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The independent magazine for SAP professionals

SAP NATION: QUANTIFYING THE SAP ECONOMY

Issue 28 | Summer 2014/15

USER EXPERIENCEMORE THAN JUST

A PRETTY

(INTER)FACE

EDUCATIONCREATING AN SAP

LEARNING MAP

FOR 2015

BEST&LESSEMBRACING

E-COMMERCE WITH

HYBRIS

www.insidesap.com.au

Mobilityspecial- making mobile simple- how to build the

business case

- key consumer

trends to watch


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SAUG Canberra Conference 2015Wednesday 18th MarchNational Convention Centre Canberra

With a dedicated HR Streamas well as two general streamsfeaturing various SAP solutions, find out how you can use new

and updated software to change the way you do business.

Add value to your SAUG membershipby attending this one-day event.To register, or for more information on joining SAUG,

head to our website: www.saug.com.au

We look forward to seeing you in Canberra!


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4 Editors note

5 News in focus: SAP unveils itsnext-generation business suite

Hot Topics

Mobility special

8 Making mobile simple: SAPs RickCostanzo

10 Making the mobile business case:Adam Sivell

14 Mobility trends to watch in 2015

15 Whats hot in mobile theAustralian perspective: Rocio

Bustinza

18 Quantifying the SAP economy withVinnie Mirchandani

SAP Leaders

20 Bringing a start-up mindset toemerging mobility markets:

Steve Medeiros

22 On the Move

Case Studies

24 Refreshing a brand with a newcustomer experience: Best&Less

Technology

28 User experience More than justa pretty (inter)face

31 Mobility Why we are steeringclear of SAP UI5: Greg Donaldson

32 Business intelligence Buildingan analytics powerhouse: 7 steps

to success

35 Change management Focusingon training success: Dr Susan

Foster

37 Finance Tracking the health ofyour accounts payable process:

Christophe du Monet

Careers

40 Creating an SAP learning map

42 Vendor spotlight

8

24

15

28

20

40


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SAP unveilsits next-generationbusiness suite

When Hasso Plattner invented SAP HANA, we knew the daywould come for SAP Business Suite to be reinvented for the

digital age. At a moment when businesses around the world

need to enter new markets and engage with their customers

in any channel, theres now an innovation platform designed

to drive their growth. This is an historic day and we believe it

marks the beginning of the end for the 20th century IT stack

and all the complexity that came with it, McDermott said.

SAP S/4HANA, as it is known, is a new product built

natively up on the SAP HANA platform to take full advantage

of its real-time, in-memory capabilities and incorporate the

SAP Fiori user experience design principles.

Available via cloud, on-premise and hybrid deploymentoptions, S4/HANAs first available module will be Simple

Finance, followed by Simple Logistics later in 2015, and

others to follow.

According to an FAQ on S/4HANA, written by John

Appleby, SAP Mentor and global head of HANA at Bluefin

Solutions, one of the most significant aspects of the launch

is that it will only run on the HANA platform a departure

from SAPs previous approach, under which SAP products

where designed to run on database platforms from other

vendors such as Oracle, Microsoft and IBM. SAP has also

said that innovation will be focused on HANA-based

solutions. (John Applebys blog can be found at http://www.bluefinsolutions.com/Blogs/John-Appleby/February-2015/The-

SAP-Business-Suite-4-SAP-HANA-%28SAP-S4-HANA%29/,

and is very much worth a read, both for the content and the

discussion in the comments.)

SAP will be reselling S/4HANA via the partner ecosystem,

with pre-defined migration and deployment packages. Its

early adopter partners include Accenture, Capgemini, Deloitte

Consulting, EY and PwC a selection which suggests large

enterprises will be the key target market for this new offering.

Clarifying key information for customersFollowing the launch, Irfan Khan, CTO for global customer

operations, sought to answer some key customer questions in

a blog post, Are you ready for SAP S/4HANA? in a blog post

on the SAP Community Network.

On the critical question of how much effort it will take

IT and the business to make the transition to the great

simplifier, Khan said one of the design goals of the project

was to make migration to SAP S/4HANA as non-intrusive

as possible.

