Academy & Project Rosetta

So my new life as a consultant started unexpectedly.

Diagonal was kind enough to send me to the SAP Academy for the full-time FICO course for the five weeks, so that I started attending the class in Kuala Lumpur with three other pupils.

One was from Saudi Arabia, the other two were Malaysians but one was a Chinese and the other lady was an Indian. The lecturer was two Chinese men one for FI and the other for CO.

It was a small class but colorful. We straggled the new terminologies and concepts unique to SAP for the five weeks.

As I went home, 18 months old Sarah was ready to play with me, so that I woke up early to study before the class and studied after the class before I went home. Started having a dream of "Profit Centre" and "Internal Order" by the third week of the Academy. 9am to 5pm SAP classes every day was quite an interesting experience.

And there was the certification exam at the end of the five weeks. The on-line exam to SAP Germany, and the results can be seen immediately when you enter "exit" on the PC or the time was up. You have to mark 70% and more.

I have been through many exams before, but that was the one of the most intense exams ever. I had to pass it because my Academy was expensive and paid by the company, and it became possible because my immediate lady boss fought for me with the management. I could not let her down...I had to pass.

A few of the people left the exam room before the time was up as they thought they had enough. Those who were leaving the room knew of their own results because it came up on the screen when they entered "exit". I could not dare to finish early so that I was working on the questions until the last minutes.

Then it was the end of the exam...and,

the screen told me that I passed (Thank God!!).

I never felt that relieved than that. It was even comparable to the time I delivered Sarah.

The score was 72% and it was indeed close, but somehow, I became a certified consultant for FICO at that moment.

The project with an US furniture manufacturer/distributor in Puchong near Kuala Lumpur was confirmed and I was sent there right after the exhausting exam.

The project was for the Asia Pacific territories such as Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan, so that I was expected to work closely with Japan users.

The name of the project was being discussed, and I proposed "Rosetta" for the Rosetta Stone which had the statements in the several languages that helped us to understand the ancient language as it was discovered by Napoleon. Our project with the various users from different countries needed that kind of wisdom to get through.

The next six months, I worked in Puchong with various users and learned about the project, data conversion, and some of FICO config in the real world. Having the tele-conference with the US and France where the headquarters and the IT hub, it could start at 20:00 or 7:00. But I sincerely enjoyed being in the project and doing the hands-on work at last.

Academy and Rosetta consumed most of my time in 2005 and early 2006. Sarah became two years old during Rosetta.