SAP & ERP Consulting from the Customer Point of View

SAP-ERP Vendor Selection

This is the beginning of a series reviewing some of the typical tactics and sales scams many software vendors use to gain your business.  Rather than competing on merit many vendors resort to various strategies or techniques designed to prevent you from gaining the critical insight you need to make the best possible decision.  Their strategies and tactics are designed to deflect you from discovering any of their weaknesses or even deceive you into believing they have qualifications that do not exist (see the previous post, Scams, Shams, ERP System Integrator Tactics).

You’ve Determined You Need an SAP or ERP System

You’ve done initial analysis and some internal due diligence and realize all those Excel spreadsheets, Access databases, home grown, patched together, and exploding data sets are everywhere.   The landscape of data sources resembles more of a third-world war zone rather than a well rehearsed symphony orchestra.

Senior management and the executives keep asking for information or reports that take days, or in some cases even weeks to cobble together from way too many sources.  The “answers” you get from the data never seems to be the same no matter how many times you redo it. It’s past time to look at SAP or another ERP application and the implementation vendor.

Now You Start the Selection Process

Even though using a structured business software vendor evaluation and selection methodology  may seem elementary there are still too many companies who do not follow one.  Some companies get overly complicated in how they select their vendors (using more of a software selection methodology) when what really matter are the consultants and the project team that is responsible to deliver the results.  One of the ERP critical success factors is to focus on what matters to you and your company’s project:

• FIXING Stupid SAP Vendor – Partner Selection RFI – RFP Processes
• More on Stupid SAP Vendor – Partner Selection RFI-RFP Processes
• Why SAP Vendor – Partner Selection RFI Processes are Stupid

Often there are a lot of gaps for the selection process to be “gamed” or manipulated, or you fall prey to sales tactics that are designed to manipulate the person rather than dealing with the requirements.  When that happens the company making the investment suffers.  They suffer from poor results, serious cost overruns, blown time-lines, and damaging shock-waves to their company culture.  They are sold a chocolate pie only to find out the chocolate has been substituted for other brown stuff that might look like chocolate but stinks enough to make you puke.

Understanding the Stages of the Selection Process and How to Deal with Each Stage

The selection overview consists of a few steps that are not hard to understand but they can be tedious.  I have outlined them as follows:

• First Things First (Governance and Control)
• Early in the Sales Cycle – Software sales and System Integrators
• Progress on the SAP or ERP Software and Vendor Selection
• Deep Into the SAP or ERP Sales Cycle
• ERP Software and Integration Vendor Tactics
• Site Visit or Phone Visit to Verify ERP Vendor claims
• The Finals

Over the next several weeks we will explore a series of posts based on each of these topics.  These topics are from part of a business software and vendor or system integrator selection methodology I’ve used in RFI and RFP consulting.  The approach I use addresses areas and solutions that very few (if any) of the RFI and RFP consultants ever address.  At the end of the day my goal is to see you make the best possible selection to propel your business forward.  And as a result of my passion to see businesses succeed with their large implementation projects I am making this information freely available.

Stay tuned next week for the first part of this detailed series.  We will look at “First Things First” in preparing for and initiating your software or implementation vendor selection.

Related Posts:

• Overcome SAP-ERP System Integrator Sales Tactics 7
• Overcome SAP-ERP System Integrator Sales Tactics 6
• Overcome SAP-ERP System Integrator Sales Tactics 5
• Overcome SAP-ERP System Integrator Sales Tactics 4
• Overcome SAP-ERP System Integrator Sales Tactics 3

SAP System Integrator

I recently read two articles I thought I should summarize and review here.  The articles provide two opposing viewpoints of consulting and some lessons learned for service buyers.

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This article on CIO about “7 Dirty Consultant Tricks (and How to Avoid Them)” [FN1] caught my attention.  Especially the part about ways consultants try to “extract money from their clients…”:

IT consultants are among the most slippery of the bunch. Among their favorite tricks: Using “scope change” to line their pockets, claiming expertise they do not actually possess, promising you their superstars and then sending in the rookies, purposely delaying decisions and sowing confusion as they rack up billable hours, and collecting kickbacks from other service providers. The worst ones may even hold your company’s intellectual property or systems hostage until you pay up.

