SAP MidYear Outlook, 2008: Trends and Opportunities By Ray Kelly, VP Solutions, B2B Workforce As I write this article, the second quarter is coming to a close. Sapphire/ASUG 2008, the biggest SAP schmoozefest of the year, is behind us, and we can now look ahead to TechEd in Vegas in September. At this midway point in 2008, it's a good time to take stock of what B2B Workforce learned at Sapphire and what kind of SAP activity we anticipate for the rest of the year. One great thing about SAP trade shows: you learn a lot more about consulting needs talking shop on the exhibition hall floor than you ever could out of formal reports. What we learned from talking to our major staffing partners, including Accenture, IBM, and SAP America, is that all of them were very encouraged about their backlog of needs and their expected project work for the rest of the year. There is a Backlog of SAP Staffing Needs, and B2B Workforce is in the Driver's Seat During our meetings with clients at Sapphire, we didn't talk about hypothetical job needs in the future - we left with real job orders and placed many of you after the conference. That's a sign of a healthy market. We were also encouraged to hear that these firms will continue to share their best project openings with B2B Workforce. We received excellent feedback on the caliber of the consultants we provide (that's you folks!) and our partners even cited our staffing solutions and our excellent track record in their own meetings and presentations. One of the fun parts about Sapphire is walking the exhibition floor and getting a feel for our competitors. Forget about who has the best convention giveaway or the cutest stuffed animals - what really matters is the value your firm is delivering to customers. As our SAP team reflected on the conference, it was clear that our best practices in the following areas continue to set us apart: Our strong and long-lasting relations with the decision makers of our customers Our in-depth understanding projects and staffing across the project lifecycle Our ability to qualify and deliver highly skilled resources to bear through our superior recruiting and delivery organization Our depth of product knowledge and recent product introductions (*** Ray, a specific example of this might be good here) Our back office processes, which provide expedient payments to our consulting community. These advantages aren't just about B2B Workforce separating itself from our competitors - they impact you as well. Because our clients look to us as a key partner for SAP staffing solutions, we are able to offer those high-caliber openings to you via our recruiting team and email alerts infrastructure. Technology is Better Than Clapton? SAP Technical Trends for 2008 Yeah, Eric Clapton was great, but for the real SAP geeks, the real entertainment highlight of Sapphire is the keynotes. That's where we pick up on the themes that SAP is going to emphasize in the year to come. This year, we saw three key technical trends coming out of Sapphire: The Upgrade Wave Continues - SAP customers continue to upgrade to the latest feature-rich version of the SAP ERP suite, centered around ERP 6.0 and Netweaver 7.0 BI/Portal. CRM 2007 is Rocking - There is a buzz around the latest edition of SAP CRM, and many companies are looking to implement the recently updated and newly improved CRM 2007. This toolset has an advanced user interface (similar to an ebay or Amazon.com experience) and additional mobile capabilities like integration with our phones or BlackBerry. RunSAP is Running Well So Far - With more and more mature SAP customers, it's become crucial to leverage the advanced tools and methodologies which allow you to manage your post go-live SAP systems. At Sapphire, SAP announced a new program called "RunSAP." RunSAP is a post-implementation methodology designed to assist customers with lowering the cost of managing their SAP environment. We expect to see this methodology to fuel more investments in post-go live SAP system enhancements. And yes, in case you had any doubt, B2B Workforce is already on top of all three of these trends! B2B Workforce - Bringing the Latest SAP Opportunities to You Our staffing partners bring these "trendy" SAP openings to us because they know we have the right pool of consultants for these new skill areas. We are pleased to report our Solution Architects are already certified in upgrades processes, we are an SAP CRM Service partner, and we were recently announced as a RunSAP Implementation partner. Yes, we'll be bringing openings from all three of these areas in your inbox throughout 2008. Remember the stress of opening your high school report card with college hopes on the horizon? That's how it is for SAP America's partners, because SAP grades and evaluates us on a regular basis. B2B Workforce, like all of SAP America's partners, receives its quarterly grades on how we stack up. The good news? Our report card had the equivalent of As across the board. Here are a couple of highlights: We increased revenue from the first quarter of 2007 over quarter from 2008 by 40%. We are on track for more than $25 million annual revenues from SAP America, which would be the number one partner in revenues from SAP America. Our approval rating continues to be one of the highest rated from all partners, and not just from SAP. 92% of all SAP Client partner we work with used us again. I believe that this is because we focus on the quality of resources we send. Our relationships with consultants like you, and our ability to submit you to the right positions for your skills and preferences, is what continues to set us apart. Despite the presence of some economic storm clouds which we are reminded of each time we reach for a gas pump, the SAP marketplace looks strong as we move into the third quarter of 2008. Our gut check regarding the position of B2B Workforce in this market also looks good. In turn, that means more quality project openings for our SAP consultant network. The one thing I want to say in closing is that we should never let ourselves get too comfortable or complacent based on good news. We can't forget that we got to where we are in the market today through a well-thought strategy executed with diligence. Just as it's important for all SAP consultants to keep their skills on the cutting edge, at B2B Workforce, our staffing and delivery systems need to be on that edge also. We count on you to let us know what we could be doing better and how we can optimize our systems. Perhaps most importantly, we count on you to be our eyes and ears on project sites, our partners in solution delivery. Please don't hesitate to let your B2B manager know of any issues on your project site that we need to be pro-active about. Let's face it, problems do happen. B2B Workforce stands out not because we have no problems on our projects, but because we are more pro-actively equipped to address them and provide solutions. With you as our partners in the field, we can achieve great things in the rest of 2008 and beyond!