120,000+ certified SAP Consultants. 10+ years of history. A deep-seated integration between SAP and their partners. For a long time, SAP and their partners have scratched each others’ backs. SAP needed an army of consultants to spread the word and implement their software. Large consulting firms needed to up-skill their new hires and verify to themselves and the larger SAP customer community that these newly forged SAP Consultants were knowledgeable enough to get the job done. It was in the heated crucible of fast and furious SAP implementations in the 1990s that the SAP Certified Consultant strategy was born. However, in the past several years things have changed, but the SAP Certified Consultant strategy has not. How the world has changed IT budgets have shrunk. Companies are being asked to do more with less. The IT managers and CIOs are being asked to give their companies a tactical advantage over their competitors though technology. More and more the required knowledge is less about getting the system up and running and more about how to optimize, how I administer more cost-effectively and how do I improve business with my systems. SAP customers are no different. More recently these factors have also led to off-shoring. And that has caused a shift, at least physically, in the support organizations. In the consulting world, net new SAP implementations are rarer. Competition for implementation partners is as fierce as ever. Demand for certified SAP Consultants to help with implementations has dropped while the supply has increased. Proving the return on the additional investment for SAP Certified Consultants has become an ever more difficult proposition. How SAP has changed In the past 10 years, SAP has moved from almost exclusively having Fortune 1000 customers to a more diverse customer base. Our product suite has expanded from basically one product (R/3) to a whole host of products that span both the business and technical needs of out customer base. Some say that SAP is becoming a technology, but we certainly remember our roots. How SAP Education has changed SAP Education has shifted to try to meet the changing customer needs and SAP corporate goals. The format of education has moved from exclusively instructor-led to a blend of classroom and e-learning. Technology has allowed more options for delivery at customer sites and customization of courses to meet very specific customer and partner requirements. SAP Education is now, more than ever, able to offer courses that span across the entire life-cycle from Plan into Build and continuing through Run and Upgrade. There are now offerings to help up-skill not only project teams, technical teams and consultants, but also business owners, power users, end-users and executives. What needs to happen to the Certification strategy to address these changes So it’s time to rework the SAP Certification strategy. Generally, SAP Certified Professionals should span the ranks of SAP roles. It needs to expand to cover more advanced knowledge that comes with experience. And probably most importantly, SAP Certified Professionals should bring value to all phases of an SAP Implementation (Plan – Build – Run – Upgrade). So how do you bring all these pieces together? How do you meet the needs of such a diverse group of customers, partners and SAP? You refocus the certification program on the individual. It’s a community of individuals that bring value to SAP implementations. It’s this same community that increases a company’s return on IT investment. SAP already recognizes that certifying implementation knowledge has its value. So the next logical step will be to expand the certification program into other phases of the product lifecycle and deeper into the product knowledge. Three major changes to the existing program need to happen in order to fulfill this expanded scope. First, an expanded focus on SAP strategic programs (for instance EOSA) to showcase the SAP software product, SAP Education and the talents of the SAP Certified Professional community. Second, the current certification tracks and tests need to migrated and expanded into career enabling certification tracks with multiple tiers and multiple points of entry. Thirdly, SAP needs to decouple the education from the certification. By this, I mean that individuals should be free to learn their own way, be it SAP Education courses or OJT or third party books. And once individuals feel they have a solid understanding of the job they are asked to perform they should have the ability to test their skills in by taking a certification test in a local testing center. Showcase Certifications Hot topics. New technologies. Cutting edge products. There is always a buzz created when SAP (or other large software companies) announce where their products and the industry are headed. Customers are drawn into the pull of how these new ideas can be translated into higher profits, better productivity or competitive advantage. And newly minted SAP Certified Professionals should be there to help companies take advantage of these new possibilities. It’s not easy to stay on the cutting edge, but SAP should help identify and promote the talents of the elite few who can stay ahead of the curve. Multi-tiered multi-entry point Certification Tracks Experience. It’s the hardest thing to test and the most useful asset in the field. SAP can address this requirement by implementing testing that takes into account job-task analysis and depth of knowledge. Additionally, an expansion into the world of performance-based testing would be the next practical step for the SAP Certification program. But all of this needs to be framed within the context of how it helps drive an individuals career into bigger, better and more exciting and lucrative areas. So what’s in it for SAP By changing the focus of their certification from the implementation partner organization to include a broader and more complete array of SAP Professionals, SAP then use this program to drive some very real and very achievable goals. • Minimize risk to SAP and it’s customers throughout the SAP lifecycle • Increase in Partner loyalty by adding value to their more experienced consultants without huge investments in education • Reduce the Total Cost of Ownership of SAP software by certifying SAP Professionals have the knowledge required to add that additional value
