SAP CoE Maturity

Last week’s post on SAP Service Provider to Business Peer Through Center of Excellence Maturity proposed the direct maturity of the SAP IT organization.  The key principle is that there are three stages or strata of Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization creating clear distinctions between SAP Service Delivery versus Value Delivery. 

This week is an overview of the development and maturity details to use SAP as a Change Enabler through SAP Enabled Business Transformation for IT Leadership.  Please keep in mind this organizational development overview is just one component of the Series on SAP Competency Center or SAP Center of Excellence.  The need to continue your Steering Committee Governance for an SAP Center of Excellence cannot be ignored.  Properly formed and instituted your SAP steering committee is a key enabler for business to IT convergence. 

To achieve SAP IT Convergence Beyond Business to IT Alignment requires a senior leader change champion to make this a deliberate and accountable effort.  This is not intended to be a theoretical discussion but instead it is an action plan.  The entire initiative is as a project and needs a project plan, deliverables, key milestones, assigned resources, etc.   All of the structure and processes will need to be defined within your IT organization to move this forward.

SAP Center of Excellence Maturity Development Level 1 – Internal Focus on IT Operations (Service Provider)

Internal focus is an “all hands on deck” effort.  If internal focus, or basic IT service delivery is suffering then everyone within the IT organization must work to ensure your systems are meeting business needs.  You will not gain enough trust of the business community to become a partner or peer until the basic infrastructure works. Some of the key development in this phase includes:

• A skills matrix
• IT staff training and development plans
• Clear SLA requirements
• Consistent and regular feedback and coaching

Typical activities for service delivery include:

• Help desk functions
• Data maintenance
• Security and authorizations
• Technical infrastructure (servers, system performance, database maintenance, network, etc)
• System access (desktop, remote, mobile, etc).
• Hardware procurement
• Knowledge (information) base development (Wikis, SharePoint, collaboration tools, etc.)
• Knowledge transfer to the user community (formal and informal training)
• Super user development

Skills development focuses on SAP or technical domain competence

• Application module specialties (SD, MM, PP, SRM, CRM, FI, APO, BObj, etc)
• Programming languages (ABAP, Java, PHP, etc.)
• Infrastructure (Cisco, routers, VOIP, IPv6, DHCP, LDAP, etc.)
• SAP Solution Manager use
• Effective presentation skills

SAP Center of Excellence Maturity Development Level 2 – SAP IT Integration With the Broader Business Enterprise (Business Partner)

At this stage, depending on the size of your SAP or IT organization, there are 2 levels of leadership here: 1) delivery management, and 2) process management while developing methodologies, tools, templates, and controls.  A key part of the process management is the development of KPI indexes.  Typical activities for business (enterprise) integration include:

• Requirements gathering
• Blueprinting
• System & solution architecture
• Business case development (cost and value)
• Knowledge transfer
• Subject matter expert training
• Super user training
• KPI and PPI* development with analytics
• Project management
• Team and project leadership
• Basic supervisory tasks
• Mentoring, coaching, and staff development
• Budget adherence
• Sourcing and supplier management
• SAP Solution Manager setup and maintenance for project delivery as well as BPM

Skills development focuses on project delivery and management.

• Facilitation, meeting, and time management skills
• Project management (training and certification)
• Managing conflict
• Supervisory & leadership
• Negotiation skills
• Organizational Change Management
• Total Quality Management
• Business Process modeling

SAP Center of Excellence Maturity Development Level 3 – Strategic Development Around the Marketplace and Competitors (Business Peer)

Split development track for leaders – 1) product or service engineering support (i.e. the “innovation” track) or 2) sales and marketing (i.e. customer focus).  Typical activities for value added strategic technology convergence include:

• BPI* development and analytics
• Marketplace analytics with solution proposals
• Customer analytics with solution proposals
• Value analysis – ROI assessment and benefit compliance
• Cost analysis – TCO assessment and cost savings
• Business case review for strategic fit
• Technology roadmap for system & solution architecture
• System architecture integration with business process management
• Program management
• Program & project budget development
• Project audits / QA’s
• Mentoring, coaching, and development of level 2 participants
• Vendor management

Skills development focuses on business drivers, marketplace competitive pressures, sales, and senior leadership.

• Advertising principles
• Business statistics
• Market research
• Sales management
• International marketing
• Sales models
• Organizational development
• Coaching and leadership
• Delegation
• Strategic planning

Conclusion on SAP Center of Excellence Maturity Development

This analysis provides a framework for development a world class, fully integrated SAP IT organization.  However even with this framework it only scratches the surface of a much broader and more important topic–, Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization.

One of the most critical components of a change management program is not listed above in any of the bullet points – developing communication channels.  Maybe this is naïve of me but I would expect that actively and aggressively developing clear and open lines of communication between IT at all levels with the business would be assumed.  Developing an overall communication program and plans is a basic part of any change management initiative.

There is a significant amount of additional guidance for developing your SAP Center of Excellence in the Series on SAP Competency Center or SAP Center of Excellence.  A systematic approach, including key milestones to measure progress against are important elements to success.  To that end I hope this framework contributes to the dialog and direction of future SAP IT organization maturity.

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* An upcoming post in the future will look in detail at this concept of “KPI, PPI, and BPI” as Key Performance Indicators, Process Performance Indicators, and then finally Business Performance Indicators.

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Contact me today through our site contact form ( http://www.r3now.com/contact ), phone, or e-mail.

Bill Wood
+1 (704) 905 – 5175

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Related Posts:

• Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization
• Toward an SAP Center of Excellence or SAP Competency Center – PART 2
• Using SAP to Improve Revenue and Profitability
• SAP Service Provider to Business Peer Through Center of Excellence Maturity
• How To Navigate the SAP Business Transformation Journey

Deliver Business Value with SAP CoE

One key pillar of moving Beyond Technology Alignment requires Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization (OCM inside IT).  A key component of that OCM within IT relies heavily on Creating a Knowledge Centered Learning Organization.  And within that learning organization, especially with enterprise applications like SAP, you need to build organizational maturity.  There is a three-tier approach to building that organizational maturity as part of the Series on SAP Competency Center or SAP Center of Excellence.

The SAP IT Organization Challenge

Being an “IT Organization” is where the challenge for change begins.  IT has been so focused on delivering technical solutions that business integration was missed along the way.  Adding to this is the “youth” of IT as a business discipline.  Think about it, people have been doing business for thousands of years.  Technology, bits, bytes, interconnected systems, data transmissions, and information age “knowledge” workers are a new phenomenon within the last 2 – 3 decades.  Compared to the age of business they haven’t even hit puberty!

So, the real issue here is how to quickly mature the SAP or IT organization from simple service provider, to business partner, and then to business peer.  This requires far more than the traditional domain and technology management in so many IT organizations today.  The problem comes down to SAP Service Delivery versus Value Delivery. 