Moving to SAP S/4HANA for a typical existing SAP ERP

6.0 customer will require a database migration from any

database to SAP HANA, combined with a move to the latest

enhancement package and the deployment of the exchange

innovation, meaning the current code is replaced by the new

one, Khan wrote. Moving to SAP S/4HANA for an existing

SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA customer will be

even faster as only the deployment of the exchange innovation

is required where current code is replaced with the new one.

He recommended taking an incremental approach to ensure

a successful transition to the new system.First, a feasible technical migration will move you into SAP

S/4 HANA as a foundation to consume key innovations, and

then you can innovate on top of re-invented core processes

A net new implementation of an SAP S/4HANA system is even

simpler thanks to guided configuration and easy onboarding

from the discovery of the solution via cloud trials to the

deployment with preconfigured best practices, Khan wrote.

Response to the launchProviding the customer perspective, several SAP user groups

around the world issued statements on the launch of S/4

HANA. Geoff Scott, CEO of the Americas SAP User Group(ASUG), said what SAP promised with S/4HANA is a

new suite of applications, a new user experience and a new

offering of deployment models, all the things that we, as

SAP customers, have been clamouring for for so long, and

SAP chose the New York Stock

Exchange as the venue to launchSAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA,which CEO Bill McDermottsaidis the companys most importantrelease in two decades, and redefinesthe concept of enterprise resourceplanning for the 21st century. FreyaPurnellreports.

S/4HANA


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described it as a critical next step to keep us relevant and

engaged in the future technology landscape.

While both the German-speaking SAP User Group

(DSAG) and the UK and Ireland SAP User Group both said

it represented a logical progression in the evolution of the

Business Suite, they were more circumspect about the pathway.

Philip Adams, chairman of the UK and Ireland SAP User

Group said, For existing customers, the migration path to

S/4HANA will be important; they will need the time and

resources to be comfortable with the business case (and

potential disruption) before migrating to S/4HANA. With

SAP extending maintenance for ECC6.0 until 2025, there is

time for customers to plan their move and carefully assess the

migration options.

The view amongst the analyst community was also mixed,

with concern over the relative lack of detail in the productannouncement, and an incomplete picture of what it means

for customers.

Ray Wang, principal analyst, founder and chairman at

Constellation Research, says SAP customers are looking at S/4

HANA because it is important for them to understand what

their future roadmap is going to be.

The drawback is you are now locked into SAPs database

where many customers are already comfortable with SQL

Server or IBM DB2 or Oracle, Wang says. To customers,

while its not a bad database, its not a proven database.

In particular, customers want to know which industry

verticals will be supported by S/4HANA.

Some of these companies have 20 or 30 years of Oracle

experience for example, in oil and gas and manufacturing.

These folks are very deep into their functionality and

capability, and SAP has a greenfield product.

Another issue arising in Wangs discussion with customers

is some confusion about how licensing deals will be affected,

and what they might have to pay to upgrade.

[SAP] seriously need to have an upgrade plan for HANA

that considers how they can migrate a customer based on

what they paid for. Customer needs to know how much more

they have to pay to do the upgrades, Wang says.

What we have been arguing for the last two years is that ifthey are going to do an upgrade plan for HANA, they need to

cover the training for the resources. Otherwise no one is going

to do this. So if they want people to move to HANA, they

have got to make that shift as well.T h i n n n t m z in f r r f i n l

Are you interested in learning about SAP S/4HANA? open-

SAP is running a MOOC to explain more, titled SAP Busi-

ness Suite 4 SAP HANA in a Nutshell, starting 25 March

2015. Visit https://open.sap.com/courses/s4h1 to register.


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ISAP: What are some of the key trends you have seen inenterprise mobility adoption in Australia over the last year?

Rocio Bustinza:The adoption trends have manifested in two

streams; one represented by the evolution of IT offices and

the other following the adoption journey of lines of business.

Having said that, enterprise mobility per se is still at a maturing

stage within Australian organisations.

