Leading Change (and Change Management)

By |May 17th, 2010|

“Leading Change” is clearly more difficult than realizing that change is needed. If you want to validate the prior statement reflect back on all of the “change agents” that have crossed your path over the years, ask yourself the following question: "How many of them have truly succeeded?" While we’ve heard a lot about change of late as it relates to our current political landscape, the power of real change is trivialized when it becomes little more than a political sound-bite. Whether in busine [...]

ERP Project Plan: Getting Real Part 3

By |May 13th, 2010|

  Let's develop a project schedule people can believe and support. After all, people are the ones who must make any schedule a reality. When it comes to ERP project planning, an aggressive schedule is not a problem. In fact, it is encouraged. However, if you do not strategically consider this schedule, all you will have is a plan to toss out the window. We must deal with the ramifications of unrealistic expectations. Edicts Do Not Always Work First, many falsely believe that when senior ma [...]

SAP Implementation Focus: Engineer Software or Business Processes?

By |April 29th, 2010|

You have selected SAP as your software application-- now you move on to look for competitive bids from several software vendors to implement the system. You have a good understanding of the scope you want to address, but what do you look for and where do you begin? [FN1] Your Primary SAP Implementation Focus You can install SAP in your company through two primary ways: making your company fit the software, or making the software fit your existing processes. In other words, either you do a softw [...]

The Top 5 ERP Success Factors by Project Stage from 22 Critical Success Factors

By |April 26th, 2010|

  A while back, I was reviewing academic material on ERP/SAP Project success factors. One particular study stood out because it laid out 22 specific success factors by project stage [FN1]. Even though this study dates from 2001, the Critical Success Factors (or CSFs) still ring true today, and the conclusions are consistent with what I have seen on SAP projects since I started in 1994. While the sample size was somewhat limited (86 completed questionnaires), the data and information prov [...]

ERP Consultants: Is the Promise of Knowledge Transfer just part of the Sales Pitch?

By |February 10th, 2010|

Most ERP projects promise to transfer software knowledge from the consultants to the client. Once a project is over however, the client is often clueless about how to make software configuration changes, and may even struggle with performing basic transactions in the system. So what gives? Even though many aspire for successful knowledge transfer, most businesses lack a real strategy to make it more than just a dream. Secondly, when push comes to shove, we often set learning to the side and thi [...]

Opportunities for SAP Innovation

By |September 19th, 2009|

What if someone like me -- an independent consultant -- came along and said “SAP, I’ve got some really great ideas on how you can dramatically change the application for far greater success in the marketplace”? What if this change make the application more useful, and would not cost that much in developer time or resources? What if this change could be done almost completely with pre-existing functions, functionality, and code that SAP already has but has not done a good job themselves of integ [...]