SAP & ERP Consulting from the Customer Point of View

SAP Program Management

Many may be unaware that SAP provides a broad set of tools and resources for Program Management and Competency Maturity Management (or CMM). Very few are familiar with SAP’s broad set of supports for this purpose such as the “new” ASAP Methodology Phase 6 “Run” enhancement. It is loaded with key information which aligns with Program Management responsibilities and CMMI.

So, what is CMM (or CMMI as it is more properly referred to)?

“CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) is a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes, which will improve their performance… CMMI models are collections of best practices that help organizations to dramatically improve effectiveness, efficiency, and quality” [FN1].

The entire CMMI methodology and development is maintained at Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute. These CMMI standards have been applied in a vast number of organizations together with various methodologies. The CMMI approach is well suited to engineering and software development, design, or implementation. SAP’s entire ASAP methodology, and especially the “new” Run methodology incorporates a number of CMMI principles.

SAP Program Management is all about Competency Maturity Management (or CMM)

The contract SAP program manager is accountable for providing the key tools, templates, techniques, and resources to ensure projects are properly managed and delivered for business benefit. If they are not providing this type of methodology guidance, including key templates and techniques to deliver business benefit, what are you paying them for?

SAP Program Management or Project Management Gaps

After all these years one of my biggest frustrations is the lack of SAP contract program or project managers use of the ASAP Methodology. They all talk about it, and during sales presentations they use lots of SAP’s material, but as soon as the project begins you never see it. They seem to have absolutely no idea what they are doing.

As I have often said, I never believe that a client / customer of project management or program management services has the primary responsibility for this knowledge. If they did why bother hiring outside help and paying the rates for this service except for that contract “expertise?”

Contract SAP program management or SAP project management that is not able to deliver on clearly understandable methodology development are fakes. Anyone can call themselves a program manager, but what does that mean? What is the contract SAP Program Manager accountable for? What are they on the hook to deliver and how is their performance measured?

Using SAP ASAP and CMMI to Mature the SAP Enabled Enterprise

The SAP ASAP Methodology, in particular the Phase 6 Run section, should be studied by every SAP program manager before they start doing project or program work. Even though it is in the last ASAP Methodology phase, its greatest effectiveness is realized when you begin your internal SAP delivery maturity planning from the beginning of your SAP project.

One of the critical benefits of starting your CMMI related planning right from the beginning is your SAP project can be structured to support business integration at the outset. Using this type of maturity model integration as part of your project guidance can have significant benefits to the enterprise:

“Many CMMI using businesses have beneficial results to their bottom line… including improvements in schedule and cost performance, product and service quality, forecasting accuracy, productivity, customer satisfaction, return on investment, and other measures of performance” [FN2].

SAP has already done a significant amount of the work for you. All your program manager has to do is adjust the plans, alter the templates, follow the ASAP Methodology instructions, and build the resources to support this transition. You really must question SAP program manager service providers who do not keep up with the ASAP tools and delivery methodology that SAP provides and supports.

SAP’s Competency Maturity Model Starting Point

The following maturity model is just one small example of a powerful tool that is critical for long term technology and business integration [FN3]:

This model, provided freely by SAP as part of their standard ASAP methodology is a great starting point. Your contract SAP program manager should be able to use this as it is, or adjust it to fit your particular organizational needs. This is just one very small component of the Run Phase and an even smaller component of the entire ASAP Methodology toolset.

In many cases you would be better off sending your own internal employees to SAP ASAP certification courses and Microsoft Project classes and making use of their new found knowledge. At least then you would have a knowledgeable employee who could help keep an integrator who claims to use ASAP honest. And if they claim to use ASAP in their sales materials or sales pitches GET THAT CLAIM IN YOUR STATEMENT OF WORK AND YOUR CONTRACT WITH THEM!

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For more information on related topics please see:

• SAP Project Manager – SAP Program Manager, Lessons from the Trenches
• Effective Results from SAP Project Managers – SAP Program Managers
• SAP IT Convergence Beyond Business to IT Alignment
• Create SAP Convergence Instead of Business to IT Alignment
• Integrating Business Stakeholders as Part of SAP IT Convergence
• Steps to Achieve SAP IT Convergence
• SAP IT Convergence is About Business Focused Integration
• Steering Committee Governance for an SAP Center of Excellence
• Using Your SAP Steering Committee for Business Transformation

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[FN1] CMMI Overview: Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, retrieved November 5, 2011. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/

