Hello everyone, and welcome to today's webinar. Updating your skills from an SAP S/4HANA. We're thrilled you decided to sign in today for this unique opportunity to learn more about upgrading from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA from an SAP education training champion. Today's webinar will be recorded and everyone's microphones will be muted. If you have any questions, please enter them into the Q&A box or the chat window at the bottom of your screen. As mentioned, the webinar will be recorded and a copy will be sent to each and every one of you, you will also receive a copy of the slide deck. Stay tuned until the end of the webinar, as we will share a special promo. Without further ado, I'd like to introduce to you today's a webinars speaker and SAP education training champion, Kristen.
All right. Thank you, Michelle, and thank you everyone for joining. As Michelle said, my name is Kristen Colin. I am the Training Champion, Education Lead within our SAP education presales team. I've been with SAP for nine years, all within the education realm, and I primarily focus on training. So today, as Michelle stated, our topic will be how to upskill when moving from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA.
So as part of the agenda today, I will do an overview on our SAP S/4HANA education, the overall picture, and various learning options. I will go into detail around our S/4HANA education deliverable and training programs for someone that's already experienced within SAP ECC, and what is required for them to move to S/4HANA. Also how to find the training that you need to meet and achieve your goals. And then there will be time for question and answers.
I do want to say, if you have a question at the time that I am speaking, please go ahead and put that in the chat and Michelle will be monitoring that chat box. And then we will ask the question. Don't feel that you need to wait until the end, just pop your question in the chat box and we'll address them as we go. And then lastly, I will go over an appendix where I have detailed some learning journeys and course offerings for the various lines of businesses within SAP S/4HANA.
So we're going to start with the introduction and overview. So within S/4HANA, what we have espoused is a blended learning model. And we do this because we understand that when companies used to implement SAP ECC, they often would spend 20 plus days worth of training. And we know now that companies don't have as much time to dedicate to training, and specifically an S/4HANA implementation is much faster moving than a traditional ECC implementation. So we've devised this blended learning model where we combine instructor led training along with some self-paced learning. And there are various options to get training around S/4HANA. We have our open SAP courses, which I liken to kind of overviews. So these are your springboard platform to jump and start off your learnings.
We have our instructor led training, which can be delivered onsite at their location. It can also be virtual live class, which you would attend in the model similar to what we're doing today with this webinar. It's conducted in real time, you are on camera, and those classes are scheduled on certain dates. And then we also have customer specific training where we bring the instructor onsite to you. And typically this is feasible if you have more than five or so people that require that training. And the great part about customer specific training is that we are able to modify and tailor the standard training classes to suit your needs.
We also have the SAP Learning Hub and Live Access, and I'll go into more detail about that later, but that is an online repository of all of our educational content, including e-books, e-learning classes, early knowledge product information, learning rooms, which are expert in subject matter led and more of a collaborative forum. And then we also have Live Access, which has access to an SAP training environment so that you can conduct hands-on exercises to go along with the content that you're receiving within the Learning Hub.
We have learning journeys, which are visual curriculum maps that show you what the recommended training are for various areas and curriculum and certain roles. And then full prove that you're fully proficient, we have our SAP global certifications where you would take an assessment and be tested upon your SAP knowledge in a specific area. And if you are successful, you receive a digital badge to prove that you are SAP certified.
So those learning options I spoke to briefly before. We have instructor led training, and this can be consumed in various types of deliverables. So we have standard content in our public classroom. Which means that you, the student, would go to an actual physical classroom and you would sit with an instructor and other students to learn SAP content in a specific area. Now, this is delivered by certified instructors for whatever their topic is of the class. Those classes consist of a mixture of lecture, demo, and hands-on exercises. And you're actually doing those exercises in an SAP standard training environment. The exercises build upon each other. So if it's, say, a three-day class, you will start exercises on the first class and then build upon those exercises in this hands-on system, through the conclusion of the class. The content is standard content that has been created based on SAP best practices.
We also have virtual class. We realized that some companies don't have budget to send people to a physical classroom. So we offer that same exact content in an innovative platform called the SAP live class. Basically a person would take that class from their own home or office. It is on certain dates and times, so they would need to be logged on to the system at that time. They are on video, so it's not as though you can be responding to email and doing other activities. The instructor does require you to be fully engaged, as it is the same content if you were sitting in a classroom. So you need to pay attention and do the exercises, that way you're receiving the full benefit of the class, start to finish.
