EXPERT RESPONSE
This is a very valid question, and you are totally correct. I did a podcast interview with Daniel Lubin of Abiomed that you can find on this web site, and in that podcast Daniel said that the areas where they had invested in quality documentation (which goes right along with good training), had the most success.
It's a real head-scratcher why companies aren't more willing to invest in training given that there is a broad consensus that training positively impacts your SAP installation. We also see that SAP trainers, in general, are paid significantly lower than functional counterparts. I'm not sure why companies don't invest in more and better SAP training across the board. There are certainly some mature SAP customers that do invest heavily in training because they have learned the importance of training the hard way, but these companies are still the exception, not the rule.
I'm glad you posted this question, I hope more folks read it and realize that training is important, but I hope that consultants make a point not to specialize only in training. It's good to have training as part of your skill set, but focusing on training as your core skill is problematic given that companies don't invest in that area as much as they should.
Finally, in terms of answering the question as to why companies don't invest more in SAP training, especially in the face of so much evidence of the impact it can have, I can only guess. My best guess is that this reflects a general bias towards "hard skills" over "soft skills". I know it's an awkward analogy, but there's this feeling that proven technical skills carry more weight than relationship-oriented skills that are "softer" and harder to define.
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