April 2011 - Innovate. Integrate. Transform. Run.

Scams, Shams, ERP System Integrator Tactics
Scams, Shams, ERP System Integrator Tactics

Scams, Shams, ERP System Integrator Tactics

By Bill Wood|April 25th, 2011|

I read two articles that I wanted to summarize and review here. The articles provide two opposing viewpoints of consulting and some lessons learned for service buyers. This article on CIO about “7 Dirty Consultant Tricks (and How to Avoid Them)” [FN1] caught my attention. In particular, I was interested in the part about ways consultants try to “extract money from their clients…”: IT consultants are among the most slippery of the bunch. Among their favorite tricks: Using "scope change" t [...]

Will Next Generation IT Finally Transform Business
Will Next Generation IT Finally Transform Business

Will Next Generation IT Finally Transform Business

By Bill Wood|April 18th, 2011|

New IT Value Propositions – Moving from Operations to Customers and Innovation Throughout everything I do as a consultant, I try to categorize my activities into the three key areas of business: operations, customers, and innovation. Even though I have been working primarily in the supply chain areas of SAP since 1994 (SD – Sales and Distribution, MM – Materials Management, and PP – Production Planning), I have been focusing more on the key value areas of customers and innovation. I focus on cu [...]

Do You Know When To Do SAP Custom Development?
Do You Know When To Do SAP Custom Development?

Do You Know When To Do SAP Custom Development?

By Bill Wood|April 11th, 2011|

Use SAP Best Business Practices For Commodity Processes But More Carefully Evaluate Competitive Processes The debate and discussion around SAP best business practices usually assumes an “either-or” mindset. Either you use the SAP best business practices as they are, or you abandon them (for more background on SAP's "Best Business Practices," see What are SAP Best Business Practices Anyway). Several commentators suggest you should not do a software vendor’s “best practices” because you adopt the [...]

Create SAP Convergence Instead of Business to IT Alignment
Create SAP Convergence Instead of Business to IT Alignment

Create SAP Convergence Instead of Business to IT Alignment

By Bill Wood|April 4th, 2011|

This is part of an ongoing exploration of creating an SAP or Technology "Center of Excellence" within your enterprise. For the background and key insights on this approach, see the Series on SAP Competency Center or SAP Center of Excellence . ------------------------------ The real future of technology is for IT to integrate with business, or in other words, to converge business and technology. The idea of aligning with business is too weak to define what IT and SAP must do within the enterpris [...]