Like most of my other posts, the objective of this one is to provide useful information and help any SAP consultant with a start point to help answer questions like “Where is SAP going in the next years?” or “What is SAP’s release and maintenance strategy for it’s different products?” or the always important “When should we plan to install enhancement packages for our ERP and Netweaver Platforms?“. This and many other questions are clarified and answered in this document. This post covers Netweaver but neverthless, you might also want to read about the SAP Application Areas.

This document reflects the status of SAP’s release planning as of January 2009. It contains the intended strategies, developments, and/or functionalities of SAP solutions, applications, and technologies. I also recommend that you read one of my previous posts called The SAP Netweaver PAM, which will help you understand which components are available for each version, considering some restrictions.

With a global crisis ongoing, things have changed quite a bit in the IT and Information Systems scenario, it what concerns to employment and career development. These are good times for us to assess our own skills and check if some adjustments need to be done. Typical questions of an aware SAP Consultant can be: “Am I getting too specific in my area? Am I missing a bigger picture?”. On the other hand: “Am I too generic? Do I need to elaborate and deepen my knowledge in a specific area?”. And finally: “What will be the outcome of my actions? Will I be able to get a better job or position? Will I perform better in my current job?”.

I guess that at a given point, anyone working with SAP has asked himself these questions. As a matter of fact, anyone working in technical areas will ask these questions from time to time. My opinion is that it’s good to be aware and wanting to make changes when necessary and if the opportunity arises. Of course there is the idea, but you also need to put it in practice… we really must develop our areas of expertise if we want to survive in a “hostile” world as it is nowadays.

Anyway, by browsing around the web and talking to people from the area, there are some conclusions to be analyzed. Independent SAP analyst Jon Reed, for instance, has written an interesting post regarding what he classified as Hot, Warm and Not-so-warm SAP areas.

The first consideration is that a “hot” skill might be “torrid” to person A and totally dull to person B. Jon Reed shares his thoughts in a very clear way:

I’m not a big fan of recommending “hot” SAP areas. The skills chase often leaves a crazy career path behind it. What makes sense is not to chase what’s hot but to add a new skill that logically builds on core experience. There’s a big difference between a natural extension of skills (which looks good on a resume) and the mad pursuit of something new (which tends to look frantic). With that disclaimer in mind, here are some hot (and not so hot) areas that the folks I talked to singled out. Keep in mind that when we say “hot,” we don’t mean that these skills were mentioned in a PowerPoint at a trade show. For our purposes, “hot” means that we’ve seen these skills on actual job orders and placed people with these skills.

Hot Areas

• Core Financials, HR, and to a lesser extent SD/MM on the ECC 5.0 and ECC 6.0 versions of SAP in particular. On the mySAP Financials side, the ECC FI New General Ledger is “very hot.” On the mySAP HCM side, beyond the core HR functions like Payroll and Benefits, advanced HR functionalities like Performance Management and LSO (Learning Solution, e-Learning, etc.) are also in demand.
• NetWeaver and BI: XI/PI installation, ECC systems upgrade from R/3, BW upgrade from 3.5 to BI 7.0, MDM 5.5.

Warm

• mySAP Business Suite (SRM, CRM, PLM)
• Some industry verticals, in particular the retail solutions (IS-Retail and IS-AFS)

Not-so-warm

• ABAP/Legacy Skills and Supply Chain Planning (APO component of mySAP SCM)

Surprising trend: Has the power of certification returned?

One thing that comes as a bit of a surprise: For the first time in years, I’m hearing firsthand stories about folks who managed to break into SAP armed only with a certification. Recently, I heard from two lucky people who have done it: one on the Financials side and one on the CRM side.

At this point, I haven’t seen enough broad confirmation on this point to recommend certifications again as a way of breaking into SAP, but we can say this much: When folks with only certification are getting consulting jobs, that means the demand for SAP skills is as high as it’s been in years. Just remember that it’s still a “winners and losers” market and that the demand for skills is most likely focused on particular niches, most of them on the functional side of SAP. “Research before you leap” still applies.

Are these bad times for freelancers?