The article title notes it is the consultants but in reality it is the SAP system integrators who pull these types of tactics.  While the scams and shams happen all too often it is the system integrator that uses the “scope change” tactic, does a “bait and switch” with “con”sultants who have little experience, etc.  The CIO article does concede that not all consultants are this way.

The Seven Consulting Dirty Tricks to Separate You from More of Your Money

1.  Bid low and bill high – some SAP SI’s will deliberately bid low and then change order or customize you to death.  Even though you start out with a project you believe will cost “X” they will constantly work on ways to leverage more and more revenue from you.

2.  Bait and switch – they sell the “A” team but deliver the back benchers and water boys.  Sometimes they pad their RFIs and RFPs with first class resumes for consultants who never show up for your project.  Some of the placement firms bring fakes and knowingly help them create fraudulent resumes as well (see Screening and Interview Methods to Find the Right SAP Consultant and the follow-up piece Screening and Interview Methods to Find the Right Consultant – Part 2)

3.  Using stall tactics and distractions – they avoid creating momentum and enable indecisiveness.

4.  Hostage takers – build special “trap doors” into their solutions, use password protected infrastructure, or create contracts that give the consultant / company all of the legal rights to any solutions.

5.  Kickbacks – consultants may push a product, solution, or other consultants that they get paid for.

6.  Selling you far more than you will ever need – does it meet the business requirement, or is it a sledgehammer to swat at a fly when you really need a fly-swatter?

7.  Empty suits or vampires – both will bleed you dry.  Incompetent or unqualified consultants end up on the project and bleed the budget and timeline until there is nothing left.

What an absolute mess!  Unfortunately these 7 ways you get scammed, shammed, or are taken advantage of are pretty common.  The article I referenced provides some great suggestions on how to protect your company.  It’s worth the read.

The Alternatives to the Consulting Fraud Factories

In contrast to these practices, or maybe because of them, we are beginning to see customers use small firms and individual consultants more and more.  While this is a trend that many sophisticated SAP customers are beginning to use there are also things to be concerned about here as well.  Another post presents a great counterpoint to a trend for quality consultants that is beginning to take hold [FN2].

Unlike their larger counterparts, these small one to five person consultancies seem to be more principled in their approach to growing the business. Some of the common values adopted by smaller firms and missing from the larger include:

1. Do not promise what you cannot deliver

2. Do not overextend your resources and get a reputation for poor performance.

3. Do not tell the customer what he or she wants to hear. Tell them what they need to know. They will respect you for it.

4. Network constantly on professional sites such as Linked In. Hit the “Answers” feature and accumulate an “Expert” rating from your peers in your field. This allows buyers to not blindly trust that they will get the right resource but be certain in advance.

5. Blog like there is no tomorrow. A blog is quite different than a web site. Provide good, solid information free of charge and use blog searches for synergistic businesses to team with. Teaming is an absolute necessity these days.

6. Be prepared to provide information, samples and valuable service gratis as a marketing tool. Introduce yourself and then immediately engage the client with your presentation tools available to bring your expertise to whatever topic they are interested in. Let them take you where they want to go with their concerns and their needs. Apply your presentation tools and expertise dynamically on the fly in a sincere manner to those concerns and needs and you will be in demand for follow up business.

7. Quote and bill what the client can afford and grow with him (in content and resources).

8. Be dedicated to working yourself out of a job with a specific customer and having your client take over by training him. He will remember you and recommend you to 10 others.

9. Remember growth is a function of persistence and foresight. Know where your market is headed and get their first – then write and speak about your success indirectly by helping others. Demonstrate humility and a satisfaction in helping others succeed. They will find ways to give you credit. There are ways of tooting your horn without making peoples’ lights go out.

10. Word of mouth advertising from pleased clients is a sure ticket to success.

There are a number of small firms and individual consultants who do outstanding work.  They deliver great results and help you to mitigate project risks while delivering a high quality work product.

