A shadow looms on the horizon for organizations running SAP’s ECC. Although the ERP provider has announced this week that it will be extending support until 2030, that’s not that much more time. S/4HANA migration is no easy feat. And, as of now, it doesn’t look like many companies are rushing to be done with the migration as soon as possible.
According to a report by Resulting IT, only 8% of organisations using ECC have made the transition to the new iteration of SAP’s software suite. That is alarming, especially considering that the report estimates the current product set has over 400 million lines of code and many companies have invested millions customizing it. These will have to be re-written when moving to S/4HANA.
But that’s just the beginning of the story. And the next part has some great news for you.
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A widening skills gap
The same Resulting IT report revealed that, although 48% of respondents had worked on S/4 projects, a good chunk of these are solutions architects. That suggests that SAP experts are mostly in the early blueprinting stages of the project. Hence there’s a general lack of experience in the live or nearing go-live stages of the transition.
In other words – Not that much boots-on-the-ground experience.
Since the report also indicates that only 18% of business managers plan to develop their in-house S/4HANA expertise, SAP consultants will be in high demand in the months and years to come. If you couple that with the fact that 40% of SAP experts plan to retire within the next 10 years, we are looking at the perfect storm. And that opens up the opportunity for you to seize the moment and become the most desired SAP pro in town.
S/4 skills will pay well. Very well
Think about it. If you get involved in S/4 projects now and gain as much real-world experience as possible, your career prospects and salary expectations will increase exponentially. And that’s not only true for SAP consultants and freelancers. Permanent employees with proven S/4 skills will quickly advance ranks within their companies. The S/4-savvy consultants surveyed in the report expect to charge between £650 and £749 per day. Experienced in-house specialists estimate a yearly salary of £100,000.
So, how should you go about gaining these career-critical skills?
Should You Become a Freelance S/4HANA Consultant?
Becoming an S/4HANA migration expert
Start small. There are plenty of resources available online for you to start getting your feet wet, most of them provided directly by SAP.
If you’re an ABAP developer, for example, SAP has made available for purchase a S/4HANA development guide. The e-book encourages you to combine your skills in ABAP, SAP Fiori, core data services, and more to master the end-to-end development process for SAP S/4HANA applications.
If you are looking for a broader perspective, SAP’s training academy has a complete set of in-depth courses. They come in both self-paced and instructor-led formats. Dive into your topic of choice and get certified. Once you’ve mastered the theory, find a project or job that gives you that real-world experience.
These are golden days for SAP consultants. Take advantage of it.
Want to make the most of S/4HANA’s career potential? Check out our comprehensive S/4HANA Careers Guide.
