Bros Kiwi,

Sorry for my late reply. I just dey check this post this morning as i dey work, I no c internet this bank holiday weekend, busy n all with the usual, long weekend stuff, anyways, thanks alot, and God bless,

Thanks a lot, I appreciate the advise, one more thing tho,

u mentioned ECC 6.0 SR2 or 3 , whats the difference, The person wey won install am for me give me the option of external harddrive, na me just think say it go dey slow etc although my laptop n desktop both meet the specs, is it slow using external hardrive?, but now dat u mentioned and xplained it, it fit better just incase my system gets corrupted again in future,,,,, at least it wud be safe, thanks man, YOU R D MAN,

God bless, I will let you know of my progress in the coming months,

Take care Bros, Sege

Kiwi points are absolutely spot on, quite suprised that Nigerians have not jumped on the SAP bandwagon, as he rightly pointed out, SAP is still in its early days in Nigeria, i can bet the Indians are milking these Nigerian companies dry in terms of consultant fees

He rightly points out Nigerians tend to be Cisco, MCSE, MCP certified, well the early IT boom of the 90s is well and truly over, these days, all the worthless online degrees cant give you any meaningful roles

To be quite honest in the Uk, i only know about 3-4 Nigerian SAP consultants, i dont think they have been out of jobs even with the current financial recession, maybe the rates might be reduced slightly but a 100 pound cut in a 500-700 a day rate for the top consultants will hardly dent a hole in their wallet

I guess for entry level SAP consutants, certification seems a must have, i did not take this route as i was lucky to work for a company that implemented the old SAP version 3.1 in the early 90s and just basically worked my way up

SAP seem to be making in-roads in to the Africa and middle east markets and usually Nigeria will typically be on SAP radar, i will expect a few Nigerian companies to implement SAP in the near future, this will provide opportunities for new Nigerian SAP consultants

Dear Oga Kiwi,

Thank you very, very much for your guidance. Sorry about the delay, I was out of circulation for some days.
Your advice is well and truly noted.

I go du as yuu say make I du.

Hello Mr Kiwi, Mr Markos, Felixv and the naira land SAP gurus,

let me start by saying that you are all real men and i wanna be like you when i grow up, literally. This is my first post in this forum and i can only imagine how different my life would have been if i had discovered the group as far back as 2006 when i first discovered SAP, THANK YOU!!!! please keep up the good work, i really really appreciate all the words of advice, spent this past bank holiday weekend reading through all the posts and what an eye opener that has been.

Been in the UK for close to 5 yrs now, got my Msc in Information Systems, ITIL, ISEB Business Analysis and Prince2 practitioners certificates, currently working as a Business Analyst in the public sector, been at it for 3 yrs now and for those 3 yrs been trying to break into SAP.

I took a 3month long (weekends only) SAP HR/Payroll course in late 2007, i was lectured by an indian chap that works as an SAP consultant for Axon, this chap knows his stuff and i learnt a lot from him and for the past 1 yr i have been studying and practicing at home on the Ides4.7 that was installed on my home PC and also applying for consulting roles but so far no luck. Right now i can confidently say that i have got excellent configuration skills in Personnel Administration, Organizational Management, Payroll, Time Management, Benefits and Compensation, and working on getting up to speed with Employee self service (ESS) and Manager self service (MSS).

For some reason i didn't think that getting a certificate was necessary until i read some your posts in the forum, so i have made that my new project to be certfied at the latest by the end of June 2009, hopefully that would be a plus in my job search.

@ Kiwi, Markos, Felixv and fellow naira landers please i would be getting in touch as soon as i get my SAP HCM certificate on tips on how to navigate the SAP job market in both the UK and naija if you don't mind. Any kinda tip would be very very helpful.

@Markos, got your email from one of your posts, ok if i send you emails asking questions? if you don't mind. my email is didier1@ymail.com.

@ Oga Kiwi, awu m onye igbo, amuru m n ala igbo. ebi m na abuja. ( I be ibo boy, born and bred, live in abuja when i dey naija).

Peace, hope to hear from you.

Didier!