And with this introductory post I will be starting a series on the tactics, strategies, and scams used by system integrators in their sales cycles to gain your business.  In the end they are less concerned about delivering results than they are about collecting their fees.

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[FN1]  CIO online, April 11, 2011 – http://www.cio.com/article/679330/7_Dirty_Consultant_Tricks_and_How_to_Avoid_Them_

[FN2]  The Return of Boutique Consultancies…
http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2011/04/return-of-boutique-consultancies.html

Related Posts:

• Tactics, Strategy, ROI, TCO and Realizing Business Benefit from SAP
• How the SAP Consulting Peter Principle Works
• Tips to Overcome Sales Tactics by SAP-ERP System Integrators
• Competitive Pressures and Value Propositions, Is Lean the Answer?
• Reduce SAP, ERP, or Technology Project Stress: Part 2

Legal Liability

To my talented friends and colleagues at Deloitte, Sorry folks!  This needs to be addressed.  It is not that all of Deloitte has a problem, I know some incredibly talented Deloitte folks, unfortunately a few bad apples CAN and sometimes DO spoil the whole entire bushel (or barrel if you prefer).

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The recent Marin County California Lawsuit against Deloitte Consulting took an interesting turn.  The initial complaint was filed in mid 2010 against Deloitte only for fraud in providing inept and incompetent consultants (for background see my previous post SAP ERP Project Failure Lessons Learned and Mini Case Studies 1).

Not long ago Marin County amended their complaint (a pretty standard legal practice after the initial legal complaint is filed) and included several other failed Deloitte projects as examples of a common practice.  Along with that SAP AG and SAP Services were joined to the complaint as additional parties.  The basis of SAP’s liability, as alleged in the complaint, is that SAP through its partnership with Deloitte knew or should have known of Deloitte’s fraud and continued to give them credibility.  That modified complaint was filed on December 16, 2010.

The SAP software itself was still not alleged to be the problem

The introductory statement of the complaint lays it out:

This action arises from defendants’ illegal and continuing scheme to defraud the County and other governmental entities while reaping tens of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains in connection with the implementation of enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) software known as SAP for Public Sector, licensed by the German software developer SAP AG.  As part of this scheme, Deloitte, with the knowledge and assistance of the SAP Defendants, targeted the County by misrepresenting its skills and experience in SAP for Public Sector software to obtain a highly lucrative public sector implementation contract for itself, and licensing, maintenance and support contracts for SAP Public Services, Inc.

As a further part of the scheme, Deloitte falsely represented to the County – which had no ERP or SAP for Public Sector experience – that Deloitte had the requisite skills and experience in SAP for Public Sector software to deliver a successful implementation for the County.  Deloitte and the SAP Defendants also falsely represented that Deloitte, by virtue of its “alliance” with the SAP Defendants, was uniquely qualified to properly implement SAP for Public Sector software.  These representations were false because, at the time they were made, Deloitte and the SAP Defendants knew, or were reckless in not knowing, that Deloitte in fact lacked the ability and/or the intention to provide the County with appropriately skilled consultants.

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As a further part of the scheme, to conceal implementation problems that resulted from Deloitte’s lack of skills, Deloitte and the SAP Defendants engaged in unlawful conduct to ensure that the County proceeded to go live with the SAP system on the scheduled go-live dates, in order to secure payment of their fees.  Such misconduct included deliberate under-testing of the SAP system by Deloitte to obtain artificially positive results and thereby conceal system defects; attempt by Deloitte and the SAP Defendants to silence an employee who raised issues with Deloitte’s deficient implementation work; and efforts by Deloitte and the SAP Defendants to corruptly influence defendant Culver, a County official who was also the County’s Project Director, to cover up Deloitte’s deficient implementation work, obtain payment for work that was not properly performed (or not performed at all) and cause the County to enter into additional contracts with Deloitte and SAP Public Services, Inc.

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The fraudulent scheme that Deloitte and the SAP Defendants perpetrated on the County is consistent with a pattern and practice of similar misconduct that they have perpetrated on other public entities, including those in Los Angeles, San Antonio, Colorado and Miami-Dade in connection with the implementation of SAP for Public Sector software.

