Have YOU had your lightbulb moment today?
From: Susan Geldof, MSc.
Dear friend,
Ever had one of those ideas you wish you had thought of before?
For me one of those light bulb moments was when I decided to specialize in SAP training 10 years ago. And it's been a helluva ride since then.
To be honest, I was anxious if it would work.
Wouldn't you be?
A year before, I had become an independent IT trainer leaving the safety of a permanent job. And my IT/Logistics career combined with a teaching degree proved to be in demand.
Only this time it was different.
Were customers really needing special SAP trainers? Or was it just another expense and keeping people off their work? Would SAP consultants be happy to leave the specialized task of educating users to someone else so they could concentrate on system-implementation for go-live? Would managers see they could potentially reduce costly fixes to their education solution? Would users adopt the systems they were going to work with better if they had a flawless exposure to the SAP system?
Yes, I had a background in logistics, graduated with honors in Operations Research, had a nice career track as consultant, project manager, EDP Manager, Logistics manager. But....
If you were in charge, would you hire a single person for SAP training?
For me, from sitting at the other end of the table hiring IT services for years, that was a perfectly legitimate question. Everybody else was relying on large software houses, the big five accounting firms, and SAP AG's business partners. Even SAP AG themselves wouldn't do business with single persons. The IBM effect: "nobody ever got fired for hiring IBM". And I might add "even if it cost a small fortune".
At the same time, most of the large software houses had IT professionals with general technical IT specialization. They were doing all kinds of large projects and very few were specialized in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions or training courses. Even less were specialized in the SAP modules and had SAP certified consultants. The big five had extensive knowledge of their customer's business processes. And with modelling them to information systems. But these information systems had to be implemented using technical systems, workstations, networks, remote datacenters which were more the domain of the EDP departments, software houses and hardware suppliers. And SAP AG's business partners were overwhelmed with SAP's success, in a market with shortage of qualified SAP professionals. Individual IT professionals without practical SAP experience were recruited and given an expensive education to cope with the demand.
As a one-person operation I wasn't in the loop.
Looking back, maybe something else was working for me? As a Logistics Manager I had company-wide, full-lifecycle experience as a key-user. I was able to see how the various SAP logistics modules worked together to automate the business. As former EDP manager I knew how to avoid the technical pitfalls with SAP training and e-learning systems. Many of SAP's customers were multinationals requiring localized training and training material for their international roll-outs. Speaking Dutch, English, French and German fluently was a good start. And unlike the 'general' translation bureau's I also knew the technical slang.
The next step was getting certified by SAP AG. That still wasn't a guarantee for being a successful SAP trainer. Every time I was allowed to present myself for a project I got the contract, but few people knew me. And I hated selling myself (still do).
Then came the next lightbulb moment.
Why not let others do the selling in return for a piece of the cake? The first test was a professional training company that subcontracted me for one of their customers. And it proved to work. SAP customers were now having their SAP users trained by companies with momentum, and they never knew the secret formula. Not being able to present myself as independent contractor and a small cut in rates was a small price to pay for marketing and sales others were now doing.
Today, German SAP AG, world's largest software company delivering business automation solutions, has over 384 million Euros revenue from their education activity alone. And that's only a small portion of the SAP education market served to 46,000 customers. It's a huge industry also for SAP's Partners, training companies, recruitment agencies and many others.
And I'm excited to be serving a tiny part of that market. Working with a solid network of collegues and companies providing SAP training. Together we're now helping people with projects such as
- SAP training material development or translation to English, German, Dutch.
- development of online SAP e-learning solutions with OnDemand
- on-site classroom SAP training for most of the R/3 SAP logistics modules (PP, PM, MM, SD) in English, French, German, Dutch, as well as SAP CRM
Thanks to my friends and a few lightbulb moments it worked above expectations.
So now it's my turn to give something back.
One piece of paper.
You'll laugh, but it's not an ordinary piece of paper. It's a special "SAP Classroom Training Checklist". I've prepared it for my business partners and customers. It has proved to be invaluable over and over again during 10 years of training. You'll laugh even more when you've applied this checklist. It will save you a lot of hassle and costly mistakes preparing for your next SAP training project. You'll wonder why you haven't thought of making such a list before.So if you like, click the "Send Checklist" button. It might be your lightbulb moment for today.
Sincerely,
Susan Geldof, MSc, is an independent Dutch SAP trainer and business owner. The last 10 years she trained thousands of end users, key users and trainers in her area of expertise: SAP Logistics. Certified as SAP consultant by SAP AG, former EDP and Logistics Manager, multilingual, internationally experienced, with a drive for perfection. She has proven to be one of those professionals who get the job done.