The implementation of new ERP systems or the adaptation of existing ERP systems is a central challenge for modern companies, which is also reflected in the development of relevant job advertisements. A specific analysis of relevant job advertisements in Austria shows a professionalisation in ERP selection, but also a shift towards employing such experts in the own company versus outsourcing this expertise. Job titles and job specific requirements (competences) mentioned in job advertisements in 2017 and 2019 show a respective development. But it also becomes visible that the labour market for relevant experts is marked by a high demand and insuficient supply, which implies that the more recent job advertisements are broader, showing a hope for somehow fitting candidates.
The implementation of new ERP systems or the adaptation of existing ERP systems through
extensions, releases and supplementary products is a central challenge for modern companies
[VH03]. This task is often outsourced to IT service providers, who are assumed to have
a good overview of the various ERP providers, their range of services and functions and
the possible interaction of diferent components. In some cases, however, this task is also
solved internally within the company. The challenge for people with this task is that they
can also oversee the further development of the ERP system and make further adjustments
[Te00]. Is the internal demand increasing? Or is the demand for personnel in this area due to
a growing market of IT service providers who support companies in ERP decision-making
[Pa20]? And how are job titles, competences and tasks in the field of ERP decision-making
developing ? And finally, how does the recent COVID crisis in t
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Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). 2
The concrete search for relevant advertised positions included the following search terms (as keywords in the full text of the advertisement):
An explicit naming of software-specific keywords has been omitted because it was feared that there would be too much distortion in the direction of these keywords. Nevertheless, specific software packages (e.g., SAP, MS Dynamics) were mentioned several times in the advertisements.
This first search resulted in 13,852 job advertisements in total, or 4,715 deduplicated job advertisements. Deduplication is done automatically, but if a job advertisement is online longer than 8 weeks, it is counted again. From these 4,715 job advertisements a total number of 486 highly relevant job advertisements for the area of ERP decision making / ERP implementation / ERP further development were selected manually by reading through all job advertisements (tasks mentioned, competences required, job environments described). From these 486 highly relevant job advertisements the 100 “oldest” ones (from November 2016 to September 2017) were selected as well as the 100 “youngest” ones (from June 2019 to November 2019) to see diferences in time. Results from this approach were published here last year [Hu20].
A revisited approach to recent job advertisements found 1,715 deduplicated job advertisements (out of a total of 4,928 job advertisements) for mid-December 2019 to mid-December 2020. This article reflects the updated results of last years analysis under the light of the recent labour market developments in Austria in times of COVID crisis. 3 3.1
The keyword search in Jobfeed delivered a total of 4,715 deduplicated job advertisements for the aforementioned three-year period (total: 13,852 job advertisements with multiple entries) in a first search in late 2019.
A second job advertisement analysis covered the period from mid-December 2019 to midDecember 2020, and resulted in 4,928 total job-ads with multiple entries, or – deduplicated Professionalisation in ERP Selection Revisited 3 – 1,715 relevant job-ads. The recent COVID crisis in the Austrian labour market showed a significant drop in the share of recruitment agencies compared to the years 2017 to 2019. Recruiting of highly qualified staf was outsourced to a much higher share before the crisis, now external costs are the first ones to be cut, resulting in a higher share of internalisation of recruiting activities.
A first analysis of the two datasets show slight shifts in the regional demand: Vienna
is the “hotspot” of demanding ERP relevant professionals, followed by the traditional
industrial provinces Upper Austria and Styria. Salzburg s
Province
Vienna Upper Austria
Styria Lower Austria
Salzburg Vorarlberg
Tyrol
Carinthia Burgenland
Total
Even when the regional analysis in the previous table shows only minor shifts in the regional
developments of ERP related job-advertisements, a closer look on some contents from
these job-ads does show some developments. Firstly, the search for highly qualified staf
seems to be intensified. In Vienna, where the demand for highly qualified staf was high
in the previous years relevant growth was only little. But in all other Austrian countries
the demand for
On closer inspection of the 4,715 extracted advertisements, it quickly becomes clear that only a small proportion of them actually address the intended job market for experts in ERP decision making / ERP implementation / ERP further development. In many cases, ERP specialists are sought without wanting to change the ERP system. For this reason, a manual analysis of the advertisements was carried out, from which 486 job advertisements were ifnally selected that meet the specific requirements mentioned above. From these 486 job advertisements, in turn, two random samples were drawn upon:
Sample 1: The chronologically oldest 100 matching job advertisements covering the period 25.11.2016 to 29.09.2017 (for the sake of simplicity, it is called “Advertisements 2017”).
