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Experts in sourcing SAP talent

Human Resources

Lives: BelgiumFamily, pets etc: Married, two daughters.Education: PMP, PgMP, PRINCE-2, ITIL certified; MBA, Ashridge business school, UK; BSc, Computer Science & Mathematics, Tel Aviv University, IsraelHobbies: Sailing, hiking, painting, football

Amit is an accomplished senior IT and business executive who has held VP level positions at major International Blue-Chip Corporations, leading International Organisations and Global Programs with 500+ staff / €150M+ budget.

What do you think are the five most important points to consider when implementing SAP?

The same five key points are important for implementing any ERP, not just SAP, and these are:• A solid programme governance framework,

including an effective programme steering committee.

• Active ownership (and support) by the business. It is essential this comes from CEO level, middle management ownership/support is not enough. ERP rollouts are not just a “software package rollout”, but a challenging transformation

initiative. The ERP solution (e.g. SAP) is merely an enabling technology.

• A proper gap analysis at the initiation phases of:

a. How the business operates, its needs, and the functionality offered by the ERP solution

b. The maturity of the current business process vs. the level of maturity that will be required by the future solution. This will have significant impact on the required change management effort, resources, budget and timeline.

• Effective change management. This is an area which is often neglected and includes communications and user education (training). An ineffective change management process will have a detrimental effect on the success of the programme!

• Resources Availability. Both IT and business, with special emphasis on the business resources. A transformation programme like an ERP rollout requires a significant amount of resources to be completed successfully. Preferably a core business team should be allocated to the project on a full time basis. This will also ensure that the business community owns the solution post implementation, are knowledgeable enough to be self-sufficient, and drive it forward on the business side (Super-users, BPO’s, BPC’s etc.). Ensuring that the right resources (skills) are assigned to the programme (IT and business) will be critical to its success.

What are the biggest risks when implementing SAP for the first time?

Introducing Investigo SAP

Q & A with a senior SAP Programme Director

Investigo’s Associate Director Terry Dawson sits down with Amit Eitan to discuss the key to a successful SAP transformation programme.

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• Lack of top management ownership and active involvement.

• Underestimating the required business involvement and workload, often leading to a chronic lack of business resources available throughout the programme, can result in a high risk of failure (linked to point one).

• Underestimating the complexity of data migration (and specifically master data), which can have a significant impact on programme schedule, resources and budget. The risk is even higher when not addressed before go-live, as it will have significant impact on business operations once in production.

• Assuming that global template (budget, resources, schedule) means “one size fits all”. In most cases there will be a need for some must-have local variations due to local regulations and business practices. It doesn’t mean moving away from SAP best practices as necessary adaptations are possible in most cases through SAP configuration and customizing (not “development”, ABAP etc), but it means more effort/time.

• Choosing the wrong consulting partner (SI). When using an SI for a rollout, having the right partner, the right agreement and constructive relationships with the partner are critical to the success of the programme. When it comes to a global rollout, whoever the partner is, they must have genuine (and proven) global presence/reach and expertise.

Introducing Investigo SAP

What do you think are the benefits for choosing SAP over other ERP systems?

I would start by saying that as always, one size doesn’t fit all. SAP implementations require a sizeable investment, which may not be justified in some cases. There are many cases when a smaller, simpler and less costly tier-2 ERP solution is sufficient to support current and future business needs.

However, when talking about mid-size to large enterprises with multiple business groups/units, global (or international) presence and complex business structure that require scalability and depth/breadth functionality wise SAP is definitely the right choice. Having implemented other ERP solutions, including Oracle, JDE, PeopleSoft and Baan, SAP is the best option for the following reasons :

• SAP’s main focus and area of expertise has always been enterprise applications. While the enterprise application is an area where SAP hold the market leading spot today across the globe, the other large ERP software vendors tend to have multiple business focuses such as databases. This is well reflected in SAP’s solid architecture, scalability and the depth & breadth of functionality SAP offers.

• The core SAP ERP modules were built to be fully integrated from the ground up. This integration is built into the very foundation of the system and extends to other non-ERP modules such as CRM, SCM etc. This provides an end-to-end integrated solution other ERP solutions do not deliver.

• SAP is highly industry and business specific and offers more in this respect than any other ERP

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solution. Those industry specific solutions have been built and refined with real customers and real implementations over the last 3 decades which is certainly reflected in their quality.

• SAP architecture is very solid, with a process-centric focus. It operates in real time communications with wide business enterprise processes and is highly flexible. In addition, SAP architecture and landscape keeps evolving day-by-day, from R2 to R3 to ECC to SOA etc. in order to be able to meet the ever changing business needs, thus adding tremendous value to their client base.

• By virtue of having the largest install base worldwide, SAP expertise and support can be found in every corner of the world today.

What are the key attributes you look for when hiring SAP consultants onto your projects?• Strong Customer focus • High professional standards and values• Business minded rather than technically

focused with the ability to find solutions that meet the specific business needs rather than focusing on ”bright technical solutions”

• Communications skills – the ability to “talk SAP to lay persons” and effectively educate them.

• Project management (or “real world”) awareness. The ability to understand and respecting the fact that all solutions provided must fit into the project scope, schedule and budget. The ability to say assertively “no” when needed to users and be creative enough to find alternative solutions when needed.

Introducing Investigo SAP

In an ideal World, how would you see the ideal SAP Programme being structured?

In a nutshell, the programme should be organized as follows:

• There should be a steering committee that includes the:• Programme executive sponsor • The business owner(s) of the programme• Consulting Partner Executive• The CIO • Programme Director

• Local implementation committee (for each site, when implementing in that site/country).

• Programme structure that is based on the following three main areas (pillars) - People, Processes, Technology:• Change management stream (people)• Business processes stream (processes).• Business solutions stream (technology, IT).• Current rollout(s) (local) project

management

• Business Processes stream – to include:• Business process owners (BPO’s) and

business process coordinators (BPC’s).• SAP champions (for live sites)• Master Data Owners

• Business solutions stream – to include:• Internal IT• External consultants and/or consulting

partner personnel.

To get in touch with Amit please email aeitan@yahoo.com.