The Answer: Develop Organizational Maturity, both Aligned and then Integrated With the Business

For SAP Enabled Business Transformation for IT Leadership we started with CIO Magazine’s CIO Maturity Model and applied it to the IT delivery organization.  The delivery organization maturity model consists of three key levels of organizational maturity or competence; they are internal, enterprise, and external focus.  These are reflected in the concentric circles below.  When considering SAP Service Delivery versus Value Delivery it is important to understand how to develop that maturity.  The service delivery domain is technical in nature and the value delivery domain is focused on enabling business.  The value domain is related to customers, marketplace, and improved products or services.

SAP IT Convergence Maturity Model

SAP IT Organization Maturity: Growing Pains

Within each of these three concentric circles a particular delivery competence is required.  This delivery competence roughly equates to the skills and experience needed to address each of the key business support areas.  There will also be “growing pains” within each of these maturity stages as you:

1. Plan
2. Execute
3. Adjust and stabilize
4. Transition part of the organization to the next maturity level

This is a hierarchical maturity model.  While the diagram I use shows the concentric circles they should be thought of as circles of influence, skill development, and promotion.  Not everyone will move from the Internal Support area to the Enterprise Integration domain.  Likewise not everyone will move from Enterprise Integration to Marketplace Development either.  These should be considered as key career milestones for the SAP or IT employee.

For insight on How To Navigate the SAP Business Transformation Journey you will need to re-think the SAP IT organization’s role in the enterprise.  Are you satisfied with being just a service provider?  Do you want to do more?  To make the transition you will have to evaluate the constraints and then do what is necessary to remove them. 

Dealing with SAP IT Organizational Constraints

Whether those constraints are time, resources (budget, technical infrastructure, etc), or people it is important to do a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) of each area as you engage.

One other key thing to note here is if you have relatively small SAP or IT support organization then the Level 1 and Level 2 maturity areas can be merged and use less extensive development efforts.  There are practical budget, time, and resource limits that many have to work with.

The Three Part SAP Organization Change

The first two levels of the maturity model involve SAP Service Delivery versus Value Delivery. The second and third levels are about SAP IT Convergence Beyond Business to IT Alignment.

The three maturity areas are:

1. Technical service delivery
2. Cost and process value delivery
3. Customer and marketplace integration

As senior IT leaders everywhere struggle with growing budget pressures it has never been more important to focus more aggressively on business value.  This will require Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization with a strong focus on Creating a Knowledge Centered Learning Organization.  By developing both the infrastructure to support a learning organization, as well as the mentoring, coaching, and development you will be well on your way to transforming your IT efforts and move toward becoming a business partner.

Next week’s post (which has already been written) will evaluate the specific maturity and development details for each stage in creating a genuine IT Converged SAP Center of Excellence!

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Contact me today through our site contact form ( http://www.r3now.com/contact ), phone, or e-mail.

Bill Wood
+1 (704) 905 – 5175

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Related Posts:

• Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization
• How To Navigate the SAP Business Transformation Journey
• 3 Development Phases for SAP Center of Excellence Maturity
• Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment
• Series on SAP Competency Center or SAP Center of Excellence

SAP Value Delivery

In my review of academic literature around SAP or ERP implementations I find some thought provoking items.  Recently I reviewed a study which helped me to form a more complete picture of important issues in IT delivery.  Even though I’ve been writing about it for years I gained a new clarity around evaluating some of the existing delivery models [FN1].  What it comes down to is are you looking for service delivery or business results for your SAP project?

SAP Service Delivery or Business Value Delivery – You Determine Your Future

Because my career started in business and later was exposed to SAP as part of the client core team, and then finally moved on to consulting, I have always recognized the importance of business value.  At the same time much of the System Integrator marketplace has been promoting the same old service delivery model they are familiar with.  To that end something has to change.  SAP, ERP, or Enterprise Application customers are looking for something more.  As a recent article I read noted, CIOs do NOT command the respect of the other key disciplines within the enterprise.  In fact, many of their “C” suite peers question whether or not the technology organization serves much of a useful purpose at all.  That my friends is a frightening and shocking perspective to me.  Stop and think about that a minute, many organizations question whether IT organizations serve a useful purpose in the enterprise.  Is it any wonder outsourcing and offshoring have become so popular?

What Does This Mean for SAP Projects?

At the end of your SAP project are you satisfied that a project was delivered?  Hopefully on time and on budget, but delivered nonetheless?  If you are satisfied that your SAP project was delivered on time and on budget then you are focused almost exclusively on service delivery. 

Many senior level IT leaders and delivery folks just want something to get in as quickly as possible.  This is exclusively a service delivery oriented project.  The only thing you are concerned about are the skills needed to address the particular technology / application / solution need right now.  This will NOT however provide you any type of ROI (Return on Investment) or ROE (Return on Equity) because ROI and ROE (along with other measures) are pure business metrics.  These are not IT metrics and do not measure things like uptime, response time, # of service tickets closed, etc.  The idea of ROI, ROE, or Asset Turns are USEFUL reflections of business activity and investor / owner value.  Although they may be seen as “relics” by IT folks they are still useful to understand if any value was delivered for the investment that is made.

Do you want services delivered or business benefits delivered?

Truth is, if you just want services delivered then no matter WHAT the sales pitch is ALL of the system integrators are the same.  For that matter, why even bother with a system integrator or SAP consultants at all?  Why not just go to your nearest college and recruit a bunch of really smart graduates for a temporary project and pay them about half what the system integrators charge for a temporary contract?  Seriously, why even bother with experienced consultants at all?  If SAP service delivery is your focus and not business results it is just a game of who can best make it through the sales process.  Whether it is IBM and their premium rates or Rajakrishna’s Consultant Shack and their all you can eat offshore rates.  If they can’t speak the local language it really doesn’t matter.  On the other hand if you are looking for business results that is entirely different.

If your only focus is on time and on budget then you are only looking for service delivery.  You are not looking for results, or business change, or IT transformation, or business strategy.

Let me make clear I am NOT suggesting on time and on budget projects are not important.  What I am suggesting is that if your only focus is on time and on budget then you are only looking for service delivery.  You are not looking for results, or business change, or IT transformation, or business strategy.  You are merely looking for resources to deliver services to get you to some date at some budget amount.  Any offshore or consulting shack fake will get you to a dollar amount (maybe not what you expect, but they will deliver “services”).

Where is the SAP Value Proposition Focus on Business Results?

While SAP Implementation is an Investment NOT an Event many organizations fail to consider their enterprise application deployments as strategic assets designed to produce business results.  The good news is that is changing.  So the next question is Where do you Start with SAP Return on Investment or SAP ROI?  This goes right back to the basics, you must focus on the WHY of Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment.  Is the effort about technology replacement or is there some business reason behind the initiative?

A recent IBM study under the heading of “The CIO as change catalyst” noted:

As the executive working at the nexus of business and technology, CIOs are uniquely qualified to help their companies leverage available tools to meet current economic challenges and to exploit the opportunities that will arise during this crisis—and opportunity will arise for those businesses bold enough to disrupt competition and restructure their industries. CIOs can help transform their companies by better capitalizing on the value of information assets.  They can help manage and mitigate business risk through better, more timely information. They can improve service management. They can lower enterprise-wide operational costs—including IT’s—through automation. [FN2]

SAP and IT organization heads are gaining insight and experience but at the same time they are being squeezed to cut costs and find value.