Mobility is part of every CIOs agenda, but firstly represented

as a mobility strategy initiative. Organisations have recognised

their need to develop internal Mobility Centres of Excellence

to understand the competencies required to deliver and support

enterprise mobility initiatives and align them to their overall IT

strategy.On the other side, many businesses across different industries

have identified a range of mobile app opportunities to capitalise

on. For example, retail, banking, and travel businesses have

quickly released B2C applications to extend new channels for

consumers so they can access their services or purchase their

goods. Other industries have released mobile applications as

part of marketing campaigns and to be part of the digital area.

However, these initiatives are primarily tactical and not yet

embedded in the organisations core enterprise processes and

applications.

ISAP: How do you see this developing in 2015?RB:During the course of this year, we will see more strategic

mobile initiatives. Organisations will be integrating mobility

to enable key business processes that already have a mobile

component to them. For example, manufacturing, utilities,

mining and all asset-intensive organisations have started and

will continue with B2E mobile application rollouts to enable

their field workers, automate business processes and increase the

data quality accessed and captured in the field. Ultimately, these

benefits will enable real-time decision-making and improve

bottom line operational indicators.

This trend will grow this year and will soon become Mobile

First type initiatives which are more transformational.

Organisations will rethink how they operate and integrate end-

to-end business processes that start with mobile or are enabled

by mobile across multiple touchpoints; whether it is in their

supply chain triggered by an online purchase or in the field

attending to repair an electricity outage.

ISAP: How much interest are you seeing from customers

regarding mobility projects in the public sector, and what is

driving this interest?

RB:Public sector agencies are looking for ways to reach and

connect with the public, publish important information in

an effective way and most recently, create a channel for self-

service access to government services online. Many governmentagencies are joining this initiative and it would not be a surprise

if their next release is mobile enabled.

Primarily the objective is to provide citizens with the

necessary channels to access public services without the need

to contact a call centre or go to a branch. The public sector

is adopting digital practices to attain the operation and

productivity gains of mobility and its 24x7 nature of service.

Additionally, this channel will allow them to centralise and

increase the quality of data collected.

At this point in time, security issues are delaying the public

sectors mobility adoption of B2E initiatives, but I see security

alternatives maturing, which will address these concerns in thenear future.

ISAP: Have you seen any innovative projects designed to provide

better service to citizens?

Rocio Bustinza, expert in enterprisemobility SAP solutions, CapgeminiAustralia and New Zealand shares herview on the maturity of the Australianmobility market, why mobile isappealing to the public sector, andhow to make sure your mobilityinitiative delivers on its objectives.

Whats hot inmobile: theAustralianperspective

MOBILITY


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RB: The Department of Human Services developed their own

mobile applications which they deployed in the Medicare and

Centrelink branches for the use of citizens requiring services

from these agencies. One of these apps, for example, allowed

them to optimise the branch service levels by providing a self-

service kiosk app where citizens can lodge their request without

having to wait in a queue.

ISAP: In your experience, how important is user experience in

delivering effective mobility initiatives?

RB:Extremely important; mobility is all about the end user.

Due to the explosion of mobile apps in the everyday consumer

world, the user experience expectations are very high

meaning the end-user in the enterprise will expect nothing less.

Organisations need to remember mobility is all about simplicity,

performance, ease of use and an engaging user interface.We have seen some organisations trying to replicate backend

functions in a mobile device to the maximum. This is a mistake.

Overflowing mobile applications with too much functionality

will damage the user experience and, most likely, the

performance of the application.

A very simple recipe to avoid this is to engage end users during

the design of the application and throughout the build. Mobile

initiatives need to be designed to support a user role rather than

a process; it needs to provide only the information they need in

the field, which means it needs to be context-aware.

End-user adoption is a very important success metric upon

the release of an enterprise mobile application. There is no point

in investing in developing or deploying an application that will

not be used by the end-users because it is not user-friendly.

Organisations need to remember that at all times.

ISAP: What is the best way to develop and deliver great mobile

apps and platforms?

RB:We believe the only way to develop successful mobile

applications is via incremental and iterative short cycles. This

normally follows Agile principles. For SAP mobile applications,

Capgemini has developed a suitable methodology defined as

miSAP (Mobile Industrialised SAP). It is a combination of an

Agile design and build with iSAP (Industrialised SAP) artefacts

still required to augment the delivery.

