Today’s article comes from my fellow countryman Song Hao, who previously worked in the US as an SAP consultant for many years. Now I will join SAP Chengdu Research Institute S4CRM development team. We are all from Daiyi.

Dayi County, which belongs to Chengdu city in Sichuan Province, lies in the western part of the Chengdu Plain and borders the Qionglai Mountains. It borders Chongzhou city in the east, Xinjin County in the southeast, Qionglai City in the southwest, Lushan County and Baoxing County in ya ‘an city in the west, and Wenchuan County in Aba Prefecture in the north. The county covers a total area of 1,327 square kilometers. Dayi jurisdiction 3 townships, 17 towns. The ancient county annals of Dayi once carried: “** East of Heming Mountain, its vast city, hence thought the name of **.” Told the historical origin of dayi county.

The five words of Zhao Zilong are familiar to every fan of The Three Kingdoms. Even the software of Nehong Kingdom, True Three Kingdoms Unparalleled, from the third edition to the latest eighth edition, Zhao Yun has been one of the generals in Shu.

However, little is known about where the general was buried.

According to “Dayi County Annals” records, Zhao Yun’s tomb, in sichuan west great Plain, Chengdu Dayi Jinping mountain. During The Three Kingdoms period, Dayi was the tri-junction of Shu prefecture and Hanjia Prefecture. Shu prefecture was inhabited mainly by han Nationality, while Han Jia Prefecture was dominated by Qiang nationality. As a battleground, Zhao Yun was once garrisoned in Dayi, which left many historic sites. Zhaizi Hill, Wangqiang Tai, Dabing Gully, Baima Gully, Shima Gully, Maluo River, Shimasi, Jiandao Street, Zilong Temple, Zilong Temple and Zilong Street are all related to Zhao Yun, and song Hao and I have been very familiar with these places since childhood.

There is a street with a history of more than 1,700 years in Jinyuan Town of Dayi, known as “Dayi Xiaochunxi Road”, that is Jiandao Street.

Folklore when Zhao Yun fought Fan Bu, from the jinghui mountain, today’s arrow street through the park to the south side of the Oblique River, the two sides than riding shooting, running shooting, walking shooting, shooting and other projects, Zhao Yun beat the pack, eventually won the championship. As the soldiers to carry arrows back and forth, the people on both sides of the crowd cheering, running to tell each other, making this piece of barren grass was trampled out of the long road, become a famous martial arts venue. As a result, later generations gradually built houses on both sides of the road to live and make a living, hence the name of arrow Road, has been in use today.

Jiandao Street, where the god of War of The Three Kingdoms rode horses, has become a bustling food street. As a small sentient beings in the long river of history, it is impossible not to have a sense of change.

The following is the text of Song Hao.

Cherish the past, good tomorrow

Someone once asked me, these years of face value? It’s hard for me to answer whether it’s worth it. I lost a lot, but I also gained a lot. Lose at the same time you must be in get, on the contrary, get at the same time you must also be losing. So I don’t think there’s any point in dwelling too much on that. We need to keep looking forward.

Is about to open a new career, new life, at this moment my mood is complicated, seems can’t find a suitable adjective to sum up, I think the chance for my SAP consultant to do a review and summary, talk about work, life and comprehension, hope for the new entering or about to enter the SAP practitioners as a reference in this big ecosystem, To the seniors I was to throw out a brick, if you resonate, smile at each other. Say goodbye to the past and say hello to tomorrow.

Shanghai

It was the first time in my life that I left Sichuan. It was the first time that I took a train. It was the first time that I went to a strange place far away.

After 36 hours of hard seat, I finally arrived in Shanghai, a strange and fresh city for me. I’m really tired. Some of my classmates’ feet are swollen. I’m ok, but a little tired. At that time, I silently told myself to work hard to make myself no longer sit hard.

I remember that it was Saturday morning when I arrived in Shanghai. We were so tired that we had a meal and then had a rest. The next day, Sunday, we had a rest to replenish our physical strength and prepare to report to the company on Monday. When I came to the company on Monday, everything was so fresh to me and I was full of expectation for the future. After putting pen to paper on the contract, I realized that I had begun to transform from a student to a professional.

After four months of training, I was assigned to the first project. This is a Japanese project. We are mainly engaged in offshore development. Those who have experienced the Japanese project should understand that the Japanese project is extremely strict in all aspects, with uniform and strict naming norms, two empty Spaces for each layer of code, annotations to every detail, and each subroutine to be controlled within the specified number of lines. And then at the end of the program you’re going to clean up and free up all of the objects that are declared globally, and so on, especially when you’re doing unit tests you’re going to have to do a map file to prove that you’ve actually tested every piece of logic, which contains the inputs and outputs for every logical point, for every branch of the program, The strictest (bian) grid (TAI) requires that the font size and color in the map file should be specified, and the first row and column of each page should be pasted (the map file format is Excel). There are strict rules on the thickness of the edges and arrows of the chart frame. It has to be exactly the same. As a result, if it usually takes three days for a program to understand requirements and Outlines, detailed design, code implementation, and unit testing, then mapping usually takes three days or more.

