By early 2007, after several years of quarter-over-quarter growth, senior decision-makers at the German software giant, including co-CEO Leo Apotheker, were hearing more and more about an alarming shortage of SAP talent in the marketplace. This then fuelled a company wide strategy to bridge the gap in all key markets. The Middle East, following SAP?s direct entry, is very much on a skills overdrive. We find out how in this article.

Sergio Maccotta, SAP Managing Director Middle East

The current state of high-interest from the customers is central to its plan. Following the establishing of SAP?s direct operations in the Middle East, (SAP was present earlier through its partner SAP Arabia), means that the company can now allow its customers to expect more.

?We?ve already doubled headcount and we are now close to 90 people. We will be doubling that again by year end,? Maccotta says.The resource roadmap will also dip heavily into SAP?s pool of technical experts spread across the world and more specifically in India and Asia. The company?s long standing strategic partner ? Satyam ? for example is already making strong inroads into the Middle East market, bringing with it its strong base of SAP skill sets.

Coupled with the partner support system that SAP will build-out, including its earlier partner SAP Arabia (under a new name) in a non-exclusive relationship, a partner alliance programme will help pull the best resources together from within the market and outside.

This will also auger well for SAP?s verticalisation strategy, that is now looking at delivering solutions that are tailored to meet the needs of specific industries. ?It?s all about helping create a knowledge base that can cater to the needs of specific industry sectors,? Maccotta shares.

ERP strikes a chord with the Middle East

The Middle East is a rich market currently for ERP solutions uptake, making it all the more strategic for SAP. ?Since we entered the market, SAP has signed on more than 25 new companies as customers. ERP is bouncing right back, after having been called a dead concept, simply because corporate integration is being done with greater focus and maturity.

?Companies in the region are growing quickly, both organically and inorganically and they are beginning to integrate not just their business processes, but also their customers. Today?s its all transformation,? he says.

BI in this context also plays nicely with SAP?s strategy, and the company?s buy-out of BI vendor Business Objects will boost the former?s roadmap for the years to come. ?While ERP can supply transactional data, presentational data is managed by the BI solution. ?Together, they can help customers get true value from their information,? he emphasises.

While customers have expressed concern over how the two companies will integrate their offerings, Macotta says SAP?s focus on building a solution/knowledge driven partner ecosystem will fulfill market needs and support customers through their concerns.

Endorsement of knowledge

All this corporate and market re-alignment has unraveled the need for SAP to launch initiatives that will build a greater pool of talented people with even more in-demand skill sets: especially for its new NetWeaver, business process management (BPM), BI and master data management (MDM) products as well as its omnipresent ERP software (in this case, its latest ERP 6.0 release).

In addition, SAP's push into the playing fields of the SMB market, a fairly new market for the company, also demands the "right balance" of skills in the marketplace.

A closer look at some of its global announcements and initiatives also proves that SAP's expansive plan is to fill the skills holes in the IT industry by targeting a couple of key areas where SAP hasn't typically promoted itself and its products.

First, SAP is attempting to better market itself and the job opportunities in its ecosystem-working for SAP itself, inside its customers' IT departments, and for systems integrators and consultants-through the Internet and social networking sites and other traditional marketing vehicles.

In the United States and abroad, SAP is also going to the source: bringing its message to colleges and universities and even high schools students who might be interested in tech. In order to spread the word, Maccotta says SAP is re-enforcing SAP education initiatives and setting up academies for consultants to get certified. The SAP University Alliance Programme will also help the company create a business curriculum that will help generate new and young talent.

In addition, SAP is expanding its strategic relationships with its top 20 implementation partners (which, actually, do approximately 70% of SAP product implementations) "to eliminate or reduce some of the impediments to growth.

Lastly, SAP now offers expanded and tiered education and certification programs to not only include online learning formats and more flexible pricing options but also courses that are taught in more languages-not solely English and German but Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, French and Mandarin as well. The company is clearly seeing certification as an underlying benchmark of quality.

What's at stake is quite apparent to SAP execs and without a doubt, SAP executives, even in the Middle East are making sure that they work towards longer-term success.