End-users are involved during the design. The follow-on shortcycles or sprints deliver a fully working solution at the end of

the iterations. An incremental solution will be released with

each iteration, and a demonstration to the end users should be

scheduled in between iterations to build alignment and support

and to receive their feedback which is absorbed into the next

cycle.

When the users help design the applications based on their

role and how they will use them rather than based on a business

process, they will take ownership of the same and guarantee

successful adoption rates and post go-live mobility benefits

realisation by the organisation.T h i n n n t m z i n f r r f i n l


8/16

ON THE MOVE

This is our regular round-up of who is going where in the industry. If you have changedjobs recently or hired new staff, email us at [email protected].

On the Move

Michael Kleinemeier and Steve Singh, SAP SE

Michael Kleinemeier (left) and Steve Singh (right) have joined

SAP SEs Global Managing Board.

Kleinemeier was formerly the regional president, Middle and

Eastern Europe (MEE), and responsible for all go-to-market

activities for SAPs product portfolio. His new tasks will include

leading the worldwide version of SAP Service and Support, as

well as helping lead the Global Service and Support board area,

along with Executive Board Member Gerhard Oswald and head

of Cloud Delivery and CIO Helen Arnold.

Formerly CEO of Concur, Singh will head up SAPs Business

Network Strategy. Singh had served as Concurs CEO since

1996, and joined SAP during the companys acquisition ofConcur in December 2014.

Kerry Purcell, IBM

Kerry Purcell has been named

managing director, Australia

and New Zealand, for IBM,

replacing Jeffrey Rhoda, who

was acting in the role following

the retirement of Andrew

Stevens in August 2014.

Previously, Purcell served

as managing partner of IBM

Global Business Servicesin

Japan, where he led and grew IBMs consulting systems

integration and applications for more than three years. Prior

to this, he held senior roles in Australia and Asia Pacific with

Xchanging, HP Enterprise Servicesand Telstra.

I feel very privileged and excited to be appointed the IBM

lead for Australia and New Zealand, said Purcell. Its clear

that both Australia and New Zealand are undergoing rapid

change as the forces of cloud, mobile, social, and analytics

transform industries.

Locally, we are executing a strong strategy that will

meet this pace of change for our clients, and deliver the

higher value solutions and services they need to grow andadapt their businesses. IBM continues to make significant

investments locally that better enable our clients to take

advantage of these market shifts.

Andrew Long, Acclimation

Acclimationhas appointed

Andrew Long as practice lead for

SAP Business ByDesign following

a strong pipeline of opportunities.

Long was previously national

SAP practice manager at Artis

Group, and has a reputation for

successful delivery of large ERP

implementations, BI and changemanagement projects.

Over the past three years, Long has been involved in a

variety of ByDesign implementations, and has experience in

understanding the associated business issues and culture change

that are important in the successful outcome of these projects.

Long is qualified as a CPA, with more than 25 years business

experience across a wide variety of industries.

Grahame Reynolds, SUGEN

The SAP User Group Executive Network (SUGEN)has elected

a new chairman and three new members in the leadership team,

during its recent SUGEN meeting in Berlin.Grahame Reynolds from theSAUGExecutive Committee will

be representing Australia on the leadership team.

The new chair of SUGEN is William Khalil from SUGMENA

(Middle/North Africa), while Stein-Ove Rov, SBN (Norway),

and Rob van der Marck, VNSG (Netherlands) also join the

leadership team for the first time. David Ruiz Badia from

AUSAPE (Spain) continues his existing term.

On his appointment, Khalil said, This is a special time in

history that we are in Berlin and commemorating the 25th

anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. SUGEN and the

new leadership team will look forward for a future strongly

supporting its mission with the ambition to grow with new usergroups under a strong commitment and engagement.

SUGEN represents 16 independent SAP user groups globally.

Dean Kelly, Plaut

Plauthas appointed Dean Kelly as another SAP budgeting

and planning (BPC) lead, following its success with a

number of BPC projects.

Kelly is a lead consultant with extensive experience in

enterprise performance management (EPM) and financial

accounting system implementations.

