The SAP training lie
Posted by: The SearchSAP.com Editorial Team
training
There are no authorized SAP training partners.
That seems like an odd claim to make given the large number of companies claiming to provide authorized SAP training–Genovate, for example, and dozens of other companies based in South and East Asia. But the fact of the matter is that SAP itself does not officially recognize, let alone authorize, any of these companies as training partners. The partner category closest to this function is “education,” which SAP defines more as the ramping up of existing SAP end users than as the generic training of aspiring SAP developers. Becoming an authorized SAP education partner is difficult; only one company in the U.S., RWD Technologies, is qualified in this category. Naturally, SAP training is provided on an ad hoc, on demand basis by consultants and integrators, but this service is also much closer to SAP’s category of “education” than to the current marketplace understanding of “training,” which is most frequently used in the aspiring SAP developer context.
Yet, somehow, companies such as Genovate continue to claim that they are authorized SAP training partners. Genovate isn’t even mentioned on SAP.com, but on the SAP Developer Network, SDN, the company is regularly described as being an “authorized” SAP training partner.
Either SAP countenances Genovate’s claims in some indirect way or SAP doesn’t bother to address the messaging issues raised by these de facto members of the ecosystem. Either way, it’s a disservice to the marketplace. Walldorf’s mighty legal machine should forbid companies from claiming to be authorized SAP training partners, because such claims do not accord to SAP’s own partner taxonomy or to SAP’s rigid standards for partner authorization. In fact, such claims exist largely to separate vast numbers of gullible Indian technology graduates from their hard-earned money by building the impression that SAP itself confers legitimacy on “training” companies.
The big news in the SAP world this week is the severe shortage of skills; along with Foote Partners, we’ll be exploring this subject in an upcoming podcast and articles. As far as SAP customers are concerned, the existence of shady training companies is contributing to the influx of inexperienced (and, in some cases, fraudulent) SAP techies into the marketplace. When SAP skills get diluted, projects fail.
So it’s really in everyone’s interest for SAP to hit hard at the so-called “authorized” training partners, particularly those in India. The point isn’t to stop these companies from operating, it’s to remove the impression that they have SAP’s mark of approval. At that point, let the marketplace decide their fate.
Demir Barlas, Site Editor
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