SAP Specialist Reflects on Five Years of Transforming Financial Systems at Tech Leader

By Ugo Aliogo

The digital transformation of financial systems has accelerated dramatically over the past five years, with companies racing to implement cloud-based platforms, automate processes, and integrate disparate systems into unified enterprise architectures. For professionals at the forefront of this transformation, the pace of change has been relentless, requiring continuous adaptation and learning.

Anuoluwapo Popoola, SAP FICO Consultant at Apple Inc. through Infosys in Austin, Texas, has spent nearly five years driving SAP implementations and enhancements that support the tech giant’s global financial operations. Looking back on this period, Popoola reflects on both the technical achievements and the evolution of enterprise financial systems during a transformative era.

“When I joined Apple’s SAP team in early 2020, the industry was already shifting toward S/4HANA, but the pace of adoption has exceeded what anyone predicted,” Popoola notes. “What’s changed isn’t just the technology—it’s the expectation that financial systems should provide real-time visibility and support business agility, not just record transactions.”

Over these five years, Popoola has spearheaded the configuration and integration of complex FICA/FICO functionalities within both SAP ECC and S/4HANA environments, managing full lifecycle SAP projects from requirements gathering through post-Go-Live support. The role has required proficiency across a broad technical landscape, including IDoc, EDI, data migration, material ledger, profitability analysis, and profit center accounting—all integrated to support Apple’s global operations.

One of Popoola’s most significant contributions has been acting as the primary escalation point for critical SAP support tickets post-Go-Live, ensuring business continuity and maintaining high user satisfaction even as systems have grown more complex. This support role, demanding both technical depth and business process understanding, has provided direct feedback on what works in SAP implementations and what needs improvement.

The work has involved overseeing critical financial closing activities, including period-end, fiscal-year-end, and various analytical processes that ensure accuracy and compliance across global operations. Popoola’s ability to author detailed Design Documents and provide precise functional specifications to developers has been essential in translating business requirements into working solutions.

Popoola’s journey to this role was unconventional. With a Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of Ibadan and a Postgraduate Diploma in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, the career path initially led to oil services operations in Angola and Nigeria. Years as a Cost & Quality Transformation Champion at Schlumberger, achieving significant cost savings and operational improvements through Lean methodology and Six Sigma principles, provided a foundation in process optimization that has proven invaluable in SAP consulting.

“The skills from Lean and Six Sigma—understanding process flow, eliminating waste, focusing on what actually adds value—these apply directly to SAP implementation,” Popoola explains. “The best financial system in the world is useless if it doesn’t align with how people actually work.” This perspective, combining technical SAP expertise with deep operational experience, has been particularly valuable in integrating SAP FICO with SD, MM, and FICA modules, ensuring end-to-end process efficiency.

The shift from operations to technology consulting, beginning with SAP FICO Analyst work at Energeria in Nigeria and continuing through roles at Energeria North America before joining the Apple team, represents a career trajectory that many technical professionals might emulate. As digital transformation continues to reshape industries, professionals who understand both technology and business operations will be increasingly valuable.

With proficiency in tools including Ariba, Concur, Open-Text VIM, and comprehensive knowledge of financial processes from Order-to-Cash to Procure-to-Pay, Popoola exemplifies the multidisciplinary expertise required for modern enterprise systems work. As SAP continues to evolve toward cloud-based, real-time platforms, the professionals who can bridge the gap between technical capability and business value will drive the next generation of financial transformation.