October 2011 - Innovate. Integrate. Transform. Run.

ERP II & ERP III – SAP Business IT Revolution
ERP II & ERP III – SAP Business IT Revolution

ERP II & ERP III – SAP Business IT Revolution

By Bill Wood|October 31st, 2011|

The day after I released my last post (SAP IT Governance – Achieve Business IT Engagement), techrepublic.com published a review of the CIO future direction. While I do not agree with all of the Gartner conclusions they published, I certainly agree with the “new CIO manifesto” (TechRepublic: Get drastic: 15 IT best practices to kill). Reading through the comments left on the TechRepublic post was enlightening. However, most of the comments focused on the details of one or two points of disagreem [...]

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 [...]

Protecting Yourself from SAP Consulting Fraud
Protecting Yourself from SAP Consulting Fraud

Protecting Yourself from SAP Consulting Fraud

By Bill Wood|October 17th, 2011|

One of the most pervasive problems with SAP or any other ERP project is the sheer amount of fraud. SAP fraud is so rampant with substantial financial effects, it would be seen as organized crime in any other industry. I have previously written about SAP consulting screening methods and required skills, but one key method filters through the con artists: simple experience verification. Few Staffing Firms Do Any Type of Skills or Experience Verification Many organizations that employ SAP periodic [...]

Where Does SAP Offshore Development Make Sense?
Where Does SAP Offshore Development Make Sense?

Where Does SAP Offshore Development Make Sense?

By Bill Wood|October 10th, 2011|

If you are capable of providing detailed design specs without any deviation or thought required, offshore development is a great option. The instant your SAP design requires a measure of experience and insight to make judgment calls, or to look for data or processing that is not explicitly spelled out in detail, you are headed for huge hidden costs. The level of detailed spec design work by SAP functional consultants merely shifts the development time and costs to the higher-priced resources th [...]

Hidden SAP Offshore Development Costs
Hidden SAP Offshore Development Costs

Hidden SAP Offshore Development Costs

By Bill Wood|October 3rd, 2011|

My experience with SAP offshore developers is that no matter how detailed your spec, their lack of experience with standard SAP transactions and functionality prevents them from properly testing their own creations. Their results are more than just full of bugs; oftentimes, the system crashes when attempting to do even basic testing. Repeat testing by expensive functional resources happens so frequently and consumes so much hidden time from parallel project activities that entire project timeli [...]