HomeAuthor InterviewsInterview with Chandrakant Agarwal

Interview with Chandrakant Agarwal

Chandrakant Agarwal is the author of Implementing Order to Cash Process in SAP, we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.

Q: What is/are your specialist tech area(s)?

Chandrakant: I am an SAP consultant who specializes in customer and supply chain domain i.e. SAP SD, SAP CRM and SAP Supply Chain Management.

Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?

Chandrakant: There is no SAP book that covers all business functions of mySAP business suite in one book. Since I have experience in the customer and supply chain domain; my motivation was to bring and connect key functions with SAP CRM, SAP APO, SAP TMS, SAP LES, and SAP ECC in one book and run through the complete order to cash cycle. With this thought, I approached Packt publishing and they liked the idea about the book covering order to cash process in SAP with mySAP business suite.

Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?

Chandrakant: I spend a lot of time running through the order to cash cycle with SAP CRM, SAP APO, SAP TMS, SAP LES, and SAP ECC. This helped me in understanding the master data required to initiate and complete the order to cash cycle with mySAP business suite. Later; I read through SAP help in each of these areas to understand the configuration required in each of these systems to run the order to cash cycle successfully. It took quite a bit to understand the configuration required in each of these systems with each of the associated documents in SAP systems.

Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?

Chandrakant: With multiple projects in process with the company that I am presently working in; I wasn’t sure how much time I would get during the weekends to complete the book. There are deployments, upgrade and so on activities are usually carried out on the weekends. I was able to utilize my vacations to cover some of the key topics in the book.

Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?

Chandrakant: I think the technologies discussed in the book represent the existing setup for most of the companies. The companies that are moving to S/4 HANA will also benefit from this book as this book creates a good background on basics that may be part of S/4 HANA functionality. There is a small portion of the companies that have adopted S/4 HANA and it’s a long way to go for all companies to implement S/4 HANA.

Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?

Chandrakant: As already mentioned in my previous comments; this book covers key functions across mySAP business suites; i.e. Order Management in SAP CRM, Order Fulfillment in SAP APO, Transportation Planning in SAP TMS, and Logistics Execution in SAP LES. There is no book in the market that covers all these functions in one book. This book brings the unique style and describes key functionalities in mySAP business suites that will help consultants during their SAP implementation.

Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?

Chandrakant: I want readers to come away with understanding the key capabilities and connecting dots with different SAP environments as they run through the complete Order to Cash cycle and their integrations with mySAP business suites.

Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?

Chandrakant: I would advise readers to use read and execute the configuration/capabilities in the system. This will help them to build their confidence and knowledge in their respective space. Unless and until you don’t do it by yourself; it is not easy to pass along the same knowledge to others.

Q. Can you share any blogs, websites, and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?

Chandrakant: I would say the key website to learn SAP and its function is https://help.sap.com/viewer/index

Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?

Chandrakant: Unfortunately, I do not have any blogs at this time, but I am planning to create one. Will share when I have one.

Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?

Chandrakant: Working with the Packt team has been a great experience! I have gained a deeper understanding of how to express my ideas through written format. The Packt team has been very understanding and encouraging during the writing process. I would recommend aspiring authors to work with Packt publishing.

Q. Do you belong to any tech community groups?

Chandrakant: I am part of the SCN community, but lately I am not actively participating due to my office workload.

Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?

Chandrakant: I do read blogs from SCN site and actively checking https://help.sap.com/viewer/index in each of the customer and supply chain area.

Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?

Chandrakant: Since I am an author of the SAP CRM book published by SAP Press; I had a good idea of the number of chapters plus the content I wanted to write. Once I started writing; I added more detail by breaking down the chapters into sections. I targeted key chapters before starting Introduction; once I completed all the rest of the chapters; the Introduction was ready.

Q. What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?

Chandrakant: I think knowledge speaks by itself. Until you know what you want to write; you really need to know your subject and your domain very well. Putting effort and gaining knowledge is of utmost importance.

Q. Would you like to share your social handles? If so, please share.

Chandrakant: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandrakant-agarwal-24b2604

You can find Chandrakant’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here

Implementing Order to Cash Process in SAP– Available on Amazon.com