Participate in USA DVD Lottery

How Do I Participate in the Diversity Visa Lottery Program?

What is the Diversity Visa Lottery Program?
Each year, 50,000 immigrant visas are made available through a lottery to people who come from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. None of these visas are available for people who come from countries that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the past five years. The State Department's National Visa Center holds the lottery every year, and chooses winners randomly from all qualified entries. Anyone who is selected under this lottery will be given the opportunity to apply for permanent residence. If permanent residence is granted, then the individual will be authorized to live and work permanently in the United States. You will also be allowed to bring your spouse and any unmarried children under the age of 21 to the United States.

What does the Law Say?
The legal foundation for the Diversity Visa Lottery Program comes from the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Please see section 203 of the INA for more information.

Who is Eligible to Enter the Diversity Visa Lottery?

• You or your spouse must be a native of a country that is eligible to participate in the Diversity Visa Lottery. You may also be eligible to apply if your parent was born in a country that is eligible to participate. (The State Department will publish the names of countries that are eligible to participate before each year's lottery.)
• You must have a high school diploma or the equivalent, defined in the United States as successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education; OR you must have two years of work experience within the last five years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience to perform.
• See the State Department information on the DV program.

How Do I Apply?
Before each year's lottery drawing, the Department of State will publish explicit instructions on how to apply in press releases and the Federal Register. Please follow all directions exactly. Millions of applicants are rejected each year for failure to follow the directions. Please watch the State Department Website for more information on the Diversity Visa Lottery Program. Instructions are usually posted in August, and the registration period is usually held in October each year.

How Much Does the Lottery Cost?
There is no fee for entering the diversity visa lottery. If you win, you must pay a fee for an immigrant visa and a separate visa lottery surcharge.

How Can I Find Out If I Won?
Only the winners will be notified by mail at the addresses listed on their applications. Winners will be sent instructions and information on fees. Being selected as a winner in the diversity visa lottery does not automatically guarantee that you will be issued a visa, even if you are qualified. The number of entries selected is greater than the number of immigrant visas available, because not everyone selected will be qualified for the visa or will choose to complete the processing. Once all 50,000 visas have been issued, the diversity visa program for the year will end.

Please be aware: Winners are not notified by electronic mail. Please see the Department of State Fraud Warning in the Related Links section of this page.

How Can I Find Out More Information?
Please watch the State Department Website for more information on the Diversity Visa Lottery Program. You may also call the State Department's Visa Lottery Information Center at 1-900-884-8840 for more information. Please note: There is a charge for each call. You may also contact your nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. A listing of U.S. Embassies and Consulates can be found on the State Department website.

Visa Types to USA

Some of you will think what's the relation between my blog title and the visa to USA. Lately I posted many info about SAP. And my wish is I could work in States someday, so for some of you have that dream, could prepare and seek the information requirement to work and earn for living in there. Cheers..

Visa Types for Immigrants

In general, in order to be eligible to apply for an immigrant visa, a foreign citizen must be sponsored by a U.S. citizen relative(s) or by a prospective employer. Unlike most other immigrant categories, Immediate Relatives are not subject to numerical limits under immigration law. For an overview of the types of immigrant visas available under immigration law, please see Immigrant Visa Classifications on the USCIS Website. Major immigrant categories are:

• Immediate Relatives
• Special Immigrants
• Family-sponsored
• Employer-sponsored

Additionally the Diversity Visa Program provides a certain number of permanent resident visas annually. These visas are drawn from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. For information specific to each visa type, please click on the links below.

Family Immigration
Adopting a Child
Marriage to a Foreign National
Diversity Visa Program
Employment Visas

USA Employment Visa

Immigration through Employment

Immigration through Employment

Overview

An immigrant is a foreign national who has been authorized to live and work permanently in the United States. If you want to become an immigrant based on the fact that you have a permanent employment opportunity in the United States, or if you are an employer that wants to sponsor someone for lawful permanent residency based on permanent employment in the United States, you must go through a multi-step process.

• First, foreign nationals and employers must determine if the foreign national is eligible for lawful permanent residency under one of USCIS' paths to lawful permanent residency.
• Second, most employment categories require that the U.S. employer complete a labor certification request (Form ETA 750) for the applicant, and submit it to the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration. Labor must either grant or deny the certification request. Qualified alien physicians who will practice medicine in an area of the United States which has been certified as underserved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are relieved from this requirement.
• Third, USCIS must approve an immigrant visa petition, Form I-140, Petition for Alien Worker, for the person wishing to immigrate to the United States. The employer wishing to bring the applicant to the United States to work permanently files this petition. However, if a Department of Labor certification is needed the application can only be filed after the certification is granted. The employer acts as the sponsor (or petitioner) for the applicant (or beneficiary) who wants to live and work on a permanent basis in the United States.
• Fourth, the State Department must give the applicant an immigrant visa number, even if the applicant is already in the United States. When the applicant receives an immigrant visa number, it means that an immigrant visa has been assigned to the applicant. You can check the status of a visa number in the Department of State's Visa Bulletin.
• Fifth, if the applicant is already in the United States, he or she must apply to adjust to permanent resident status after a visa number becomes available. If the applicant is outside the United States when an immigrant visa number becomes available, he or she will be notified and must complete the process at his or her local U.S. consulate office.

Eligibility

There are four categories for granting permanent residence to foreign nationals based upon employment:

EB-1 Priority workers

• Foreign nationals of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics
• Foreign national that are outstanding professors or researchers
• Foreign nationals that are managers and executives subject to international transfer to the United States

EB-2 Professionals with advanced degrees or persons with exceptional ability

• Foreign nationals of exceptional ability in the sciences, arts or business
• Foreign nationals that are advanced degree professionals
• Qualified alien physicians who will practice medicine in an area of the U.S. which is underserved. Read more about this particular program.

EB-3 Skilled or professional workers

• Foreign national professionals with bachelor's degrees (not qualifying for a higher preference category)
• Foreign national skilled workers (minimum two years training and experience)
• Foreign national unskilled workers

EB-4 Special Immigrants

• Foreign national religious workers
• Employees and former employees of the U.S. Government abroad

How to Apply

If you are an employer wishing to sponsor (or petition) for a foreign national to work in the United States on a permanent basis, you must file Form I-140, Petition for Alien Worker. Detailed information is provided in the instructions for Form I-140. Filing requirements differ for each of the five categories.

The Department of State is responsible for providing visa numbers to foreign nationals interested in immigrating to the United States. To find out more about the Department of State's visa process visit the Department of State website for specific information on how to get an immigrant visa number.

