Hello Learning Aspirants!
Many of new SAP aspirants or consultants have the question that do we require to do SAP certification? How does it help in my career? Is certification compulsory to get into SAP consulting? If not why recruiters or clients are preferring the same? There are multiple thoughts on that. Let us discuss.
I am happy to discuss about this topic reason being that it would be a next logical step post my previous SAP community blog on
“So you want to enter SAP consulting”. Once they decided about their career towards ERP, they must get into acquiring required knowledge into their specific chosen area be it a “Technical Consulting” or “Functional Consulting”.
Hence people can plan their career properly. Because planning their career involves, their energy, money, time and many other sacrifices. If they get good idea about this then perhaps it would be great help for them to plan their resources effectively!
How to get right fit people?
Generally, in IT industry for any role, the skill and knowledge what they acquire in relevant field is most important compare to other elements. Because any lack in that leads to huge disaster in business or process. Also in IT, there are various software / hardware are used to control the particular system. For example, each system is designed with specific language /operating system / hardware which require specific knowledge on that. The guy who has that knowledge can handle that without any issues. Now the real magic questions come into play.
How to get right fit people? or How I can be a right fit for this role?
The answer could be two school of thoughts. One based on the firm or client who is going to select the candidate and provide the role in their firm. Another one is based on candidate or learner perspective.
On client or firm’s perspective
On the point of view Client who is going get service from IT consulting partner, the very basic question in their back of the mind is that How do I evaluate the person to perform the role which may require specific knowledge or skill? This is very important question and careful action is required. Because it is something like getting consulting from Heart specialist for heart related deceases. In real world, the selection process is based on multiple level tests / interviews / cross reference etc. Still there could be dilemma on how to get a confidence? How do I believe that the candidate has acquired complete or good knowledge in specific function? The underlying principle here is to get the right skill people to manage their IT system which is most fundamental base for their business success.
On the point of view of consulting IT company who is going to recruit the candidate for their consulting service, it is a brand image to provide right fit people to their customers and hence they can gain the confidence of client and get more additional business.
On learners’ perspective
Generally, the learner think that how do I gain / enhance the knowledge in specific IT function? Probably their academy may provide very basic knowledge. To get into deep dive, acquiring specialized knowledge is very important. Here learners are either aspirant of SAP consultant who is going to implement the IT system or the client who is going to adapt the IT system in their firm.
Here people may think that why should client to acquire the knowledge on IT system. It is very interesting question. Since client is investing huge amount of investment /energy / resource to implement a IT system, the pressure for them is to get the best implemented system to suit their complete business need. Unless they do not know the complete functionality / options / scalability of the system / easy maintenance etc. of the system they can’t extract what they want?
The learners could be either of fresher or experienced person. People may think that why do experienced persons go for learning? Here is the crux of the game. The simple answer is “
Survival”. The nature of IT industry is compelling to do so.
Technologies are very often changing. Completely new platforms / software / hardware emerging. That too these changes are happening in very short span of time. Unless people who is smart enough to sense these changes and prepare themselves, survival is question mark.
Another important compelling reason is
cost pressure of the firm or market salability of the people. People who is experienced in specific area is expected to
upgrade their knowledge by get into new area in existing software or altogether new software which are currently live in market. Hence, he can perform multi task and thereby reducing the cost of the project or he can get competitive remuneration in the market.
Who will certify? And Why?
So far, we discussed about the “N
eed for Right Fit” person to perform specific role in IT firm. Now the next question is who will certify? And Why? How do Firms are believing this certification? It is quite simple. The firm who is developing the software / hardware product will provide required knowledge / training, conduct the exam and finally provide the certification. Since the product development firm itself providing or authorized to provide this training, there is a strong reason to believe this certification thinking that they would have imparted required knowledge and people who have completed the certification would have learnt / acquired complete knowledge.
SAP certification
Like other software product companies, ERP giant SAP also has their own training centers and providing certification on their various products. SAP also authorized some professional training institute like Atos to conduct training on SAP and finally SAP conduct the exam and provide SAP Certification.
How do you approach SAP certification?
There are various options to approach SAP certification considering their own convenience.
- Getting certification from “SAP Training Centers” all over the globe.
- Certification through “SAP Certification Hub” but online training in “SAP Learning Hub” or “SAP class room training” is mandatory.
- Getting training from through SAP authorized training centers and certification from SAP.
- Appearing SAP certification in “SAP TechEd” in discounted price.
- Getting training or work experience in current organization and go for “SAP Direct Certification”.
- Getting training or work experience in current organization and go for “SAP Direct Certification” through “SAP Certification Campaign” in discounted price.
The choice is obviously yours. Based on your affordability / time / experience you can choose any one of above mode. But for beginners the choice would be option 1 and 2. Probably they can try for other options once they get into IT firm.
You can reach for SAP certification at
https://training.sap.com/certification/
How does SAP certification help to enhance their profile or profession?
Now let us debate or discuss the main topic of how does certification helps my career. If you think merely SAP certification alone helps my profile or profession obviously it is not!
It is a starting point for any career or get into new area. It is to convince yourself or the firm that you had acquired required knowledge. But they must develop other skills as well to succeed in their career like domain knowledge / consulting skills etc. I have done many interviews for my organization and found that some people who have got certification does not have required other skill and may not be suitable for required role. At the same time, I also had other experience that people who have vast experience did not have basic knowledge of the subject. Either case the ultimate end result was not succeeded.
Based on my experience, I convinced myself that any “Certification” obviously a “Competitive Advantage” in a career or market and obviously it adds value to profile and profession. The reason being is that it is a “Single Source of Truth” to gain the knowledge and get the “Confidence of Client”.
Hope I would have cleared your basic doubts on SAP certification. Now you would have got fare idea. Best of luck for your immediate certification! Do happy learning.
If you find this information is useful, for the benefit of others, request you to share this in manifold and let everyone benefited out of this information!
Thank you and meet again in another blog on SAP.
Sundaresan.K
Senior SAP Functional Logistics Consultant.
