Friday, May 16, 2014

Have we SAP consultants forgotten why we do what we do?

The people who read this maybe aren't the SAP using customer and therefore you might strongly disagree with me. But before you jump my throat, ask yourself: “Is what I do really helping the customer in their efforts to use SAP software for their core business?” (and don't get me wrong, there is plenty of very valuable work done to support the customer outside of their core business - but I am talking about why customer buy SAP software in the first place: to support their core business!)

To answer that question we should first identify what the core business is. The customer that I am talking about here, is a company that transforms raw materials into a finished product (or service) that they sell. So their core business is ‘transformation’ and they need to do that in the most effective way using stocks, resources and time.

According to that definition you might now say “we are selling extraordinary technology to do just that!” Great. You also installed that technology at the customer site and they have now mobile devices that foster a full inventory report, run MRP on HANA, can use scheduling heuristics and see graphics that show forecasts and sales activity.

But does the user know how to set a planning policy that drives great service levels and low inventories for that transformation? Does their SAP functionality support lean manufacturing? Yes it does, but no one knows how to use it.
I put out a statement here: “100% of all SAP using companies use the software’s capabilities to less than 80% and 98% of all SAP using companies use the software’s capabilities to less than 40%!”

Wow! If that is true, shouldn't we all shift our focus a bit?

And it is true in what I see when I visit customers: I NEVER come across a company that uses the availability checking rules correctly. I NEVER see a company that does automated policy setting. I have NEVER seen SAP production scheduling supporting ‘flow’… to just name a few.

I’d greatly appreciate any comments to get this conversation going

2 comments:

  1. I wholeheartedly agree with anything that has been said in this post. Too often have I witnessed in the past few years that customers who have implemented SAP only use a fraction of what is available for them in the system. They bought a great, and let’s face it, also a pricey software system and should use much more functionality that they are typically taught during an implementation. What features are often used an implemented doesn't do the SAP system any justice and unfortunately SAP customers are often left in the dark of the vast capabilities that the R/3 system has. Now, I understand that you can’t possibly implement each and every feature SAP provides during an initial implementation; most often that would exceed a client’s budget in terms of time and consulting service. But once a customer has been acquainted with the core functionality, the use of the system should be enhanced and optimized instead of finding ‘workarounds’.
    I am very passionate about SAP and its capabilities and I love to go out to customers and shows them what additional functionalities there are available and at their disposal (and I am talking about features in the R/3 system that the customer has bought and owns as part of their license agreement with SAP as well as easy to implement add-on tools that can greatly improve their business processes); for example, who really knows how a planning calendar can greatly enhance Material Requirements Planning results or how a dynamic safety stock can help optimize inventory? Or which SAP customer has ever heard of the Load Building functionality or knows anything about the Purchase Order Version Management?
    I could go on and on about features that are available, but yet many companies are unaware of them or don’t know how to use them, yet often it doesn't take much to implement them.
    Having worked myself with bigbyte customers in the recent past, I have witnessed the success a simple workshop can provide to any SAP customer and what far-reaching impact it can have to their business. No company should shy away from optimizing the use of their SAP system!

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  2. Uwe,
    Agree to your point. My point here is
    1. When the system is deployed tons of things are loaded to a a Layman and he just wants things to run the business.

    So i will categorically stagger the deployment into the 3 Phases Post Golive
    Stage1- Deployment Usage- Where the planner or the customer needs to run the business.
    Stage2- Enhancement stage - Like post 6 Months or 1 year as the customer gets used to the system.Now he need to look at the tools and techniques to make the business life easy
    Stage3- Advance stage - Post 2-3 years of implementation, now the system is stabilized,User is well versed now he needs to explore and tune the best of the system

    I always had this topic and now you have opened this BIG topic.

    Great.

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