SAP Certification- Why?

Helixr offers a high level of SAP consultancy across multiple technical, functional and project management competencies, and combines this with a multitude of additional skills to enable us to respond to, and provide solutions for, complex and unique customer requirements.

As consultants, we are employed for our levels of expertise and as such, are evolutionary both as a business and as individuals – continual professional development is just one way for us to push ourselves and, ultimately, our customers forwards. So how does SAP certification enhance that offering? The reasons are varied and compelling.

Customer Confidence 

Essentially, making a decision to employ a software consultancy to upgrade or migrate a database, enhance existing software or provide technical input for a project, is no different to hiring an accountant to do end of year tax returns, or a builder to quote for a house extension. It’s just a question of scale.

Whilst experience and technical expertise in a field is obviously key when appointing consultants to deliver a project, the added bonus of those consultants being SAP certified offers reassurance; reassurance that the consultant understands the breadth of functionality of SAP systems and can leverage this knowledge to drive business outcomes.

On its own, SAP Certification is meaningless unless it is combined with years of practical experience, so the two go hand in hand to offer a very strong, accredited skill set. Customers can feel safe in the knowledge that they are listening to advice from, and their business-critical projects are being supported by, Technical and Functional consultants with relevant SAP qualifications.

It’s also worth remembering the global reach of SAP certification, the fact that the qualifications transcend boundaries and are internationally recognised and standardised.

Keep Current

The world keeps spinning. Just as accountants no longer write entries in ledgers by hand and gardeners don’t use mechanical lawn mowers, it’s not reasonable for software consultants to use the same tools forever.

SAP, like all software companies, regularly releases new versions of their software, as well as multiple patch levels within releases. S/4 HANA is a major sea change release by SAP, which offers a whole range of new reporting tools, the substantial FIORI app library and if deployed correctly, major performance improvements.

Supplementing existing skills with S/4 HANA certification in particular SAP module functional areas, or new technical skills in advance of a HANA project, makes life easier for the consultant, and is attractive to both existing and potential customers.

Continuous professional development and learning on the job is an important element of all IT consultants experience and is highly encouraged at Helixr. Helixr sees the value in investing in continuous learning and developing it’s workforce to grow their potential – it benefits the individual, the company as a whole and the customer, it’s win-win for everyone.

Feed Off Each Other 

The traditional path to certification used to be by going on the various component SAP training courses at training centres over a long period of time, followed by a ‘bootcamp’ to prepare candidates for the exam. This process was often prohibitively expensive for the individual and training course scheduling may not have been relevant to the projects consultants were engaged on.

Nobody has a monopoly on knowledge. A much more successful and organic approach to certification is to set training and certification goals based on projects being worked on (or likely to be), and supplement formal training with knowledge transfer from colleagues who are subject matter experts in areas of interest.

Every Helixr SAP consultant who is working on internal and/or external engagements to a greater or lesser extent gets the opportunity to pick up new skills or use new technology that will encourage them to learn and gain multiple SAP certifications on the journey. Helixr encourages a collaborative team culture and team members share their knowledge and arrange training sessions for colleagues as a matter of course, which are targeted towards certification goals.

In addition, there are multiple ‘certification dumps’ out there from reputable education companies to supplement the organic training which is part of life at Helixr.