The shortage of SAP skills—both from a technical and a business perspective—is now being highlighted as one of the biggest risks to companies’ digital transformation. As more and more organizations move toward SAP S/4HANA, cloud-based platforms, and data-driven management, the need for internal expertise increases. Implema is now launching SAP Academy together with New Minds to help strengthen companies’ long-term talent supply. Here, Erik Glasmästar, Partner at Implema, talks about the initiative.
Hi Erik Glasmästar—what’s the background to the collaboration with New Minds?
We see that many companies are currently in the middle of major change, not least related to the move to SAP S/4HANA, new cloud-based data platforms, and growing demands for real-time insights and AI. SAP is often both the heart and the brain of an organization.
At the same time, a lack of internal expertise on the customer side is increasingly being highlighted as one of the biggest challenges in these projects. It’s not just about finding the right skills at the outset, but about having the ability to build, further develop, and manage the solutions over time. That’s the context in which the collaboration with New Minds has emerged.
What are you doing together in concrete terms?
At the core of the collaboration is SAP Academy, a talent program where newly graduated engineers and business graduates develop through training, mentorship, and work on real projects at partner companies.
The program runs for one year. From day one, participants take on assignments at companies while also taking part in a structured training and mentorship program in parallel. What makes the model especially strong is the link to real, hands-on work—participants contribute early on to companies’ ongoing projects.
New Minds is responsible for identifying, recruiting, and developing the talents through its Academy model, while we at Implema contribute training, mentorship, and insights from our many years of running SAP projects.
It creates a clear link between how talent is developed and how skills are actually applied in practice—at the intersection of technology, process, and business.
What does this mean for companies?
Talent supply is now a strategic issue for many companies, and finding the right SAP skills is often a clear bottleneck.
With this model, companies can bring in and develop new skills in parallel with their change initiatives—whether that’s SAP S/4HANA, data platforms, or broader digitalization.
Why is Implema doing this—and why together with New Minds?
For us, this is about both our customers’ needs here and now and a more long-term responsibility to the industry.
In our projects, we see every day how companies invest in new systems and platforms, but often lack the internal capability to run and further develop them. We want to help address that—not only through our own deliveries, but also by strengthening our customers’ capabilities over the long term.
At the same time, there’s a bigger perspective. If we as an industry don’t actively help develop new talent, the skills gap will continue to grow.
When it comes to New Minds, we complement each other very well. They have a proven model for identifying and developing young talent, while we contribute experience from complex SAP transformations and how skills are actually used in practice.
Together, we can create a model that’s both relevant for individuals and directly value-creating for companies.
Who are you targeting—both among companies and participants?
We’re targeting companies that are facing—or are in the middle of—major changes to their SAP ERP systems and data platforms and that recognize internal expertise as a critical success factor. In practice, any organization that needs to strengthen its internal SAP capabilities. The target group therefore ranges from large industrial companies to pure startups.
The program itself is aimed at newly graduated engineers, business graduates, and junior IT talent who want to work close to the business and grow within SAP ERP, data, and digital transformation.
So it’s about meeting two needs at the same time: companies’ need for skills and individuals’ desire to develop quickly in a relevant, in-demand role.
You also highlight a broader responsibility for the industry—what do you mean by that?
There is a clear gap today between the skills that are in demand and what’s available. If we as an industry don’t actively contribute to developing new talent, the skills shortage risks becoming a real brake on many companies’ transformations.
That’s why we see initiatives like this as a way to support our customers here and now, while also helping strengthen the entire ecosystem around SAP, data, and digital development.
Finally, what do you hope the collaboration will lead to going forward?
Our ambition is to help more companies succeed with their transformations while also helping develop the next generation of specialists. Now we’re taking it one step further together with New Minds, our customers, and a selected group of young talents.
Hopefully, this is the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership.
Read the previous press release here: PRESS RELEASE: Implema and New Minds launch SAP Academy – to address the growing skills shortage among companies – Implema
