IT Services Archives - Page 11 of 12 - Innovate. Integrate. Transform. Run.

SAP Development Practices That Carry Huge Costs
SAP Development Practices That Carry Huge Costs

SAP Development Practices That Carry Huge Costs

By Bill Wood|August 15th, 2009|

Anyone who has implemented SAP for any period of time has seen the classic three-tier system environment. You have a Development landscape, QA landscape, and then a Production landscape. In a classic scenario, you do your prototyping, system setup and design, and first-pass validation in the development landscape for the appropriate client. When it comes to development environments, a consistent pattern has emerged where the Basis team will ignore the potential for large profits to save a few p [...]

Protecting the SAP Project’s Budget and Timeline
Protecting the SAP Project’s Budget and Timeline

Protecting the SAP Project’s Budget and Timeline

By Bill Wood|July 11th, 2009|

For years I have heard stories about blown SAP budgets and blown SAP project timelines. Personally, I have experienced a few project overruns [FN1], and a few where we came in under budget. However, I can’t say any of the projects were ever early. While I believe that coming in under budget is often possible, reducing the time frame is much more difficult because of the planning and coordination processes. You need to adjust all of the parallel work streams and get the coordination and [...]

Why SAP Projects Fail to Deliver ROI and How to Change It
Why SAP Projects Fail to Deliver ROI and How to Change It

Why SAP Projects Fail to Deliver ROI and How to Change It

By Bill Wood|July 8th, 2009|

One reason businesses deal with failure of results in SAP implementations is lingering memories of the Y2K effect. At that time, businesses everywhere simply wanted to install ERP systems to take care of the looming potential crisis over the millennial changeover. After Y2K, the brief downturn in demand for ERP systems, along with the tech bubble burst in the stock market, created additional pressure. Unfortunately, they also overlooked SAP's full potential throughout the chaos. Because of this [...]

A Cautionary Tale About SAP Knowledge Transfer
A Cautionary Tale About SAP Knowledge Transfer

A Cautionary Tale About SAP Knowledge Transfer

By Bill Wood|February 3rd, 2009|

I spent the first few years of my SAP career on SAP training and documentation. During this time, I covered most of the major SAP modules [FN1], which was an invaluable experience for me. That time in front of a classroom doing SAP courses helped me gain an understanding of the user perspective, the client perspective, and how to facilitate effective requirements gathering sessions.Many SAP trainers do not have the luxury of specializing in a single module. Usually, you learn the transactional [...]

Planning For a Smooth Go-Live: Part 3
Planning For a Smooth Go-Live: Part 3

Planning For a Smooth Go-Live: Part 3

By Bill Wood|October 24th, 2008|

3. ERP or SAP Process issues Let me start with a caveat to this section. No matter how good, thorough, experienced, or conscientious a consultant or a core team member is, a project will always experience a few process gaps, and an occasional completely missing process discovered at go-live. Now that the caveat is out of the way, process problems can occur for many reasons: inexperienced consultants, company employees who miss some of the process exceptions, inadequate training, insufficient in [...]

Planning For a Smooth Go-Live: Part 4
Planning For a Smooth Go-Live: Part 4

Planning For a Smooth Go-Live: Part 4

By Bill Wood|October 12th, 2008|

4. SAP or ERP Software Modification - Custom Development Ultimately, every project needs some development work. And by development work, I mean custom-coded programs to address “FRICE” or “RICEF” objects (Forms, Reports, Interfaces, Conversions, and Enhancements). When you have the right developers, your project will greatly benefit, delivering on time and on budget. On the flip side, inexperienced developers bring significant hidden costs to a project that can cause slipped timelines, blown bu [...]