Joining a new SAP project can feel like stepping into a moving train. The immediate instinct is to treat onboarding as a box-ticking exercise, but gaining access does not make you a key part of the team. The difference between a consultant who remains on the margins and one who becomes trusted in record time is not access but rapport, then influence.
Influence in SAP consulting does not mean dominating meetings or making big technical pronouncements in the first week, but establishing credibility, earning small moments of trust, and showing that you can contribute to help the project move forward. It is the ability to be seen as reliable and thoughtful from the beginning, so that when more complex responsibilities arise, you are the considered as a valuable choice.
Of course, no two onboarding experiences are identical. The shape of your first ten days will depend on whether the project is a massive S/4HANA transformation or a smaller add-on implementation, whether it is structured around Agile sprints or a waterfall plan, and whether the industry has strict compliance requirements or more flexibility.
Large programs may bury you in layers of approvals, while smaller teams may expect you to interact with the client sponsor almost immediately. Yet across all these contexts, the sequence of moving from access to influence follows some predictable stages.
This article follows that path, looking at the foundation: the importance of micro-commitments, the role of rapport, trust and providing psychological safety, the shift into influence, and the subtler dynamics of culture, politics, and communication that define every SAP engagement.
The focus is on practical advice that reflects how SAP consultants actually experience onboarding, so you can step into your next role with clarity and confidence.
The first two days are often dominated by the search for access: SAP systems, ALM dashboards, Jira boards, Confluence pages, and meeting invites. Without those, you cannot even participate. What separates the average newcomer from the consultant who is actually consulted after week one is how they ask the right questions and signal intent.
One of the most useful questions you can ask is deceptively simple: “What are the absolute non-negotiables or limitations here?” Finding out what the project considers non-negotiable gives you a map of where mistakes are not tolerated. It also tells the team that you are serious about protecting the integrity of their work.
Another early step is to find out how Fit-to-Standard workshops are run. These sessions, central to SAP Activate, are usually where consultants first encounter the client’s processes.
Even if you are not expected to lead, treating these workshops as learning opportunities is crucial. Study the people as much as the client and project. Observe who does most of the talking, who takes notes, and which questions generate debate. Offering to capture a short recap of the discussion is an easy way to contribute without overstepping. It demonstrates that you are both attentive and useful.
Many organizations now use a buddy system or structured knowledge transfer sessions during onboarding. If you are assigned a buddy, treat them as more than a source of technical answers.
They are often the best guide to unwritten rules. Asking practical, grounded questions rather than abstract or overly technical ones shows respect for their time and gives you context you cannot get from governance documents.
In these first days, influence comes from intent: clarifying your role, showing curiosity about the project’s structure, and signaling that you want to do more than attend meetings. When you leave on day two, you want colleagues to feel you are someone who listens carefully, notices what matters, and takes small but meaningful ownership.
By about the third day, you have access and some orientation. Now the question becomes: how do you make yourself useful, visible, and trustworthy without yet being fully embedded in delivery?
Micro-wins are small contributions that demonstrate reliability. In SAP projects, they often involve the documentation layer. Updating a Jira ticket the same day you touch it, capturing action items from a workshop in Confluence, or clarifying assumptions in ALM are all examples. None of these are glamorous, but they are noticed. More importantly, they are traceable. In environments where accountability is everything, visible evidence of work sends a clear signal.
Visibility, however, must be managed carefully. Too much noise can be as damaging as silence. The art is to make updates concise and placed where people expect to find them. Matching the right type of update to the right audience prevents frustration and shows social awareness.
This is also when duplication can become a danger. Before you create anything new, search what already exists. Asking, “Has anyone already documented this?” is a small gesture, but it signals respect for the team’s time and reduces clutter.
By the end of day three, your aim is simple: when people think of you, they think “reliable.” Not yet brilliant, not yet a leader, but someone who takes care of the details, makes their work easier, and documents what they do. That reliability is the base on which influence is built.
By the middle of your first week, the spotlight shifts from tasks to relationships.
In SAP consulting, trust is the currency of influence. Without it, even the sharpest technical contribution may be ignored. With it, your ideas are given space. The quickest way to start building trust is to focus on safety: making colleagues feel they can raise concerns or test ideas without fear of embarrassment.
One simple habit is to treat blockers as normal rather than as failures. When you encounter an issue, raise it in the daily stand-up and log it clearly in ALM, but frame it as part of the process, not a flaw.
Equally, when others raise blockers, acknowledge their openness. This creates an atmosphere where risks are surfaced early, which is exactly what program leads and sponsors want.
Fit-to-Standard workshops are another arena where trust can be built. These sessions often bring together business users, IT leads, and external consultants.
The dynamics can be tense, with users sometimes defensive about system constraints or consultants eager to move discussions along. Creating safety here might mean inviting a quieter participant to share a view, or noting down an unaddressed question for follow-up. You need not solve the conflict, but you can show that you notice when people are unheard.
Feedback is another area where trust can grow. Some cultures prefer direct, blunt feedback during meetings; others prefer private conversations afterwards. Asking a colleague early, “If I miss something, how do you prefer to give me feedback?” is a disarming way of showing openness. More importantly, when feedback comes, your reaction matters. Thank the person, adjust your approach, and move on. Consultants who are defensive in their first week are often sidelined.
