Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Better wage for SAP professionals with security certification

Nobody can dispute the fact the SAP professionals are some of the best paid people in the industry. And they can made their wages even better when they get themselves certified in the area of security.

It was in the early 2000 when certified IT professionals were getting premium value compared to those who were non-certified. But in the years of 2004 and 2005, the ground started getting leveled for both certified and non-certified IT guys.

But there was an exception – and this exception was in the area of security.

It does not take a genius to figure out why. With today's business processes getting more diverse and complex, and data warehouses are springing up to serve business organizations operating in different countries, companies will surely get paranoid with data security.

According to David Foote, CEO of New Canaan, Conn.-based Foote Partners LLC, is research showed that over the last six months, there was an increase of 2.2 percent in pay for security certification. If you look at the figure, it may seem so small but security certification was the only aspect in IT certification that got an increase in value. So many administrators and technology staff are starting to consider investing in security certifications.

Says Foote "To get a CEO or head of a line of business to pay attention to security, you don't say, 'We need to invest in security as an insurance policy.' You say, 'Our customers are unhappy'. The moment they hear customers are unhappy with service or a product, they tend to move -- this is what's been moving security."
While there are many security certified IT professional clamoring to get into SAP jobs for better pay, SAP professionals getting into security certification can get a better edge in the competition. Security certification for SAP professional specializing in roles such as basis administrator can get optimum advantage with security certifications because companies prefer to hire only one staff instead of having a separate SAP administrator and a security professional to handle a certain aspect of the enterprise. I think this integration of SAP and security career is part of the whole integration going on in the ERP world.
This security certification thing will make sense if a company understands how complex SAP integration is. SAP is the world's largest business software company and in terms or revenue, it is the third largest independent software provider It focuses on six industry sectors - Process industries, Discrete industries, Consumer industries, Service industries, Financial services, and Public services making its solution very diversified. And now with the offering of its xApps that can be deployed online, security will all the more become an increasing issue.
As more and more companies using SAP are moving some of their critical business processes exposed to the internet, investing in security certification to complement a SAP skill set will definitely mean higher pay for a professional. Now is the time to start considering a certification.

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