Why SAP Projects Fails??

[Former Member]

Hello abapers, right now i'm writing a paper for the company that i work, this paper it's related with SAP Projects, i would be so glad if you let me hear your comments about What are the reason that you think that makes SAP Projects Fails? It an IT related stuff.

I want collect all your comments based on your experience implanting SAP Projects. This is important to me because a will see closer the common problem around the world and will not localized my paper use only issues that i may know.

Regards,

Carlos.

[Former Member]

Hi Carlos,

Are you sure this is the right place to ask this question? :-). Implementing an ERP like SAP is no small task. There are thousands of SAP Implementations that are successful.

You should perhaps be a bit more specific about the term <i>failure</i>.

Lack of expertise (technical and/or functional) on the part of the implementation team is one of the reasons why an SAP implementation may not succeed.

Regards,

Anand Mandalika.

[Former Member]

Yes Anand, i'm only talking about the lack of user/technical/functional stuff, communication problems between user/consultants, etc.. Sorry for don't mentioned above.

My intention it's beside detect lack problems, discuss posible solutions.

[Former Member]

Hi Carlos,

You have touched upon a major topic here and I am not sure if you can ever close this post. But let me give it a try. Let me try to put it into perpective by discussing the topic following the project lifecycle.

Now any ERP implementation starts with a requirement at the top level to refine their IT landscape to better support the business. Then you go out to search for the best tool to do that. That can be your first point of failure, if you don't identify the right fit(ERP software) for your organization. I was on a SAP project where they thought SAP is the best fit for their business, but 6 months into the project, they realized that even though SAP is the best ERP software around, it didn't fit their needs. They scrapped the project and went for custom development in Oracle.

Then comes your choice of the implementation partner. A big implementation like an ERP implementation cannot be completely sourced with inhouse resources. You meed a implementation partner who has the experience to steer you though the implementation and make it successful. Now this is not specific to SAP, but with SAP you have to be even more careful on this aspect because of the costs and time involved.

Once you have identified SAP as the tool and identified your implementation partner, you then venture into the identification of implementation team from your organization. Depending on which modules you are implementing, you want to identify teams that have a very healthy mix of business knowledge, experience in specific areas of the company's business functions, technical expertise that can easily adopt and learn new software quickly. If your team is not chosen wisely then there will be a makor gap between the requirements and their translation into implementation.

Defining the scope of the project is also important. By doing this, you will identify which processes you will implement in SAP and as a result which applications you will replace with SAP and which applications you will interface with SAP. If you fail to correctly identify this, then the project will fail.

An ERP implementation means a lot of change and that means all your end users, your implementation team, your management and basically everyone should be ready for it. This involves a major investment(not necessarily monetary) in change management. There will be a change in the way you do things and everyone should be ready for it. If they are not, then there will be a failure in effective use of the tool thus effecting its utility to the organization and the productivity of the employee.

After you are past the requirements phase and team preparation phase, you enter the design phase. The project can make or break depending on what happens in this phase. This is where the implementation team goes out to define the business processes, identify requirements and translate them into configuration and development specs etc. If any of the tasks here go wrong, then the final product will be a failure.

In the development phase, it can be any or all of the factors like lack of technical expertise, lack of usage of best practices, lack of standards, lack of supporting infrastructure etc.

Other factors include, support from top management and business process owners for the project(they should be the stakeholders in this), political aspects of the client place, integration requirements etc.

As Anand pointed you first need define 'failure'. In a project as big as an ERP/SAP implementation, a complete scrapping of the project can be a failure, or not completing the project on budget, on time could be a failure or not being able to deliver one specific critical functionality can be a failure. So as you can see, the definition of the failure itself can be so different for so many implementations.

Even though your question is specific to SAP, my answer is more generic and applicable to any large scale project. SAP inherently has no in-built faults that make a project a failure. As long as you keep all the above factors in control, you should have a successful project.

Hope this discussion continues.

Srinivas

[Former Member]

Well, Srnivas that was a excelent comment. I think that the communicatino between end user and consultants communication it's one of many key for the success too. I have been in clients where the end-user in most cases seems like an enemy than a partner in his own implemantation, Even if you had the best technical/functional consultants if the end-user assumes a negative position surely he never will get satisfied.

I want clarify something in this discussion, when i talked to "SAP Projcts Fail" <u>i do not mean the SAP SYSTEM</u>, i only referring to the way that we do the things, the way that we implement, the way that we develop requirements, etc... in a few words: "The way like WE work with SAP"

I'm also one of those who think that in most cases the problem isn't the Computer, in most cases the problem it's between the Chair and the Computer, LOL.

[Former Member]

Hi Carlos,

Unofrtunately, this topic is not marked as a question. But Srinivas' write-up was very very good, as you have agreed. Could you give him some points ?

Regards,

Anand Mandalika.

[Former Member]

Hi Srinivas,

I must take my hats-off for this answer of yours. It's amazing how simple, crisp, precise.....,....,..your write-up is.

