The SAP® @ Georgia Southern Advantage
By successfully completing a program of study that included a minimum of three courses supported by SAP® ERP, the students pictured were presented with SAP® America certificates that reflect hands-on experience in SAP-approved courses. >> Return to SAP @ GSU >> SAP Approved Courses >> IS Minor with SAP Certificate >> SAP Success Stories >> Dr. M's SAP Index >> Learn more about SAP America >> Request your SAP Certificate |
What is SAP?
SAP AG is the largest software company headquartered in the EU (Waldorf, Germany) and is the third largest software enterprise in the world in terms of revenues. The company was founded in 1972 as Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung by five former IBM engineers. SAP's primary products focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which it helped to pioneer. ERP systems attempt to integrate several organizational data sources and processes into a unified system. The two key components of an ERP system are a common database and a modular software design. The common database allows every department in a company to store and retrieve information in real-time. An ERP’s modular software design enables a variety of programs to be added to improve the efficiency of the business. Ideally, ERP includes a single database that contains all data needed to support:
What are SAP's major products? SAP’s main product is SAP ERP. SAP R/3, SAP ERP’s predecessor hints at its functionality: the "R" stands for realtime, and the number 3 relates to a 3-tier architecture: database, application server and client (SAPgui). SAP ERP is one of five major enterprise applications in SAP's Business Suite. The other four applications are:
Other major SAP product offerings include: the NetWeaver platform, Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) solutions, Duet (joint offering with Microsoft), Performance Management solutions and RFID. While its original products were typically used by Fortune 500 companies, SAP is now also actively targeting small and medium sized enterprises (SME) with
What is the SAP University Alliance? The SAP University Alliance enables colleges and universities to access SAP products and solutions to use in their courses. This means that SAP UA institutions have the capability to enable students to gain hands-on experience with SAP products and solutions. This provides students with a realistic perspective on how SAP can help companies integrate their business processes. It also gives students skills to add immediate value to the marketplace. SAP University Alliances member schools gain access to the SAP Business Suite family of solutions, including SAP ERP. This comprehensive business software suite enables students to put classroom theory into practice through demonstrations, exercises and problem-solving, case studies, and research investigations. Through hands-on experience with SAP solutions, students at SAP UA schools gain insight into how SAP and other enterprise solutions can empower a business to optimize key processes such as accounting and controlling, human capital management, materials management, and sales and distribution. What are the requirements for a SAP Certificate at Georgia Southern University? Students can earn a SAP Certificate by completing three SAP-approved courses. To be approved by SAP, at least 30% of the course must involve hands-on experience with SAP. Currently, the Department of Information Systems offers five SAP-approved courses:
Why would I want a SAP Certificate? SAP uses the phrase "The best run companies run SAP" as a selling point. The truth underlying this phrase has resulted in SAP becoming the world’s largest business software company in terms of revenue’s. SAP is currently used by more than 35,000 companies and with new products targeting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), SAP’s customer base will eclipse 100,000 companies by 2010. This rapid growth has resulted in a shortage of SAP talent in the marketplace. Industry experts currently estimate a SAP talent shortage of 30,000 to 40,000 and The Gartner Group predicts that more than new 400,000 SAP-skilled employees will be needed by SAP user organizations between now and 2015. Georgia Southern University’s SAP Certificate signifies that you have completed at least three SAP-approved courses that include significant hands-on experience with SAP. A minimum of 30% of each SAP-approved course is devoted to in-depth exposure to SAP. This translates into developing skill sets that can give you a competitive advantage in the job market – including multiple career options in business and IT, more managerial opportunities, and higher salaries. Because individuals with SAP skills are highly sought after, they receive pay increases that outpace the market. Students who earn a SAP Certificate have the opportunity to gain first-hand experience with mySAP ERP navigation and SAP ERP’s Financial Accounting (FI), Controlling (CO), Materials Management (MM), and Sales & Distribution (SD) modules. They also have the opportunity to apply NetWeaver Business Intelligence (BI) to mine data in a SAP data warehouse (DW) that they created and/or to use SAP ERP’s Human Capital Management (HCM) module to set up and maintain organizational structures, personnel data, hiring processes, incentive wage and benefit structures, and payroll processes. Technically inclined students can also learn how to customize and extend SAP’s considerable capabilities using ABAP Workbench and the ABAP programming language. Universities that enable undergraduate students to gain comparable levels of hands-on SAP experience are few and far between. This means that GSU’s SAP Certificate has value and can give you a leg up when applying for jobs at SAP user organizations. Georgia Southern University’s SAP Certificate is being 'found' by more and more major corporations. Since 2007, BMW, Georgia Pacific, and Under Armour have come to campus to recruit SAP Certificate seeking students for internships, co-ops, and permanent employment. Georgia Southern students have also completed SAP internships at IBM, JCB, Shell, and ZEP. Coldwater Creek head-quartered in Boise, Idaho is also seeking to establish a partnership with Georgia Southern University. Who can earn a SAP Certificate? Since it is only necessary to complete three SAP-Approved courses to earn a SAP Certificate, one is within reach of both IS majors and IS minors. IS majors who want to graduate with a SAP Certificate typically choose to complete the Enterprise Resources Planning Emphasis. IS minors who are majoring in Accounting, Logistics, Finance, Management--Operations Management Emphasis or Management--Human Resource Management Emphasis often choose to earn a SAP Certificate in order to increase their chances of landing a job with SAP user organizations. IS minors who want a SAP Certificate typically take CISM 4334 - ERP Systems Using SAP, CISM 4237 - Decision Support Systems/Business Intelligence, and CISM 4434 - Enterprise System Configuration. Post-baccalaureate students can earn a SAP Certificate by completing the requirements for an IS minor. How can graduate students earn a SAP Certificate? The Department of Information Systems offers three graduate courses that includes hands-on experience with SAP and hopes to incorporate SAP into more graduate courses in the future.
These courses will be offered for the first time during the 2008-2009 Academic Year and SAP-approval is expected. These can be used to fulfill the requirements for the MBA IS Concentration, the Masters of Accounting, or the Master of Technology with IT Emphasis degrees. They are also accessible to non-degree graduate students. Both degree seeking and non-degree graduate students may take SAP-approved undergraduate courses to earn a SAP Certificate. |
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