SAP

In today’s world, IT drives many business solutions and revenues and we see that increasingly many CIOs and CTOs carry business growth goals along with IT goals. This is a refreshing paradigm shift from the old days and different organizations are at different maturity levels in implementing the new paradigm of IT as a growth engine.

A key step towards this transformation is to align IT related costs to Business and the first question that gets asked is “how do you know whether my IT is aligned with my Business or not?” You can identify the alignment with the use of few simple questions –
• Do you know the cost of maintaining a particular business process? An example would be – do you know the IT costs involved in processing a claim payment?
• Do your IT costs depend on the usage of systems? - Would the costs be lower if only few claims are processed in a month?
• Do you prepare comprehensive cost benefit analysis (CBA) before approving IT projects?
• Do you pay for the number of IT staff supporting your systems? Do you invent work to keep them occupied?
• Are you able to defer your system development costs and link that to the growth revenues?

Look out for more on New Engagement Models on Sapphire...!

Author: Jaikrishnan, NEM Deal Consultant, Infosys Technologies[JaikrishnanA@infosys.com]

Posted by Guest Author at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Today our customers are facing one of the toughest challenges of economic slowdown. In these demanding times, we need to innovate and come up with new pricing models focusing on flexibility, innovation and greater “skin in the game”.. This invokes the need for service providers to offer value-addition and  demonstrate commitment by linking the pricing with customer's business outcome.

NEM pricing models would assist customer in reducing risks by sharing their objectives with us and wanting us to pick up stakes in the initiative. This definitely needs thorough understanding of client’s business, market segment and industry and it also gets mapped to the success/failure of the client's business initiative.

It is time for us to reach out to our clients and truly ‘partner’ with them using these New Engagement Models.

Author: Asha Kurup, NEM Deal Consultant, Infosys Technologies[Asha_Kurup@infosys.com]

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SAP’s ASAP Implementation methodology is an industry leading approach to implementing the world’s most powerful ERP solution, so how can IMPACT ™ make it better?  Designed to work together, IMPACT™ and ASAP jointly provide a laser like focus on customer and client value, a robust framework for identifying, valuing, and prioritizing all change opportunities, and a tried and true methodology for implementing SAP in the most cost and time efficient manner available today.

When looking at the interrelationship between IMPACT ™ and ASAP, IMPACT ™ takes the lead and then defers to ASAP during Phase 2 “Design the Details” (Blueprint), while still providing the overarching framework to achieve business results.  IMPACT ™ helps a company explore the bigger picture issues around why they want and need to transform their business by putting client and company value as the metrics for success and failure, while never forgetting that free cash flow and unleashed value is the core objective.

The IMPACT ™ Value for Company (VRM thread) brings value into all facets of the transformation.  Value that is found in Set Direction (the first phase) then becomes the anchor of all decision making from that point forward.  All ideas or proposed changes need to account for the value proposition.  Using optimized value as the core strategy for the business transformation makes the analysis and planning for the transformation relatively simple since we have clear guidelines – does it add value?

IMPACT ™ provides the framework for finding the problems and providing the best solutions that add value both in the short and long run.   Our use of a framework rather than strict package implementation methodology allows us to thoroughly analyze and develop a tailored gameplan for your company’s transformation, rather than having that gameplan ready during the initial meeting.

IMPACT ™ and SAP work hand-in-hand when the gameplan calls for SAP.  Mapping to our Adoption and Accountability, Optimize Processes and Applications, and Lead and Manage Transformation (PMO) threads, ASAP methodology guides the design, development and implementation of the SAP solution from that point onward.  All while keeping Value for Customer and Company (VRM) as the key decision making criteria throughout the transformation.

We love talking about how IMPACT ™ and how its supporting methodologies like VRM™ and ASAP work together to create fantastic results for our clients so please find us at Sapphire so we can talk to you about them.

Author Eric Rich, Partner, Infosys Consulting 

Posted by Guest Author at 9:04 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

You’re probably starting to prepare for the trip to Sapphire 2009.    Who should you meet with?  What booths should you visit and which speakers sound the most interesting?  There’s little time left so this post is designed for the quick skim.

Find us at the Infosys booth if any of the following are applicable to your company:

• You’ve grown tired of waiting to see results from a business transformation
• In your heart, you wonder if the step-by-step methodology from your current consultancy is really the best approach
• Your information is spread across the company ,those systems can’t communicate with each other, and you don’t get the information you need, when you need it, in a format that enables you to quickly make decisions
• Your company can’t answer basic questions that you feel are crucial for your long term success “What value is being delivered?  How does this help my customers?”
• A lot of IT and other projects that have no known tie to share holder value
• Projects frequently overlap and compete for funding and management attention 
• Substantial # of failed projects that seemed like they would be successful at the start 

Why? :

Because if you’ve mentally circled any of the above there’s a good chance your company is suffering from a less than optimal project and transformation approach.  We can help.

