A number of job recruiters and SAP consultancies say they are having trouble finding their clients the right experts to manage SAP projects.

Activity is picking up with some SAP customers choosing to upgrade to take full use of NetWeaver and mySAP ERP 2005. Other SAP firms are adding a variety of SAP applications, fueling a need for SAP pros with customer relationship management knowledge, master data management expertise and SAP Exchange Infrastructure (SAP XI) skills.

The result could be costly project delays for some companies, according to AMR Research.

Some firms thought they could rely on India to fill in the gap of qualified experts, but a job recruiter and SAP consultant told me the number of qualified personnel in India is also limited. Another job recruiter said that SAP projects seem to come in waves throughout the year, making tracking down the right qualified applicants for positions all the more difficult.

I’ll update this post with a link to a news story on this issue at SearchSAP.com.

I’m interested in hearing your experiences here. Has the SAP job market for consultants made a full turnaround? What areas are hot? And why do SAP pros appear to be falling behind the latest SAP technologies?

****Update: Check out the latest news story: SAP firms struggle to find experts

-Rob Westervelt
News Editor

Are you up to speed on RFID as it applies to SAP? This tiny technology reeks with ambiguity, screams of security concerns bordering consumer espionage and comes with a hefty price tag (no pun intended.) Or, it packs overwhelming potential and is a forerunner in supply chain management technology. It's all a matter of who you ask. Enterprises have kept a close eye on public RFID implementation projects like Wal-Mart and the U.S. Department of Defense. With these projects recently labeled a success, the supply chain world is experiencing evolutionary change. The big question, of course, is whether RFID is right for your company.

Let SearchSAP.com be your main source for everything RFID. Our RFID Learning Guide provides in-depth analysis of RFID in supply chain management with a focus on SAP. I just finished updating the Learning Guide and will continue to add relevant news and information as they become available.

Here's a sample of some of the new additions to the guide:

• Article: An Introduction to RFID
• Trend Overview: RFID for SAP
• Checklist: How to build a business case for RFID

Check out the RFID Learning Guide and all other SearchSAP.com Learning Guides for your on-the-spot information resource.

And while I have your attention, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself.  My name is Juli Austin and I am the new assistant editor for SearchSAP.com. I am excited to be a part of the site and enthusiastic about working with the audience. My goal here is to make SearchSAP.com the number one site for SAP users. I can't do it without you so I am extending my permanent offer for your advice. Please email me anytime with tips, checklists and any other subject matter you want to see on our site. Anything to help the SAP user to do his/her job is what I am all about. Thanks for reading my very first blog post ever!

– Juli Austin

Developer tools that allow companies customize unique scenarios and enable independent software vendors to develop new features will be released. SAP plans to make an announcement in September at SAP TechEd in Las Vegas, according to Kevin Fliess, SAP's vice president of product marketing for emerging solutions.

Duet, formerly code named Mendocino, was jointly developed by Microsoft and SAP. The software allows end users to tap into SAP back-end data through the familiar Microsoft front-end Office products.  

The additional Duet scenarios due out by the end of the year include Travel management, recruiting, analytics integration, sales contacts management and procurement integration. But additional features go beyond new scenarios, according to Fliess.

Fliess also did not rule out extending Duet to other data sources beyond SAP back-end systems. For example, companies running Siebel or Salesforce.com would be able to tap into the data in that familiar Microsoft environment using Duet.

So how do you buy Duet?

Fliess said that most companies are talking with both SAP and Microsoft sales reps to get the best deal. There’s no server component associated with it when you buy it through the SAP channel, Fliess said. But depending on a company’s architecture, you have to shop between the two software vendors to get the best deal.

Microsoft sells the software at $125 per computer, plus an additional $125 license per server. Duet requires the use of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003.

Fliess said SAP is also using Duet as an incentive to upgrade. It often falls into conversations around upgrades, he said, since customers must be on the latest version of mySAP ERP in order to use the software.