It was very difficult for me. During that time, I usually had to work overtime until about 11 at night. Although the Japanese project is bitter, every time the customer brings a small dessert from Japan, it is excellent, who eats who knows. All that time, I was hoping for a client. In fact, the reason why my later code is so standard can be said to have a lot to do with my experience. Good habits really depend on forming, although it is painful but really beneficial.

The salary of my first job was inevitably meagre, which barely allowed me to survive in Shanghai. One of the unforgettable and memorable experiences FOR me was buying fruit, which I still often mention when TALKING with others. When I went into the fruit store to buy a few apples, a few bananas and so on, I lost dozens of pieces. I thought that I had spent most of the day’s wages again, but I didn’t dare to buy expensive fruit. I felt distressed. In order to save money, three of us lived in one bedroom at that time. It was very hot in Shanghai in summer. I believe anyone who has stayed in Shanghai should know that we tried not to turn on the air conditioner even in order to save electricity. Although it was hard, it was also my happiest time in Shanghai. After work, I rode back to the company with my college classmates, talking and laughing on the way, watching TV, chatting and playing games together. Bitter and happy!

After working on several projects, over time, I began to find that I could not grow in my current job. With financial pressure, I decided it was time to change this situation.

Later, I moved to a new company and began to do domestic projects. It was at this time that I really began to communicate with customers directly. Domestic customers nice will be very nice, difficult to engage in many. These days I went around almost the whole of China east part, not on the project is on the way to a project, the project is close to the end of the I’ve got a call from the next project manager let I reported to the project on time, the time required for the first time I go to a company to report and sign the contract, the second is the departure formalities. I’ve been away for over a year. This year can be summed up with busy and growing. The good thing is that I don’t have to check the price anymore when I go into the fruit store. I can buy whatever I want. It feels so good.

The United States

Later, I worked for an American customer of one of the World’s Top 500 companies. This customer is arguably the nicest customer in my SAP career, so I have always maintained a good relationship with the customer.

American customers are relatively more professional and humorous. Work is work, and they focus on work itself. Everyone is happy to do a good job. If we do not do a good job, we will not blame each other. We still follow the principle of focus on the matter itself, find the cause and finally solve the problem. I think that’s something we can learn from.

When I first came to the United States, everything was fresh, wide view, orderly traffic, beautiful environment, people’s enthusiasm. All this deeply attracted me.

If I had to describe the American people, I would say they are all chaoyang people. Do you need a hand when your wheels get stuck in the snow? There’s an accident, the car behind will stop and someone will come up and ask you Are you OK? When it is cold, I will tell you to wear more clothes to avoid catching a cold when I see you wearing less. This kind of “nosy” is reflected in every detail of life, which makes people feel very warm.

What’s the most fun in America? A road trip, of course. Basically free speed, cheap gas, (I’m not suggesting anything). State park, national park Drive out to various parks around the neighborhood on weekends to refresh yourself and go to work on Monday. This life is not too cool. I once drove from Minnesota to Yellowstone National Park and back over 2,000 miles of highway without a tollbooth. No. The only time I was charged was on the minneapolis-chicago highway, 800miles round trip and $3.60 just before entering Chicago. That’s pretty cheap, too. It’s free to get back to Minnesota. I think the toll may be related to the city. I’ve never been charged a toll in Minnesota anyway.

When it comes to driving in America, we have to mention the police and how to speed properly. Of course, I encourage you to obey the traffic rules and drive at the speed required. In the United States, except for residential roads in cities, the default is that you can exceed 10miles per hour, depending on the mood of the police that day. Americans are pretty tough, at least when it comes to driving. They drive really fast. So when you drive in America, you have to find a “boss”, the person who drives in the front. In my experience, the American people are happy to take the lead. You just have to follow him. The police basically only catch the first person who leads the speeding. The policeman will squat you on the pier or in the grass, in the blind spot where you can’t see. Yeah, it’s just like on TV. When you see him, he knows you’re speeding. So you know how important the big brother is.

If you have been targeted by the police, the police will be behind you flash lights), find a safe place to pull over, don’t get off, don’t get off, absolutely can’t get off, the important thing in three times and put hands on the steering wheel can let the police see, avoid by all means in the police felt around to see, this is very dangerous, there is no guarantee that your personal safety. Just provide relevant documents as he requested and cooperate with the investigation. Generally speaking, American police are very fair and nice.

