In order to start a successful career after many years at school and university, SAP-skills have become an indispensable factor. Understanding SAP software and the ability to work with it is vital in many areas of the job market. For many positions today such skills are mandatory. When this is not the case, applicants can still be sure to enhance their chances to be accepted for a job when they can proof that they already bring SAP-skills from their time at university.
Since its foundation in 1972, SAP SE, based in Walldorf, Germany has become Europe’s largest software developer. In the field of enterprise software, SAP is the world’s market leader. More than 250.000 customers worldwide make use of SAP products in order to execute their business processes (e.g. controlling, sales, production, logistics, human resources, marketing etc.). Customers are mid-sized business up to many of the big concerns noted at the stock market.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the standard software all businesses need to run their business processes. In this field SAP ERP is the most prevalent product in the world. It covers all of the processes mentioned above and, thus, is used in many different divisions of a company. Additionally, products such as SAP BI (Business Intelligence), SAP CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and many more are specially tailored for certain business areas. While for example SAP BW provides a powerful tool to analyse company data and thus helps to make important decisions, SAP CRM is perfectly suited for the areas marketing, sales and service. In order to adjust SAP products to a company’s structure it can be customized according to the respective needs. If this internal customizing-process should not be sufficient, new programs and add-ons can be written in ABAP - the SAP-own coding language. The possibilities are endless.
With the growing number of SAP customers, the need for young professionals with SAP-skills increases – no matter in which area. SAP is for example used by logistic companies, the telecommunication sector, automotive companies, as well as banks and the retail sector. No matter which area and position you prefer, SAP-skills are needed – and evermore often expected – in almost any of them. Thus, having a basic understanding of SAP is a great asset to any application. Additional specialisations in certain SAP areas such as SAP BI and SAP CRM (and others) can help concretising one’s own plan of the personal career and reaching intended goals quicker.