A peek under the covers: A new analysis of SAP OnDemand-related job offerings

[richard_hirsch]

I’ve been exploring SAP’s Career Center recently (yes, again- I just can't keep away)  and have unearthed a few new gems relevant to those interested in SAP’S OnDemand /Cloud offerings. I’ll just highlight the relevant details and why I think the discoveries are important.

Content as a Service (CaaS)

It looks like SAP is working on a new type of OnDemand application which is called “Content as a Service”. The new service was mentioned during the keynote at CEBIT but with no real details:

The Content as a Service (CaaS) department, which belongs to the OD LoB ERM unit, is responsible to develop and deliver content products to customers. Most of the customers licensed an OnPremise SAP EHS Management software application.

CaaS is currently offering two products:

• SAP EHS Regulatory Content OnDemand
• SAP EHS Regulatory Documentation OnDemand

In order to develop and deploy those content products, CaaS is maintaining an internal SAP EHS Management application in a development, test and productive environment. The so called back office system (BOS) is extended with sophisticated workflow scenarios, additional ABAP development tools and specific customizing required building up a factory approach for content development.  [SOURCE]

POV:  This is another example of SAP’s hybrid strategy for OnDemand / OnPremise integration. EHS looks like it might be the first product in this area. I could imagine other similar products concerned with legal or other types of documentations – for example, GRC or Global Trade Services. It is also interesting to see that there will be an EHS OnDemand “community” as well.

Our mission is to help our customers to protect people and the environment affected by their products and operations, by delivering people-centric solutions combining software with regulatory content, OnDemand and OnPremise. With EHS OnDemand we will launch a collaboration hub in the cloud for EHS professionals to exchange EHS information, gain access to regulatory knowledge and share best practices. [SOURCE]

I’ll be curious to see how this relates to similar efforts in SCN.

OnDemand Version of NetWeaver PI

There are various openings that refer to an OnDemand version of NetWeaver PI - "Integration as a Service".

The Integration/Orchestration unit (I/O) within SAP Technology offers a wide range of products for integration and process orchestration. A key product is the SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (PI) built by the “Process and Network Integration” (PNI) product unit. SAP NetWeaver PI is the “flagship” technology product used by more than 4000 customers productively especially for SAP and non-SAP application integration. The mission of the PNI unit is to extend the reach of integration technology by investing into new deployment models like cloud-based architecture with low TCO, based on a Java-based onDemand platform as a service project by SAP, and serve additional embedded deployment options like SAP HANA DB, the in-Memory database of SAP.

As Developer, you will contribute to the next generation of the Process Integration product offering of SAP.

Your tasks will include the full cycle of professional software development:

• Understanding of customer requirements
• Specification, design, and development of ESB middleware components, with focus on messaging patterns for performance and scalability
• Implementation based on JAVA, JEE and OSGI standards, integration with Open Source based technology like Apache Camel / CXF and latest trends in OnDemand (SaaS) software patterns
• Eager to learn and apply related tasks for software lifecycle management in on-Premise and on-Demand environments like test automation, deploying/provisioning of software [SOURCE]

POV:  There are a number of interesting angles in this project. I’m impressed by the use of open source software (Apache Camel, etc) in this effort. As I’ve mentioned in the past, this new trend is also present in SAP’s new Java-based PaaS.  This tool is an important part of SAP's hybrid architecture but I can envision other scenarios where the integration occurs between multiple cloud-based applications (for example, SalesForce and a JPaaS-based application.)

SuccessFactors Sales Positions at SAP

I found a number of positions to sell SuccessFactors software: What was interesting was that the majority of these positions were in Germany – SAP’s home turf.

Um dies zu ermöglichen, sucht die SAP Deutschland AG & Co. KG Specialized Sales

Executives (w/m), die für den Vertrieb an ausgewählte Fachbereiche und die damit verbundene Umsatzverantwortung in Deutschland verantwortlich sein werden. Die Aufgabe deckt alle vertriebsrelevanten Prozesse bzgl. des Verkaufs von SuccessFactors Lösungen im Bereich des Personalwesens bspw. Talent Management, Recruiting, Learning, Workforce Planing und Workforce Analytics. [SOURCE] (emphasis is mine)

POV: In Boston at last year’s Influencer Summit, there was a session about SAP’s GoToMarket strategy for OnDemand offerings where a closer cooperation between SuccessFactors and SAP was described. These new job offerings are another indicator that this cooperation is progressing rapidly.

Social Intelligence

SAP just hired a new VP for SAP Global VP, Enterprise Collaboration and Social Software Solutions, Sameer Patel.  I found an interesting career opening which gives some insight into SAP’s future offerings in this area which Sameer may be able to exploit in the future.

Social Intelligence is a key part of SAP On Demand Portal, SAP Streamwork cloud offerings and Enterprise Workspaces on premise offering. Designed to help managing social relations and drive social insights in the enterprise environment, it is a viable part in almost any scenario developed at SAP.

SI covers needs such as finding the right contact in the best way, making the connection, following on shared interests and managing a social profile – both inside and outside of the corporate boundaries.

EXPECTATIONS AND TASKS

Take part in developing a new on-demand social cloud based solution.

Develop the indexing, cache and persistency layers, taking care of millions of entities and relations while reaching extreme performance and scalability KPIs. Master state-of-the-art open sources and proprietary technologies. Implement social network [SOURCE]

POV: The “social angle” is often a requirement in today’s market for enterprise software. This career opening shows that such functionality might be used in both SAP’s OnPremise and OnDemand environments.  Interesting is the integration with the software emerging from the recent deal between SAP and NetBase with its focus on social insight and analysis.

Data Services/ETL OnDemand solution

I found an interesting career opening regarding ETL OnDemand:

SAP Technology & Innovation Platform - Business Analytics & Technologies – Enterprise Information Management Data Services group develops products to help customer manage the end-to-end information in medium and large enterprises. The portfolio consists of Data Integration, Data Quality, Data Governance, Data Profiling, Text Analysis, and Master Data Management. The products are being developed in multiple geographies across US, China, and Europe with more than 400+ employees in the organization.

We are looking for an experienced web application architect to join the SAP Data Services team to build our Data Services/ETL OnDemand solution to support SAP’s HANA Cloud and Networked Solution Strategy. [SOURCE]

POV: I found this career opening fascinating – despite the fact there was very few details, especially due to the associated use cases with the often nebulous HANA Cloud.

Conclusion

I just wanted to quickly surface this material inasmuch as such job offerings reveal the real world of concrete OnDemand projects / teams rather than those slides one often sees at large events.  As Sapphire rapidly approaches, it is wise to keep your feet on your ground and get a better feeling what is happening beneath the covers. You might be surprised at what you will find.