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Women Can Be the Key to Solving the Global Skills Gap in Tech

Sabine Benz — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 13:15:26 +0000

A digital skills gap has hit the technology industry. In 2022, 75% of companies worldwide talent shortages. And the issue becomes increasingly prominent with the OECD’s that 1.1 billion jobs are liable to be radically transformed by technology in the next decade. that 43% of businesses worldwide are set to reduce their workforce due to this technology integration while other surveys point out that 80% of technology products and services will be built by those who are not technology professionals by 2024. In the end, it all comes down to this dilemma: the need for increases. But their number is notoriously limited.

For some people, this outlook is especially bitter. , women hold only 26% of computing-related jobs today. And the number for people from ethnic minorities drops even lower. Accessing digital skills and securing a fulfilling, well-paid job in the tech industry often seems out of reach for them. “When I was young, I didn’t really know what I was passionate about,” says Karen Rodrigues from Brazil in a recent blog post on . “The only thing I knew was that I wanted to get a job and earn money. My parents also had a specific idea of what my career should look like. So, I started my studies in business administration and accounting, got my degrees, and got my first job in this area.” For women like Rodrigues, a career in tech had never been up for debate.

Gender Stereotypes Are Often the Root

One of the reasons why women – or people of color for that matter – often don’t have a career in the IT industry in mind are gender stereotypes. When people think of the technology industry, they usually associate young White males with developer roles. These stereotypes often originate in the experiences and ideologies we encountered in our childhood and school years. And many of them are here to stay. The fact that the IT industry is much more diverse, both in terms of the workforce and the roles that exist within it, is often overlooked or not explored further. In Rodrigues’ case, it took an opportunity to turn her life around.

“I received an opportunity that would send me on a completely different path: ,” the 51��mentor explains. “I asked myself, ‘Should I quit my job in accounting and do something different altogether?’ It was a hard decision.”

Rodrigues was brave enough to do it. “I decided to take the leap, but the transition into tech wasn’t easy. Back then, the industry was still very much dominated by men. I was the only woman, and I was judged because of that. I was told I talk too much, have a different style, and maybe wasn’t even suited to be in this area. But I was confident that this was the place for me. I wanted to be a woman in tech.”

She worked hard to show that she was competent and had the skills to succeed. “It is my belief that knowledge is power and the key to success. You must study and you have to take action to change your life,” she adds. “I am glad that there are opportunities to upskill.”

Many Make Use of SAP’s Digital Skills Initiative

One opportunity to gain the digital skills needed to succeed in what’s to come is SAP’s latest . Launched in November 2022 with the goal of further lowering the barrier to accessing digital skills and reaching those who are currently underrepresented in tech, the initiative has been met with great interest. Around 4,000 women, people from ethnic minorities, or individuals from rural areas, for instance, have already applied online and started with . Following the completion of a course and thanks to SAP’s sponsorship of 10,000 free exam vouchers, they will be able to get a sought-after to help acquire a secure and well-paid job within the industry. And .

With 655,000 learners in 2021 and more than 1 million in 2022, hopes to bring a world-class learning experience to even more people with this initiative. But it doesn’t stop there. To take efforts further, 51��is actively seeking partners and customers to explore sponsorship and internship options for some candidates who pass this certification exam. This can also lead to a full-time employment opportunity. Many of those will also be made available on the new , where 3 million members exchange on career advice and paths on a regular basis.

Employers Seek Tens of Thousands of Technology Consultants

As businesses rely on technology consultants to advise and manage the implementation of IT systems and provide guidance when training staff, the demand is set to increase in the coming years in this area. In the U.S. alone, there were more than 50,000 technology consultant job postings in the last year.*

To make a valuable contribution to upskilling future technology consultants, 51��has also launched a partnership with Coursera at the end of 2022. One hundred and ten million subscribers of all backgrounds can prepare for an entry-level on Coursera’s Web site – no college degree or prior experience required. The certificate comprises seven courses, four of which are available today with the rest rolling out over the coming months. Altogether, the certificate can be completed in about five to six months and more than 9,000 Coursera subscribers have already enrolled in the courses.