Focusing on value entails cutting discretionary spending, deploying resources for the highest return, bolstering core competencies and redefining relationships. Cash flow is central to survival and strategic flexibility, which means businesses and business units need to do more with less. Corporations must conserve capital and cut spending where it produces minimal return. Funds must then be redeployed to activities, products and markets that generate growth, improve margins and truly differentiate one business from another. [FN3]

Make Sure You Are Headed Down the Right SAP Path

To make the transition your SAP project must begin with Creating a Knowledge Centered Learning Organization for Business Transformation for IT Leadership.  Whether you are already live with SAP, in the middle of a project, or just starting out, I would strongly encourage you to get serious about Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization. 

What most customers do not know is that SAP has offered the “Value Delivery” methodology as part of the ASAP Methodology for many years

If you want to know Why Use the SAP ASAP Methodology? for your SAP project consider the fact that SAP has offered the “Value Delivery” methodology as part of the ASAP Methodology for many years.  Over the years it has taken many forms, all the way back to the early versions of the ASAP Methodology with the old “KPI” lists.  Today it is integrated into the ASAP Methodology structure. 

Isn’t it time to pursue the value delivery method regardless of whether your system integrator is capable of this or not?

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[FN1]  Kieninger, A. and Satzger, G., Risk-Reward Sharing in IT Service Contracts – A Service System View, 2011 Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[FN2]  From fear to value: CIO strategies for propelling business through the economic crisis, pg. 5.  Retrieved 4/24/2012 ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/common/ssi/sa/wh/n/ciw03057usen/CIW03057USEN.PDF

[FN3] Ibid. pg. 6.

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Contact me today through our site contact form ( http://www.r3now.com/contact ), phone, or e-mail.

Bill Wood
+1 (704) 905 – 5175

=========================

Related Posts:

• Tactics, Strategy, ROI, TCO and Realizing Business Benefit from SAP
• Using SAP to Improve Revenue and Profitability
• How To Navigate the SAP Business Transformation Journey
• Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment
• Phase 6 RUN SAP ASAP Methodology

SAP Success Criteria Formula

Some time ago I put together a synthesis of SAP success criteria based on academic literature and my own personal experience.  The table below is part of the list of SAP Success Factors for Vender Selection – Responsibility Matrix. For a more detailed explanation of each of the vendor related items see the posts listed in the Series on SAP ERP Project Success Factors.

In the prior series we went through SAP success factors with shared responsibilities between the company adopting the SAP application and the integrator they use for the implementation (listed below) but today we will briefly review customer-specific success items (further down).

Legend

A = Primary responsibility
z = Secondary responsibility (can influence success but limited control over success)

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The previous series did not address several of the customer-specific items where organizations should focus internal efforts.  As part of the recent series on Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization it is time to consider the SAP customer specific items now.  That list of items includes:

1.  SAP Project Senior Management Support – 2. SAP Project Champion

You just can’t overlook strong senior leadership support and a strong project champion for SAP project success.  If the wider organization perceives it is important enough for executive leadership they will see that it is a key initiative to focus on.  The Real Reason Executive Participation Creates IT Project Success is related to the nature of their position which deals with corporate strategy. The enterprise also needs an SAP project champion to help cut through red tape, encourage organizational support, and marshal additional resources when needed.  The best project champion would be at least one NON-IT executive so this isn’t seen as “just another IT thing.”  The contribution of a well respected and strong internal leader can not be overlooked.

3.  Empowered Business Process Team Members to Make Key Business Decisions About SAP Setup

If you want your SAP project to make any progress then it is absolutely critical to ensure core team members from the business are able to make many of the important process decisions. There will be some decisions that have more widespread organizational impact and the business users will need more senior level managers to make some decisions.  For example one of the key reasons for Using Your SAP Steering Committee for Business Transformation is to help mentor, guide, and direct business project participants in designing the future state business.  This would include making “critical decisions which the project team is unable to resolve (escalations or key business decisions).”  On the other hand if they are so compliant or risk averse that they will not make any decision without gaining consensus you may be headed for problems with the project timeline and budget.  This doesn’t mean you need an autocrat either, just someone who has enough organizational insight and connections to make the right decisions, escalate the ones that should be escalated, and has an open line of communication to keep interested stakeholders in the loop.

4.  Business Process Team Members who are DEDICATED to the SAP Project Delivery and Success

Too often I see core SAP project team members, whether from the business or the internal IT organization, who are not assigned exclusively to the SAP project.  While they are given the new role they often still have their “day job” to continue overseeing and managing.  This is a significant distraction from a very serious undertaking.  When an SAP project is done effectively, and what I call “correctly,” there is significant business change that takes place.  To help manage that change and to ensure business users have their needs most properly represented requires a full commitment to the SAP project.

Unfortunately there are a lot of system integrators who are happy to have your business users commit to just “part time” on the project.  It helps the system integrator increase their billing, allows for lots of excuses for missing dates, and provides them the opportunity to push any solution they deem you should have.  Because core team members from the enterprise have divided attentions they can not ensure the same level of quality if the SAP project were their only focus.

6.  SAP project goals and success criteria

I was recently reading an article where a study of several hundred companies who had implemented enterprise applications were asked about having defined business related goals and success criteria.  The referenced study suggested only 4% of companies who implement enterprise applications complete the entire process of defining goals and success criteria and then actually follow up on seeing that they achieved the promised benefits. 

To achieve Sustained Business Value from SAP Business Software it is important to incorporate a Change Management Program within the SAP / IT Organization itself which is focused on Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment.  Another key part of the goals and success criteria is to Change How You Look at SAP to Create ROI because SAP Implementation is an Investment NOT an Event.

14.  Business process engineering – interdepartmental cooperation

 This is directly related to the first 3 items in this list:

• Senior Management Support (and steering committee makeup)
• SAP project champion
• Empowered business project team decision makers

Because of the nature of the integration in SAP some of the data entry responsibilities change, for both upstream and downstream process steps which may be in different departments.  There are also significant process changes and responsibility changes as a result of the SAP implementation.  All of these require a focus on processes, communication, and cooperation.  Because this can also be an area of political “friction” between departments or leaders it is critical to have a strong executive SAP project champion. That executive sponsor can help to reduce a some of the inter-departmental “border wars.”

24.  Company end-user involvement and end-user testing

Even a great implementation effort can turn into a painful disaster at go-live if end users are not prepared to use the new system, security and authorizations are a mess (VERY typical), and testing was not thoroughly performed.  Unlike other systems which were built in silos and without the level of integration a data or process mistake that is not uncovered during testing can have significant up and downstream effects.  Unwinding and correcting the error can prove to be very challenging.

For all of these items I only touched the surface, but none of these items can be ignored and are important for a successful SAP project.  Every one of these items is completely within the control of the enterprise or organization who implements SAP.  Good luck on your SAP journey but be sure to pay special attention to all of these success criteria for your SAP project which are provided in more detail in the Series on SAP ERP Project Success Factors.

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Contact me today through our site contact form ( http://www.r3now.com/contact ), phone, or e-mail.

