How did you find yourself within the world of SAP? This is a question I have asked candidates daily for the previous 16+ years. The answers vary but they follow a common theme. The theme is that nobody generally studies SAP at University or College or decides at school or University to go on to become a SAP consultant.
The stories are a lot more fluid and circumstantial. Generally, the stories we hear go along the lines of “I was working at company X in finance/sales/manufacturing when they decided to implement SAP and my boss asked me if it was something I was willing to get involved in as I knew the business so well. I got involved, learned a lot and here I am 15+ year later working as a SAP consultant”.
So why is this relevant?
Precision Sourcing recently ran the Australian SAP Talent Market Survey and from this, we discovered a number of insights with one of the most compelling being that 70% of SAP resources in Australia come with 10+ years’ experience. The SAP talent market is, therefore, ageing and lacking an influx of new talent.
With SAP the most dominant ERP technology in Australia across federal and state government as well as prevalent in the private sector we, therefore, face a talent shortage challenge.
Where is the next generation of SAP talent coming from and what can clients do to possibly adapt to the challenge?
We recently discussed this very question in a Precision Sourcing Vlog:
Australian Markey Survey Vlog
We asked several leading people within SAP here in Australia what their story was and how they found themselves in the World of SAP.
“As a geophysicist, I loved solving problems using computers. What I liked less was the lack of visible impact my work had and the lack of interaction with people. So, when the opportunity arose to move into business IT – namely SAP – I grabbed it with both hands and have not looked back since: I continue to enjoy using technology to solve problems and I very much like solving problems for people and ‘make things better’.” Dr. Andree Leindenfrost – Architect and Strategy Executive
“It all happened by accident or looking back I must have wanted/ attracted this. I really didn’t want to do month end back in 1981 and Mobil Oil Australia was in the process of implementing the Accounts Receivable module of SAP R2 and I pretty much said to them, that I would be very happy to learn something new. Back then SAP R2 was very new and I know I spent days and nights just playing in the Development system of SAP to understand how it all works.
The Accounts Receivable system that was used was on a Balance Forward set up. With the new SAP R2, all accounts were set up as open items and customers were expected to tell us what invoices were being paid and what were getting short paid. It also gave us a view of all outstanding accounts within minutes. As years went by as SAP evolved so did I.” Vivien Fletcher – SAP Business Analyst
Share your story? How did you get into the World of SAP?
