SAP Center of Excellence Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Innovate. Integrate. Transform. Run.

SAP Enabled Business Transformation for IT Leadership
SAP Enabled Business Transformation for IT Leadership

SAP Enabled Business Transformation for IT Leadership

By Bill Wood|March 12th, 2012|

Continuing the Journey to the Business-Converged SAP Center of Excellence After many years researching and living through IT and business convergence for IT leadership, I ran into a study that brought more clarity to the key dividing concepts. Some interesting approaches and maturity models are available for senior executives, but little direction for the delivery organization (for detailed development, see 3 Development Phases for SAP Center of Excellence Maturity). CIO magazine established a [...]

Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment
Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment

Achieving Business Value from SAP Investment

By Bill Wood|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 [...]

SAP Program Management Requires a Type of CMMI
SAP Program Management Requires a Type of CMMI

SAP Program Management Requires a Type of CMMI

By Bill Wood|November 7th, 2011|

Many are unaware that SAP provides a broad set of tools and resources for Program Management and the Capability Maturity Model (or CMM). Few are familiar with SAP’s broad set of supports for this purpose, such as the ASAP Methodology Phase 6 “Run” enhancement. This enhancement is loaded with key information that aligns with Program Management responsibilities and CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) [FN1]. So, what is CMM (or CMMI as it is more properly referred to)? “CMMI (Capability M [...]

SAP IT Governance – Achieve Business IT Engagement
SAP IT Governance – Achieve Business IT Engagement

SAP IT Governance – Achieve Business IT Engagement

By Bill Wood|October 24th, 2011|

Proper SAP project governance is a function of the business in partnership with IT. With the exception of a few of SAP’s technical applications (such as parts of Solution Manager, HANA, etc.), the entire application suite is about business-- business transaction processing and business processes. If key business resources are not directly engaged in SAP project governance, you may never realize the SAP benefits you expect. This leads me to ask: What benefits you expect from an SAP implementatio [...]

Steps to Achieve SAP IT Convergence
Steps to Achieve SAP IT Convergence

Steps to Achieve SAP IT Convergence

By Bill Wood|August 22nd, 2011|

My last post on SAP IT Convergence is About Business Focused Integration provided an overview of Business - IT Convergence and why it is important. This week, we look at some of the key principles around creating SAP IT Convergence, including some steps on the path to convergence. ========================= What Is the Difference between Business to IT Alignment and Business - IT Convergence? Convergence and alignment have an important distinction. Business to IT alignment works to mature the IT [...]

Steering Committee Governance for an SAP Center of Excellence
Steering Committee Governance for an SAP Center of Excellence

Steering Committee Governance for an SAP Center of Excellence

By Bill Wood|July 11th, 2011|

This post is based on information from my ASUG presentation in Atlanta: Beyond Technology Alignment – Building a Center of Excellence (http://bit.ly/jJefxP). ------------------------- At the intersection of business and IT, you have convergence. At the place of convergence is where the Center of Excellence exists. ------------------------- One of the key SAP project success factors is to use a steering committee made up of key business stakeholders. They can meet once a week or once a month, bu [...]