Bill Wood
+1 (704) 905 – 5175

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Related Posts:

• SAP System Vendor Project Success Criteria 1
• Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment
• Tactics, Strategy, ROI, TCO and Realizing Business Benefit from SAP
• How To Navigate the SAP Business Transformation Journey
• Steering Committee Governance for an SAP Center of Excellence

R3Now Knowledge Management

This is a continuation of Business Transformation for IT Leadership and is part of a journey around Organizational Change Management Inside the IT Support Organization .  To achieve an active, vibrant, knowledge-sharing learning organization requires some baseline understanding of what your goals are.  You need a culture that produces, organizes, disseminates, applies, and then refines information (see the image to the left).

This leads me to the next key point of which few people who call themselves “knowledge managers” have much understanding of –, information management is NOT knowledge management.  But both information management AND knowledge management are critical components of a learning organization.   

Information is the vehicle, knowledge is the destination

What is Knowledge?

Knowledge is the application of information, in a particular context, coupled with experience -–, it is NOT in some system.   Information is stored in systems, knowledge is stored in people.  Bill Wood, 2006.

Creating a Knowledge Centered Learning Organization is Really Exciting! (In the Sales Material)

Lots of folks get excited about the idea and even the prospects of creating a learning organization.  Achieving a vibrant learning organization with a knowledge sharing culture can reap huge rewards for a company’s competitive position in the marketplace.

Even the Harvard Business Review has gotten on board and sells a few “knowledge products” of their own.  Their pitch suggests that creating a learning organization leads to competitive business advantage.  After all, when you have a workforce which learns and applies new knowledge, new techniques, new methods to addressing the marketplace you are creating competitive advantage.  It is more than a pitch however and can in fact make a significant impact on your business and organization.

A learning organization requires a social component (people), delivery architecture (technology), and a structured method to share information (process).  By transforming your SAP / IT Organization into a learning organization you are taking the first steps to bridge the gap between an enterprise focus and an external market or customer focus.

A learning organization requires motivation

The Wheels Fell Off My Learning Organization Bus

You’re excited about the possibilities, you announce your thoughts to your leadership, and you can hear a pin drop.  Except for Joe the brown-noser no one is jumping on your bus! Why should they?  It sounds like another fad, another task, something else to monitor.  It sounds like you’re talking about one of their worst fears and frustrations–, you’re talking dynamic cultural transformation and they’re hearing social media and more work.  Your managers are thinking “Have you lost your mind?  How do I manage all this social media stuff when I have to meet my other goals?”  My employees are already frayed, I have 2 employees going through a divorce, one of the two cries half the day and the other is despondent.  Their emotional weight and negative energy are dragging down two of my departments and now I have to play policeman around social media junk?

Get the Employees ON the Bus First (BEFORE You Start to Drive!)

Before you start promoting the idea of creating a learning organization it is important to do this in manageable and incremental steps.  The key is in making sure the key resources are ON the bus before you try to make the trip.  Otherwise it might be a pretty lonely trip with an empty bus!  It is important to get the broader business community in a more accepting posture for your SAP / IT organizational changes by using Change Management Strategies and Knowledge Transfer Processes for a Successful SAP Project 1. 

Lasting Change Begins at Home

As part of a 3 tier process for transforming your SAP or IT support organization you might begin with Change Management Strategies and Knowledge Transfer Processes for a Successful SAP Project 2 so the business gains greater application maturity.  As part of that internal focus it is just as important to address the How To Steps in the SAP Business Transformation Journey within your SAP IT organization.

The Right Information Right Now

The goal for the first phase is the right information right now within the SAP/IT Organization.  After the internal IT support organization is immersed in information sharing it can then be rolled out systematically to the other two key areas of the Enterprise and then to the broader marketplace.

Build the infrastructure to support a learning organization first

The right approach consists of three tiers which look like concentric circles.  These consist of creating a learning environment within the IT organization itself.  This must include both push and pull tools for collaboration and information exchange.  From there, the ability to build ad hoc and dynamic groups for decision-making, skills use, process insight, and other resource needs become the focus. 

This collaboration approach is the first step to ERP III – Is the Integration of Collaboration the Future of Enterprise Applications?  The three key phases to this organizational transformation include:

• Make use of collaboration and social media tools within the organization
• Deploy both push and pull information tools to leverage information resources
• Create an internal employee skills base (like an internal LinkedIn)

Once the information sharing infrastructure is in place, then you can focus on creating an information consuming culture within your SAP or IT organization.  In other words, build the infrastructure to support a learning organization first!

High Level Steps to Build a Knowledge Based Learning Organization

1. Build out the push / pull information infrastructure
2. Make participation part of the goals / review / bonus structure
3. Pilot this inside the IT organization
4. Roll out to the entire IT organization
5. Scale up and modify push / pull infrastructure.
6. Pilot within a BU or business organization (i.e. begin to converge IT and the business)
7. Capture lessons learned and adjust then roll out to the broader business community.
8. Repeat the steps to roll out to the customer base…
9. Repeat the steps to roll out to broader (possibly targeted) market segments

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Contact me today through our site contact form ( http://www.r3now.com/contact ), phone, or e-mail.

Bill Wood
+1 (704) 905 – 5175

=========================

Related Posts:

• Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization
• How To Navigate the SAP Business Transformation Journey
• Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment
• ERP III – Is the Integration of Collaboration the Future of Enterprise Applications
• SAP, ERP III, SOA — Learning Organizations through Social Media Collaboration

SAP User Experience

Over a decade ago SAP embarked on a journey to revamp their outdated user interface.  Enter “nJoy” SAP with all of the new “N” transactions.  But it has been over a decade now and other than some nice refinements to the GUI not much has changed.  A decade in the technology space is like a century in other areas.  Isn’t it time to take a hard look at the application suite again?

So you have the cute “Netweaver Business Client” but there hasn’t been a lot done to change the user experience for SAP applications.

Features, Functionality, Usability, and Performance Directly Translate Into User Experience

SAP Features, Functionality, and German Engineering

Let’s look at SAP’s years of leadership in the features and functionality area of Enterprise applications:

• No matter what any other enterprise software vendor claims they can not come close to the depth of enterprise application experience SAP has.  A recent SAP fact sheet claims more than 183,000 customers in more than 130 countries (retrieved 4/8/2012).

• SAP supports at least 22 major industry vertical solutions [FN1] covering such diverse areas as Automotive, Banking, Chemicals, Governement (Public Sector), High Tech, Mining, Pharmaceutical, Retail, etc.  Each of these areas has its own specialized process nuances and the application additions require specialized support.

The SAP application suite is massive as well.  If you’ve ever looked at an SAP price list you’ve probably been thoroughly confused and overwhelmed.  The SAP enterprise application footprint is gigantic.  SAP R&D spend for 2011 was about 13.5% of gross revenue (or about 1.9B Euros) and with a few exceptions SAP R&D spend is generally in the double-digit area of gross revenue.  Think about that, 1.9B Euros in R&D spend is more than the gross revenue of most of their competitors enterprise application sales.

Consider the depth and breadth of application functionality in the context of the various solution options available (see Footnote 2 below for a SMALL sample from ONE Application Component area) [FN2].  If you’ve ever had to deal with an SAP price-list trying to develop enterprise solution architecture, or license requirements, you may quickly become overwhelmed by the massive feature and functionality landscape. 

