Reed: I think that's an excellent summary. And the one thing I would add is that I've seen a shift from the focus on unique, one-time customizations to reusability of all interface work, and a focus on how can this be reused so we can leverage it in the future. Would you agree that that's also a shift we're seeing?

Inbar: I can only agree.

Reed: The one major skill set we haven't touched on is the classic basis/system admin skill set. It seems to me that these folks are also getting pulled into this mix, and part of the focus there is on the big picture of application integration and not simply, how one system is running and one location. How do you see the system administration, what we used to call "basis," evolving in the NetWeaver era?

Inbar: That's a great point. The key thing is that the scope has been broadened. It's not just when you say, "Running an SAP environment." It's not just running a certain module of ERP. This is about running all my key business processes, my standard processes - as well as some of the new ones that I want to create - across multiple systems. The fact that you're coming from the SAP perspective is giving you a great strength because you know that material, you know the topic. But you have to expand your view much beyond just running a specific module or specific function.

As I said before, this is really a mind shift. But it also requires you to get some skills and knowledge of additional tools, of additional technologies, to go beyond just the narrow world of the traditional SAP application.

Reed: Let's flip this briefly on the focal point of the SAP customer. I think a lot of our conversation has been incredibly useful in terms of helping professionals make sense of what the next steps are for them. But as an SAP customer, what do you advise them to do in terms of these skills gap shortages we talked about? How can they be smart about building out these forward-thinking projects, but not getting caught lacking the key skills they need to implement these solutions?

Inbar: I have some good news: Over the last couple of years, SAP has been looking at these roles and how they're evolving and changing. And I think we've now gotten to a point where we have a good understanding, while working with the community, of what those roles are, what skills are needed for those new roles, and how we could acquire them.

This is [a] preview announcement that TechEd, at the beginning of October, will announce a new set of certification programs organized along the four categories that I mentioned before: the technology professional, the enterprise architect, the business process expert, and the ES developers. It's going to be a whole program that will include training and education, with certification at the end, and it's all going to be role-based.

So, instead of the siloed view, the functional view of the past, you'll have a mix of different things that are needed for each one of those roles. It's obviously not going to end just with the certification; there's going to be a continuous knowledge transfer around these topics. That's how we're going to organize our communication on the SAP developer network. That's how were going to organize our communication in events, educational events and so on, like TechEd. That will give an ongoing support for what you need to know, how you can learn all the various skills and topics that you need based on these four role categories.

Reed: Excellent. We'll all definitely look forward to hearing about that as we head down to TechEd in [Las] Vegas. There is so much we could talk about here, and I had more to talk about in terms of future job roles; perhaps down the road we can revisit these themes with Ori. But I think we're reaching our close today. Eric, are there any questions you wanted to pose to Ori?

Samuels: We hear a lot about how important the change in technology and products are with these NetWeaver roles. How important is the human element?

Inbar: We're all going through a major transformation with the architecture and the products, but we shouldn't underestimate the importance of the people aspect  in those projects. From what we're seeing, this is the number-one factor that defines whether the projects are going to be successful or not. The focus on skills, the focus on how these roles are changing, is really critical.

And what I would like to tell everybody is that the main thing that is very hard to do, but what we have to do, is to break the silos and start collaborating across teams, across groups, across companies - understanding how we start looking at things in a horizontal fashion, as opposed to the siloed approach. And we're seeing many customers that understood that early in the process and really spent a lot of effort in convincing people and really doing change management. That's where the most successful projects were and the best showcases that we're seeing in the market.

So, let's keep working in the community, whether it's the SAP developer network or within our organization or across companies, and see how we can break the silos and increase collaboration. And I'm sure this whole transformation is going to be successful for all of us.

Reed: "Breaking the silos" - that sounds like a great mantra. And I think you made a really good point about the SAP communities that have surrounded this effort to support it, because when we point to skills gaps, say, back in the 90s, that's one thing that we didn't have then: that sense of a robust community of people who are gathering together to help guide each other through the transitions. So, I look forward to hearing more about that at TechEd. And Ori, I think you gave our listeners a great summary of these skills trends and how they can anticipate them today. Thanks so much for joining us.

Inbar: It was my pleasure.

Reed: I'd like to thank our listeners for being here today for this podcast interview on NetWeaver job roles. This podcast was a joint venture between SearchSAP and my site, JonERP.com, "Bringing you career answers for SAP professionals." And with that, I'd like to turn it back to our host, Eric Samuels, of SearchSAP.

Samuels: Thank you, Jon, and thank you, Ori. That does it for today's SeachSAP.com, NetWeaver jobs podcast. Stop by again soon for our coverage of TechEd 2007, October 1^st to the 5^th. I'm Eric Samuels, and thanks for joining us.

Editor's Note: This interview is not a verbatim transcription of the podcast. It was edited for clarity and readability; however, no content from the podcast conversation was removed.

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