SAP ROI — Enterprise Architecture & Business Solutions

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.

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

SAP Project Success Criteria

This is a compiled sets of posts related to SAP project success criteria

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The Top 5 ERP Success Factors by Project Stage from 22 Critical Success Factors
http://www.r3now.com/the-top-5-erp-success-factors-by-project-stage-from-22-critical-success-factors

SAP Implementation Partner or Company Selection Criteria
http://www.r3now.com/sap-implementation-partner-or-company-selection-criteria

SAP Success Factors for Vendor Selection – Responsibility Matrix 1
http://www.r3now.com/sap-success-factors-for-vender-selection-responsibility-matrix-1

SAP Success Factors for Vender Selection – Responsibility Matrix 2
http://www.r3now.com/sap-success-factors-for-vender-selection-responsibility-matrix-2

SAP System Vendor Project Success Criteria 1
http://www.r3now.com/sap-system-vendor-project-success-criteria-factors1

SAP System Vendor Project Success Criteria & Factors 2
http://www.r3now.com/sap-system-vendor-project-success-criteria-factors2

SAP System Vendor Project Success Criteria & Factors 3
http://www.r3now.com/sap-system-vendor-project-success-criteria-factors3

SAP System Vendor Project Success Criteria & Factors 4
http://www.r3now.com/sap-system-vendor-project-success-criteria-factors4

SAP System Vendor Project Success Criteria & Factors 5
http://www.r3now.com/sap-system-vendor-project-success-criteria-factors5

Related Posts:

• SAP Success Factors for Vendor Selection – Responsibility Matrix 1
• Reduce SAP, ERP, or Technology Project Stress: Part 2
• SAP System Vendor Project Success Criteria 1
• Toward an SAP Center of Excellence or SAP Competency Center – PART 1
• SAP Implementation is an Investment NOT an Event

Many organizations that have SAP periodically need experienced consultants to help with specialized requests, requirements, new functionality, or to occasionally backfill employees.  Because contract staffing is not a key portion of their business they turn to staffing firms or recruiters.  Unfortunately too many of the staffing firms and recruiters have only one interest–, to collect a paycheck.  Very few of these recruiters care about how they get that payday so it is up to you as the customer to ensure you are not getting ripped off.  There is no incentive for them to carefully screen candidates–, no background checks, no former project verifications, nothing.  A recruiter’s goal is to get them through the interview and have your organization hand over the cash.  The cheaper the resource they can find (i.e. read “fake”) the fatter their margin if they can convince you to use them.

The consulting fraud in the SAP arena (and ALL of the business application space) is widespread and out of control.  For more background and information on some of my experiences with this you may wish to see some of the following posts:

• Screening and Interview Methods to Find the Right SAP Consultant
• Screening and Interview Methods to Find the Right Consultant – Part 2
• A Cautionary Tale About SAP Knowledge Transfer
• Corporate and Personal Liability for Fake Consultants
• SAP Technicians or Experts
• ERP Consultants: Is the Promise of Knowledge Transfer just part of the Sales Pitch?
• Successful SAP Project Team Composition – Technicians or Experts?
• The Consultant Certification Ruckus

Just in case you think this is just complaining, take a look at an actual timeline of consulting at a real company where an internal employee periodically posts some of the horror stories they are dealing with; http://sapmesideways.blogspot.com/.  Although the employee at that company does not come out and say they are dealing with frauds, con artists, fakes or “SAP freshers,” I’ve seen this so many times that if that company checked these “con”sultant’s backgrounds I could guarantee a very high percentage of SAP fakes or “freshers.”

For some reason these “freshers” as they call themselves have a wierd entitlement mentality that they believe they should be allowed to commit fraud to jump over anyone and everyone else.  It is as if they believe someone OWES them something and you HAVE to make an SAP opening for them or they are justified in committing this fraud.

Protecting Your Organization from the SAP Fakes and SAP Frauds

If your organization would like something different you can do at least one small thing to protect yourself.  AFTER a staffing or recruiting firm has submitted a candidate demand they include references, from the last 3 projects listed on that consultant’s resume.  The ONLY references I accept are client resources, still at those organizations, and on an e-mail address that is clearly at that organization.  If they cannot provide these then my immediate assumption is they are a fake.  If the staffing firm doesn’t get the message you will not accept fakes then do not do business with them EVER!

The ONLY references I accept are client resources, still at those organizations, and on an e-mail address that is clearly at the organization.

Think about that a minute, even if you miss out on someone who has the actual experience you are looking for, do you really want to pay those kinds of rates for someone who was so uninspiring that no one even remembers them?  What about their consulting skills?  Were they a bump on a log that hid in the background and made little or no contribution to the direction or success of the SAP project?

Step by Step to Find the Real SAP Consultants

If you decide to use a staffing or recruiting firm, make it a hard requirement that they provide ONLY candidates who can provide an e-mail reference STILL EMPLOYED at each of that consultant’s last 3 clients.  This is basic employment verification stuff but few if any of the staffing firms do this unless you insist it is a requirement.  And nothing less than a direct verification from someone who is still at that organization will work because I have seen many “stories” about how they have some other reference or the person left and are now working at “XYZ” company instead.  Would you accept that from a permanent employee candidate?

The next step, AFTER the 3 prior project references still at those companies (on the company e-mail address / domain) is copy that portion of the resume listing that consultant’s experience at that company into an e-mail message to their reference.  Send the message with a notice they used this information on their resume to indicate their experience and you would like to know if they can verify that the candidate’s experience is consistent with what is listed.  If they can not, or will not, then that is the end of the screen for that person.  I do not bother to waste any time with a phone screen until that verification step is complete.

What are some of your thoughts or suggestions for screening out the fakes, frauds, charlatans and con artists?

Related Posts:

• How the SAP Consulting Peter Principle Works
• Reduce SAP, ERP, or Technology Project Stress: Part 2
• Screening and Interview Methods to Find the Right Consultant – Part 2
• Some Reasons SAP Projects are Over Budget and Over Time
• Reduce SAP Project Stress: Part 1