Blog

As a business that relies heavily on the continued success of SAP and its uptake within the Australian and the Global market then we believe it is quite important to stay across some of the trends that may impact that market. This helps us prepare for future skill demands within our clients.

So here are some of the ‘trends’ that we were discussing prior to heading into this financial year to assist with our planning and to potentially take advantage of the opportunities that may arise, perhaps they can assist with your planning/career choices?

TREND - IT/SAP Market has never been busier with the number of roles/positions outweighing the supply – this will continue to be the case over the course of the year and has/will continue to create an IT Skills Shortage.

Why

• Continuation of Cloud product uptake. Its importance was really driven home through Covid and will continue as the workforce has shifted to remote model.

• Increase in online sales, consumers for services and products are more confident and often prefer to buy online

• Covid has turned the tap off for skilled SAP professionals joining the Australia and New Zealand markets.

SAP Opportunities

• Continued growth and uptake of Cloud product line such as SuccessFactors, Ariba, Fieldglass, C/4HANA etc. Plus a greater push and ability to “sell” the S/4HANA business case.

• Creates more work in these specific modules plus Integration and other Project services related roles, integration (Project Management, BA’s, PMO, Governance, Change Management etc.)

• Increase in contract work as Cloud projects are typically shorter term.

• E-Learning is very busy due to increased projects and the need to delivery training online and remotely.

Why

• IT work coming back onshore as leading outsource countries such as India struggled with the pandemic and not having the infrastructure required for employees to work from home. In addition, boarder closures have impacted Australia’s ability to access skilled migrants.

SAP Opportunities

• Companies saw as a risk and many moved to a “onshore outsource” model – utilising SAP Contractors to work from home from wherever they are (providing they work in the required time zone). This has created even more demand in the SAP Contract market.

• Permanent SAP opportunities has lifted due to the increase in SAP/IT projects coupled with the shortage new skilled migrants entering Australia (due to boarder closures). This is pushing salaries higher than ever and is creating a “domino” effect across the permanent market.

• Companies with “specialised skill” requirements have been open to utilising fully remote Consultants and this has been working well.

• Consultants with very specialised skillsets have more flexibility to work from their home state. 

Why

Government spend

• Government is spending internally to create jobs and stimulate economy, thus are spending on own IT initiatives.

• Government incentives, grants, “asset write off” scheme and upskilling subsidies has assisted companies continue to push forward with projects and acquisitions thus job creation and project initiation has continued.

SAP Opportunities

• Internal government work pulling Australian Citizens out of the market creating skills shortage, some federal departments now accepting Australian Residents.

• Government projects are often “long term” which is driving the average initial contract length up.

• Government incentives have created opportunity for SAP end-user customers to continue to expand through Acquisitions (creating SAP Rollout) setting up a new warehouses (SAP EWM, WM), IT Assets/infrastructure projects - SAP Manufacturing and Supply chain modules have not been this busy in over 10 years

TREND - Australia/China relationship – China was our biggest trading partner. The deterioration of the relationship will/has had an initial negative impact on Australian companies (FMCG, Logistics, Steel, Building, Manufacturing) but will likely recover well in the long term.

Why

• Forces business and government to derisk its reliance/dependency on China and seek alternative trading opportunities. In 2018/19 China took 32% of all Australian exports and was responsible for approximately 20% of Australia’s imports 

SAP Opportunities

• Likely to bring more manufacturing back onshore as well as open other global markets and trade which will spread the risk for both the Australian Economy and Australian Business’. Couple this with the Asset write off scheme above and numerous grants and incentives to assist with job creation - This could drive smaller Aussie business’ to grow and thus need systems to assist/drive growth creating more SAP customers.

• Companies will be driving new sales strategies to overcome their own reliance on China which in turn will create sales opportunities for IT (SAP C/4HANA) as companies will invest in systems to assist their sales team.

• Companies need new suppliers as not just their sales pipeline cut from China, its supply as well. Procurement, Vender and Supplier relationship projects will get prioritized using IT as a facilitator. (SAP Ariba/Fieldglass)

• Warehousing and Logistics companies will be busier within Australia due to shift from China but also the difficulty in sourcing goods due to COVID. Creates SAP warehousing, logistics and supplychain opportunities

COVID has significantly impacting the society, economy, market forces and the IT market over 2020/21. This has clearly influenced the priorities of companies and therefor what business and IT projects they chose to invest in.

We would love to hear your thoughts on why you think the market is so busy at the moment and if you think it will continue this way.​