My Summer Internship Experience: Gaining Knowledge and Skills

Introduction

So, first, let me give you a summary of the job description given to me by SAP, in my opinion, the first half of the job description given by SAP is slightly vague and there are a lot of buzzwords in the description, obviously used to catch the reader’s attention. The main responsibility of the SAP CoE (Centre of Expertise), is to provide customers with the support and assistance needed to help them run their businesses better, this would involve assisting them with any issues regarding software bought from SAP, for example, issues with SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). During my summer internship experience, I will play a role in supporting and being a part in the success of the team. As I work here, I will be able to take advantage of the various employees here who would be considered experts/more experienced in the fields that I am interested in. As well as this, unlike some other internships, this one, offers a salary as well as a free lunch/dinner every day. Depending on which of the teams I would be placed in, I would have the opportunity to gain valuable experience from multiple areas including:

• S/4HANA- Enables businesses to implement themselves digitally using ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software.
• Internet of Things- Using SAP software, I will be able to learn how SAP confronts the digital world and how they connect sensors, devices and businesses.
• SAP HANA- An in-memory platform that assists customers in organising their information in real time. 

Above, I summarized/paraphrased, the job description given to me by SAP now, I will give you my description of what my internship entailed. So first, my official job title is CoE Support Engineer as part of the Analytics team. As part of the Analytics team, I would be expected to use various pieces of software including SAP Analytics Cloud and S/4HANA as well as attend any mandatory/optional training/workshops that would deepen my knowledge of SAP software. As well as this, I attended meetings of different variety, the majority were focused on SAP Analytics Cloud. Any questions or queries that I would have, I would be expected to report them to my mentor (which changed throughout the internship) or my manager.

The focus of my internship as part of the Analytics team was outlined by my manager, he wanted the other intern and I, to be as close to experts in SAP Analytics Cloud as possible within the six months. He wanted us to be the people you could go to if you needed help of any degree with SAP Analytics Cloud and reflecting on the internship, that was very much the focus.

Internship Company Description

What is SAP? SAP (Systems, Applications and Products), is a German-based multinational company with its focus being ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software. Simply, SAP helps other businesses run their own business more efficiently, smoothly and easier, which means that businesses will save money. To give an idea of what SAP is, I will outline some of the awards SAP have won in 2018. Awards won include:

• “BCG listed SAP as one of the most innovative companies of 2018!”
• 'SAP has been recognized by CV Magazine as the Best Business Software Company for the year 2018”
• “SAP was named one of Forbes ‘2018 World's Most Reputable Companies!”

Mentioned above, is a taste of the copious awards SAP won in 2018. Prior to my internship, this gave me the impression that SAP would be an exciting, dynamic, and friendly place to work and I certainly was not wrong.

Who is SAP? “In 1972, five IBM engineers from the AI department in Germany had a vision for the business potential of technology. Starting with one customer and a handful of employees, SAP set out on a path that would not only transform the world of information technology but also forever alter the way companies do business.” These five entrepreneurs included: Dietmar Hopp, Klaus Tschira, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, and Claus Wellenreuther. SAP had a simple vision, which was to provide “standard application software for real-time data” and this vision must have come true as even at the end of their first year, “SAP employs nine people and generates 620,000 DM (Deutsche Mark) in revenue”. To have generated 620,000 in revenue between 14 employees in total is very impressive.

Presently, SAP is as strong as ever and is still growing. From introducing new products like S/4HANA in 2015 and SAP Leonardo in 2017 to using their status and resources to make the world a better place, examples: In 2016, “SAP was the first multinational technology company to be awarded the worldwide Economic Dividends for Gender Equality certificate” and in 2017, “SAP has committed themselves to become carbon neutral in its operations by 2025”, it’s inspiring to see a company like SAP trying to make a difference in society and trying to tackle Climate Change.

Where and Why is SAP? SAP has over “218 worldwide office locations”, including Germany, Ireland, USA, China, and India. Let’s talk about what SAP sells as a product. SAP sells ERPs. I have explained what ERPs are and what they do earlier, but I want to give a specific example, SAC (SAP Analytic Cloud) the main software I worked with. SAC is “one simple cloud solution…. Machine learning and embedded artificial intelligence help you discover deep insights, simplify access to critical information and empower informed decision making.” SAP Analytic Cloud is made up of three main pillars: Business Intelligence, Augmented Analytics, and Planning. In the next section, I will talk more about my work with SAC and the other various software I used during my internship.

