Impulse generator and partner of the customer
The employees of BWI - the IT system house of the German Armed Forces and the federal government - are facing a new and exciting task: the introduction of S/4HANA in the German Armed Forces.
The Bundeswehr is thus transforming its logistical-administrative information system into a powerful digital platform and gaining access to new functionalities.
These include, for example, the mobile and networked use of data as well as analysis and simulation options based on information in real time. The project is not only one of the Bundeswehr's most important digitization projects, but also one of the largest and most demanding S/4HANA implementations in Europe.
An appealing task for SAP specialists who appreciate design and development opportunities. This is exactly the kind of new colleague the BWI team is currently looking for. The tasks are as varied as the opportunities for joining the company, which employs around 4,000 people.
"The technology change to S/4HANA is one of the biggest tasks the Bundeswehr has faced since SASPF was set up. It is also a major challenge for us as consultants and project managers at BWI, because the system wants to be redesigned from the ground up"
explains Karola Lüdiger.
More than 60,000 members of the Bundeswehr use SAP system
Depending on the task at hand, Karola Lüdiger contributes her skills and experience as a consultant or project manager to application projects in the SAP environment. And Karola Lüdiger has no lack of experience, as she has been part of the BWI team since 2006.
"Most of my time was spent working in SASPF, including managing the SAP rollout for the entire Bundeswehr, where we equipped more than 53,000 users with the solution."
SASPF is the abbreviation for Standard Application Software Product Families. This is the term used by the Bundeswehr to describe its system landscape, which is largely based on SAP.
SASPF is the central information system in which all the important threads for administration, logistics and human resources management come together. Around 60,000 members of the Bundeswehr work with the system.
SAP consultants work on concrete solutions
When Karola Lüdiger is on assignment as an SAP consultant, she tackles specific issues.
"As a specialist consultant, I'm all about changing certain functionalities or introducing new ones to improve the customer's SAP system. That means we work specifically on tangible solutions."
To ensure that this succeeds, BWI's SAP consultants are integrated into interdisciplinary teams that cover all the necessary competencies right through to actual implementation.
When a major project is on the horizon, Karola Lüdiger sometimes moves into the role of project manager. "The project manager ensures that a project with a certain scope is implemented in a certain timeframe and with a certain budget.
For smaller projects, consultants take on these tasks themselves. But on the really big ones, a project manager is needed who demonstrates very strong determination." This not only entails more responsibility and additional organizational tasks.
"The project manager has different and, above all, enormous creative possibilities, because he has a different approach to the customer and has to make well-founded decisions. So the appeal of project management lies less in the technical and more in the strategic."
Anyone who wants to keep up with Karola Lüdiger is flexible in every respect.
"No two days are the same. If you always want to do the same thing, you won't be happy, but you won't be a good consultant either. Because we are impulse generators at the customer and for that you have to be open for new solutions and other opinions."
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