SAP Performance Options

Many of SAP’s products are hardware and database agnostic.  I don’t mean that it will run on any hardware, or any database, but it will run on most major platforms.  Because of the way the applications are structured they will also run in what SAP callls “2 tier” or “3 tier” landscapes.  This means the applications are scalable, in both size and performance, to whatever level of hardware investment you decide.

With the introduction of SAP’s HANA in memory computing solution(s), performance within the application is changing by orders of magnitude.  Massive amounts of data and programs are now loaded into, and then read from memory rather than from hard drives.

Whether you want to scale up or use HANA system performance should never be an issue.

Usability, Usability on the Wall, Who’s the Fairest of Them All?

Now we get to the heart of the matter.  As demonstrated SAP is a GREAT engineering company with huge R&D spend, a comprehensive industry solution portfolio, and a mountain of enterprise application options.  They’re German, what did you expect? Scalability and performance are not issues so the only area left is usability.

The “nJoy” program is about a decade and a half old.  In technology terms that is like the difference between the Stone Age and the industrial Revolution.

Unfortunately on the user experience curve they are in the IT Stone Age.  While there are great functionality enhancements coming out in the various enhancement packs at the same time the ability to use the application suffers.  Each major version of the SAP GUI offers a more pleasing screen, but it is still the same underlying data entry requirement–, the same fields, the same tabs, the same screens, the same old everything with a little bit of “lipstick” added.  But it is still the same fat, bloated, over-engineered user experience. 

SAP User Experience Customizing Pain

Please, don’t tell me about GUI XT or any of the other “customizing” options for screen layouts.  The starting point stinks and then you expect a customer to pay (consulting time, employee time, system integrator time, etc.) to enhance or modify the screens.  The SAP enhancement or modification option is not simple either — a simple screen enhancement is a significant engineering undertaking.  Unlike several modern “drag and drop” applications SAP requires development work to add new fields, change field labels, populate data in those fields during transaction run time, screen development is needed to “build” a new screen layout, and then you have to reassign a new “Z” transaction with copies of the modified underlying programs, adjust security, etc.  It takes a major engineering effort to make SMALL changes to the user experience.  SAP you have GOT to change this!  Your customers should be able to focus on the user interface without having to worry about all of the underlying engineering.

A Model for the SAP User Experience

Recently I offered The PERFECT SAP Acquisition Target in a CRM application called “SugarCRM.” As an SAP consultant who wants to see SAP continue to do well there are a lot of lessons that can be learned from them.  They are a cloud vendor who has set their target on Salesforce.com.  They provide a great navigation and ease of use experience.  And best of all, you can alter field labels, hide fields, add custom fields, completely change the layout of screens, and a whole host of other things without having to do any coding at all. Even if this isn’t an acquisition possibility for SAP it might help some of those German engineers in the SAP CRM space to download the opensource version and explore it.  Maybe they will learn a little something from a scrappy upstart who recently received $46 million in venture capital.  And this was from several VC organizations so a number of investors are betting millions on SugarCRM’s marketplace viability–, even in a marketplace saturated by salesforce.com and Microsoft.

Apple has Proven that User Experience Can MAKE the Market by Addressing Customer Pain Points

It’s been a long time SAP since you have seriously considered a remake of the user experience.  Since then Apple has proven that addressing customer “pain points” is a market winner. It’s about time to take another hard look at the user interface and user interactions because SAP “usability” has always been a customer pain point.  The “nJoy” program is about a decade and a half old.  In technology terms that is like the difference between the Stone Age and the industrial Revolution.  Don’t you think it’s time to get really serious about the user experience paradigm?

==============

[FN1] Retrieved 4/8/2012 from http://help.sap.com/industries.  Along with this there are “sub” solutions within several of the industries and across industries.

[FN2]

SAP Application Components

like SAP Auto-ID Infrastructure, SAP BOBJ Spend Performance Mgmt, SAP CRM, SAP ERP, SAP SCM, SAP SNC, SAP SRM, …

SAP Best Practices

SAP Best Practices packages are available in different country versions for various industries

SAP BusinessObjects portfolio

like Address Directories & Reference Data, Crystal Reports Viewer, SBOP Data Federator, SBOP Enterprise, SBOP Extended Analytics, SBOP Text Analysis, …

SAP Business One

like SAP Business One 8.8, SAP Business One 2007, Crystal Reports for B1, Remote Support Platform for B1, …

SAP Connectors

like Business Connector, …

SAP Content

like BI CONT, SAP Business ByDesign CONTENT, …

SAP Cryptographic Software

like SAP Cryptographic Library, …

SAP Development Projects

like customer-specific development projects software, …

SAP Education Products

like Acrobat Con Learning by Adobe, Knowledge Acceleration, RWD Info Pak Suite, SAP Productivity Pak by RWD, SAP UEM by KNOA, Training Content for SAP KW, …

SAP Frontend Components

like NetWeaver Business Client, SAP GUI for Windows, SAP GUI for JAVA, SAP ITS, SAP IGS, …

SAP In-Memory (SAP HANA)

like SAP HANA Enterprise Edition, SAP HANA Enterprise Ext. Edit., SAP HANA Platform Edition

SAP Mobile Solutions

like MOB ACCAPROVER INT, MOB HR APPROVAL INT, MOB MGR INSIGHT IPD, …

SAP NetWeaver and complementary products

like SAP NetWeaver, SAP NetWeaver CE, SAP NetWeaver Mobile, SAP NW Identity Management, SAP MDM, SAP Content Server, …

SAP On-Demand Solutions

like SAP Sales OD Integration

SAP Rapid Deployment solutions

like SAP Business Communication Management rapid-deployment solution, SAP CRM rapid-deployment solution for Sales, Marketing, and Service, SAP IT Service Desk Operation rapid-deployment solution, …

SAP Solution Extensions by Partners

like BOBJ XBRL Publishing UBMatrix, SAP CPS Full (Scheduler), SAP Ext. Diagn. by CA Wily, SAP IncentivePayback by Vistex, SAP Quality Center by HP, …

SAP Solutions for Governance, Risk, and Compliance

like SAP Global Trade Services, SAP GRC Access Control, SAP Process Control, SAP Risk Management, SAP Nota Fiscal Electronica, …

SAP Technology Components

like LV for Solution Manager, Remote Support Component, SAP Landscape Transformation, SAP Solution Manager, SAP Support Enablement Package, SAP TAO, …

Adapters

like Informatica, IWay, Seeburger, for SAP NetWeaver 04 (EP Edition), for SAP XI 2.0, …

Composite Applications

like Industry Composites Applications (SAP COMP App for BOP, for E-Tax) SAP DOCB, SAP CQM, SAP XIEP, SAP XLPO, SAP SOP, …

Country-specific Add-Ons

like HR-CIS, SAP Core CEE, SAP E-Recruiting – LOCFR, SAP HR-CEE, SAP IS-U/LOCIN, SAP IS-UT CEE, SAP Real Estate CEE, …