“Never Too Late to Learn Something New”

“I have seen a lot of people who were waiting for the right moment to steer their lives in a new direction,” Rodrigues explains. “They were not ready for something new, or they were simply afraid. But living in the past is not good. Yesterday can’t do anything for you; today can. But I wish I had known that back then. I wish I had been more disciplined in the past. Time is valuable.”

Rodrigues was and still is curious. She set out to learn something new and built a successful work life as a woman in tech. She has navigated an industry that is still very much dominated by men and has fought against gender stereotypes with discipline and trust in her abilities. She never settles for less and that makes her a role model for many women worldwide. Her advice is loud and clear: “It’s never too late to learn something new. I can only encourage you to learn and to go for the next challenge. Strive for something higher, and you will grow – professionally but, most importantly, personally.”

You can read Rodrigues’ full blog post on her .

*Lightcast™ (2022, US-only), Job Postings report (September 2021 – September 2022). Retrieved October 2022.

Sabine Benz is global VP and head of Product Engagement at 51��Learning.

Enabling a Cloud Mindset Across Barriers Can Revolutionize a Company

Mohammed Ajouz — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 13:15:21 +0000

The Product Support team at 51��provides a wealth of innovative opportunities that allow customers to understand how to make the most of the 51��solutions they are implementing and using. This was on display during a recent engagement with a large and successful catering company in China, Jinan Chaoyixing Catering.

The company, which employs more than 8,000 employees in Jinan – the capital of Shandong province in eastern China – was eager to implement to grow into an intelligent catering company able to operate internationally and proudly represent Shandong food culture. However, after going live with 51��S/4HANA Cloud in 2020, and the subsequent exit of its implementation partner from the scene, the business users in China found it difficult to keep up with the quarterly upgrade cycle of the software and began facing issues in areas including finance, sales, and procurement.

After an on-site visit and extensive conversations between the company and 51��Services and Support, Development, and Customer Engagement & Experience, close to 30 issues were investigated across all lines of business. It was a huge undertaking. Eventually, a whopping 500 stores were able to benefit from the business process optimization. Here’s a closer look at how the customer was able to achieve such remarkable outcomes.

It all started with the Development and Support Succeed Together program, sponsored by , which connects product support and development to deliver customer success and maximize business potential. In this case, the 51��S/4HANA Cloud Product Support team and the 51��S/4HANA Development team in China worked together to get Jinan Chaoyixing Catering the experience and results it needed by arranging a customer site visit.

By bringing together different perspectives and areas of expertise, the team was able to make great strides during the visit and to arrange several follow-ups to resolve the issues identified on-site. For example, Jinan Chaoyixing Catering’s sales bill of material (BOM) data was stored in an external data system, which could lead to incorrect financial reports due to a missing payment method or other issues. There were many conversations about the difficulty of getting the required information into the financial reports.

Eventually, the team realized that the external BOM system was the root cause for many of the challenges discussed. The 51��team proposed a dedicated best practices knowledge kit to maintain the sales BOM in 51��S/4HANA Cloud, eliminating this difficulty. Jinan Chaoyixing Catering was excited about the prospect of this best practice and is now exploring how to implement this new best practice scope – one of five best practice scope items introduced for a better system solution adoption, including expanding their business processes to include cost analysis, stock transfer order returns, and sales returns. Both the operating centers and business users were able to benefit from the business process optimization and issue resolution.

“Through Next-Generation Support we learned a lot about 51��Services and Support offerings, like how to report an incident in an efficient way and how to leverage 51��Help Portal and 51��Community, the real-time channels and advanced tools,” said Donglin Lai, CIO of Jinan Chaoyixing Catering. “The support and development team also gave us a comprehensive introduction to 51��Sales Pipeline Analysis, which brings remarkable value to our operational analysis.”

