ten step approach to selecting the right sap systems integrator for your project

8/6/2019 Ten Step Approach to Selecting the Right SAP Systems Integrator for Your Project

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The 10 Step Approach to Selectingthe Right SAP Systems Integratorfor Your Project

The 10 Step Approach to Selectingthe Right SAP Systems Integratorfor Your Project

June, 2010


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The 10 Step Approach to Selecting the Right SAP Systems Integrator for your Project

Michael Doane

The 10 Step Approach to Selecting the Right SAP Systems Integrator for your

Project

Enlightened selection of an SAP systems integrator can bring immeasurable benefit to a firm. While

the selection of the right systems integrator is of major import, so also are the terms and foundation

on which the engagement is made. Oftentimes, the right systems integrator is chosen for the

wrong reasons and client expectations are not met. Equally as often, a systems integrator appearsto be chosen for the right reasons but the selection process is flawed and client expectations are

misplaced.

Further, the selection process can be bewildering. Consulting skills, SAP skills, industry focus,

methods & tools, organizational change management, knowledge transfer, and a host of other

elements of an engagement all require scrutiny and clients are faced with a need to identify

competitive advantages and disadvantages within the context of their specific needs and goals.

A brief definition of the right SAP systems integrator, derived from a combination of field

experience and client input, is a firm that will embrace and enhance a client vision and bring

measurable business benefit in an engagement that will also fully prepare the client to efficiently

maintain and enhance its SAP assets well after the engagement is completed. While the adherence

to time and cost is important, our experience and research strongly suggest that, over the long haul,

these elements are less important than most clients believe. Deadlines are often capricious and cost

is only half of the ROI equation.

What Can Go Wrong?

Below is text that I retired from The New SAP Blue Book in 2005, some of which is, unfortunately,

needed anew:

All the same, some consulting firms in high-demand areas (SAP, Supply Chain, Customer

Relationship Management, Internet et al) still play some of these age-old tricks and it is in yourinterest to have your antenna fully extended.

Bait and switch: A firm bidding to become a client's implementation partner promotes star

consultants during the proposal phase and sends inferior consultants once the deal is set.

Flooding the zone: A firm assigns one or two star consultants to a project and surrounds them with

an army of neophyte consultants whose SAP experience can be measured in weeks. It takes a while


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for the client to recognize this because at the onset of a project, neophytes seem to know so much

more than the client, but mostly they are hiding behind a terminology smoke-screen.

Gin rummy (spades) : A haves-and-needs body shopper sends a subcontract consultant to a client;

some time later, the body shopper finds a cheaper consultant for the same job and, through somepretext, replaces the first one for greater personal profit.

Gin rummy (clubs): A contract consultant accepts a six-month assignment. Two months into the job,

the consultant finds another assignment that pays more. Citing 'philosophical differences', he/she

abandons the first client in mid-project.

Casper Consulting, Inc.: Resumes of non-existent consultants are presented to clients to puff up the

size of a consulting roster. Not so curiously, these consultants are always 'on another assignment'.

Sap, not SAP: Resumes are sprinkled with SAP initials like SD, MM, or PP but the candidate has no

real SAP experience. This gambit was once widespread but is happily on the wane. A candidate oncecalled me and opened his spiel by saying that he had three years of sap experience. That's what he

said, sap (rhymes with zap), not SAP. Imagine the resonance of a phone slamming onto its receiver.

Facing Mirrors(((()))): There are great numbers of contract consultants who cut subcontract

representation deals with more than one consulting firm and thus appear on several firms' rosters.

These consultants are only slightly more available than those from Casper Consulting, Inc.

This is not to say that the systems integrators are always playing games with clients. In most

instances, they do seek to address client needs in a forthright fashion. Be aware, however, that

whenever a consulting firm comes to a client site to make its pitch, the opening remarks will include

the phrase we wish to partner with you. What this proposed partnership consists of will seldom

be elaborated because there is scant partnership substance in a straight billing relationship. If you

purchase, you are buying the consulting firms time and assets (methodologies, tools, templates,

etc.). You have one common goal, a successful completion of a project, but the definition of

successful is not mutual. The consulting firm wants to complete the project to your satisfaction

while making the best possible margin. You, the client, want to complete the project with the

highest possible financial benefit (derived from business benefit and/or minimization of project

costs).

Use a Formal Selection Process

Doane Associates strongly recommends that clients follow a formal Request for Proposal (RFP)

process. Simply engaging an SAP systems integrator robs a client of the ability to control costs,sharpen scope & focus, and scale the SAP learning curve prior to an engagement.

The complete recommended steps for a formal selection are outlined below:

1. Establish Short-listing & Selection Criteria

Prior to short-listing, determine the attributes of the ideal service provider for your

engagement. Is knowledge of your industry a must or is it only desirable? How important is


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knowledge transfer and client ownership of the engagement? Are you seeking creative financing

or will you depend upon fixed cost?