Fuzzy! Products

like Fuzzy! Analyzer, Fuzzy! Bank, Fuzzy!Boykottcheck, Fuzzy! Double, Fuzzy! Post, Fuzzy! Umzug, …

Industry-specific Components

like Banking Services from SAP, SAP Bank Analyzer, SAP CFM, SAP Deposits Management, SAP Discrete Industries, SAP Insurance, SAP IS-U, SAP Mill Products, SAP Oil & Gas, SAP Patient Management, SAP Retail, SAP Trade Industry Demand Mgmt, …

Miscellaneous Components

like AppServer LINUXx86 64 on 6.40, Convergence Tool, SAP Kernel, …

Plug-Ins

like SAP Plug-In, SAP Enterprise Portal Plug-In, SAP Solution Tools, …

Supplementary Components for Cross Industry Solutions

like Project Management, Life-Cycle Data Management (SAP PLM Integrations), SAP Railcar Management, SAP Test Data Migration Server, SAP Visual Basis, …

Sybase Products

like AFARIA, Sybase Mobile Sales, Sybase Mobile Workflow, Sybase Unwired Platform, …

=========================

Contact me today through our site contact form ( http://www.r3now.com/contact ), phone, or e-mail.

Bill Wood
+1 (704) 905 – 5175

=========================

Related Posts:

• SAP Implementation Projects: Still Crazy After All These Years
• Using SAP to Improve Revenue and Profitability
• The PERFECT SAP Acquisition Target
• Competitive Pressures and Value Propositions, Is Lean the Answer?
• Tactics, Strategy, ROI, TCO and Realizing Business Benefit from SAP

SAP Business IT Convergence

The last few weeks have focused on the path for IT leaders to become strategic business partners.  Academic research shows that for Sustained Business Value from SAP Business Software you must focus technology implementation efforts on business benefits.  This includes metrics to determine if business goals were achieved by the software implementation effort.

Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment was about case studies which evaluated organizations which applied a business benefits approach.  These case studies determined the business benefits focus also requires organizational change management.  Several years before these case studies I wrote about SAP as a Change Enabler which provides a good summary of what the authors found in their 35 page study. 

On this journey to SAP Enabled Business Transformation for IT Leadership we reviewed some of the senior leadership work by CIO Magazine and their 3 stage competency model of:

• Internal Focus
• Enterprise Focus
• External Focus

Insight and activities to address the Internal Focus area were provided in the How To Steps in the SAP Business Transformation Journey and the Phase 6 RUN SAP ASAP Methodology.  This post will offer insight on taking your SAP or IT organization to the next level.  The focus now is on the Enterprise area with additional efforts to prepare your SAP IT support organization for External focus.

Making SAP About Business Transformation and Business Benefit

To move your SAP organization to the next level means your efforts must take SAP IT Convergence Beyond Business to IT Alignment.  As previously discussed, the Internal Focus in this maturity model is about “keeping the lights on” with your enterprise systems.  The next level requires a deliberate focus on convergence by IT leadership because SAP IT Convergence is About Business Focused Integration–, it is NOT about IT!

IT leaders must be deliberate about working through a full IT competency model–, there are no shortcuts! 

There is no “magical formula” for suddenly transforming your SAP or IT organization into a market and customer focused powerhouse.  It is a methodical path driven by an internal (senior level) champion to move the entire IT organization through the preliminary steps before arriving at the external market / customer / business competitive pressure focus.  Here is the ugly reality, no matter how smart, talented, diligent, hardworking, dedicated, or committed your IT staff are, or how hard you work as a leader, until you gain a trusted peer relationship with the business any externally focused efforts will not be well received.  The good news for many SAP organizations who provided great business resources for your SAP project is that you have a lot of talent to tap into to help bridge the business gap for an Enterprise Focus.

Some of the Steps to Achieve SAP IT Convergence require deliberate efforts at internal SAP support organization transformation.  A few maturity characteristics of that enterprise focus are:

• SAP and IT staff communications, internally and externally, are more in business language rather than technology.
• Proactively seeks out new business opportunities.
• Able to interpret, and then implement, business marketplace requirements by turning them into technology solutions.
• Adapts to business market conditions.
• Not worried about the latest “techie buzz” like social media (Twitter, Facebook), cloud, etc. unless there is a direct business marketplace connection.

To be effective you must work at Integrating Business Stakeholders as Part of SAP IT Convergence.  I call a “converged” SAP or IT organization a “Center of Excellence” because it goes far beyond the SAP Center of Expertise.  The SAP Center of Excellence concept should not to be confused with SAP’s “borrowing” of the term in some of the sales literature.  Generally when SAP refers to a “Center of Excellence” they are talking about their “lights on” support oriented “Center of Expertise” where you as the customer take care of some of the support you pay them for.  To achieve this you need continued and ongoing Steering Committee Governance for an SAP Center of Excellence.

Organizational Change for the SAP and IT staff

One of the key arrangements I have seen over the years, which some of the commentators are beginning to explore, is a dual IT organization.  One part focuses on day to day support (“lights on”) while the other part addresses key business needs in the business environment.

1) Create a solid internal “anchor” focus with emphasis on bridging the business perception of any “capability/expectation gap” (Louie Ehrlich, President, Chevron Information Technology Company, and CIO, Chevron Corp).

That capability / expectation gap is related to taking care of the “lights on” IT functions in such a way that IT is effective and reliable.  The internal focus is where IT operates almost like a utility, the electricity is on but we really don’t think about it unless it goes out and then it is a big disruption because it is generally so reliable.

2) Try to develop more internal employee “exchange programs”.  This is an effective approach to build bridges between business and IT.  But it really should go both ways.  Not just IT embedded into the business, but certain business stakeholders embedded into IT.  This is one way to “be deliberate” integrating your IT organization into the business.

Work to create a “converged” IT organization RATHER than an “aligned” IT organization. 

As my previous post on ERP II & ERP III – SAP Business IT Revolution, from a TechRepublic.com article:

“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…”

Creating a Learning Organization Through Collaboration and Knowledge Management

Another key phase which we may visit in the future is about creating a “learning organization” first within the circles of the SAP IT organization, and then within the broader business community.  This collaboration network will serve as a critical foundation for the third stage, or the “external” focus.  In ERP III – Is the Integration of Collaboration the Future of Enterprise Applications we take a look at Learning Organizations, Knowledge Transfer, and Knowledge Management (rather than information management). 

=========================

Contact me today through our site contact form ( http://www.r3now.com/contact ), phone, or e-mail.

Bill Wood
+1 (704) 905 – 5175

=========================

Related Posts:

• How To Navigate the SAP Business Transformation Journey
• Creating a Knowledge Centered Learning Organization
• SAP, ERP III, SOA — Learning Organizations through Social Media Collaboration
• 3 Development Phases for SAP Center of Excellence Maturity
• SAP Service Provider to Business Peer Through Center of Excellence Maturity

As of today it seems there are few of the SAP partners who are familiar with the latest Roadmap Phase 6–, the “RUN” ASAP Methodology enhancement.  This methodology enhancement is probably one of the most significant methodology changes offered since ASAP was originally introduced.  This is the key phase which relates to IT organizational maturity, to integration of the SAP support organization into the business after you go live.  In other words, this is one of the critical success factors for your SAP program.  That critical success factor is that SAP Program Management Requires a Type of CMMI.

