SAP Certification is the most sought after certifications in the Information Technology (IT) world. In every nook and corner of the world, it has created tremendous buzz among the IT professionals. Probably, SAP Certification is one of the most criticised certifications, but at the same, it is one of the biggest dreams for number of individuals. Many people have criticised in many ways by writing blogs, articles and even books. But, nobody can rule out the craze that it has created in this fast moving IT world. SAP Certification is one of the most successful IT certifications in the recent past. Either directly or indirectly, it has given employment to millions of people across the globe. Though, there are many contenders for the top certification position from Microsoft, Cisco, Sun and Oracle, but still people go so mad for this SAP Certification. SAP Certification is undoubtedly the number one product based IT certification in the current market trend. If you see the number of people enrolling for SAP Certification across the globe is a benchmark for other certifications.
Though there are number of restrictions and hurdles kept by SAP policies for people in particular regions, still it has not lessen the interest for this SAP Certification. Personally, I am not in favour of the SAP discriminatory policies for appearing SAP Certification based on their region. Not just me, many of the professionals from APAC region are not happy with these rigid rules framed by SAP. As a global company and equal opportunity employer, SAP should have made the similar kind of rules in allowing the people for appearing the SAP Certification. Unfortunately, they have different rules for people residing in UK, USA and people in APAC region. If a person from APAC region comes to UK, USA for short term visit, then they can still escape those weird rules of implementation experience and letters from employers etc. There are people even intending to cross the border in order to write the SAP Certification (even I had to cross the border to write my SAP BW Certification ). In this context, my question to SAP is, why cannot you have the same policy across the globe and what is the reason for this discrimination?
SAP should have made the same rules for any human being on this earth. If they have the knowledge, then they are going to pass, otherwise, a simple fail. This is as simple as that. But, I do not understand what is there in SAP Education policy makers mind. I see this policy is also not commercially viable option for SAP. If they make the fair rules across the globe (remove restrictions in APAC region), it would generate more than one million SAP Certification enrolments in a year in India alone. This will create a big rush like first day movie tickets of Bollywood, Tollywood and Kollywood in India . This small policy change can easily earn SAP half a billion dollars per annum from India alone. If SAP has the “one globe” policy, then the number of enrolments from India alone will be definitely more than double the number of enrolments from the rest of the world. For me it looks, just to protect the commercial interests of some SAP Education Partners in APAC region, they have come up with these discriminatory policies. Unfortunately, these policies are being further discriminated by local SAP to decide their own rules on case to case basis and undue preference has been to the employees working with their local partners. I am not sure whether other IT Certification providers are making this type of discriminatory rules based on their regions / partnerships.
Anyway, we can easily understand how the people are going mad for SAP Certification. Please do not think that this craze for SAP Certification is only in India. It has the same madness across the globe. I would like to point out some of the reasons for this madness. There could be million reasons, why people are doing SAP Certification, but these are my Top 10 reasons why people are getting so mad for SAP Certification.
1. Job
This is the most primary reason that most people are enrolling for SAP Certification is with a hope that it will get them a decent job in SAP arena. There are number of precedents, where numerous people have achieved decent career in SAP based on their SAP Certification. Finally, their stories are turned out to be the most successful stories. Many of these people have achieved professional success and served number of top Global Companies. SAP Certification has helped them to move from remote areas to one of the world’s top most cities. Their friends, juniors, colleagues and others are motivated by this and they are also hoping to repeat the same success stories. Most of the people still believe that they can get a decent job in SAP arena and that job will turn their and their next generations’ fortunes. It is the reason why there are people ready to leave their jobs even with more than 20 years of domain experience and wanted to do the SAP certification in order to break into SAP world.
2. Money
Many of the people who are enrolling for SAP Certification still believe that it is a good way of long term investment. They are hoping that this SAP Certification still able to fetch them a reasonably good amount of returns on their investment. Some of the people still believe that SAP Certification can be a Euro Million Jackpot in their lives. It may be true to a certain extent as number of consultants have seen rapid growth in their professional careers, even it has given them the more than thousand percent of growth and money. The markets are very volatile and the ever increasing demand for quality people, still some of the employers believe that SAP Certification is a good way of measuring the knowledge of the people. With this intention, they are still looking for knowledgeable SAP Certified consultants. The hope of getting good amount of money from those employers is one of the best motivator for people doing the SAP Certification.
3. Reputation
SAP Certified Consultants will have a incredible reputation by their employers of being certified. They will enjoy this special reputation from their employers, colleagues, friends and family members. They will visualise this kind of reputation in the society and still motivate themselves to a greater extent in order to become Certified Consultants. The precedents of reputation that is being enjoyed many number of people is one of the main encouraging factor in order to do the SAP Certification. Everybody would like to see themselves as successfully reputed individuals and professionals in their lives. Nobody is an exception to this rule. This is the basic and fundamental human psychology and it is one of the main encouraging factor why people would go for SAP Certification.