Oftentimes customers will bring an instructor onsite to them. And the benefit of customer specific training is that we are able to tailor the content in the standard class to suit your needs. So that way you're getting only the training you need, and oftentimes we can actually add in additional training if it's not included in the standard class. We can actually deliver this customer specific training onsite at the customer location. We can also conduct it at an ExitCertified facility, or we could do a hybrid approach. So say you have ten people in one location, but five in another. So we can bring the instructors to the location where you have the ten students, but also remote connect in the other five attendees through the SAP live class feature. That way everyone's learning at the same time and is receiving all the same baseline foundational information, so that everyone is starting off on the same foot to move forward within the project.
So we also have in this blended learning model, self-paced learning that goes along with our instructor led training. And the SAP Learning Hub allows you the flexibility to learn at your own time and also to collaborate with others. So, as I said previously, the Learning Hub is an online repository of all of our SAP content. And that includes e-books, over 4,000 courses of e-books, which are course manuals. E-learning classes, which are self-paced training courses based on work simulations and knowledge checks. We have the learning rooms, where you learn collaboratively with other customers. We have over 65 learning rooms. So for example, there would be an S/4HANA finance learning room that an instructor and subject matter expert lead. They could conduct webinars in there, they could make various recommendations as to training, talk about new innovations within the product. And also there is a forum that you can post questions and they can either be answered from the experts or from other members of that learning group, and it's a great collaborative forum for you to learn not only from the experts, but from others who were in similar projects.
There's also an optional add on to the Learning Hub called the Live Access. And as I said, that's access to the actual training system, and that allows one to conduct the exercises. If they downloaded an e-book, they can conduct the exercises through the Live Access system, in that SAP training environment. With the Learning Hub we also have private versions, which allows learning management capabilities. And that can also provide you with some reporting functionality. But the Learning Hub will also allow you to manage all your information, your learning history and certifications, in one primary location. And again, the Learning Hub, because it is web-based, it allows you options to learning at any time and for many locations.
As I said earlier, the learning journeys are a visual curriculum map of courses that are recommended for a specific role in a specific area. And really, if someone kind of doesn't know where to start, the learning journeys are a great starting point to show you all the recommended training that we offer for a various curriculum. So for example, for S/4HANA supply chain, or S/4HANA financial accounting, you would simply go to the SAP help portal, or if you have a Learning Hub subscription within the SAP Learning Hub, and you can find and download the learning journey that show you, what are your getting started courses? How do you ... Whether the exact overview courses, how to become competent and fully proficient, and then how do you stay current? And the great thing about the learning journeys is that in each curriculum box, the details of specific class, you can click on that box and it will provide you with details as to how you can consume that course. Whether it's an instructor led class, whether there's an e-book, if there's an e-learning option, or a video.
So let's talk about SAP S/4HANA education in more detail. So one of the focuses of today's webinar is for customers who are experienced in ECC and are moving to S/4. And because S/4HANA is such a huge initiative, and many, many customers are moving to S/4HANA, what we have done here within SAP education is create delta training. And for those of you unfamiliar with what delta training may be, that is where we are simply addressing the differences between how something looks and interacts within ECC and how it would interact within S/4HANA.
So if you just need a simple overview within SAP S/4HANA, the delta class, here I have an example listed, is the S4H01. And that course will provide you with a general overview on the differences between ERP ECC and S/4HANA. And this really is kind of a launch, a starting point to go into more detailed delta training for various lines of business. And it could also just be an overview for anyone who needs to understand the big picture of the differences that come along with moving to SAP S/4HANA.
We also have delta training on our various LoB, and I will go over that more so in the appendix at the end of the webinar. But for example, we have delta trainings as it relates to procurement, financial accounting, management accounting, enterprise asset management, sales and distribution. So we've created all these delta trainings because we understand that the customer ... Many customers are highly experienced in ECC ERP, and there no need for them to spend five days to just learn the differences. So we've developed these courses to just address those differences to provide one with the knowledge on the new functionalities.
