The following texts were partially or completely generated with the help of generative AI models.
For SAP consulting firms and freelance SAP consultants, the current crisis offers a great opportunity to bring their know-how up to speed. And at significantly lower costs than usual.
Before COVID-19
In recent years, thanks to the SAP HANA database and the associated new products S/4HANA and BW/4HANA, many projects have emerged at SAP customers. This has led to two effects:
- Consulting firms and freelance consultants in this area have been very well utilized lately.
- Since the products and technologies are new, truly experienced consultants are lacking. There is a considerable need for training.
And in the crisis…
Many SAP customers are currently very cautious about spending money. Some projects are being temporarily halted, others are not even being started. And almost everywhere, budgets for external support are being reduced or cut. This is quite understandable, especially at large corporations whose employees are partly being sent into short-time work.
This leads to poor utilization of SAP consulting firms and freelance SAP experts. They can no longer bill full-time. After the past years with very good utilization, this will certainly be bearable for a while.
…cost pressure leads to bad decisions
In order not to burden the annual results, budgets for external expenditures are of course being significantly reduced there as well. But precisely in the area of training, this is a poor business decision. Because it disregards the fact that the opportunity costs—that is, the non-billed time of the training participants—make up by far the largest cost block in a training. But these costs only arise when the employees are nearly fully utilized. And that will hopefully soon be the case again. Here is a small comparison, in which I have set the opportunity costs rather low:
Conclusion
There is a need for training in the area of SAP HANA technologies. But those who train now can later, when utilization heads back toward 100%, fully bill motivated and qualified employees. Those who save now, however, will sooner or later have to pay a much higher bill.
