Ten Essentials for Successful SAP Consulting

Copyright www.saprules.com 2009

Ten Essentials For Successful SAP Consulting

David B. Janotta

2 Ten essentials for successful SAP Consulting

Contents

Introduction......................................................................................3

Plan .....................................................................................................4

Entrepreneur....................................................................................8

Know the basics of the IT development process.................10

Learn .................................................................................................12

Be a Problem Solver .....................................................................14

Be flexible ........................................................................................16

Know your limitations .................................................................18

Network ............................................................................................20

Interview ..........................................................................................23

Work hard, but play hard too...................................................26

Conclusion ......................................................................................28


Introduction

As someone who's made a substantial amount of money as a very successful SAP consultant during the last few years - I'm not going to tell you how much, but it was a LOT - I think it's high time to spill the beans on how I did it and what I consider to be some of the most important strategies and tactics that you can use to succeed as well. First, a few words about me. I’ve been working in the IT business for far longer than I’d care to remember, and for the last nineteen years as a freelance SAP consultant. It’s been an interesting journey, with many ups and downs along the way. I’ve worked in the USA, Asia, South America and all over Europe, at some of the biggest and best-known multinational companies, and I have lots of stories to tell. In this short e-book you’ll find ten of the most important strategies and behaviors to consider and implement in your daily consulting life. Try them out – they really do make a difference. I hope you’ll be able to relate what you read here to your own career so far and maybe it’ll give you some ideas on how to proceed for a successful future in SAP consulting. Best Wishes, David B. Janotta.


Plan

“The beginning is the most important part of the work” – Plato.

I cannot stress enough how important planning is as an essential stepping stone to business or personal success. You have probably heard the old saying – if you fail to plan, you plan to fail! This simple pearl of wisdom has stood the test of time, especially in today’s fast-moving world, where frequent change is the norm. To be effective, you must plan for at least two timeframes:- Long-term or Strategic level Where do you want to be in ten years or twenty years time? And I don’t mean lying on a beach in the Maldives, al-though on second thoughts maybe that’s not such a bad idea. Here you set the overall direction of your life, career or business by mapping out what you expect to achieve in the medium to long-term future. Notice I wrote ‘expect to achieve’, not ‘hope to achieve’. Be as specific as you can in defining your goals. If they are too vague you won’t visualize them properly. Relevant goals here might be owning a house, managing a large project team successfully, remain-ing in good health, seeing your children through college, just to list a few. Write your goals down on paper. It’s much better than just keeping them in your head. Writing them down reinforces them in your memory. Use a diary.


Then work out how you’re going to achieve those goals and write that down as well. And there you have it! Your very own plan. Simple as that. Short-term or Operational level What do you want for breakfast tomorrow morning? The aim of short term planning is to make sure that the day-to-day activities you have identified as being essential to helping you move towards your long-term goals are carried out. For example, getting up in the morning, getting to the office on time, taking regular exercise. Ok, there are other things to plan too, like your work schedule, but you get the idea. And there could several levels in between at which you want to plan as well, but that’s up to you to decide. Person-ally, I’m happy with the two levels of planning I described above. But it doesn’t stop there. Planning is an on-going process. You need to understand that no matter how well you draft your plans, they are useless unless you actually use them to steer yourself or your business in the right direction. This means that you need to monitor how you are progress-ing against your plans often. How frequently will depend on your situation, but as a rule of thumb, strategic plans should be reviewed once a month and you should monitor your operational plans at least weekly, and in some cases every day. I recommend taking the first ten to fifteen minutes each morning when you arrive at your workplace to plan in writing what you will do that day. Some people do it differ-


ently and finish their working day by writing down what they did and what they plan to do tomorrow, although personally I’m usually too tired to do that. I’m much more alert in the morning. So you need to plan to plan as well! Program your mobile phone or PDA with reminders and make sure you take action when the reminders alert you. Planning enables you to turn your dreams into reality. So many people just drift through life with no concrete aims or if they do have aims, without a proper set of tools for moni-toring progress towards those aims. Without a plan, these people’s aims remain the purest of dreams. Without a roadmap, they are lost. With concrete plans in place though, you will:-

• Develop a broader skill base: You will have identified and learned the skills necessary to make you more attractive to a wider range of employers and clients.

• Make logical job transitions: You will know what skills and responsibilities to look for in the next job or con-tract assignment.

