Nov 16, 2011
A “Complete Consultant” is a “Conversant Consultant” and vice versa!!
By: Suren
As ERP Consultants we need to be aware on whats going around us in our ERP World. A clued-up/knowledgeable consultant always stands out from the rest, remember like I mentioned earlier, its not just technical/ consulting skills that makes a complete consultants but its the ability to know whats going on around them , being able to adapt to these changes and stay on top of the new tools of trade !!
My primary goals is to be able to share whatever up-to-date information I have on the latest happenings in the ERP industry with all interested consultants worldwide via www.erparena.com , however there are other sites that have some specific research articles prepared by specialist in their relevant fields as well, going through these would come in very handy as well !!
Here is a list of sites I would recommend:
http://www.cio.com/
http://www.gartner.com
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/
http://www.contrarianconsulting.com/
http://www.computerworld.com/
http://www.informationweek.com/
Happy reading!!
Click on the article labels “Consulting Tips” or “ERP Arena Updates” for my own articles on various ERP & Consulting subject matters.
Have a nice day!!
Your comments, suggestions and feedback are welcomed at : ssurenlk@msn.com
Oct 17, 2011
Too basic, it can almost be ignored... but shouldn’t !!
By Suren
There have been many articles, research papers and books written around the success and failure of ERP projects, and they explain in details on what to do, how to do it, what not to do and so on. However the reality is that it is only human tendency to overlook some basic ground rules which everyone knows and accepts, but somehow has been overlooked.
To keep it simple, I’ll like to breakdown the key areas by their importance in the Initiation & execution project phases, since these areas take up the biggest chunk on a project life cycle.
Initiation & Planning
- Scope verification – Freeze the base, with a wobbly base you are not going to get anywhere. Check if a document has been laid out with what are the key requirements of the business, try and define this in tangible terms and how much of it is to be covered in each phase of the project.
- Cost / Benefit Analysis – The PMO has got to do this analysis to avoid going over budget.
- Stakeholder support –Draw up a stakeholder matrix and pass it onto PMO & all key project members (Leads etc) so they are all on the same page with stakeholder’s roles, responsibilities and power.
- Supplier Responsibility Documentation – A document detailing out what the vendor is responsible for and what the client is for.
- Draw up initiatives & communicate to project members. It’s always nice to know the rewards of good work before starting on it than after.
- Supplier deliverable checks – Cross check the execution steps with the Supplier responsibility documentation.
- Resources - Always a key. Plan for contingencies and move them around. Name and list down those individuals who can fit into multiple roles and keep them happy. A few good guys can take you a long way.
- Focus on good sound business decisions / solutions – Don’t let people get carried away with developing and designing solutions that don’t make business sense but is fancy and nice to show to the higher management.
- Communicate Deadlines – Keep project members aware of their key milestone, keep it transparent to everyone.
Sep 7, 2011
Almost there, but not quite!! (Also known as “Time to Market” syndrome)
By S. Suren
Many companies brand themselves as innovative and want to build a learning and innovative culture within the organisation, whether these are small or large enterprises, all of them tend to strive for the same thing, but what happens eventually is both of them have their own resource problems when it comes to launching the product into the market (time to market).
It is a known fact that any innovative product needs to have the shortest time to market, which means everything else surrounding that product needs to be expedited including its product & project life cycle phases. Examples of some companies who churn out new products on the go are apple, salesforce.com & Virgin.
Most experts would agree that smaller company tend to be more innovative than large ones and typically their time to market would be faster, however this might not necessarily be the case, a few factors, like those listed below tend to show otherwise :
• Shop floor to Shelf time
• Final product’s ecosystem
• Continuity
Shop floor to shelf is the ability to move through the product lifecycle to come out with a base version. Generally smaller companies don’t procrastinate, i.e. they don’t wait until everything is perfect and gone through the various different level of a product life cycle, and they most often have the instinct to go when you feel you are 80% ready. However this could be in their favour or against them.
Final Product’s ecosystem is how best to use the existing business model to sell the new product. Trying to do anything very different if what you are doing presently and which works takes time, because re-inventing the wheel takes time. Large companies tend to try to do something different to satisfy their need to create a new channel to build a business division, a new office block, new designations and what not!! Smaller companies don’t have a choice and go with what they’ve got.
Continuity is the ability to have the resources and systems in place to work on the next version immediately once the first version is out. This is where I feel large companies have the better hand, since they can afford to do this; smaller companies on the other hand generally experience a lag during this time.
Just like as mentioned in growth models (e.g. Greiner’s) in management books, innovativeness tends to die out as companies become larger this is mainly due to red tape, however if the companies can treat each sub unit as business entities with their own entrepreneurs, innovative ideas would come about, most often than not this is practised in only the marketing or development unit of the business, but I feel this can be practised in other areas of the business too.