So how to find the training you need and to achieve your goals. When you're moving from ECC to S/4, many customers often will focus on certain lines of business. So a team may say, "Okay, we want everyone to take the overview course," but then each person will go and look at those deltas within the business processes for the various LoB. The learning journeys will help you explore what the options are for the delta training, and also new trainings that come along with S/4. So while we do have the delta classes, we also have new training developed simply for S/4 that even an experienced ECC person would not know. So we would have that in the learning journey, along with the delta classes.
You would also need to determine how you want to learn and consume this information. Do you want to sit with an instructor in a public classroom? Do you have a large team who needs to be enabled and upskilled? Do we need to bring an instructor on site? Or do you want to learn for the SAP Learning Hub? What you can do is contact ExitCertified and they can provide you with the various enrollment information and also go forward through next steps.
So how to explore your course options. As we talked about earlier, we have the learning journeys, which are those visual curriculum maps. And that you can, again, access through the SAP help portal, or you can also access it through the SAP Learning Hub if you have a Learning Hub subscription. And don't worry, everything is hyperlinked in this presentation, I know Michelle said that you will be sent the slides following the class where everything is hyperlinked, and you can simply click on those links and it will take you directly to help portal. So you can view all the learning journeys. One keynote or hint that I would like to provide you, if you're looking simply for delta classes within the learning journeys, the word upskilling, again, that word is upskilling, is what you can type in and it will bring you exactly to those learning journeys that will address simply the deltas and new functionality. If you're moving from ECC to S/4.
Also through the training website. So you can find all of our course options by looking on the ExitCertified website or on the SAP website, and then you can register through ExitCertified for those classes. And within the website, everything's broken out by curriculum. So for example, if you were to look on financial accounting, you will see that there are options for ECC and then S/4 HANA. But within the website, you can download course indexes that will provide you with a deeper dive information as to what's covered in each class. And there will always be a course description on the web shop to show you what is covered in each course.
So here is just kind of a picture to show you when you search for a class. So say you were searching for a HANA introduction class. The results will display, and you can click on the hyperlinks or click on the sections to view the current schedule and upcoming sessions. And then on the left there will be filters. And you can filter by a training path, which are essentially simplified versions of the learning journeys that list all the courses within your specific area of interest.
Again, to go back to the learning journeys, those are the visual representations of recommended courses within a various solution. The great thing about the learning journeys is that you can focus on a certain role, so you can focus on an admin role, or you can focus on a consultant role. And they will include links to additional resources such as videos and tutorials, blogs, open SAP courses. But these learning scenarios, again, will provide you kind of start to finish from overview until becoming fully proficient how to become completely enabled and upskilled in a certain area. And then we'll also provide you how to expand your skills.
Again, the great thing with moving to S/4 HANA is that we offer a blended learning model. So when speaking with someone from ExitCertified, be cognizant and perhaps look at the learning journeys, or have them help you through those learning journeys so you can identify which classes you perhaps want to take in person, whether publicly or through virtual live class. Perhaps, I will say for onsite training, many of our customers moving to S/4 HANA, those core business processes deltas are what we are delivering onsite to the customer.
So with the blended learning model, for example, we've had several large customers who are using the SAP Learning Hub to have their team take some overview training via the hub, because they're already experienced SAP users. They can digest that information and understand it. And then we're bringing an instructor on site, or they're taking public classroom training to address the deltas within the business processes. And therefore making sure the team, regardless of how long they've been SAP users, has the same understanding of the deltas and the differences and how S/4HANA is going to look and feel in their new world. A digital transformation can be very fast moving, so obviously the importance of educating the team will not only ensure a successful product, but also ensure adoption of the product once you move forward, obviously you want to see that return on your investment and there's no greater investment than you can make to ensure that than education and enablement.
So again, I just sort of speak a little more in depth to the SAP Learning Hub. Many of you, if you're experienced SAP users and have been doing this for several years, maybe use the classroom training. The SAP Learning Hub was created after getting several requests for our customers to have an online repository of all of our educational content. When you're moving from ECC to S/4, you are kind of already halfway there with your SAP knowledge. So we know it does not make sense for you to spend a lot of time in a classroom. There are certain topics that definitely instructor led training is required and necessary, but as you move forward, sometimes you just want on demand access to training and information. And you may not need a whole class, you just may need certain bits and pieces of a class. You may need that information.