• Enjoy increasing responsibility: You will have identi-fied and gained the skills and training you need to take on more responsibility.

• Have a broader perspective: You will be able to un-derstand where a specific job or responsibility fits into your overall career path or business plan.

• Make decisions more easily: You will be able to review a situation within its wider context and better evalu-ate your options.


• Earn more: You are less likely to be underpaid since your research will tell you what you should be earn-ing.

• Be more satisfied with life: You will be moving in a di-rection that is designed to meet your lifestyle, inter-est, business and financial goals.

• Be less stressed: And we could all do without some of that!

I keep mentioning the word “business” in this rule and you will see it written a lot throughout the book. This is impor-tant. You need to think like a businessman, an entrepre-neur (see the next section). Far too often we are brought up to think with an employee mindset, and this is wrong. SAP consulting is all about business, therefore you need to think in that way too. Even though your client’s business is not your own, you will find that you perform better if you think that it is.

Take time each year to sit down and evaluate how you are doing. Are you still proceeding towards your goals? Do you need to make any changes? Do you need to update your skills? Or change your job? No use getting stuck in a rut. Make sure you’re not going blindly down the wrong path.

If your planning is good, this won’t happen.

And even if your planning is bad, it’s still better than hav-ing no plan at all.


Entrepreneur

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” - Steve Jobs.

As an SAP Consultant in the truest sense, you have already decided that you want to escape the rat race and be your own boss. At least that’s what I did. And let me tell you – it’s much more satisfying than being told what to do and how and where to do it all the time.

Deep down inside, each of us has an entrepreneurial spirit. Strictly speaking, entrepreneurship refers to starting up and operating your own business, a professional endeavor that requires independence, creativity, individuality, and risk. But really, it’s more than that. You can and ought to apply the same entrepreneurial skills to your personal life as well. The more you think like an entrepreneur, the more automatic it becomes to behave like one.

Think of some successful entrepreneurs that you admire. What attributes do they have?

• The first is passion. Those who are successful in business and in their personal lives are doing some-thing they really love to do.

• The second is vision. Entrepreneurs have a goal, of-ten multiple goals, and I hope you do too.

• The third is ability to take risks. Successful entre-preneurs take risks as a matter of course. But let me stress here that these are calculated risks, not gam-bling.

• Another key characteristic is the ability to lead and motivate people. Entrepreneurs may not be organized and some of them are far from it, but they do know


how to inspire people to follow them anywhere. “Once more unto the breach, dear friends….”

• What else? Persistence and boundless energy spring to mind.

• Pioneer spirit (think Captain Kirk of the Starship En-terprise).

• Strong communication skills.

And so on.

Can you see where all this is going?

When you decide to become a consultant, you are in effect starting your own business. So you need all the above-listed entrepreneurial traits and more if you are to run your business successfully, no matter how small it is. When you have a problem, think how your favorite entrepreneur hero would solve it, and model yourself on them.

This also pays off big-time in your day-to-day consulting activities. Think and act like an entrepreneur, display confidence and enthusiasm, get things done, and your clients will love you for it.


Know the basics of the IT develop-ment process

“A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick-boxing” – Erno Philips. You’d be surprised how many people in the IT business don’t know all the basic steps that need to be carried out in order to successfully complete an IT project. You of course are not one of them, but I think it pays to have a reminder here. Click on the following link for a visual overview: http://www.saprules.com/it-development-process.html I was fortunate enough to have an excellent basic training when I first started out as a programmer many, many moons ago at a certain airline, and I will be forever grateful for that. Despite being deafened every five minutes or so by the planes taking off directly over our portacabin (oops – I mean training centre) which was strategically placed near the end of a runway at an extremely busy airport, we still learned a lot. And we didn’t just learn how to write COBOL. Our teachers made sure we knew where we fitted into the whole IT development process. Here are the steps:-

• Feasibility Study – is it possible? What are the costs? Can we afford it?

• Define Project Objectives and Scope – make sure the client can’t change their mind later.

• Feedback – signature time.

• Assign Project Sponsor – who gets the blame?


• Appoint Project Manager – who else gets the blame?

• Establish Project Management Team – proper com-munication is very important.

• Create detailed Project Plan – how many people do we need and how much is it really going to cost?

• Secure Staff Resources – recruit your project team members and don’t let them escape!

• Assign Project Roles – who does what?

• Analysis – find out what the client really wants.

