I recently had the pleasure of attending a HRMS conference attended by SAP, Oracle & PeopleSoft specialists. I was surprised to find there are many common/non-vendor specific issues. A definitive set of Competencies to work with is a good example.
Competencies may be utilized throughout the employee life-cycle, including: Talent Acquisition/Recruitment, Performance Management, Remuneration, Training & Development. In many organizations the responsibility for each phase of the Life-Cycle lies with different parts. At best there may be a slightly different interpretation of a common set of competencies. At worst, separate parts of the organization may use totally different competencies.
Whilst much of the skills/knowledge required to successfully implement a software solution are specific to the application, there are many common skills that can be applied to any system. These are the skills that enable a consultant to easily move to new versions of the system in which they specialize and/or to transition to a different product. These are the skills that are key to the long term relevance of a consultant.