We
receive numerous queries relating to training on various topics. Many of the
questions received by us relate to the choice of track for a person seeking a
career in ERP Consulting. Typical questions are –
·
Should one work towards becoming a
Functional Apps Consultant or a Technical Apps Consultant?
This
seems to be a very common confusion for those who decide to switch their
career into becoming an Oracle Apps Consultant. It becomes important to find
an answer to this question especially if you are about to commit huge amount
of money into an Oracle Applications Training Course. Finding the right
answer to this question is very important, as it can possibly change the
course of your life.
While
there is no right advice, as the ultimate success of your decision depends on
quality of training, your interest and understanding of the subject and most
important of all - your attitude.
Remember
we can help you understand the subject and clear your doubts but ultimately
you will be facing the interview by yourself. So your understanding of the
subject has to be absolute.
Understanding
the Roles
You
have probably heard of terms like Functional consultant, Technical
Consultant, Techno-Functional etc. Those not familiar with these terms need
to understand their meaning. So here are some guidelines to help you, that
will hold true in most cases:-
Functional Role
1. You can work towards becoming a
Functional Consultant if :-
a)
You are from an Accounting Background
b)
You were a Super User for Financials/HRMS Manufacturing Modules for many
years. You may even consider taking up a Support Analyst role.
c)
You have never written a "Hello World" program, regardless of the
programming language.
d)
You are a MBA from a non-technical background
e)
You don't mind spending most part of your day in meetings & writing
documents.
f)
You understand the overall ERP system very well, and how it all hangs
together knowing the dependencies between various modules.
2. You must work towards becoming a
Technical Consultant if:-
a)
You are from a technical background, regardless of the stream i.e.
Electrics/Comps etc. Even a Civil Engineer can make into a good Oracle Apps
Technical Consultant.
b)
You want to be a technical Oracle Apps consultant but you fear whether you
can succeed. Remember, fear is important, as it gets the best out of you.
c)
You find writing lengthy documents very boring.
d)
You like to get a feeling of having achieved something each day.
e)
You do not have much patience, then surely you must not be a functional
person. Some of the end users can really test your patience to limits.
f)
You don't mind taking difficult challenges at times.
g)
You can't be bothered to know how say Order Management links with General
Ledger.
Pros of choosing a Functional path
Cons of choosing a Functional path
Technical
Role
Pros of choosing a Technical path
a)
For each Functional person, there are at an average 3 to 5 technical
consultants. Hence more job opportunities for Technical Oracle Applications
Role.
b)
If you are an immigrant, then you face lesser comptetion from local workforce
in western countries. For example, in USA/UK I have noticed more locals doing
functional job than those doing technical job.
c)
Many technical people switch to functional roles latter in their career.
d)
Not much emphasis on educational background. This holds very true in
non-Tier1 technology companies, where you will be recruited (provided you
have some experience) purely on the basis of your technical skills &
technical knowledge.
Cons of choosing a Technical path
a)
You have to keep up with ever changing technology and toolsets.
For example tools like Oracle Forms may be totally redundant after 5Years from now.
b)
More and more work in Oracle Apps is moving to Functional domain. To give an
example, prior to introduction of self service personalizations, a developer
was required for any single change to the layout of the screen. However now,
a functional or even a business super user can be trained within half a day
to do Self Service Personalizations.
Switching
between Roles
Moving from functional background to
ERP
Advantages
Disadvantages
Moving from technical to functional
role
Lot
of technical people have moved from technical role to a functional role.
However, this may not work for everyone. For those wanting to move from
technical to functional there are several options
But
good future certainly will be for those that know both Functional &
Technical. A techie with functional knowledge and business understanding will
always excel.
Remember...A tech consultant is never just a programmer....a tech consultant is the one that can co-relate each line of code that he/she designs/writes with the business requirement for which development is being done. |
Entry
level oracle apps programmers have below responsibilities:-
- Developing simple reports using D2k report writer
- Developing simple forms using D2k
- Developing views that can be used for example in discoverer reports
- Developing code for custom.pll to provide zoom etc(now done using forms personalizations)
- Registering concurrent programs, menus, form functions etc
- Simple forms/self service personalizations
Advanced
level oracle apps programmers have below responsibilities:-
- Leading teams and providing solution approach
- Developing interfaces, scripts/programs for data migration into Oracle Apps
- Designing and building custom extensions and customizations with series of screens possibly with tight integration with other Oracle Apps screens/interfaces/API
- Developing and customizing oracle workflows. Modifying account generator workflows.
- Developing self-service extensions to OA Framework using jDeveloper.
- Troubleshooting critical issues
Choice of
Modules
The
most commonly implemented modules in the Financial track are Payables (AP),
Receivables (AR), Sub-Ledger Accounting (SLA) and General Ledger (GL). Two
other popular modules are Fixed Assets(FA) and Cash Management(CA). So we
suggest that you MUST do training on AP, AR, SLA, GL and then consider doing
training on FA and CM as per your requirement.
The
commonly implemented modules here are Puchasing (PO), Inventory (INV), Order
Management (OM) and Advanced Pricing (AP). So it is suggested that you
undergo training in these modules if you want to pursue a career in SCM
The
commonly implemented modules are Human Resources (HR), Payroll (PAY),
Self-Service Human Resources (SSHR).
It is generally suggested that you
decide on a track based on your experience, choice and future plans. Do not do
individual modules unless you have a specific need in your work or your company
is sponsoring the training.
