Here we go again. Jon Reed, Dennis Howlett, Martin Gillet, Michael Koch, and Leonardo Di Araujo, collectively known as the Certification 5, have posted a 55-page, somewhat discoordinated white paper exploring the need to vastly upgrade the SAP consulta...
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 [...]
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...
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 [...]
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 [...]
I previously noted that I would follow up with a post on doing an SAP implementation for only marginally more than a technical upgrade (see Technical SAP Upgrade or SAP Reimplementation). In the process, you should keep a few assumptions and several considerations in mind. If an SAP reimplementation is done well, you can significantly reduce the Total Cost of Ownership. You should also keep in mind that getting closer to standard functionality in non-business critical areas (or what I like to r [...]
