Is “good” good enough?
How many times have you asked yourself the question: What does good look like?
I remember “good” being one of the three words that my English teacher forbade us to use at school (the three forbidden words – “good”, “nice” and “like”).
We weren’t allowed to use the word good because it’s used so often that it’s become generic.
If something is good, what does that mean? Is it good enough that it’s just acceptable or is it so good that it’s more than what you expected?
Good can be perceived differently – it’s a subjective word – what one person accepts as good another person might not.
So, what does good look like on a project?
Here’s an example.
Today I needed an HDMI cable so I sent an email to facilities. Someone was stood next to me with a replacement almost the second I pressed send (well... within 5 minutes to be exact).
This exceeded all my expectations - and is what I call a “good” service.
But is that what other people mean by good? Some might say this was better than good - platinum in fact - as my expectations were exceeded on all counts.
If I’m honest I was expecting to receive a response an hour or so later (it was an email after all), telling me where to go to collect the cable.
To get the platinum service I would have thought I’d have needed to make a phone call, explain that I was in a client meeting in the boardroom, that the exec team were waiting, and that unless we had that HDMI cable in the next five minutes we were going to lose a million pound contract.
So it is wrong to describe the service I received from a single email as only “good”?.
Platinum service is great when you get it, but once you receive it do you expect it again in the future. Does platinum become the new “good’? Almost certainly yes.
During an SAP project, the focus is often on delivering within the expected timeframe - simply getting the project over the line.
More often than not, setting up an enduring framework or adapting the service to support the business after go-live is forgotten about - or by the time it’s remembered, it’s already too late.
So, you go-live with something less than good as your benchmark - with promises to the business that “good” service will begin once things are up and running.
As your Service starts to mature you start to raise the bar to good as promised, but then again that might never happen.
One thing is for sure though - when your only aim is a “good” service, you will never deliver the platinum service needed to drive real competitive advantage.
At Resulting, we believe that all our customers should receive the platinum service from their SAP investment. And, we believe this is achievable for all SAP customers with proper forward planning.
Remember, SAP Go-live is the beginning, not the end.
Talk to us and we can help you to raise the bar.
