SAP & ERP Consulting from the Customer Point of View

SAP Offshore Development

There is a time and a place for everything–, even SAP project offshore activities.  Unfortunately in the quest to save money the wrong approach can sound good on paper but cost you far more than the sales pitches would lead you to believe.  The SAP offshore sales pitch uses enticing rates like getting an offshore developer for about 15 to 20% the rate of an onshore resource (about 1 / 5^th to 1 / 7^th the price).  The initial reaction to all of the sales pitches is “wow, that will save us a bundle!”  The truth is sometimes it does and sometimes it does not.  And in many cases it can even cost you far more in hidden costs than local (higher priced) developers.

This is the first in a 3 part series on SAP offshore projects:

• Part 1 – SAP Offshore Project Development Experience (this post)
• Part 2 – Hidden SAP Offshore Development Costs
• Part 3 – Where Does SAP Offshore Development Make Sense?

I’ve worked on 3 projects where off-shore resources were used for the initial project and 2 others where they were used for upgrade.  This is the “inside scoop” from my experience.

The Real Reason Offshore Development Seems So Cheap

Let’s set the record straight on one thing immediately, there is a REASON those rates are that cheap.  In the global SAP world it has less to do with the wages of the host country than you might realize.  In the SAP space there is still strong demand for strong SAP skills globally so market forces plainly dictate that real experience will pay market rate no matter what country it is.  Work Visa requirements for many countries with high SAP skill demand will allow the importing of actual skills –, heck, they let massive numbers of total fakes and frauds in the United States so real experience (rather than faked) makes it easy to move out of these host countries for far higher wages.

When Off-shoring Might Cost You More Than Local Resources

When your SAP project depends on large amounts of custom development work you may be in for reverse “sticker shock” at the actual hidden costs.  And by reverse “sticker shock” I mean it is like getting a car for 25% of what you thought you would have to pay BUT you find out the tires, battery, seats, steering wheel, and all of the key components of the car are “required” add-ons that you have to pay for separately.  But they only show you the nice, finished, new car with all of the “extras.”  The actual cost for a HUGE portion of the offshore development is hidden and that rate you were quoted is a joke! 

Your “offshore” resources have very little if any actual SAP development experience no matter what kind of a sales pitch you are given.  What you are ”hiring out” is some smart college kid who is learning on your dime but *maybe* under the supervision of an experienced developer.  Yes, the rates are lower but in today’s economic climate you could probably find some aggressive local college kids who would do as good or better, for the same wage, and without any language barriers.  Maybe you should consider that and bring in one of those expensive local resources to train, shepherd, supervise, and teach them.  At least then you have the skills in house.

Some of the huge costs that are buried for a new project are in the whole development process itself.  SAP functional consultants, who are typically higher priced than technical or development resources, end up taking 2 -3 times the effort spelling out requirement details.  That extra effort translates into hidden cost that you do not see but it creates a great target for the offshore resources to “blame” for why they are struggling–, “I’m waiting on the functional consultant…” or “the spec had to be re-written…” or “it didn’t have enough detail…”  A truly experienced local resource already knows and understands the table structures, data sources, actual requirements, and has probably done similar SAP development work or reporting.  With a higher level spec in plain English, rather than detailed design with pseudo-code required for offshore work, local SAP resources can churn out a polished first pass development effort which needs only minor tweaks, takes less time to test and adjust, and has better performance.

The actual cost for a HUGE portion of the offshore development is hidden and that rate you were quoted is a joke! 

There really are situations where Offshore development is ideal for your SAP project, just don’t be surprised if the overall project “savings” you expect don’t materialize on a new project or one with complex development requirements.

How Can You Tell If You Are Being Bitten By Huge Hidden Offshore SAP Costs?

The one simple metric that will clearly illustrate if you are a victim of hidden offshore development costs is the total CALENDAR timeline for all development work.  In other words, after you get past the excuses, the finger pointing, the supposedly finished items that are always being reworked, etc., the calendar timeline tells all. 

No matter how many times the offshore development tries to suggest they are having problems getting “complete” functional specs, or how often they say they are done but have defect after defect to resolve, or whatever the excuse is, the simple calendar test will tell you the TRUE project impact.  If it takes 90 calendar days to complete development to the point that it can be used (defects corrected, tested, and ready for production) then it doesn’t matter if they estimate and then claim completion at 3 weeks.  The other 9 weeks to actual completion is project time that is taken from SAP functional resources, reworked development, business resources, etc.  So there is a huge hidden cost no matter what claims sales people may offer.

