Growth in SAP

Uche joined EY as a Director just over a year ago and leads the SAP Finance Capability following the acquisition of AgilityWorks UK; an innovative technology consulting firm specialising in SAP’s latest digital technologies. Uche is also an author to the book, Practical guide to Data Migration with SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit and in her spare time, enjoys spending time with family, watching football and Formula 1 motor racing. Read Uche's story below.

A

s a qualified Accountant, I have worked in industry and have been working in Consulting for the last 17 years where I have been supporting organisations with the delivery of their finance transformation using SAP as the enabler. When AgilityWorks transitioned over to EY, that’s when my EY journey began - working here allows me to make a positive difference to clients on a global scale, through innovative technology and SAP.

Working at EY

What has surprised me about EY is the maturity of our delivery model has evolved through the collaborative power of the Global EY and ecosystem from service lines to partnerships, alliances and global networks. The ability to call on the level of expertise is something to be proud of. It also creates the working environment to work with diverse group of individuals across EY.

EY also offers a host of training and support to grow your career. Whether you are looking to enhance your soft skills to more technical skills such as SAP certifications, there’s something for everyone.

Working in SAP

Working as an SAP consultant is really exciting with no two days being the same. Every day, I can work with like-minded individuals delivering best in class end-to-end business solutions for our clients across different industry sectors, whether it’s Energy Utilities, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing to Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) clients.

This could range from short to long term assignments that include responding to client requests or proposals, defining SAP solutions for specific business requirement or processes, delivering proof of concepts, performing business process gap assessment, defining clients SAP roadmap, SAP S/4HANA deployments etc. The top three activities in my role are:

1. Speaking to C-Suite executives to understand their finance and business process challenge and working with them collaboratively to drive value using SAP and associated technologies
2. Working with EY Partners on existing clients to build relationships and acting as trusted adviser
3. Focusing on go-to market strategy looking at innovative SAP technologies to meet the complex and changing business environment of our clients

The best part is taking your clients on a journey and at the end of the day, delivering their business outcomes.

Future of SAP

There is a great opportunity to join the EY AgilityWorks Technology SAP Capability as we are looking to grow the team with consultants from both functional and technical background. Having undergone a paradigm shift in recent years, SAP offers innovative, high-performance and real-time reporting platform and solutions which are enabling organisations to become intelligent enterprises. There are over 15,000+ SAP S/4HANA clients with more clients looking to transition from their existing Enterprise Resource Planning solutions to SAP's latest digital core.

Transformational projects

I have worked on both technology and business transformation projects and I guess that is the unique point when you join EY. Our projects are not only technology enabled but transformational in nature. For example, I have worked on a Utility program where through the deployment of consistent data models and structures across the enterprise and the adoption of SAP analytical solutions, EY were able to help the client streamline its regulatory reporting process and get employees working in this area to deliver more value activities.

Connecting during the current virtual climate

We all have had to adapt to what is the “new normal” where one day we are on client site and the next; where we are all working from home. To stay connected with my team and clients, we have used online tools like MS Teams and live web streaming to stay connected. I have also been involved in a successful “virtual go-live” on an SAP S/4HANA implementation which involved lots of orchestration between cutover functional, technical and business teams where we conducted multiple dress rehearsals and business readiness testing before finally going live with the solution.

EY recognises that the wellbeing of the teams are really important so on client engagements I have been involved with over the last 11 months, we have organised daily stand ups and at the end of the week, we have organised quiz evenings where we encourage team members and families to partake in. It provides a nice feel to start off the weekend.

Proudest career moment

Delivering on every key project milestone is a proud career moment, especially where at the end of the day, my team and I have contributed to organisations value outcomes through process efficiencies and reduction in Organisations Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Being recognised for delivering client excellence and driving innovation and sustainable organisational change, is what I look back on and continually strive to achieve.

My advice for someone looking to join SAP

We encourage individuals from all diverse works of life to join the SAP technology consulting practice. I will say before joining, make sure that you understand EY's core values and this aligns to your personal needs. If you think you are good with engaging with people and you enjoy coming up with real and tangible business solutions to transform complex business landscape, then we would like to hear from you. Look at the opportunities within our EY SAP Technology Consulting, have you got prior industry or technical experience in this area, does the opportunity to work with varied clients within this domain excite you, are you looking for opportunities to help shape the practice and grow your career?  If you are looking at a career in EY, be open to the opportunities that joining EY can provide. Be prepared to network and seek support from your colleagues and team, put your best foot forward and with the support of EY, drive your career journey!