2. Informed Short Listing

At least three candidate firms likely to match your criteria should be included on a short list. For

large engagements, five candidate firms are recommended, with the notion that, at the point of

written response to RFP, the two outliers will be immediately cast aside. Thus, clients have only

three responses to the RFP to be assessed.

3. Develop the RFP According to What You Want and Demand Response in the Form of the RFP

Clients often build an RFP with an eye on what they believe the service providers can do. Our

advice to clients is to include precisely what is desired and leave it up to the candidate firms to

best describe how they will satisfy the demand.

Most IT service providers have automated or semi-automated methods for responding to an

RFP. If clients accept such responses, the diversity of response results in a great burden of

extrapolation, cut & paste, and document backtracking. We have seen instances in which one

vendor tendered a 325 screen PowerPoint, another sent four Word files and two Excel tables,

and the other three sent boilerplate Word files. Service providers should be encouraged to

include salient information in addendum to the RFP response.

We recommend advising all short-listed firms that a failure to respond to the form of the RFP

may result in elimination.

4. Provide Sufficient Time for Response

For most engagements, candidate firms should have 3 to 4 weeks after their acknowledgement

of receipt of the RFP. Clients should make every effort to deliver the RFP to a vendor contact

who is capable of routing the RFP to the proper individual or entity for response. Firms that are

not given sufficient time tend to return responses that a) are insufficiently competitive and/or

b) do not adequately address RFP aims. The following is a representative time line for the

Request for Proposal Process.

5. Establish and Maintain a Level Playing Field

The goal is to receive the most competitive responses possible. If any of the candidate firms

presumes a client bias toward one of the firms on the list, the response will not be competitive

and the purpose of the RFP process will be undermined.

Week Step Comments

Week 0 Distribute RFP

Week 3 Receive RFP Written Response Add 1-2 weeks for very large-scale engagements

Week 4 Response Assessment & Initial Scoring Presumes responses are in the form of the RFP

Week 5 3 Finalist Presentations Full day presentations for very large-scale engagement

Week 6 Update Scoring

Week 7 Final Selection & Due Diligence


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6. Score Responses According to Weighted Criteria

Group scoring reduces the fog of vendor posturing, claims, lunches, peripheral phone calls, and

the like. Scoring must be held against weighted criteria or results will be distorted.

7. Seek Out Differentiation While Flattening Price Points

If all responses are in the form of a client RFP, vendor differentiation is easy to identify and

clients can immediately concentrate on points of contrast. If proposed costs are not widely

diverse, clients can encourage higher-priced vendors to re-structure their response to meet the

lowest current bid. This is the advantage of being in a buyers market.

8. Observe Vendor Behavior Throughout the Process

Vendor behavior and tactics through the RFP process reveal the passion or lack thereof that a

vendor has for the clients engagement. Clients should note whether or not vendors respond ona timely basis, are readily available to answers questions regarding the response, and assign the

right resource to the task at hand.

During vendor presentations, clients should take note of who presents. Presentations by

prospective project managers and support staff provide a client the opportunity to assess how

that firm might actually perform. Presentations led by sales directors, partners, or senior

managers reveal much less.

Client should penalize attempts by vendors to seek outside leverage on decision-makers

through contact with parties not included on the evaluation and decision-making committee

such as board members, peer groups or other client associates. Client should also penalize

attempts by vendors to discredit client evaluation team members (and/or third partyinfluencers) who do not seem inclined to choose them.

It is also wise to look askance at any vendor putting on an overt charm campaign of lunches,

dinners, and gifts, none of which reflect the substance of a project and all of which tend to

reveal vendor emptiness.

9. Cost is Its Own Criteria

When making a final selection of an IT service provider, clients should balance final scoring

against proposed cost. If one vendor has a large scoring lead but is marginally more costly than

the second place vendor, clients should determine whether the differential in capability is worththe difference in cost.

10.Due Diligence

The chosen systems integrator should be required to identify team members and provide a

suitable resume for each of them. Note that these team members were probably not on

projects tendered by the systems integrator in their references. Thus, clients are advised to


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perform resource due diligence by interviewing key proposed team members. If the client is

new to SAP, third party assistance is recommended as SAP background is needed for this step.

By following these ten steps, clients can set the stage for a more successful project with a greater

understanding of their SI partners true capabilities, aims, and assets.

Trust But Verify

Beyond due diligence, clients should be looking for a vendors demonstrable ability to provide

measurable business benefits as a result of any engagement. Adherence to budget and timelines is

no longer the key criterion for SAP project success.

In this light, we strongly recommend especially for high budget engagements- the hiring of a

knowledgeable third-party quality assurance firm that can keep both client and systems integrator

on track. The value of quality assurances cuts both ways. Quality assurance not only provides the

client with objective insight into the systems integrators effectiveness but can also inform clientsas to their own effectiveness in regard to their partnership with the systems integrator. Consider the

following results of Performance Monitor research for 693 SAP engagements.

