From Late Start to End-to-End SAP Consulting: Lessons from “Laura Neuner, SAP Consultant bei ATSP”

What we learned from “Laura Neuner, SAP Consultant bei ATSP”

In the session titled “Laura Neuner, SAP Consultant bei ATSP,” speaker Laura Neuner walks us through her journey into IT and her role today as a SAP Healthcare Consultant. At DevJobs.at, we were drawn to the clarity of her narrative: a late start, early hands-on experience, and a steady expansion of responsibility—from her very first Java programming course to implementing complex customer requests in SAP, optimizing processes through Process Mining, and even taking on partial project leadership.

Laura opens with a candid admission: her pathway into IT began relatively late. It wasn’t until her Bachelor’s program, in a business informatics course, that her interest was sparked. That initial spark led her to pursue a Master’s degree in Business Informatics. During her Master’s, she first started programming in Java and came into contact with SAP. She liked both. The decisive move was immediate practical exposure: while writing her Master’s thesis, she began an internship at ATSP in the Healthcare department. Today, she is still there—now working as a SAP Healthcare Consultant with a broad scope spanning requirements gathering, solution design, and hands-on technical implementation in SAP.

A central anchor in her work is end-to-end ownership. She is “the first point of contact if there are problems or if the customer has expansion requests,” and she is also the person “who then technically implements it.” Beyond SAP consulting, she drives process improvements using Process Mining and stays deeply involved end-to-end. She also handles partial project leadership and leads smaller projects. Her motivation at ATSP comes from having the chance to learn continuously, dive into new areas, and keep stretching. Her pragmatic mantra captures the learning attitude clearly: “Google is your friend.”

In this recap, we distill Laura’s milestones and translate them into actionable insights for students, graduates, and aspiring consultants or developers.

Starting late isn’t a disadvantage

“My way into IT, honestly, began relatively late.” With that line, Laura sets a tone many recognize in their own careers. Not every tech path starts in school with early scripting or self-study. Laura’s turning point was a business informatics course during her Bachelor’s. That sparked enough curiosity to drive her decision to enroll in a Master’s in Business Informatics.

During her Master’s, she encountered two pillars that would later define her work: programming in Java and working with SAP. She emphasizes that she quickly took a liking to both. The key step was refusing to wait—she built a direct bridge from theory to practice. “While working on my Master’s thesis, I started an internship at ATSP in the Healthcare department.”

Two takeaways stand out:

• A later start can be a focused start. Discovering IT during your degree can still launch momentum fast if curiosity and initiative are present.
• Theory becomes ability through practice. Laura’s timely internship intertwined coursework, programming, and real-world business context.

The internship as door-opener: entering ATSP

ATSP’s Healthcare department was Laura’s entry point. “I am still working there today, as a SAP Healthcare Consultant.” Her self-assessment at the outset is striking: “I really started as a SAP consultant with only very basic programming knowledge.” That line frames her entire learning narrative. She didn’t begin as an expert; she began ready to learn, apply, and grow.

The internship wasn’t just a first contact; it became the foundation for her current role. She accumulated experience while finishing her Master’s and moved smoothly into a consulting position with increasing responsibility. We often see this pattern in successful developer and consultant journeys: early hands-on phases build not just skills but also context, team trust, and customer proximity.

Breadth over narrow specialization: Laura’s day-to-day

“My scope of work at ATSP is now very broad, which makes my day-to-day varied.” That’s how Laura anchors the evolution of her role: not into a tight niche, but into a profile with multiple axes.

The core: SAP Healthcare Consulting

The core of her work is SAP Healthcare Consulting. She primarily supports a large customer in the healthcare sector. In her words, support means more than reactive problem solving. She is “the first contact if there are problems or if the customer has expansion requests.” That is the communicative and coordinative aspect. Equally crucial is the technical execution: “I am not only the contact person but also the person who then implements it technically.”

