The SAP Business One talent shortage, from the desk that sees it daily
Right, so, the UK is short on SAP Business One people. Properly short. B1’s been our patch for over ten years, and I can’t think of a time when the jobs we were given so far outnumbered the people able to do them. Quarter after quarter it’s tipped further.
Why, though? Partners keep winning customers. Every move from SQL to HANA piles on extra project days. And the consultants? They take forever to grow. You want two, maybe three years on live projects before someone can run an implementation without a safety net, and most partners just can’t carry a trainee that long. So what happens is everyone ends up chasing the same handful of experienced people. Who, naturally, know it.
Any decent B1 consultant could tell you this already. Have a look at their LinkedIn messages.
Where the gap is widest
It’s not the same everywhere, mind.
Functional consultants who know finance or distribution properly? Hardest of the lot. A partner wants somebody who can take a workshop, work out how the customer actually runs (which isn’t always how they describe it) and configure it with nobody hovering. Not many people can.
Next come SDK and add-on developers. Few good ones, and the best tend to stay put with a partner they trust.
HANA migration is interesting. Demand shot up faster than experience did. If you’ve seen a few through to go-live, you won’t be short of calls.
Support’s the easy end. Except that lots of employers now use it as a stepping stone into implementation, so people move on quickly.
And location? It counts for less now. Leeds, Bristol, wherever, partners in the South East will ring you. Works the other way as well.
What the shortage does to hiring
Three things come up constantly.
Speed. Strong candidates seldom last two weeks on the market. The employers who win them have stripped the process back: first conversation to offer inside a fortnight, and a person who can say yes sitting in the first interview. Spread three stages over a month and you’ve probably lost them already.
Counter-offers, almost every time. Someone resigns and out of nowhere the budget appears. We talk candidates through it before they resign, since it’s nearly guaranteed. I’d say this: go back to why you started looking. More money doesn’t normally sort that.
Then pay, which just keeps going up. Mid-level UK functional consultants now earn £49,500–£66,000, seniors £66,000–£82,500, and HANA migration experience adds 12–18%. Full numbers by role, including support consultants and SDK developers, sit in our SAP Business One salary guide.
What a realistic hiring timeline looks like
“How long will it take?” Every employer asks. For a mid-level consultant it goes roughly like this.
Week one is the brief, the salary band, and where the person will actually work. Funny thing, this is where it usually goes wrong, before anyone’s opened a CV. You’d expect a shortlist inside two weeks, and with a specialist network the first names can come in days. Interviews happen in weeks two and three: two stages, hiring manager in the first. The offer, ideally by week three or four, at market rate and sent fast, with a counter-offer expected. After that, notice. In the UK that tends to be one to three months, so line up project cover early.
Speed is part of what you’re offering in this market. Treat it that way.
What actually works
Employers first. Pay today’s band, not last year’s budget, because under-offering only means doing the search twice. Look wider too. A good support analyst can be an implementation consultant within two years, and hiring one is often quicker than waiting for a finished consultant. If the role could be hybrid anywhere in the UK, say so in the advert. It does lift replies. And maybe bring in one junior to shadow live projects. That pays off inside a year.
Candidates now. This is the best seller’s market B1 has had. Two years in or more and haven’t checked what you’re worth recently? Take thirty seconds on the salary checker. People are often surprised. Keep your CV up to date as well, even when you’re happy. The good roles tend to turn up when you’re not looking.
Questions we get asked most
Why is it so hard to find SAP Business One consultants?
The skills take years to build, and not enough new people are joining to match how fast partners are growing.
How much should I budget for a B1 consultant in the UK?
Mid-level functional consultants are currently on £49,500–£66,000. Add 12–18% if the role needs HANA migration experience.
Can a support consultant move into implementation?
Yes, and it’s one of the more dependable routes. Plenty do it within two years with the right project exposure.
Should I accept a counter-offer?
Depends why you wanted out. Only money? Maybe. Progression, or the kind of projects? A counter-offer rarely changes that.
We run the largest dedicated SAP Business One network in the market. Hiring into the shortage, or part of it? Talk to us.