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REPORTING
SAP CO-PA for the Chemical Industry
Many SAP customers need special help implementing Controlling-Profitability Analysis (CO-PA) tools for SAP R/3. ERP Business Service Allgäu (ERP) can help with a single engagement for a specific tactical need or a full solution for internationalized cost accounting. In the chemical and related industries, Jodie Byrne is our specialist.
Jodie’s clients are usually international companies that share a common challenge: „How can we get the most out of our R/3 system?“ Jodie comes prepared.
For the last four years, she has focused exclusively on developing SAP R/2 and R/3 solutions. Most often she designs and configures software tools that report profitability statements to help her clients see how well they are doing within each operating unit and as a company overall.
Common-Sense Methodology and Product Knowledge
SAP consulting in particular requires someone who understands the industry’s business process. „I primarily work with chemical companies, and many of them tend to have commonalities,“ says Jodie. „That gives me an advantage of knowing exactly what they need in their business process requirements. I don’t have to spend time learning their business to get productive.“
For example, her clients frequently need some form of business unit reporting, whether it’s just month-end sales figures or a full P&L with a partial balance sheet. Jodie designs a complete application that provides those reports from the existing SAP system with a minimum of configuration time.
Not every consultant can do this. It requires dealing with multiple languages, currency conversions, differences in international tax regulations, and even differences in organizational structures within the corporation.
Global Experience
Jodie has a distinct advantage in understanding the job requirements. Her education is in accounting. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a double major in accounting and finance from Queensland University in Australia. „With my background, I can work with global clients and readily understand the language, concepts and formal accounting requirements of their international business structure,“ says Jodie.
For instance, one of Jodie’s clients, Wacker Silicones, has completely different reporting requirements between their US operating units and their headquarters in Germany. Each solution has to reflect these subtle reporting differences to be meaningful to the client.
Jodie understands the business processes of chemical companies, and the internationalization of finance and accounting procedures, and she knows SAP. „Business knowledge means understanding the requirements and developing appropriate solutions. System knowledge means knowing why SAP is behaving a certain way and how to get it to behave the way we want it to. You really need both every day in this business.“
SAP problem solving is a huge part of the consultant’s job, and experience is the best tool you can have. „When I see an error message, I usually know how to fix it straightaway without wasting time,“ says Jodie. „If I haven’t seen it before, I at least have a pretty good idea where to start looking.“
Leveraging SAP for Best Practices
The sophisticated reporting capabilities available in SAP systems often requires that the client change, or reengineer, its business processes that feed the system with information. There, Jodie is a seasoned pro also.
„SAP is designed to promote best business practices. It’s powerful enough to give clients an easy-to-use solution that will provide the results they’re after. And, it gives our clients an excellent opportunity to transform processes, such as the way of doing goods receipts, from a process developed many years ago to a centralized purchasing process.“
Empowering Clients with Know-How
Jodie has a lot of hands-on experience doing the design, configuration and testing phases. But it doesn’t stop there. „Clients have to be able to effectively maintain the system after my job is done,“ says Jodie.
So she provides each client with full documentation of her implementation and usually helps them with staff training on maintaining the solution. „That way, the client really does know how to get the most out of their SAP system,“ says Jodie.
Jodie is available to apply her knowledge through ERP today.
If you’re considering an SAP implementation of any size, call ERP and expect complete satisfaction.
Other ERP’s CO-PA solution clients include Wilton Industries, Shell Oil and PSC Scanning
ERP provides the most seasoned SAP R/3 consultants and the most efficient recruiting process in the business.