• Blueprint – tell the client what they’re going to get.

• Feedback – get a signature.

• Design – whip those analysts into shape.

• Feedback – get another signature.

• Build – slavedrive those programmers.

• System Test – find out if it works or not.

• Solve issues – work through a big list for which con-tingency has been made.

• Train End Users – prerequisite for the next step.

• User Test – this step is often omitted.

• Feedback – get yet another signature.

• Solve any more issues – redesign and rebuild it how they really wanted it.

• Document – this step is also often omitted.

• Implement – have a busy weekend with lots of pizza and no sleep.

• Announce success – have a party.

• Hand over the completed project to Support Team – with the documentation of course.

Any Project Manager worth his or her salt will add several more steps, but that should be enough really. If I’ve forgotten any, it just goes to show that not everybody in the IT business knows all the basic steps needed in order to successfully complete an IT project….


Learn

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” - Mahatma Gandhi. To be an effective consultant you must have an enquiring mind. Aim to learn something new every day. And more importantly, you must learn how to learn. As a consultant you are in an exciting profession where there is always something new to learn. But you need to have the self-confidence to do it. It is important for you not to get stuck in a rut, but to cultivate a questioning attitude, the intention to open your mind to every situation, to con-tinually reassess your existing habits and behaviours, and explore different ways of doing things. This fits in with the Flexibility rule quite nicely. The more you find out the more flexible and adaptable you will be-come. Good learning starts with good observation. Always be aware of what is going on around you. Keep your ear to the ground. Some people might say if you do so you will end up stuck on the floor with a bad back, but just ignore them. You can also learn by teaching others. Interaction with other colleagues and clients, passing on to them what you know, stimulates your brain and reinforces your own knowledge. You may need to explain difficult concepts in several different ways in order to make sure the person has understood (another way to practice your flexibility). Doing so will build or strengthen your brain’s neural pathways and you can never have enough of those!


I have had the good fortune on several occasions to work at multinational companies with people from many different countries and backgrounds. The possibilities for learning something new every day at places like this are tremen-dous. What do Swedes eat for breakfast? Do Luxem-bourgers have a sense of humor? What’s Hindi for ‘Oh boy that curry was far too hot…’ Of course there are business and technical things to be learned as well. So keep an open mind. You can be sure that it will never crash due to lack of capacity.


Be a Problem Solver

“Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand.” - Confucius. When I first started out as a trainee computer programmer way back in 1980, immediately after leaving university with a totally unrelated degree, I knew absolutely nothing. Or so I thought. After three months of intense training at the IT department of my first full time employer (and I have to say that IT department was the best trained and most compe-tent I have come across in all the long years since), I knew a little bit more. My training continued on a regular basis until I had been there for a year, at which point I was al-lowed to call myself a Junior Programmer/Analyst instead of a Trainee Programmer. After that I was let loose on some serious programming problems, but not without strict supervision. After another six months I felt confident enough to reward my employer by announcing I was leaving for a better paid job with a consulting firm. What a leap that was! Sent by the consultancy directly to a client site I suddenly found I was being billed as someone who could solve everything just like that. I must have overdone it a bit at the interview (note to self – don’t oversell yourself at interviews – well, maybe just a little bit). Suddenly it was a whole different ball game. I didn’t sleep for a month through worry. The programming style and the whole set up of the project team were totally different to what I was used to. Nobody knew each other, the whole team had just been thrown together for this project and, just like me, many of my new colleagues had been recruited recently from other companies. Add to that that we weren’t


really integrated with the client’s IT department yet either and didn’t understand their systems too well, and you could see some problems looming on the horizon. Boy, did I learn fast on that project. I had technical and logical problems thrown at me one after the other. My weekly issues list got longer and longer. I was solving them as fast as I could, but for every one I fixed, two more were added to the list. In the end I had to enlist an assistant, and between us we were able to get the list down. After that we could relax a bit, but were by then had gained a great reputation for being the guys to turn to for help. This was great experience. At my first job my hand had been held for most of the time and there was always some-one to turn to for help, but on this project I was the ‘expert’ and had to stand on my own two feet. The work was stress-ful but I have never forgotten what I learned. Now I can go into any client site with confidence that I am able to solve most of the problems they have (and if not, I can find some-one who does), and I do now advertise myself as a very flexible ‘problem-solver’, with examples listed on my re-sume. And word gets around. I was once hired to come in to troubleshoot after a Big Six consulting company (which no longer exists) had delivered a SAP solution for a multinational client. Some of the ‘daily’ batch programs were coded so badly that they took more than twenty four hours to run! After some research we found that the problem lay with SQL statements that weren’t using the major key fields and so very large tables were being read sequentially instead of by index. We made some small tweaks to the code and suddenly the daily batch jobs finished in seconds rather than hours.