Before we go into the little known Roadmap Phase 6 “RUN” enhancement let’s take a quick look at the first 5 phases of the SAP ASAP methodology most of us are familiar with:

1. Project Preparation (before the consultants begin)

• Project goals and objectives
• Clarify scope
• Schedule, budget plan, major milestones, and deliverables
• First pass at a WBS and task based project plan.
• Project organization, committees, and resources

2. Business Blueprint

• Design the future state
• Revise and refine the project plan
• Gain approval of all project templates and deliverables
• Refine scope, resources, and schedule

3. Realization

• Build the solution
• Test / adjust / correct the solution
• Develop end-user training (courses, logistics, schedules, etc.)

4. Final Preparation

• Finalize end-user based testing, user acceptance testing
• Perform final data conversion rehearsals (mock conversions with live data)
• Test the final cutover script
• Resolve any open issues or gaps
• Perform final setup activities related to printing, interfaces, external systems, third party software, etc.

5. Go-Live

• Transition the enterprise to the new SAP system
• Support the live environment with any needed fixes or enhancements
• Optimize system performance
• Transition to site support (help desk, etc.)
• Close the project

At a very high level this is the SAP ASAP Methodology (without the latest addition).  But what about Phase 6?  What about the RUN ASAP Methodology?

RUN SAP ASAP Methodology

A few years ago SAP introduced a stand-alone version of this approach and methodology for post go-live SAP system support.  It is now incorporated as a key part of the overall ASAP Methodology in version 7.x onward.

While Roadmap Phase 6 is mostly focused on moving customers along to independent support, and toward an SAP Certified Center of Expertise (SAP CCoE) there is much more to this phase.  The most comprehensive tools, resources, templates, and development are around empowering SAP customers to support their own systems.  This is part of the “Internal” focus as I have described it in SAP Enabled Business Transformation for IT Leadership. From an SAP perspective there are 2 key reasons why this portion of the ASAP Methodology enhancement is “built out” 1) the more you support your implementation the less maintenance and support you need from SAP (i.e. you are carrying some of the cost of your own support), and 2) that is the relatively “easy” part of the support paradigm.

See the Series on SAP Competency Center or SAP Center of Excellence for supplemental material to make the transition beyond the “internal” focus to Enterprise and eventually External market focus.

While the Phase 6 RUN ASAP Methodology focuses heavily on areas of support which benefit SAP there are several areas which are critical for the strategic and business integrated IT organization.  The SAP “Certified Center of Expertise” is the first step to ensuring you gain the trust and confidence of your business counterparts.  The Phase 6 RUN ASAP Methodology does not end with that first portion which benefits SAP.  Even though the material and templates are sparse for moving very far beyond this “internal” (CoE) focus there is still significant substance and some meaningful templates for moving your SAP organization to the next level of “enterprise” focus.  This is where your SAP support organization begins gaining wider acceptance as a business peer.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to get familiar with the Phase 6 RUN ASAP Methodology section you might want to do that today! 

This phase should be reviewed during the Project Preparation phase and elements of the future state SAP organization incorporated into your overall SAP project plan, project approach, goals, milestones, deliverables, and especially any Organization Change Management program you begin.  Part of that initial evaluation of the RUN Methodology enhancement would be an internal organizational assessment to get a baseline of where you are, as well as what it will take to go to the next level by the time the project goes live.  THIS should be a critical part of your project planning right from the beginning.

If you are an SAP customer, or if you are considering an SAP solution and would like access to the SAP ASAP Methodology and tools contact me today.

=========================

Contact me today through our site contact form ( http://www.r3now.com/contact ), phone, or e-mail.

Bill Wood
+1 (704) 905 – 5175

=========================

Related Posts:

• SAP Service Delivery versus Value Delivery
• SAP System Vendor Project Success Criteria 1
• SAP Customer Responsibility for SAP Project Success
• How To Navigate the SAP Business Transformation Journey
• Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment

SAP Business Transformation

One of the drivers for this continuing Series on SAP Competency Center or SAP Center of Excellence is the desire for so many senior IT leaders to become future-state business strategist CIOs.  Last week’s post provided the introduction of SAP Enabled Business Transformation for IT Leadership–, a key requirement for senior IT leaders to become strategic business peers.  

Last week’s post introduced the three key milestones on the journey to the future-state business strategist IT leader–, especially if you have any thoughts about ever becoming a CIO.  In 2010 the CIO Executive Council conducted a study of some 200 selected business leaders.  They wanted to “identify goals, challenges and best practices among a representative population of top IT leaders.”  The survey indicated that fully 80% of these leaders wanted to advance to the “future-state, business strategist CIO position.”  As the last post addressed, this objective requires 3 stages IT leaders must move their organization through: internal focus, enterprise focus, and then external focus.  In terms of organizational maturity this means going from service provider to business partner to business peer.

The reason I focus on the SAP Center of Excellence concept [FN1] is that model provides any IT organization undergoing transition or transformation with an understandable future-state to work toward.  Having that future state is also why maturity models have become so popular.  Maturity models, like the SAP Center of Excellence, provide a roadmap to build the structure around for reaching your destination.

Beyond a mountain of SAP service providers pushing for outsourcing there is little information about building, maintaining, and then delivering excellence in a live SAP organization.

The Internally Focused SAP IT Organization

-          The Internal IT Focus correlates to the basic IT service provider model.

To summarize, the Internal IT Focus is about IT leadership being concerned with system stabilization, fixing problems, and addressing any high priority changes or needs.  At this point your SAP IT Organization activities are all about the “care and feeding” of the new SAP system–, basic system maintenance and support.  Some commentators refer to this as “keeping the lights on.”

At this stage the critical SAP IT organization development activities include:

• Gaining functional competence with the SAP applications (maintenance for the support staff, providing further training and knowledge transfer for end users).
• Developing leadership skills to manage internal SAP / IT initiatives (SAP project management, team leadership, blueprinting, scoping, estimating, etc.).
• Proper data management (data governance, correction, and ongoing refinement).
• Managing system security.
• SAP Help Desk and support operations.
• Maintaining hardware / system responsiveness.

The IT Leadership Domain in this area is as functional head or basic management.

Many organizations are eligible to receive the SAP Certified Customer Center of Expertise designation at this point.  However this is only a service provider model and offers little value to the business.

The Business Aligned SAP IT Organization

-          Enterprise Integration is where the IT organization transitions from service provider to business partner through change management and organizational transformation.

The second key competency is Enterprise Integration, or, as many previous commentators have called it “business to IT alignment” but it is actually Beyond Technology Alignment.  At this stage the IT organization is beginning to develop a level of business understanding, business awareness, and taking the first steps to business integration.  

