IT projects are at risk of being delayed by a shortage
of SAP skills, following a sharp upturn in demand over the past 12
months.
The number of vacancies for SAP professionals has soared by 16%
over the past year to 23,400, the highest level recorded, the
latest ComputerWeekly/SSL analysis of the jobs market shows.
The expansion in demand has left firms struggling to fill
positions and has led to some organisations delaying the roll-out
of major systems, recruitment specialists report.
"The demand for SAP is the highest it has ever been. It has
risen substantially each year for the past three years," said
George Molyneux, SSL research director.
The upturn has been driven by the growing take-up of SAP systems
by smaller businesses coinciding with larger SAP implementations in
retail, government and logistics.
The rising demand is forcing employers to pay significantly
higher salaries to attract the best people. Salaries have risen by
10% to 15% over the past 12 months, recruitment companies
report.
As well as boosting pay rates, employers are developing other
strategies to maintain or develop their SAP skills base.
Systems integrator Accenture told Computer Weekly it was taking a
"creative" approach to finding and retaining SAP specialists. This
includes offering double bonuses to attract qualified SAP staff and
"hot skills" bonuses for existing SAP specialists.
Directories business Yell said it had begun recruiting less-
experienced SAP professionals and investing in training to help
beat current skills shortages. "We have found it progressively
harder over the past 18 months to find people with SAP skills.
There is a definite upturn in demand," said Phil Ives, head of
information services.
Staffordshire County Council said it could not
compete with private sector salaries, which are now reaching £800 a
day for experienced SAP contractors, and has begun to train its own
SAP specialists in-house to meet the demand.
"We are a county council, not Nasa. We just need solid
developers, who can go through the whole cycle from development to
documentation," said Eamonn McGirr, head of business strategy and
development at Staffordshire County Council.
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