Hello Team,
I guess since we all have the same objectives,then we are part of the same team.The future of most SAP applications lies with integrating them with the internet,and that means e-commerce.
HCM now includes ESS/MSS,these are web based applications and they are extremely popular

http://www.sap-img.com/human/what-is-ess-mss.htm

another module of HCM that is very popular is e-recruitment

http://www.sap.com/uk/services/education/sapskills2006/agenda/breakouts/hcm.epx

SAP is revolving,to be truly successful in this field you have to move with the times,i have emphased this in the past,JAVA EP,are musts now.,its a pity that nigeria has very few companys that use
sap,south africa is a huge market.So to develop good skills might be tough,hands on is the best way to become an expert,

NEWS FROM SAP EXECUTIVE BOARD,
SAP had a pretty good quater,earnings up,licenses up,that is good news,,

hope some of you guys would be interested in abap and java programming,the future of IT in Nigeria is how well we produce stuff,maybe one day we can have a sap labs in naija in years to come.
my take on the few SAP implementation partners is that they are pretty short sighted.

tc

F

Of course SAP has to be seen to integrate all the latest technologies into their platform, Netweaver is becoming big now, as someone pointed out ESS/ MSS, SRM

SAP are posting good profits, new vendors are implementing SAP, that is good news for consultants, i still belive Africa wil be the next market, still virgin territory, in Nigeria at least 25 big companies use SAP, Nigerian consultants based there should look at this as an opportunity to break in before the market gets saturated

Mr Markos & Mr Felix

Thanks for the advise you are giving us. I have 2 questions please for you guys which I know most of us that are currently overeas and looking to relocate back home in the next year or so would want to know.

1. You mentioned that there are atleast 25 big companies using SAP in 9ja, can you give a list if you know them. I only know about Guiness, and i think i read it on some forum sef, not sure.

2. Which functional modules are more popular in the 9ja market, since SAP is new in 9ja, which modules do u think would be most highly in demand taking into consideration the 9ja business envronment, with manufacturing etc.

Thanks, your advise would be most appreciated. Much blessing Bros, easy!

Hi, not really sure what companies use SAP in Nigeria, i had a list ages ago, the likes of NNPC, Shell, Mobil, some big breweries, do a bit of research, maybe you can get some information online like Google, if i do find such a list, il gladly let you know!

as per what functional modules are popular, i will guess the usual suspects FICO SDMM, the manufacturers are likely to use MM, maybe the new ERP, CRM, SCM, HR, PLM, the oil sector will likely use the IS solution

Just depends really and the nature of their business

Companies in Nigeria that have implemented SAP are below

FIRS-Debt management office
Standard Bank Plc
Delta state government
oceanic bank,
dangote
nestle
exxonmobil
nigerian brewries
Shell Petroleum Development Company
Ibeto Group
Cadbury Nigeria Limited
TotalFinaElf
Australian High Commission
Panalpina
British American Tobacco
Ericcson
Chevron
UAC
P&G
Citigroup (Citibank Nigeria)
Halliburton
Schlumberger
Seafood Products Limited
Ericcson
NNPC 
Petrobas     

Companies in Nigeria that usually handle the SAP implementation and support service for Companies that want to implement SAP and those that have implemented SAP already, these companies also employ SAP consultants

CWG, Computer warehouse group (main SAP partner in Lagos)
Accenture  (asks for certification)
Serve Consulting                                 
Deloitte consulting

http://www.nisideresources.com/
Phillip Consulting
Delliote
Femi Egbeniran & Co

oga kiwi and oga markos thanks for all the useful advice on SAp both of u have divulge a lot of useful advise to newbies like me,
I have been out of touch for long , please oga kiwi i thank u well well 4 the advis e wey u dey give for here o, but e be like say i miss out on one beta thing wey u give our country peple dem, the pass 4 d material wey i go take stat the sap training,,,i wan be proffessional like u o, i use GOD take beg u oo, no leave me out o , i need am like i need air ooo, give me the link make i stat soonest, i don buy laptop to take learn the thing by myself , my internet domot na okeyz2002 at yahoo dot com
abeg helep ur country man o, we need peple like u o 4 this our country, thanks for all the helep and advise u give our brothers and sistas, markos thanks 2 , una too much

Mr Markos & Mowaa

Thanks for the info. More blessing

Anything else, please ask, am sure a few experienced ones here will not mind passing career tips, like i said, the Asian SAP consultants in Nigeria will be milking their clients dry, if you can get certified, there should be one or 2 opportunities for Nigerian based SAP consultants

right now dont think about trying your luck in Europe, the market is already saturated and only the experienced ones with multiple lifecycle implementations are still getting new contracts in spite of the financial crisis

Hi SAP consultants and fellow aspirants,

I welcome Monsieur Kiwi back to da forum wiv his rightful identity. I hv rili benefitted tho' itz being my aspiration for about 2yrs now when I was given a picture of how what SAP is all about. My full study just commenced a couple of months back and there's no going back on it as I have been having sleepless nites studying and reducing my social life activities as I know rest is sweet after labour.

