Six important things for future BPEs

BUSINESS PROCESS EXPERTS

• 1. End-to-end business process know-how will be more important than "silo" functional knowledge in just one area.
• 2. BPM tool expertise
• 3. "Soft Skills" -- the ability to be a customer-facing SAP professional who understands business strategy, rather than a "cubicle coder." Soft skills are about having the savvy to be a "marriage counselor" between IT and the business user community, according to ten Vaanholt.
• 4. Industry knowledge -- SAP professionals need to cultivate more industry focus, rather than jumping around from project to project across many industries.
• 5. Web 2.0 skills
• 6. SAP product knowledge -- traditional SAP product knowledge, with a good understanding of the NetWeaver architecture and the delivery of future upgrades via "enhancement packages."