To check the status of a visa number you can review the Department of State's visa bulletin.

Where do I apply

If you are an employer wishing to sponsor (or petition) a foreign national to work in the United States, a Form I-140, Petition for Alien Worker must be filed at the USCIS Service Center. Detailed filing information is provided in the instructions for Form I-140.

For EB-4 special workers, the foreign national or employer must file Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant, with the CIS Service Center. Detailed filing information is provided in the instructions for Form I-360.

Other helpful sites you may want to visit if you:

• want to find out more about the Department of State Visa Process
• want to review the Department of State Visa Bulletin
• want to find out more about the Department of Labor Foreign Labor Certification

Diversity Lottery to USA

Diversity Lottery

Overview

Each year, the Diversity Lottery (DV) Program makes 55,000 immigrant visas available through a lottery to people who come from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Of such visas, 5,000 are allocated for use under NACARA beginning with DV '99. The State Department (DOS) holds the lottery every year, and randomly selects approximately 110,000 applicants from all qualified entries. The DOS selects the approximately 110,000 applications since many will not complete the visa process. However once 55,000 are issued or the fiscal year ends, the DV program is closed. If you receive a visa through the Diversity Visa Lottery Program you will be authorized to live and work permanently in the United States. You will also be allowed to bring your spouse and any unmarried children under the age of 21 to the United States.

Entering the Diversity Visa Lottery

You cannot enter the Diversity Visa Lottery through the USCIS website or by filing any application with USCIS. The program is managed by the U.S. Department of State.

The 2009 Lottery online entry begins at Noon Eastern Daylight Time, on October 3, 2007, and ends at Noon Eastern Standard Time on December 2, 2007. Further information will be posted here when the U.S. Department of State makes it available.

For more information on this program, please see the State Department webpage on the Diversity Visa program, in the Related Links section of this page.

Please note: There have been instances of fraudulent websites posing as official U.S. Government sites. Some companies posing as the U.S. Government have sought money in order to "complete" lottery entry forms. There is no charge to download and complete the Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form. The Department of State notifies successful Diversity Visa applicants by letter, and NOT be electronic mail. To learn more, see the Department of State Warning and the Federal Trade Commission Warning in the Related Links section of this page.

SAP Consulting Service Categories

SAP SERVICES:

Consulting services: Service categories

View full-size image.

SAP Consulting provides services that are aligned throughout your solution life cycle. Whether you're planning, building, or running your solution, SAP Consulting has a broad range of services to drive the greatest return from your SAP investment.

As an additional benefit, SAP Consulting has a flexible engagement model that allows you to choose the level at which SAP is involved in your project. Some customers simply want strategic oversight from SAP, while others want complete, end-to-end management and responsibility from SAP. Whatever your needs, SAP Consulting's flexible engagement model can support your drive toward a successful SAP implementation.

SAP Consulting service categories include the following:

• Program and project management – Program and project management services help you monitor progress toward program goals, identify potential problems, and increase the effectiveness of complex programs. They enable you to master the challenge of organizational change and maximize the benefits of your SAP solutions.
• Business process design – Business process design services focus on the architecture of business processes and their associated systems and organizational structures. They aim to dramatically improve business performance by providing transparency into your processes, identifying weaknesses in your organization, and calculating optimization potential through process-cost analysis. Key activities include process analysis, redesign, innovation, improvement, and establishment of best practices and quality assurance.
• Solution implementation – Solution implementation services provide valuable input on how to best use applications to meet your business needs. Key activities include blueprinting business process requirements, tailoring applications to business requirements, resolving conceptual and technical issues, cycle testing, and load and stress testing. Other deliverables include knowledge transfer and documentation of software settings, plus evaluation of the solution to meet your business needs.
• Solution optimization and upgrade – Solution optimization and upgrade services deliver comprehensive services for implementing the upgrade, addressing technology, business processes, training, and change and risk management. They also ensure that your IT infrastructure keeps pace with new challenges and new technologies.
• Business and IT strategic consulting – Business and IT strategic consulting services help you identify and quantify the business value that comes with increased operational efficiency. They also help you apply IT to transform an established business and create new business. Key activities include solution planning, business process analysis, business requirements analysis, and value assessment.
• Solution integration – SAP integration experts help you integrate company-specific solutions with both SAP and non-SAP solutions. We help you align your IT landscape with organizational change – quickly and cost-effectively. We also optimize the architecture and interfaces of your heterogeneous IT landscape. Finally, we ensure effective data-conversion strategies, the archiving of data across your solution environment, and the integration of new functionality, new releases, and custom applications.
• Solution and architecture design – Solution and architecture design services help integrate your business solutions into your overall enterprise architecture, ensuring that your IT infrastructure is aligned with business strategies. Key activities include the development of implementation approach, scope, costs, and timelines, the design of the process and application landscape, plus operational assessment and benchmarking.
• Technical implementation – With technical implementation services, SAP works with you to translate high-level system architecture into project-specific technical requirements. We also help you monitor the technical design and implementation of your solution, address all aspects of implementing a global solution, and ensure that your IT environment is configured properly. We enable you to define and implement an enterprise-wide IT security policy, move data from legacy systems to the new SAP solution, and migrate operating systems and databases.
• Conversion, migration, and landscape optimization – Conversion, migration, and landscape optimization services help you implement major changes to production SAP solutions and align your IT landscape. You can realign solutions with new business strategies such as centralization or divestiture, and reduce the cost of an IT environment that has grown complex over time. Landscape optimization services help you integrate solution landscapes, facilitating better corporate governance and improving business performance.
• Technology architecture design – With technology architecture design services, you receive specific recommendations for making your IT environment robust, feasible, and scalable. Key activities include system landscape strategy, internal release rollout, determination of distributed and centralized systems, and software change management.
• Quality and risk management – Quality and risk management services ensure that your projects achieve strategic and operational objectives by identifying and managing implementation risks, reviewing the project progress, scrutinizing technical design, and ensuring that solution design aligns with your business needs.

The future of SAP consultants

What is the future of SAP consultants/project managers? What's your take on the future market demand for SAP consultants/project managers? Based on my past 10+ years Oracle experience, I have two lucrative opportunities: 1. Project cum delivery manager of (BO + Java + Oracle products) 2. SAP consultant While the first option offers a head start to a senior-level position, for the second I would require to work as team member for at least a one-year implementation cycle, before moving to a senior / PM level position. My personal inclination is towards becoming a functional consultant for a particular domain and less for keeping up-to-date with upcoming technology. However, uncertainty about SAP consulting demand in the market makes me ask you this question. Would this investment in time and compromise in pay finally benefit me in the long run, or would it be risky to commit myself to something (SAP) where demand fluctuates based on market?

