SAP has long been a target for consulting fraud and over the years I have seen this grow into a real problem within SAP and it ranges to someone embellishing resumes to outright fraud. Bill Wood has done an excellent job over the years with this topic writing Screening methods to find the right SAP consultant and Screening and Interview Methods to Find the Right Consultant – Part 2 which I would highly recommend.
Over the past weekend Andy Klee shared a job posting on twitter and commented “Stupid SAP job advertisement” but when I looked at it in more detail it was obvious that this was a classic example of blatant fraud and it is important that SAP customers are aware that this is happening in the marketplace.
At the core this job posting is offering $30-$50 USD for a senior SAP FICO Consultant with excellent communication skills, speaking fluent English and a US based Skype number to help “clear phone interviews” and is needed for “phone interviews ONLY”. Phone interviews are typically one of the key steps customers use to help validate prospective consultants and extremely scary to think the person a customer spoke to on a telephone interview is different than who shows up to do the work. It is very probable that that any person who was unable to do their own technical interview also has a fraudulent resume and this combination can put an entire project at risk. For customers who read my 3 Ways to Sabotage Your Next SAP Consultant Hire it is obvious this fraud is a way to get past those checks.
I reached out to Nathan Genez of Serio Consulting who is a fellow SAP mentor and true FICO expert to get his thoughts and he told me:
“Yeah, this is really disturbing because it is so obviously related to a scam and yet they're so bold about it. They're obviously trying to do a technical interview swap between someone who knows SAP FICO and someone who can't even speak to the solution. Of course, this has been going on in IT for as long as there have been technical interviews... but an internet job board just makes it look so much worse. Hopefully customers will pay attention and see just how unethical some folks are and take more ownership about the vetting of consultants. Far too often the resources are just assigned and show up and the customer has no say in the process. I'm so frustrated that customers don't take more control of this or have higher standards, and more importantly, are willing to speak up and say "Hey, this person just isn't working out. We need someone better, stronger, easier to work with, more of a leader, etc."
Bill Wood of R3Now who has been at the forefront of this wrote in an earlier article:
“Because of the potential “goldmine,” SAP consulting is a target for software consulting fraud, IT fraud, and H1B fraud. Armed with fake resumes for SAP experience there are countless frauds and cheats who claim to be SAP consultants. Worse yet, there’s an entire cottage industry organized to help write fake resumes, coach potential applicants, and even do initial phone screens to help these individuals engage in software consulting fraud on your SAP project.”
It doesn’t matter whether you are a consultant, partner, customer or work for SAP you should find this extremely troubling. Hiring a good consultant is challenging enough and customers really have to commit to spend the time up front on each and every consultant they bring on board regardless of if they are with a large consulting firm or a one off hire. Some articles I would recommend reading beforehand are Seven Tips to ensure you hire the Right Consultant, Protecting Yourself from SAP Consulting Fraud and Signs you Should Not Trust your SAP Consultant
The bottom line is that anyone who is willing to take part in enabling this fraud on any level should be banned from working in the SAP industry though obviously there is no current mechanism to support enforcement of this.
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