Summary of My Summer Internship

Overall, I feel like I accomplished quite a lot during my internship. They way I’m going to show you is by first laying out the various assignments I was tasked on doing and then secondary tasks I was assigned, I will discuss those afterwards.

The first official assignment I was given was based on SAC and the title of it was to design/ draw up a document, that would demonstrate to any employee who was interested in the topic at hand, how to import a live connection from SAP BW (Business Warehouse) to SAC. This was a group project given to Sean and me (Sean being the other intern that joined the team), by our mentor Michelle. As I have worked in a few group projects at college and worked as part of a team at my part-time job I had in 2018, I felt confident that I would be able to work well with him. So, this task involved splitting up the work between us and of course completing the tasks we had both assigned to ourselves. I researched and experimented with SAC by watching videos about data connections in SAC or just playing around with the software myself. Eventually, I found several tutorials created by SAP that show you how to set up a live or an import connection step by step. So, we were eventually able to complete the task and afterward we had to write a document demonstrating step by step how to create a live connection, we included screenshots to make it easier to follow.

The second official assignment was given to Sean and me, once again, by our mentor Michelle. The task was to design a PowerPoint presentation based on Administration in SAC. For a certain period during my internship, my team would hold enablement sessions every Friday, where one team member would take an aspect of SAC and create a presentation on it to be shown to the rest of the team. We decided to split up the work and so, I had to create slides on the: Content Library, SAC Mobile App, Best Practices for Performance and General Administration in SAC. So, most of this assignment was spent on research and very little experimentation. For the Content Library and the General Administration, I was able to access them on the SAC platform. The Content Library contains end-to-end business scenarios for customers and employees to use while the General Administration tab contained general settings about the software that could be tweaked, for example: System Configuration, Notifications and Appearance were all tabs in the General Administration section. Once we had both completed the work we had assigned to ourselves, we had to co-operate in creating one complete PowerPoint presentation that contained both our slides. Later, that week, we both gave the presentation in front of the whole team and overall, was a big success.

The third official assignment was given to Sean and me by the Analytics team manager and it involved us researching and experimenting with Time Series Forecasting. Time Series Forecasting is a predictive scenario, where you predict future values of your data, based on previous values. So, to start of with, I primarily researched what a time series forecast was. I wanted to get an understanding for the topic before experimenting with it. On SAC, there is a functionality that allows you to create time series forecasts and that’s where I did most of my research. To start of with, you need to create an input dataset to base all your forecasts off. Once that’s created, you need to decide what variable you want forecasts of, there are other additional features you can tweak also. Once that’s done, you need to train the model which acts as a practice run to see if your happy with the values and then you can output the result as a new dataset. I found this particularly interesting as I find Machine Learning challenging and see it as something that will be huge in the future.

The fourth official assignment was given to me by the manager of all the CoE Interns, David. He wanted groups of interns to demonstrate everything they have learned by giving a small presentation to himself, another member of management and the other interns in the group. So, this may seem simple but, I found it to be a lot of pressure since I was the only one out of that group representing the Analytics team and their product, SAC. So, in preparation of this, I went over everything I had learned about SAC up until that point, e.g. Models, Stories, Data Connections, Administration in SAC and Time Series Forecasting. I managed to successfully give the presentation, but I did make a few mistakes with the software and in the way, I gave the presentation, but I learned from them mistakes. Overall, David was happy with my presentation.

So, a lot of the time, I would have to go and seek out my own work to do and the following is an example of one of those occasions. The fifth official assignment was given to me by my mentor Michelle. She was currently in the process of creating a PowerPoint demonstration that she would be giving to customers that are struggling with certain features on SAC. She wanted me to research and play around with the Analytic Applications functionality as well as the Smart Predict functionality that can be found on SAC. Analytic Applications is functionality that allows you to create and display your data like graphs and tables, but it also allows you to add additional functionality, like adding a button to a graph that brings up a pop up of the graph in detail, all in one place. Smart Predict can predict future values, events or trends, not just numerical values like in Time Series Forecasting.

