SAP Center of Excellence Archives - Innovate. Integrate. Transform. Run.

SAP Contract Requirements for a Center of Expertise
SAP Contract Requirements for a Center of Expertise

SAP Contract Requirements for a Center of Expertise

By Bill Wood|July 2nd, 2012|

Most, if not all, of new SAP contracts and agreements contain provisions that require customers to create a “Center of Expertise” (or CoE). This is a customer’s, and SAP’s, first line of maintenance support. The CoE terms and conditions define a great aspiration that your organization will support “efficient implementation, innovation, operation and quality of business processes and systems” based on the Phase 6 RUN SAP ASAP Methodology. Good luck with all that! Returning to realistic [...]

There is Life after the SAP Go Live
There is Life after the SAP Go Live

There is Life after the SAP Go Live

By Bill Wood|June 25th, 2012|

One of the areas that academic literature, consulting firms, and most system integrators rarely address is the organizational acceptance, full use, and assimilation of the SAP package. To the extent the system integrators or consulting firms do mention post production support, they generally only do so in the context of managed services or outsourcing. They do little to help companies develop a thriving production environment with your own resources. One of the biggest problems I see anywhere i [...]

3 Development Phases for SAP Center of Excellence Maturity
3 Development Phases for SAP Center of Excellence Maturity

3 Development Phases for SAP Center of Excellence Maturity

By Bill Wood|May 14th, 2012|

Before we get into the substance of how to build a next-generation IT organization that is integrated with business, we need to take a quick review. 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. Here, we discussed the three stages of Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization. These stages create clear distinctions between SAP Service Delivery versus Value Deli [...]

SAP Service Provider to Business Peer Through Center of Excellence Maturity
SAP Service Provider to Business Peer Through Center of Excellence Maturity

SAP Service Provider to Business Peer Through Center of Excellence Maturity

By Bill Wood|May 7th, 2012|

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. Within that learning organization, especially with enterprise applications such as SAP, you need to build organizational maturity. A three-tier approach to building that organizational maturity is part of the Series on SAP Competency Cente [...]

Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization
Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization

Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization

By Bill Wood|April 2nd, 2012|

The last few weeks have focused on the path for IT leaders to become strategic business partners. Academic research shows that to gain Sustained Business Value from SAP Business Software, you must focus technology implementation efforts on business benefits. This includes using metrics to determine if business goals were achieved by the software implementation effort. Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment was about case studies that evaluated organizations with a business benefits approa [...]

How To Navigate the SAP Business Transformation Journey
How To Navigate the SAP Business Transformation Journey

How To Navigate the SAP Business Transformation Journey

By Bill Wood|March 19th, 2012|

One driver 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. The last post provided the introduction of SAP Enabled Business Transformation for IT Leadership, a key requirement for senior IT leaders to become strategic business peers. Additionally, that post introduced the three key milestones on the journey to the future-state business strategist IT leader-- especially if [...]