New downloads on Blag Software

These last days I have been playing with Flex/AIR for a while and had released a couple of applications for Blag Software.

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Greetings,

Blag.

The Art of Programming Ruby

I just published my second book in English...

The Art of Programming Ruby

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Greetings,

Blag.

SAP...Marketing?

I had been thinking about this for a long time...But totally forgot to blog about it.

Why is wrong with SAP Marketing? A lot...

Have you take a look at SAP Ads? Do you know the guys and gals in those ads? Do they even look like Geek or Suits? Who's the guys sitting on the airport on SE80?

My point is...Let's say that SAP launches an Ad promoting Flash Islands...Would you buy it if the Ad shows a regular guy showing some nice Flex app...Or would you buy it if the Ad shows Mr. Thomas Jung doing some geeky coding? I would of course go for the latter. (I know that Flash Islands is not even sold...But I needed a good example).

So, why don't SAP start using SAP Mentors or other Community Members for it's Ads? It would make a lot of sense to me...Demo Jam poster got a great picture of the crowd (I was on the pic) because Demo Jam is oriented to the Community...That's true...But SAP products are oriented to Business...And Business are composed of Geeks and Suits...By showing familiar faces I'm sure they could make more impact.

Most companies do the same mistake...I saw an Ad of Lenovo I think, where a guy who look more suitable for a Lacoste Ad was standing in front of the laptop...Who's that guy? I don't know and I don't care...Put a pic of Why The Lucky Stiff instead of that guy...And hell I'm going to buy myself a new Lenovo...

Remember...Familiar faces make the Ads more likely...Why do you think that Fender or Tama uses know musicians of their Adds? Simple...Because people know them...If Fender or Tama uses my pic in a Ad...They going to bankruptcy...No musician knows me... -;)

Ok...After this line...And because I know my readers...This is not a "Please SAP, put me on an Ad"...This is a "SAP...Open your eyes and start using SDN/BPX people in your Ads!".

Greetings,

Blag.

My thoughts on SAP's Certification Policy

Today...I was reading my good friend Dennis Howlett's blog on ZDNet called The certification timebomb.

Suddenly...I realized that while I had share my thoughts on Twitter, SCN Blog and even on my Blagbert comics...I haven't actually blog about it...

Here are my thoughts...And even when I'm an SAP Mentor, take this comments from the perspective of a Senior ABAP Consultant and a SAP Customer.

I think that SAP's approach is not the best...They want to promote "Hire only Certified People"...I'm not Certified myself, but that's the main reason for me to be against this policy...I live in Perú, a South American country. Here, Certifications are very expensive and most of the time, Instructors are not even Certified, or not qualified (Experienced) enough to give a Certification course.

Most of my ABAPer friends aren't Certified either...They only get Certified when they turn to the Dark Side (Functional or Business Process)...Otherwise, we tend to be guided by experience.

My prediction is that if SAP successfully implement this policy, mainly only Certified people is going to be hired...Which means only 10% of the local ABAPers...That's not good, because that 10% are going to ask for more money claiming that they are better because they hold and SAP Certification...Then the other 90% is going to feel forced to get Certified, so eventually we're going to have 100% of Certified people...Things are going to get back to normal, because with kind of offer, prices are going to reach their normal peak...But as human beings are greedy, they're going to look for more Certifications...And it's going to be a war having people trying to get the most Certification they can...Prices are going to get higher, then lower...and so on...

Sure, you can tell me...If everybody got 2 or 3 Certifications, they're going to be great professionals and projects are going to be perform in less time and with less money...Well...I don't think it's true...People with more money are going to be able to get more Certifications...Cheats are going to become available...People with no field experience are going to flood the market and eventually chaos would arise.

Something similar happen some time ago with Visual Basic 6...There we a lot of jobs...A lot of opportunities...So everybody started to learn Visual Basic 6, get Microsoft Certifications...And suddenly, the market was so full of Visual Basic people, that right now, is one of the worst payed jobs here...I'm not saying that something as radical is going to happen with SAP's job, but it could happen.

I'm not a experience as Dennis when it comes to Business and IT...But I know my field, and my field is ABAP...I work with SAP customer everyday...And everyday I see more new ABAP consultants flooding the market...Sadly, not as experience as needed...But if they got enough money to pay a Certification...Are they going to take the jobs of the older ABAPers?

Dennis also talked about the "proposed" LinkedIn recommendations as a tool...While I love LinkedIn I have to agree with Dennis...Everyone could get nice Recommendations...So we could think about SAP's Special Recommendations?...I don't think it would do a big difference...I mean...I don't think companies are going to browse
LinkedIn searching for people who got nice SAP's Recommendations...

What I think, it's that SAP should extend a "Certified by Experience" (Actually I think we had already discuss it...Anyway)...SDN and BPX are the best places to find "Community Rock Stars"...So, they should get those Certifications based on Community activity, recommendations by other Rock Stars and so on...That would be something that could be put on a resume.

Please keep in mind that English is not my mother language...And sometimes I don't get all the information in the best way...Maybe I'm not seeing the bigger picture...Maybe I'm falling into some contradictions...But that's exactly why I named this post My thoughts on SAP's Certification Policy, because it's what I'm thinking right now as an individual.

Greetings,

Blag.