For us, this is a key point: bridging customer communication with implementation is a conscious model. Laura puts it plainly: “That is exactly the model of the SAP consultant at ATSP that I really appreciate, because I am involved in the entire process.” She names the steps explicitly: “You gather the customer requirements—what the customer needs—then define the solution and also implement it yourself technically in SAP.”

This end-to-end ownership has three tangible effects:

• Closer alignment with business goals: Those who gather requirements understand context and can navigate trade-offs better.
• Quality through ownership: Defining and building the solution deepens accountability.
• A live learning curve: Each phase—requirements, design, implementation—feeds the next with feedback.

Process Mining and process improvement

Beyond SAP consulting, Laura works on process optimization “using Process Mining.” Here again, she emphasizes being “involved in the entire process.” She stays true to the principle of not only touching a fragment of the work but accompanying the whole journey—from understanding to action to implementation.

Even without technical details, the synergy between process optimization and SAP implementation is evident. Both depend on accurate understanding of needs and disciplined follow-through. The common denominator is a methodical improvement mindset—and a readiness to carry responsibility across the chain.

Partial project leadership and smaller projects

A third strand in her profile is leadership responsibility: “partial project leadership” and “project leadership of smaller projects.” That expands her role toward organization and coordination in a scope that complements her hands-on consulting. For many talents, this combination is compelling: continue building technical depth, stay close to the customer, and gradually take on coordination and leadership.

Why the end-to-end model works

Laura says clearly why she appreciates ATSP’s model: being “involved in the entire process.” From an editorial standpoint, this is a strong career pattern in tech and consulting. Working end-to-end provides immediate feedback in every phase. Requirements you gather become the blueprint you implement. Misunderstandings surface faster. Wins feel concrete because the chain from need to delivery stays in one hand.

This approach accelerates learning cycles. Laura frames it succinctly: “I had to learn a lot of new things at the beginning and I am still learning a lot of new things.” End-to-end rhythm turns learning from an episodic activity into a continuous one—each customer issue, each enhancement, each optimization is an opportunity to deepen understanding.

“No master has ever fallen from the sky.” On learning and pragmatism

Few lines capture Laura’s stance as well as: “No master has ever fallen from the sky.” Combined with “Google is your friend,” she portrays a realistic everyday practice—keep at it, research, try things, ask for help, and move forward.

For beginners, this is both a relief and a call to action. You don’t have to know everything to begin. But you do need to begin to discover what to learn next. This attitude runs throughout Laura’s story—from starting with “very basic programming knowledge” to the breadth she now covers across consulting, technical implementation, Process Mining, and project leadership.

Motivation: learning as a constant

What keeps Laura motivated at ATSP? “That I have the opportunity to constantly continue my education and really constantly learn new things and dive into new spheres.” The wording is dynamic. It casts continuous learning not as a side activity, but as a central feature of the job. New topics, evolving problem spaces, fresh customer needs—this is the arena where expertise grows.

Her reflection on the early ramp-up drives it home: “I had to learn a lot at the beginning and I am still learning a lot today, which makes it exciting.” Learning is both the challenge and the reward.

Concrete advice for beginners

Laura’s advice is straightforward: “Start collecting practical experience during your education right away, because that is really the most important thing.” She points to concrete formats: “Internships, trainee programs, during your studies, during school—this really eases the entry into working life.”

She also highlights two key attitudes:

• “Be willing to learn.”
• “Use every opportunity offered to you to continue your education and gain new experiences.”

These aren’t platitudes. They are instructions grounded in lived experience: if you take on practical work while the theory is fresh, you close the gap between classroom and application faster. If you remain willing to learn, your role can expand.

Actionable takeaways from Laura’s story

From what Laura shared, several direct action points emerge—no speculation, just clear direction:

• Get practical early: Seek internships or trainee programs during your studies or even during school. Early contact pays off when transitioning later.
• Seek end-to-end exposure: Whenever possible, pick tasks that span requirements, solution design, and implementation. This speeds up your learning curve.
• Embrace ownership: Don’t remain only a point of contact—implement as well. Ownership breeds depth.
• Build a research habit: Read, search, test, apply. “Google is your friend” is practical career guidance.
• Allow role breadth: Don’t over-narrow too soon if you can taste multiple dimensions (consulting, implementation, process optimization, project work).

