Introduction
It is a great pleasure that today we are publishing the fifth episode of our talk show “Talks” and I would like to thank both our interviewee of the day and all followers of SAP Steps.
The idea of this interview program is to talk to people who are directly connected to the SAP world (Consultants, Project Managers, etc.), as well as to interview people who are on the “business” side and who have been or are going through SAP projects.
Selma is an experienced SAP Consultant in the PP (Production Planning) module, having worked in the most different market segments.
Below, I will transcribe the chat we had about your professional journey to this day.
Interview
Bruno César: Good afternoon Selma, how are you? First of all, I would like to thank you for participating in our series of interviews. The purpose today is to pass on to SAP Steps readers a little of its history within the SAP market and a little about the PP module. Before I start talking about the main topic, would you like to ask you to talk a little bit about yourself, how you started in the SAP market, your main hobbies, your family, etc.?
Selma Ferreira: Good afternoon, Bruno! First of all, I would like to thank you for the invitation to this chat, you are to be congratulated for the initiative in creating the website and sharing information about possible paths in the SAP world.
I’m from Santos, I studied in São Carlos and came to São Paulo in 1998 to work with SAP. My hobby is music, I have always studied the piano and the arts are my greatest passion. I have a very close relationship with my parents and siblings, my family and my pets come first for me.
Bruno César: I was delighted to meet you during the project that we participated in together with the SIKA client. Unfortunately, the project was canceled due to the COVID crisis, but as we have already mentioned a few times, even in an unpleasant situation, good things can always happen, and having known it, without a doubt was a great surprise for 2020.
Selma Ferreira: It was my pleasure to meet you and to have become friends, the most important balance is the relationships we build throughout our lives.
Bruno César: And now getting a little bit into today’s affairs, could you tell us how it got into the SAP market? I even know that you have a degree in Physics from UFSCAR and this is very curious!
Selma Ferreira: I have a BS in Physics from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and a Master in Production Engineering from USP São Carlos, I never imagined that I would fall into the SAP world because my goal was an academic career in science and I never thought of working in the corporate environment.
When I was in the Masters, a professor from the Production Engineering Department asked if I was interested in doing a Ph.D. or going to the job market. As he had a friend who owned SAP consulting at the time, this teacher ended up recommending me for an informal conversation with this friend who ended up hiring me to be a PP consultant as an Independent Contractor.
Bruno César: And what about working with PP? Was it a choice or did it happen?
Selma Ferreira: As my Master’s thesis was in Production Planning and Control, the path to the PP module was very evident and the consulting company paid the academy for the PP module so that I could enter the SAP world.
Bruno César: For people who have no idea what the SAP PP module is, could you briefly tell us what the role of the PP module is within a company?
Selma Ferreira: The PP module deals with Production Planning and Control which, briefly, captures the market needs from the Commercial / Sales team and produces everything that will be sold to the final customer taking into account the needs for materials and production capacity. For this to be possible, it is necessary to calculate everything that will be produced or purchased at all levels of the product structure, taking into account integrations with other modules such as Quality Control, Materials and Deposit Management, Controllership, and Sales.
Bruno César: And how is the implementation of this module? What are the main challenges?
Selma Ferreira: We deal with different profiles in this module because we deal with production planners, factory supervisors, product engineers, and operators of the production lines. We need to get the message across with different languages to reach each target audience, this skill we develop over time. This is the biggest challenge.
Bruno César: Now, thinking a little about the challenging phases. What was the most challenging project you faced and why?
Selma Ferreira: The most challenging project was Monsanto’s SAP implementation in 2000/2001 because it was a very large project with a lot of new features and almost all of us (consultants) knew little about how the system worked, it was a time when nobody knew anything and had no the ease of research you have on the internet today. Although it was all about the race, the team was very nice and helped each other a lot, Go Live happened on schedule in April 2001. This project was a school for all consultants on the project.
Bruno César: And tell me something. Where did your interest in learning different languages come from? As far as I know, in addition to English, you speak German and are studying Hindi. I think that’s incredible.
Selma Ferreira: I always liked to study and I started as a child to study other languages, learning a language provides an understanding of the culture of a people. My interest in languages has always been based on culture and to this day I continue to study for this purpose.
Bruno César: In your view, do languages make a difference in the type of project and the remuneration of a consultant? How much do you think it influences?
Selma Ferreira: Although I did not do languages thinking about remuneration because I started as a child, today I see that a language makes a big difference in any profession. The English language is not a differential, being practically mandatory, many fellow consultants have already lost good projects at excellent rates because they speak only Portuguese.
Bruno César: Another point that I find very cool in your profile is the question of you studying hard. You are the type of professional who likes to have a good foundation before learning new SAP features. When I speak of “foundation”, I am talking about a process/business base. This, in my opinion, is an incredible feature that few professionals in the market have. Can you tell us a little about this?
Selma Ferreira: Understanding the functioning of any subject is essential to exercise any activity, the tool that is used to facilitate the operation of that subject comes into the background. There is no point in knowing much about the system if the person does not understand the business process and how changes in scenarios will impact these processes. If we know the basis, knowledge of the tool will be much easier from understanding how the process works.
Bruno César: And if you could give 3 tips to a person who wants to become a PP consultant, what would they be?
Selma Ferreira: I think that maintaining humility in any profession is essential to always learn, no matter how much you study, you never know everything, and listening to what others have to say helps a lot in our growth.
The second tip is to study the production planning and control processes and how they interact with other areas of the company.
The third is to know that the consultant leads people to achieve the project’s goals, far beyond systems, the biggest challenges are in the human sphere and the daily and intense interaction with several people.
Bruno César: Selma, I want to thank you for your participation. I consider you a great friend and for me, it is a great pleasure to have this conversation with you. Is there anything else that you think is important to add?
Selma Ferreira: I thank you for the invitation and the life for having provided our meeting through an SAP project, plus a dear friend that I gain in this profession. I hope to have the pleasure and privilege of working with you again. A big hug to you and all SAP Steps readers!
Bruno César: That’s it for today guys, I thank you from the heart for the presence of our guest Selma Ferreira and I hope you all enjoy the chat we had today.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed our fifth interview (of many) on our Talks program.
If you liked this content and invite your friends to sign up for our newsletter.
If you have any suggestions (including subjects you would like to read about or possible candidates to be interviewed), feel free to send an email to sapsteps@sapsteps.com.
A big hug,
Bruno César
