Blog

Over the last 12 months there has been a lot of discussions about the changes, challenges and impacts of coronavirus and the lockdowns.

This week I’ll share some of the key learnings I have taken away from this experience within the SAP world and my own perspective as an SAP Recruitment Consultant.

The SAP Market

One of the key takeaways for me was that the SAP market stood up very well in comparison to other industries. There was a few disruptions at the beginning of the pandemic as clients were looking for ways to quickly cut costs however, as the year went on, we found the market got busier.

The need for SAP resources will always be required due to the ongoing nature of the work however there was a pretty dramatic downturn of the big programs in favour of smaller project and continuous improvement type projects. If you read our quarterly crunch updates you will have noticed that we achieved our targets in Q1 and Q2. If I’m being honest, I wouldn’t have thought it would happen, but I’m extremely proud of the team.

Remote Working Model

Like the rest of the world, Speller International was forced to move to a remote working model, which was new for the team and me. We have always worked best when sharing ideas and information.

However, we were extremely fortunate that in the months leading up to the pandemic we implemented a new cloud-based CRM and Microsoft Teams, which helped us prepared for what was to come. Fast forward to 2021 and we are set up to have a flexible working option for all staff members, which continues to provide a good balance and flexibility that we are all now accustom to.

The SAP Community

One of the other things I have leant over the last 12 months is that it is truly great to be part of the SAP network. Personally, I have now been working with Speller International and subsequently been part of the SAP “family” for over 10 years now and have built a very strong network.

It was humbling for me having candidates ring me wanting to chat, asking for advice and to get a feel for what the actual reality was with the market. I am in a very fortunate position as I have a good helicopter view of the overall SAP market and I am happy to share with my network what is really going on. One of the great joys of my job is placing someone in their next SAP role. This will always be the best part of the job however, during the last 12 months I got an extra bit of satisfaction and excitement when I placed someone in a new role particularly with candidates that had been negatively affected by the pandemic.

A Wider Talent Pool

From a client and candidate perspective a move to a full remote workforce was not a challenge as contractors and staff were used to working in a remote setting. There were however, some key challenges from clients who decided to continue delivering their projects facing significant challenges around User Acceptance Testing and Training. Yet with the advances and uptake of different technologies to do this remotely we saw these project delivered successfully.

I personally think moving forward we will see more opportunities become available on projects for local resources instead of the heavy reliance of an offshore model that we have seen in the past.

Clients now have access to a lot more of the SAP market and not restricted by a candidate’s location. We have already seen great success across several clients where we have placed contractors working in a different location to the client site, a trend I think will be here to stay. This is a real positive for clients who now have access to deeper talent pool and for contractors to access a wider range of interesting projects.

In summary, there have been more positives than negatives and think if we all continue to stay connected, share knowledge and support one another we will all continue to grow.

The start of 2021 has kicked off with a bang and we are busier than we have been during any stage of the last 2 years so the SAP market is back and in full swing. I personally look forward to assisting as many of you as possible in whatever way I can today and into the future.