So the Learning Hub allows you the flexibility and the on demand access at the time of need. Again, we have over 4,000 pieces of educational content in various languages. So one of the things that you should know within the Learning Hub is we have over a dozen languages that are represented within there. And that's, as far as our e-books, our e-learning content, early knowledge product information ... Just the learning rooms alone, which allow you to interact with your peers and SAP experts, has really been a key component of the SAP Learning Hub that our customers seem to truly value. There is nothing like talking to other people who were in the same type of project.
And oftentimes some people just learn differently. So you can read something, you can go into the Live Access system, but sometimes it's just ... It's nice to have someone else within one of our 65 plus learning rooms to just say, "Hey, this is the issue I'm experiencing. Has anyone had a similar issue?" Or, "This is what perhaps I want to do, does anyone have experience with this?" So just the collaborative nature of the learning room really lends itself to an overall positive learning experience. And again, Live Access is key and critical for success in truly adopting, and enabling, and upskilling yourself.
So when you're moving from ECC to S/4, if any of you have made that leap yet, you'll know just the user interface of S/4 is significantly different than what it looks like an ECC. So visually it's a huge change right from the onset. So working with Live Access and working in the system kind of gives you a headstart and will give you information critical to help you make informed decisions and provide information if you're undergoing an S/4 transformation. Even if you have an SI who is doing that project for you, as the customer you're still ... That SI is going to roll up that project and you are going to be tasked with supporting and maintaining the system. So enablement is key and the SAP Learning Hub will give you that access, that on demand access throughout the duration of your project to provide you with time of need help.
So how do you register for training or speak to an advisor? So you can register for your courses directly through the ExitCertified website, and you can purchase the various solutions for Learning Hub and Live Access through Enable Now. And if you need a key point of contact you can contact Dan Smith, and his email is listed here on the slide, and you can speak with him if you have any questions as to course recommendations. Or perhaps if you don't see a class listed, you can speak with Dan and he can work with us. Okay. So question and answer time, I guess I'll just pause briefly before I jump ahead into the appendices and go over some of the trainings that we offer for the various LoB. So Michelle, were there any questions in chat?
No questions came up actually, but a great opportunity for anyone that might have been sitting on a question, feel free to put it in the chat window or in the Q&A box. Here we go. What is the cost of subscription to the Learning Hub?
So the cost, and Dan, I would defer that to him. So in the links here within the presentation that the Learning Hub is a tiered pricing model. So the more licenses you buy, the less you pay per license. But what we can do is following the call, perhaps Dan, or Nori, or Michelle, one of you can jump on with the price here that you charge for the SAP Learning Hub. But again, really it's contingent whether it's a single user or whether you have a team, because the more licenses you buy, as I said, it is a tiered pricing model. The more you buy, the less expensive each license is.
And since the conversation of costs came up, I was going to save this to the end, but we are actually offering a promo right now on all SAP Learning Hub subscriptions. So we're offering 10% off, and I'll post that information in the chat for everyone now. (silence)
Okay. So I'm just going to move ahead to the learning journeys. Please feel free to post questions in chat and we can address them again. But one of the things that I put together in this presentation are the various learning journeys for the different LoBs and available courses. So just to start, we're going to look at sales. So if you're in a sales and distribution world, what I've done is listed courses for someone new. So if you are new to SAP S/4 HANA, and if you ... When I say new, you are brand new that you're not upgrading from SAP ECC. So I've listed here are the core courses that are recommended for someone in sales and distribution. And then I've also said, "But hey, if you're experienced with SAP ERP ECC, you just really need to focus on these courses here." And then I've also linked learning journey for the S/4 HANA sales and distribution. So we spoke in detail about the learning journey. So I just listed ... Hyperlinked it directly here so you can access them upon receipt of this presentation.
Same thing with procurement, I've broken out the courses for someone who's completely new to SAP, versus the two classes if someone just needs upskilling between ECC and S/4. And just to quickly go through these, I also have this broken out for manufacturing, asset management, research and development engineering. Further courses and academies, which are basically where they consolidate all the classes typically into a condensed training academy. Here we have for financial accounting. And you'll see, this takes up a couple of slides because we actually have a lot of courses within S/4 for financial accounting and management accounting. And then I've also listed the academy for FINCO co within S/4. Also we have a whole new curriculum on treasury and cash management. And then Michelle, I'll turn this back to you.