EXPERT RESPONSE You ask a good question, but I think you are over-thinking this one. No one can truly anticipate all aspects of the market. I would not be comfortable with you taking my word that the SAP consulting option is the better one and choosing that. You just don't know what is going to be the most marketable area going forward. I think both of your career choices are appealing, and you need to make that decision based on where your passion and talent lies. There's a big difference between the day-to-day job role of an SAP consultant versus being a project and delivery manager. I really think that you need to think about which type of responsibilities you would be more interested in mastering since they are so different. But stepping back from that, as a rule, it's always a risk to move from a managerial role back to a hands-on role. I don't think SAP is hot enough to accelerate you right back into management again. If you move to hands-on, it may be a long time before you are back into a management capacity again. If you are truly torn between the two and like them both equally, I would vote for you to stay with the project management role. However, it sounds to me like your heart is more in this career change to SAP consultant. Just remember that being an SAP consultant is a very competitive undertaking, and as a new consultant you'll be up against many senior consultants. To answer your question, I do believe that the SAP consulting will remain hot through the upgrade wave of the next three years, but as a relatively inexperienced consultant, you may find it more challenging to capitalize on that market than a more senior consultant would. There's no one right answer to your question, but I hope this discussion of the factors in your decision was helpful to you.

SAP Consulting Trends part 1

SAP consulting trends:
The revenge of the core consultant and other new developments
by Jon Reed

This is the first part of SAP jobs guru Jon Reed's in-depth report on the state of the SAP consulting market. Make sure to check out part two for more information on how NetWeaver changes the consulting landscape and part three to learn what the new, hot skills needed to get into the sweet spot are.

Good news for SAP professionals: The SAP market is as healthy as it's been since the late 1990s. The catch? A healthy SAP market does not translate to good fortune for all SAP consultants. Unfortunately, the SAP market no longer represents a "rising tide lifts all boats" situation. This poses a problem for consultants (and aspiring consultants), especially those who assume that as long as they stay focused on SAP, good things will happen.

SAP technology is changing quickly and creating skills gaps that are not easy to fill. The end result? A "winners and losers" market where some consultants see their rates rise and others have trouble breaking in. Even experienced consultants may find themselves on the outside. In this article, I look at why the demand for SAP skills is changing, making a special note of what is hot now. I combine my own observations with those of some industry players who have been in the SAP market for a decade or more.

Several factors are affecting the types of SAP skills companies are looking for. The underlying push is the impact of upgrades (along with brand-new implementations, mostly in the midmarket). There are three main skill areas that SAP upgrades are driving forward. On the technical side, the NetWeaver platform is changing the nature of technical job orders. On the functional side, we see a big shift back toward core areas such as financials, human resources (HR), and sales and distribution (though these modules now have fancier SAP names, like mySAP HCM instead of HR). We're also seeing the increasing impact of business intelligence (in particular the BW product) on SAP job orders of all kinds. Let's take a closer look at each of these three areas.

The revenge of the core functional consultant

Ever since 2000, I've been recommending that SAP consultants move away from core functional modules like FI/CO, SD and HR in order to keep up with SAP's new eBusiness product line. Of course, we're referring to the oddly named "New Dimensions" products, which are now renamed as part of the mySAP Business Suite. In 2000, I suggested that consultants should move out of the R/3 core and into emerging areas such as CRM, APO, BW, and later SEM, SRM and PLM. Some of those turned out to be pretty good consulting niches, but none of them took off to the degree we all hoped (with the possible exceptions of BW and CRM). Now we see that functional consultants who ignored my advice and stuck with the core modules may have the last laugh.

Why is that? Because, as we've noted, new installs at midsized companies and upgrades to the core on existing SAP sites are the main consulting drivers. Both types of projects tend to emphasize the implementation of the core modules first. However, there is one big caveat: Even if you have five years (or more) of SAP experience, you won't necessarily be in demand for these projects. I tell SAP consultants that "you're only as hot as your last project," and that's never been as true as it is now. It's the last six months that really defines you. Yes, deep SAP experience helps. But it's got to be topped off by project work in a hot area to keep the rates high and the phones ringing.

Contrary to what SAP may imply -- that everyone is moving to 6.0 -- companies are upgrading to a range of SAP releases. We can certainly expect most future upgrades to involve ECC 6.0 or eventually higher (ECC 6.0 is the NetWeaver 2004 release, and the full suite is referred to as mySAP ERP 2005; ECC 6.0 is the "enterprise core" of mySAP ERP 2005, so ECC 6.0 is the product evolution of the core SAP R/3 release). Some companies are still in the midst of upgrading to 4.7 or ECC 5.0, but SAP considers 6.0 a "foundation release," as 4.6C once was. Translation: "You'll all be running on 6.0 sooner rather than later."

Brian Trout, SAP Practice Manager for B2B Workforce (www.b2bworkforce.com), an SAP Premier Partner, believes that SAP consultants must understand SAP's release schedule if they want to stay marketable. "If you want to stay leading edge, and you want to be on the high end of the rate scale, you must stay current with the release logic," Trout says. "The most successful consultants we work with at B2B Workforce take that into account when evaluating each opportunity. It's very easy to advise someone to stay current, but it's not always easy to do that. One way to stay on top of things is to study the release notes and be able to speak to the new functionality during the interview process."

These new releases bring significant twists to core functional areas -- too many to list in one article. One major example is the new General Ledger. FI/CO consultants who have experience configuring the new General Ledger in ECC 5.0 and especially ECC 6.0 have a big edge over their FI/CO colleagues. A junior-level SAP Financials consultant who has this experience might be able to score a contract over a more senior FI/CO person who has not configured the new General Ledger. There are similar examples in HR, or as it is often called these days, mySAP HCM. We can point to the same in SD, which is now subsumed in SAP marketing literature into the broader supply chain management (SCM) functionality.

"The days of the SAP consultant saying, 'I've got eight or ten years of experience, and that's good enough to keep me on the cutting edge,' are over," Trout says. "It's more about having the recent experience than it is the depth of experience." As one example, he points to the latest HCM-Portals functionality in SAP E-Recruitment. "I have seen numerous situations where people with seven or eight years of HR experience have been passed by in favor of someone with much less experience who has exposure to the latest version of E-Recruitment (6.0)."

