SAP

SAP drives business transformations. But there are these transformational journeys where cost is under perpetual pressure. The entire focus is on the cost and time over runs. Are you always justifying costs? What is wrong with the program?

Having worked on multiple SAP transformational journeys for various Fortune 500 organizations,   one realizes that transformational journeys are lengthy journeys that can at times take years to complete. Given the global macro-economic swings and other environmental instabilities, the cost structures and time lines have the potential to change drastically during these journeys. Quoting out of the past decade we have seen the economic recession disrupt businesses, SARS scare leading to time overruns of transformation projects, tsunami bringing transformation journeys to a temporary standstill, terrorist disturbances jeopardizing the pace of programs - and many more similar events which were quite beyond the control of organizations that had ambitiously embarked on the transformational journeys.     Truth is we live in times which are not only changing but also dramatically unstable. And hence changes to cost structures and time lines are likely to happen even in the most tightly run business transformations.

So as and when the above said obvious happens, do you always find yourself always justifying costs and time over runs. Answer could be Yes or No.

• If the focus is on exacting value out of SAP, I have seldom seen transformational costs of SAP being unreasonably questioned or being unduly under the microscope.
• But if the SAP transformational journey is more of a System Implementation that assumes value will unlock on its own, then even in the best of times the costs will get questioned and come under the microscopic.

One has to ensure that though cost will always be monitored and is a hygiene factor, but the larger focus has to be on the value getting unlocked. If the transformation value starts to unlock, minor to moderate cost runs will pale by comparison. So the key to a successful transformational program is to ensure the highest focus on unleashing of value.

Further if the value in your transformational journey is getting unlocked only at the fag end of the multi-year transformational program, chances are stakeholders will not be so patient for so long. One downturn and costs pressures will mount unreasonably. Ensure that the transformational program has a couple of low hanging fruits that can be show cased as examples of unlocking of value.  Identify a geography or a line of business or a customer segment which is small enough to show case unlocking of value in the early part of the transformation journey.

To summarize - Ensure value focus. And earlier the value starts getting delivered, the better.

Posted by Rajneesh Chauhan at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

As SAP is gearing up to make its new SAP BI 4.0 ready for General Availability in a few months from now, a lot of interest has been generated within the user as well as the analyst community on the capabilities that this new platform is going to offer.  At Infosys we have had the opportunity of observing and testing the product while it was in its beta phase during middle to end of the last year. We have also now signed up with SAP for the ramp up phase and are currently evaluating the ramp up version of the product.  I will be elaborating our point of view on the product based on our experience in the beta as well as the ramp up phases.  At the same time I would like to mention that our testing of the BI 4.0 was on a SAP BW backend and the point of view would largely be keeping the BI 4.0 and SAP BW integration in the picture.

 

While in this blog I would be covering the high level strategic direction that the product is taking, in the subsequent blogs I would delve into the detailed product features along with their relative strengths and weaknesses.

·         Seamless and open:  With BI 4.0 the product is much more open in its integration of disparate data sources. Using the common semantic layer [CSL] integration of SAP BW and non SAP sources on a single metadata layer is now a reality. This has been made possible by utilizing the SAP Data Federator engine in the Universe layer. This would go a long way in saving huge investments that are undertaking in performing physical integration of the data. This is a feature which we could not put to test during our beta version and hope to get a better understanding of as part of our ramp up program.

 

·         Homogeneity: This is possibly a journey which has started and was long overdue even when the products were owned by erstwhile Business Objects. With the various products like WebI , Xcelsius, Explorer, Crystal Reports and some of the erstwhile SAP BI products it becomes a messy affair to access and launch them.  The common launch pad is step forward in giving a common look and feel as well as access to the various products. The direction here is to graduate from a mere stack offering to a pure platform offering.

 

·         Best of both worlds:  SAP BO Analysis which is nothing but the marriage of SAP's BEx Analyzer and Business Objects Voyager is a case in point.  This has resulted in the creation of the SAP BO Analysis (after quite a few renaming though!) which is going to form the main stream Business Objects OLAP analysis tool.  It is going to be marketed in both the office and web version. The product comes with very advanced visualization capabilities as well as an optimized performance.  Its direct access to the info sources using the BICS makes it especially attractive from a performance stand point. Our experience with the tool has been quite positive during the beta phase although there are a few deficiencies in terms of reports distribution capabilities which I will be talking about at a later point. This is not only limited to the product but being even extended to life cycle management and transportation as well.

 

·          Improved visualization:  There have been steps taken especially with the Dashboard Designer    (erstwhile Xcelsius) to provide an improved visualization and a set of new charting and presentation options.

 

·         Out with the old:  BI 4.0 would see a whole set of new names to the earlier products. Although a minor aspect but I think it restores semblance in line with the capability that the products have to offer.

