Is there consultant saturation in SAP Financials and Human Capital Management?

Is there consultant saturation in SAP Financials and Human Capital Management?

Is SAP FI/CO or HCM functional considered a long-term -- five to ten years -- career path? Is the job market already saturated with too many consultants in those areas? Your feedback would be highly appreciated.

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Market saturation is a very difficult question to answer when it comes to SAP consulting. That is because the future of SAP is dependent on a number of unpredictable factors. In terms of demand for consultants, it's not just a question of number of job openings, but the rates that are being paid for those openings. Assuming that the corporate economy continues to enjoy favorable growth, I would expect SAP to have a healthy ten years of growth ahead as well.

Both Financials and HCM look promising to me, as SAP has taken over "back office" functions in more and more companies. I guess I would have a slight preference for FI/CO, only because in the end, Financials feels a bit more strategic than HR -- though obviously there are aspects of HR that are strategic, such as workforce management. As long as there are large companies, there will be financials and HR software and consulting needs, so I feel pretty good about the outlook for both areas.

This was first published in September 2006