Jerry Walter, owner of the staffing firm Walter and Associates (www.itopps.com), has seen how SAP consultants can get themselves into trouble by assuming that the skills that got them by in the past will work for them in the future. "You need to have the mentality that you don't know it all and that you're looking for opportunities to build your expertise," Walter says. "I have a couple of people I am working with who are attempting to build on their current SAP skills, but from our conversations, they've realized that they shouldn't be positioning themselves as expert-level consultants, because they're not yet on top of the latest SAP releases. They are in that mode of doing whatever it takes to get the skills they need to be a senior-level SAP consultant."

Michael Doane, Chief Intelligence Officer for Performance Monitor (www.performancemonitor.net) and author of the recently updated SAP Blue Book: A Concise Business Guide to the World of SAP, agrees. "Anyone doing SAP consulting – even if they've been doing it for many years – should consider themselves ready to go back to school. The mySAP ERP era involves a whole new set of skills that consultants need to acquire."

Another big change in how core consultants are evaluated is this: All three of the experts I spoke with noted that industry-specific SAP experience is becoming more and more important. A classic configuration background is not going to be enough to stay marketable. "It's not the consulting market of the 1990s," Trout says. "SAP customers don't just want the SAP module expertise, they want the specific industry know-how, and they want the latest release expertise to go with that."

Doane's research supports this point. "More and more, and we see this coming from our data, [it is the case] that SAP customers are demanding vertical industry background – true vertical industry background. The percentage of SAP consultants across North America that have deep industry background is still too low." Doane notes that in Performance Monitor's findings on systems integrators, "did not demonstrate sufficient vertical expertise" is one of the most frequently cited negatives made about SAP consultants and systems integrators on project sites.

Of course, just because the core SAP areas are returning to marketability, it isn't necessarily the case that mySAP add-on releases like mySAP CRM, PLM and APO are now irrelevant. There is good consulting work in some of these areas, and if you're doing well, there's no reason to go back in time. But if you haven't moved into a mySAP product yet, you may want to stick with the core and ride the upgrade wave, perhaps adding some industry-specific focus to that core skill set.

Once the upgrade push is over, I expect functional consultants to see renewed emphasis on these "add-on" Business Suite areas as SAP pushes them as the logical extension of the enterprise core. However, we should note that some of these products have now been incorporated back into the core release -- BW into NetWeaver being a prime example -- so we'll have to keep an eye on how SAP handles its mySAP products going forward. Lately, SAP does seem to be cannibalizing its add-ons in order to provide more value and integration to the core.

Click here for part two, on how NetWeaver changes everything for SAP consultants, and part three, on how you can get the right skillset to cash in on the hottest trends in the years ahead.

SAP Consulting Trends part 2

In the second part of Jon Reed's report, we learn about the full impact of the shift to NetWeaver as it pertains to the consulting market. Also, make sure to check out part one for a basic overview of key trends and part three to learn what the new, hot skills needed to get into the sweet spot are.

NetWeaver is changing the technical skill set

NetWeaver has jumped from the pages of brochures and into action. The ultimate evidence is that we can now see its impact on actual job orders. The effect of NetWeaver is being felt across functional and technical skill areas, but the most obvious impact is on the technical side. We could spend an entire article on the complexities of NetWeaver consulting in and of itself, especially when we consider that NetWeaver is not one specialty area but a series of related consulting niches, including Portals, XI/PI, xApps, Solution Manager, and the add-on Master Data Management (MDM) product -- not to mention NetWeaver technical development.

Michael Doane believes that recruiting the right talent will be crucial to the success of the NetWeaver upgrade wave. "These are whole new sets of skills that today are very rare and [are] going to be sought more and more through time," he said. "And that's where recruiting and maintaining this talent is once again a major key, just as it was in the heyday of the 1990s."

So how do you get from where you are in SAP to these emerging NetWeaver areas? Roughly speaking, we can classify the traditional SAP technical role into two main areas: Basis and ABAP. The skills migration path from Basis to NetWeaver is fairly obvious, as NetWeaver is more of a systems evolution than the revolution SAP sometimes implies. A Basis person who is savvy about choosing NetWeaver upgrades (or who is lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time) should be able to gradually sink his teeth into more and more NetWeaver tools and stay marketable that way.

For programmers, the migration path is trickier. Analysts differ on how dire the situation is for ABAP programmers. Some, like me, believe that with some additional skills and an expanded view of how a developer adds value, an ABAP programmer can still be successful. Certainly, SAP is still committed to providing an ABAP environment as part of its NetWeaver landscape, which suggests a continued need for this expertise. On the other hand, some analysts feel that ABAP is dead – at least in terms of on-site consulting -- and that it's time for everybody in that field to stop bucketing water and jump ship.

"If I was an ABAP programmer in North America, I would go get a new skill set," Doane says. "While very good ABAP programmers are still in demand, especially in the midmarket -- which according to our data is not yet using offshore as much as the large firms -- it's a skill that is not necessarily needed on site. Any skill set that is not needed on site is going to go overseas -- unless you are a super-duper software engineer who can do things that other ABAP programmers couldn't dream of doing."

Despite some differences on the extent of the ABAP predicament, the folks I spoke with agree on this much: Global outsourcing has lowered the rates for ABAP work and thrown down a big challenge to SAP developers who want to stay marketable. In my "Ask the Career Expert" column on SearchSAP, I have written about how to stay marketable as an ABAP programmer, but we can summarize a few key recommendations here:

• Learn the most cutting edge NetWeaver (and web) development tools
• Make sure you have object-oriented programming experience inside and outside of ABAP
• Round out your team lead and business process skills (know how to work with functional team members to meet business objectives).

The most important part of staying marketable as an ABAP programmer is to realize that the SAP developer of the future is a programming gymnast, a real "hybrid" -- someone who can code object-oriented ABAP with the best of them but who is also well versed in Java, XML and Web-based programming standards, in particular how they are applied in SAP environments. NetWeaver products that emphasize Java-based scripting, such as Portals, are good places to start.

Brian Trout shared his profile of the ideal SAP developer: "The most successful SAP programmers have a blend of Java expertise to deal with Portals development; they have a prior ABAP background; they understand Workflow-related techniques and development; and they understand the inner workings of IDOC and RFC communication as it pertains to forward-reaching, Portals-based technologies."

Business intelligence and BW are here to stay

Business intelligence remains a key area of innovation for SAP, and the BW product continues to gain traction. BI 7.0, the NetWeaver 2004s version of BW, is an area of particular demand, and we're seeing a lot of BW upgrade work from 3.5 to 7.0 driving the need for BW consulting skills. Of course, this is good news for BW consultants, but it's also good news for functional and technical SAP consultants of all stripes. The reason: Connections can be made to BW from almost any other area of SAP consulting.

