Having a good software system is essential for maintaining workflows and strengthening business processes. Implementing simple software can be relatively easy but you need an SAP consultant when these systems get complex.
Needless to say, the successful implementation of SAP depends on how brilliant your SAP consultant is.
To hire an SAP expert, you need to first design an SAP assessment to assess how they can help your business grow. SAP consultants are generally of two types:
- Who works in finance solutions and software operations
- Who works in software development and planning
SAP consultants not only help you choose the right software for your business but also help in making it work as per your business requirements.
What to Expect from an SAP Consultant?
Before you start searching for an SAP consultant, it is important you understand your requirements and know what to look for. Some primary functions of SAP consultants are:
- Designing software: SAP solutions are required to be unique in a way to suit the company needs, which is why SAP consultants need to understand the needs and design it accordingly.
- Improving technology and software: A good SAP consultant can easily handle issues that occur in the current software systems and provide solutions in a simplified way.
- Manage the SAP staff: Many companies have designated SAP personnel for maintenance of their current software systems and hire external SAP consultants to manage their current staff and train them better.
How to Search for the Right Consultant?
To find the right person for the job, you need to:
- Know how and where to search: When you hire an SAP consultant, instead of looking for candidates online, tap your business network. An SAP consultant’s work in the previous organization will give you a fair idea about their potential.
SAP community network or LinkedIn could be better sources to get in touch with other business leaders to know about the SAP consultants they had hired.
- Keep up with SAP updates to improvise your search methods: Attend training sessions and conferences related to SAP and be an active part of the online SAP community to keep up with the latest trends. This would give you insights about SAP skills when you look for an ideal consultant.
What are the Things to Check Before a Technical Interview?
- Resumes: The first step would be reviewing applications to see if they have the skills and experience you are looking for. A smart way to spot inconsistencies is to match their resumes with their LinkedIn profile.
Check out these automated resume screening tools to streamline work processes, enhancing efficiency and simplifying tasks for users. - Experience: Ensure they have adequate experience. You can also enquire with their previous organizations and verify them. An experienced consultant is easy to spot when you see them answering questions on SAP fluently.
How to Conduct a SAP Technical Interview?
The two steps in which a technical interview is conducted are as follows:
- Assessment: Online skill assessment tools, such as iMocha, has tests available on all the SAP skills that are required in a candidate. To assess, all you have to do is know what skills to look for. In case you lack the subject matter expertise and find it difficult to select the skills that need to be assessed, you can always bring an IT person from your team onboard and prepare an assessment.
- Interview: An SAP consultant is hired to solve software related issues and give effective solutions. Therefore, it is important to know how a candidate can help the company overcome current issues and provide sustainable software solutions. To do this, ask situation-based questions; for example, present a real-life software issue and see how they respond to it. You can also ask about how they did their jobs previously to understand how effectively they can function.
You can also check out SAP Interview Questions for Experienced Candidates for further information on how you can conduct SAP interviews.
Why You Should be Paying Attention to Soft Skills?
Companies hiring candidates to work on international SAP roll-out projects need to pay attention to the soft skills, especially the communication skills of a candidate.
You can also do that using iMocha’s AI-EnglishPro test and soft skills assessment tests which help recruiters to quantify candidates' interpersonal skills before the interview. SAP consultants need to work closely with clients to understand the issues and explain technical aspects in simpler language. Other than language proficiency, an SAP consultant needs soft skills such as persuasion, collaboration, patience, etc. to work efficiently on complex software technologies.
Why Reference Checks are Important?
Most recruiters skip this last step for a number of reasons: they performed well during the hiring process, they were sourced via someone in the network, or any other reason. However, what recruiters need to understand is that these things can have flaws, which makes a reference check essential. You can also ask the coworkers how the candidate had performed in the organization instead of asking the manager since many times managers tend to give a good review out of goodwill.
A right SAP consultant can bring a great change, improve the efficiency of the business, increase productivity, and reduce expenses on un-necessary technologies. So, it is essential that the strategy you use to hire is crafted carefully as well.