What stood out to us as DevJobs.at

The session “Laura Neuner, SAP Consultant bei ATSP” demonstrates how tech and consulting careers are built through proximity to practice and a sustained willingness to learn—even if you start later. Three observations stood out:

1) Late start, sharp focus: A late beginning is no handicap when focus is strong. Laura’s path through Business Informatics in Bachelor and Master shows how coursework can spark curiosity and open practical options.

2) Practice as the bridge: The internship during her Master’s thesis was the operational lever. It connected theory and application and led directly into her current role.

3) End-to-end as learning engine: Laura’s dual role as first point of contact and technical implementer creates short feedback loops that build competence—across SAP consulting, Process Mining, and project coordination.

Quotes worth remembering

A few lines distill Laura’s stance and help anchor the message:

These are compass points for anyone starting or switching into similar roles.

The value of breadth: consulting, implementation, processes, projects

Laura outlines three pillars—SAP Healthcare Consulting, process optimization using Process Mining, and project responsibility (partial and smaller projects). This is notable because it shows that breadth isn’t the absence of specialization; it’s a strategy for building competence. If you can understand requirements, define solutions, and implement them, you’re equipped to improve processes and coordinate projects.

At the same time, the balance is clear: the emphasis remains on SAP Healthcare Consulting and supporting a major healthcare customer. The other elements build on this core.

Learning as continuity, not a side project

When Laura says, “I had to learn a lot at the beginning and I am still learning a lot today,” she’s framing learning as continuous. The implication is that learning paths need to fit into day-to-day work. The end-to-end model makes this possible because each customer request introduces a new facet and the implementation provides immediate feedback.

For newcomers, the lesson is simple: expose yourself to tasks that demand outcomes. Deliverables—whether enhancements, fixes, or optimizations—are the strongest catalysts for knowledge that sticks.

Why “Google is your friend” is sound practice

The line may sound light, but it points to a mature practice. Research is a core skill in tech roles. Those who search, compare, and test accelerate their learning. Laura doesn’t present this pragmatism as a fallback, but as a standard tool.

Combined with her dual role—point of contact and implementer—it’s clear why this works: customer topics demand fast, reliable answers. Research, verify, implement—this loop delivers.

From Java to SAP: a coherent progression

Though Laura only briefly touches on it, the pairing of Java experience and SAP practice is telling. Learning programming logic and then applying that mindset to SAP implementation is a coherent progression. What matters is that she didn’t learn in isolation—her learning happened close to real customer needs.

Who should pay special attention to Laura’s path

• Students in Business Informatics looking to transition into practice—“course → Master’s → internship → consultant” is a clear pattern to emulate.
• Career changers who start late—Laura’s line about entering with “very basic programming knowledge” lowers the barrier and raises motivation.
• Aspiring consultants who want end-to-end work—the connection from requirements to solution to implementation offers a strong growth architecture.

Conclusion: Learn responsibility, and take responsibility for learning

The session “Laura Neuner, SAP Consultant bei ATSP” is a crisp illustration of how learning, practice, and ownership reinforce each other. Laura shows that a later start can be powerful when driven by curiosity, hands-on experience, and end-to-end responsibility.

Her advice to beginners—“Start collecting practical experience during your education”—is more than a recommendation; it’s a call to action. Paired with the stance “be willing to learn” and the pragmatic tool “Google is your friend,” it forms a sturdy foundation for entering IT—whether in consulting, development, or anywhere problems must be understood and solutions implemented.

Follow that path and, like Laura, you can blend scope, technical depth, and project responsibility step by step. In that combination, day-to-day work stays varied, and learning remains the main course rather than a side dish.

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