Info:
From one of the newsletters I subscribed to from the SAP website sometime ago, I got a mail pertaining to an SAP SME World Tour that would be coming up in lagos this month. I hope to attend and enlighten myself more to keep in the train.

- Tousen

This was taken from jobserve.com

this is a live role for any SAP project managers aspiring to work in abuja

SAP Project Manager - Nigeria. Contract


MC Partners are currently resourcing skills for a Greenfield SAP Oil & Gas implementation in Nigeria .
Our client requires an experienced Oil & Gas SAP Project Manager with full life cycle experience in ECC6 environment.

The Project Manager will work with implementation partner and end client managers from sizing and blueprinting phase. They will also have responsibility for managing project streams within functional development phase;

func: HR,FI,CO,SD,MM,ISOil
Tech:XI/PI,Business Objects/BI, BASIS/Netweaver

Upstream and downstream experience essential!


Candidates should ideally be Nigerian nationals or returning nationals, although ex-pat will be considered.


This contract is offered for 12 months initially with likely extension for final perpetration and cutover, go live and support.

Hey Briz,



You said:

I welcome Monsieur Kiwi back to da forum wiv his rightful identity.

I never, ever change my identity - kiwi992 always, kiwi992 forever.  I'm sure you do know my style of writing by now.

Can I just say that Markos has been in SAP much longer than I have, so be rest assured you guys would be well looked-after.  Needless to say, he's just as able to steer you guys along the right path whilst I break-out of this thread for now.

He is the one person here that I can confidently hand over the helm to, 'cos he's genuinely helpful, knows what he's talking about, and most of all, without a chip on his shoulder, doesn't blag or full of his own self-importance. 

Flying light aeroplanes is my passion in life and I need to concentrate more on that.  Summer is here and it's the flying season.  Engine to service, airframe to see to, flying adventures to go on, and so on.  Oh yeah, and writing my will, just in case I die up there, whilst flying!



kiwi992.

okay kiwi992,

i take that. u'v been so helpful and i rili appreciate. u don't know ao much help u've done but God is da only rewarder of good. Help say hi to ur kids.

so markos, cud u please gently take the oars and paddle we Nigerians safely, thanx.

- Tousen

Evening oh my Ogas' Mr Markos & Mr Kiwi ,

Thanks 4 all ur help advise etc, like MC, its priceless, walai,

I get quick question,

whats your view on taking the TERP 10 certification before one focuses on a specific module,

I mean for a person who is from a business background and new to SAP

e.g taking the c_terp10_05 certification exam (Integration of Business Processes),

before the SD module,

is there any advantage or is it like a waste of time,

you guys have the experience and know the industry, your advise and guidance would be much helpful,

Thanks, More blessing, Amin

The 2009 SAP SME World Tour will be hosted in the following date:

Thursday, 21 May 2009 at the Protea Hotel Oakwood Park, Lagos, Nigeria

SAP Africa has announced that it is building on the success of last year's
inaugural SAP SME World Tour by hosting this
event in other major centres around South Africa, as well as Nigeria.
SAP brought this event to South Africa for the first time late in 2008 as part of a global
initiative across 50 cities in 10 countries to educate users on SAP solutions for small
businesses and midsize companies.
“This decision was taken as a result of the success and overwhelming response from
customers and partners who attended the SAP SME World Tour that was held in
Johannesburg in November 2008,” says Derek Kudsee, Director SME, SAP Africa.
The roadshow will be visiting Johannesburg again, as well as Durban, Cape Town and
Lagos, Nigeria throughout the month of May. SAP Executive Vice President, SME Sales
and Channels, Eric Duffaut will be attending the Johannesburg event as a special guest
speaker.
“We are extremely excited about being able to reach out to the other centres around the
country. This will bring us closer to our customers and help us get an even better
understanding of their business environment and challenges,” says Kudsee.
The event is designed to be highly interactive and focused on the needs and challenges of
specific industries to ensure that delegates can hone in on the issues that are upper-most
on their minds.
The company's SME president, Hans-Peter Klaey, was the guest speaker last year at the
event that is comparable with SAP's SAPPHIRE® conference, an annual gathering of the
company’s international customers.
“In addition to talking to our customers about our solutions and how we can help them
improve their operations, this is also an opportunity for them to interact with their peers,
industry partners and SAP executives,” explains Kudsee.

Yea, got that mail too.
please fellow 9nja people, abeg attend, it will give more enlightenement, and who knows anything can happen from there.

that SAP event planned in lagos, for prospective SAP consultants around lagos should attend, you will get a lot of information

dont know if i have posted this website  http://www.sapdb.info/  your one-stop for all SAP documentation, e-books, certification resources, loads of SAP material, links to other SAP websites

for the user that asked a question about a TERP certification ( business process) one thing about SAP is you have to apply your skill based on your background, i have heard quite a few people with some qualifications that do not fit into SAP, you end up with qualifications which cant help you jump in the SAP bandwagon

like i said earlier, SAP in Nigeria is still virgin territory, the ''would-be'' SAP consultants based in Nigeria better get certified as soon as possible as you can corner the market before that market becomes saturated like Europe

In www.jobserve.com some SAP roles based in Nigeria were posted, they were looking for ideally Nigerian nationals with SAP project experience or returning- Nigerian nationals, ex-pats might be preferred

well my take, an experienced SAP project manager anywhere in Europe will be in a job despite the financial crisis, that is a high profile role, such consultants are highly paid as SAP implementations depends on their skill and know how, some can rake in as much as 700-5000 pounds a day based on experience, multiple implementations, industry type, such a consultant is unlikely to work in Nigeria unless they are looking for an adventure, A Nigerian SAP project manager based in europe might/ will not consider this offer, i might be wrong at the same time, the financial rewards and package has to be oustanding

I think an ex-pat will likely get that role, not trying to downgrade Nigeria based SAP consultants, it will be difficult to recruit from Europe for the said reasons i gave

well personally, My contract is coming to an end after 2 years and a half and what a long contract, feel physically burnt out, like Kiwi said, i definitely need a well deserved holiday

keep the questions coming in though, it helps to work my brain!!!

Plz as we all knw rest is sweet after labour,

Let's mk this our motto: This knowledge of SAP shall not depart 4rm our hands, we shall medidate on it in our work hours, so our fellow Indians et al shall not take it from our hands, wherever thou goeth. AMEN!

@Markos

Thanks for your invaluable contributions. You and Kiwi has made the SAP a worthwhile topic here.
I am a final year student of Engineering but won't mind writing an ERP thesis. Do u have an idea or a topic of SAP for my thesis?

Mr Markos

Thanks for your advise, re my question, am not sure if i made myself clear, what i wanted to know is if the TERP 10 certification is beneficial before studying a specific module. Take for instance, my background in Accounting and Finance, and an Msc In Marketing Management puts me in a position to go for the SDmodule or FICO. I understand that you have to map the module to your skills etc.

What I was trying to find out is, as a beginner to SAP, is the TERP 10 certification an advantage or a worthwile step 2 becoming a consultant, or pretty much a wate of time, etc. I said this cus it seems to be the foundation for beginners, thats what is also offered at UN Abuja (read that on this forum). Also, from your experience, is it a certification that one can use to break into the market or is it to lame and one should not bother about it.

Thanks bros, Pls clerify 4 me etc, thanks again for taking your time to help, and advise us, trust me on that, God Bless, more blessing


Sege101

well if you have an accounting background and marketing as well, maybe FICO or SDMM might be an obvious choice, you have to analyse your strong points, i will say go for the certification of your choice if you can afford it

SAP SME World Tour 2009
SEE YOUR WAY CLEAR - Strategies for Success in the New Reality


The Protea Hotel, Oakwood, Lekki, Lagos NIGERIA
THURSDAY, 21ST MAY 2009


Agenda:

09:00 Registration
10:00 Welcome and Keynote by Derek Kudsee, SME & Channel Director, SAP Africa
10:45 SAP SME Portfolio Show, by SAP Africa SME Team
11:20 Thought Leadership Presentations (Oceanic Bank and/or SMEDAN)
12:00 Lunch
13:00 SAP BusinessObjects Solutions for Small and Medium Sized Enterprise by John Mutuma, Channel Manager,SAP BusinessObjects
13:30 SAP Business All-in-One Customer Success Story: Ibeto Group
14:00 SAP Business One Customer Success Story: Swiss Parma Nigeria Limited
14:30 Refreshments Break
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Small Enterprise
14:45 SAP Business One Solution Demo by Nazir Jadavji, SAP Business One Channel Head, SAP Africa
15:15 Partner Presentation by Atul Kshetry, Tower Aluminium Group (IMD)
15:45 SAP BusinessObjects Crystal Reporting by Fees Limited
Medium Enterprise
14:45 SAP Business All-in-One Solution Overview by Lucaino Ravenna, Head of Solution & Channel Management, SAP Africa
15:15 SAP BusinessObjects Edge Series by Fees Limited
15:45 Presentation by Novell

16:15 Closing, cocktail reception and prize draw

We thank you for your interest in our event, and look forward to seeing you at the SAP SME World Tour.

Sincerely yours,

The SAP SME WORLD TOUR TEAM


PROUDLY SPONSORED BY: NOVELL

@mowaa,

I can see that u hv bin confirmed. Catch u ther.

- Tousen

CHAI., Our Big Bros Kiwi, nothing go do you up there,ok,
I hope to meet our own fellas at Protea Next tomorrow,

Till then, Lots of goodies to all SAP minded brothers.!

Hey Scorp,



Thanks man.  I won't die up there.

Actually, I've been pre-occupied in a religious battle over at the FreeMason's thread with some knuckle heads.

Hope your conference goes alright tomorrow.  You guys must ensure you make the most of it by networking.  This is crucially important.  THIS IS YOUR CHANCE!!

Go with your CV, make contacts.  In short, do whatever it takes to get to know people there.  Try and go with business cards (you can design one on the computer and get them printed).  Let them know about your SAP certification training, your skills, relevant qualification (including the exam you recently passed), and so on. 

It's your biggest chance to get into SAP.  Indeed, let this be a platform for you guys to spring forward.  Talk to the representatives of the companies that have implemented SAP in their organisation.  Ask for their names, positions in their organisations, as well as their business cards.  Ask to meet them.

Nigerians must NOT allow the Indians to dominate the SAP market in Nigeria 'cos we are ten times more intelligent than they are.  Indians will never give jobs to you if you were in their country.  Never!  Why let them take over the lucrative SAP jobs in Nigeria?  I bet you would see lots of them in the conference tomorrow.      

Remember, all you want is a breakthrough into SAP in Nigeria and this shouldn't be very difficult 'cos it's relatively new in our country and has a very long way to mature, let alone peak.     

Oh yeah, try and get to meet the other guys from this Forum as well and exchange details with each other.

Lastly, PLEASE don't go back home regretting that you forgot to do something at the conference.  SAP is fresh in Nigeria and people like you would be the big boys of tomorrow.  Make the most of this opportunity at the conference.

All the best to you guys.




kiwi992.

NB

SAP Business One is a stripped-down version of SAP R/3.  It is predominately aimed at the SME's (small-to-medium-sized enterprises).  It appears that SAP is trying to push that product in Nigeria.  Those of you from a business background should keep an eye on it.

Oga kiwi or anyone that has received the miracle link from oga kiwi, pls send to michaeloia@yahoo.co.uk
Kiwi, I deeply appreciate your contribution to this thread as SAP has been vague to me b4 now.

i goofed!!
i missed the conference, please for those that attended please give us the highlight here, thanks in advance

Hi

From the SAP SME world tour, Lekki that was concluded this evening.

I just returned and it was really educative and informative. Except when it was the time for the indian guy, Major General alhaji , abi wot his dt his name again from dt Aluminium coy to talk about the success story of SAP implementation in his coy, and I cud not just hear all he was saying. But i thank God he didn't really shake his head while talking as most of them do.

The high points were just the Business One and the All-In-Ones for SMEs.

We had a nice lunch and after the program, we had cocktail and a raffle draw where some fortunate people were able to win some prizes. Please if u got one of those prices, kindly tell us what was in ther so we'll know ao much we've missed. It's all because I didn't submit my feedback form early which was the basis for the raffle draw.

We were also given a 1GB SAP USB stick, an SAP folder, SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 installation DVDs, an SAP Notepad. I really had fun also. met some few people I mingled with a little in the SAP market.


-Tousen

Hi All,



Briz

Good to hear you attended it. Hope you made the most of it and indeed, networked as adviced.

Mikky

You know the protocol. Just speak your native Nigerian language here, as well as broken English and your request would be honoured.



kiwi992.