We sat down with Tammy Powlas, Senior Business Analyst at Fairfax Water and an ASUG volunteer, to talk about her career path and how she pursued certifications to expand her skill set.
Here is a transcript of our conversation:
Jim:
Great. Tammy, to start things off, I'd love for you to tell us a little bit about your role at Fairfax Water and Fairfax Water itself.
Tammy Powlas:
Well, I right now am the team lead for our internal SAP support. I support finance, customer service, solution manager, security, and now we're pretty busy with our SAP Fiori rollout and Fairfax Water is the largest water utility in the state of Virginia. One out of every five, or maybe even every four, Virginians gets their water from us and we produce over 167 million gallons of water each day and 1.7 million people get their water from us and we're located just outside the Washington DC beltway.
Jim:
Tell me a little bit about your Fiori rollout. Can you give me a high level of the project?
Tammy Powlas:
Awesome. Well, I think maybe I spoke to you before. We went live with S/4HANA July 4th last year and now we're slowly rolling out some of the standard Fiori applications across our units. Not full scale. Just a few for our utilities group, our enterprise asset management group, some project systems, some in procurement, accounts payable, and the those areas and also activating enterprise search, which is pretty cool. So like if you just typed in the word pumps, it would come back with all the materials or maintenance plans that had the word pumps in it. So I think that's pretty cool.
Jim:
That is pretty cool. Thank you for sharing a little bit. Moving back to your career, you received a degree in accounting and you're a CPA. I am friends with a lot of CPAs or former CPAs who have since left the industry. Before you got into information systems, can you tell our listeners a little bit about what led you to change your focus?
Tammy Powlas:
Well I never felt it was a change of focus. Like right now, I support finance and even this morning when somebody thought the numbers were wrong, I still dragged out my T-accounts. Most of the time when somebody thinks there's a system issue in finance, it really isn't. You got to always get out those T-accounts. I did get my BS in accounting from the University of Kansas. We are the national champions Monday night. So-
Jim:
Congratulations.
Tammy Powlas:
Yes. Yes. Rock shock, but we're very excited. But my dream job was always to become a systems analyst and I think the accounting provides great analytical review skills that help you become an analyst. And when I left Kansas, I got transferred for a job I had at the time. I didn't want to get a master's degree in accounting. I felt like enough. And that was one of the reasons why I left Kansas because like at the time, you went to KU to get your master's degree and at the time there wasn't a lot of selection. It was before the whole online thing. So I moved out this way, got transferred with a job, and I applied at the George Washington University and they're masters in information systems. Didn't require a GMAT test. And everyone I worked with here in DC at the time had a master's degree and my employer at the time was very supportive and helped sponsor my master's degree. And it was, to me, more business than computers, but I thought it was a great experience.
Jim:
That's awesome. That's a nice lead into sort of my next question, what attracted you to the IT world? Was it the convenience and not having to take the GMAT to get into this degree? Because I know that's a big plus for a lot of people.
Tammy Powlas:
I know. That's funny. Yeah. I always wanted to work in accounting systems and a support accounting systems and at the time, I think it was the second job after I moved to DC, I got picked to be on the SEP team and at the time I was part of the finance team leading the projects and asset systems. And we, at the time, this is in the late '90s, we had 20 billion in assets, three billion a year in depreciation. So it was a huge undertaking and always felt that it helps to know accounting if you're supporting the SAP finance area because I think 90% of the questions you get aren't about the systems, it's about the accounting side I think. That's just my take.
Jim:
Yeah. Absolutely. Let's talk a little bit about your time at Boeing. I'd love to know about your experience where you were an SAP developer there. What were you doing in that role and I'm really interested in how it sort of further prepared you for your further career progression.
Jim:
I guess when you look back, what were some of like the lessons that you took away from that experience?
Tammy Powlas:
It's funny because I started at Boeing. It was a long time ago. I started at Boeing as a project manager and then I thought, "Well, I really want to go back to supporting finance and supporting accounting." I actually did those at the same time. So at the time I was writing a functional spec for SAP business warehouse and for the team there. But for whatever reason, the two people who were actually implementing business warehouse at the time left Boeing and so we had openings. So I had to learn it trial by fire and I thought, "Why not?" I thought it was a great learning experience. And I think Boeing and our customer was very patient. And I learned a lot just about writing functional specs, writing technical specs, doing the testing, and things like that. So it was a great learning experience and I draw upon that today, even on the basic things. So it was learning on the job big time.
Jim:
Tammy, how long were you at Boeing for again?
Tammy Powlas:
Eight years. It was great.
Jim:
Eight years.
Tammy Powlas:
Yeah. I loved Boeing. It was a great place, great company, and the work was always challenging and I had great mentors there as well. It was a great experience.
Jim:
We're talking about SAP and this isn't sort of one of the questions that initially proposed, but I would like to sort of get your view on it. Where in your career were you when you first encountered SAP in a professional setting?