For the past nine years, Kelly has specialised in implementing

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation software, seven ofwhich were spent with SAPas a principal consultant.

Kelly is a CPA-qualified accountant with hands-on and senior

management experience in government, financial, management,

and systems accounting.T h i n n n t m z in f r r f i n l


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10/16

MOBILITY

While plenty of people might be

embracing UI5 for mobile apps,Greg Donaldson from 10secondssoftware isnt one of them. Heexplains why here.

In many ways, we are the perfect fit to adopt SAPUI5.

We have been building mobile SAP solutions for a

number of years and have six packaged SAP approval

solutions that work on any mobile, tablet, or desktop

browser. We love responsive design and HTML5,

but we have decided to stay clear of SAPUI5 as our strategic

direction.

The general consensus in the SAP community is if you arebuilding a web application, you would use SAPUI5. But why?

Is there something special in the enterprise space that requires

this? Should all enterprise systems like Oracle also adopt their

own JavaScript framework? We are not so sure.

SAPUI5s architecture allows you to extract data from any

data source (via JSON or oData) and is not solely limited to

SAP. Therefore can we simply compare SAPUI5 against all other

data agnostic frameworks to decide what is the best JavaScript

libraries available to achieve your goal? Or do we believe the

control library, theming and easy integration with the Gateway

oData services is the best in the marketplace? These questions

are not designed to be confrontational or anti-SAPUI5, but tochallenge architects assumption that SAPUI5 is always the right

component in your toolbox for SAP web applications.

Below are the main reasons we are not moving to SAPUI5:

1. Proprietary framework no thanks

We love industry standards and the problem is SAPUI5 will

simply never be one. Alternate mainstream frameworks

such as AngularJS, Ember, or Knockout have huge

communities behind them. Innovation is rampant in the

UX space and SAPUI5 with its proprietary licensing,

small community, and SAP quirks will always be playing

catch-up. Take a quick look at the number of contributors/commits on GitHub between OPENUI5 and other

JavaScript frameworks, and you will quickly see a vast gap.

2. SAP back-end upgrade?

How can we ask our customers to perform an expensive

SAP upgrade or to install the Gateway so we can serve up

some pretty HTML? Our strategy is to take advantage of

the tens of thousands of remote-enabled functions SAP

exposes, which allows us to integrate with SAP instantlyfrom Version 4.0b onwards.

3. Browser support

Nothing gets an end-user more disappointed than when we

cant support their browser or device of choice. We have

invested a huge amount of time being compatible with as

many types of mobiles/tablets/browsers as possible because

this is important for our customers needs. We simply would

be too restricted using SAPUI5 and fail to deliver our true

bring your own device offering.

4. Front-end developers dont care

The best front-end UX developers are worth their weight

in gold they can take something complicated and make it

simple and intuitive for the end-user. That is the end goal.

Our experience has shown the best front-end developers are

not from an ABAP background, and generally know little or

nothing about SAP. These people we hire have never heard

of or care little for SAPUI5. What are we going to achieve

investing in them learning this framework?

In conclusion, we did find SAPUI5 to be a pretty solid offering.

Its foundations are built on the excellent JQuery framework,

and in some cases can allow you to integrate quickly with SAP.

SAPUI5 will be right for some companies, however for us and

our SAP customers today, we strongly believe we have made theright decision.

T h i n n n t m z in f r r f i n l

Greg Donaldson is director of 10seconds software.

Why we aresteering clearof SAPUI5


11/16

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Dr Susan Fosterdiscusseshow SAP User ExperienceManagement Software byKnoa can be used to ensure

users are effectively trainedand using the system correctly.

Enterprise systems are in a constant state of flux from

upgrades, enhancement packs, and business process

changes designed to add new functionalities and

additional features or optimise business processes by

increasing efficiency, effectiveness and agility.With all these changes, how do you ensure users are

effectively trained and using the system correctly?