4. Recognition
SAP Certified consultants will enjoy a special recognition with their employer and the prospective employers. Many prospective employers still publish their jobs by stating that “SAP Certification is mandatory / value added advantage”. You will see there are number of jobs in the market with this kind of statements. These statements will drive the number of SAP job hoping aspirants to get them certified. For those employers, SAP is a third party, which is certifying that the said individual has adequate knowledge in a particular area at that point of time. They have to believe the certification from SAP as a third party and consider that as one of the yard stick in selecting the candidates. In addition, SAP is also serving Logos, ID cards (not sure whether ID Cards are discontinued) to the individuals who have passed the SAP Certification. People still have same craze for these logos and ID cards to put on their CVs and show ID Cards to the public. These logos are still fetching the good amount of recognition from the recruiters. (These logos are just .jpg files, which can be easily used any unscrupulous people; I still wonder how SAP is taking steps to prevent this misuse). Individuals enrolling for SAP Certification are still hoping that they are being recognised by these employers.
5. Prospects
SAP Certification gives the people a special cushion in their career and opens up with many prospects. Just before certification, nobody even bothered to talk about them, but as soon as they are certified, their marketability has increased tremendously. Everybody, talks about their stupendous success. This is just like a person who received their ‘driving license’ and they are recognised to drive on the road. People still believe that one such opportunity will turn their future. They can utilise that opportunity to their advantage in professional career, by working further hard to achieve their professional goals. They believe that the SAP Certification can give them number of prospects, could be one of the intending reasons to go mad for SAP Certification.
6. Promotion
Decent number of employers has promoted the certified consultants in their organisations, particularly in the initial booming days of SAP. In those days, everybody, who has certified by SAP has reaped number benefits from their employers and used SAP Certification a spring to reach the top hierarchies at a faster rate. But, on day by day, within the market, the number of certified consultants are increased on a larger scale. However, organisations in remote areas find difficult to get good quality consultants, are still encouraging their employees to do the SAP Certification. Many of them who want to grow their career in that organisation will go for the SAP Certification to their own mark with that company.
7. Self-respect
SAP Certification is a confidence booster and it gives a lot of self-respect for them. The recognition and reputation among the people make them feel special. To visualise this feeling make them much more stronger and they believe that they are not inferior to anybody. There are many ways of developing one’s self respect, but when they are being certified by reputed organisation like SAP, it gives them a strong sense of responsibility and self respect. This kind of self respect is one of the most strong motivating reasons to enrol themselves for SAP Certification.
8. Prestige
Some people believe having BMW car is a symbol of prestige, some believe having Sony 70" 3D LCD TV is a symbol of prestige, some believe having Nikon high end DSLR is a symbol prestige and some believe having a posh bungalow is prestige etc. In the similar way, there are many number of people believe that having SAP Certification also gives them the similar kind of prestige in their life. If you see physically, it is just a piece of A4 size paper. But, still there are number of people believe that A4 size paper from SAP is a prestige symbol. You cannot resell unlike other luxury products, still there are people who has strong emotional bond for SAP Certification. You will still find number of parents and family members proudly say that their sons / daughters / brothers / sisters are certified by SAP. This symbol of prestige is still a stronger reason for somebody to get the invaluable A4 size paper from SAP.
9. Prove
There may be some employers / bosses, who neglect their invaluable employees or miserably failed to treat them with respect. Sometimes, people might have worked with such unfortunate and adamant bosses, who never care about the human relations. Those employers and bosses might have used every small opportunity to de-motivate the individual to the maximum extent. In an indirect way, these types of employers or bosses are also strong motivators. The people will make it a point to prove that they are not less to anybody. In order to prove themselves something special, they would opt for SAP Certification. People may find this is a strange reason for going to be certified. But, if you observe the individual with a close human look, you will definitely find large number of such certified people.
10. Benefits
People luckily find some benevolent employers, who sponsor the employees' education. They will take every effort, even in a most depressed economic situation, to allocate training budget and train their employees on the key skills. Some employers will reimburse the certification costs (unfortunately, I am yet to find one). You will find many people who will never be motivated if their own money is to be invested for education. If somebody is else is ready to invest for them, then they will be amazingly inspired and wonderfully motivated to get them certified. The prime reason being, mentally they never intended to miss that free deal. In their opinion, if it is a free deal, they will go and grab like an Olympic gold medal . You will find such lucky employees working with such lovely employers, gets easily motivated at a faster rate to grab the reimbursement benefits for passing the SAP Certification.
Best Regards,
Ravi
PS: These are not the endorsements from SAP, but only my positive thinking personal views why people are crazy and mad for SAP Certification. It is not my intention to tell that you are going to get these benefits by evening with the help of SAP Certification. SAP is only a cushion for your career, but not a short cut. At the end of the story, hard work matters and there is no other way for your success. As usual, I would like to invite your constructive criticisms on my blog.
