Working in SAP

Meet Dirk Reuter, Director in SAP Consulting

Can you describe a typical day in the job?

Depending on whether I’m on client side or in the office, my mornings are usually filled with managing emails and preparing for the day’s meetings (e.g. project status, internal management, or opportunity review meetings). A lot of the remaining time is then spent working with our clients or the client/Deloitte teams on various project topics. At the moment, many of my afternoons and evenings are filled with phone calls with our US colleagues, as we are working on a joint project, which gives the day a different dynamic.

What type of projects do you work on?

The projects I work on vary and range from:

• Multi-year-long, end-to-end process scope, multinational SAP rollouts with large project teams.

• Advisory engagements, where we help our clients to align with latest trends and technologies.

• Internal projects that can be for example CSR/charitable or talent development focussed.

What skills do you use daily?

Soft skills are just as important as technical skills, as you are engaging with senior client stakeholders or managing a project team. I do enjoy delving into the details of technical issues with the team to resolve the issues at hand.

What is the hardest part of your day?

Closing my laptop in the evenings or at the weekends – there is always something interesting to do or to prepare. I like spending time on the couch to read up on the latest trends or current topics; though much to my family’s annoyance!

Do you have any productivity tips that help you through the working day?

Wherever possible I try to have collaborative discussions to solve issues. You’d be surprised how much a fresh approach can change your own assessment of a situation and help resolve the issue at hand. What’s that saying again? “A load shared is a load halved.” In addition, on a really challenging day, it can become difficult to focus on what’s most important. So I try to block the mornings to address tasks that need immediate attention, as “karma” typically finds ways of throwing curve balls at my daily schedule.

When you first started this job, what were you most surprised to learn was important in the role?

I worked for Deloitte previously, and when I joined the first time, I was (and still am!) amazed at the level of sharing knowledge and experiences across the whole global company. It really is the best way to stay on top of the game and provide the best service to our clients. Only recently I spent a day with our Global SAP Leader to discuss our projects and to further tap into that vast knowledge pool. I can call a Portuguese colleague on a Thursday evening to help with a last minute hardware quote and get it sorted by Friday night. I needed help recently on SAP Architecture for a client presentation and within three days an S/4 HANA infrastructure cloud guru was flown in to present to the client.

This is what makes me proud of working for Deloitte – we support each other no matter what and constantly work together to make an impact that matters for our clients.

How has this role changed as this sector has grown and evolved?

SAP projects have never been “just an implementation of software”, and always involves working with our client counterparts on business process improvements. With the new technology available to us all (e.g. IoT, Digital), we now start to think much more “out of the box” and focus on the business process improvements rather than just solving a technical issue. With the many options available around the various SAP offerings, we now have to think on a much broader scale to bring the best solutions to the table – which makes the job so fascinating, stimulating, and rewarding.

What do you enjoy most about the job?

At home we refer to my job as “the other family” – that phrase encapsulates how I feel about working with my colleagues and clients and the enthusiasm and passion that brings. For me personally, it also shows how lucky I am, to have this crucial support at home – for which I am extremely grateful.