Related Posts:

• Where Does SAP Offshore Development Make Sense?
• Hidden SAP Offshore Development Costs
• Tactics, Strategy, ROI, TCO and Realizing Business Benefit from SAP
• Industry Specific SAP Consulting vs Deep SAP Application Experience
• Using SAP to Improve Revenue and Profitability

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

IT Convergence

The other day I was having a conversation with an IT executive from one of America’s largest companies.  I was really interested in his perspective as a hard working senior level IT insider.  We started talking about the role of IT and business as well as the future of business and technology while I relayed my passion for how IT needs to integrate with the business and how the future was going to change significantly (see e.g. What is the Proper Relationship for the CIO, CEO, and CFO?).

I gained a new appreciation for how difficult an IT executive’s job can be when the economy is in turmoil.  I’m sure my comments and perspective were challenging but here is part of what I gained from that conversation (my assumptions and my “read” may be wrong)…

The wider global technology discussion (inside and outside of the company) is putting real pressure on IT return on investment, IT Convergence, and full integration with the business (see Steps to Achieve SAP IT Convergence).  Even while all of this takes place there is still a critical need to stay on top of technology trends and be sure the organization does not stagnate.  To stay competitive what does he do with “cloud” processing, do they need different applications for some of their processes (CRM, APO,SRM, etc.), what about social media (does it even fit), virtualization, shared services, service excellence, outsourcing, in-sourcing, etc., etc., etc.

This executive’s IT organization is being challenged to do more with less.  As a result of cost-cutting pressures his organization is having to look at outsourcing while he also has to maintain a positive and upbeat appearance in the face of working through difficult cuts.  He has to continue encouraging and rallying the troops while some of them will not be there.

A Simple Response to the Nagging Problem of Business IT Convergence

With all of this background in mind one of his responses to me set me back a moment for its simplicity, candor, and most of all the underlying frustration.  It is certainly one of those very difficult struggles that many corporate technology leaders today face:

“What is the business responsibility for this?”

The business not only has responsibility but they have to help drive solutions and delivery. The various business stakeholders must see, understand, and then accept their role in developing the technology roadmap. And once it is developed they must help ensure its execution.

The Business to IT Convergence Solution That Was There All Along

The IT Convergence approach in the SAP enterprise is partially based on best practices around IT Governance.  By creating a governance structure that involves and integrates both the business and IT stakeholders you gain business buy-in and involvement.  I have written a solution brief on this approach and provide a free, no-obligation MS Access application to build technology roadmaps (see the Solution Brief, governance process, and application overview here:  Beyond Technology Alignment )

The basic takeaway here is that business involvement is critical.  They are already making technology investments, with, or without your involvement. So it is critical to gain that convergence so that technology investments are performed as a partnership and not in isolation.  As a recent Harvard Business Review post by Ray Wang notes:

“[O]verall corporate tech spending is up by 17 to 20% in our latest data, spending by IT departments is flat at best. It’s business leaders, not their IT colleagues, who are driving purchasing decisions.”

Coming to Terms with the Consumerization of IT, http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/07/coming_to_terms_with_the_consu.html and a followup with more details on his site at:  http://blog.softwareinsider.org/2011/08/22/mondays-musings-balancing-the-six-ss-in-consumerization-of-it/ (both retrieved 8/23/2011)

So the key here is to integrate the business into the IT and application infrastructure.  One way to do that is through leveraging SAP steering committee skills and business connections to ensure meaningful involvement by IT.

Additional Steps to SAP IT Convergence – Creating the Center of Excellence

Last week’s post provided a few high level steps to achieve SAP IT Convergence, and this week I am adding to that list the following items.

• Pursue business executive sponsorship but don’t wait for it to get started.
• Start a communication program
• Engage at all levels of the organization
• Conduct one or more pilot programs and capture lessons learned
• Hold IT staff accountable for participation
• Don’t let available tools stifle participation or innovation

Related Posts:

• Steps to Achieve SAP IT Convergence
• SAP IT Convergence is About Business Focused Integration
• SAP Program Management Requires a Type of CMMI
• SAP IT Convergence Beyond Business to IT Alignment
• SAP Project Manager – SAP Program Manager, Lessons from the Trenches