SAP is one of the most used technologies on earth today allowing companies to run and manage their end-to-end business processes on one integrated technology platform. SAP NetWeaver allows companies to integrate third party systems and external web applications as well as SAP core ECC system(s) thereby providing a powerful technology infrastructure. Qué es ABAP helps enterprises that have already invested in other third-party systems to preserve their investment to aid their business growth. Now having said about SAP, you all know that any SAP transformation project is a huge undertaking and every customer wants to put maximum effort and a passionate workforce to make the implementation successful.
Today I wish to emphasize on some best practices all SAP customers might want to consider to minimize any risks and ensure success of your IT transformation project. Every company has different business needs to generally meet their corporate growth strategy which makes each SAP project unique in its own way and I'll share some best practices on a quite high level your SAP project leadership may use for their advantage to ensure their SAP project is setup for success.
So how can a IT Transformation project begin? Typically, An IT strategy to aid a company's short term and long term business growth is initiated by the C-level executive leadership (mostly by CEO, CIO, CFO, Vice Presidents of business and IT / Systems). Once the IT strategy is defined and approved, an executive steering committee is formed with some of the above executives and key leadership people representing the business. The project is then officially kicked off into planning, preparation, blueprint, functional design, technical design & build, test, deploy, go-live, and maintenance phases. You will find different best practices or actions I would suggest with respect to the client and project circumstances. It may possibly not be practically possible to cover best practices for all scenarios in this article. But, I is likely to make an endeavor to cover the very best practices and proactive measures at a macro level that should be followed during each of the implementation phases to minimize risks and avoid any unforeseen challenges to budget and go-live dates.
Simply 1, I'll discuss best practices for SAP project planning phase which includes business readiness, technology (and SAP modules/packages) selection, choice of SAP implementation partner (also called SAP Systems Integrator) and finally the project preparation phase. Part 2 and 3 will cover the remaining phases of your SAP project.
Early on in this phase, the steering committee should meet and establish the first composition of project leadership that should include an application sponsor, business lead and IT lead that are element of your organization today and shall continue to lead the IT strategy of the business going forward.
In the planning phase, initially, the project leadership should meet with key stakeholders and define their department objectives that should be met by the SAP project. Like, if the new transformation project includes a new business initiative or significant enhancements to existing business processes, then time and energy to go-live will be a major factor. Is the go-live timeframe aligning with enough time when you're likely to launch the new business initiative? Next thing I'll recommend would be to prioritize the important project factors such as for example schedule, budget, and quality so why these constraints can be clearly articulated during the vendor selection process. Also, define the advanced level scope of the project into 3 distinct categories for every business work stream such as for example 'High', 'Medium' and 'Low' priority. Also, business stakeholders and leadership needs to identify scope items that can be eliminated if the project budget and schedule is challenged. To the minimum it could be good to have a PMO process in spot to de-scope any of the items when time or budget is challenged.
In this phase the project leadership team should review the scope of the project and determine the engagement model with the program implementation vendor. Typically you are able to select from a 'Fixed Fee' or 'Time & Materials' engagement model. Fixed Fee model means the vendor must implement the entire project or each phase of the project for a fixed price. With Fixed Fee model, you as a person need to define your scope clearly so that you can include it in the statement of work.
The fixed fee will even mean that you will be typically charged in most cases about 20% surcharge by systems integrator to cover the danger to supply the project on a scope that has been mutually agreed upon at a fixed price. The drawback with this approach might be there's a prospect of quality of deliverables to be impacted along the way of delivering solution as quickly as you possibly can within the predefined budget. A big change control board must be established and protocol for handling change requests must be defined. It is advisable to do quality reviews on deliverables and overall implementation to ensure solution delivered is of high quality. Another engagement model is 'Time & Materials' wherein the client is investing in resources promptly and material basis.
The project management office (PMO) must monitor the project budget with respect to progress on deliverables very closely to ensure project is delivered within the budget. It is easy to include scope and resources to generally meet deadlines thereby overshooting the planned budget. With this model I'll recommend one more third-party or in-house SAP project manager (apart from SI project and/or delivery manager) to ensure project delivery with time and within budget. Estimates and re-estimates should be achieved in a timely manner at appropriate milestones within each phase when using this model. If the SAP implementation project is complex and scope isn't clearly known then this can be an improved option. Now, in this phase, you should analyze all the good qualities and cons of both of these models and pick one which suits the very best for the business.
Qué es ABAP usually, the planning phase can last between few weeks to some months and if you have business team members already identified for the implementation, you are able to engage them in defining the future state business requirements. This would help accelerate the business enterprise requirements gathering phase and creation of BPRDs throughout the blueprint.
Technology in this article an assumption is made that you have already made a decision to go with SAP, but still, not totally all projects go with a presumed technology of choice. In very brief, if your company needs to pick a technology to aid your IT growth strategy there are several factors that have to be taken into consideration including the following: