THE PRESENT

NetWeaver is for real. There was a time when NetWeaver sounded like name that was bought from a dotcom at a post-Y2K fire sale. But now NetWeaver is serious business, with a host of products under its umbrella that are generating consulting demand right now. (NetWeaver 2004s, the NetWeaver engine that drives the mySAP ERP 2005 foundation release, is also referred to as 7.0).

In the third quarter of this year, NetWeaver 7.1 is due, and NetWeaver 7.1 will have even more eSOA capabilities, including the full runtime version of the Enterprise Services Repository (ESR). One way of looking it at is this: you have to have a strong NetWeaver platform in place before you can begin to move on SOA initiatives. And while there are some flagship SOA projects underway, the adoption of NetWeaver is much more widespread, especially when you consider that Portals and BW have now been pulled into NetWeaver, albeit with adjusted product names (now called NetWeaver Portals and NetWeaver BI).

The problem is that NetWeaver is now composed of numerous products and toolkits, not all of which are equally marketable. So it’s a mistake to imply that all NetWeaver products have the same level of demand. Probably BW/BI is the area of highest demand, but just about all NetWeaver products are experiencing some uptick in consulting needs right now. If SOA is coming up tomorrow, then NetWeaver is happening today.

The Dice search results we got on Business Warehouse and Portals prove that point. We could add that the development tools that tie into NetWeaver, whether we’re talking about Java Server Pages (JSP), Web Dynpro, or XML-based standards like XMI, are also in demand.

BW by any name is rocking. I hit on this in my terminology piece so I won’t go into detail here, but where you’re talking about BW or BI, the demand is there. The upgrades from BW 3.5 to BI 7.0 (part of NetWeaver 2004s) are definitely creating project requirements, and there aren’t enough consultants who have been through this type of upgrade yet. Business Intelligence is here to stay, and I think we can foresee a time when just about every SAP professional has some piece of BI or web-based analytics in their skill set. There will always be BI experts, but I think we’ll see more and more folks who are not experts in BI but who are still a part of this market.

Some industry solutions are picking up steam (retail, public sector). SAP’s vertical industry focus is starting to generated increased job demand in the present. The public sector has been building momentum for years and is looking as strong as ever. Since some public sector projects require U.S. citizenship, active passports, and even security clearances, these are areas where consultants can enjoy a bit more insulation from the offshoring that affects most other SAP areas.

The catch is that not all public sector projects are well-financed, so both full time and consulting positions in the public sector can be leaner paywise. In terms of retail, SAP is also determined to hit retail hard. Retail is perhaps the only vertical left that has Fortune 500 size companies that have not fully committed to a large scale ERP solution.

That may be why SAP pushed so many retail announcements at SAPPHIRE. The SAP retail practice has grown from 15 to more than 500 people in the few years - a clear indication that SAP’s needs in retail are "right now." SAP has been aggressive in beefing up its retail functionality, as illustrated by its purchase of Khimetrics, the analytical pricing and forecasting software product for retail environments.

Upgrades are driving work to the core. This is another area I spent time on in my recent terminology piece so I’ll do the shorter version here. Only a small percentage of companies are running SAP’s ECC 6.0 core release - that means plenty of upgrade action in the next few years.

When you consider that extended maintenance for 4.6C bumps up from two percent to four percent at the end of this year, you have the carrot (SOA) and the stick (increased fees) combination pushing folks to upgrade. "Carrot and stick" markets are typically the most active software markets of all - reference the last SAP "carrot and stick" market of pre-Y2K and how much demand for SAP skills there was at that time.

Consultants in the core releases are poised to benefit, especially if they are ahead of the curve on their project experience around the new releases. Even those who only have training in the new releases (and no hands-on experience) may be in a position to land some good opportunities due to current demand levels.

Of particular demand now? FI folks who have a grip on the new General Ledger, and HCM folks on the HR side who have already gained skills in Performance Management, E-Recruiting and LSO (Learning Solution, E-Learning). All in all, there are more than 300 new and enhanced features in every functional area compared to 4.6C, so there’s plenty of new areas to study up on in an effort to gain the inside track. The technical core is also experiencing a decent level of demand on the Basis side, though many of those tools have been mastered by in-house employees.

One tool that stands out in SAP’s present and future emphasis is the Solution Manager. Since the Solution Manager can be implemented as early as 4.6C and is crucial to future upgrades (you have to use Solution Manager for support/enhancement packages for mySAP ERP 2005), it’s a great piece to add to the skill set now.

CRM is the most active "Business Suite" product. Overall, the Business Suite products are not driving the bulk of the skills demand, but we do continue to see a fair amount of action on the CRM side. In particular, projects pertaining to mobile devices and mobile development seem to be active, as companies look to "extend" SAP to the representatives in the field that deal directly with their customer base. The latest mobile products SAP is pushed in its SAPPHIRE press releases? NetWeaver Mobile and NetWeaver Voice. NetWeaver Mobile is the umbrella product for mobile user access to SAP, and NetWeaver Voice allows access to SAP applications via any phone.

THE PAST

Bread-and-butter ABAP is on the way out. I’ve written a lot about this elsewhere, but bread-and-butter batch data conversion/report generation ABAP is on the way out. Object-oriented ABAP, mixed with Java-flavored tools, is the SAP development skill set of the future.

 "Goodbye to Basis." Another area I touched on in the terminology piece, "Basis" is giving way to "NetWeaver." The skills transition from Basis to NetWeaver is not as difficult as on the development side, but this is still an area where some SAP professionals are going to drive right off the road of career growth while they are busy installing someone’s GUI.

EDI is out, XML is in. There’s still some EDI work to be done for companies entrenched in the infrastructure, but for everyone else, it’s about SOA/XML/Internet-based B2B transactions. EDI skills are no longer a coveted part of the technical skill set for most consultants.

Business Suite products have a questionable future, especially APO. This may be the most controversial statement in this piece, given that the Business Suite is still a major part of what SAP is pushing. And we won’t know the ultimate fate of the Business Suite for a few more years - not until the bulk of the core upgrades are done and companies look more closely at how they might want to "extend" their functionality.

The ultimate enterprise software goal? To achieve a fully-transparent, demand-driven supply chain that connects the enterprise to all customers and partners. SAP would tell you that the Business Suite is needed to achieve this goal. The question, however, is whether these add-on products will prove to be the key to achieving that goal. I think it’s possible that companies will avoid the costs of implementing large add-on suites, instead opting for focused xApps they can tack onto particular business processes that they are looking to extend.

I also expect SAP to pull more and more of the so-called "Business Suite" functionality into the core. This has already happened to BW and SEM, two products pulled into the core in their entirety. In mySAP ERP 2005, SAP also seems to be pulling some of the CRM and SRM functionality back into the core as well.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be work in the Business Suite areas, but how many companies are going to want to spend a year on a complex APO implementation - no matter how good the ultimate benefit might be? As noted, SAP CRM still looks strong, and SRM has some hot areas. PLM remains a consulting niche at best, though we see some small signs of life, and APO is flatlined (this is as good time to acknowledge that APO is not technically the fourth Business Suite product.

The formal name for the fourth product is SCM, and again, many SCM functions are already embedded into the enterprise core. APO remains the flagship product in the SCM suite, even if SAP rarely mentions APO by name anymore). The functionality in these products is important, but will we ever see robust consulting markets based on these apps? I wonder. I see enterprise services and xApps having a major impact on the market for these products.

Best of breed solutions and third party add-ons must prove their value or they are part of history. We do see some third party software solutions doing very well in the "SAP ecosystem." But especially in larger functional areas, best-of-breed is struggling. Best-of-breed HR is long gone, and best-of-breed CRM is rapidly giving way. Going with one ERP vendor for major enterprise functions makes too much economic sense. This is good news for "niche" SAP consultants in areas like Plant Maintenance and Warehouse Management.

Increasingly, I expect companies to standardize these key logistical components on SAP systems. So while best-of-breed software is struggling to stay in the present tense, the more SAP captures the bulk of the enterprise, the easier it will be for consultants who have skills in these supplemental SAP areas. This means that skills in areas like Warehouse Mangement and Plant Maintenance should become more important.

There’s only so much SAP you can touch on in one article. I left out some areas where the verdict in still unclear, such as on-demand solutions, which may or may not take off for SAP. The SMB space is now being served by three SAP products, Business One, All-in-One, and A1S (SAP’s new SMB on demand offering).

At this point, only the All-in-One product seems like it might have some consulting potential (the other solutions are too much "out of the box" to generate much consulting demand). I’d put All-in-One on the watch list.

Two more topics are Web 2.0 and Duet. They both got a lot of attention at SAPPHIRE, but while Web 2.0 and Duet will influence SAP greatly, how they affect SAP skills is not yet clear, except to say that all consultants will want to understand how these areas intersect with what they do. But will SAP professionals ever get paid big money to set up or write a blog? Another wild card is RFID.

RFID looks to be a key technology, but adoption is gradual enough at this point that there may not be much of a skills gap. Finally, with the upgrade wave, Unicode may be something to consider in terms of multilingual SAP installations. I’m not going to comment on it here because the factors affecting Unicode are complex, but if your skills touch on it, it’s another tool to keep an eye on.

I hope this article was helpful in terms of separating out the future from the present. We have to be careful about getting caught up in SAP’s grand vision and investing in SOA training when learning the new General Ledger might be more immediately helpful.

We may eventually all become "Composers" and "Repository Keepers," but right now, we are configurators and system administrators. At the same time, keeping SAP’s future clearly in mind is crucial to making the right project choices in the present. SAP almost always gets where it says it’s going to go. It’s the timing that’s the hard part.

Our own roadmap should be based on SAP’s. Hopefully we can be forward-thinking without getting so futuristic that we look like extras from a bad science fiction movie. It’s hard to think about "Repository Keepers" without picturing yourself running around in a silver spacesuit. Beyond that, it remains to be seen how great the skills gap from SOA really is and which consultants will capitalize on that gap.

The best way to handle SAP’s frank admissions of skills shortages is to take them as good news, but not to assume that "everything is going to be ok." The market changes quickly, and companies are cautious and budget-conscious adopters of new technology. Most projects are smaller in scope and take longer to greenlight, which in turns keeps the skills demand from peaking as high as it used to go. Therefore, we should continue with the same thoughtful integration of current and emerging skills that got us to this point.

Site Manager's Note: This article originally appeared on SearchSAP.com in an edited and abridged format. What you have just read is the complete and unabridged version, released for the first time for readers of JonERP.com.