An Interview with Anand Krishnan, Senior Functional Consultant and Solution Architect

Anand Krishnan has been with Invenio since 2024, but already he’s making good impressions – clients rave about his proactiveness on initiatives, and his ability to think outside of the box when it comes to SAP; while colleagues revere his knowledge. I wanted to learn more about Anand and what makes him tick, so we caught up to talk about his time working with the Mayor of London and TFL to digitise Road User Charging, what led him to a career in SAP, and why his clients consistently praise his easy conversation and open communication.

Anand, it’s great to meet you and to finally have the chance to learn more about what you do here at Invenio. You joined Invenio in 2024, but you’ve more than 15 years of experience in TRM and more than 26 years of experience working in SAP. What made you decide to pursue a career in SAP?

Well, I’ve been working in SAP for a long time now, but originally, I was a Management Graduate with an MBA in Finance. I worked in finance and accounting until 1999 when I recognised that SAP was where businesses could really step change their performance as it gave them an integrated business view and single source of truth. Everyone was talking about SAP, and I’d always been inclined towards IT; dabbling in Unix, C programming, and dBase when I was at university, so I retrained in SAP.

It was a very different time - computer monitors were black and white and SAP wasn’t what it is today. However, even from my early days working with SAP, my focus has always been on finance, initially managing private sector client projects and later, national critical infrastructure.

It was in 2005, that I got my first taste of Public Sector work. I joined Capgemini- and found myself a member of the team working on EOPS – also known as the Enterprise Operations at HMRC. I joined as a team member but was soon promoted to Finance Lead. 

And that was just the start of work on cornerstone SAP public sector projects. Can you tell me about your most challenging Public Sector project?

I landed a position on the IBM team that took the London Road User Charging Project (better known as the London Congestion Charging Project). It was a fun and challenging project, but it was high-profile too. We were constantly under pressure from the then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson and the Transport Commissioner for London at the time. And, with it being so high-profile, any issues or challenges the project came up against had a way of finding themselves on the pages of the media. This meant we had to get it right.

The project was three years long – the first year was all about the design. The second and third about the implementation. I joined as a team member, but over the course of the three years was promoted to be part of the Design Authority Team.

It was a particularly interesting account to work with because, in addition to building the infrastructure behind the programme, we also became responsible for running and managing the call centres and testing the system and processes: I was one of the first people to register as a London road user and test the charging system myself.


You’ve been working with SAP for a long time, but you talk about all of these projects with the energy and excitement of a new recruit — what is it that you love so much about working with SAP?

The great thing about working with different companies on their transformation is that every project is different. I've worked in the automobile sector, in electronics and logisitics, and each and every company has something very different that they bring to the table — and that something has to be translated into SAP. It’s that element that brings a different challenge to every project – and, for me, that’s where the fun is - working out how we can bring that unique element into SAP- a broadly off-the-shelf solution.

Organisations don’t want to compromise- they have a list of workflows and processes that have contributed to their success. While they wish to switch to an out-of-the-box solution, they want the freedom and flexibility to tailor it to their needs. Part of my role is identifying what capabilities are on the list because they’ve evolved into being, and which are there because they are critical to the business’s success. While revisiting some of these implementations now in the new age of cloud computing and agentic AI, we also have an opportunity to get rid of the processes and objects that no longer serve today’s needs. That is the reinvention opportunity available to many large private and public sector organisations.


How do you deal with unexpected challenges within a project?

It goes without saying that wherever possible, we plan and provision to minimise surprises and avoid any issues arising that haven’t been expected. However, surprises

can’t be avoided the entire time so, on the occasion we do see a potential issue emerge on the horizon, I bring the project leadership team in confidence early on, keeping them informed of any situations that arise or are likely to arise. I also bring the client into confidence, so they know exactly the challenges we’re facing. I don’t believe in trying to side-step an issue, as I like to build long-term relationships with our customers based on trust. As a consultant, you don’t just need to act in your client’s best interests — they need to have confidence that you are acting in their best interests.


You’ve got extensive experience both in the private and the public sector – what’s the biggest point of difference between them and which do you prefer?

I’ve worked with companies in different countries including Europe, Asia, North and South America, with people from many different geographies and cultures. Wherever you are, public sector organisations are, by their very nature, risk-averse. They often have multiple levels of decision makers which contrasts dramatically with some privately owned organisations like General Motors. I worked for General Motors on a project for Chevrolet Europe once, where almost every decision was taken by the programme lead. This created a very short decision-making chain and a allowed a focus on quick execution.

Another key difference between the two sectors is the hours they keep. With private sector clients, in some cases, there is an expectation that, when the heat is on, operations will continue almost around the clock with late finishes and early starts. With public sector clients security or confidentiality reasons often mean they don’t have a culture of taking their work home with them. While my son was growing up, I preferred this way of working as it enabled me to see him each day. Now my son is older, I can be more fluid about how I work, but of course, it’s always nice to maintain a work/life balance whenever possible.


How do you see your role within Invenio?

As a Solution Architect, I help organisations determine the priority level of their wish list and how their needs can be delivered. Then, I lead the design and architecture of the end-to-end SAP S/4HANA solutions to support the enterprise-wide digital transformation initiative and drive the adoption of SAP S/4HANA capabilities across the business. We deliver what we can with existing off-the-shelf SAP and BTP. Then, for those processes and workflows that can’t be accommodated in this way, we use ABAP programming to bridge the gap. This combination enables us to effectively integrate legacy systems and third-party applications and deliver a solution that is both scalable and future-ready for the customer.

One of the great things about working with Invenio is the size and scale of our technical team. With a diverse pool of expertise based all around the world, we have the knowledge within the organisation to close any skills gap that may appear on a particular project. At the end of the day, I want to get the best solution for the client – that invariably means achieving a balance between finding a reliable, stable solution capable of meeting the organisation’s needs, keeping costs as low as possible, and delivering on time. I work closely with clients to achieve this. I’ve been with Invenio for over a year now, but I’m really looking forward to working with more clients and helping them find their way forward with SAP.


Anand, it’s been lovely to meet you and to learn a bit more about the man behind the reputation. Thank you for your time.


Anand is a Senior Functional Consultant and Solutions Architect at Invenio. You can find more details about his career to date on his Linkedin Page.

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