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Using KPIs to Align Your SAP Business Case to Strategic Business Direction
Using KPIs to Align Your SAP Business Case to Strategic Business Direction

Using KPIs to Align Your SAP Business Case to Strategic Business Direction

By Bill Wood|December 18th, 2009|

On their first attempt, few companies see dramatic transformations with Key Performance Indicators. Many businesses or organizations eventually abandon the efforts because they start out with poor alignment between what they are measuring and the business value proposition or their underlying competitive pressures. Some companies eventually develop some great reports and a dashboard for their executives or senior managers. However, few companies effectively use a Key Performance Indicator in a [...]

Business Strategy and IT Strategy to Reproduce Apple Innovation
Business Strategy and IT Strategy to Reproduce Apple Innovation

Business Strategy and IT Strategy to Reproduce Apple Innovation

By Bill Wood|December 2nd, 2009|

What are the Apple Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs focused Apple innovation on competitive pressures and value propositions. He relentlessly focused organizational energy on customer-centered innovation and customer experience. In a nutshell, his innovation secret (if it can be called that) was the relentless pursuit of improving customer experience. As early as 2002, Steve Jobs told the world about his competitive strategy. During his statement, you can tell he was carefully evalu [...]

Competitive Pressures and Value Propositions, Is Lean the Answer?
Competitive Pressures and Value Propositions, Is Lean the Answer?

Competitive Pressures and Value Propositions, Is Lean the Answer?

By Bill Wood|November 10th, 2009|

Modern technology allows international outsourcing, greater agility, quicker product design to market, and specialized focus on niche markets, lowering the barrier to entry for new competitors and causing more market specialization. On the flip side, customers have a wide variety of information from sellers and the Internet about products, design, services, options, pricing, and availability. Business is more dynamic than ever. Because of the pace of change, focusing on internal process improve [...]

The Real Reason Executive Participation Creates IT Project Success
The Real Reason Executive Participation Creates IT Project Success

The Real Reason Executive Participation Creates IT Project Success

By Bill Wood|October 10th, 2009|

Since I started in the SAP and ERP arena in 1994, I have heard experts passionately declare that a key criteria for IT project success is executive participation. That mandate applies to any large scale project, whether through ERP, CRM, APO, SOA, BI, or other solutions. Many implementation companies wrongly believe that executive participation is only important because the executive brings authority and visibility to the project. However, a more overlooked yet crucial reason is the senior exec [...]

CRM, ERP, BI, and IT Investment — Where Do You Find the Business Benefit?
CRM, ERP, BI, and IT Investment — Where Do You Find the Business Benefit?

CRM, ERP, BI, and IT Investment — Where Do You Find the Business Benefit?

By Bill Wood|September 19th, 2009|

Most companies want to use CRM applications to "supercharge" their sales forces. They want higher customer retention and acquisition than their competitors, managing the sales pipeline and having better market insight. But few companies realize these goals. After going through some of the academic studies and literature about CRM implementation, evidence suggests that some companies see limited benefit from their CRM implementations, but they are not happy overall. These anecdotal accoun [...]

Opportunities for SAP Innovation
Opportunities for SAP Innovation

Opportunities for SAP Innovation

By Bill Wood|September 19th, 2009|

What if someone like me -- an independent consultant -- came along and said “SAP, I’ve got some really great ideas on how you can dramatically change the application for far greater success in the marketplace”? What if this change make the application more useful, and would not cost that much in developer time or resources? What if this change could be done almost completely with pre-existing functions, functionality, and code that SAP already has but has not done a good job themselves of integ [...]