Can you remember the first time you heard of SAP

[Ruthvik]

Hello Coffee Corner folks,

when was the first time you heard about or saw SAP, can you recall those early carrier days of yours? 

By Today I completed my 10 Years journey in the SAP World 

#SAPCarrier #SAPLife

[Arvind_L]

Hi, I'm new to SAP blogs and this is a test reply.

[mcyavuz]

in 1998 , o joined first sap project in turkey without knowing wjat is SAP. In interview , i asked "can i study delphi when i finish learning?"

He smiled and said "If you can finish , yes you can study delphi."

after 24 years , he still sometimes asks me over linkedin "Did you finish SAP?" :)) 

[sveabecker]

😂Funny!

But - did you study delphi yet still?

[weekeat]

My very first time i encountered SAP is when i work with a shared service/ BPO. It has been more than 7 years working with SAP System. Putting my past experience of working with multiple different other FI/ERP from - Microsoft, Oracle and etc, to small medium accounting software in integration from buy-over companies, project development, deployment, migration of accounting/ FI Module, lets me appreciate the beauty and the very detailed of SAP designs. 

I finally found the passion throughout the years,

[Michael_Teng]

It was 18 years ago when our CIO announced our company would migrate from the AS/400 based ERP to SAP, I did feel bad at that time since I loved RPG coding...

[Vitaliy-R]

What coding do you like these days @Michael_Teng?

[Michael_Teng]

It looks I don't have many choices if using SAP... LOL

[bharanidharan]

Heard about it around 2009 and started SAP career from 2012 onwards 😉

[harnav43]

8 July 2013 when I saw SAP for the first time. The excitement was huge to work on leading technology platform in ERP 

[StephanieMarley]

@harnav43 I'm so impressed that you have the exact date!

[harnav43]

🙂 I wanted to build my career in SAP. 

[WenjingLiu]

I first heard SAP in 2006, when a lot of companies were still using 4.6C, I think. Everything was relatively naïve. 
Now a lot of users are talking about developing apps outside of core ERP and deploying machine learning models.

[Vitaliy-R]

Did you know you can develop intelligent data apps without taking data from SAP systems? 🤓

We demoed it during an opening keynote at SAP TechEd last month: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIwmZkGH9f8&t=4429s&ab_channel=SAP

[Hannes_Schott]

Great thought & question - the company as a whole in the 90s and by the great growth of the company. The ERP system through my studies and an internship in 2012.

#sap #erp #future 

[marcobuescher]

Hello,

For me it was in 2007, when it was my task to install the GUI on several hundreds of computers. At that time I didn't know exactly what this was good for. Until I made my first consultant certification in 2009.

[SandraSolis]

Yes, I heard about SAP 9 years ago, I was only 23 years old, I got a job as an ABAP consultant, but I didn't have any experiences, I even dindn't know about SAP, I learned ABAP with many books and tutorials, and 3 monts later, I did my first solution, then I decided to continue in my job and do my ABAP career, now I am certified and I am very gratefull to be a little part of this huge SAP's world

#SAPCarrier #SAPLife #ABAPLife

[sohil]

Today I completed 9 years as SAP BASIS Admin.  

I joined as Fresher and first time heard about SAP in 2013.  

Thanks to my company for giving me opportunity and believed in me.  Before joining company I had zero experience.  

[FCI]

The first time I heard of SAP was when looking for my first job in 93 (should I mention the century ?). I saw a few posting for SAP consultants and had no clue at the time of what SAP was.

It happens my first job was on an application on an obscure technology I had to migrate to SAP (full specific). Since then, still working on SAP (or around SAP data).

[rcaziraghi]

I was just starting in this new company, a big company, and they were in the process of a new ERP system adoption. It was SAP. It has been a great ride so far. So happy I could be a part of that.

[Adriana_Rivera]

Hi!
I heard about SAP first time, after being a COBOL developer for 5 years or so. And a colleague of mine took his lunch time to explain to me about the modules, sob modules, landscapes, systems, and clients. In fact, I still have some notes regarding that.

[Tumbeshwari]

I heard about SAP 2 years back when i joined as fresher, got to know its an ocean as exploring day by day on SAP  

[MarcKuipers]

Must have been around 1988, when I started studying Computer science and SAP opened their office in my hometown of 's-Hertogenbosch

Funnily, I end up with SAP in 2007..... in Canada 🙂

[Katherine_K]

@MarcKuipers - it's funny how things work out in life!

I'm from Galway, and I moved back here in 2006 as I got a job in SAP - and I'm still here!
I was lucky enough to get to visit your hometown 's-Hertogenbosch in summer this year - along with my fellow SAP Community Advocates - we attended the SAP Inside Track there.

[Vitaliy-R]

In the mid-1990s as a Software Engineering student, I participated in a university seminar on a hyping new architecture model called "Client-Server". There, for the first time, I heard the name of one of the leading companies adopting that approach. The name of the company was SAP.

Then on new year's eve 1995, a colleague of mine from the Czech Republic wrote me a letter (yes, it was not e-mailed yet then; but he wrote and printed it from a computer and mailed it via regular post 🤓). There he wrote that he had started working for a local company partnering with the German's SAP. I still have that letter:

Those were the first times I heard about SAP.

But it was not until 2004 that I started working as an SAP/BW consultant and joined SAP Community (then SDN). And then joined SAP as one of the developer advocates (although the role was not called that way 10 years ago) in 2012.

PS. I shared another history of mine recently if you get a few more minutes: My journey from 1990s Expert Systems to 2020s Artificial Intelligence.

[dieterkaufhold]

Wow, that's indeed a good question!

As to the best of my knowledge, my answer is to be found during my university studies at FH Munich, when I had to decide for an internship 1997. All I really wanted is to spend this time in China. Can you imagine? 1997 in China? Different world altogether...

I made it work (well, a fellow student did) that I got the chance to fly to Chengdu, China to support a SAP implementation for a joint venture of Siemens with a local fibre optical cable manufacturer (Corning).

I was part of a core team with a few German SAP experts from Siemens headquarter who flew in to install the software and stayed a whole month (!!!) for training sessions out of binders which could fill an entire bookshelf...

It changed my world!

SAP became the "flag" I carried with me - until today. My very first job after finishing university studies? A SAP implementation at an aircraft manufacturer. The second (and third and fourth)? SAP consultant in the automotive sector. Next? SAP employment with SAP China for 11 years. 

SAP - you not only allowed me to see the world, you helped me find my wife (no, not a SAP employee...) and made me (at least professionally) who I am today - a Digital Transformation Advisor. 

I feel eternally grateful! Thank you, SAP!

Dieter

[nickv23]

1997 i got a job on an IT project for a textile mill. I was dBase developer and they were implementing this strange thing called SAP 3.1.
I was responsible for extracting legacy data and using LSMW to do data migration - the LSMW tool has hardly changed in 25 years 😄

[je-hal]

That was more than 25 years ago when I drove with friends to IKEA in Walldorf to buy furniture for our shared apartment. When passing by SAP, one of my friends said that this could be my future employer. I had no idea what SAP was, but my friend stayed right. 😀

[StephanieMarley]

This is great!

[Anne_Lenhardt]

The same thing happened to me around the year 1999. I was driving to IKEA with my parents, also to Walldorf, and we passed the SAP HQ on our way to get some new furniture for my room. And what can I say, I work here now too 🙂

[Vamsi]

Hi Ruthvik,

This is a simple question but makes everyone go down the memory lanes. And that makes this question answered all round the year and still counting.

It was in 2005, when I was in lookout for jobs after my graduation and below are the moments that I heard about SAP:

1. rare ads when I flipped through the daily news paper, didn't have a clue what was it all about

2. Used to hear about small training institutions that give trainings for different modules, diddn't know what a module was, then. But came to know there were more than one

3. One of my friends said SAP NetWeaver is 'THE THING' if one of us wants to get into as a career seeking option to get trained on

4. Fast forward a bit, got trained on SAP BW in a local training institute as someone said BW will have great prospects, worked in account development/ Sales role for SAP Services in a partner company and when I saw SAP company shuttles on the roads of Bangalore, India, always told myself 'I should / will work for this company. Here I am 4 years as C user and 9 years as I User at SAP 🙂

[StephanieMarley]

This is great!

[StepanKadera]

It will be 10 years since we discussed SAP for the first time at the university

[mhuang105]

From Coursera! While I am currently seeking for new jobs or new skills, I was browsing through all professional certificates provided by Coursera, and I see "SAP". Along with my other certs, I started learning more about SAP as well as ERP!

[StephanieMarley]

@mhuang105 it is nice to meet you in the SAP community. Your commitment to learning caught me. How is your learning journey? As a thought - do you want to start a new discussion to inspire others to check out Coursera and/or other ways you approach learning? Thanks for your thoughts. Have a great weekend.

[arindamsur]

2014

[GManousaridis]

TLTR in bold 😎

I was working as a business solutions manager, for a retailer who was using a local ERP product. We were facing issues with the rigidness of that software, when a 20-years-of-experience and dedicated ABAPer who has "Z"ed the whole universe, walked in as a client and told me about how and why SAP is the best ERP. I already was thinking to invest in becoming a dedicated ERP developer and that guy came as "Deus ex machina" to deliver me the message. That was it! I took a leap of faith there and from that managerial position I went back to square one, took my time and I reskilled in SAP in Deloitte DACC in Thessaloniki. After almost 4 years and after having developed and lead several applications and having gained again a leadership role, there was not a single moment to doubt that I made the best decision ever.

[StephanieMarley]

@GManousaridis this is a great story. I heard of SAP about 26 years ago when I worked for a large Consumer Products company in the USA. I was invited to training in Norwalk, CT for MM. At the time I was a supply and distribution manager. I look forward to hearing everyone's initation into SAP and their early impressions. Best of luck and see you soon again the community!

[GManousaridis]

Thanks @StephanieMarley! See, also your story tells us that some things that seem random may change your life. For me, after recognizing that I am built for ERP logic, SAP software brought me exactly were I want to see myself as a professional developer. With it's vast usage from huge companies, with all these complex procedures and technological needs, I am close to the most challenging problems. My Nerdvana 😋

[StephanieMarley]

@GManousaridis no doubt many will be inspired. @Mamikee is one of our resident ABAP experts and a wonderful teacher! I want to introduce the two of you.

[GManousaridis]

Humbled! @Mamikee is an ABAP superstar 🤓