Why are the connections to BW important? Because we know that in the evolution of SAP, BW is not a fad. All the leading ERP vendors have realized that to deliver a strong ROI for their customers, they need to offer more than a transactional ERP system. Embedded reporting and analytics, along with decision support for executives, are crucial ways for ERP vendors to enhance the value of their offerings. It's all been dressed up with the slick phrase "business intelligence," but there's no question that getting the right information out of an ERP system, and right when you need it, is serious business from this point forward. Consultants who pursue BW can do it knowing that it's going to have a long shelf life.

The entry points into BW vary. The connections on the technical side are more self-evident (Basis people moving into BW system admin and security, ABAP folks into custom BW development and reporting), but more and more functional consultants are picking up on BW as a way to sizzle up their resumes. Another related area to keep an eye on: Master data management is an emerging consulting need.

Brian Trout reports that the latest MDM release, version 5.5, is starting to take off with SAP customers (despite the fact that it's still the least mature of the NetWeaver offerings). Companies such as Nortel, which held off on MDM in the past, are finding that the functionality is now up to snuff for their projects. Of course, MDM is separate from BW, and it doesn't ship with NetWeaver automatically (companies have to pay for the MDM license), but we can expect to see a good amount of MDM consulting, and the transition from a BW/data modeling/database background into MDM makes sense. Consultants without BW experience might find MDM skills just as useful to acquire.

Get the broad consulting trends overview in part one, then check out part three on how you can get the right skillset to cash in on the hottest trends in the years ahead.

http://searchsap.techtarget.com/general/0,295582,sid21_gci1248976,00.html

SAP Consulting Trends part 3

SAP consulting trends -- hot skills by SAP magazine Tech Target

By John Reed

SAP career expert Jon Reed looks at the hot skills required to find a profitable niche in SAP consulting as part of this consulting trends report. Make sure to check out part one for a basic overview of key trends and part two for more information on how NetWeaver changes the consulting landscape.

Hot SAP skills to pursue

I'm not a big fan of recommending "hot" SAP areas. The skills chase often leaves a crazy career path behind it. What makes sense is not to chase what's hot but to add a new skill that logically builds on core experience. There's a big difference between a natural extension of skills (which looks good on a resume) and the mad pursuit of something new (which tends to look frantic). With that disclaimer in mind, here are some hot (and not so hot) areas that the folks I talked to singled out. Keep in mind that when we say "hot," we don't mean that these skills were mentioned in a PowerPoint at a trade show. For our purposes, "hot" means that we've seen these skills on actual job orders and placed people with these skills.

Hot areas

• Core Financials, HR, and to a lesser extent SD/MM on the ECC 5.0 and ECC 6.0 versions of SAP in particular. On the mySAP Financials side, the ECC FI New General Ledger is "very hot." On the mySAP HCM side, beyond the core HR functions like Payroll and Benefits, advanced HR functionalities like Performance Management and LSO (Learning Solution, e-Learning, etc.) are also in demand.
  
• NetWeaver and BI: XI/PI installation, ECC systems upgrade from R/3, BW upgrade from 3.5 to BI 7.0, MDM 5.5.
  

Warm

• mySAP Business Suite (SRM, CRM, PLM)
  
• Some industry verticals, in particular the retail solutions (IS-Retail and IS-AFS)
  

Not-so-warm

• ABAP/Legacy Skills and Supply Chain Planning (APO component of mySAP SCM)
  

Surprising trend: Has the power of certification returned?

One thing that comes as a bit of a surprise: For the first time in years, I'm hearing firsthand stories about folks who managed to break into SAP armed only with a certification. Recently, I heard from two lucky people who have done it: one on the Financials side and one on the CRM side.

At this point, I haven't seen enough broad confirmation on this point to recommend certifications again as a way of breaking into SAP, but we can say this much: When folks with only certification are getting consulting jobs, that means the demand for SAP skills is as high as it's been in years. Just remember that it's still a "winners and losers" market and that the demand for skills is most likely focused on particular niches, most of them on the functional side of SAP. "Research before you leap" still applies.

The influx of "perm" SAP positions - another sign of a healthy market

A final sign that the SAP market is on the move is the number of companies that are looking to bring in more permanent employees for their in-house SAP teams.

"I'm seeing a lot more demand on the direct placement side than I've seen before," Jerry Walter says. "SAP customers really want to bring quality SAP folks in-house that they can rely on, and this way, the costs aren't constantly eating up their budget."

Walter does find that companies are having trouble finding this kind of person – another sign that SAP professionals are faced with more appealing options than they've had in recent years.

"Going perm" can be a great way to get access to new SAP skills. I've seen this approach used by experienced consultants who needed exposure to the latest SAP tools and weren't able to land the right contract. Some companies, though not all, will offer more skills perks to those who are willing to take a salaried position.

Conclusion: When in doubt, choose skills over rates

It's hard to write a "one size fits all" article on SAP consulting because the market no longer fits all. But I hope this piece can serve as a foundation, and I'll expand on these themes in my SearchSAP career-questions-and-answers column in the Ask the Expert section of this Web site.

For a closing piece of advice, I asked Michael Doane to give us one proven tactic for SAP professionals. Without hesitating, he said: "Choose skills before rates."

Citing the increasing impact of global outsourcing and success of the onshore/offshore mix, Doane feels strongly that consultants have to stay on the cutting edge to stay marketable. "While it's a hot market out there, if you want to survive in it, you're going to have to have the skills. Only with the skills will the rates sustain themselves."

It may sound like simple advice to follow, but it's not so easy when offers are on the table. It's a tough call to travel farther and earn less for better skills, but in the global SAP labor pool, skills translate to career security. The SAP market may shift again, but "skills over rates" will never let you down.

Click here to get the broad consulting trends overview in part one, then click here for part two, on how NetWeaver changes everything for SAP consultants.

Is SAP is right for me?

Banyak orang yang lebih mengenal SAP dibanding2 beberapa tahun lalu. Sejak banyak implementasi SAP, karyawan kantor pun melek aplikasi SAP dibandingkan sebelumnya. Trainer2 banyak bermunculan setelah implementasi SAP di company2 selesai. Dan begitu pun konsultan dan tenaga SDM juga banyak dicari untuk implement proyek2 SAP di consultant house.

Dari segi income, pendapatan si konsultan sangat lumayan dan di sisi benefit banyak untungnya bisa kerja dan sekaligus jalan2 ke project site.

