SAP Reimplementation for Little More Cost than a Technical Upgrade Part 2

By |September 7th, 2010|

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 [...]

SAP Reimplementation For Little More Cost than a Technical Upgrade Part 1

By |August 30th, 2010|

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 [...]

Technical SAP Upgrade or SAP Reimplementation

By |August 23rd, 2010|

SAP’s application landscape has the depth and breadth of functionality to handle 90% (and usually more) of nearly any business requirement. Regardless of this huge depth and breadth of functionality, many businesses still custom code and redesign the software too much (see e.g. SAP Implementation Focus, Software Engineering or Business Process Engineering?). If you are an SAP shop considering an upgrade, you may need to take a hard look at whether you should do a technical upgrade or a reimplem [...]

ERP Software Selection: Do you want to be a Guinea Pig?

By |August 9th, 2010|

“If the software functionality does not do what we need it to do, nothing else really matters.” Back in the 1980’s, IT department preferences or mandates for specific proprietary mainframe technologies drove many ERP software decisions. They focused on the technologies the IT department could (or would) support, not the mainframe software that best satisfied business needs. Later in the 1990’s, the mainframe vs. open system (client/server) wars caused many to take a blind leap of faith into ope [...]

Where do you Start with SAP Return on Investment or SAP ROI?

By |July 19th, 2010|

See Part 1 - SAP Implementation Is an Investment Not an Event How much is it going to cost, and how long is it going to take? That is the classic approach to SAP implementations. However, this approach is not enough today, as the marketplace is demanding more from their IT dollars. Now the marketplace has questions about measuring cost reductions, process improvements, and customer retention/acquisition. These are all important discussions. Your money has to work for you in your business-- and [...]