not a sound solution to the problem. Sometimes the lesser of two evils may have to be accepted as a solution until new scripts can be developed to alter internal shortcomings in the ERP system itself.
ERP systems, although tremendously powerful and produced with a great deal of flexibility, are not a one size fits all solution. Customization within the system is critical to overall success, and this is where sap business analyst jobs play a major role. People have jobs to do and you don't want your shop floor supervisors spending all of their time trying to get your ERP system to work effectively in their areas of responsibility. These are responsibilities that fall much better onto specialists like business analysts. Often one need to ask the question, ''Can you afford not to have a dedicated business analyst working to further develop you ERP system?''