Kalau anda baru ingin break into SAP World masi banyak keraguan dan ingin ada guidelines nya, paling nga artikel di bawah ini bisa disimak di :

http://searchsap.techtarget.com/general/0,295582,sid21_gci1152564,00.html

Scenario 1: Is SAP is right for me?
Scenario 2: I'm a new graduate. How should I break in?
Scenario 3: I'm certified. Why can't I find a job?
Scenario 4: Can previous experience get me in the door?
Scenario 5: Should I fake experience?
Scenario 6: I'm getting interviews but no job offers
Review: Conclusion and more resources

First joint software IBM & SAP

IBM and SAP to Develop First Joint Software Product

Before 7,000 customers and partners at the annual Lotusphere conference, IBM and SAP AG announced plans to deliver their first joint software product codenamed “Atlantic” that will integrate IBM Lotus Notes software with SAP Business Suite.

The combined efforts to create "Atlantic" will result in a new style of applications that present information and data in the context of users familiar with the Lotus Notes desktop. This will make it easier for users to do their jobs and greatly enhance the return on investment that companies have made in their SAP applications.

Providing workers with access to critical business information in this intuitive, easy-to-use interface will enable timely, more informed business decisions. All types of employees can benefit from increased business analysis, information capabilities and the power to run their business operations directly from their Lotus Notes desktop.

“We’re creating a richer collaboration environment,” said Michael Rhodin, general manager, IBM Lotus Software. “Businesses are looking to find better ways to collaborate and manage their business processes. This IBM-SAP solution addresses both challenges in one seamless package for millions of users.”

IBM Lotus and SAP have thousands of mutual customers who have been asking for the functionality that “Atlantic” software will provide. The majority of IBM’s top 100 customers also use SAP solutions.

“SAP and IBM Lotus are strategic partners to The Coca-Cola Company,” said Jean Michel-Ares, CIO, Coca-Cola Company. “Our IT goal is to help our people to be more responsive, productive and effective, and SAP and IBM Lotus have helped us get closer to that goal. The partnership between IBM Lotus, SAP and The Coca-Cola Company promises to deliver additional value to our associates and improve the tools they use every day.”

“Lotus has been an innovator in collaboration for 20 years. This agreement is great example of how SAP enables our customers to empower their users by providing easy access to SAP business processes and data through productivity tools and user interfaces of their choice,” said Vishal Sikka, CTO, SAP. “Furthermore, it reaffirms the strong commitment we have to our partnership with IBM.”

For more than 35 years, IBM and SAP have collaborated to bring joint customers cutting-edge solutions to improve business efficiency at more than 13,000 client sites for their millions of users. Currently planned for inclusion in the first release of project “Atlantic” is support for SAP workflows, reporting and analytics, and the use of roles from within the Lotus Notes client. In addition, tools are planned to be included to provide the ability to extend and adapt these roles and capabilities, as well as leverage additional collaborative and offline capabilities inherent in Lotus Notes and Domino products. The initial release is planned to ship in the fourth quarter of 2008 and will be sold by both companies.

If customization of the product is required, IBM Global Business Services will be available to provide consulting and perform services. SAP practitioners, other global and regional systems integrators will also be enabled to customize “Atlantic” software to meet demand.

SAP Business Suite is a comprehensive family of adaptive business applications, providing best-in-class functionality built for complete integration, industry-specific capability, unlimited scalability, and easy collaboration over the Internet. Individually, SAP Business Suite applications customers manage their most critical business processes. Collectively, they form a tightly integrated suite that adds value to every facet of large and small organizations, including banks, hospitals, retail establishments, government agencies and a variety of other businesses, and their external value chains.

IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8 enterprise collaboration software was developed with input from more than 25,000 customers. Lotus Notes 8 software transforms the inbox into an integrated workspace. It brings together email, calendar, instant messaging, productivity tools like Lotus Symphony, collaborative applications, and the ability to build and deploy customer business or third-party applications, including help desk, customer relationship management, sales force, discussion forms and blogs.

Lotus Notes and Domino products have had approximately 135 million licensed users worldwide. Companies of all sizes, industries and technology lineages are embracing the latest version as the most comprehensive and versatile open collaboration platform they’ve used.

For more information on Lotusphere click here.

Source: SAP AG

SAP All-in-One or SAP Business One?

	SAP's A1S, All-in-One or Business One; what are midmarket firms to choose? By Jon Franke, News Editor 18 Jul 2007 | SearchSAP.com

SAP has been judicious in doling out information on its midmarket Software as a Service (SaaS) product A1S since first announcing plans for it early this year. That has left press, analysts and customers wondering just how SAP plans to serve the midmarket.

A1S, with its SaaS model, joins Business One and All-in-One in SAP's small and midsized business (SMB) portfolio. Business One, designed for the lower end of the midmarket, and All-in-One, aimed at the upper end, are both on-premise products.

There even appeared to be some confusion within SAP.

In a speech given late last month, SAP chairman Hasso Plattner said the on-demand model of software delivery "will compete with our current model, and 99% of our installations are on site." Many who follow SAP took that to mean that A1S would probably compete with SAP's other on-premise, midmarket products, specifically All-in-One and Business One.

Plattner and other SAP executives were quick to clarify the remarks, saying that the chairman was not alluding to A1S and that it would not compete with existing SAP products or business models.

"It's pretty clear that [A1S is] not intended to and is not fit to [compete with SAP's other midmarket products]," Jeff Stiles, SAP's senior vice president of solution marketing, said in an interview with SearchSAP.com.

Despite SAP's attempts to differentiate its SMB products, some customers will be eager to try A1S when it becomes available, even if they have another SAP midmarket product installed.

San Francisco's Pooch Inc. is currently a happy SAP Business One customer, but Marjorie Scholtz, founder and CEO, was curious to know whether companies could migrate out of existing SAP SMB products onto A1S after the release date.

"If there was a hosted, Web-based system, we would absolutely use that," Scholtz said.

A1S is targeted at companies in the lower end of the midmarket that don't have deep vertical needs, Stiles explained. Midmarket customers that need industry-specific functionality and a high degree of customizability are best served with an on-premise application like All-in-One.

"The point initially is that there's less focus on deep industry functionality [in A1S] and more of a focus on serving needs across industries," Stiles said. "And there's the notion of configurability [in SaaS] vs. customization or extension that you can do with on-premise."

SAP announced its intention to develop A1S in early 2007, and despite the company's claims to the contrary, some think that A1S is likely to poach some business from Business One and All-in-One.

"I would say A1S will compete on the lower end with some of SAP's small and midsized offerings," said Robert DeSisto, a vice president at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc.

SAP's Stiles indicated that A1S is currently in the early stages of customer validation with customers and partners, with SAP continuing to tweak it based on feedback.