Sample 2: The most recent 100 matching job advertisements covering the period 07.06.2019 to 20.11.2019 (for the sake of simplicity, it is called “Advertisements 2019”).
So, while the first 100 matching advertisements still required 308 calendar days, the period for the last 100 matching advertisements was only 166 calendar days. This can be seen as an indication of a more intensive personnel search in 2019 compared to 2017.
Professionalisation in ERP Selection Revisited 5
Sample 3: Was taken between 29.07.2020 and 16.12.2020 (“Advertisements 2020”),
which covers a period of 141 calendar days – another intensivation of searc
Although recruiting was internalised highly due to the recent COVID crisis in Austria, the need for highly qualified staf in ERP decision making is even higher than before. The COVID crisis resulted in a higher share of dislocated work, a specific challenge to IT systems and ERP systems especially. 3.3
The next step was to analyse the job titles used in the advertisements. As already mentioned, the female form was explicitly omitted in favour of simplicity of presentation. The following table shows a comparison of the terms used in 2017, 2019, and 2020. 2017 shows that there is a wider range of job titles used in the advertisements, e.g., business analyst, software developer, IT manager, or SAP consultant. The term consultant ERP systems has a comparatively low significance. Nevertheless, this latter term now seems to be gaining ground in the relevant job advertisements, because in 2019 the term consultant ERP systems will be the dominant job title in the relevant job advertisements, followed by business analyst, system administrator, IT manager, and analyst. The terms that have been summarized under “Unknown” are sometimes very flowery job titles of the companies themselves (e.g., “ERP Guru”) or they are very general terms without any concrete connection to the job description (e.g., “employee” or “division manager”). In 2020 this stronger commitment to relevant job titles prolonged, with a high share of strictly ERP-related job titles (Consultant ERP Systems, Developer ERP Integration, ERP Manager, SAP Consultant as four of the top-5 nominations). However, the terms have not been manipulated personally. Tab. 2: In advertisements most frequently requested job titles in comparison 2017, 2019, and 2020 (Top 10, Source: 3s based on Jobfeed-Analysis) 3.4
In 2017, the demand sector was dominated by IT services, followed by industry. In 2019,
the other sectors (trade, consulting, energy supply, general services, etc.) took the lead,
followed by IT services and industry. 2020 showed again a lower share of IT services. Last
years’ statement of an indication of the internalisation of the task bundle ERP decision
making / ERP implementation / ERP further development therefore can be underpinned
with recent data (see figure 1). However, a certain amount of caution was mentioned in
2019 to be exercised in this evaluation, as there was a high number of unknown clients for
advertisements due to the large number of advertisements placed by recruiters; in 2020 the
number of advertisements placed by recruiters only play a minor role, and the share of IT
services is again reduced.
In comparison, the qualification level mentioned in the relevant advertisements shows that
the demand in 2017 pointed even more decisively to university graduates. However, the
demand pressure has increased in 2019, as indicated by the category “university or college”
in the demand for qualifications. In 2017, this still played virtually no role. An analysis of job
advertisements in recent years clearly indicates that qualification requirements are expanded
as demand pressure increases (this usually refers to an explicit shortage of skilled labour).
In general, the relevant positions are mainly aimed at university graduates and to a lesser
extent college graduates. College graduates, on the other hand, are mostly graduates from
Professionalisation in ERP Selection Revisited 7 qualification levels (colleges, college / other, and other levels; see figure 2 in the appendix). The qualification level in demand is still reflecting highly qualified staf, but especially the Austrian specific vocational pathways play a role in the industry sector. The following comparison shows the main competences and qualifications in demand, in relevant job advertisements. Whereas in 2017 relevant work experience was still top of the list, the increasing pressure of demand is also leading to a shift towards relevant training (“IT training” as a combined competence category). The advancement of the terms “ERP development and implementation” and “process management and process optimisation” seem to indicate a surge in professionalisation (analogous to the shift in occupational titles towards “consultant ERP systems”).
