It’s the law of supply and demand. Over the long run, the SAP consultants that make the most money are the ones with the most skills – especially skills that are in short supply. That’s a law that almost everyone understands. So, I am surprised to hear some consultants still complaining about low hourly rates – when I see other consultants making $80 to $100 or even more — while some SAP consulting jobs are even going unfilled.
If more knowledge equals more money, then why don’t these consultants stop complaining and just get the extra knowledge they need? It’s not like the knowledge isn’t available. I can understand why someone might not want to take three months off and spend thousands of dollars to take classes. You must consider both the out-of-pocket expense and the lost income while sitting in class. It takes a really big jump in your rate to justify that type of investment.
Another option is to simply rely on on-the-job experience to teach you what you need to know. The problem with that strategy is that companies don’t want to hire you if you don’t already have the skills they need. They’re not paying you to learn. Of course, you’ll always learn something new on almost any job. But that’s a rather random approach to learning, and what are the chances you’ll acquire the right skills you need to earn a higher rate?
A third — and better — option is to buy the SAPexperts Knowledgebase (available from the ERPCX). It only costs a few hundred dollars. You can select the skills you want to learn. And you don’t have to take time off from earning money while you do learn them. And, unlike classroom training that quickly goes out of date, the SAPexperts Knowledgebase always stays fresh with continuous updates.
The SAPexperts Knowledgebase is just one of several services the ERPCX offers to help consultants make more money. What do you think of ERPCX services? Do you know what they are? Do you have suggestions or comments to make them better?
No doubt many SAP consultants were watching events unfold at Hewlett-Packard last week with great interest. Former SAP and now HP CEO, Leo Apotheker, reversed a decision he had announced just last March to huge fanfare — that WebOS would be the future operating system in all HP computers and that HP would be shipping 100 million WebOS devices. One of those would be the TouchPad, launched in June.
Now HP is scraping all WebOS devices, including the TouchPad, and may spin off its entire PC business. HP also bought Autonomy, a British maker of analytics software for $10.3 billion (roughly half the cash on HP’s balance sheet) at 11 times revenue. The day of Leo’s announcement HP’s stock plunged 20 percent to $23.60. In one year, the stock has declined 49 percent (versus a 3 percent gain on the S&P index). SAP stock, by the way, is up almost 20% in the past year.
So what lessons are there here for those of us who sell SAP consulting?
One lesson seems to be that the leadership change at SAP was a good thing. Another is that HP, in trying to transform itself into a software company, is also trying to transform itself into the kind of company Leo thinks he can run. He’s a software company CEO; so let’s make HP a software company — a classic case of, “if you’re a hammer, make every problem a nail.”
Rather than think about what he can do, perhaps Leo should think about what the customer wants. Today it’s all about the ecosystem, the total solution. Just last week United/Continental bought 11,000 Apple iPads for its paperless cockpit. Of course, Apple doesn’t make enterprise software — a fact that SAP consultants can exploit by making a lot existing enterprise apps tablet friendly — as well as by creating entirely new ones.
Perhaps HP could have done that for the TouchPad. Maybe by exploited its natural advantages in the enterprise space, HP could have built a mobile ecosystem of its own; one tuned to enterprise users running large HP-enabled business systems.
Bringing enterprise apps to tablets looks like a big opportunity. But whether it is or not, the real lesson is to think about giving the customer a whole solution, not just a skill. That applies equally whether you are a computer company exec or an SAP consultant.
On August 19, 2008 we founded our Linkedin Group SAP Consulting Exchange (ERPCX) and started to promote our Virtual Consulting and Virtual Helpdesk opportunities. Our mission was and continues to be to help our members increase their earnings and knowledge and in doing so provide superior service to our customers. Our members span more than 60 countries, with over 1,400 members in our Linkedin group and almost 5,000 on our website. Our Country Ambassadors represent us in over 15 countries. We have provided opportunities to work in a virtual setting to many of you who have uploaded your resumes and became part of our virtual consulting team.
Our referral partners are well known players in the SAP field including such companies as Winshuttle and Revelation Software Concepts whose innovative solutions can be promoted by our members in exchange for referral commissions.
