An encouraging update......
My partner (who handles the business end of the business) has done some calling to a few old friends he still has within the organization and the current IT manager (my partner used to be the financial controller for this particular place).
Apparently they are six months to a year from even making the official decision to go SAP, but there is no question what the decision will be. Once the decision is made, they are looking at probably four years of conversion. Their IT department is not going to be consumed by corporate.
Their IT manager was very interested in keeping us around should I learn SAP. The knowledge I have of their systems (crud, I've written 90% of what they use) is far more valuable than lots of experience with SAP, and even with my confiscatory rates, I am cheaper than hiring someone locally (primarily due to geography related higher pay requirements and benefits and employment taxes). My learning curve, after acquiring basic SAP knowledge, would be in conversion of the system over time. Of course, I have no idea what the platform requirements are for working with SAP locally.....something else I need to learn.
So....now I need to look into SAP training, the timing of when I need to do it, and what it will cost. The husband of the athletic department secretary where I coach works for SAP (or whatever the name of the company is that owns it), so I am going to contact him to assist in finding out such info.
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