Be flexible

“Prepare yourself for the world, as the athletes used to do for their exercise; oil your mind and your manners, to give them the necessary suppleness and flexibility; strength alone will not do.” - Lord Chesterfield. No, we’re not just discussing the benefits of a flexible body in this section, although the same principles certainly apply. (I’ve got such an aching back from sitting at my computer for so long writing this for you – I could do with a stretch). So you’re an FI Expert, or an Oracle Expert, or a BW Ex-pert. That’s not enough. In today’s business environment you need to know how your specialization fits into the rest of the software solution. Software packages like SAP aim to provide IT solutions for all aspects of a business. In real life the Sales department communicates with the Manufactur-ing department and they both interface with the Accounting department. The Human Resource department talks to all of them. The same happens in modern software systems. SAP for example has several interlinked Finance modules, a Logistics module, Production, HR etc, not to mention Busi-ness Warehouse. There are interfaces between all of these and it pays you to know what these are and how they work. Having worked for several years as an SAP BI consultant, in my opinion, you cannot give your best unless you know at least one (and if possible more than one) of the SAP R/3 modules very thoroughly indeed. Again, think like an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs have to know about every aspect of their business, not just sales, or accounting or how to make a presentation. Now I’m not


saying you have to know everything, and there are good arguments for specializing which I’ll discuss later, but even so you need to have a fair understanding of what’s going on in the rest of the business/software solution that you’re working with. Talk to your colleagues. Find out what’s going on in their area. Learn from them. Read books. There are plenty of good books about the various SAP modules and as you are a consultant, they should be required reading. You can write them down as expenses too. This goes for the more technical consultants too. Not least because it helps you understand where your contribution fits into the whole solution. Those functional consultants can’t do it all on their own, and if you can talk SD, MM or FI back at them, they cannot fail to be impressed.

All in all, it pays to have a comprehensive knowledge of what’s going on around you. You never know when an opportunity will arise at which you can say ‘Aha! I know about that! Why don’t you let me have a go?’ And then your foot is in the door.

This happened to me on several occasions and through it I was able to develop my career in new directions and capitalize on the new skills I learned. From starting out as an ABAP programmer on my first SAP project, I have now moved on to Logistics projects, have worked in Plant Maintenance and am now skilled in BI. It’s important to move with the times!


Know your limitations

“Genius has limitations, stupidity is boundless” – Anon. Sometimes you will come across a situation where you don’t feel comfortable or confident that you will be able to fulfil the task that is being asked of you. Clients often expect their consultants to be capable of everything (in my case this was true of course), and you will often feel pres-sure to work outside your abilities. On the one hand, it is argued, this is a good thing, as it will push your boundaries outside your comfort zone, and you will grow. On the other hand, if you mess it up because you were over-confident, there could be consequences. As a profes-sional consultant, you have a reputation to uphold. Everybody has limitations. It’s not weak or incompetent to admit them. It’s profes-sional behaviour. It’s strong, responsible and appropriate to hold up your hands and say ‘no’ when you judge it to be appropriate. The next time you’re put in a position that has ‘impending doom’ written all over it, put aside your personal pride, bite the bullet, be professional and ask for assistance. You’ll be surprised how often people react positively to your actions. And it’s part of your networking skills, which I’ll come to in another rule. It’s not a sin to ask people for help - we are social animals. One day the other person might need your help with a problem they can’t solve and you can, so you’ll be able to return the favour. It’s all about cooperation.


Of course, we also know that failure is good, because peo-ple learn from their mistakes. However, if it’s the day before everybody goes off for a well-earned week’s holiday at Christmas and you somehow manage to screw up an im-portant accounts batch job because you thought you un-derstood the problem but didn’t really, then it serves you right if you have to work the next week all alone to put it right. Sometimes the best way as a consultant to show how smart you are is to freely admit your lack of experience in a sub-ject or functional area. That is why we have project teams – to cover all the gaps (well, most of them at least). And if you’re in the leadership role and someone in your team asks for help, be understanding. You could be in their shoes on your next project. Oh and by the way the same goes regarding your limita-tions if you drink alcohol. Make sure you know when to stop, especially if you are out socializing with clients (unless of course it’s the last evening of your assignment and you don’t plan to back in town for a while).


