SAP Training underestimated
Demir Barlas in the ”The SAP Training Lie“ expresses his concerns about the positioning of third party companies as “authorized” SAP training partner, particularly in India.
There are at least 15 companies in India alone on SAP’s own list of SAP Education Partners, but apparently that is not what Mr. Barlas means. His view is that newbees trying to get into the SAP market are trained by unqualified third parties, leading to unsufficient skills of the people starting a career as a SAP professional. “When SAP skills get diluted, projects fail”.
In that line of thinking, the education of SAP trainers (training the end users in a company how to use SAP) is equally important. SAP has a whole new certification model for consultants, motivated by the need to not only be knowledgable about the software but also about the business processes. But there is no specific education for SAP trainers i.e. a qualification as certified SAP trainer.
SAP trainers, who have contact with most of the first users of a new SAP system, can have a great impact on the success or failure of a SAP implementation. They need to have a thorough understanding of how all the business processes and SAP tie together just like certified SAP consultants. And they also have to have the skills to overcome the inevitable objections users have when confronted with changes in an organisation. The risks of letting a junior consultant or an inexperienced person (or an offshore remote trainer by the way) train the SAP end users in our opinion are underestimated.
With SAP’s training business revenue in 2007 exceeding 400 million euros (that’s over $600,000,000) and a growth of +7% compared to the previous year we can be certain to hear more about this.
June 12th, 2008 at 6:32 am
Demir Balas’s blog was not exactly targetted in context to your explanation here and i have commented in his blog as well. He was making a big fuss on the term “authorized training partner” vs “Education partners” when in reality training is provided by a partner authorized to conduct SAP training to professionals by SAP. Why i got amused is i know there are many institutes [NOT SAP EDUCATION PARTNERS even] who are making quick money by offering courses as low as S$3000 without eligibility to sit for certification and it is these offerings which can be probably termed third parties with unqualified trainers doing training.
Please do not confuse us since we have spent money for an internationally recognized certification (unless you say that such certificates after a lot of hard work and investment are unqualified).