SAP AG is a leading Information Technology firm specializing inEnterprise Resource Planning and is
headquartered in Waldorf, Germany. The company was founded as Systemanalyse und
Programmentwicklung by five former IBM employees, but later on changed its name to Systeme,
Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung meaning Systems, Applications and Products in
Data Processing.

The first and foremost product of the company is SAP, an ERP package. Initially released as SAP/R1 in
1972, it was upgraded to SAP/R2 in 1979. The latest version or release 3 is known as SAP/R3 came to
being in 1992 and marked the change from Mainframe centric computing to the Client Server mode. Today
SAP is used by organizations across the globe to streamline their businesses and qualified SAP
professionals are in high demand. The following sections give a brief idea about all that is needed to
become a SAP Certified Pro!

Though there are numerous institutions claiming to be authorized SAP training centers, the only authorized and genuine SAP Training partners in India are Siemens Information Systems Ltd (SISL) and Genovate. The mushrooming training centers offer SAP training at a lower cost but more often than not, the SAP package used will be unlicensed, worse pirated! Recently SAP did a crackdown on training centers using illegal SAP package to impart training in Delhi, Kolkata and other places, so beware!! SISL and Genovate are present in all the Metros in our country and some other major cities across many states.

Eligibility
SAP for Freshers: Freshers can be fresh graduates or people with some work experience but who are new
to SAP. Provided they have a flair for learning new things and some programming and database skills
they can go for SAP ABAP which involves either of the two: Development or Deployment. If you are good
at Java and a Hardcore code machine then try SAP XI.
If you do NOT have the programming skill set you can go for SAP BASIS which primarily involves
Administration of user accounts and access privileges.

SAP for Experienced: By experience I mean people who have Domain knowledge, for example people
who have worked on Supply Chain Management, Order Management, Finance and Accounting or Human
Resources for at least 5 years, may give a try to appear for am authorized course of training and
certification to enhance their career path. If you are NOT a technical person then you ought to have
experience in any of the domains mentioned above, other than this there is no alternative to be SAP Certified!

Fees and Duration
SAP Certified courses offered by either SISL or Genovate are of 5 week duration. It is a full time course,
with standard timings of 9 AM to 6 PM. The 25 day programs end with the Certification on the last day.
The fee for a 25 day course is Rs. 2,50,000 and with taxes it becomes Rs. 2,80,900 (@ 12.36% Service
Tax) and the Certification fees are Rs. 25,000 and with taxes it is Rs. 28,090. So in all one has to have a
sum of Rs. 3,08,990 ready to get into the course. For SAP BASIS, one has to clear two certifications, so
there is an additional Rs. 28,090 added to the above sum; so the total cost of a SAP BASIS training and
certification program is Rs. 3,37,080.
For securing admission into a course, one has to pay an amount of Rs. 25,000 before 6 weeks. This
amount would be deducted from the final course fees. SISL has tie ups withHDFC Bank and Bank of India
through which aspirants can get an Educational Loan to pursue the course. HDFC bank offers the loan to
cover the entire course fees, certification fees (including Service Taxes) at a healthy rate of 13%. Standard
terms and conditions apply such as: a co applicant in case of fresh candidates (or employed aspirants,
who would quit their current job to pursue the course), a period of 6 months after the curse as a Repayment Holiday (Moratorium). Further, employed aspirants can do away with the clause for co-applicant, if they can obtain a months leave from work and provide a satisfactory evidence for the same.

For more information visit the following site:
Catalog: http://www.sap.com/services/education/catalog/index.epx
Addresses: http://www.sap.com/asia/services/education/centres/partners.epx
SAP website: www.sap.com