[FN2] Why CMMI: Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, retrieved November 5, 2011. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/why/

[FN3] SAP ASAP Methodology version 7.1, WBS 6.2.1 – Table 1: Maturity Level Characteristics. For more information on the SAP ASAP Methodology please go to http://www.sap.com/services/more/servsuptech/asap.epx

Related Posts:

• Steps to Achieve SAP IT Convergence
• Steering Committee Governance for an SAP Center of Excellence
• ERP and SAP Business Case for ROI, Business Benefit, and Success
• Why Use the SAP ASAP Methodology?
• SAP IT Governance, SAP Program Management, SAP PMO Metrics

Business Systems

The day after I released my last post (SAP IT Governance – Achieve Business IT Engagement) techrepublic.com published a review of the CIO future direction. While I do not agree with all of the Gartner conclusions they published I certainly agree with the “new CIO manifesto” (TechRepublic: Get drastic: 15 IT best practices to kill). Reading through the comments left on the TechRepublic post was enlightening, most of the comments focused on the details of one or two points of disagreement while missing the focus of the entire message.

Denial of the purpose of any IT initiative, especially SAP business solutions, will only lead to significant levels of outsourcing. IT areas and functions that become more like “commodities,” or, as one commentator calls these functions “taxes” on the enterprise are quick to be outsourced. While these “taxes” are necessary infrastructure components (such as e-mail, phone, wide area networks, and even PCs or laptops), other areas are starting to be seen as commodities subject to significant cuts.

SAP Consultants Must Get Serious About Customer Focused Value (or find another career)

Unless more functional SAP application consultants get serious about understanding business and helping stop the fakes then enterprise applications will become a commodity as well. This isn’t just idle speculation. Those of us who have been around SAP for 10 years or more (and some of us approaching 20 years or more) remember the days when ABAP skills were sky high–, now they are a commodity which is frequently outsourced to India, Malaysia, or China. The same commodity status is true of SAP Basis–, it is outsourced overseas or to hosting providers. Without real value SAP (or Oracle, MS Dynamics, etc.) are soon to follow.

The Coming SAP Business Technology Revolution

The TechRepublic post hit on a key theme which is the focus of this site–, helping business realize (and recognize) value from their SAP projects. Under the subtitle “New CIO manifesto” TechRepublic notes:

“information [may be] more important than information technology” and the majority of IT spend will be used to “measurably improve… financial conditions of an enterprise” by supporting “revenue generating rather than expense related business processes.”

This manifesto is more aligned to sales, marketing, and innovation. These areas of the enterprise are in line with CEO priorities (see e.g. What is the Proper Relationship for the CIO, CEO, and CFO?). The TechRepublic post then goes on to note that:

“IT has to stop thinking of itself as a business utility and start seeing itself as a business catalyst. In order to do that, it’s going to have to think in business terms and economic impact for everything it does…”

What Can Skilled SAP Consultants Do to Prevent Becoming Commodities?

FIRST do what you can to educate clients around consultant screening (for details see Protecting Yourself from SAP Consulting Fraud). For example, if you find out a client is looking for consultants ask them if they have received that candidate’s references from their last three projects and whether they directly asked for confirmation of experience from those references?

As clients continue to see marginal or substandard results from so many of these frauds they will consider you the same and rate pressure will quickly move you to commodity status. Worse still, you may be on a project where you have to do so much clean up and correction behind an incompetent consultant just to get your own area working that you do not have the time to deliver on real value that will set you apart.

SECOND make sure you focus your consulting efforts on delivering value to your clients. When I say value I mean in terms of business benefit and return on what you are being paid for. Don’t just do some configuration because that is what you are being told, or because that is what is in scope. Do it in such a way that it helps the client long term. For example, just because SAP supports a particular type of functionality the ongoing maintenance after go live may not be in the client’s best interests. Carefully consider the short and long term effects on your customer of what you do. If you take this approach you may lose out on a little extra billable time in the short term, BUT you will stand out to them as someone who looks out for their interests. When it comes time to upgrade or add on additional functionality a call from you could land you a direct client without the middle man staffing firm. You can avoid competing with so many of the frauds the staffing companies try to place which may destroy a client project and damage the value you can add.

The choice is yours. You can start working to be more client and customer focused to generate value or you can watch the marketplace move you to commodity status. In the end no matter how good you are as the marketplace erodes your value in it does as well. It’s time to start acting like a consultant, a paid advisor to give your client the best possible direction you can and in doing so you also help to protect your own future as well. For more insight on delivering SAP enterprise value focus on the components of ERP II or ERP III (see ERP vs. ERP II vs. ERP III Future Enterprise Applications).