Posted by Somnath Mukherjee at 6:37 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

The Cloud Computing paradigm is yet to prove itself as a reliable and mature IT services model which not only promises to cut the IT infrastructure costs but will also provide businesses to reap benefits from faster implementation of IT projects, improved agility to adjust to to ever changing market environment and reduce IT costs at the same time.The blog discusses how  cloud computing will help organizations to become more adaptive in future and how it makes it attractive for Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs)  to implement SAP ERP projects to achieve higher business integration and operational efficiencies.

It is important to understand the meaning of the term "Cloud Computing".The term has come to mean that users access business applications using web browser and perform their tasks without the need to know about the related infrastructure details e.g. servers, network details and connectivity, storage data bases, application configuration etcetra.The related and background infrastructure constitue the "Cloud" and is managed by Vendors.The cloud symbol has been used historically to represent  complex "all inclusive" understanding of a subject and helps to bring clarity to other related critical objects which are primary focus in a drawing and is still widely used in concept illustration of any kind.

A cloud model of IT services has associated IT infrastructure to support multiple applications and systems which new or existing businesses/organizations can use.The IT infrastructure in the background forms the "Cloud" and is recent offering to Organizations and Companies by the IT and Product Vendors. The Business Organizations does not own and support this IT infrastructure but pay as they use the same. This greatly reduces the IT infrastructure related expenditure for the Organization.This also implies on-demand access of required IT Apllications by business users in the organization to conduct their operational tasks. The concept of use and pay is similar to usage of utilities e.g. Water, Electricity in our houses. The Cloud Vendors offers "metered" use and pay services. The "Cloud" is the single access point for the users. The services are agreed and delivered as per "Service Agreement and SLAs". 

As "Cloud Computing" becomes more mature, there will be opportunity for ERP Service Vendors on two fronts. Existing big companies will start migrating to "Cloud" to reduce capital and operational IT expenditure.  If they have to scale up existing level of operations because of mergers/acquisitions, use of cloud computing will be a very viable option. Additionally, wherever they do not have infrastructure of their own, say in a new emerging market or territory they will take help of "Cloud Vendors" to keep the costs under control and achieve faster on Go To market strategy.

Other opportunity will be the opening up of Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) market for SAP ERP services.The high IT infrastructure and SAP Implementation project costs has acted as entry barrier.The "Cloud Computing" model will offer very economical way to embrace and implement SAP ERP for these companies.SMEs will work with Cloud Vendors and SAP ERP Implementation partners to achieve efficiencies in their operations by implementation of best practices and in turn gain from better decisions due to accurate information flow and integrated reporting.SAP has an on demand service offering "Business by design" for SMEs. The time is right for SAP ERP implementation vendors to target the SMEs for SAP Implementation projects.

The "Cloud" IT Services model has its own challenges posed by Data Privacy and Security, Regulatory Compliances and Legal aspects. The "Cloud Vendors" needs to work and resolve the same. Once these are addressed and managed appropriately, SME market will see the rapid rise in implementation of SAP ERP projects.

Posted by Deepak Kumar at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Hiring right talent is one of the critical challenges that Organization face today to successfully deliver the ERP projects for their customers.  While there is no sure shot way to judge a candidate in the limited time during an interview, still we can rely on key responses and observation to make the final decision. The blog discusses pointers to get credible indications on candidates' capability and competency for a given skillset. The blog is based on my recent experiences while interviewing candidates for various consulting positions for deployment in SAP ERP projects.

The Skill competency is the most critical part and is of primary importance. For a given role, the adequate subject matter expertise should be established in the first step. The questions should be based such that candidate is directed to answer as if what tasks/responsibilities  are done by him or her and what level of planning and execution are done by themselves. The confident and clear articulation will be an indication that guy knows the stuff. Start with Business Processes from candidate's skill area and ask for variations encountered in various industry sector he or she has worked in the past. If the guy is well aware about business processes in their area, they can potentially interact and discuss well with your customer. Based on experience cited in resume, probing questions on how they solved on complex problems using their expertise in a particular project can be asked. If you see in response, the structured presentation of Situation-Task-Action-Result approach than that is another indication of their problem solving, analysing alternatives and making recommendation mindset. Such skills are very much required in SAP projects.
 
Ask another set of questions wherein you play role of customer and ask candidate how he or she will behave/respond to various scenarios/phases  in end to end SAP Implementation project. Pose your question on organizing-planning-execution elements. Include questions on their particular role in Stakeholder, Team and Risk management and analyse responses whether those are adequate for role being interviewed. It should be kept in mind that not all candidates may have chance to work in large scale implementation  projects. Many candidates who have worked as freelance may draw a blank on planning, stakeholder and team management. Include questions on new/enriched functionality in candidate's skill area and response will indicate whether guy is update or not with SAP product/roadmap and latest developments. It is important to know to what scale of projects candidate has worked in the past. Large transformation projects will have more complexities and will require additional skill or similar experience in the past. Such information will help in right deployment of the candidate.

The interviewers style differs widely but end objective is same. While it is difficult to verify the content written in resume, getting credible indications about candidate's capability and competency through mix of rightly targeted questions will do the work in most of the cases.

Posted by Deepak Kumar at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )