IBP Bootcamp

It is important to note that the skillset needed for consultants to succeed with IBP are quite different from what was needed for APO. There are a couple of main reasons for this. With the emphasis on digitalization, there is a need for processes to be designed outside-in (think of trends such as customer centricity, high degree of personalization etc.). This requires a deeper understanding of the business environment (compared to a more traditional environment that was at play with APO). A second factor that is crucial is the technology platform itself, which is cloud based with a quarterly release cycle. This places greater demands on the consultant to constantly upskill herself/himself.

Thirdly, and also related to the technology platform, IBP is a highly flexible solution and offers a wide array of ways to solving a specific problem (more so than APO). This, along with the higher degree of influence of external/market variables on design, makes design choices more nuanced and requires greater expertise on the part of the consultant to select the right “tool” for the job at hand.

To prepare IBP consultants for challenges they will face, alphachain has put together a bootcamp that adopts a case-study based approach to hands-on training in IBP. The case study provides a realistic business context and challenges participants to think through problems and come up with sensible solutions that are fit for purpose. It also provides ample opportunities to introduce conceptual tools and structured approaches to problem solving (e.g. a systematic way to move from business problem to design options to design decision to configuration building blocks to actual system implementation and testing). The bootcamp will not only prepare participants to pass the certification exam from SAP*, but also gets them project ready, which we believe is a feature of the case-study based approach.