The sixth and my personal favourite assignment, was something I voluntarily applied for. The CoE Intern Manager, David, sent an email to every intern regarding opportunities to take part in a project (one of many), that required certain members. The one I applied for needed: two Business Analysts, one SCRUM Master, four Developers and one Developer Lead. I applied for and got the job as one of the Business Analysts. So, overall, the project involved a lot of meetings, whether it be team meetings or, for me, meetings between Business Analysts. One of the big tasks the other Business Analyst and I had to do was to, figure out the core functionality that was a priority as in, functionality that must be included. Since we were given the core functionality beforehand, this was quite easy to do. With these core functionalities, we had to translate them from words into Use Case Diagrams. The module I did in college was extremely useful with this as, I had learned this method as part of the module. We did these Use Case Diagrams on a whiteboard at first but after a discussion with the developers, we translated these into wireframes. To create the wireframe prototypes, we used a publicly available web application called “Build”. We continued to repeat the process of meeting with the developers to receive feedback not only our prototypes but feedback on any updates or changes they wanted to make to the design of the project. At the end of the project, we presented it in front of David and Paul (Head of CoE Ireland) and both were very impressed with our efforts.

Now I will discuss secondary tasks I completed during my internship. First, I completed several online mandatory and optional trainings like “How to handle conflict in the workplace”. I attended classroom trainings like SAPTEC and HANA, which taught me general knowledge about SAP and certain details about their products. I attended events organised by the Intern Committee like going to the Conrad Hotel to attend an all-day national intern get-together that included games, a panel of high-ranking SAP members, various talks on interesting topics and dinner. Another event that particularly interested me was the 3D Printing Workshop, as I have always wanted to see a 3D printer and the process of 3D printing. I attended several presentations made by people who were on my team about certain functionalities of SAC which furthered my knowledge of SAC. Some topics from these sessions included discussing the Digital Boardroom feature available on SAC as well as general tips and tricks when working with SAC or even just, how to get started with the software.

Reflecting back, I feel like I have accomplished a lot during my internship. If I was to repeat the whole experience again, I feel like, I would try my best to acquire more practical work and less work that revolved around theory. Since doing the internship, I have found an interest in software testing, so I would have liked more work centred around that and maybe more projects based on that earlier on in the internship.

Summary of the Knowledge Gained During My Internship

I will split this into two sections: Technical Knowledge learned and “Soft Skills” learned.

Technical Knowledge

I was not sure what kind of technology I would be able to use. I had envisioned myself sitting at a desk, writing code from nine to five however, that was not the case. Instead, most of the knowledge gained was through experimenting and doing assignments for various SAP products (mainly SAC), participating in the various mandatory and optional training courses like SAPTEC and HANA and taking the role of Business Analyst in the major project I participated in.

I want to start of by talking about the knowledge gained from the work I did as a Business Analyst. First, I learned the true meaning of what a Business Analyst is and the tasks that would be involved with the role. A Business Analyst acts as a mediator between the business and the software. It is their job to provide Quality Assurance, Testing, UI Design and Use Cases. It is their job to tell the developers what they should create and what they should prioritise.

The first task we did was to create Use Case Diagrams. I had done these in college but to see them being used for their intended purpose in the workplace was fascinating to see. The other Business Analyst was also familiar with Use Case Diagrams but his icon for each use case was slightly different which was peculiar to see. The first piece of tech we used to create prototype versions of the Use Case Diagrams was “Build”. Build was something up until that point, I had never used to everything done on there was a completely new experience. The software reminded me a lot of the wireframing tool I had used in second year called “Balsamiq Mockups 3. However, in Build, since, SAP had some form of a relationship with Build, we were given access to wireframe templates that were based off software that SAP use and so, creating use case diagrams was a lot easier for us and allowed us to visualize our idea in a more relatable way. The main thing that I learned from this was how the Use Case Diagram I learned in college was translated into a real-world situation. The whole process was a really eye-opener and I thoroughly enjoyed it and made me think of being a business analyst as a possible future career.