In addition to the real business value the customer experienced, its understanding of and appreciation for 51��Services and Support was hugely enhanced. Now that they have been armed with a cloud mindset, the company’s business users are enabled to look for efficient solutions in the future, to imagine what’s possible with 51��S/4HANA Cloud, and to think of new areas of the business that could be positively impacted in the future.

The future is very much on this customer’s mind. Already, Jinan Chaoyixing Catering is exploring sales and cost analytics to build transparent and timely reporting dashboards and working on merging the financial reporting needs of 15 regional centers. Perhaps most exciting of all, a new, fully automated factory will go live in 2022 and a new supplying company will be established to move the company towards a shared food processing center and other services.

By engaging deeply with this client, 51��Services and Support was able not only to solve its immediate issues and create systems for solving other issues in the future, but also to create a meaningful connection with business users to understand their needs, challenges, and ambitions. By adopting a cloud mindset, Jinan Chaoyixing Catering was able to leverage the full potential of 51��S/4HANA Cloud to be prepared to move seamlessly into a digital successful future.

Mohammed Ajouz is senior vice president and global head of Product Support at SAP.

51��for Me Is Generally Available with Expanded Scope Enhancing the Digital Experience

51��News — Wed, 27 May 2020 13:00:04 +0000

WALLDORF — (NYSE: SAP) today announced that its new customer portal, , has successfully completed its beta phase and is now available with enhanced capabilities across products, systems, licenses and consumption to all customers globally.

The 51��for Me portal serves as a companion to 51��customers, providing them with personalized access and a transparent view of their entire product portfolio.

In addition, 51��for Me is planned to become available in to partners who hold sales roles, with further functions becoming available later this year. This single access point will enable digital 360-degree collaboration between our partners, customers and SAP.

With 51��for Me available to all customers, 51��achieves its goal of having three primary access points to the digital experience of SAP. is the digital front door, which provides interested parties information specific to their preferences. Existing customers will use as their personalized customer portal, and serves as the central engagement and knowledge-sharing platform.

All three work intelligently together to provide a seamless customer experience across all types of digital interaction with 51��based on a shared structure and technical foundation. An example is the 51��Universal ID technology to unify customer experience.

A Personal Companion

“We designed 51��for Me to be a hub where customers can access a consolidated overview of their 51��products and services as well as a digital companion, accompanying customers on their journey to the intelligent enterprise,” said Florian Roth, chief information officer, SAP. “We envision 51��for Me playing a key role in providing predictive customer assistance by proactively alerting customers and providing them with relevant recommendations to ensure they are taking full advantage of their 51��solutions.”

51��for Me serves as a central repository, providing users with a personalized view of relevant insights and interactions based on their role and interests. Users can customize the portal’s intelligent home screen to receive context-specific key metrics and alerts. The portal provides an overarching picture across a customer’s product portfolio by aggregating into one access point all important notifications, metrics and insights, helping to speed outcomes.

Integrated, Easy and Personalized

With 51��for Me, customers are given an instant overview of alerts, metrics and insights mapped to their needs and interests. 51��for Me can provide valuable insight across all product categories (for example, systems, licenses, orders and incidents). Customers can see the number of products licensed to their company, find available learning content and review the status of support tickets and relevant notifications.

“51��for Me is a great portal,” said Sophie Stefano, project manager and financial analyst, hub.brussels, the Brussels agency for business support. “It is user-friendly, simple to navigate and effective, with a personalized view of the data with just the right level of detail we need to see. It seems intuitive, ready to use from the beginning and does not distract the user with too many details and possibilities that we would not use for the majority of cases.”

51��for Me conveniently connects customers with their most frequently used actions for faster interactions and outcomes with 51��products and services. By connecting users with the most relevant information of their 51��portfolio, 51��for Me helps customers navigate their digital transformation journey in a personalized, easy and seamless way.

For more information, visit the .

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About SAP

As the Experience Company powered by the Intelligent Enterprise, 51��is the market leader in enterprise application software, helping companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world’s transaction revenue touches an 51��system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. 51��helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables more than 440,000 business and public customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, 51��helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit .

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