The biggest problem at this stage is with system integrators and staffing firms who promote the business and technical divide by providing resources who are clearly not real consultants.  To get past this you as the customer are responsible for FIXING Stupid SAP Vendor – Partner Selection RFI – RFP Processes and using Screening and Interview Methods to Find the Right Consultant – Part 2. Think about this a moment, if your SAP implementation vendor provides “consultants” who do not even understand business, or have barriers to actually consulting, do you expect your own internal IT organization to “automagically” bridge the gap?  The internal resources generally have limited or no SAP exposure.

At this stage the critical SAP organizational development activities include:

• More direct interaction with business users, supervisors, and business leaders (earning trust).
• Participating in resolving business challenges by offering technology options to HELP the business address their concerns.
• Speaking in business terms about technology solutions.
• Collaborating with business users across different departments to solve complex or interrelated challenges and problems (for one method to do this with SAP, see SAP, ERP III, SOA — Learning Organizations through Social Media Collaboration
• Overall Change Management leadership by the IT organization
  • Investment in training and development around organization change management
  • Leadership / Management training of IT employees.
  • Periodic “shadow” or “employee exchange” programs for SAP employees to perform various business functions from the end-user and supervisory perspective.
  • Regular IT meetings (generally weekly) on how technology is being applied to company vision, strategy, and business goals.
  • Regular meetings (generally monthly) with various business stakeholders to provide progress in applying technology to business vision, strategy, and goals as well as seeking new areas of opportunity.  This is part of the Steering Committee Governance for an SAP Center of Excellence and why Using Your SAP Steering Committee for Business Transformation is critical for SAP program success.

The IT Leadership Domain in this area is as transformational leader with heavy organizational change and integration.

What about External Focus for the SAP Organization?

The IT Leadership Domain in this area is strategic leadership with a heavy emphasis on external market forces, sales, revenue generation, and improved company products / services.

We will look at some of the key activities related to the final step on this journey in a future post.  This is where the divide between business and IT is changed so that the SAP support organization is seen as a business peer and is respected and even sought out for their strategic contribution to overall business direction.

======================

[FN1]  It didn’t hurt that Michael Doane and I used to work together at Grant Thornton in the late 90’s on SAP projects, or that we’ve periodically stayed in touch since then.  Mr. Doane is one of the original advocates of approaching SAP implementations from the perspective of planning for the long term use of the system rather than just getting through a project.  An approach he refers to as building a “Center of Excellence” for the productive SAP instance.

=========================

Contact me today through our site contact form ( http://www.r3now.com/contact ), phone, or e-mail.

Bill Wood
+1 (704) 905 – 5175

=========================

Related Posts:

• Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment
• Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization
• Series on SAP Competency Center or SAP Center of Excellence
• SAP Service Delivery versus Value Delivery
• Creating a Knowledge Centered Learning Organization

SAP Business Transformation

Continuing the Journey to the SAP-Business-Converged Center of Excellence

Recently I was doing research on senior IT leadership and how they can start the business convergence journey of their technically focused organizations.  Some interesting approaches and maturity models are available for senior executives but little direction for the delivery organization.

What I found is that CIO magazine established a CIO Executive Council for doing research on challenges faced by senior IT leaders.  As a result of this research they developed a great senior IT leader competency model which is easily applied to transforming the SAP enterprise.  Better still, their CIO competency also correlates well to SAP’s RUN methodology (part of the new integrated SAP ASAP Implementation Methodology).

The competency model which can be adapted to SAP transformation consists of three stages:

• Internal IT Focus
• Enterprise Integration
• External Business drivers

The Chevron CIO Journey Through the States of Internal to Enterprise to External

As Louie Ehrlich, President, Chevron Information Technology Company, and CIO, Chevron Corp described his journey of discovery around the first two key areas:

The hard lesson I learned as a CIO looking to advance my role and serve as a business strategist is that one must recognize that there is likely to be a capability/expectation gap, and that this gap doesn’t go away by itself. It’s something that we as [senior IT leaders] have to close.

In my view, the expectation gap is influenced by three factors. The first factor is the state of the fundamentals of your IT environment. Is it cost effective? Is it reliable? If it isn’t, then by definition your role needs to be one of IT function leader. Without that foundation, nothing else is possible.

The second factor is the capabilities and business knowledge of the IT function. Do you have an IT employee base with the experience and ability to bring strategic business value to the company?  If not, then again – much of your focus should be as the IT function leader. The first and second factors are within our control.  [FN1]

Ehrlich’s experience, insight, and direction is part of The Real Reason Executive Participation Creates IT Project Success.  The executive guidance provides invaluable insight which ultimately aligns to business needs and requirements.

The Current State of SAP Business Transformation Needs Serious Attention

You know you’ve got a serious problem when the user community expresses these (all to common) frustrations: “the IT group just doesn’t get it!” or “they think they know what I deal with but they have no clue,” or worse still “I’m sick of them putting something in and just throwing it at me and saying here it is…”

Too often many SAP enabled enterprises have IT organizations who genuinely do not appreciate their role in the enterprise.  Many SAP IT organizations seem to lack the critical understanding that technology in the enterprise is there to further business needs.

If you really want to find out the business perspective of your IT organization why don’t you do an internal poll asking how true those user statements are on a scale of 1 – 5.  You might be shocked by the answer.

A Change Program for the SAP Organization is Needed

You can use SAP as a Change Enabler to achieve tremendous benefits throughout the enterprise with the right approach.  But as my former colleague and friend Michael Doane has suggested by using a marriage vs. wedding analogy, SAP Implementation is an Investment NOT an Event!

Often the consultants who have done SAP for any period of time focus on how to help the business make the transition to the new system.  Unfortunately in the course of the project we rarely focus on helping the SAP support organization make the transition to business partner.  Instead we focus on setting up help desks, support, data management, etc.

To achieve Sustained Business Value from SAP Business Software it is important to incorporate a Change Management Program within the SAP / IT Organization itself which is focused on Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment. 

The SAP Enabled IT Organization’s Perspective Needs Internal Change Management

As part of the approach to gain real competitive advantage in the business marketplace you must Change How You Look at SAP to Create ROI because SAP Implementation is an Investment NOT an Event.  Some organizations are taking this approach as they seek employees who are “business analysts” rather than merely functional consultants.  In other words they are looking for employees who clearly have a business background as well as SAP experience.

It is important to incorporate a Change Management Program within the SAP / IT Organization itself

The SAP organization MUST focus on developing depth of business skills and business collaboration.  Failing to do this will only result in a loss of credibility for the SAP enabled IT organization.  As long as that is the perception of the broader user community, and especially of business leadership, the SAP / IT organization will not be seen as a business peer.  In fact, until this internal frustration and distrust is addressed there will be a natural resistance on the part of the broader business community to allow IT to become a business partner.

======================

Next week we will start to look at some steps IT leaders can take to change their technically focused culture.

======================

[FN1] Closing the Expectations Gap, CIO Dashboard

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Contact me today through our site contact form ( http://www.r3now.com/contact ), phone, or e-mail.

Bill Wood
+1 (704) 905 – 5175

=========================

Related Posts:

• How To Navigate the SAP Business Transformation Journey
• Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment
• SAP Service Provider to Business Peer Through Center of Excellence Maturity
• SAP Service Delivery versus Value Delivery
• Steering Committee Governance for an SAP Center of Excellence