One way is to establish a set of metrics more

specifically, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs can

help you focus on specific problem areas and are useful in

defining and measuring performance in terms of meeting

operational or strategic goals. In other words, KPIs are

a business metric used to demonstrate how effectively a

company meets its operational objectives, and to evaluate

its success at reaching targets. Framing KPIs in the form

of questions that focus on the problem areas at hand is

a critical factor. However, KPIs need to be constructedwith a clear understanding of the issues and the desired

outcomes. One approach might be to brainstorm an area

of concern such as user errors, identi fy the top five key

issues, and focus on these initially. For example, you

may have errors occurring with a system or users in a

particu lar department. Some examples of questions

might include:

y What is the type and duration of system error occurring

in the (production area)?

y What is the average percentage of user error in the

(production area)?

y What is the average percentage of business process

error in the (production area)?

If you want to know what issues are being experienced

by users and their frequency and location of the issue in a

specific application, then the question might be framed:

y What user errors are being experienced in xxx

application?

yWhat is the frequency and location of user errors inxxx application?

y How long does it take users to navigate a round xxx

application?

y Are users executing transactions in the best compliant

way in xxx application?

Once you obtain and accumulate the statistics, you can

establish benchmarks upon which to address actionable

metrics. However, this is not so easy. How do you obtain

the necessary metrics? Most often, analysing help desk

calls is the only way to track and trace issues end-users

are experiencing. This is certain ly a valid approach andworks well to a point, but it takes time and can be a costly

exercise to exactly pinpoint the problem. As Peter Drucker

said, If you cant measure it, you cant manage it.

How User Experience Management (UEM)software can improve resultsA support tool referred to as the SAP User Experience

Management (UEM) Software created by Knoa is

designed to optimise the performance of SAP applications

and of the people who use them. Knoa software is the

leading provider of user experience management and

workforce optimisation software. You can assess howan application performs for each user separating real

usability issues from opinions and take corrective action

to ensure value delivery you should expect from your SAP

software.

Focusing on training success


12/16

UEM software provides

a comprehensive workflow

monitoring approach to

enable drill-down to data on

specific user interactions

within SAP systems.

Dr Susan Foster,

Monash University

Jesse Bernal , a sen ior solution eng ineer at Knoa, is

certainly passionate about the product and what it can

do. Bernal originally worked for Johns Manville, a

building industry company in Denver, Colorado, who

implemented UEM software to 2000 SAP software

users. The companys main objectives behind the

implementation were to increase employee productivity

and satisfaction; improve IT response to potential end-

user errors before they were reported; install a solution

that would immediately notify IT as errors occurred in

order to proactively correct them before they impacted

operations; and to achieve a better understanding of

performance issues providing an opportunity to address

them.

The top benefits they obtained were:

y 17 per cent increase in user satisfaction and improved

productivity through accurately assessing and targeting

training requirements,

y 27 per cent decrease in user errors, and

y 100 per cent reduction in system errors by pinpointing

network performance issues.

Amongst other things, UEM software provides a

comprehensive workflow monitoring approach to enable

drill-down to data on specific user interactions within

SAP systems. For example, which fields and buttons wereused, when and what was the system response.

One critical factor to the success of the uptake of this

software solution is the identification of the end-users.

Apparently in Germany, this functionality has been

disabled. The fact that individual end-users are being

monitored is likely to leave them feeling threatened

and vulnerable. To overcome this issue, policies and

procedures should be established which outline how

interactions with users should be conducted . One way to

establish user involvement and buy-in is to ensure end-

users are part of the process to establish such policies

and procedures. If UEM solutions are going to be fully

utilised and adopted, then the establishment of accepted

policies and procedures which are viewed as supportive

are critical to their success.

If you are interested in:

y Promoting excellence in the execution of critical

business processes,

y Reducing the overall cost of user training and of IT

and support services,

y Establishing an opportunity for executive-level insight

into application usage and policy compliance,

y Providing a comprehensive workflow monitoringapproach so that you can drill down to data on specific

user interactions within SAP systems for example,

which fields and buttons were used, when and what

was the system response,

y Lowering end user support costs and reduce help desk

calls, and

y Monitoring user performance,

then SAP User Experience Soft ware by Knoa is for you.

