How to gain SAP Certification?

SAP certificate program validates the knowledge and skills of SAP customers, internal consultants, and SAP partners and SAP independent consultants. It is aimed at benchmarking SAP knowledge and skills.

Introduction to SAP Certification

SAP certification is aimed at benchmarking SAP knowledge and skills. Certified SAP professionals are considered as professionals with right knowledge and skills for the job at hand. SAP encourages the professionals involved with their various business solutions to go for certification according to the roles they play in their projects. This enables SAP projects to objectively assess, recruit and deploy the required skill sets and build a qualified team to deliver the reliable solution. Thus, certificate program validates the knowledge and skills of SAP customers, internal consultants, and SAP partners and SAP independent consultants. SAP Education offers certification exams in many countries. They can be taken by SAP customers, Partners, Independent consultants and Beginners, who have no SAP knowledge.

Levels of SAP Certification

Initially there was only one level of certification, which is now referred to as associate level certification. Now, SAP Certification has a three tier structure including certifications for associate level, Professional and Master. Associate and professional levels are available where as master level is still under development.

• Associate certification – This certification covers the fundamental knowledge requirements for a consultant, or project team member ensuring the successful acquisition of broad SAP solution knowledge and skills.
• Professional certification – This advanced certification requires proven project experience, business process knowledge, and a more detailed understanding of SAP solutions.

Beginners can only go for Associate certification and must undergo the respective training course offered by SAP through SAP or any of their education partners. To appear for Associate level certification without attending any SAP Education course or training you need Minimum 1 year of SAP Implementation Experience or 2 years of Support experience with minimum of 6 months experience in the module and version in which you wish to take up certification.

To appear for Professional level certification without attending any SAP course you need Minimum to 3 - 7 years of SAP Implementation Experience with minimum of 6 months experience in the module and version in which you wish to take up certification. The last 1 year should be with your present employer. Your present employer should be a CUSTOMER or PARTNER of SAP India Pvt Ltd

SAP Certification Options

These are the following Certification focus areas:

• Application Certification: available for specific SAP solutions like Materials Management, Human Resources, etc.
• Technology Certification: for SAP technologies like System Administration, SAP Security, Enterprise Architecture and Enterprise SOA.
• Development Certification: for individuals responsible for developing applications for SAP solutions using SAP ABAP or Java.

Approach for SAP Certification

There are two approaches to SAP certification

1. One approach is by enrolling and undergoing SAP Education provided training course for the certification in question,
2. Second approach requires relevant SAP experience. If you have, you can contact SAP Education for the formalities. It will require submission of a few documents and approval before you can enroll for the exam.

 The first approach is the only option for beginners looking to break into SAP career. It is important to choose your area carefully so that it is relevant for your previous experience. For example, if you are presently working in production planning & control, the natural choice for you is SAP PP (Production Planning) module. On the other hand, if you are into programming, SAP ABAP or Java in the SAP Netweaver environment can make a good choice. Thus, your SAP career will be an extension of your previous skills and will always have the advantage of applying your domain knowledge.

SAP recommends the relevant training course before going for certification for experienced SAP Professionals, though it is not mandatory. Also it is not mandatory to clear first level of certification before going for the next level. That means, if you think you have sufficient experience and should go for Professional level, you need not be certified for Associate level. You can directly go for Professional level.

Certification exam tests the candidate to

• Explain and implement various core business processes and functions in R/3 in one of the following application areas: Accounting, Controlling, Materials Management, Production & Production Scheduling, Sales Order Processing, and Human Resources
• Describe organizational units in the mySAP system, their characteristics and their relationship
• Define master data and make appropriate global settings (customizing)
• Tailor SAP to customer’s needs
• Work with the SAP navigator, online documentation, process and data models and implementation methodologies
• Acquire knowledge through available documentation
• Describe the SAP service support structure
• Describe the technological requirements of the R/3 system. The certificate is release-based and can be updated with further training and delta tests when new releases become available.

 

SAP Market on Certification

SAP Consulting market is not a certification driven market like for some of the other technologies. Thus, only a small percentage of SAP professionals are certified. In practice, SAP customers don’t generally treat certification as a mandatory requirement. And they don’t link certification to the experience and expertise gained by an SAP professional working on projects.