We would like you to be more involved and become more active. Ultimately it pays.
As a special thank you for being a member we want to offer you our KNOWLEDGEPACK for a limited time and for the drastically reduced price of $399:
An annual subscription to the SAPexperts knowledgebase of your choice
Access to our SAP Development system for the same period
An ERPCX email address which enables you to be part of our internal network
A mobile business card for the duration of your subscription
The use of our logo for your stationary, marketing materials, website and emails
Our virtual consulting services are attracting the interest from SAP customers around the world. For example, we recently closed a new contract for SAP END USER SUPPORT that is provided by ERPCX members. We will also continue to bring new offerings to the SAP ecosystem, such as our recent initiatives to develop SAP mobile apps. (If you have an idea for an SAP mobile app, and would like help making it happen, please let us know. We’d love to consider it!)
So, happy 3rd anniversary and thanks to all our ERPCX members, subscribers and followers! We look forward to bringing you more great news in the months ahead!
I’m happy to announce that in the first two months since we introduced the new ERPCX Country Ambassador Program, we have already partnered with our first nine country ambassadors, representing a total of 14 countries. They are:
Canada: Zoltan Lovei
Egypt: Abobakr Ghaith
Denmark: Thomas Ugilt Thomsen
Germany: Andreas Hielscher
Hungary: Péter Szakonyi
Indonesia: Ahmad Rizki
Netherlands: Wim Wetzels
Poland: Fernando Lafuente
South Africa: Warren Eiserman (Angola, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Mauritius)
Congratulations to all! We select ERPCX Country Ambassadors based on their excellent knowledge of both SAP and their home countries. We welcome our first Country Ambassadors and believe they will do a great job representing ERPCX products, services and members in their local areas.
We also love the enthusiasm each Country Ambassador has shown for representing ERPCX. Here is what Warren Eiserman, who among others runs SAPortals, a large South African SAP consultancy, says on his new CA blog:
“It is with a good deal of excitement that I write my first post as ERPCX country ambassador. … As someone that has been doing SAP consulting for over 10 years and being involved in the SAP industry from both and implementation and analyst perspective, I am eager to take up the challenge of ERPCX and its innovative offerings.”
Andreas Hielscher, ERPCX German Country Ambassador writes: “Thank you, Herbert, for the opportunity to exclusively represent ERPCX products in Germany, like the SAPexperts Knowledgebase and the ERPCX Virtual Bench. These are unique offerings that will address a growing demand for smarter SAP consulting that is also more cost effective.”
In the weeks ahead, we will announce other ERPCX Country Ambassador appointments. To find out more about our new Country Ambassadors, click on the Country Ambassadors link at the top of this page. And if you wish to be considered for the CA position in your country, please email us before the position is filled.
We are excited to announce that we have re-launched the ERPCX Country Ambassador program. Each Country Ambassador is the primary SAP consultant for the ERPCX in his or her country. As such, each one is first in line to work on all of that country’s ERPCX projects. CAs also earn passive income from ERPCX commissions paid on all projects, products and services sold in that country.
We have just signed up our first Country Ambassadors. We will announce their names soon but in the meantime I wanted to give you an update on what we’ve done with the program.
By the way, if you are interested in becoming a Country Ambassador, now would be a good time to apply. That’s because there will only be one Country Ambassador for each country — and prime spots are already filling up! So, if you are interested, please send us an email.
Why Become a Country Ambassador?
Each Country Ambassador is a premium member of the ERPCX who utilizes the ERPCX Virtual Bench and SAPexperts KNOWLEDGEBASE (*) products
Right of first refusal to work on all ERPCX projects within the CA’s home country
A commission on all ERPCX virtual consulting projects in that country, whether or not the Country Ambassador participates on the project
A commission on sales of all ERPCX products in that country including the ERPCX Virtual Bench and SAPexperts KNOWLEDGEBASE products
The use of the ERPCX logo on websites, newsletters and other materials
A country-specific website and blog within the main ERPCX website, which the CA can write in his or her local language
An electronic mobile business card (allows another person’s mobile device to scan your business card and update their address book automatically)
Exclusive rights to Country Ambassador status within the CA’s home country
Those interested in becoming a Country Ambassador should contact the ERPCX immediately since, again, there can only be one CA for each country.