Knowledge transfer sessions or buddy check-ins also gain importance at this stage. Tribal knowledge, or information that lives in the heads of tenured team members rather than in project documents is often where delivery risk lies. Sitting with a buddy and saying, “Could you walk me through this while I take notes?” turns a one-off explanation into a shared asset. It also signals that you respect their experience while making the team less dependent on any one person.
By the end of the first week, your influence found in being the person who makes collaboration easier, who documents what others overlook, and who responds to feedback without fuss. These are small habits, but they create trust in you.
As you enter the second week, you are no longer brand new, and people start to watch how you handle responsibility. This is the window to move from being simply useful to being influential. Your value lies in how you handle risk, how you contribute to decisions, and how you show readiness for more visible work, without treading on toes.
Escalation is the first test. Every SAP consultant eventually faces conflicting advice or a risk that cannot be solved at their level. The temptation is to raise everything quickly to the sponsor, but more thoughtful approach is to treat escalation as a ladder: clarify with peers first, then raise with a lead, then with a governance body such as a Change Advisory Board or Design Authority, and only then, if truly necessary, with the sponsor.
When you frame issues for discussion, present not just the problem but options for resolution. That way, you are seen as constructive rather than as a complainer.
Stretch assignments are another route into influence. In Agile projects, this may mean offering to draft the first cut of a sprint retrospective summary or facilitating a demo rehearsal. In waterfall projects, it may be volunteering to prepare a client-facing section of a design document or migration tracker. These are low-risk tasks but highly visible.
By putting yourself forward, you show willingness to contribute beyond your immediate role. If you deliver well, your reliability in small wins can lead to inclusion in larger or more influential forums.
Influence also depends on balancing what you do with how you show it. Delivering config, test cases, or scripts is necessary, but if no one sees the output, you remain invisible. On the other hand, focusing too much on visibility without substance makes you look superficial. The art is in pairing every piece of delivery with a traceable update. This act of doing and showing signals both competence and accountability.
Closing your first ten days with a short contribution summary can be powerful. A message to your lead or team outlining what you did, and what you intend to do next, frames you as someone who reflects on their work and looks ahead. It is a small gesture, but it places you firmly in the category of trusted contributors rather than temporary resources.
Technical work and governance only explain part of the onboarding journey. The subtler forces like culture, politics, and communication habits are often what determine whether a consultant gains influence.
Cultural differences are especially visible in global SAP programs.
A direct “no” may be acceptable in Germany but could be taken as rudeness in India. Silence may mean agreement in one team but hesitation in another. In such environments, the safest practice is to clarify agreements in writing. It avoids misunderstanding and shows you respect different communication styles. Respecting local holidays and working hours also matters. Even a simple note like, “I know this may be outside your hours, happy for you to respond tomorrow,” shows awareness and respect.
The unwritten rules are another layer. In some teams, only the project manager speaks first in workshops. In others, consultants are expected to jump in early. Some clients expect every slide to pass through a lead before reaching them, where others prefer raw, collaborative drafts. Observing these patterns and adjusting quickly requires intuition and social intelligence.
Inter-vendor rivalry is another reality. Large projects often involve multiple consultancies, each keen to protect its role. The best strategy is neutrality. Use inclusive phrasing like “our team discovered” instead of “Vendor X missed”, and keep your updates factual. Taking sides too early can entangle you in political wrangles you cannot win.
Even project size shapes the culture. In huge programs, you may spend your first weeks dealing mostly with governance artifacts and PMO coordination. In smaller ones, you may find yourself speaking directly with the sponsor on day three. The key is adjusting expectations and reading the tempo and social structure of the environment.
The first ten days on a new SAP project are not the time to prove technical brilliance. They are for subtly and respectfully establishing influence through reliability, openness, and cultural awareness.
Influence grows from showing that you respect governance, that you can deliver visible micro-wins, that you contribute to the group’s psychological safety (so others feel comfortable in contributing), and that you are ready for opportunities and extra tasks when they arise.
What this looks like in practice varies, according to context and acknowledging these variations is part of the professionalism of consulting.
Yet across contexts, the sequence is similar. Roughly outlined, days one and two are about intent: gaining access and asking the right questions. Days two and three are about micro-wins: creating visibility through reliability. Days four to seven are about trust: feedback, blockers, and knowledge capture. Days eight to ten are about influence: escalating wisely, volunteering for stretch work, and pairing delivery with visibility.
The consultants who succeed in becoming a valued and trusted part of the team are those who treat these ten days as the foundation of their reputation in the project.
Influence is not about being the loudest or the most technical, but being the person the team turns to because you make progress possible and achievable. But that reputation can begin to take shape only if you approach integration into the team with clarity, humility, and intent.
If you are an SAP professional looking for a new role in the SAP ecosystem our team of dedicated recruitment consultants can match you with your ideal employer and negotiate a competitive compensation package for your extremely valuable skills, so join our exclusive community at IgniteSAP.
Python for SAP Consultants: Where It Appears and How Much You Need
