Discover how SAP consulting enables enterprise-wide digital transformation and sustainable business outcomes.

Exploring the Types of SAP Consulting: Technical, Functional, and Beyond

Name: leverX Company
Brand: LeverX
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Nowadays, the term “digital transformation” is already perceived as a buzzword; it’s everywhere, with dozens of blog posts describing the concept, while dozens of landing pages offer their services. However, many companies still interpret the idea of digital transformation merely as the adoption of a new ERP system.

To tell the truth, it is definitely a technology upgrade requiring the replacement of legacy systems, data migration, and knowledge sharing. In reality, it’s just the tip of the iceberg, though. Digital transformation also implies revising the ways an organization functions, the approaches to decision-making, typical data flow scenarios, and methods of creating value for clients and partners.

Given all of the above, it’s important to have a structured roadmap that would organize your processes, data, software, governance, and people around strategic transformation goals. And here is when SAP consultants start playing a critical role in this project.

How SAP Consulting Delivers Business Impact

SAP consultants align the capabilities of your systems with strategic objectives and business KPIs, converting the digital transformation approach into tangible results.

Assessing the status quo: “As-Is” analysis

Any transformation should start by evaluating the current situation. This covers defining performance bottlenecks, structural flaws, data fragmentation, and a disconnect between goals and their execution.

Carrying out the “As-Is” analysis, SAP consultants use a combination of the following methodologies:

Interviews with end-users and key stakeholders.
Analysis of key performance metrics.
Process and system usage analysis.

At this stage, SAP consultants can find where you lose value right now. It can be manual processes, fragmented data, a lack of clarity, and slowed decision-making. Once the baseline is clearly defined, it’s reasonable to move forward.

Defining the destination point: the “To-Be” model

When you know where you are, the next step is to define where you want to be. The “To-Be” model is a visionary blueprint of how an organization should function after the transformation. The model isn’t a generic template but an individual set of technology, workflow, and structure improvements that reflects the organization’s sector, objectives, and growth strategy.

At this stage, SAP consultants model and implement processes to achieve automation, transparency, and flexibility. After implementing the “To-Be” model, you can receive the following tangible outcomes: better approval cycles with minimum handoffs, streamlined financial closing, and a more explicit responsibility for results and KPIs.

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Sustaining value: driving measurable outcomes

It’s not only important to relaunch a system, but also to measure the business outcomes of the undertaken transformation: whether administrative and operational costs have been reduced, data has become more consistent and transparent, and rework rates have diminished.

SAP consultants also help you to keep the improvements as the organization evolves and scales. This can be achieved through continuous KPI monitoring, regular optimizations, and integrated governance and validation rules.

Developing a strategic roadmap

Some changes are quick wins, while others are the results of long-term initiatives. To balance them, SAP consultants provide custom roadmaps. The frameworks, such as SAP Activate, help organizations:

Make the right priorities
Define the consequences of planned activities
Mitigate risks before implementing new initiatives
Stay consistent in maintaining the chosen strategic direction

Multidimensional SAP Consulting

There are several categories of SAP consulting services, including:

Functional consulting — configuring SAP modules, creating business workflows, and aligning process design with business requirements.
Technical consulting — preparing system architecture and integrations, managing data, and enabling extensibility across the SAP landscape.
Industry consulting — the impact of industry regulations, operational models to be used, and specific KPIs.

Types of SAP Consulting: Technical, Functional, and Beyond

Different types address different needs, but can do more for your system when they are combined.

Learn more

It’s recommended to combine all the categories and approach the transformation holistically to create flexible and scalable systems.

The importance of the industry dimension

As mentioned before, SAP consulting varies across industries. We cannot directly transfer success from one sector to another. In every industry, consultants face specific objectives, regulations, and KPIs and apply different SAP solutions.

Automotive industry

The main priorities are integration with suppliers, smooth production planning, and quality management. It’s usually challenging for the industry players to manage complex supply systems, maintain just-in-time production, and establish process transparency.

As a rule, consultants work with the following SAP solutions and modules:

SAP Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (SAP PP/DS)
SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM)
SAP Vehicle Insights
SAP Quality Management (SAP QM)

Retail

Retail companies of all sizes try to create a personalized and satisfying experience for their customers. Retailers also need to align the amount of products in stock with the future demand, preserving business profitability.

SAP consultants usually apply:

SAP S/4HANA for Retail
SAP Customer Activity Repository (SAP CAR)
SAP Customer Data Cloud

Manufacturing

Manufacturers pay much attention to the state of their equipment as it directly affects performance and the production cycle. Prompt analytical insights can help keep the equipment in working condition and avoid unexpected downtime.

The following modules can bring more benefits:

Logistics

Transport conditions, route visibility, and warehouse management goals make logistics companies aim to implement real-time tracking, enhance planning, and ensure compliance with different service levels.