Related Posts:

• Tactics, Strategy, ROI, TCO and Realizing Business Benefit from SAP
• Competitive Pressures and Value Propositions, Is Lean the Answer?
• The Real Reason Executive Participation Creates IT Project Success
• Using SAP to Improve Revenue and Profitability
• SAP IT Convergence Beyond Business to IT Alignment

Business - IT Convergence

In the new global business age it is more important than ever to leverage technology organization expertise for business benefit.  Too often technology organizations focus on technology for the sake of technology rather than for how it might improve products and services or how it might create more customer focus.

In today’s competitive global economy, filled with international economic instability, no part of the enterprise can afford to move very far from what pays the bills.  If your SAP or IT organization is focused completely on technology solutions you lose sight of what is important to the business.  And what is that?  Customers: customer retention, acquisition, loyalty, satisfaction, and experience.  Without customers there is no growth or revenue.  Without growth or revenue there is no need for that expensive SAP or IT investment.

Finding SAP IT Convergence in Innovation and Customer Focus

A dynamic shift away from “back office” or operational focus is needed to move the SAP organization toward genuine IT convergence.  To make the change requires a deeper and more meaningful understanding of business itself.  It requires a focus on the organization’s products or services (i.e. innovation, read Process Execution of Business and IT Innovation) and then how those products or services are marketed and sold.

This emphasis on IT convergence, especially in the SAP enterprise, is about preparing your organization for the changes which are beginning to shape the future of enterprise applications, or “ERP III” (for a detailed explanation of ERP, ERP II, and ERP III see ERP vs. ERP II vs. ERP III Future Enterprise Applications).  So what is ERP III?  ERP III is the next generation of enterprise applications which leverage social media (or other collaborative tools) in news ways to integrate customers into the borderless enterprise.

Without a clearer focus on customers as well as innovation in the enterprise, or “how business gets done,” the SAP and overall IT organization becomes a very expensive operational support layer.  Without the genuine business focus the organization becomes a commodity to be outsourced.

How Can You Transition to Full SAP IT Convergence?

By now the need for full convergence is clearer.  But if it’s still not clear enough consider another element or your SAP or IT organization–, look at the pay structure for your SAP skills.  Your SAP staff is likely paid equivalent salaries to very senior level employees at your company.  In some cases they may make as much as some of the junior executives.  And then remind yourself, this pay range is for non-management positions.  So we have to consider what it will take to change the organization to achieve convergence.

From the last few posts, as well as my own experience, here is my “short list” of important things to do to achieve convergence:

• Steering Committee Engagement and Roadmap Management
• Pursue business executive sponsorship but don’t wait for it to get started
• Engage at all levels of the organization
• MBA in the IT organization
• Conduct one or more pilot programs and capture lessons learned

Start a communication program

Exchange staff program to integrate the IT organization into the business

Hold IT staff accountable for participation

Don’t let available tools stifle participation or innovation

• Invest in NON-TECHNICAL IT training

Public speaking

Presentation skills

Meeting skills

Facilitation skills

Questioning and Negotiation

Conflict management and resolution

Managerial skills

There are two other areas that I will offer some insight on.  As a result of the explosion in mobile devices (literally hundreds of millions of them) there is a need to ensure that technology solutions are “device agnostic.”  In other words, as employees begin to provide their own smartphones be ready to support them.  If your organization is tasked with the cost for the plans and hardware, supporting employee provided mobile devices is cheaper even with the additional support overhead.  On the second front there are business direct buy purchases of technology.  As last week’s post pointed out, because of what the business perceives as a lack of responsiveness to their needs they are making more of their own direct technology purchases.  Learn to live with this and to engage in more of an internal consulting role so that the solutions are a better fit for the business and the SAP or IT organization.

How you approach the future for your technology organization–, isolation, alignment, or convergence; will determine how valuable you are to the business in the future.  And with today’s competitive landscape combined with the economic struggles it is more important than ever to demonstrate business value.

Related Posts:

• ERP vs. ERP II vs. ERP III Future Enterprise Applications
• ERP II & ERP III – SAP Business IT Revolution
• Steps to Achieve SAP IT Convergence
• Striving for a Customer Focused Approach to Innovation 3 of 3
• ERP III – Is the Integration of Collaboration the Future of Enterprise Applications