"Overview: How SAP Training and Certification Fits Into an Effective SAP Career Strategy."
Podcast Interview Date: October 24, 2008
Podcast: Listen Now!

In the first podcast in the JonERP.com "All About SAP Training" series, Jon Reed asks Tom Michael of Michael Management about the state of SAP training and the range of training and certification options available to SAP professionals.

"Dennis Looks Back at TechEd Berlin and Gives His Take on the SAP Market and Being an SAP Mentor"
Podcast Interview Date: October 28, 2008
Podcast: Listen Now!

In the last installment in Jon's "Tech Ed in Review 2008" podcast series, he speaks with Dennis Howlett, SAP Mentor and "Enterprise Irregular" ZDNet blogger. During this trans-Atlantic podcast session, Dennis shares his experiences at TechEd, his views on SAP's co-innovation strategy, and how he balances participation in the SAP community with his role as an independent analyst. One highlight of the podcast? Dennis' take on an important TechEd Berlin meeting between the SAP Mentors and SAP executives regarding the future of SAP development.

"The Role of SAP BPX Skills in a Changing Economy"
Podcast Interview Date: October 15, 2008
Podcast: Listen Now!

Recent SAP TechEd Shows have emphasized NetWeaver BPM and the importance of the Business Process Expert. To get a sense of why SAP is so committed to building a true "Business Process Platform," and whether or not BPX skills are still relevant in this struggling economy, Jon Reed spoke with Puneet Suppal, the SAP SOA Solutions Leader for Capgemini North America. (Puneet also writes on SOA trends in his "Cafe Innovation" blog for SAP SDN/BPX.)

At the time of the podcast taping, Puneet had just returned from giving a presentation entlitled "The Business Process Imperative" with Global BPX Head Marco ten Vaanholt at TechEd Berlin. He also shared plans to head out to TechEd Bangalore to deliver a similar talk. Having done this presentation at TechEd Las Vegas as well, Puneet's views on this podcast are informed by his recent SAP Community experiences. The result is a focused conversation on how project teams and individuals should approach "BPX skills innovation" during challenging economic times.

A View on the State of the SAP Freelancer's Market
Date of blog post: Monday, October 20, 2008

Summary of blog post: Later in October, PAC will be releasing a brand new report entitled "The Worldwide SAP Skills Market." In this post, I wanted to give my view on the state of the SAP freelancer, which often shows market weakness well before IT services suppliers.

Quote highlight: "Just because companies are in a cautious mood does not mean that SAP freelancers themselves should be cautious. I tell freelancers that in times like these, you need to balance ruthless practicality with a visionary approach. Be ruthless about acquiring the skills that SAP projects need now, but be visionary enough to realize that the business drivers that dictated a need for a BPM-driven strategy are not going away."

SAP Business Process Experts: A Harder Look at the "BPX Skills Revolution"
Date of blog post: Monday, October 6, 2008

Summary of blog post: This post takes a close look at SAP's emphasis on the Business Process Expert skill set and asks if the skill set is closer to buzz or reality. A closer look at the characteristics of the BPX skill set is also offered.

Quote highlight: "The first hurdle any SAP professional must overcome is still the technical skills hurdle. BPX skills have done nothing to change that, at least not yet. Most times, the 'first pass' evaluating an SAP consultant happens on paper, via the resume, and currently, BPX skills do not come across all that effectively on paper."

Inside the Hype of TechEd 2008
Date of blog post: Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Summary of blog post: This piece takes an in-depth look at the key themes of TechEd 2008, including a closer examination of SAP BPM hype and why BPM has replaced eSOA as SAP's key point of technology emphasis.

Quote highlight: "Without NetWeaver BPM, SOA is ultimately going to fail, or at least fall well short of its buzz, and that would be very bad news for everyone in the SAP ecosystem.SOA represents the promise of innovating on top of the ERP core without altering the source code. Thus, one of the few things all ERP vendors agree upon is that SOA must not fail to deliver on this promise."

Podcast: Listen Now!
Vendor Podcast - The Impact of the ERP@BPX Community: A BPX Community Podcast with Elke Simon-Keller of SAP and Nathan Genez of Serio Consulting
Hosted by Jon Reed of JonERP.com
Podcast Interview Date: October 14, 2008
View Transcript

In this SAP BPX community podcast, Jon Reed of JonERP.com interviews Elke Simon-Keller, Director ERP Solution Management for SAP, and Nathan Genez, Managing Partner of Serio Consulting, about the recent launch of the ERP@BPX community. Jon also gets Nathan's insights on how to use ERP@BPX to enhance your SAP career.