Most large companies like to believe they have an internal culture to accommodate this innovativeness but deep down they all know that if the simplest of things like a leave approvals takes time it sure is going to take time to launch a new product into the market !!
Hope you found this post informative. Feel free to mail your comments to ssurenlk@msn.com
Many companies brand themselves as innovative and want to build a learning and innovative culture within the organisation, whether these are small or large enterprises, all of them tend to strive for the same thing, but what happens eventually is both of them have their own resource problems when it comes to launching the product into the market (time to market).
It is a known fact that any innovative product needs to have the shortest time to market, which means everything else surrounding that product needs to be expedited including its product & project life cycle phases. Examples of some companies who churn out new products on the go are apple, salesforce.com & Virgin.
Most experts would agree that smaller company tend to be more innovative than large ones and typically their time to market would be faster, however this might not necessarily be the case, a few factors, like those listed below tend to show otherwise :
• Shop floor to Shelf time
• Final product’s ecosystem
• Continuity
Shop floor to shelf is the ability to move through the product lifecycle to come out with a base version. Generally smaller companies don’t procrastinate, i.e. they don’t wait until everything is perfect and gone through the various different level of a product life cycle, and they most often have the instinct to go when you feel you are 80% ready. However this could be in their favour or against them.
Final Product’s ecosystem is how best to use the existing business model to sell the new product. Trying to do anything very different if what you are doing presently and which works takes time, because re-inventing the wheel takes time. Large companies tend to try to do something different to satisfy their need to create a new channel to build a business division, a new office block, new designations and what not!! Smaller companies don’t have a choice and go with what they’ve got.
Continuity is the ability to have the resources and systems in place to work on the next version immediately once the first version is out. This is where I feel large companies have the better hand, since they can afford to do this; smaller companies on the other hand generally experience a lag during this time.
Just like as mentioned in growth models (e.g. Greiner’s) in management books, innovativeness tends to die out as companies become larger this is mainly due to red tape, however if the companies can treat each sub unit as business entities with their own entrepreneurs, innovative ideas would come about, most often than not this is practised in only the marketing or development unit of the business, but I feel this can be practised in other areas of the business too.
Most large companies like to believe they have an internal culture to accommodate this innovativeness but deep down they all know that if the simplest of things like a leave approvals takes time it sure is going to take time to launch a new product into the market !!
Hope you found this post informative. Feel free to mail your comments to ssurenlk@msn.com
Aug 19, 2011
Picking the right Consultants
By Suren
Generally there are many ERP Implementations which tend to show resemblance of an implementation of a similar company elsewhere, why is this, the reason can be identified by taking a look at the consultants prior experience, most of them would have implemented what they already had done successfully in a previous project.
Sometime, this is good because it’s a solution that’s been tried, tested and has worked, however this need not always be the best solution for the current business requirements. That’s why I feel it’s always a good idea to have a consulting team with members from diverse implementation experiences from different companies within the same industry, this way as a company you’ll be picking out the best of the tested processes from different companies into your own.
Well, that said, this shouldn’t always have to be the consultants, look at the business users as well, if you’ve got business users in the implementation team all coming in with similar prior experiences from a previous implementation, then it’s likely you can expect the same as with a consultant.
However have no doubt, of the previous implementation experience that the consultants and the business users will bring into the company that should always be valued and rewarded. Just make sure it doesn’t get to a level where the current business requirements are overlooked and instead a solution that worked well for another business’s requirements and processes are being implemented in your business!!
All the best!!
Aug 9, 2011
World Economy: What goes down must go UP and down again!!
By Suren
Massive deficits, enormous debts and asset bubbles ready to pop, everyone is keeping an eye out on if there is going to be another GFC. There are telling signs that this could well in fact happen, but this time the experts predict if there are no proper actions by the countries that are experiencing these debts, we could see countries collapsing instead of companies, like what happened to Lehman brothers that sparked the financial crisis on 2008.
Thing don’t look too good for now, but then it never has, the last 3 years was the slowest move out of a dip in the markets and broadly due to the collective thinking of the general public that the worst is over, and this saw an uplift in many economies.
The stock market is controlled by human emotions and that of the mass general average investors. With the news about the credit rating in US and everything else that’s happening in Europe it’s not going to be surprising that the investors are going to pull out and save, and in effect curtail spending, increasing unemployment and most likely another GFC.
What’s more alarming this time is that the market could take longer to recover since stimulus package are going to be a rarity, international support is going to be a long shot especially since major players like China have their portfolios already tied in on US assets that are wobbly to say the least.
So then with all this what is the impact for ERP Implementations, there sure it going to be a dip but not at least until 2012, the best position for IT Consultants and IT Businesses is to make sure they setup sustainable business deals that will keep them afloat until mid 2013, current projects will continue since these have sunk costs in them and will have to be seen through, but come 2012 the budgets are going to take a beating and IT most probably is going to be the first to have the axe come down on it.
Up skill, expand into cross functional roles, build networks and be on the move would be the call of the day during this GFC period.