Tammy Powlas:
Well at the time I was working at an old telecommunications company that was since acquired and bought out, bankrupt, and I was doing the support on an old Legacy system. We were doing all the depreciation reporting and all the property accounting reporting. And like I said, it was big because at the time, this is late '90s, it was 20 billion in assets and three billion in depreciation. And at the time our manager said, "Well, why don't you be on the team that evaluates our new ERP solution?" And so it was a great learning experience to learn more about the company because the company was huge and how we were going to undertake that big change because at the time not a lot of people were doing that.
Tammy Powlas:
I think we were on 31H. So I was selected to be on the team and I told my manager and my manager at the time, "I'd be very interested in pursuing it," and it was a great career move. I haven't regretted it. It's been a lot of fun. I'd say, just in talking to you, "Oh my God. It's been over 25 years with SAP." But I'm still in touch with the people I worked with at the time. It was-
Jim:
Oh wow.
Tammy Powlas:
It was a huge undertaking and we had great support. I'm still in touch with our SAP platinum consultant who was on the project. She was with SAP a long time too, but she quit recently. So it's a good experience. So that's how I got to help lead the SAP projects and assets team at the time.
Jim:
Did it occur to you when you started that project that SAP would become such an important and reoccurring part of your career?
Tammy Powlas:
Well I had a hint with my manager at the time, she said, "This could be a great career move for you." And I thought, "Okay." And so it's never, I'll say this, it's never been boring. Whether I've been on the functional side or development side, whether you're learning more about the business, SAP itself, the work has never been dull. I'll tell you that it is never been dull. It's always challenging.
Jim:
How would you say SAP and its focuses have shifted since you first started using SAP solutions and how do you personally keep up with these changes and stay, I guess, in the know? How are you on top of everything?
Tammy Powlas:
Yeah and that's tough. I don't feel like I am on top of everything. Back in the late '90s, you stayed up-to-date by attending conferences or attending SAP training and at the time, I attended my first Sapphire in 1998 in Los Angeles, which was a lot of fun, I'll tell you that, because at the end, Hasso Plattner had a speech at the end, people were leaving, and I stayed until the very end. And at the very end he did the best thing, out came the University of Southern California Trojan marching band. It was so exciting. So back then, you would attend conferences like that and I attended my first ASUG annual conference, those were separate at the time, in Toronto and there wasn't an online community, the internet was new.
Tammy Powlas:
And then these last few years with the pandemic, everything's been virtual and in some ways I miss seeing people, but on the other hand, I've been able to attend things I wouldn't have been able to attend. I got to attend my first SAP for utilities international conference last year, which is usually in some exotic place like Switzerland. I'm never going to be able to fly out to Switzerland. But I was able to attend it online last year and it's excellent. But more recently, it's always been a combination of ASUG and the SAP community. And one thing the industry analyst John Reed said is, he said, "The closer you are to your user group and the community out and for the community, the more successful you'll be." And I'd agree with that because SAP's changing, everybody's moving to the cloud.
Tammy Powlas:
So you've got to just stay up with what's going on and SAP, like I said, ASUG has great resources. SAP has great resources, especially with the open SAP initiative and then they've got that free learning site, learning.sap.com. There's a lot and like I said, I don't feel like I'm staying up-to-date as much as I'd like.
Jim:
I mean, it is a complicated ecosystem that is always changing.
Tammy Powlas:
Yes.
Jim:
I want to talk a little bit about ASUG. Before I do, you have a SAP BW associate certification.
Jim:
I did want to know a little bit about that certification. Why you chose to pursue it, how it's been helpful, and how you found out about it?
Tammy Powlas:
Well back in the early 2000s is I wanted to get certified. At the time it was called FICO, finance and controlling. And now those two modules emerged in S/4HANA. And my boss at the time, he said to me, because I really wanted to go to the SAP academy, which is like a five week thing, but that's expensive. And he said to me, he goes, "Well," he goes, "Why don't you just go take the test? And then if you don't pass, we'll talk about the academy." So I managed to pass the test and I'll tell you how I did that for FICO and that will lead to the BW. Through the FICO back then, I just read all the SAP help and I managed to pass the test and I had to fly into the Boston SAP Center to take the test and-
Jim:
No way.
Tammy Powlas:
I know. And then later 2000s when I looked at BW, because like we talked about, that was a career change for me. I thought, "Okay. The best way to learn it is to try to be certified without taking SAP classes." And that's, to me, when you study for a certification, that's a great way to learn. And that's why I did that. And then back then SAP moved it so you could take it at your local Pearson VUE Center and I took it, at the time, someplace in Loudoun County, which isn't very far, but at the end, you're told that you pass, you get the thing that you passed. And I was so excited. I took the wrong exit home.
Tammy Powlas:
So it was quite exciting. And I haven't done certifications since then, but it never guarantees a job. When I had FICO and BW, like I said, it doesn't guarantee that you're going to get a job, but it guarantees if you pass it that you've mastered it and you've learned it.
