I’m looking forward to SAP TechEd 2008.

For one thing, TechEd 2008 marks the official unveiling of the BPX Skills Certification, which I recently did a podcast on for SAP BPX. I’m really looking forward to TechEd’s BPX Community Day as well. I’ll be moderating a BPX skills panel in the afternoon, so if you’re there, make a point of stopping by! Here’s a BPX Community Day schedule.

BPX skills are important to SAP project teams and SAP professionals for a number of reasons I don’t have time to get into tonight, but which I have covered on this site before. I believe the Business Process Expert skill set is a crucial one for those SAP consultants who are determined to remain in demand on client sites and be less vulnerable to global outsourcing. I believe this goes for both technical and functional SAP consultants, though in different ways.

While at TechEd, I will be working hard to learn more about the latest on the BPX skill set. I will also be doing my best to learn more about NetWeaver BPM, and process modeling tools in general. It seems like all of us are looking for more info on how to incorporate these tools (and yes, BPM tools are part of the new BPX certification). I hope to do more features on NetWeaver BPM soon. There is plenty of confusion in this important area, maybe I can be a little clearer when I return from Vegas, if that’s not asking for too much from that city! 

I’m also looking to learn more about hot SAP skills in general. We hear all the time that there is a shortage of SAP skills, yet I’ve been hearing from consultants and consulting firms who are having trouble placing people. And of course that doesn’t even count some of the folks who are SAP certified and emailing me about their challenges finding work. Of course, the answer lies, I believe, in focusing more precisely on the nature of the so-called "SAP Skills Shortage" and where the true areas of demand lie. I’ll try to get a better feeling for this over the course of the week and report back.

If you want to follow what I’m picking up on in Vegas, for the first time ever, I’ll be doing a live micro-blog from the event itself. Using my JonERP.com Twitter microblog, I’ll be sharing my instant reactions to whatever I see, whether I’m impressed or not so impressed. I’ll put skills tips through as well if I get some good ones. My most recent Twitter posts always appear in the top right corner of all pages on JonERP.com, and you can see all of the Twitter posts on my JonERP.com Twitter feed.

Finally, in conjunction with TechEd, I have rolled out my JonERP.com "Hot SAP Skills" list section. There’s some new material there you may find very interesting. Please feel free to share your reactions in the comments section of this blog entry. I hope to see you at TechEd!

Ok, I’m off to Las Vegas. I look forward to reporting back!