Awesome. Thank you so much, Kristen, for that valuable information. And as I already mentioned, a special thanks to everyone for attending. We're offering a 10% saving on all SAP Learning Hubs subscriptions using that promo code in the chat window, I'll posted there again, just for quick and easy reference. So to save that 10%, you do need to register for a course ... Or for the learning subscription by July 1st, so it is a opportunity that you will want to jump on now. As another reminder, we will be sharing a recording of this session with everyone here today, including all of the slides. So you will all receive all of that by the end of the week. And Kristen, there's actually a few questions appearing in the Q&A window.
Okay.
So let's see here. Are you able to see that Q&A box?
It was just there and it's just ... Let me ... Now, oh, here we go. No. Can you just ... Can you read me the questions? I apologize.
Absolutely. So, first one, in order to learn SAP S/4 HANA, is it mandatory to know SAP ECC as well?
Absolutely not. We have customers who have never been an SAP customer that are now purchasing SAP S/4 HANA. So one of the things that I, just to show you, if you've purchased as S/4 HANA and you have never been an SAP customer in the past, you had zero SAP experience, we have courses developed for you for someone who is completely net new, not just to S/4 HANA, but to the SAP realm. So you do not have to be an existing SAP ECC customer to move to S/4 HANA. We have actually, with the success that S/4 HANA has brought to many customers lately, we actually have a lot of large companies who are now moving to SAP for the first time, simply to take advantage of the benefits of S/4 HANA. So prior SAP platform experience is necessary.
Awesome. Another one here for you, is the Learning Hub relatable to a government environment?
So while we cannot integrate the Learning Hub into your LMS, there can be reporting functionalities that I can say that we have several government entities that are using the Learning Hub, both federal and state.
Thank you. And is there any component that addresses HR?
Yeah, so really, many of the customers that move to S/4 are using success factor. So we have a whole success factor suite as it relates to HR. And we also have some HR classes. But I would say for HR, most customers within S/4 are using success factors as their HR component.
Thank you. And not sure if we can answer this one, but generally what is the duration and cost of instructor led delta courses?
So I can ... So as far as the costs, again, I would have to defer to my ExitCertified members on the call here for costs discussion. But for the duration, typically our delta classes are anywhere from one to two days. We may have a handful that are three days, but typically the delta classes are only one to two days in length. So if you are used to taking SAP training and SAP ECC, say business processes and financial accounting class, maybe is five days. Whereas the delta class, if you're moving from ECC to S/4 would only be two to three days.
My colleague is checking on the pricing, so I might be able to get back to everyone with that and I'll post that in the chat. Another question here, how is the demand for SAP professional globally?
I didn't know if you're referring to just SAP professionals in general, or for an SAP professional certification. I would say there was just a big news blurb that SAP is one of the highest ranked companies right now. If you think of any large customer, or any large company, or governmental entities, most of them are running SAP. So if your interest is to either become a consultant of some sort, or to perhaps work for a larger company, or governmental entity, or someone within regulated industries, and you're in the IT world, I would strongly suggest that you receive some SAP training because it's only a benefit to you.
It's more attractive to customers who run SAP to hire someone with SAP knowledge than it is to hire someone without it, and then have to train them from scratch. Whereas it's much easier to bring someone on that has experienced and just train them on how perhaps that customer has customized their SAP software. But I will say, just for example, if you look at the retail world, over 75% of the large retail customers out there are using SAP, they are running SAP. So it's definitely a skillset that there is a large demand for. Also, just due to attrition, and we are ... Obviously every year there's a lot of people that retire, but people are starting to retire earlier now and customers are now being faced with the challenge of many of their skilled workforce people are leaving and they need to replace them, they need to rebuild their centers of excellence, and they are looking for skilled SAP experienced people to take those positions.
Fantastic. And I did receive note back from my colleague regarding the cost of instructor led delta courses. It does depend on the number of students and would require a call with one of our reps for a private event class. I think I'm going to leave Dan Smith's information in the chat window right now. So if you do have any questions, you can reach out directly to Dan Smith. You'll see his email address in the chat window now.
Okay.
All right, everyone. Thank you so much. If you have any questions we do have some more time now, do feel free to post them in the chat or in the Q&A window. Thank you all for attending, and you will receive a copy of the presentation by the end of the week. (silence)