On January 26, 2011 it appears the case was removed to Federal District Court for Northern California from the Marin County Superior Court.   On February 23, 2011 SAP filed motions to be dismissed as parties from the case, and to strike their name from the complaint.  On March 21, 2011 the Motions to Dismiss and Strike were terminated because the parties all agreed to allow the complaint to be amended, and allowed for additional time to respond to the newly amended complaint once it is complete.

So, the case continues.  Once again there is a key and noteworthy item in this case, the SAP software itself was still not alleged to be the problem.  The allegations within the case surround the consulting practices of Deloitte and SAP is “guilty by association” because they put their “seal of approval” on Deloitte as a qualified integrator.

Consulting Industry Implications – Especially for SAP Partner Programs

This case reminds me of something Michael Doane wrote about some time back about the need for SAP system integrators to be certified as well as their consultants (see Certainly Certifiable – SAP System Integrators Not Just Consultants).

After reading through the entire complaint I can 99.999% guarantee that one or more of the “consultants” Deloitte brought to the project had partially or even completely fake resumes and SAP backgrounds.  I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the number of fake or fraudulent “consultants” on that project was closer to 30% or even higher.  I’m not talking about fake or fraudulent because they didn’t have public sector experience, I’m talking about completely fake and fraudulent work histories and experience in general.

If the Marin County outside attorneys at Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP subpoena the employment application information and contractor resumes and do a thorough background check on the Deloitte consultants I wouldn’t be surprised if they find massive fraud.  Worse still I’m equally sure that a careful review of the Deloitte vetting process will reveal that the experience claims and employment history for contractors was not verified.  It wouldn’t surprise me if many of these “consultants” listed fake “certifications” on their resumes as well which was not verified (for more background on the MASSIVE fraud around SAP “consultants” please see Screening and Interview Methods to Find the Right SAP Consultant and the follow-up piece Screening and Interview Methods to Find the Right Consultant – Part 2).

What Would be the Impact on SAP and SAP System Integrators if the County Wins?

If SAP bears even a small amount of liability by the end of this case it will have huge ripple effects throughout the entire business application space.  It might actually force SAP to ensure that their partners have some measure of verifiable skill rather than just buying a seat at the table.  On top of that it will put all system integrators on notice that if the current failure to verify skill and experience continues they may be held liable.

Maybe it’s time SAP finally put in that “transcript” service for consultants who claim to have SAP training or certification.  Let decent training programs apply to be “certified training centers” or “training alliance partners” to submit the training information to SAP’s transcript service.  After all, SAP offers a Higher Education industry solution so they have the software to support it.

One Way SAP MIGHT be able to Get Out of the Marin County Case Fast!

I’m guessing here that the reason SAP was joined to the complaint was because Marin County recently ripped out the SAP system and wants to get their SAP license fees and maintenance fees back.  If they can get treble damages for fraud, all the better.  Guess what SAP, if you are REALLY smart you might want to try to negotiate that with the County in a private settlement IMMEDIATELY.  Cut the legal fees, end the PR headaches on the heels of the Oracle debacle, give them back their money for the software and the maintenance fees and then fix the partner program!  Get those settlement negotiations started IMMEDIATELY because your private settlement discussions are NOT admissible in court.  Run from this mess fast!

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Complete Marin County Deloitte-SAP Complaint Removed to Federal Court

I have attached a copy of the entire, lengthy case for anyone who is interested in reading this.  Even if every allegation is not true, I have seen enough of these kinds of tactics to know that this type of thing happens routinely.  This complaint should be REQUIRED READING FOR EVERY POTENTIAL SAP CUSTOMER IN THE RFI OR RFP STAGE!  (Complaint document here).

Related Posts:

• SAP System Vendor Project Success Criteria 1
• Tactics, Strategy, ROI, TCO and Realizing Business Benefit from SAP
• SAP Technicians or Experts
• SAP Failures: Is Lack of Sr. Mgt. Commitment the REAL Issue?
• Screening and Interview Methods to Find the Right Consultant – Part 2