Value of SAP Certification – A Company’s Perspective

We have already written earlier about the value of SAP certification for SAP professionals. In this article we would like to have a look at the value of SAP certification from an employer’s point of view. The main questions that companies ask with regard to getting their employers certified are: Why should we get certified? and Why put value on people getting certified?

Value of SAP Certification

First, let us have a look at the certification program that is currently offered by SAP. Certification ensures quality and competence. It communicates an externally verified and industry-standard mark of excellence. According to SAP, certification is their commitment to their customers towards quality and workforce sustainability. Organizations need SAP certification for the primary three reasons:

• Risk mitigation: Certified individuals mitigate business risks by ensuring that SAP projects are completed accurately and on time.
• User adoption: Investment in certification and training yields a strong return on investment and an exponential increase in productivity through accelerated SAP solution adoption.
• Qualified benchmark: SAP certification provides a clear measurement of your organization’s current skill set and allows you to better plan and assess workforce quality – preparing your organization for future growth.

According to the research conducted by Burlington Consultants, SAP certification provides measurable productivity, quality and flexibility gains. To quantify the value of SAP certification the analysts gave the following numbers. Companies with more than 25 percent of their staff certified experience:

• 15% increase in projects deployed on time and on budget
• 8% decrease in downtime
• 17% decrease in spending on ad-hoc external SAP support
• 28% increase in overall productivity

So, who should be certified? SAP proposes three main target groups that particularly benefit from SAP certification:

• Customer center of excellence (CCoE) resources: Your CCoE consists of SAP solution experts who demonstrate their level of SAP solution knowledge in their daily job on the IT side. Certification drives quality throughout the company.
• Subject matter experts (SMEs): SMEs are the keepers of focused and specific knowledge that drives organizational success. Certification means that level of expertise is validated.
• Key users: They take significant work from SAP experts and CCoE resources through their first level support activities on business side. Certification ensures your business runs like never before with SAP.