"Q1 2008 is the next stage of volume readiness," Stiles explained. "I'm not going to say that it's necessarily the date to open the door to a million users to be working with the system live every day. We have to phase that according to our ability to scale the business."

That seems to leave some wiggle room as to what that next stage is, but some are still skeptical about the anticipated wide release in Q1 2008.

"A1S will not be an option for mainstream clients until at least mid-2008," Yvonne Genovese, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, said in an email. "Early adopters willing to take a risk on a new product will likely be able to get the product in Q1 2008."

In a report titled "SAP strategy changes with A1S," Gartner recommended that companies considering Business One or All-in-One, or even prospective users of SAP Business Suite, should investigate A1S if they are willing to sacrifice customizability for lower cost and are amenable to a hosted solution. Users should not expect too much guidance from SAP as to whether to wait for A1S, according to Genovese.

"SAP is not going to give guidance... except buy the current products available now, which generates revenue now," she said.

Gartner recommends that current SAP users closely monitor the success and roadmap of A1S because it will likely affect SAP's roadmap beyond 2010.

A new direction?

SAP already offers an on-demand CRM product, but it is still relatively new to the SaaS market. Combine that with the underwhelming reception SAP CRM on-demand received in some quarters, and the company still has to prove its SaaS mettle, according to DeSisto. Prior to its CRM on-demand launch, SAP had been less than enthusiastic about an on-demand model for the midmarket.

"SAP has to show they can get to market with this thing," he said. "They obviously have had a lot of pre-discussion in the press, and even demonstrated it to the analyst community."

DeSisto cited some quality issues with the initial release of SAP's CRM on-demand product -- resulting in part from the company's eagerness to get it to market to compete with Salesforce.com -- and noted the importance of getting SaaS right the first time.

"The thing with SaaS, when a company using it doesn't like it, they get out," he said. "This is not the on-premise world, and SAP needs to change their mindset if they're going to play in this market."

Stiles said SAP understands the complexities involved in SaaS and is being deliberate with scaling the product up to wide release.

"We're being very careful about this because as you move to volume you need to be able to scale all the processes involved in working with customers and effectively providing service and support to them," Stiles said, adding that there are several stages of "volume readiness," including the ramping up of related sales and marketing activities.

And those sales and marketing activities could prove costly, according to DeSisto.

"[SaaS is] a different game on how the software is provisioned, how it's paid for, how you develop, how you deliver," the analyst said. "That to me is going to be one of the biggest challenges for SAP, the cultural change of trying to raise this model."

SAP Consulting Company in Indonesia

COUNTRY : INDONESIA

Berawal dari keinginan apply job di SAP consulting company dan hasil search googling, job portal dan ikutan hadir di SAP Career Day, akhirnya punya data-data perusahaan konsulting yang implement SAP. Saya posting di sini biar teman2 yang butuh informasi gampang melacaknya.

1. PT. Jogja Global Technology

2. Berlian Sistem Informasi


Dan di bawah ini adalah TOP CONSULTING FIRM di Indonesia :

1. Accenture
18th Fl., Wisma 46, Kota BNI
Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav.1
Jakarta 10220, Indonesia
Tel : +62 21 574 6575
Fax: +62 21 574 6576
Contact:Mr. Julianto Sidarto,
Country Managing Director
Email : julianto.sidarto@accenture.com

2. Deloitte Consulting
Wisma Antara Building, 6th Floor
Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan 17
Jakarta 10110, Indonesia
Tel. +62 21 386 6441
Fax +62 21 386 6443
Contact: Mr. Dimas Rizki,
Business Development
Email: drizki@deloitte.com

3. Dynamic Software Management Solution
Jl. Denpasar II No. 47A
Jakarta 12940 - Indonesia
Tel : +62 21 5292 0214
Fax: +62 21 5292 0206
Contact: Mr. David Kanchan Bera,
Consultant
Email: dkb.dynasoft@dnet.net.id

4. IBM Indonesia
31st Fl., The Landmark Centre I
Jl. Jend. Sudirman No. 1
Jakarta - 12910, Indonesia
Tel : +62 21 251 2922
Fax: +62 21 251 2933
Contact: Mr. Widita Sardjono,
IBM GBS Country Leader
Email : widita.p.sardjono@id.ibm.com

5. Konsulindo Informatika Perdana
12A th Floor, Menara Kebon Sirih
Jl Kebon Sirih No 17-19
Jakarta - 10340, Indonesia
Tel : +62 21 398 36647
Fax: +62 21 398 36649
Contact: Mr. Sadar Subagyo,
President Director
Email : sadars@perdana-consulting.com

6. SAP Indonesia (Consulting Division)
Wisma Kyoei Prince, 22nd Floor
Jl Jend Sudirman Kav 3
Jakarta - 10220, Indonesia
Tel : +62 21 572 4289
Fax: +62 21 572 4292
Contact: Mr. Abdy Taminsyah,
Head of Consulting
Email : abdy.taminsyah@sap.com

7. SCS Astra Graphia Technologies
SCS Astra Graphia Technologies
22nd Floor, Wisma Standard Chartered Bank
Jl Jend Sudirman Kav 33A
Jakarta - 10220, Indonesia
Tel : +62 21 572 1177
Fax: +62 21 572 1178
Contact: Ms. Yufina Riandini,
ERP Business Development
Email : yufina.riandini@ag-it.com

8. Soltius Indonesia
Soltius Indonesia
10th Floor, Midplaza 1
Jl Jend Sudirman Kav 10-11
Jakarta - 10220, Indonesia
Tel : +62 21 573 5670
Fax: +62 21 573 5671
Contact: Mr. Anthony Budiawan,
Managing Director
Email : anthony.budiawan@soltius.com

9. TCS Indonesia
Level 43, Wisma BNI 46
Jl. Jendral Sudirman Kav.1
Jakarta 10220
Tel : +62 21 5748817
Fax : +6221 5748888
Contact: Suranjan Banerjee,
Country Manager
Email : suranjan@sg-tcs.com

Medium sized consulting company :

1. Magnus Indonesia
Menara Kadin Indonesia,
24th Floor Jl. HR. Rasuna Said Blok X-5 Kav 2-3
Jakarta 12950, Indonesia
Tel : +62 (21) 527 42 60
Fax : +62 (21) 527 42 65
Email : dianne@magnusint.com

2. Hermis Consulting
Blue Bird Building
Jl. Mampang Prapatan Raya 60
Jakarta Selatan 12790
Indonesia
Phone : +62 21 798 9000
Fax : +62 21 791 80203
E-mail: info@hermisconsulting.com

Selamat mencoba apply dan juga sukses selalu jadi Konsultan SAP!! Silakan teman2 tambahkan jika ada yang kurang dengan nomor berurut ke bawah. Thx..

