SAP Project Implementation Strategies and Approaches

By |October 25th, 2010|

For a brief intermission before I make the final posts on managing the shared responsibilities for SAP project success, I thought I would offer this explanation of the different strategies and approaches for an SAP project. There are three key dimensions to an implementation strategy: 1) the vendor type, 2) the methodology-tools-templates-resources for a project, and 3) the implementation approach. The decisions you make around these three areas generally make up the implementation strategy for [...]

SAP Success Factors for Vendor Selection – Responsibility Matrix 2

By |October 18th, 2010|

Based on a combination of the academic literature [FN1] and my personal experience, I have put together the following SAP and ERP Critical Success Factor Responsibility Matrix. The large “A” indicates a primary responsibility, a small “z” indicates a secondary responsibility, and a blank field indicates no direct responsibility. This is part of the continuing series on managing the SAP vendor relationship to ensure SAP project success. To do so, you need to review the SAP critical success facto [...]

SAP Success Factors for Vendor Selection – Responsibility Matrix 1

By |October 11th, 2010|

After a short look at the peer-reviewed academic literature, Anil Bhagwani did a brief case study on ten failed SAP implementations and ten successful SAP implementations. From these, he continued to distill SAP critical success factors. For more vendor selection background, please refer to another study: SAP Implementation Partner or Company Selection Criteria. Common SAP Critical Success Factors (CSF's) Identified for Successful ERP Implementations The study author's perspective and summary o [...]

Successful SAP Project Team Composition – Technicians or Experts?

By |September 27th, 2010|

Continuing on the theme from a previous post about getting SAP expertise, do you need SAP Technicians or Experts? I want to take some time to review an academic study about gaining SAP ROI and reducing your SAP TCO. The study points out the type of SAP project team expertise to gain ROI and competitive advantage from your ERP project. If you want real return, real results, and real benefits, then you need real skill (see e.g. Screening and Interview Methods to Find the Right Consultant – Part 2 [...]

SAP Implementation Projects: Still Crazy After All These Years – Part 2

By |September 20th, 2010|

In a previous post, I pointed out my discovery of an anonymous blogger who is providing a blow-by-blow of his firm’s painful SAP implementation. (SAP: Loathe It or Ignore It, You Can’t Like It http://sapmesideways.blogspot.com/. )Since that post, I...

SAP Reimplementation for Little More Cost than a Technical Upgrade Part 2

By |September 7th, 2010|

A number of important considerations in an SAP reimplementation do not exist for a technical upgrade. As a result, the upfront planning and evaluation time will be more involved. For example you need to consider any organization structure changes. How will any new organization structure items map to old ones? Then you need to analyze how to handle old master data if the organization structure changes are so significant that they require a whole new master data paradigm. If you have done a lot o [...]