Podcast
Andy Klee and Jon Reed Talk about SAP Business Models, Training Trends, and SAP Certification

Podcast: Listen Now!

Andy Klee and Jon Reed interview each other on the future of SAP, SAP certification, and the impact of virtual ERP training.

Podcast Interview Date: December 22, 2009

Andy Klee and Jon Reed like to talk and bounce ideas off each other. This time, they decided to record their talk and see what came of it. The result has been saved as a 35-minute podcast, now available to any and all who would like to benefit from their discussion.

You'll hear their thoughts on the future of ERP, their business models, what's happening with SAP training and the ERPtips approach to it. They'll touch on virtual training, SAP certification, and how companies such as ours can thrive with a "freemium" model. You can see this concept in action with both our own ERPtips.com, which includes both paid subscription and free content from ERPtips Express, plus Jon's model at JonERP.com.

You'll also hear Andy talk about his recent ERPtips SAP Training Survey, from which Andy draws to help plan the future of ERPtips training to best serve what people say they want and need.
You can follow both Jon and Andy on Twitter. Andy's Twitter feed is @andyklee; Jon's is @jonerp.

Download the podcast or read excerpts from their conversation.

Podcast: Listen Now!


Podcast Excerpts:

0:48 Andy to Jon: You've been well known in the SAP community due to the knowledge you share with the SAP community on SAP consulting skills. Have you broadened your focus in the last year or so?

Jon: Yes. I have definitely broadened my focus. I'm still very interested in tracking SAP skills trends, but in order to best understand where SAP is headed, it's important for me to understand the broader SAP market context also. As part of the SAP blogger program, I've met some bloggers who have really rocked my world and I've learned a lot from them about understanding the SAP market as a whole.

In addition, I've been blogging for the PAC analyst firm on a range of topics in the Feeding the SAP Ecosystem blog. Broadening my focus also ties into where my overall business model is headed, and we can talk more about that. However, I'm definitely going to keep my SAP market focus overall.

2:21 Andy to Jon: You've definitely expanded - follow Jon on Twitter if you want to track where the SAP market is headed. What major trends do you see in t he SAP ecosystem?

Jon: The stakes in SAP have changed dramatically. A couple years ago, it looked like a two horse ERP race between SAP and Oracle. All of that has really changed. There's a number or reasons for that: the economic recession is at the top of the list. But it's also forcing a reassessment of business models, and we'll come out the other side with a new economy and a new way of looking at ERP in general.

The impact of the cloud and SaaS is an area where customers are deriving real value and SAP has challenges to face. The expansion to mobile devices, the push into the SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) space and the lessons SAP is learning there - you can make a long list of the trends that are impacting SAP right now and shaking up assumptions about the ERP market.

Bottom line: it's an economy that requires a more "agile" response, not just in terms of new development methodologies, but the need for ERP customers to respond much more quickly to capitalize on changing markets. This poses a real challenge not only to SAP but to all the traditional ERP providers.

5:00 Andy to Jon: I'm in a program at Harvard Business School, and one of our professors says that SaaS is going to impact how services are delivered. But I don't see a fundamental difference in the skills that will be needed to have successful ERP implementations using a SaaS model. Do you see any changes?

Jon: I do see some major changes on the technical side. For example, if you have a bunch of tenants on your service, you might put out a tweak to a release, and the company wouldn't see any changes or have to deal with any issues with upgrading technically. So that can significantly change the technical needs. And there might be some business level configuration changes also. However, the most successful SAP consultants need to know how to advise companies on business process optimization, and that doesn't change, no matter what kind of software you are using.

EXCERPTS CONTINUE - Continue reading podcast excerpts.