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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 [...]

Reduce SAP Project Stress: Part 1
Reduce SAP Project Stress: Part 1

Reduce SAP Project Stress: Part 1

By Bill Wood|August 25th, 2008|

Expectation Setting As one of the most overlooked consulting and management skills, expectation setting can make the difference between a good job and a mess. Expectation setting is vital for both the person who is supposed to meet the expectation (the consultant or implementation vendor), as well as those setting expectations (the customer or project manager). During an SAP implementation, project-related expectation setting comes at many points and phases of the project. The team nee [...]

Reduce SAP, ERP, or Technology Project Stress: Part 2
Reduce SAP, ERP, or Technology Project Stress: Part 2

Reduce SAP, ERP, or Technology Project Stress: Part 2

By Bill Wood|August 20th, 2008|

A good SAP project with solid performance requirements will often be a stressful experience. Anyone who has been through an ERP implementation has experienced this stress. And although this may sound counter-intuitive, if you’ve chosen the right people for the project during the course of the implementation, you will experience conflict. Why do tempers flare with the right people? They are usually the people who care the most about the business and are passionate about their responsibilities. I [...]