Jim:
It sounds like it's a tool to have in your tool belt, but it also sounds like it's something that has been a benefit to your career since you've taken it.
Tammy Powlas:
Yeah. I think not so much for the certification itself. It's what I learned. And that same thing with the PMP, the project manager certification. That was back up Boeing too in the middle of SAP projects. We had a failed project and our manager at the time, he says, "I know you guys aren't project manager now, but I'd really like to see you guys get PMP certified." And my office mate at the time, we both did it and we passed. So it helps you learn.
Jim:
Yeah. That's so great when organizations that you work for encourage you to go out and get certified-
Tammy Powlas:
Yeah.
Jim:
On things and go out to expand your, like I said, your tool belt and get more tools so-
Tammy Powlas:
Yes.
Jim:
You can go back and then help them.
Tammy Powlas:
Yep.
Jim:
Is what's your ASUG origin story? How did you first find us and what have you been doing with us?
Tammy Powlas:
I think I had mentioned that I got to go to my first ASUG annual conference in 1998 in Toronto and back then, they had dancing night. So, I mean, that was really my first exposure days. Can you imagine doing that now, dancing night? But then after that, I co-presented with Levi's, the jean's company, in the late 1990s at the ASUG financials forum. And then I started volunteering in 2006 selecting sessions for, what the time was the ASUG public sector forum. And then in 2007, given my BW work, I applied for an ASUG BW position.
Tammy Powlas:
And then, I don't know if it was last year or the year before, somehow I got volun-told to being our ASUG Mid-Atlantic chapter chair, which includes Virginia, Maryland, and DC, which is fine. I guess I can always say no if I can't handle it, but I think it's been a great experience and our management at Fairfax Water values it a lot. Even our director of technology, she took the lead years ago on Fairfax Water hosting chapter meetings. So we've been, pre-pandemic, we always hosted the spring chapter meeting at one of our plants. So I think it's been a great experience for us.
Jim:
I appreciate those kind of words. I will see what we can do about getting dancing in a forthcoming ASUG event.
Tammy Powlas:
Oh, there you go. You should do it.
Jim:
So I don't know. Maybe there might be some dancing.
Tammy Powlas:
I know. That was just the sign of the time. You go from the USC Trojan band at Sapphire to dancing, which is a little more intimate.
Jim:
That is very funny. Oh my gosh. So out of curiosity, when you first presented with Levi's, what was your presentation on?
Tammy Powlas:
Oh yeah. At the time, I was heavy into assets and it always frustrated me that at the companies I worked at at the time, we had to create a custom query to file, which at the time was standard asset tax filings to the IRS and Levi's and I said, "Why not make this standard in SAP?" And at the time Chevron supported it, but then the SAP team from Germany very politely told us no, they weren't going to do it. You never take it personally, but it was a learning experience and you got to-
Jim:
Sure.
Tammy Powlas:
Got to meet people and see people and see what other companies were doing. So we were trying to get some standard things in SAP and we didn't succeed, but you learn when you fail, right?
Jim:
Certainly. Tammy, last question for you. We've talked a little bit about your involvement at ASUG. I'd just love to know, for our listeners, what is one way that ASUG has helped you on your SAP journey?
Tammy Powlas:
Well I think it's helped in multiple ways. The mission of networking, influence, and education has helped us a lot. I remember back in 2012 when Ginger Gatling presented a session on SAP data services, migration tool, especially for utilities. And then all of the sudden, less than two years later, our utility was acquiring two different water utilities at the same time and we had less than five months to migrate that into SAP. So I was very grateful to be in the know from that 2012 webcast that the SAP that would help us and we were successful thanks to that ASUG webcast and that tool.
Tammy Powlas:
And then I guess the initial SKU was really expensive. They came back with 600,000 and I remember asking our ASUG SAP point of contact at the time, I said, "Is this right?" And she said, "No. You've got the wrong SKU. Go for this one," and it turned out only being $60,000. So-
Jim:
Wow.
Tammy Powlas:
So the connections, we only paid 10% of what we were originally quoted-
Jim:
Yeah.
Tammy Powlas:
Thanks to all these ASUG connections. So it's been very valuable for me and that company and our company and I'll always look back being super grateful because that was a very stressful time for us. But like the influence part's been great. The education through the webcast. And I do miss the face-to-face at ASUG annual conference and where I've met tons of people. ASUG always has a utility stay and keep in contact with people I've met on the west coast because I'm on the east coast, on the west coast on that. So it's been a great experience.
Jim:
Well that's what we're trying to do with this podcast is sort of fill that whole, but we're planning our conferences and we're moving forward with some in-person events. Jim:
That's always the issue. Well, Tammy, we are right at time. I wanted to thank you so much for agreeing to talk with me today and just sort of sharing a little bit about your career and your experiences at ASUG. So thank you so much for joining me.
Tammy Powlas:
Thanks Jim. Take care. Have a good day.