Network

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” - Jesus Christ.

You hear people everywhere talking about the benefits of networking, both for business and personal reasons. And the benefits are real. Networking can help expand your business contacts, builds your reputation in the market-place, and having a large circle of supportive friends allows you to live a more fulfilling life. However, those that are most successful at networking have learned one important rule:

Build your network for the benefit of your network

Have you ever been to a party or event, and seen the type of person who is loud, boisterous and is always looking out for the most important or well-known person in the room? They couldn’t care less about anyone but themselves. They look at the situation and ask ‘What can I do that is going to benefit me the most?’ You don’t want to be like that. The question you should be asking yourself is:

How can I help everyone else?

You want to become the go-to-person for everything. When someone in your network needs a favor, advice, a recom-mendation etc. you want them to think of you. This is what networking is all about: helping other people. Why is this? Why shouldn’t your primary goal while networking be per-sonal gain? Answer: Because people will see right through it. No one wants to work with or befriend the person who only cares about themselves. And they certainly won’t do you any favors, or introduce you to people in their own networks.


If you help others, they begin to see you as a valuable friend or colleague. You are someone worth knowing and keeping in contact with. So what is the benefit for you? Well, now that you are a valuable asset, when it comes time for you to ask for something (and that time will surely come), you can be sure that your contacts will do every-thing they can to help out!

Here are some things to keep in mind while networking at a meeting, social event, or just in your day-to-day life:

• Don’t seek out the most sought-after person in the room. The chances are good that the other people around you have more to offer, and will be much more interested in building a relationship (or at least having a conversation).

• After meeting someone for the first time, follow up! Get the contact info of a new acquaintance if you can, and send a follow-up email or text. Something as simple as “It was nice to meet you” can go a long way in furthering the relationship.

• Be yourself. This seems obvious, but if you aren’t sincere from the beginning, it will come back to hurt you later on.

• Always be thinking about ways to connect your net-work. If you realize that you know two people with very similar interests, introduce them to each other! They will both appreciate the thought, and there is a good chance they will repay the favor and create an introduction of their own. This has been made much easier over recent years by utilizing the power of so-cial networking websites. A few quick messages, and you can help build new relationships that will be beneficial to everyone involved.


In the end, networking should really be about enjoying the opportunity to meet new people and learn about them and their goals. It should never feel like work, and the most successful networkers are the ones that are truly interested and sincere. So next time you are at an event or in a social group, keep these things in mind and watch your network grow with each new person you meet!

In my travels around the world I have always made the effort to meet new people in all sorts of situations, not just in a business setting. As a result I have friends I can visit in every country that I’ve worked in and skilled colleagues I can turn to if I have an SAP-related problem that I can’t solve by myself. It’s very comforting. I have a friend in Germany who is an excellent DM consultant and who also restores vintage cars. I don’t know a thing about cars (all I care about is that they get me from A to B without breaking down), and was happy to get my friend’s great advice when I wanted to buy a second-hand Mercedes Kombi in Ger-many for my growing family. In return I help him solve specific technical issues in the DM module now and again.


Interview

“When you go in for an interview, I think a good thing to ask is if they ever press charges” – Jack Handy. As a consultant you are going to be changing assignments and meeting new clients frequently, so your interview tech-nique is going to be very important. Fortunately, you are going to get more practice at interviews than most people, so with practice you should get quite good at them. Prepare Researching the client company is essential, especially in today’s competitive consulting market. Luckily you can find out a lot these days on the internet. If it’s not your first ever interview you will have a lot of notes written down from your previous interview debriefings (more about those later). Read your notes, remind yourself what questions you have been asked before, how you an-swered them, and how you could have improved the an-swers. Think what skills you will need for the assignment and anticipate questions about these. Find examples of where you have used these particular skills before and prepare detailed responses. Practice answering common interview questions. I find it useful to record questions and answers on mp3 or wav files, and listen to them on my IPod in bed the night before and as I am travelling to the interview.


You will need to be ready to answer the questions ‘What do you know about our company?’ and ‘Why do you want to work here?’ Be careful, the question ‘Why do you want to work here?’ doesn’t mean what you think. You must interpret this question as ‘What can you offer us?’ and answer accord-ingly. It’s the signal for you to deliver your elevator pitch. Also prepare a list of questions that you want to ask the interviewer. A consultant’s interview is not a one-way street. You are interviewing the client as well, as you need to make sure the assignment is a good fit for both sides. Dress appropriately Think as an entrepreneur. You’re representing your own business so look the part. That means a solid colour con-servative suit and shoes to match – nothing flashy. Don’t overdo cologne, aftershave or perfume. Limit your jewellery. When you get to the office, check your appearance in a mirror. Interview Be on time for the interview. That means ten to fifteen minutes early. If need be, take some time to drive to the office ahead of time so you know exactly where you are going. Remember to bring an extra copy of your resume and a list of references. Turn off your mobile phone. During the interview remain calm and confident and smile. Don’t answer questions too quickly; always take a moment or two to prepare your reply. Make your answer as detailed as you can. If possible make brief notes during the inter-view.


If you can’t make notes during the interview, sit down immediately afterwards and make them then before you forget. Try to remember all that was said. You need these for your debriefing when you get home. These days consultants are more likely to be interviewed by telephone rather than face-to-face. On a memorable occa-sion I was interviewed at five o’clock in the morning in Hawaii for an assignment on the other side of the world in Europe. Now that was a challenge! Phone interviews aren’t always easy if your telephone manner is not good. Always speak clearly. Another good tip is to smile. Even though the other person can’t see you, the smile does help, amazingly. Debrief When you get home, look over your notes and improve them if possible. Make sure you can read your scribble. If not, write the notes out again neatly. If there were any questions that you were unable to answer or answered weakly, find out what the answers should have been and write them down as well. This process will stand you in good stead for your next interview, which could be in six months or a year’s time by which time you will certainly have forgotten everything. It is surprising how often the same or similar questions come up. Finally If possible, try and have several possible assignments from which to choose. This way you get more interview practice. Try and arrange for the assignment you really want to be the one you are interviewed for last. This way your inter-view technique will be well practiced and smooth - all the better to impress your client.


Work hard, but play hard too

“When shall we live if not now?” - Seneca. That you work hard to earn your fee goes without saying. But don’t overdo it. Getting your priorities clear is the first and most essential step toward achieving a well-balanced life. Listen to your heart. Work out what you want your priorities to be, not what you think they should be. Take as much time as you need to define and list your top five priorities. A typical top five list might include any of the following:

• Spouse/Partner

• Children

• Health

• Satisfying career

• Community Service

• Religion/Spirituality

• Sports

• Art

• Hobbies

• Adventure and travel Once you’ve made your list, make sure you concentrate on just one of your top five priorities at a time. Think about work when you’re at work, give full attention to your family when you’re with them. You may soon find that you’re spending too much time on activities that aren’t in the list. For example, watching a lot


of television springs to mind. I know I have a problem with it, especially on those long evenings alone in hotel rooms. I should go to the gym instead, but sometimes it’s difficult to make the effort. But please try and cut down on activities that are not in your priority list. Unnecessary activities keep you away from the things that matter to you most. As a consultant with an entrepreneurial attitude I know it can be tempting to put in as many hours as possible at work, especially when you’re working away from home, but before too long this will catch up with you. What’s the point if you arrive home late in the evening or at weekends totally exhausted and unable to devote any time to your family or friends? What sort of a life is that? If you’re being asked to work extra hours by your boss, and you can see that it’s causing you a problem, discuss it with them. You’re not a robot. Hey, the whole idea of computers is to make things easier for humans, isn’t it? Your private time deserves the same respect that you give to your work time. If you protect your private time it will pay off in greater satisfaction in both your work and private life and you will be all the more productive for it. You are a consultant. You deserve time off for good behav-iour.


Conclusion

Thanks for reading.

If you found these strategies and tips useful you’ll be pleased to know that my book, ‘How to get ahead in SAP Consulting’, which contains these and many more essen-tial insights, will be published later this summer (2009). For more news about the book please subscribe at http://www.saprules.com, where you can also enter the draw to win a free copy of the book when it is launched.

I’d be happy if you shared this e-book with any of your colleagues who you think might be interested in it.

Best of luck with your consulting career.

Ten Essentials for Successful SAP Consulting

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