Thanks very much for this wonderful post. Hope to see many more such posts from you.

Regards,

Anand Mandalika.

[Former Member]

Hi Carlos,

If you look at my previous response, I did mention a few words about the importance of a change management initiative. One of the important tasks of this change management team is to improve communication between the implementation teams and the end users, between the team and the management and all the stakeholders. In most of the projects, having a change management team in place is becoming a norm. This team does not directly contribute to the implementation but they act as a catalyst for improving the communications. The end user perception of a consultant as a competetor will not go away unless you have a team that is dedicated to remove such apprehensions. Having team building activities, empowering the endusers with a say in the project, letting the end users know that they are partners in the implementation of a better product rather than end recepients of a unwanted product, involving them in various aspects of the project are some of the things that a change management team can facilitate. I have seen some aspects of the project fail where the end users are not involved at all and when the final product was given them to use, they didn't like it. Bringing in end users at various stages of the project is very important. You don't have to involve them in your design stage, but the BPOs can have their small group meetings with their end users and take their inputs/concerns into the project meetings. This way the end users feel empowered and will participate in the implementation with more ideas and add their business knowledge into the mix.

Mandate from upper management is crucial to this aspect. If the management does not show commitment for the implementation or does not let the message go out to everyone in the organization that this implementation is important to them and the company, or if they don't make everyone feel as part of this implementation, then the project will not succeed. This is very crucial because, even though management communicates that the project is a very top priority for the company, but if they fail to make everyone feel that they are part of the success or failure of it, the project will not succeed. Being part of the implementation team or not being part of it should not be perceived by the employees as a promotion or demotion kind of thing. The management has to make sure that the employee outside the implementation team is equally important as the one inside.

As consultants, we should keep all this in mind and communicate with the users in such a way that they dont feel intimidated by us. We should let them know that without the end user's knowledge of the business, our implementation of the product will not be successful. We should make them feel important contributors to the success of the project.

Good discussion, I hope others join in to air their experiences.

Anand, what happened to your name, it changed to a number? Thanks for the nice words.

Srinivas

[Former Member]

Hi Srinivas,

Certainly a very comprehensive write-up on the topic. Full points to your reply!

As you mentioned the importance of a change management team, I thought I should highlight, in my opinion, SAP's stance on this.

Looking at the scale of SAP implementations across the world and gathering cutomer feedback, SAP realized and started emphasizing the importance of a CCC (Customer Competence Center). This is a team of guys who act as facilitators during the complete ERP implementation lifecycle. Once the ERP is implemented, it is these guys who look for optimizing business processes to get the most out of organization's investment. They additionally coordinate with ERP Implementation Partners for custom developments, upgrades, landscape optimization, user training, just to name a few. SAP has put in place a certification process for CCCs to further ease the process. The idea is simple; once the customer/end users start owning the project, it has a greater chance of success. If I recall correctly, SAP recommends that an organization with a user base of 1000+ should develop a CCC within the 1st year of its SAP implementation.

Just my 2 cents.

Regards

[Former Member]

Anand, i didn't mark this topic as a question because i don´t looking a tecnichal answer and this forum it's for ABAP Programming Topics, beside, can you imagine how i can rewards so many excelents answers? LOL.

I pretend to open a debate where everybody can join this topic and exchange some ideas too.

And yes all the comments by Srinivas are very very excelent, so focus that 10 points will not be enough for him... thanks everybody for all your comments.

I hope this topic doesn't end so soon.

[Former Member]

Hi Shehryar,

It is wonderful piece of information, I haven't heard about it. But I have seen it in a different form in some places where the clients form a super user team which will take ownership of the SAP implementation, not from a support perspective but from a business improvement perpective. How better can I make SAP work for our organization? How better can I empower end users to work in SAP without feeling discomfort? These are some of the goals of this team.

The way this team is formed is they choose members from business who join the SAP implementation team as functional experts(not to be confused with configuration specialists). They will be with the implementation team through out the project life cycle, learning the configuration skills at the same time contributing their business knowledge to the project team. Post implementation you can continue to keep the team as it is and call it the CCC(another word I heard is Center of Excellence) or let them go back to their functional areas and be the goto person for that business function department as far as SAP is concerned.

The key to the success of any implementation depends on how quickly the customer takes ownership of the implemented product and how quickly they develop these super user teams(or CCC) and how quickly the end users feel comfortable with it.

Another thing to remember is that the project goal should not be IT oriented. By that I mean, management should not think that this implementation will improve their IT efficiency or reduce their cost of maintaining multiple systems that are interfaced point-to-point. The goal of an ERP implementation should be business efficiency and functional integration. SAP will be a tool in facilitating that.

Carlos, never mind the points. As you said, there are too many too good answers to reward and I think a topic like this should just continue by its merit rather than the reward points. I thank Anand and Khan for their approval of my thoughts.

Regards,

Srinivas

[ramki_maley]

Srinivas,

Hats off to you!! Very nicely put together. Keep up the good work

Regards,

Ramki Maley