 Some questions you may want to ask us (some prep for you for the road):

• Infosys took a few years to study why transformations fail and build IMPACT™ from the ground up to address these issues – is that true?
• It seems counter-intuitive that other business transformations don’t put shareholder value and value metrics at the center of the entire transformation (design to implementation).  I thought business cases were only done to obtain the funding?
• A phased release approach that allows us (i.e., you) to realize quick wins and allows everyone to learn from each release seems much better than the big ‘Go Live’ – why would others suggest wait for one big release?
• IMPACT ™ starts with vision and objectives and then identifies what changes are needed to achieve them – how is different than the step-by-step rigid approaches from other consultancies
• Can I have a brochure?  (yes, you can download it here or pick one up at our booth)
  

Good luck preparing for the trip.  Hopefully now, you have some good questions for us and the other firms at the event.  

Author Eric Rich, Partner, Infosys Consulting  

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Organizations initiate process change initiatives for various reasons, and unfortunately, not all the reasons observed are valid.  Some see trends and innovation taking place in their industry and immediately jump on the bandwagon without really reflecting on the appropriateness of those trends and innovation to the business.  Some perform legitimate analysis on business areas suffering the most, come up with a laundry list of processes to fix, and set in motion financial and human resources to address all those areas without considering the proper prioritization of improvements to pursue.  And there are those firms that radically think out-of-the-box, come up with really bright ideas, and implement just for the sake of being considered cutting and leading edge.

Process changes need to be made for the right reasons.  The promise of business value should drive the need for change, and in selecting what process changes to make, organizations need to understand which specific process innovation can be linked to a source of improvement to shareholder value.  At Infosys, we utilize a thinking tool called the Value Diagram that illustrates the link between value levers to operational levers and metrics to corresponding process-focused change initiatives.  This approach ensures that each identified process-focused change initiative has an explicit link to delivering business value through an observable impact on the performance metrics used to measure each operational lever.  An identified process change may be inherently good and innovative but if it has no direct link to delivering value where the organization needs it the most, then making that process change should not be considered a priority or even critical at this particular point in time.  The Value Diagram helps organizations avoid the commonly observed "shotgun approach" to enabling process changes by forcing hard thinking around what changes really need to take place.

Want to learn more about the Value Diagram and how it can help your organization?  Let's discuss.

Author:  Jon Brizzi, Partner, Core Process Excellence, Infosys Consulting

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I don’t see the point in envisioning a new direction, designing the details; making it happen and running a business transformation if the initiative takes twice the money, provides half the value and blows past its deadlines.  Considering the number of times Infosys has been asked to step into business transformations already in progress to help correct course, I’m not alone in this thinking.

One of Infosys key success factors over the last few years has been its ability to meet tough timelines with remarkable outcomes.  Managing a project isn’t new concept.  It’s been around quite a while with a number of highly respected methodologies such as PRINCE2 and PMI.  These are great approaches to managing projects. 

So why so many failures?

At Infosys think it’s because the project management can’t be detached from a business transformation any more than your intended destination can be detached from booking an airline ticket.   The transformation and the project management must move together hand-in-hand or things go the wrong direction.

When we started thinking about project management when designing IMPACT ™ we made certain that it accounted for PMI and PRINCE2, as well as Infosys’ own TRANSCEED framework to create something stress-tested and pragmatic.  Let’s not oversell it – our PMO thread of IMPACT ™ covers what one would expect in a long and complex business transformation namely communications, scope, governance, scheduling, resourcing, procurement, financials, quality and risk & issue management.  

It’s pretty hard to get away from these areas – for most including us, we’d consider these areas table stakes just to join the game.  What makes our PMO different is the fact that it’s interwoven into the framework creating a pragmatic and thorough approach to helping (our) clients become more competitive.  

IMPACT ™ blends strategy, planning and implementation of a transformation, while accounting for the special project management needs of large engagements. Separating any of these aspects considering the complexity and nuances of the task at hand (major changes at a company to become more competitive) isn’t only chaotic – it’s a recipe for less than optimal results.

We’re a little over a week away from Sapphire 2009 – our bags aren’t packed just yet, but we’re certainly ready to go.  Please find us during the conference so we can talk IMPACT™ and your views about the best way to transform a business (or leave a comment).

Posted by Guest Author at 7:13 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )