Mind the Gap - Bridging Business and IT in Consulting

Whenever I meet new people, the inevitable “what do you do for work?” discussion always comes up. Typically, I simplify it by saying “I’m a consultant that assists with software implementations,” but there’s so much more behind that statement. In this blog post, I will be highlighting my personal journey from business operations, to IT, to consulting and how that combined experience helps myself and XpertMinds “Mind the Gap” between business and IT.

I believe what makes XpertMinds stand out in the SAP consulting space is the amount of real-world, front-line business experience of many of the employees. Most of my colleagues at XpertMinds share a similar career path in the sense that they began on the business side prior to making the transition to consulting. This experience puts XpertMinds consultants in a position where we can discuss complex business solutions with any audience. Whether it’s discussing conceptual business ideas with C-level executives, or breaking down process flows with individual system transactions to end users, XpertMinds delivers.

My own experience begins with working at container steamship line as my first job out of college. There, I learned just how integrated our supply chain is by the first-hand view of ocean freight and multi-modal inland freight. It was extremely eye-opening to see just how many people, systems, rules & regulations, and collaboration it takes behind the scenes to get a single container from one point in the world to another. The global supply chain is truly a sight to behold when viewed in its entirety.

The steamship line experience also exposed me to the inland forms of transportation in rail and trucking. My first major career move was to leave the steamship line and work in the operations area of a regional trucking company that specialized in container drayage. Going from the macro level at the steamship line to the very much micro level of the trucking operation was another eye-opening experience. As Operations Manager, I was 100% in charge of determining the daily plan for all of the trucks and drivers based at the terminal. You quickly learn the definition of “fast-paced work environment” and the value of organization and being able to think quickly to find solutions to the near constant change of trucking operations.

After the trucking company, I moved to a manufacturing and distribution company as a transportation planner. It was here that I was introduced to SAP and the concept of the consultant; a “mercenary” of sorts that is paid to handle a specific job that the customer either does not have the in-house expertise or does not wish to go through the process (expense) of creating the expertise within their organization. I became intrigued by the knowledge possessed by these outsiders. That intrigue, along with a very helpful mentor, steered me to pursue learning as much as I could about how SAP worked beyond the T-codes. This is when I made the first big jump of my career. I left the operations side of the business and moved to the IT side of the business. On the IT side, I was extremely fortunate to have another outstanding mentor that took the time to show me the ins and outs of how SAP and SAP TM functioned.

I utilized this knowledge to take the largest leap of my career and moved into the consulting space. I quickly learned that I didn’t know nearly what I thought I knew about SAP and even less about consulting. Luckily, I landed on some projects early on where I was not the primary or lead consultant which allowed me to work outside of the spotlight and hone my craft. The biggest lesson that I learned early on was that just because a customer is using the same software to run their business, doesn’t mean it’s always going to look and perform the same. This lesson was very valuable because it forced me to approach business solutions differently. Instead of trying to make everything fit into what I’m most comfortable with, I began thinking about solutions in terms of what would work best for the customer and their business and how can that fit into the capabilities of the system with minimal customizations. Leaning on past business operations and IT experience helps to maximize the effectiveness of communication between parties so that the best solution can be implemented.

The most recent lesson I have learned in consulting is how to challenge the customer/business when they are looking at the various features and the endless customization possibilities. The example I will use is based on reporting. It is extremely easy to get distracted by all of the flashy new features or completely buried in data to the point where you are unable to find any useful information. Instead, the question I ask now is “What decision will you make with this information?” As a former operations manager, I clearly understand the value of good information, but I also clearly understand the distraction that a mountain of data can bring. By challenging the client to identify the decision they want to make with the information, the information can be provided in a way that uses the manager’s time most efficiently.

Thank you for sticking with me to the end this blog post. I hope that sharing my personal journey from business to IT to consulting has helped me to illustrate that when you hire XpertMinds for your project, you are not just getting consultants that know the technical aspects of the system, but have real-life first-hand experience in the jobs and roles that that are performed every day inside the business.