SAP Goes Social For Talent

Around May of 2008, SAP went on record to say that it anticipated a global shortage of 30,000 - 50,000 skilled SAP professionals in the years ahead. AMR analyst Bruce Richardson put this number closer to 70,000. So what is SAP doing to ameliorate this shortage? For starters, collaborating with LinkedIn, the 44-million-member social networking website for business professionals.

Several months after SAP publicly acknowledged the pending shortage of skilled SAP professionals, SAP Ventures, a division of SAP AG, invested in LinkedIn.

Read LinkedIn press release: LinkedIn Raises $22.7 Million

SAP’s August 13th announcement of a collaborative effort with LinkedIn to help SAP SME channel partners tap the deep LinkedIn SAP talent pool (approximately 140,000 SAP consultants) is the first fruit borne of this investment.

Read SAP press release: SAP Connects Midmarket Channel Partners to LinkedIn to Support Recruiting Efforts

SAP channel partners working with companies that have 1,000 or less employees can use the LinkedIn Recruiter Basic Starter Package to search through LinkedIn’s database of 140,000 SAP consultants for those SAP professionals with the specific experience and skill sets they require.

The Recruiter Basic Starter Package is available to anyone and starts at $25,000 per year for three seats.

According to LinkedIn, SAP is the first software company to collaborate with LinkedIn on a job-recruitment offering, and SAP is offering the package at a "discounted" rate to more than 4,000 of the company’s SME channel partners.

Read InformationWeek article: LinkedIn Tool Searches For SAP Talent

Read InternetNews.com article: SAP Cozies Up to LinkedIn to Push Channel Jobs

Read PCWorld article: SAP Offers LinkedIn Recruitment Tools to Channel Partners

No stranger to social media, SAP was named one of the top-10 global brands for engaging social media in the recent Wetpaint/Altimeter Group’s ENGAGEMENT db report.

Read Wetpaint/Altimeter Group’s report: ENGAGEMENT db – Ranking the Top 100 Brands

SAP has led the way among global brands in leveraging social media and Web 2.0 technology and tools to keep its ever-growing ecosystem of customers and partners up to date on the latest SAP product enhancement and on the cutting edge of innovation.

Read Optimal SAP Advisor article: SAP’s Web 2.0 Smarts – Part One: Tapping Collective Intelligence to Educate

Read Optimal SAP Advisor article: SAP’s Web 2.0 Smarts -- Part Two: Tapping Collective Intelligence to Innovate

Continuing to invest and expand its involvement in social media, SAP recently announced the launch of several new community network offerings as well as enhancements to its social media tools. To date, the SAP Community Network has more than 1.7 million global members.

Read SAP press release: SAP Launches New Social Media Tools For SAP Community Network

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