MAKATI City, Philippines -- In three years, at least two multinational companies setting up operations in the country will require 6,000 to 8,000 business software, consultants industry and SAP executives said.

"We have about 900 certified consultants in the Philippines but most of them – around 50 to 60 percent – are deployed overseas," Jennifer Ligones, country manager of SAP Philippines, said, as she admitted that there are only a few qualified SAP consultants left to manage about 350 customers of the German business software company in the
country.

More multinational companies now see the Philippines as a breeding ground for SAP business software competency next to India, Ligones said.

With that, SAP Philippines and partners involved in the implementation of SAP's business software solutions have come together to find ways to solve this brain drain. As more software consultants choose to migrate to markets that pay better, Ligones admitted that "poaching" has remained a headache for many of its clients and SAP Philippines.

Faced with these facts, SAP and at least three companies have agreed to open an eAcademy center that will offer online training to anyone wanting to become an SAP business software consultant.

The program will be offered through selected centers in Makati, Quezon City, Ortigas, and Taguig, and soon Alabang, Cebu City, and Davao, SAP executives said.

"We've been longing for this program. This will eventually support the whole business process outsourcing industry that are providing SAP application support services," said Dante Briones, president of Bayantrade, which is one of the three SAP Philippines partner implementing the program.

"We cannot morally stop these consultants from going abroad. So what we did was set up offices abroad to 'poach' our own people. So this presented an opportunity for us to expand overseas," Briones said.

Ligones said that "it is crucial to keep up with the demand and the pressure to provide enough consultants to local clients." One of the stumbling blocks is the cost of getting training and certification to become an SAP consultant, she said.

Classroom-based training currently costs around P290,000 to P450,000, Man Mohan Kapur, SAP director of education services for Southeast Asia. But the e-learning program, which was put together by SAP recently, will cost about P144,000 to P203,000 or about 40 percent less than the traditional, classroom-based training program.

The e-learning program, however, will be run in centers to allow SAP to protect its intellectual property. Thus partners will need to invest in infrastructure to host content and the modules for the training, Kapur said.

The online training program will run for a total of 250 hours that can be spread through five months.

Pilot programs conducted by SAP Philippines showed 80 percent passing rate. Classroom-based training has about 60 to 70 percent average passing rate, Kapur said.

Apart from the Philippines, SAP has also implemented the same program in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, the executive added.

The other local partners include Kaisa Consulting and Global Ideology Corporation.

Andrew Javellana, an SAP consultant, said the e-learning program proved more effective than self-study, which he did before to become a certified consultant.