Why it’s possible to jump into SAP consulting as a mathematician

Antonia Demleitner tells us why, as a mathematician, she took the leap into SAP consulting at valantic, why it’s possible to jump into SAP consulting as a mathematician and she gives us an overview of her tasks as an SAP TM consultant on projects.

How was your start at valantic?

After my studies in mathematics, I wanted to go into consulting. I then became aware of valantic via Xing, and after my application, I received an invitation to a conversation in Munich. The whole process was very easy and fast, and the discussions were not only about technical topics, but also about my personal profile. I especially liked the fact that after discussions with the HR team and my future manager, I had the opportunity to get to know a large part of the Advanced Logistics team in advance. That helped me a lot with making my decision. Since December 2019, I have been working as a junior consultant in the SAP TM area.

I joined the team without any SAP knowledge and I can say that I have been able to build up a lot of knowledge thus far. In addition to the valantic onboarding guide, my mentor was at my disposal for my start at the company, and he introduced me to both organizational and technical topics. I also liked the many feedback conversations. It was communicated very openly how the first weeks and months would go and what expectations the team has of me. So I always knew where I was and what was missing. In addition, the training and good support from the team helped me. This was all very helpful when everything was new and unknown at first.

In the beginning I was involved in developing a process to build a demo system. That was a great exercise, one in which I got to know everything and solved the first problems. And then, after three months, we started on a real customer project.

What do you do as consultant in the SAP TM sector?

In the projects, we examine all topics relating to our customers’ transport management. On the one hand, we focus on the flows and processes in transport planning; on the other hand on transport accounting. In order to understand and ultimately optimize the processes, we need to know what kind of transports and which transport routes the customer uses, which carriers are used, but also who is responsible for commissioning the freight carrier and how communication with the transport service providers takes place. The transport cost accounting for the freight carrier focuses on the costs for the transport performed and which components have to be taken into account. The transports can then be billed individually or bundled (e.g. over a period of one week/one month).

There are many different tasks in the project. These start with requirements workshops, and here there is a lot of exchange with the customer. Of course, the project also involves preparing presentations and creating a certain structure. Always with the focus on the customer. Which questions are relevant for the customer and what is important for implementation in the SAP system? This is always very exciting, because the processes at our customers can vary a lot. We then consider how we can implement and map processes in the SAP system in the best possible way. In our SAP projects, I think it’s very cool that we look not only at the topic of transport management, but also at topics of the other SAP modules. So we know what happens before and after. I’m really learning to think in end-2-end processes here. This keeps you in contact with colleagues who are responsible for other SAP modules. My tasks are a mixture of contact with the customer, coordination with the team, and the concrete implementation where you work directly in the system.

What are the challenges of your job?

It is particularly important to coordinate with the teams from the other SAP subprojects that are upstream or downstream. Here, everyone must think ahead and not just focus on their topic. Good communication is everything here. For customers, of course, it is always a matter of keeping them informed and demonstrating that changes in long-term transport processes lead to a real improvement in the processes. This requires intuition and good preparation of the individual topics.

What do you especially like about valantic?

The people I work with! Here there is very open communication and it’s just a very pleasant working atmosphere. Especially in the Corona time, we grew closer together. We have regular conversations, we coordinate with dailys, we discuss what is upcoming, what we have achieved, and who can help how. You are never left alone. Even if we all have a lot to do, you can always reach your colleagues. I can talk to everyone. That helps and motivates me a great deal. But I also enjoy working with people who are not on my team. Thanks to the large SAP projects, I also have contact with colleagues from other SAP units. I find that very enriching.