A realist’s view
on SAP timings
and budgets

An SAP implementation or SAP-led business transformation on any scale represents significant cost and risk.

Research shows that 50% of SAP implementations fail to deliver their business outcomes, and 70%+ are late and over budget.

But by focusing on what the successful half do well, you can put your S/4HANA programme on the right footing.

The Resulting Pre-Flight Check assesses your SAP approach against 15 success levers and provides experience based, and research backed recommendations that will reduce cost, improve plan confidence, and reduce the chances of your S/4HANA programme being in the wrong 50%.

 You get a structured independent assessment of your S/4HANA plans against Resulting's SAP Success model, followed by a series of deep-dive workshops into the high risk areas.

Although your ERP vendors and systems integrators will have their own methodology, experience shows that they tend to focus on technical implementation rather than the end-to-end aspects like data migration, business change, training and ongoing improvement.

Plus, if your ERP solution is composed of solutions from multiple suppliers, their individual ways-of-working are likely to be out of sync.

You need an ERP methodology that covers the end-to-end process from business case, through selection and beyond go-live.

But you also need to ensure that it covers the things that you need to do alongside your suppliers to ensure SAP success.

 You get a an out-of-the-box ERP methodology that can be adopted or adapted to suit your needs.  It comes with the pre-defined activities, deliverables, stage gates, roles and responsibilities needed to establish an ERP method that works for your unique circumstances.

Your people are experts in what you do.  But they're not experts in planning and running complex SAP programmes.

And, for every month of over-run of your SAP plan you will incur additional cost, frustration and business disruption.

70% of ERP programmes run over their original plan. 

Which means you need a robust, realistic plan that represents how reality is most likely to pan out.

 You get a clear and understandable S/4HANA project plan-on-a-page that enables you to define a realistic timescale for your SAP adoption. This will be supported by an initial RAAIDD register that outlines key Risks, Issues, Assumptions and Dependencies.

 Once baselined, your high-level plan can be turned into more detailed plans, breaking down milestones, work stream deliverables and detailed dependencies.

 Then, if you need someone to hold everyone's feet to the flames, a PMO service will ensure the plan becomes a reality.

On the face of it, the cost of an SAP system should be predictable...

SAP Licenses, hosting services, and resources to design, build, test and train your people - followed by ongoing support and enhancement.

But businesses have a terrible track record in accurately defining and controlling the cost of implementation.

A robust plan, clear methodology and honest assessment of your approach are important ingredients to accurate commercials.

But an upfront, honest appraisal of the detailed costs, contingencies and sensitivities will ensure a realistic budget and reduce surprises down the line.

 You get expertise within your team to create a realistic commercial model, and stress tested assumptions that can be validated during selection, contracting and ongoing programme governance.