Want to learn more? Check out these resources.

y www.sap.com/training-education/learning-software-svc/

learn/solutions/user-experience-mgmt/index.html

y www.insidesap.com.au/Market-Insights/knoa-launches-

new-executive-dashboards-for-sap-solutions

y Case study: Johns Manville: Improving end-user

experience with SAP Knoa www.sap.com/training-

education/learning-software-svc/learn/solutions/user-

experience-mgmt/index.htmlT h i n n n t m z i n f r r f i n l

Dr Susan Foster is SAUG Lead for Business Analyst

Community and Organisational change and training,

and a lecturer in the Faculty of Information Technology,

Monash University.


13/16

There are more options than ever for engaging with SAPeducational content from formal education, to MOOCs for an

overview of the very latest developments in technology, down

to the SAP Community Network for answering individual task-

level queries. Here are some of the methods available.

University courses

Universities offer both undergraduate and postgraduate courses

in IT or more specific areas such as ERP or Business Intelligence

which cover SAP. SAP also has its University Alliances

Program, which helps students gain access to technologies and

experts through networking and educational activities, social

media, and partner networking.

Classroom training

If traditional, instructor-led classroom training is your

preferred learning option, SAP Education offers classes at

training centres, via partner delivery ecosystems, or on-site

for customers. Courses are available across the full range of

solution areas.

Online learning

More education content from SAP is now available via online

learning and comes via several different modes and methods,

including:

y eLearning via the SAP Learning Hub:SAPs Learning Hub is

a subscription-based cloud service. This model allows users

to access courses at a time convenient to them. The Learning

Hub is supported by Learning Rooms, which are SAP expert-

led spaces covering particularly topics, allowing users to

interact and have a social learning experience. The Learning

Hub Discovery edition provides free access to around 120

introductory courses, but it provides personalisation and

tracking of learning activities.

y Virtual Live Classrooms:These offer the same benefits and

curriculum of instructor-led classroom training. Students can

interact with their instructor online, and also have access toSAP systems to undertake hands-on activities.

y eAcademy:Provides access to bundles of classroom

curriculum in a self-paced eLearning environment. eAcademy

training also includes access to SAP training systems.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

SAP has moved quickly to offer the ecosystem enterprise-

grade learning about leading edge technologies for free via its

openSAP platform. With MOOCs, learners simply register view

content, and complete a weekly assignment before preparing

for a final exam. Optional SAP system access is available, as

is a record of achievement. Recent offerings include Digital

Transformation and Its Impact, presented by SAPs Sven

Denecken and Bert Schulze, and Rapid Deployment of SAP

Solutions.

Certification

Certification in a particular area is typically achieved by

completing the requisite courses and sitting an exam, then

maintaining the certification by completing delta enablement

courses periodically. In the past, this has mostly required

physical attendance at a Pearson Vue testing centre for exams,

but SAP Education is introducing a new model for certification,

specifically for the cloud-based solutions such as SuccessFactors,

which will incorporate remote proctoring, enabling students to

gain and maintain their certifications almost entirely online.

SAP Community Network (SCN)At the more informal end of the education spectrum is the SAP

Community Network, which provides user-created content

around areas and issues in the SAP ecosystem. While some

articles are more discursive in nature, others provide detailed

Whether you are starting out in SAP,looking to upgrade your skills after afew years in the workforce, or seekingto specialise in a particular solutionarea, planning how to get there couldsave you valuable time and money.

Creating an SAP learning map

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technical explanations about how to complete certain tasks.

The level of interaction with other users makes it perfect for

drawing on the collective wisdom of the community to answer

any tricky questions.

Training mapping for some common scenariosThe big question, of course, is how to combine these various

modes of education to reach the level of professional skills,

accreditation, and specialisation you are seeking.

The first place to start is SAP Training and Certification

(training.sap.com). This not only has a full list of all courses

across the various solution and industry areas within SAP, but it

also provides detailed curriculum maps, outlining the classroom

training, e-learning courses and certifications you will need to

undertake to achieve competency in a particular area.

[See left for an example of a curriculum map for SAP HANA

Implementation and Modelling (SAP HANA SPS08).]Your first priorities for SAP education will depend on your

starting point and your professional goals.