Respondents were asked to cite any of the above thirteen problems that arose in the course of their

SAP engagement. They were also asked to cite which group they felt was responsible for the

problem: themselves, SAP, or the systems integrator. The following result underscores the potential

value of a knowledgeable and objective third-party quality assurance firm.

Hidden costs is a problem that is often a simple result of clients under-funding a project. Of

greater concern is the citation of insufficient post-implementation planning which is the result of

clients racing to go-live with too little concern about the long term.

Problem Cited

There were costs that were hidden or not made known to us up front 30.5%

Personnel not up to expected levels of expertise 29.6%

Insufficient post-implementation planning 28.0%

Cultural/geographic differences caused friction, quality erosion, and/or delays 26.2%

Lack of client ownership of project 20.0%

Scope poorly managed 19.4%

Business benefits not realized 17.8%Results were over-engineered and difficult to use/maintain 17.5%

Insufficient project process, structure, and / or resource management 17.3%

Results did not meet our expectations 17.1%

Lack of product/technology expertise 13.7%

Service provider was not knowledgeable of our business 13.2%

Did not meet compliance goals or regulation requirements 5.2%

Problems Experienced by Clients of SAP Systems Integrators


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As can be seen, clients who have completed SAP engagements blame themselves more often than

their systems integrators for key problems such as insufficient post-implementation planning, not

meeting compliance goals, and business benefits not being realized. These issues can be corralled

through the judicious use of a third party quality assurance firm as well as by client-systems

integrator alignment.

A successful SAP engagement can result in improved business processes, cost reductions, business

agility, increased revenues, and other tangible gains. Enlightened short listing of leading SAP service

providers and informed guidance as to how to engage with all candidates will help immeasurably to

simplify and demystify the selection process so that the SAP systems integrator most likely to help a

client to the SAP promised land will be identified.

Overall Responsibility for Problems Experienced

62%

60%

50%

44%

41%

40%

33%

31%

28%

26%

20%

15%

8%

30%

40%

6%

18%

10%

22%

54%

56%

22%

47%

38%

33%

31%

10%

10%

50%

41%

50%

44%

15%

17%

52%

33%

46%

67%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Results were over-engineered and difficult to use/maintain

Insufficient project process, structure, resource mgmt

Lack of product/technology expertise

Cultural/geographic diffs caused friction, quality erosion, delays

Personnel not up to expected levels of expertise

Service provider was not knowledgeable of our business

Results did not meet our expectations

There were costs hidden or not made known to us up front

Lack of client ownership of project

Insufficient post-implementation planning

Scope poorly managed

Business benefits not realized

Did not meet compliance goals or regulation requirements

Systems Integrator Software Vendor Own Organization

SAP Line of Business


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Michael Doane

Michael Doane is a leading authority on enterprise applications, Mr. Doane has thirty-six years of business

and information systems experience, including sixteen years in consulting. He advises clients on strategies,

implementation and integration, service provider selection and management, and best practices and methods

for deriving value from enterprise applications investments.

In addition to prior roles as a practice lead at Grant Thornton and The Consulting Alliance, Mr. Doane has

directed several major consulting engagements for large systems integrators, most notably in financials and

logistics, in North America, Europe, and Asia. Prior to entering the world of consulting, he was the European IS

director for the Plessey Company Ltd. and for Ferry Peter, a division of Wiggins Teape.

From 2001 through 2007, he worked as an industry analyst at META Group and Performance Monitor. At META

Group, he created and led the Professional Services Strategies group and was a contributing member of the

Enterprise Applications Strategies group. He is widely published (including five books on SAP) and has led

more than fifty executive seminars on enterprise applications strategies and best practices. He provided a

keynote at the 2002 North American SAPPHIRE on the subject of centers of excellence and keynoted an

ASUG/SAPPHIRE 2010 Kick-off on the same subject.

Key associates include 3V Solutions (www.3vsolutions.com), Meridian Consulting (www.meridian-us.com),

Enterprise Applications Consulting (www.eaconsult.com) and JonERP (www.jonerp.com).

Mr. Doane is the author ofThe New SAP Blue Book, a Concise Business Guide to the World of SAP, and The SAP

Green Book: Thrive After Go-Live. He is a regular columnist for ERP.com and has a blog

(http://[email protected]) In addition, he has led numerous executive seminars in the U.S. and

Europe on the subjects of SAP adoption and implementation, return on information systems investments, and

application lifecycle management.

E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.michaeldoane.com

These books are not available in bookstores. Order at www.michaeldoane.com
http://[email protected]/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.michaeldoane.com/http://www.michaeldoane.com/http://www.michaeldoane.com/mailto:[email protected]://[email protected]/

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