SAP Certification: Overview and Career Opportunities
SAPis a global company that specializes in enterprise software, including customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, supplier relationship management, and much more. SAP was founded in 1972 in Waldorf, Germany, by five former IBM engineers who wanted to offer standardized software for integrating business processes. Today, SAP has more than 345,000 customers and more than 84,000 employees.
SAP reports that 87 percent of Ford Global 2000 companies and 98 percent of the 100 most valuable brands use SAP solutions. In addition, 100 percent of the top-scoring companies listed by Dow Jones use SAP, and 4 out of 10 large German companies rely on the ERP system from Waldorf.
To meet the demand for qualified professionals, SAP offers a comprehensive certification program to ensure excellent product and customer support and to close the IT skills gap. The SAP certification program currently includes more than 350,000 certified SAP experts worldwide.
Overview of the SAP Certification Program
SAP offers more than 150 certifications, each of which is focused on a specific SAP product. You can search for SAP certificationson the company’s website by product, solution category, delivery method, or location. Certifications are typically categorized at the “Associate,” “Specialist,” or “Professional” levels, which can be understood as follows:
User Certifications: These are intended for individuals who are not yet familiar with SAP solutions and have gained an understanding of SAP technologies through manuals or training courses.
Technical certifications: These build on the Associate-level certifications and help identify professionals with skills in specific components or roles.
Professional certifications: These recognize individuals with in-depth knowledge of SAP solutions and practical experience.
No prior knowledge, training, or other certifications are required for Associate- and Professional-level certification. To earn a professional certification, candidates must hold an Associate-level certification.
In addition, SAP certifications do not require recertification. However, to ensure that your qualifications remain up to date, SAP monitors your credentials and notifies you if one or more of them are out of date. The company develops delta exams when an SAP solution is released that has undergone significant changes. Certification holders must take one or more delta exams within six months to keep their skills, knowledge, and certifications up to date.
SAP Certification Exams
User- and Professional-level certifications require a single exam. For the Specialist certification, candidates must pass both the Specialist and User exams. You can purchase an exam voucher through the SAP website and then take the exam at an SAP Training Center.
Some certifications are available through SAP Certification in the Cloud. With the SAP Certification Hub, you can take up to six exams over a 12-month period for an annual subscription fee of €500. (The fee for cloud-based certification is roughly equivalent to the cost of one examat a physical test center. So it may well be worth taking the time to check which certifications are available through the cloud program.)
SAP Solution Categories
Anyone familiar with SAP certifications may recall that, in the past, certifications were classified by job roles such as system administrator, system architect, and developer. While job roles still play an important part in the certification program, SAP now classifies its certifications by solution categories. This makes it easy for SAP professionals to find training and certifications that align with their areas of interest and expertise within an organization. There are various solution categories:
· SAP Ariba Procure-to-Pay (P2P)
· SAP Business One
· SAP BusinessObjects
· SAP Customer Relationship Management
· SAP Enterprise Resource Planning
· SAP HANA
· SAP NetWeaver
· SAP Solution Manager
· SAP Supplier Relationship Management
· SAP Supply Chain Management
· SAP Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (SAP Sybase ASE)
· Enterprise Mobility Solutions
· Industry Solutions
Most certifications in these categories are at the user level, but you’ll also find many professional and specialized certifications throughout the SAP certification portfolio. SAP lists all current certification exams here. Since we cannot cover all categories and certifications in this article, we’ll take a look at some of the most popular SAP certification solution categories to give you an overview of what SAP has to offer.
SAP NetWeaver
SAP NetWeaveris a popular platform; here you will find SAP NetWeaver certifications that focus on the administration of SAP applications such as ERP, CRM, Java, and ABAP, as well as Business Warehouse, Portal, integration technologies, and development. The available certifications vary by category, but here are some examples of these current certifications:
Administration:Technology Associate - SAP NetWeaver 7.4, Technology Consultant for OS/DB Migration for SAP NetWeaver 7.4
Business Division: Application Associate - Business Intelligence with SAP NetWeaver 7.0
Portal: Technology Associate -SAP Enterprise Portal 7.4.0
Process Integration Technologies: Development Specialist/Technology Specialist -Process Integration with SAP NetWeaver 7.31
ABAP Programming: Development Staff -ABAP with SAP NetWeaver 7.40 or 7.50
SAP also offers numerous NetWeaver training courses, including courses for project teams.