(*) SAPexperts knowledgebase is a product of Wellesley Information Services LLC in the United States and such products are sold by ERPCX to its members under a license agreement dated January 21, 2011.
Joshua Greenbaum, at InsiderPROFILES, makes a great case when he advocates that the term SAP “end user” be replaced by SAP “driver.” His comparison to high school drivers’ ed is both humorous and on target. Every day companies across the globe hand the “keys” over to people who should know what they’re doing, where they’re going and how to get there. Joshua is right. Those people can’t just be users, along for the ride like passengers. They’ve got to be drivers.
That’s why we welcome users as members, alongside consultants and SAP customers. As we say elsewhere on this website, without users there would be no SAP consultants, no SAP customers and no SAP. We also say that the boundaries between these roles are not so clear-cut as the labels indicate. SAP customers — i.e., those individuals who sign off on SAP implementations — are almost always users too. And as for users being consultants — we all know who you are. You’re that person over in the next cubical who gets all the technical questions whenever a co-worker has a problem. (Say, wouldn’t it be nice if you could sell some of that technical know-how on the side?)
So, yes, users should be drivers; but so should customers and consultants. We all wear each other’s hats from time to time, and we should all be drivers.
The problem with calling you a user (rhymes with loser) is that nobody sees you as a driver. You’re viewed as the end of the value chain, not the central link. No wonder, as Joshua says, companies don’t spend enough money on SAP user training. That hurts companies, of course; but it also hurts you.
So start driving! Get your SAP knowledge here. Sell your technical expertise here. Got an SAP module or app you’ve developed on your own time? Sell it here. Want to build your reputation with other SAP drivers? Then post your resume here and participate in our LinkedIn discussions here.
You’ve got the keys. You’re a driver. That’s why we want you.
Here is more good news for ERPCX members looking to put their careers on a fast track. If you post your resume on our Resume Posting page, your resume will be fast tracked for consideration on job opportunities marked “Fast Tracked” on the Service Posting page.
Anyone can still apply for any opportunity. But not everyone will get Fast Tracked. If a job is marked Fast Tracked it means your resume will automatically be reviewed for that job — if your resume is posted on the Resume Posting page.
That puts you at the head of the line. An opportunity might be for full-time employment, part-time employment, a contract job, or a position on our own ERPCX Virtual Consulting Team.
In the future, you will notice that more and more jobs will be marked Fast Tracked.
To post your resume, you need to enter all the information requested on our Resume Posting page and attach your resume. Entering your information lets us search your resume for skills and experience directly in a database, without doing a keyword search. Database searches are faster and more accurate than keyword searches.
There is no charge for posting your resume. However professional resume writing is available for a fee. Here is a sample of what our professionally written resumes look like. Notice that resumes are available both as a downloadable PDF and as a standalone website, which you can host at ERPCX. A personal website tells people you are a true professional and is a fast and easy way to sell yourself. To get a resume writing price quote, simply send an email with your current resume attached to: erpcx@me.com.
We have made two significant changes to our member services this month. First, I am very proud to announce the appointment of Chris Terry as Vice President, Member Services. And, second, we have expanded our member categories to now include SAP users, in addition SAP customers and SAP consultants. Both changes point to a very aggressive 2011 as we aim to become (in Chris’s words) “the single most valuable resource hub for all things SAP” with over 10,000 members.
Chris has been a colleague and friend for over 15 years — going back to when we were at SETAC, the first North American SAP consulting practice. I have deep respect for Chris as a technology pioneer. He founded one of the very first Internet Services Providers in the United States — Florida Internet — and co-founded one of the first SAP application service providers — HostLogic — that grew to over 100 full-time employees with offices in the US, Europe, South America and Asia. Spun off to its European management team in 2000, HostLogic is now one of Eastern Europe’s top 50 IT companies. More recently, Chris has been the Managing Partner at Nextshore, a global information technology service company that specializes in Internet marketing and web development.