Freelancers in SAP are known for their high daily rates. The more experienced and more full-cycle implementations they have in their resumes, the more experienced they are, therefore, the more expensive they are. But clients aren’t paying for nothing, most of the freelancers I know start producing the minute they touch the systems and due to their large experience, they solve problems.

An important sign that the SAP market is on the move is the number of companies that are looking to bring in more permanent employees for their in-house SAP teams. SAP customers now want to bring quality SAP resources in-house that they can rely on, to reduce costs and promote those people solid careers. Having a permanent SAP job can also be an opportunity to develop your skills. There are also companies who offer training as a fringe benefit, whereas a freelancer will have to pay any specific training from his own pocket.

Conclusion

In case your having doubts, always choose to develop your skills instead of thinking and molding your career in terms of the rate you wish to accomplish.

Read Jon Reed’s full article here

• SAP Consulting Trends in SearchSAP.com

Additional links and resources

• IT Jobs Watch, Tracking the IT Job Market
• Payscale salary reports
• Jon Reed on SAP Consulting

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SAP is providing an offline access for the TechEd materials, covering the lectures, hands-on sessions, support documentation and many more. SAP launches this special offer for an attractive price (€ 300), since you will gain legitimate access to hundreds of materials – each session is available as on-demand streaming e-Class  along with printable PDF presentation materials.

Following the same logic as in the real TechEd sessions, all the materials are categorized in Expertise Level (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced) as well as the type of target audience (Business Intelligence, Consultants, System Administrators, etc).

What do I need to do to access?

You can buy these sessions on-line in the Virtual SAP TechEd 2008 website, by clicking on the “Buy Now” button on the right side of the page.

What am I buying?

1. Virtual SAP TechEd Complete Package with Offline Access 08 – €300,00

Offline Access for Virtual SAP TechEd 08 is now available for purchase as part of the Virtual SAP TechEd Complete Package with Offline Access 08.

Offline Access for Virtual SAP TechEd 08 ? a new feature ? is designed to provide you with the convenience of downloading and then watching VSTE 08 eClasses offline. With Offline Access for Virtual SAP TechEd 08, you gain the freedom to upgrade your SAP skills whenever and wherever you want!

Buy your Virtual SAP TechEd Complete Package with Offline Access 08 today containing with 2008, 2007 and 2006 online sessions and receive 08 Offline Access no extra charge.

2. Virtual SAP TechEd Complete Package – €245,95

The Virtual SAP TechEd Complete Package (more than 500 eClasses) is the comprehensive assembly of live, SAP TechEd conference sessions recorded at the 2008, 2007 and 2006 SAP TechEd conferences.

With the the complete package, you get in-depth coverage of SAP’s key platform, technology, and strategic initiatives. Each session is available as on-demand streaming video along with a printable PDF presentation.

3. SAP Netweaver and SOA Track – €110,00

With the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Track subscription, there are no more excuses not to pick up, learn, and build your expertise in SAP’s SOA. As the recognized direction for SAP, SOA skills are still leading edge, but they won’t be for much longer. Don’t get left behind. SAP customers are looking to their trusted advisors to help them use SOA to transition into more flexible implementations.

The SOA Track focuses on SOA and the platform that enables it – NetWeaver. This track brings sessions from SAP’s premier education conference 2008,2007 and 2006- SAP TechEd  – to your desktop. Live SAP TechEd sessions were video recorded and their presentation materials converted to PDF. These specially selected sessions are designed to start with the basics of this enterprise strategy and demonstrate its implementation using tools and technologies.

4. Business Process Experts Track – €145,00

Melding technical and functional expertise isn’t easy no matter from which side you start. What are the key skills you need to learn? This specially crafted “track” selects  sessions that comprise the foundational base for those who want to become business process experts. Supplementing a deep dive into enterprise Service Oriented Architecture are introductions to a broad range of topics.

5. Custom Development Track – €110,00

The Custom Development track brings sessions from SAP’s premier education conference – SAP TechEd – to your desktop. Live SAP TechEd sessions were video recorded and their presentation materials converted to PDF. The specially selected sessions in this track are particularly applicable to the interests of and challenges faced by ABAP and Java developers. Includes ABAP and Java development.

Watch a sneak preview (5 minutes) of a presentation by clicking here – Virtual SAP TechEd 2008 demo.

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