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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 [...]

Using SAP to Improve Revenue and Profitability
Using SAP to Improve Revenue and Profitability

Using SAP to Improve Revenue and Profitability

By Bill Wood|January 17th, 2009|

For years, CIOs have been under pressure to cut costs, improve operational efficiencies, and automate the enterprise. CIOs who implement SAP have largely been effective at streamlining the back office. They have also succeeded at optimizing the extended supply chain because SAP supports execution activities well, therefore reducing costs. However, times are changing. For IT and SAP to successfully grow revenue and profitability, a business needs to understand where technology fits into the puzz [...]

Planning For a Smooth SAP Go-Live Part 1
Planning For a Smooth SAP Go-Live Part 1

Planning For a Smooth SAP Go-Live Part 1

By Bill Wood|October 27th, 2008|

After you have done all the research and gone through all the trouble to make your project a success, four key areas can still cause trouble during your SAP go-live: 1. SAP Security and Authorizations. 2. Master Data. 3. Business process changes, process gaps (missed processes and exceptions). 4. SAP ABAP Custom Development. While each of these areas consistently cause trouble at go-live, resolving the first item (Security and Authorizations) and the third item (Process issues) should [...]

Planning For a Smooth SAP Go-Live: Part 2
Planning For a Smooth SAP Go-Live: Part 2

Planning For a Smooth SAP Go-Live: Part 2

By Bill Wood|October 25th, 2008|

2. SAP Master Data Ideally, your master data processing should begin early in the process. During the blueprint phase, you should identify legacy data sources, raw legacy data extracts, and key data requirements or data settings. Even though it won’t be perfect, you should determine an initial scope, and experienced developers should be able to point you to the type of raw data records they will need to begin working with. When you begin your SAP project, you should immediately ask for SAP mast [...]

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 [...]