I was in a car accident on the Freeway from Los Angeles to San Diego, and it was a complete accident. Black smoke came out of the hood of the car in front of me, and the car in front of me came to a screeching halt at 85miles per hour in a high-speed passing lane. I slammed on the brakes too fast and hit the rear end of the car in front of me. I can’t take full responsibility for the rear-end. You can ask about the train and comfort each other, but under no circumstances should you say “I am sorry”. This is very adverse to you, how the accident happened with the police to tell the truth on the line, the responsibility of the police will determine that there is insurance to settle claims, everything in accordance with the law.

If there’s one place to have fun in America other than its national parks, it’s Vegas (where SAP’s TechEd 2017 was held). This out of the city that never sleeps all show in the desert, all kinds of food, removing the Christmas and New Year hotel ultra-low prices, a 5 star international hotel basic within the $100, 4 star of 30 a few knife, you could just simply lived with domestic hotel chain a price, and driving to the antelope valley and grand canyon national park here as long as four hours. I even tried one of the casinos here and walked away with $300, which is one of the reasons I like this city. There is a picture and there is a truth.

I’ve talked so much about my life, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to finish it in three days and nights. Here are some of the things I’ve learned over the years working on the front line.

Actively interact and cooperate with customers to achieve twice the result with half the effort

In SAP implementation projects, we often need to get a lot of information from the customer about their actual business processes. If we can actively communicate with customers and stimulate their subjective initiative, it will be of great benefit to both sides and the whole project. It has been proved that our cooperation is more pleasant and efficient. We have achieved twice the result with half the effort. Customers can also learn SAP related knowledge and skills from it, and the user experience is relatively good. So the way we work at work largely determines the effect of the project and the user experience.

Do not easily refuse the needs of customers, try to make choices for customers

Generally speaking, we can realize most of the requirements that customers can put forward, so never refuse any requirement of customers without research and thinking, even if you are busy or you are not very familiar with and clear about the implementation method. Inform the customer that I will do the research as soon as possible, and then arrange specific implementation plans according to the research results. If it is really impossible to achieve the context of the reason to inform the customer, seeking understanding. Usually we are helping customers to solve a specific problem, through analysis we can draw some conclusions and to find more than one solution, this time we need to do is to present possible solutions and Suggestions tell the advantages and disadvantages, finally let the customer to do multiple choice, so we controlled the entire problem, ownership is in our hands. Try not to ask clients to do quizzes. Because he came to you for a solution. Also try to use a question at the end when asking for help. Ask for advice. It’s more acceptable. These are all small details.

Correct attitude towards dealing with customers

Dealing with customers is the most flexible, the scale is the most difficult to grasp. Blindly compromise and too tough are two extremes, what we need to do is neither humble nor pushy. If you compromise too much, you won’t necessarily win the favor of the client, and you probably won’t win the approval of the client. Too tough? Ha ha!

I told my team members that as SAP professionals, no matter what customers say, we are more professional in SAP business and technology, so we have the final say in business and technology. It is we who should guide customers and put forward our suggestions and opinions. You should have the courage and confidence. So the client can trust you. Of course, all this is based on good implementation results. As for how to gain the recognition of customers, we have to mention the issue of Visibility. When you successfully complete the tasks assigned to you by the customer, the next time he encounters similar problems or the follow-up treatment of such problems, he will surely think of you first. Therefore, while ensuring the efficient and high-quality completion of the task, trust has been quietly established between you and the customer. If you hear “That’s a question. Just ask for XXX. It can be solved. This time you have a high Visibility, but also to obtain customer recognition.

How to deal with the mood in the job

If you are a normal person, then you will have emotions, and how to control your emotions at work is particularly important.

Once I took over problems related to SD module enhancement left by a colleague who just quit in the middle of the job. Due to the lack of rigorous program logic before, the business process of another site was affected. Remember it is a Monday morning, as soon as I get the office to check email as usual, the one marked as urgent E-mail, customer choice and harsh, but with the tone of questioning, lists several questions, let me answer, general meaning is why their site is affected, why program written in this way, let me explain.

I admit that I was a little emotional in the first few seconds, and I’m innocent. I didn’t write the program, and I just received an email last Friday asking me to take over the problem. Just because Current Processor said it was me, I should “enjoy” the treatment? But after a few seconds of calm empathy, I understood the client. He was just in an emotional state because his business was affected, but he did not control his emotions well. He didn’t mean to target me personally. Maybe he was in a bad mood because his business was affected.

Later, I dealt with the problem well and timely. After testing, I sent an email to the customer to explain the cause of the whole problem and the situation that I took over the problem halfway. Later, the customer sent me an email to apologize to me. Now we often work together to solve problems. A lot of times he comes straight to me when he has a problem. Trust is built.

Empathy is really important!

I really appreciate your patience with me. This is my story, a 10-year SAP practitioner’s story, a wanderer’s story. And our story will continue.

conclusion

SAP consultant’s career is colorful, challenging and fun.

Welcome to the big family of SAP. Let’s work together to welcome tomorrow and create the future!

Song Hao

In the Spring of 2018 in the United States

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