As you've probably noticed, this month is compliance month on SearchSAP.com — we talk about everything from Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA to RFID and security best practices. Since this is such a broad (and in some segments, deep) topic, we decided to organize the information in a new format for easier browsing.

The result is SAP compliance: the complete guide, a type of one-stop-shop for every conceivable area of compliance with subcategories for tips, white papers, expert advice and anything else that pertains to that particular topic. Since it's a new format we're eager to hear what you think of it. Does the guide help you find what you're looking for? Does the layout make sense? What could we do better? Please share your opinion — one random reader who responds gets a free copy of this month's featured book: SAP Security and Authorizations

*** UPDATE: congratulations to Dempsey Villanueva who won the book.

Matt Danielsson
Editor

SAP reported lower than expected sales in its second quarter. Company executives said the software vendor also lost market share to Oracle and Microsoft, adding fuel to the battle raging for ERP market superiority.
 
SAP CEO Henning Kagermann said the market share loss was only a blip in what has been 12 consecutive quarters of gains against the competition. He told reporters this morning that SAP had problems processing sales orders at the end of the quarter. Safe Passage wins are also slow to process, he said. The software vendor counted 70 wins in the second quarter.

”Demand hasn’t changed and the environment hasn’t changed,” Kagermann said.

Analysts have told me that SAP’s consecutive quarters of significant gains was bound to be interrupted. SAP has been taking advantage of Oracle’s weaknesses as it reorganizes its sales force around its billions of dollars in company acquisitions. The uncertainty around how Oracle is integrating the acquisitions coupled with the reshuffling of its sales force may have resulted in SAP’s strong growth period, according to an analyst from Forrester Research. Financial analysts also agree that double digit license revenue growth in a mature market is difficult to sustain.
-Rob Westervelt

There has been a lot of buzz around SAP's composite applications, xApps, lately. SAP claims big marketing success with 800+ customers, 100+ showcases and 80+ references to sing xApps' praises since its introduction in late 2002. As we enter the "second generation" of xApps, with Duet functionality, Project Argo and hundreds of new xApps on the horizon, we decided to check in with veteran SAP guru Josh Greenbaum to take stock of where we are and what we can expect from xApps in the years ahead.

SearchSAP.com: Is it still too early for xApps?
Josh Greenbaum: No, in fact there a number of them being deployed by a large number of customers. XRPM and XMII are two good examples that I know of. The use cases are customer-specific — meaning that there isn't an xApp for every customer. But there are definitely reasons to be deploying xApps today.

S: What will it take before composite applications become truly mainstream?
JG: They already are, insofar as there are lots of composites out there. Composites based on NetWeaver — particularly those developed in-house — will become mainstream once NetWeaver is deployed at a critical mass of customers and those customers understand the developmenent requirements for composites. I think critical mass will come in the next three to five years, possibly sooner, if the upgrade rate increases.

S: Is SAP doing enough to foster xApp development?
JG: Yes, and it's important that SAP not force-feed xApps on its customers. The use case has been built on real ROI, not a cool-technology justification. There are lots of mini-xApps on the way, and lots of partners who will be deployed to push these new xApps into the market. This eco-system approach is the right way, and it will yield the necessary results in due time.

S: Do you think ISVs will take an interest in xApps for the NetWeaver platform?
JG: Absolutely, now that the partnership and eco-system models have been well-defined and there are good examples of successful deployments in a number of industries.

S: Has SAP done a good job educating the user base about xApps?
JG: Is there anything they could do better? I think they need to keep pushing the concept, there are still customers who don't understand these applications' role or their relationship to SAP's ESA strategy. But in general, this education process doesn't happen overnight, nor should it.

S: SAP said they're gunning for 100+ analytics, 50+ personal productivity and 30+ mobile xApps in the year ahead. Do you think this is the right direction for SAP? Should they consider other areas that may benefit from xApp technology?
JG: This is a good start, a very good start. More specifically, I think a key direction will be towards fulfilling vertical industry requirements, and a number of the analytical xApps will fit the bill. When it comes to industry-specific xApps, there can't be too many xApps out there.

Matt Danielsson
Editor