What are the best SAP modules to choose for beginners who are interested in non-programming fields?

SAP technology can lead to different career paths such as :

• Functional experts – Subject matter experts(SME) of Finance, Sales and distribution, CRM, Production planning, Material Management, BPC, HR and so on.Functional Experts role are suitable for some one who has industry experience in these areas. These SME’s don’t need to be programming experts but sometimes expected to know the ABAP coding skills basic level
• Technology experts – are basically focused on Programming (ABAP Programming language) who develop code in all of the above modules, Technology experts once spend couple of years in programming roles can become SME in a particular SAP Functional module.
• System administration– Most of the system admin roles(SAP Basis Administrators) starts with learning installation, Build of complex SAP systems on various OS(Unix, Linux, Windows …..) using a Database(oracle, SQL Server,….SAP HANA) . Their day to day job is to install, maintain, monitor the SAP Technical landscape which involves multiple systems from 3 tier to 5 tier architecture. This role doesn’t require programming skills, but once you gain many years of experience in this role than you are expected to know how to debug the code.
• Integration Experts : are basically maintain complex integration process within SAP and/or SAP to non SAP systems. SAP PI/PO product(Process Integration, Process Orchestration) is used to integrate products. for example SAP to ADP(Payroll processing) integration is required for payroll processing and ADP is a non SAP product/provider, so SAP PI/PO can be used to integrate such scenarios. This role requires some level of ABAP Programming skills.

Finally I would advise everyone (who want to be a software professional no matter SAP or non SAP), that learn programming if you want to go far in your career. it will make a long lasting impact and will be more fulfilling.

Any module is okay.

The factor here is the interest and earning to learn the industry and processes end to end.
By learning a module, it does not mean you just have enough knowledge to configure the system. It means you understand the process and try to bend the system to fit the client’s needs in the best possible way and try to provide solutions which are implementable.

If you’re from a Mechanical / Civil background :

• Production Planning
• Plant Maintenance
• Quality Management

If you’re interested in logistics

• SAP APO – Advance Planner and Optimization
• SCM – Supply Chain Management

There are other modules of course like

• HCM – For HR
• FI – CO (Finance and Controlling) for business finance and General finance.
• S & D- Sales and Distribution
• CRM – Customer Relationship Management

It purely depends on your experience in domain.

For finance domain – SAP FICO is advisable

For materials or logistics domain – SAP MM, SAP SD , SAP PP

For HR – SAP HR.Depending on your domain experience choose the module.