"How to Acquire the Right Skills
for SAP SOA Consulting."
Podcast Interview Date: Septemer 19, 2008
Podcast: Listen Now!

SOA is having a major impact on how SAP professionals look at the skills they need going forward. But why does SOA matter to SAP in the first place? Is SOA SAP-manufactured hype, or is SOA going to be a real factor on SAP project sites. What skills will be needed in order to succeed in the NetWeaver and eSOA era? And how does NetWeaver BPM fit into the picture? In this SAP-SOA skills podcast, Jon Reed shares his take on these issues with Demir Barlas of SearchSAP.com. 

Jon Reed: Hi, welcome to this special SAP BPX community podcast. I'm your host, Jon Reed, of JonERP.com and joining me today is Elke Simon-Keller, director of ERP Solution Management at SAP. We're also joined by Nathan Genez, Managing Partner of Serio Consulting. We're here to talk about the ERP@BPX community and how the resources on BPX can increase the effectiveness of SAP consultants. Elke and Nathan, welcome to the podcast.

Making the Plant Visible:

Introduction: Why Does Plant Management Matter?

Manufacturing plants have been around for much longer than ERP systems. But the gulf between ERP and plant management has always been vast. Even in the latest ERP software, you can't always drill into the systems than run individual plant operations. In today's economy, there is a new urgency to optimizing plants and making plants "visible" to ERP users. The reverse is also true: today's plants want a better view into the ERP system that was not historically extended to plant operations.

"Reflections on BPX Community Day, the Community Clubhouse, and other TechEd Highlights."
Podcast Interview Date: September 25, 2008
Podcast: Listen Now!

In the second podcast in my TechEd in Review 2008 podcast series, I spoke with BPX Community Evangelist Marilyn Pratt and got her honest take on TechEd Las Vegas 2008. This podcast has an interesting interactive twist - at a few points in the podcast, Marilyn turns the tables on me and gets my own reactions to what we saw in Vegas. Themes of this podcast include: the increasing importance of BPX themes at TechEd, an assessment of BPX Community Day, and the "greening of SAP," one "bottom up" idea at a time.

Podcast: Listen Now!
"Reflections on BPX Community Day, the Community Clubhouse, and other TechEd Highlights."
Podcast Interview Date: September 25, 2008

In the second podcast in my TechEd in Review 2008 podcast series, I spoke with BPX Community Evangelist Marilyn Pratt and got her honest take on TechEd Las Vegas 2008. This podcast has an interesting interactive twist - at a few points in the podcast, Marilyn turns the tables on me and gets my own reactions to what we saw in Vegas. Themes of this podcast include: the increasing importance of BPX themes at TechEd, an assessment of BPX Community Day, and the "greening of SAP," one "bottom up" idea at a time.

Note: while this podcast featured Marilyn Pratt of SAP BPX, it was not sponsored by SAP.

"Becoming an SAP Business Process Expert - One Consultant's Journey"
Podcast Interview Date: September 22, 2008
Podcast: Listen Now!

There's a lot of talk about "SAP Business Process Experts." SAP even has an online "BPX Community" set up around this emerging skill set. But what does this really mean to the individual consultant?

For the first time ever, Jon speaks in-depth with a senior functional consultant, Samantha Gammill, President of Osiris ERP Consulting, about her pursuit of the "SAP BPX skill set."

"David Foote of Foote Partners Shares his Latest SAP Skills Findings"
Podcast Interview Date: September 15, 2008 
Podcast: Listen Now!

In this thirty minute podcast, David Foote of Foote Partners reviews his firm's latest 2,000-employer benchmark survey data on trends in pay and availability of SAP enterprise application skills. Hear what's hot (and by how much), including which SAP skill has seen a 57% increase in market value over the last 12 months.

On September, 30th, Jon Reed delivered a webcast on the keys to developing SAP Business Process Expert skills for ASUG, Americas' SAP Users' Group, as part of their "Business Process Experts" webcast series.

Click here to view or download the WebEx version of the webcast.
(.wrf file, 7.2 megs, right click to download)
(If it doesn't play after opening, you may need to download the WebEx presentation player to view the webcast)

If you would like to view the PowerPoint-only version of the webcast, you can also view or download the presentation in a PDF version. (429K, right click to download) For more details on the webcast and those who helped to make it happen, as well as a couple of special bonus slides, read on.