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 [...]

SAP ERP Project Failures Lessons Learned and Mini Case Studies 3

By |December 27th, 2010|

  In this final installment on these lessons learned and mini case studies, we will look at a few older SAP project failures. Even in these older SAP project failures, many of the same problems continue to repeat themselves. I would like to point out once again that in the major SAP project failures the software application itself was not at the root of the failure. The project failures I focused on are the ones where there is plenty of published literature to evaluate. Obviously that do [...]

SAP System Vendor Project Success Criteria 1

By |November 1st, 2010|

Using the success criteria table laid out in SAP Success Factors for Vender Selection Responsibility Matrix 2 as a starting point for shared SAP project success, we will look at some strategies, tactics, techniques, and ideas for managing these shared responsibilities. By more aggressively managing these shared SAP critical success areas, we can set the correct tone and expectation for the SAP project. [FN1] This series will look at the things you should expect from your SAP system vendor, and [...]

SAP Technicians or Experts

By |September 13th, 2010|

They say a good magician never reveals their tricks. Well, I’m no magician, so I will give you some insight. Lagging indicators (those affected by process improvements, cost-based ROI and TCO methods, and current ERP mindsets) are reactive. Leading indicators (those which directly affect the competitive business landscape) are proactive. SAP and ERP technicians are reactive. They can make system settings, they can help you to make a small tweak here or there, but they are tactical and tend to b [...]

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 [...]