Technology Hiring for 2008

Technology Hiring Outlook Uncertain for 2008 from Monster Career Advice

SAP PLM job prospect

SAP PLM job prospects: A Jon Reed guest column

August 9th, 2007 by The SearchSAP.com Editorial Team

SAP PLM (product lifecycle management) is growing, and that means it’s time for SAP professionals to pay attention. Here’s what veteran SAP jobs expert Jon Reed had to say about the career opportunities a PLM surge may bring to your industry:

SearchSAP.com’s recent piece on the growth of the PLM market bodes well for SAP consultants for a couple of reasons: First, because PLM is becoming more central to corporate business processes, and second, because more and more companies are choosing the add-on extensions from their ERP provider instead of opting for best-of-breed solutions. This should be the case for PLM buying decisions also. We can also be confident that SAP puts a lot of stock in its own PLM product - PLM is a highlighted part of SAP’s Business Suite offering.

So that’s the good news. The more sobering aspect is that we have heard a buzz about PLM consulting from the year 2000 onward, and we have yet to see a big uptick in demand for PLM consultants. It’s important to realize that until the demand for a particular product becomes widespread, the consulting market will be limited to SAP’s own service line, its Tier One partners like IBM and Accenture and a handful of elite independent experts. A few boutique specialization firms round out that picture. Up until recently, that’s been the case for PLM, but we’re starting to see more widespread adoption of SAP PLM. I think we’ll see an even bigger surge in the demand for PLM skills a couple of years from now. At that point, more companies will have their core SAP upgrades behind them and will be looking to build on those long days of project work with strategic product line extensions.

That’s why I personally think the SAP PLM market will probably see its greatest activity in the 2-5 year window ahead of us. But it never hurts to add some PLM skills to your toolkit. The next question is: How would you go about that? Like most areas of SAP, there are numerous entry points into PLM consulting from both the functional and technical side. But let’s focus on the functional PLM opportunities. I see a couple of classic PLM profiles that work out well for functional consulting. One is that of the PLM industry expert who is new to SAP but has deep PLM and engineering experience outside of SAP.

These folks can be a real asset, especially as full-time employees who are pulled onto an internal project team. From the SAP side, the most common entry point I have seen into PLM is from that of the logistics-oriented module set including SD, MM and PP. We are also seeing some PLM project activity in the process industries and the Environmental Health and Safety area, so there are some entry points into PLM from those with industry expertise and SAP vertical experience in one of those two areas.

Finally, SAP is starting to gain some traction with its ECM (Engineering Change Management) product, so we are starting to see more PLM-ECM jobs. SAP skills associated with such roles include project/portfolio management, project collaboration (cProjects), design collaboration (cFolders), as well as CAD/CAM and DMS platform integration. We’re also seeing some PLM-related activity connected to the PPMDC Business Package, an up-and-coming “xApp” from SAP. That’s a lot of alphabet soup there, but if those acronyms are familiar to you, that’s a good sign that PLM consulting might be right up your alley.

Adding any of the above tools to your SAP skills would begin to position you for PLM consulting, and as the demand for SAP PLM skills picks up, you could be in a great position.

Jon Reed is the President of JonERP.com, an interactive web site which features Jon’s SAP Career Blog and his podcasts for SAP professionals. Jon has been publishing SAP career and market analysis for more than a decade, and he serves as the career expert for SearchSAP.com’s “Ask the Expert” panel.

SAP PLM on the rise

SAP PLM on the rise

August 8th, 2007 by The SearchSAP.com Editorial Team

SAP PLM (product lifecycle management) is emerging as a growth area in the enterprise in general. This is hardly a surprise, seeing how innovation is becoming the key competitive factor in the global marketplace. That means ERP vendors like SAP, Oracle, IFS and others have to stay on the ball to retain and up-sell existing customers.

Today, SAP upped the ante with a slew of PLM enhancements. We can expect new portfolio planning processes and portfolio management capabilities by the end of this year, followed by an extensive interface overhaul of the SAP PLM interface in 2008. This move will cut down on manual tasks and training time. 2009 and 2010 will see even further integration support, along with tidbits like new product information management capabilities and enhanced RFID/barcode functionality.

This is part of SAP’s plan to outmaneuver arch-rival Oracle, which in turn made headlines with its $495 million Agile acquisition earlier this year. But is SAP equipped to pull this off? Blogger Chris Kelley is skeptical. PLM is ‘messy’ by nature; it has to be flexible, juggle multiple input sources and so on in real time, he said. The strength of ERP titans like SAP has always been that rock-solid structure that prevents messiness.

“PLM is just too different from what they are good at,” Kelley said. “It’s too ‘miscellaneous’. Its too dynamic. Its too creative.”

Roy Wildeman, senior analyst for Forrester, doesn’t agree.

“Manufacturers that are also SAP ERP customers will want to investigate SAP’s PLM offering,” Wildeman said. “[Look closely at] the potential integration benefits from interdependent process areas like project and portfolio management, direct material sourcing, and configuration management.”

Stay tuned as we follow up with SAP career expert Jon Reed’s take on what this PLM growth trend brings in terms of new job opportunities tomorrow.

Matt Danielsson
Editor

http://sap.blogs.techtarget.com/category/plm/

2008 SAP customers need to watch

The most important thing SAP customers/users need to watch for in 2008

January 7th, 2008 by The SearchSAP.com Editorial Team

What should we expect from SAP in 2008? We want to know! SearchSAP.com asked the same question when speaking to analysts: “What is the most important thing that SAP customers/users/etc should watch for in 2008?” Here is one response we received from Derek Prior, Research Director specializing in SAP at AMR Research:

My research into best practices for SAP customers reveals one word which sums up every single SAP customer: BUSY!

Busy with projects for SAP roll outs, upgrades, consolidations and extensions. As an SAP analyst now for nearly 10 years I have just one recommendation for busy SAP customers when reviewing their checklists for 2008:

Work with the Enterprise Architects (EA) team within your company to integrate your SAP Solution Architecture into your company-wide, business-driven, EA blueprint. Smart companies are already doing this for 3 reasons:

1. To build your SAP Solution Architecture into your companies EA big picture, in order to break out of your SAP “silo”.

2. To make your SAP gurus all business-driven, speaking the language of business, not IT.

3. To be ready for real SOA, i.e. strategic deployment, when your company is ready.

Add this activity which I am sure you have forgotten, to your checklist - it will pay off big time for your business.