SAP & IT Outsourcing – RESULTS MATTER!

By |June 24th, 2014|

  Business today is looking for a way to provide shareholder value. Outsourcing has become a popular method to boost stock values because shareholders believe it will reduce costs. While your share price may increase in the short term, you may not see the cost savings, and your share price will suffer later as your cost basis increases. Unfortunately, the cost saving "dream" presented during all those sales pitches often become a "nightmare" of spiraling costs and management headaches. I [...]

SAP and IT Outsourcing – Vendor Management Considerations

By |May 7th, 2014|

  A common trend in IT is outsourcing. The allure of smooth sailing, fewer headaches, and lower cost generally capture senior leadership's attention. The sales pitches about all of the success stories are often compelling. However, just like calm (but murky) waters on a mild day hide the rocks under the surface, so do many of the outsourcing vendor claims. With some background understanding (and a lot of due diligence), you can avoid most of those rocks and navigate the waters. However, [...]

SAP & IT Outsourcing – Vendor Management Tactics & Strategies

By |May 7th, 2014|

In an outsourcing arrangement you have one of two approaches: work up front to reduce potential disputes or be prepared to deal with the fallout. The less aggressive you are with your outsourcing management, the more profitable you are to the outsourcing company. Does fallout mean you will be in court? Sometimes yes, but sometimes it means re-negotiating a contract, or worse still, skyrocketing costs which can exceed the original costs. Outsourcing Relationship or Arrangement The sales personne [...]

Agile Project Methods for SAP ERP Projects?

By |October 29th, 2012|

Looking at the "Agile Manifesto" and how Agile methods have been applied generally involves small, discrete, "digestible" work and task components. Juggling the number and complexity of dependencies on a full-scale SAP ERP project involves management and coordination efforts, which completely go against the idea of pure Agile methods. ====== ERP projects tend to have too many moving parts and dependencies for Agile, as the methodology provides too little control and coordination. The level of c [...]

Achieve Business Benefit Through SAP Prototype Demonstrations

By |July 16th, 2012|

SAP Conference Room Proof of Concept Pilots Proof of Concepts with frequent early prototyping drive project costs down. Consider the old saying: “an ounce of prevention can avoid a pound of cure.” Proof of concept pilots during the project are a rarely mentioned SAP critical success factor. Early in my SAP career, the disruption these prototype sessions, conference room pilots, etc. would cause used to frustrate me. My thought was, "I have a job to do and don't have time for this." No one ever [...]

There is Life after the SAP Go Live

By |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 [...]