Within the domain, SAP consultants help with:

Pharmaceuticals

Strict regulatory frameworks and numerous audits define the work of the pharmaceutical industry. High quality should be assured throughout production and distribution processes.

Here are the most demanded SAP solutions for the field:

Who Benefits From SAP Consulting

You might think that the impact of SAP consulting is limited to IT departments, but it goes beyond when performed by professionals and in compliance with business strategy:

Executive management gets a complete and transparent picture with the help of real-time analytics and insights.
Financial departments gain control over costs, cash flows, faster financial close, and reporting accuracy.
Operations teams benefit from optimized planning, production, logistics, and inventory management.
Compliance and audit specialists experience augmented traceability and control, as well as standardized reporting, which helps in audit preparation and facilitates risk management.

This cross-functional impact is a key indicator of successful transformation.

Mastering New Digital Paradigms With SAP Consulting

Modern practices of SAP consulting have evolved together with the concept of an intelligent and sustainable enterprise, which brings together smart manufacturing, sustainable practices, and a strategic cloud shift.

Industry 4.0

SAP consulting can help you move to digital manufacturing through:

Integrating production systems and shop floor equipment
Operational monitoring of performance, production state, and abnormalities
Automated performance evaluation and quality control

Corporate sustainability

In the context of sustainability, SAP consultants support organizations in the following aspects:

Evaluating resource and energy usage.
Tracking sustainable KPIs in supply and operations.
Implementing ESG reporting using SAP solutions.

Cloud transformation

During such a strategic change of operating model as cloud transformation, when organizations move to standardized and continuously updated platforms, SAP consulting can facilitate this step by supporting:

System infrastructure optimization and architecture design
Security and compliance policy alignment
Phased transition strategies, including RISE with SAP

Three Common Challenges Businesses Face on Their Digital Transformation Journey

No matter what business domain an organization represents, there are common challenges they have to address while digitalizing their business processes.

Explore the details

SAP consultants help organizations choose the right strategy or combination of strategies to mitigate risks associated with strategic shifts.

How SAP Consultants Accelerate Results

Methodology and change management are the backbones of SAP consulting. They define solution delivery and adaptation of personnel to the changes.

SAP Activate for a productive delivery

SAP Activate is an implementation framework that combines standardization principles with flexibility and supports smooth SAP transformation by:

Expediting implementation delivery
Minimizing implementation risks
Stimulating early recognition of business value

Change management to focus on the human side

Any SAP implementation can fail if users don’t accept the changes. Change management focuses on:

Ensuring user training and enablement
Promoting clear communication at all levels and stakeholder alignment
Facilitating cultural adoption of new roles and ways of working

Structured change management is an integral part of SAP consulting activities that prevents struggles with low adoption, resistance, and unrealized potential.

LeverX Will Go All the Way With You

LeverX is an SAP Gold Partner that has helped companies evolve and achieve business goals since 2003. We aren’t just a system integrator; we are a team of professionals that supports organizations throughout the entire transformation process as a partner.

We begin our work by analyzing your current state and business objectives, followed by creating an actionable roadmap that balances progress, potential risks, and long-term growth. Our experts lead the implementation of the needed SAP solutions, applying verified best practices and methodologies to ensure stable delivery. For a smooth adoption, we provide user training and post-go-live support, helping your team start working without unnecessary tension in the new context. Finally, our professionals measure realized business value to compare the outcomes with the initial KPIs, because we take responsibility for our work and care about your improvements.

Final Remarks

While digital transformation might look like an abstract term, it defines a long-term system change that brings measurable results. SAP consulting can translate vague goals into an action plan. Organizations get the framework with relevant expertise and needed discipline to ensure complex innovation without silos and clear business outcomes.

FAQ

Is it relevant to use SAP consulting services only when we are planning to implement new software?

Not necessarily. SAP consulting can be equally useful when you are already using SAP software but want to redefine your future strategy or identify more opportunities for improvement.

Can my digital transformation project become successful without change management?

According to our experience, the probability is low. Technologies hardly translate into business value if user adoption is poor and there’s no organizational alignment.

Why not simply use a standard SAP template to speed things up?

Standard templates can help your organization accelerate delivery, but it’s hard to support the specific needs of a particular business with their help. Besides, if you count on sustainable value beyond go-live, we’d recommend that you pay attention to the SAP consulting approach.

How much time does a digital transformation project usually take?

Such projects are iterative and don’t imply a single timeline. The initial phases normally take several months, and an organization can see the first benefits of establishing a solid digital foundation. Continuous optimization can take years, as systems and processes evolve and people need to adapt to them.

What should I pay attention to understand whether our digital transformation is really beneficial?

It’s important to look at business outcomes, such as cost reduction, cycle time, process efficiency, and the level of user adoption. Do not limit your analysis to monitoring technical milestones.