Eursap’s Ask-the-SAP-Expert: Arghadip Kar
SAP-Expert – Arghadip Kar
Eursap’s Ask-the-SAP-Expert article is a feature designed to give you up-to-date information on the latest SAP news, featuring key thought leaders in the SAP space, as well as regular interviews with the best SAP consultants in the business.
This month, we feature Arghadip Kar, one of the most popular and followed SAP experts on LinkedIn. Arghadip has an enviable CV in the SAP world, having detailed experience in ABAP programming, workflow, Vendor Invoice Management (VIM) and SAP S/4HANA and Fiori. Added to this impressive list, Arghadip has his own YouTube channel and shares his knowledge and experience on a wide variety of platforms.
Hi Arghadip, thank you for taking the time to talk to us. We like to kick-off these articles with a kind of get-to-know-you session. Can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself?
I was born and brought up in the City of Joy (Calcutta). I love travelling and observing people.
I’m a very lazy person, hence I love automation!
I also love to share knowledge as I gain a lot doing that. I feel morally obliged to share my limited knowledge to the SAP world as I gained a lot from the internet. I also love to watch soccer and am a big fan of Zlatan and Ronaldo.
Do you remember when you first heard of SAP? How did you get into the SAP world?
I heard about SAP from my sister in 2003. The way you have to pronounce it makes it unique.
I first entered the SAP World in 2005 through IBM, and I loved it as it helped me to travel and get to know different cultures and food.
You’ve worked all over the world Arghadip. Where are you working now?
Currently I am working from my home country, India. Previously I have worked in the USA, Switzerland and Brazil.
Have you been remote working since Covid-19 struck or are you back in the office now?
Remote working, which is fine for me. I now have no need to get stuck in traffic. However, I miss the coffee breaks, where we discussed a lot of things – gossips!
Let’s talk about your YouTube channel. How long has that been going now and what made you start the channel?
I started it in February 2021. The reason I built it was that I was always forgetting – since I am getting older and my memory hard disk is only 100 MB!
YouTube is a great place where I don’t have to carry a gadget. Initially I started for myself. Then I thought I would check other YouTube videos, so I thought I should help the SAP community.
Your tips for SAP are clearly very popular and you’ve been posting them for years on LinkedIn and YouTube, gaining around 30,000 followers on LinkedIn and nearly 9000 subscribers on YouTube. How do you come up with new ideas for tips that help SAP consultants in this area?
I used to work for a client where a solution merit is based on the number of clicks. Hence, I have to explore more. I always believe there is a better solution out there so the more tips you add, the better to share your knowledge of solutions. I try to think from a layman’s perspective about how they can use SAP. I believe one day, that SAP should be like the games Subway Surfer and Temple Run!
And you have an eBook of all your consolidated tips available now too. Are you planning on updating the eBook with new tips or releasing a follow-up?
I would love to add more to that book, so I need to make it a priority to do this. Thanks a lot for asking this question as it shifts my priorities!
You clearly have a passion for sharing your SAP knowledge, as can be seen by the courses you have available on sites such as Udemy and Michael Management. Can you give us an overview of the kind of courses you run and who they are aimed at?
I have done courses on SAP Workflow, SAP VIM and some basic stuff about SAP Fiori and SAP IDOCS. I believe online contents are great as anyone anywhere can gain access to them at any time.
You’ve been very active in the various blog and forum sites in the SAP world for many years now (Arghadip was the top contributor to the SAP Developer Network in two consecutive years) and it would not be an overstatement to say that almost every SAP consultant in the world who has an online presence, knows your name. How do you think this has helped your career?
Good one! Recently, I was looking for a job as I moved to India. Due to my online presence, at least 70% of the companies I talked to were thrilled to add me to their Bandwagon!
And you have also spoken many times at SAP’s flagship conference, Sapphire. Can you tell us how that came about and what your talks were about?
I love SAP conferences as I get lots of questions that makes me improve the solution further. It is amazing how you can resolve issues by just talking with people and your brain opens up about great innovations which companies have done.
Let’s move into the future world of SAP now. What exciting opportunities can you see ahead in the SAP world?
I think the future of SAP is scintillating. I think pretty soon, we will be able to create a sales order just by thinking about it!
And how has ABAP programming changed since the release of SAP S/4HANA nearly six years ago? What should ABAP consultants do to get themselves upskilled in this area?
I think the introduction of CDS Views [core data services] is a great step forward in the ABAP world. You do not need to write a lot of code now.
My personal favourites are CDS Views and Inline declaration.
SAP notes on inline declaration
Machine learning is a huge part of the SAP Intelligent Enterprise now. What exposure have you had to that area of SAP?
Yes, I love the new concept of Auto Reconciliation.
SAP notes on automatic reconciliation
And is workflow as big a topic with SAP customers as it has always been? How has the workflow approach changed with SAP S/4HANA?
Workflow is like the robotics in SAP. It has been there for years and in SAP S/4HANA it has empowered customers with the introduction of flexible workflows. I love the My Inbox Fiori app which is also available in ECC6.
And finally, the question we always ask our experts: what advice would you have for new SAP consultants just starting out or established SAP consultants facing new challenges?
The sky’s the limit. If you are stuck please search in Google. If you still do not get the answer, ask us. If you still do not get the answer explore, as you are inventing something new – and make sure you publish what you have found!
Arghadip Kar talked to Jon Simmonds (Senior IT Architect).