The acute shortage of specialists on SAP products harmful to the company.
Thomas Ueylgam
SAP managers of the problem of lack of expertise is well known. By early 2007, after several years of turnover for the quarter grew quarter, top managers of German software giant, including Leo Apoteker, who today along with Henningom Kagermannom serves as general director of SAP, increasingly became hear nastorazhivayuschey shortage of specialists in the market for SAP.
In the “ecosystem” SAP specialists, ERP-versed in applications and have experience working with relevant products company, becoming a sort of “endangered species”.
“Apoteker initiated discussion of this problem – recalls Joe Vesthuizen, vice president of SAP strategy for education and business development. — He met with customers and with partners, and it turned out that this widespread trend. It was difficult to find qualified people, and this prevents businesses use to benefit their businesses introduced their information systems “.
Cold figures show: the world lacks 30-40 thousand experts on SAP, needed to support its software products and clients.
“This deficit, in turn, creates an almost critical fluctuations in supply and demand”, – said David Foot, head of Foote Partners, research data which showed that the fee for such a scarce skills software SAP, significantly increased over last year, bear the financial burden even for large enterprises.
The worsening situation with a shortage of manpower has proved extremely nekstati for SAP, because the company now deploying a new generation of strategic platforms and applications, which require even more talented people with skills in demand even more. This is a new platform integration and management of business processes NetWeaver, tools, business intelligence and data management, as well as its well-known software enterprise resource planning (in this case – the latest version of its ERP 6.0).
In addition, the SAP solution on the market of small and medium-sized businesses, where the company had never worked, but it feels very promising, require the “right balance” of skilled professionals in the market.
The problem faced by in SAP, may seem a consequence of the success of the company: too much demand for its software and lack of experts able to install and maintain it. But for business SAP is becoming a serious obstacle. “This is evidence of success – Vesthuizen noticed. — But too quick success could easily turn into a loop on the neck “.
Historically, the company SAP little known outside the scope of business applications and solutions mezhkorporativnyh. Leaders of SAP, unlike its competitors from Oracle, not allocated marketing “extremism”. In addition, SAP has no historical popularity of IBM or appeal as the undisputed symbol of Google Internet-era.
Once again in this SAP saw six months ago. The company conducted a survey among university students in China, Germany and the United States to find out how they represent what SAP, that they know about it and consider whether they are as a career option.
“We then compared their understanding of our company with the submission of IBM, Accenture, Oracle and Google”, – said Vesthuizen.
“We found that we need still a lot to do to become aware of SAP specialists – he acknowledged, commenting on the results. — Not when they come to our company, and before that “.
Extensive SAP plan to fill the shortage of IT professionals in the industry focused on several key areas, where the company previously little promoted themselves and their software products.
First of all, SAP is trying to teach ourselves better and more actively promote job working in their area – work in the company SAP, in IT departments of its clients, systems integrators and consultants – through the Internet and social networking sites, as well as other traditional marketing tools.
“We are trying to promote the idea that the ecosystem of SAP – a place where you can succeed where you open up new opportunities – said Vesthuizen. — In terms of marketing we are beginning to increasingly assert themselves and appeal to the audience that previously remained outside our field of view “.
In SAP intend to talk about themselves students of colleges and universities and even high-school children, who may be interested in automation technology businesses. University initiative SAP University Alliance Program has more than ten years, but, as Vesthuizen, in a sense it has remained unused asset.
The purpose of this program (it is now involved more than 700 universities), according to Vesthuizena, is to participate in shaping the market and influence the future leaders. SAP does so by providing their systems and applications for university curriculum, students are familiar with SAP and seeking to ensure that university graduates were among many wishing SAP ecosystem regarded as one of the options when the time comes to determine their future.
Furthermore, SAP is expanding strategic relationships with several dozen of its leading partners (which accounted for approximately 70% of implementations software solutions SAP), to alleviate or even eliminate some of the obstacles to growth associated with the acute shortage of professional IT staff.
Finally, as noted Vesthuizen, SAP now offers not only advanced and multi-training programs and certification within the online learning and more flexible pricing structure. In addition, the company offers courses that provide training in various languages, in particular, in addition to English and German, and even in Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and French, as well as the language of Mandarin – the most common dialect of Chinese. “We reorganized the entire certification program, – he said – and see the certification as one of the basic indicators of quality”.
According to Vesthuizena, SAP in the coming years intends to follow very closely the situation in all these areas. “We are trying to be as proactive – he said – in contrast to the reactive model, in which we are accustomed to act earlier”.
Guide SAP understands very well how all this seriously.
“There is no doubt – stressed Vesthuizen – that if we continue to not address these issues, then put into question the success of our decisions in the long run”.
Subscribe for FREE to receive our news by e-mail.