The SAP User Experience

By |April 9th, 2012|

Over a decade ago SAP embarked on a journey to revamp their outdated user interface.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 chan [...]

Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment

By |February 27th, 2012|

As a follow-up to the previous post on Sustained Business Value from SAP Business Software, I did some research on the study authors and discovered their continued focus on this issue. Recently, Peppard (one of the authors) and a couple of other colleagues provided real business value success findings in an upcoming journal article titled “Factors Affecting the Successful Realization of Benefits from Systems Development Projects: Findings From Three Case Studies” [FN1]. While I read through and [...]

Sustained Business Value from SAP Business Software

By |February 20th, 2012|

From time to time, I review academic literature about the application of technology and offer my SAP experience-based perspective. A while back, I was reviewing one of these studies, which was about enterprise software. In this study, the authors made a key clarification. They recognized two types of implementations: problem based (i.e. address your “pain points”) or innovation based. Their suggestion was that some elements of both would be present on any large-scale IT project, but each type o [...]

SAP Landscape Consolidation

By |February 13th, 2012|

For any number of reasons, many companies that run SAP end up with fragmented and piecemeal landscapes. This problem happens for many reasons: roll-outs, independent Business Units, mergers and acquisitions, immature software procurement processes, lack of a Software Asset Management program, etc. The results can leave your SAP application and business solution looking like someone set off an explosion with scattered pieces everywhere. More and more, I am seeing companies work to consolidate on [...]

More on Stupid SAP Vendor – Partner Selection RFI-RFP Processes

By |February 14th, 2011|

This is a follow-up from last week's post on Why SAP Vendor – Partner Selection RFI Processes are Stupid. Next week's post will provide insight, suggestions, and ideas on how to ensure your SAP RFI or RFP processes achieve the best possible results. SAP is a COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) business software application. In the COTS world, solid financial statements may indicate an SAP partner or vendor who has mastered the art of "squatting" or "lock-in." They may routinely custom code non-miss [...]

ERP Education: Losing Our Religion

By |January 17th, 2011|

Most ERP software packages are designed around industry-accepted business practices, operating philosophies, and techniques that have evolved over many years. Today, the issue is not businesses have a body of knowledge with supporting software tools; the question is, are clients educated enough to see the value or understand the proper use of the tools? The short answer is no.   Education versus ERP software training Many have lost sight of the difference between education and software tra [...]