Chris’s role here will be to recruit members, increase and improve member services, and open channels of communication across our (now three) member types — users, customers and consultants. So you’ll be hearing a lot from Chris.
Adding users as a third member category was a no-brainer. Without users there are no customers or consultants. It is the users’ ability to work more productively that ultimately gives SAP its value. Consequently, they make a huge — and often unappreciated — contribution to the SAP ecosystem. We are happy to include them.
Our Country Ambassadors Program gives investors and entrepreneurs an opportunity to represent the ERP Consulting Exchange in their local markets. Each one is an ECX “point of presence” for companies looking to engage globally based virtual consulting either domestically or out at their distant locations.
Two obvious targets for this program are U.S. companies that do business in China and Chinese companies that do business in the U.S. That’s why one of our top priorities this year has been to sign up Country Ambassadors in China — and also expand our physical presence in the U.S. So I am especially proud to announce our first two Chinese Country Ambassadors — one based in Hong Kong, the other in Beijing — as well as our second branch office, this one in Austin, Texas.
In Hong Kong, our Country Ambassador is David Woodward, a principal with the TMAX Group, a Hong Kong-based agent specializing in sourcing and product development for numerous retailers, consumer product firms and multinational brands. TMAX brings in its branch offices in mainland China as well as numerous and extensive contacts to China based manufacturing companies, all possible customers of the ECX.
Our Beijing-based agent is Liming Hou, who also acts as the Managing Director of the ECX in China. He and I were also partners back in 2002 when together we successfully launched MeiDa Information Technology. MeiDa was the maker of ChinaMainframe™, the first pre-configured SAP stack specifically optimized for small and medium Chinese companies. In addition to his own considerable entrepreneurial talents, Liming also brings a strategic partnership with a very large public traded Chinese IT consulting firm, which will also help facilitate ECX expansion in China.
Our presence in the U.S. is expanding as well with the recent opening of our Austin office, which along with our headquarters in Winter Springs, Florida and our branch office in San Diego, California provides a distributed physical presence across the U.S.
All this is happening as ECX membership approaches 4,000 — and there is still almost a full quarter left in 2010! For the rest of the year we will be strongly focused on leveraging all our partnerships with the goal to attract many new ones for 2011 — both members and customers!
When we blogged about the “Big 4” audit firms rebooting their SAP practices we said that smaller, more cost-effective and more agile consulting practices should not panic. This is not a one-size-fits-all market and consultants of all stripes should do what they always do — which is to rely on their own natural comparative advantages to prosper.
But there is a much more important question than whether the Big 4 will crowd out other players. That is whether any consulting model will ever again dominate the same way the Big 6, or the Big 8, once did.
Just like the dinosaurs, the big audit firms lost dominance because the world changed. This was back in the day when not only the audit firms were king, but so was the client server computing model and the highly centralized enterprises that it fit. Today’s landscape, of course, is radically different. Consultants and their clients are much more networked, knowledge resources have been virtualized, and the result is a much more commoditized environment. Even small value advantages are universally transparent and immediately transferrable. Likewise, value disadvantages are immediately transparent and unsustainable. That’s a tough place for the large, classic, hierarchical consulting organization to play.
So the real question is not “Whence cometh the Big 4?” The real question is “Who will be the Virtual Big 1?” In other words, who will be the first consulting firm that will organize resources virtually to maximize value in this new environment — rather than subtract value by pretending the world is unchanged?
Just by looking at that environment it is already clear what the Virtual Big 1 will look like. Much more talent will be applied virtually over the Internet, rather than physically by traveling to the client’s site. Teams will be much more flexible — the Virtual Big 1 will be able to mix and match team members very quickly based on project dynamics rather than on institutional mandates. There will be much less “sitting on the bench” waiting for something to happen. Much more of the client’s dollar will come back to the client in the form of better ERP systems rather than will go out the door in travel, food and other non-performing costs.
And here’s what’s really clear: when the environment changes, it is always those who adapt first who thrive best. Rather than resist the new consulting model, consultants and clients should embrace it.
