AS-IS Market: The SAP market has progressed slowly these days. It is very difficult to get through Jobs. If you are looking for consultants who have searched for jobs since Oct-08 you will understand very well where their search Eat. There have been many cases where consulting companies and even SAP deny this, but let’s face it – The number of jobs is a very good indicator of how well the market is doing.
But on the bright side, there are subtle but certain indications from the industry about safety. Financial giants are repaying their loans, small industries are opening up the market and jobs in other IT sectors are starting to grow again. What this means for those looking for jobs in the SAP marketing space is that something good is happening for us. But to understand where the market is, we must first understand who SAP’s customers are.
SAP Clients : First in the industry, SAP is well established with Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies – Most of them use SAP as their core ERP. But clearly they are M& As in the image of this time and that just means more work for SAP consultants sitting in these and other affiliated companies. But not in these giants is the bulk of growth. Its small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Since the recession started, sales have been pretty flat for SMEs except for some really new ones. And they don’t want to retire their ‘QuickBooks-Kinda-Software‘. SAP is very aggressive in this space with the most serious diseases (SAP moved the margins of Oracle Oracle) and according to SAP, they plan to increase their income by at least 50% from 2014.
Room For Growth: Now I come to think. Where can market share come from? Fortune 500 team? It is not certain. They are set in their ways and have a sum of revenue that they bring in. SAP can work for certain benefits, but at the cost of cutting costs and driving efficiencies, but there are limits to it. The amount of revenue growth is coming from new customer acquisitions and new fortune 500 companies are not being born that fast. SMEs – They hold the key to SAP’s growth and ultimately to increasing the Job market. SAP already has more than 65,000 small and medium-sized customers worldwide. For a 50% increase in income they were getting at least as much more. And thats where it would come from Jobs. With tough competition from tier-II/tier-II ERP vendors, SAP is doing well to definitely beat customer service expectations .
Why Job in SAP. What are you doing now? : There are many freshers and experienced consultants looking for jobs in the SAP market space. And frankly at the time most of them almost quit (Typically Freshers). My opinion? Don’t give up just yet. You ask why? The answer would depend on whether you are a novice or an experienced consultant.
- For Freshers : Here’s a hard cold that works in your favor – withdrawal is a big level. If you work hard enough, you will put extra hours in learning the basics (even the most experienced consultants don’t know at least one very basic aspect in SAP customizing, because they only used to do what they did in their verticals). So it’s a great time to learn. Visit SAP training websites. Buy books and learn. Do it yourself with the basics. Prepare yourselves for the interviews.
- To Experienced Consultants: I have experienced many experienced consultants myself who hated themselves and the market because I couldn’t get the job. Just think the other way around for a moment – Why should they hire you rather than a new consultant with a couple of years of experience (or probably just as well trained). Sometimes, it becomes much easier to just stand back and observe the market in terms of trends, demand/supply balance and hot technologies. Experience what technologies in SAP complement what you already know. Sometimes lateral movements are good, and sometimes moving in a straight line as opposed to vertical makes much more sense. It depends on the expectation and whether the job market can beat your expectation or not. For example, a SAP SD consultant with a certain billing guarantee does not expect the same in this market as he expected a year ago. A relatively lateral move can be learning an IS (Industry Solution). Now it could not make much sense to transfer to the newer IS-CIL SD or IS-CIL TSW, but its expectations are much lower. He/She/Sap CRM could be content, as there is much more work to be done with billing, location etc. It could be a relatively vertical move in SAP CRM (either technical or functional or both). With a good knowledge of SAP Sales, CRM should be just a step up. Similarly, FICO consultants might try Consolidation (ECCS or BCS) and the consultant should move SAP BW towards BI or BO.
Conclusion: The market is tough right now, but should lift soon. The supply-demand equation is pretty predictable, but it’s bound to change sooner rather than later. SAP’s market projections and surrounding financial markets are major signs that the market is growing. But the market is dying to become a different beast, one that forces greater skills to become obsolete and, if you’re ready, they’re yours on the way to success.