I want to talk about the knowledge I gained form the work I did on the SAC platform. This was the main software I used during the internship. I want to first talk about Stories and Models in SAC. A Story lets you visualise your data in the form of tables, graphs, charts and other elements to demonstrate the purpose of your business. A Model is can be based on multiple things: a story that you previously created, a file from your computer or it can be just a completely blank model. A model is like a story but allows you to add additional functionality (it’s more flexible than a story). Predicative Scenarios on the SAC platform was probably the piece of functionality that interested me the most. Predictive Scenarios will receive some data about a system or an object and with the data on it (Historical and Current data), create some assumptions surrounding it. There are three types available on the SAC platform: Time Series Forecasting, Classification and Regression. I have already explained Time Series Forecasting. Classification involves predicting membership of categories and Regression involves predicting numerical values based on fluctuations in correlated variables. Next, is Planning in SAC. Planning in SAC involves a model that you can change at will, by adding or changing percentages or figures in the cells, the software will automatically adapt/update everything affected by those figures. Finally, is Analytic Applications which, is very similar to “Build” and Balsamiq Mockups 3 but, it offers you a blank canvas on the SAC platform where, you can import in your stories and models and add additional functionality to them. For example, you can drag and drop objects like Buttons and Text Fields and add them to your story.

As well as the two topics I talked about above I gained a lot of knowledge through several other minor things. The classroom trainings at the beginning where I learned about HANA (In-memory, relational database), SAPTEC (Fundamentals of certain SAP products) and ABAP (Programming language created by SAP), were full of knowledge and information to be learned. Another major source of knowledge was the, Power Hour sessions. The Power Hour sessions were usually global virtual presentations anyone from SAP could join. The sessions would be hosted by one person who would spend the next hour explaining a certain topic. For example, some Topics included: Cyber Psychology, Technical Interview Workshop, Sessions on new companies joining SAP. My favourite was the Machine Learning Power Hour for multiple reasons it was relatable, it is something I have a personal interest in and it would prepare me for fourth year as there is a module about Machine Learning.

I must say that the technical aspect of the knowledge I learned was very specific to SAP. I mainly used SAP software, meaning, to take full advantage of the experience and knowledge gained, it would be ideal for me to work at SAP, as a lot of companies may not use SAP software at all. However, I do feel certain aspects of the technical knowledge gained can be transferable like, the work I did as a Business Analyst which included a lot of experience in Testing and creating Use Case Diagrams as well as this, I now have a good amount of experience in creating charts, graphs and other visual aids as well as slight experience in predictive technologies. I hope that all of these experiences combined will aid me in some way for fourth year and beyond.

Soft Skills Learned

The first major soft skill I learned and improved upon was my teamwork skills. Throughout most of the internship, I have worked as part of some group, whether that be working on an assignment with the fellow intern on my team, working with a group of interns from different teams on a project or it maybe be working along side full time employees. Looking back on the internship, I only had one assignment that was by myself which has given me an excellent chance to improve and refine my teamwork skills. Teamwork skills comprise of several different other skills like: Communication skills, Co-operation skills and Patience. I will know go through each of these and give examples of how I used these skills and improved upon them.

Communication in the workplace is incredibly important. I used it every single day during my internship. I feel that communication was so important throughout my internship as it allowed me to work well with others as well as be productive with others. Cooperation in the workplace is just as important. Throughout my internship, I observed and experienced many benefits of co-operation with fellow employees. Because of everyone works together towards the same goal, the task at hand is completed quicker. As well as that, as it usually involves working together with more than one person, tasks are deviated among the group thus employees (including managers), have more time to work on their own duties as well as spend less time dealing with conflict due to unclear communication. I fee

Patience is a quality I probably would not have thought of before the internship. I think this is one of the most important qualities you should have if you are working as part of a team. Patience allows you to think before acting especially in intense situations. Patience also creates a more helpful and kind workplace environment. Instead of lashing out at someone for something they did wrong thus leading to hostility between employees, patience allows you to take a step back and address the situation and perhaps instead of lashing out, give constructive criticism. This is something I witnessed quite a lot in my workplace especially when it came to the patience full-time employees had towards the interns. There were several occasions where I would be having constant trouble trying to complete an assignment given to me by my manager and every time, he would be more than happy to give me help and point me towards online resources as well as point out my mistakes and reinforce, what I should do instead. Overall, I’m very passionate about being patient when working with others, and working at SAP has reinforced this thought.