Developing initial competency in SAP

Lejla Seperovic, head of business development, SAP APJ, says

for someone who is employed in an organisation, already

has some involvement with SAP, and wants to develop their

capacity, the first step is to consider what knowledge they have

whether that is in finance or HR and what their ultimate

aim is.

Undertaking free courses, such as SAPs MOOCs, or those in

the Learning Hub Discovery edition rather than having to ask

for training budget might be a good place to start.

They are introductory courses which give you a flavour or

an overview of a solution, says Seperovic.

Once you have completed a taster, you might be ready fora more structured approach which is where the Curriculum

Maps come in.

Its a logical sequence of courses with a starting point and

an end point. In a particular area, the curriculum map will

actually have the end result of the SAP certification, and you

can then work backwards, with preqrequisites, foundation,

level one, and level two courses, Seperovic says.

Upskilling or specialising in new areas

For an SAP professional who might be looking to specialise

further or simply upgrade their skills, SAP Education

recommends the SAP Learning Hub, built on the SuccessFactorsplatform. Its part of a move away from one-shot training to

consistent, ongoing learning, and as a subscription service

providing access to more than 4000 courses in the platform.

We went from being quite protective of IT and learning

about two years ago, to opening everything we have to the

customer and partner community, Seperovic says. This

means that at any given point of time, wherever I am in my

career, I can actually learn at the point of need. I can go into the

platform and search for anything from all the ERP solutions

to the new front-end technologies, anything thats out there is in

the Learning Hub.

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EDUCATION


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Within the Learning Hub, more than 60 global solution-

focused Learning Rooms provide a forum for interaction and

guidance on the learning content.

SAP is not always that easy, so this is where social learning

comes in, say Seperovic. You have peers, and you have aninstructor who is a global SAP subject matter expert, and

this person actually poses a schedule with homework and

milestones, and you can ask questions and participate in a

discussion. So now we are giving people who have learnt this

theoretical knowledge the opportunity to actually socialise with

their peers, 24/7, on a more informal basis.

At this solution level, students can also utilise Live Access a

preconfigured SAP system specifically related to the course they

are undertaking, which provides a safe sandbox to practice

new skills.

Having certification recognisedOnce SAP professionals are certified, making the most of this

accreditation is important, particularly for consultants looking

for new project opportunities. SAP has recently launched

Credential Manager, which will be a freely accessible database

for customers and partners to check the certification status of

consultants or prospective employees they are looking at hiring.

Customers who are more and more requesting certified

people now actually have a pool to search for people, by

solution and by geography, Seperovic says.

She agrees that by making this information more accessible,

Credential Manager has the potential to disrupt the SAP

recruitment sector.

We have more than 95 per cent of our global SAP

consultants certified, but we needed something more formal.

You have got peace of mind now, because it is easy for anybody

to search the internet for these people.

Planning your education for the yearSo how much education should the average SAP professional

be undertaking each year? It depends if you are seeking to

achieve a new SAP certification, in the traditional environment

you should expect to devote around 20 days to learning,

revision, and a certification exam.

Even for those who are already certified, if you want to stay

up to speed in a certain area and be considered an expert, a

daily or weekly commitment to education will be necessary

whether that is undertaking an eLearning course, completing a

quiz, or reading some relevant articles.If you are planning the year ahead, look at whats your

priority, where your passion is, and where you want to move to

and work backwards. Leverage whats free out there theres

probably more than you think. Put it in your calendar people

have the best of intentions and find a course, but they still

dont work through it. It takes a little bit of discipline to finish

something, Seperovic says.

Also reach and out and leverage the mentors, and dare to

ask questions. You can only really immerse yourself in the

subject if you can be proactive and really take ownership of

it.T h i n n n t m z i n f r r f i n l


16/16

RiminiStreet|ResearchReport

AssessingtheBusinessCaseforIndependentSupportof SAP

ResearchFindings Basedon27In-DepthClient ROI Interviews

withDetailedSAPClient Case Studies

Published: September2014

Foreword byRebeccaWettemann, VicePresident,Nucleus Research

Date post:	13-Apr-2018
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