SAP & ERP Consulting from the Customer Point of View

Business Systems

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

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

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

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

The Coming SAP Business Technology Revolution

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

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

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

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

What Can Skilled SAP Consultants Do to Prevent Becoming Commodities?

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

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

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

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

Related Posts:

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

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

I believe it was Peter Drucker who opined about outsourcing and then wrote a book on the subject. The original premise was that low level administrative functions, which were not a key or core focus of the business (like mail rooms) could be outsourced.  Fast forward several years and business has learned that virtually all “non-value add” functions can be outsourced.

IT infrastructure was value add as long as something new or better could be developed to provide cost savings, efficiencies, improvements, or as many commentators note “better, faster, cheaper” solutions. Now that the “last mile” of technology is becoming more costly with lower returns IT departments are moving into full blown maintenance mode. They are becoming the modern day “mail rooms” to be outsourced for lower cost to focus on more fundamental or core business requirements.  IT departments have allowed themselves to become a type of “administrative” overhead and a key target for cost reduction.

This outsourcing trend has focused primarily on infrastructrure tasks like network monitoring, database administration, e-mail system maintenance, OS and Office application rollouts, etc.  With all of the hype around “cloud” computing, or what used to be referred to a few years ago as “ASP” (Application Service Providers), or application hosting this trend will accelerate.  

I see this same trend beginning to occur in the business application space as well. The business application functions are moving into maintenance mode and are slowly being outsourced. Those functions which support the supply chain at many companies have automated, streamlined, and process improved (i.e. “better, faster, cheaper”) so that they are now mature.  With that maturity the last mile of improvement becomes cost prohibitive with little payback.  For more insight on this topic please see the following posts:

Competitive Pressures and Value Propositions, Is Lean the Answer? 

Business and IT Alignment – Integrating Technology and IT Spend with Business

Operational technology adoption generally follows a fairly consistent adoption model:

• Implement
• Stabilize
• Improve
• Maintain

As soon as maintenance operations begin to stabilize, and as the processes and support requirements are finalized the IT area becomes a prime target for outsourcing. 

Future IT Application Alignment and Trends

The next few years of the application space will see a MAJOR separation of consultants, vendors, applications, and solutions around operations, sales, and new products / services.  Forward looking IT organizations will be those who can move into the “value add” areas of the enterprise to support and automate sales, marketing, engineering (i.e. innovation functions), etc., the losers will be those who continue to focus on operations after the initial “low hanging fruit” has been picked. 

As an IT leader if you want to avoid obsolescence and outsourcing then it is important to retool your organization with the best and the brightest to begin focusing on the customer and innovation portions of the business.  Once operations are well underway the next phase for the successful IT leader who does not want to face outsourcing their department, and possibly their own job, is to partner with the sales, marketing, and engineering sides of the business for long term success.

The Operational CIO must Become a Strategic CIO

The past business application focus has seen a focus on finance and operations.  Key metrics in the past have included improving month-end close times, reducing various supply chain cycle times, and overall view of operational and financial data in real time.  These are all the lagging indicator side of the business which is focused on the CFO / COO side of the business.  It is time for application vendors like SAP as well as consulting companies to begin focusing aggressively on the sales, marketing, and innovation / engineering portions of the business.  Or, in business terms, the leading indicator portion of the business. 

The successful CIO of tomorrow will be the one who can build a bridge with technology solutions between the CEO and the CFO / COO. Those CIOs (and by proxy their subordinate IT leaders) who are able to make that transition to covering the holistic business will see their career prospects flourish. Those who don’t will be marginalized, stagnate, and find tremendous budget pressure slowly collapsing their organizations.  I’ve penned a few things on this topic as well which explains the changing dynamic for the CIO and the future of the application space.  Here is a short piece that explains that new relationship in more detail:

What is the Proper Relationship for the CIO, CEO, and CFO?

A permanent change in today’s business and consumer landscape is leading to a permanent change in IT staffing and project work in SAP and all other commercial applications.  You can either plan for it, adjust to it, and then learn to work within the coming paradigm or you can be run over by it.  Global economic conditions and the near financial collapse have created a permanent change in how businesses operate and customers purchase.  Financial institution regulatory controls have closed the door to many of the previous credit holes that allowed some of the out of control speculative and self-indulgent spending by consumers.   That trend is not likely to change for many years.  It is even less likely to return to the heady days of free flowing credit and consumer spending binges. 

Related Posts:

• The Real Reason Executive Participation Creates IT Project Success
• Tactics, Strategy, ROI, TCO and Realizing Business Benefit from SAP
• Competitive Pressures and Value Propositions, Is Lean the Answer?
• What is the Proper Relationship for the CIO, CEO, and CFO?
• Using SAP to Improve Revenue and Profitability