One of the areas that academic literature, consulting firms, and most system integrators rarely address is the organizational acceptance, full use, and assimilation of the SAP package. To the extent the system integrators or consulting firms do mention post production support, they generally only do so in the context of managed services or outsourcing. They do little to help companies develop a thriving production environment with your own resources.
One of the biggest problems I see anywhere is a failure to blueprint and ultimately design and then deliver SAP for usability. Several hurdles make this difficult, some of which include the following:
- The SAP User Experience is overdue for attention.
- In-depth change management is lacking, including training at the business process level.
- Very few SAP consultants have much (if any) SAP support experience, and have no idea how their design and blueprint decisions will affect end users.
- Not enough functionality pilots are demonstrated to the affected end users during the course of the implementation project.
After designing for usability, the next critical issue involves Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization. For long-term direction, you cannot overlook Using Your SAP Steering Committee for Business Transformation either. Finally, the user community, including training, change management, and ongoing super user development must be addressed.
Build a Thriving SAP Enabled Business Community and SAP Support Organization
Use Change Management Strategies and Knowledge Transfer Processes for a Successful SAP Project. This way, you can work to put the broader business community in a more accepting posture for your SAP/IT organizational changes. Then, work diligently toward Creating a Knowledge Centered Learning Organization for Business Transformation for IT Leadership. Whether you are already live with SAP, in the middle of a project, or just starting out, I would strongly encourage you to get serious about Organizational Change Management Inside the SAP IT Support Organization.
As an academic study I recently reviewed noted:
It is during [the post-implementation stage] that the effects of uncontrolled problems in previous stages appear due to the fact that users start the exploitation and evaluation of the system. During the implementation stage, users are usually limited to learn the basic functionalities [which support going live]… As a critical mass of users start mastering the system and they see its advantages on their work and its capabilities, they start using it in a more creative way and exploring its more advanced functionalities and requiring, even more functions… These are… signs of the system’s acceptance and assimilation which is… essential for the system’s success (Kouki, Poulin, and Pellerin, Ppg. 3-4).
SAP Certified Center of Expertise
Many of today’s SAP contracts include a provision that customers must create a Center of Expertise. In plain terms, you are required to create your own internal support organization. This works well for SAP as you put your internal IT employees on the front line of defense, but it does little to ensure longer term acceptance, adoption, and even assimilation of the new system into the broader organization. Do not get confused by the terminology here either. To SAP, a “Certified Center of Expertise” is related to you becoming less of a burden on their support organization, and in turn reducing their support costs for your company. While this independence helps SAP, it also ensures you develop sufficient internal competence with the application.
However, as I’ve previously noted, this is just the first step of a critical path and process in Business Transformation for IT Leadership.
Understand the Series on SAP Competency Center or SAP Center of Excellence to gain the important insight for ensuring long-term enterprise application success. Without a greater focus on the end user, you may never fully realize business benefits. Even if you do, they may take longer than necessary, cost more than they should, and yield limited, mid-term results.
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Kouki, R., Poulin, D., and Pellerin, R. (2006). ERP Assimilation Challenge: An Integrative Framework for a Better Post-Implementation Assimilation, CIRRELT Working Paper DT-2006-DP-1