SAP Solution Manager
When you think of technical support, think of SAP Solution Manager. SAP Solution Manager enables professionals to manage complete SAP-based solution environments, including selection and implementation, day-to-day operations, and ensuring system reliability.
SAP offers a wide range of training opportunities and certifications to prepare professionals to work with SAP Solution Manager. The training is divided into several subcategories, including general solution overviews, project management, end-to-end solutions, configuration, and application.
SAP offers various certifications for those responsible for implementing and maintaining systems using Solution Manager, including several Certified Technology Associate certifications specializing in Change Control Management, Business Process Monitoring, and Business Process Interface Monitoring. Each certification comes with its own recommended training roadmap.
One of the most interesting SAP Solution Manager certifications is the SAP Certified Associate Project Manager. This certification goes beyond traditional project management skills and focuses specifically on validating the skills required to manage SAP projects. Exam topics include data management, key outcomes in the workflow, business process management, management of technical solutions (including the ASAP methodology), implementation of SAP projects, enabling tools, key concepts for ASAP, training within the SAP methodology, change management, SAP NetWeaver skills, test and cutover management, and “Running SAP like a factory” with enabling tools.
SAP Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (SAP Sybase ASE)
SAP offers a comprehensive trainingand certification portfolio for anyone interested in database administration, integration, security, development, or performance. In addition to SAP ASE, this includes SAP IQ, SAP Replication Server, SAP Power Builder, and SAP Power Designer.
The SAP ASE portfolio consists of two subcategories:ASE Administrationand ASE Development. Each offers a single Technology Associate certification.
In the ASE Administration track, you will find the Technology Associate - Database Administrator for SAP Sybase ASE 15.7. Exam topics include
Database backup,
Server configuration,
Tuning with Logical Process Management,
Transactions involving Transact-SQL functions,
Architecture and Installation,
Maintenance,
Safety,
Table Management,
Database Management and
Data Analysis
The training focuses on SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise and includes a fast-track course for entry-level professionals. Other courses cover system and database administration, performance and tuning: configuring Adaptive Server Enterprise, and getting started with Sybase Adaptive Server.
In the ASE Development area ,SAP offersthe SAP Certified Technology Associate - Development Consultant for SAP Sybase ASE 15.7. This exam validates a candidate’s knowledge in the areas of data analysis, query optimization, and statistics; query access methods; join processing; table and index structures; transaction concepts; stored procedures and optimization; as well as ASE performance tuning and fundamentals. Recommended training courses include “Fast Track to SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise” and “Performance and Tuning: Adaptive Server Enterprise 16.0 Query Optimization.”
Related Occupations, Training, and Resources
SAP certifications cover nearly every business process across all major industries. A quick search on online job boards offers insight into the range of job openings for SAP-certified professionals. A sugar manufacturer in Minnesota is looking for an SAP developer to design, build, monitor, test, and optimize SAP ERP applications. A leading technical services provider is seeking an SAP administrator who will “own” all aspects of the client’s SAP application infrastructure and focus on SAP incident, problem, risk, and change management. A global SAP Business One value-added reseller is seeking a technical SAP sales representative to provide consulting and support services for SAP ERP solutions to its customers.
Whether you’re a business analyst, business process manager, developer, IT administrator, team leader, trainer, power user, or executive who works with SAP products, you’ll find a wide range of career opportunities. SAP offers in-person training at its SAP Training Centers worldwide. There are also live virtual training sessions taught by SAP experts that include the “ Access ” to live SAP systems for an immersive learning experience. You can also take interactive e-learning courses that complement in-person training by enrolling in a single course or subscribing to multiple courses.
The SAP E-Academyoffers training courses designed to help you become familiar with specific SAP solution areas and prepare you for certification exams. You’ll receive one to five months of Access access to self-paced courses. SAP e-Learningprovides access to individual courses for anyone interested in a single training course. Candidates who wish to deepen their knowledge can sign up for Live Access, which allows them to practice their existing skills in a supported SAP environment. If none of these learning options are right for you, check out the SAP Learning Hub. There, you’ll find 24/7 access to all the training you need at Access .
Finally, SAP provides sample questions for most CERT exams—these are actual questions from previous live exams. You can view sample questions by clicking the PDF link for sample questions on an exam's webpage.
Visit training.sap.comto learn more about the options available for SAP training.