One major thing that I have learned that relates to teamwork skills would be that not everyone is a team player thus, not everyone wants to communicate and cooperate with one another as well as have patience with one another. Certain members in my team would try to make you think that they want to cooperate with you on a project, but you would soon realize that, that was on their mind. What I am talking about now is something I did not experience during the group project last semester but something I have experienced since coming here, only with specific people and I feel like it is something vital that I have learned about people in general and it has made me realize that I am too welcoming and forgiving. It is the reality of the workplace, you are bound to run into people who try to manipulate either the team or certain employees into thinking that they are the reason work gets done or that they know everything. I have seen that these people also tend to get very jealous of other people especially if they are not involved in the work that you are doing. I think overall this is an important aspect to highlight when it comes to working as a team because I feel like it is not made aware of enough which is the reason why these people tend to get away with their actions.

The second major soft skill I learned and improved upon was my overall sense of responsibility. Honestly, before going into the internship, I never thought that responsibility would be one of the things I would learn about. I have had responsibility in the past, with my small part-time job as well as being a part of the group project last semester but, during this internship, I feel like I understand the true meaning of responsibility. Throughout the entire internship, I have been given several responsibilities in the form of projects that vary from slightly challenging to difficult. Examples of this include: My very first assignment, upon looking back, was a very small and minor assignment but it still held an incredible amount of responsibility. The document I would be writing would have to be one hundred percent correct for it to be useful. The document was a step-by-step guide to setting up a live connection on SAC which would be used by employees and customers who use SAC and so, it was a lot of pressure.

The way I handled responsibility throughout the internship changed at the beginning, I was incredibly nervous and anxious about fellow employees giving me assignments as I would be afraid that I would not be able to complete them. As well as this in the beginning, I felt that since it was my assignment, I should try and get as little help as possible with it. Compare back then to the end of the internship, where I am eager to get new assignments to work on. If I run into trouble now, I know that I can count on my fellow colleagues to help me out as much as they can. My view on responsibility has evolved over the last six months and I’m sure it will be a big help when it comes to the responsibility of the fourth year and the final year project.

Reflection of My Education in an Internship

A couple of principles in computer science have been reflected by my placement, including:

• Complexity: Determines how quick a process is and places that speed into a classification (e.g. O (1), O (n), O (log(n))). SAP provide software products to customers, these must perform their given purpose quickly and accurately while, sacrificing as little as possible. Customers work with SAC and so it needs to be simple, easy to use and fast, however, there were times when creating a model for example, the software might crash, or loading times from screen to screen were long. It was interesting to see how SAP go about trying to fix these sorts of problems by providing communication and assistance directly to the customer via Skype, the computer or sometimes in person, as well as providing updates on their software.
• Models: Whether it’s an idea of how to tackle a problem that you can visualize in your head or an idea that you can project onto paper, modelling is about thinking about the concept of the problem. This was reflected in ways like: Working with SAC, which required me to take requirements in words and translate it into a literal model (like scaffolding for the data being manipulate) and/or story (translated data into various graphs- bar charts, pie charts, etc…). At any stage, I could talk to a colleague regarding the problem, providing a different way of visualizing the problem itself.

A couple of modules from my course I related to during my internship, they include:

• CS265(Software Testing): Module focused on software testing, the different types and the various methods of software testing, etc…. I could see what I had learned from this module in the project I was involved in where I was a business analyst. QA and testing are both two major roles of a business analyst. In the module, I learned about different methods of identifying the core functionality of a specification, one method which I used in the project was a Use Case Diagram. It was interesting to see the method being used in a real business project and it was also challenging to try and figure out from the job specification given to us for the project, what core functionality we should prioritise.
• CS353(Team Project): This module focused on a group project. Our group created a “Maynooth Map” app, it gave the user a map of Maynooth in which they could interact with. Reflecting, this module was essential in completing before the internship as it gave you an introduction into SCRUM. I’ve attended SCRUM meetings during my internship, so many that they have become second nature to me compared to when I was doing them in college. SCRUM is vital in terms of a project’s success, they provide daily feedback on the group’s progress, any trouble they are having and any updates or changes regarding the project. I was not taking them seriously enough in college, but I realise that without them, a project will not succeed.

References

1. Worldwide Office Directory and Regional Websites. https://www.sap.com/corporate/en/company/office-locations.html
2. (2018). Awards. https://sap.jobs.cz/awards/
3. SAP History. https://www.sap.com/corporate/en/company/history.html
4. SAP. https://jobs.sap.com/
5. SAP Analytics Cloud. https://www.sapanalytics.cloud/product/