Recent results from 2020 show that the competences demand seem to reflect the need for
specific experience or specific qualifications. Even the expected demand for competences in
specific ERP software areas seems to be
The activity profile ERP decision / ERP introduction / ERP further development seems to have become increasingly professional in Austria in recent years. This is indicated by both the job titles used in relevant advertisements and the concepts of competence. In general, demand appears to have accelerated in recent years and the pressure on demand is likely to increase. Whether this development is driven by the economy can only be assumed in this
2017 N Competence 43 Professional (ERP) experience 40 IT education 32
Requirement analysis and management 31 IT project management context on the basis of the analysis of advertisements.
Looking at the income data contained in the advertisements, it must first be pointed out that these are dificult to capture analytically. The income details vary greatly, a minimum income is frequently mentioned, monthly income was standardised to an annual income with a factor of 14, and missing values (approx. 20%) were not taken into account. The income ifgures rose from 2017 to 2019 with an average value of EUR 46,931 to EUR 47,238, an increase of only 0.65%. These figures do of course not reflect the reality in income chances for relevant staf, as income possibilities in job-advertisements reflect two aspects: The legal necessity of stating a minimum income for the ofered job on the one hand, and the strategic information from employers in job-ads as starting point for payment negotiations between employer and possible employees. Despite the obvious pressure on demand and the shortage of skilled workers, companies are still reluctant to disclose “real” earnings ifgures when recruiting staf.
In the light of the increasing demand for relevant staf in the still speeding up labour market recent job advertisements show an increase of the average income possibilities up to EUR 49,951 (or plus 5,74% compared to 2019). Again, this comparison shows a challenging labour market situation in the field of ERP decision making / ERP implementation / ERP further development in the recent COVID crisis influenced Austrian labour market. Challenging for recruiters, as still the recruitment process for qualified staf in this area is not an easy task, even as recruiting agencies can help less as external costs are reduced significantly. But it is also challenging for relevant staf seeking for jobs as their ability to fulfill the specific requirements may be dificult. Even as companies are reducing their demand for relevant experience, relevant qualifications and specific ERP competences, the individual demand shows a quite high diferentiation.
In fact and unchanged to last years’ final results, the analysis of job titles in job ads is quite tricky. Job titles and descriptions are created daily and often by marketing employees so that diferent job titles may have the same requirements for education and experience. So
Professionalisation in ERP Selection Revisited 9 the analysis of job titles has to be done including the respective description of required competences. The combined analysis allows a careful statement as done in this article, but still leaves many questions open. 5
Last year was quite challenging for the whole Austrian labour market. After some flourishing
years with low unemployment rates, in June (at the peak of the COVID crisis), around 1,3
million Austrian workers were unemployed or in so-called short-work (“Kurzarbeit”), a
specific funding programme to companies to pay between 80 to 90% of income for working
hours reduced to a minimum of 10% (in the hope to reduce unemployment). But still,
unemployment rates are as high as not known for the last 50 years in Austria. [AMS20]
In these challenging environment the labour market for ERP decision making / ERP
implementation / ERP further development shows still a high demand from employers, even
when the situation also for job-seekers is not always easy. The days to see 100 relevant
job advertisements are less t
After last years article [Hu20] questioning the ongoing development, now we can state that the recruiting of relevant staf is internalised, and is focussing even more on relevant experience and qualifications and specific competences in ERP fields. The most relevant external efect is the need to provide dislocated work and dislocated connections to ERP to continue companies’ development in times of crisis and so-called “lockdowns”. Digitalisation therefore experienced a boost, which is also reflected in the job advertisement development, showing a quite diferent trend than most labour market sectors. Maybe this boost was necessary in the COVID crisis to help companies to survive, and we may see a reduced labour market demand in relevant fields in the next years, but this remains a hypothesis to be discussed in one or two years.
To get insight in the job market for ERP decision makers in the future, further analysis of
job ads may be required using the same set of key words or a slightly changing set of key
word as the wording in job ads may change also. Therefore, a direct comparison of diferent
sets of job ads (dependent on the timing of the analyses) are to be made very carefully and
with good understanding of job market changes in the field of ERP decision making – and
even then observed changes have to be analysed carefully to exclude random results. The
labour market experienced a massive c