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, adapt to it and make it work for you.
Jun 19, 2011
Latest in the ERP Arena
By Suren
In this article I thought I’ll share with you all some of the latest happenings in the ERP Arena.
• SAP & IBM targeting SAGE - The big story right now is the rumours going around that SAP and IBM are looking to acquire SAGE. What this does is, makes the playing field smaller, just like it was forecasted a few years back when we saw a series of acquisitions in the ERP Arena, the number of ERP service providers core brand wise is going to reduce, however hopefully the number of ERP Products out there will continue to remain for some more time before we see any major change. My guess is a lot of products that have been acquired by larger ERP vendors could be eventually phased out in the next 5 -1 0 years, after all some of them have already been given time only until 2014.
• SAP ‘s new Business Analytics tool – SAP has been working hard on its business intelligence suits ever since it took over Business Objects, for all valid reason they don’t want to lose out on the benefits of not using the rich functionalities that BOBJ has to offer when integrated with SAP. SAP’s new applications SAP BusinessObjects Edge 4.0 and SAP Crystal Server are targeted at the small and mid-size companies.
• Sharing of SAP Support Staff: There seems to be a growing trend of companies which have SAP ERP implemented looking to share their SAP support staff with other similar companies in a way to generate some additional revenue and reduce the dependence on external expensive consultants. This trend seems to have picked up in a few companies in California, however time will tell if this approach is successful, I have personally seen one such SAP Support staff sharing model failing miserably and ended up with a company paying a very expensive price.
• A new Spanish based open source ERP is beginning to make its footprints in the US market. It’s called Openbravo.
• A state university which implemented Oracle PeopleSoft ERP suit is now suing ORACLE over Project Cost overruns. The case is in court and proceeding at its own pace as expected.
Those were just some of the news that have made headline over the past couple of weeks, I shall update the site with more as and when new events happen in the ERP Arena. Hope you found this post informative.
Feel free to drop me your comments, suggestions and feedback on ssurenlk@msn.com
Apr 19, 2011
Let’s Integrate this, that & that too....!!
By S.Suren
Well everyone have been talking about the term “Globalization” and how everyone and everything in this world is beginning to make sense of the benefits that arise out of integration of global networks. This is a good thing, because people and systems are accepting the ideas and learning to sync in with this and not be left behind in the growth potential it has to offer.
Given that, it’s no big surprise that over a period of time, these systems become just too big and complicated, are implemented across various geographical location linked via other systems, be it banking interfaces, EDIs, B2B, B2Eco, cloud networking systems etc,...... and after a point of time, no one has any clue as to what’s worth integrating with this system and whats actually bringing in some kind of value addition to the business’s strategic goal, though the truth is everyone would like to think they know the exact business drivers that require this change and the exact ROI the integration is going to bring, but they wouldn’t have thought of a measurement by which to gauge how effective the integration has actually been.
In my opinion, I would state that the best way to gauge the value addition of the integrated system is to simply identify those areas of the system that have a direct interaction point to the customers / clients. It is true there are many back office operations that need to be in place in order to cater to the requirement of those working on the frontend but remember the key element is that the front end operation is only as efficient as the back end operations.
In a previous article I had mentioned that based on research it was identified that an ERP system tends to give back true definable ROI only after 18 Months (this is after taking into consideration user acceptance, systems functional ability, learning curves etc), if this is true then as new systems are being integrated and the system developed further it means it’s just going to prolong the ROI time frame, however there is always a very visible benefit from the 1 month onwards, that cannot be denied.
Integration brings along its business benefits for sure, but unless you have a clear measurement laid down to gauge the effectiveness of the integration and a scope of work set as a base for the basic initial integration points, it’s going to be a long and winding path ahead before you reach your destination.
These are just my opinion, I am sure everyone out there have their own which I’ll love to hear. Your suggestions, feedback and comments are all welcomed at ssurenlk@msn.com.
Jan 11, 2011
Staying on your toes !!
By Suren
Sometime back I had posted an article “The Business Model that worked“, in which I explained how SAP’s business model reaches out to clients far and wide from their backyard Germany.
With the increase in SAP Consulting partners and the lucrative market for senior level SAP Consultants, everyone wants a piece of the pie and hence SAP Vendors kept popping up all over the place.
I am sure SAP has a tough screening process where vendors need to submit a business plan before they are accredited as a SAP Channel Partner, however with the latest developments you just begin to think maybe SAP needs to keep a close eye on the resources deployed on large projects of their SAP Channel Partners.
Only recently Deloitte was being sued by the California's Marin County with a $30M lawsuit over an ERP project with them, which they state was substantially worse than legacy system it was meant to replace and accuses Deloitte of misrepresenting its skills and capabilities when originally pitching for the project in 2004.
Not so long ago we saw one of the largest ERP lawsuits which was for $61M. This was in December, when an Alabama jury awarded pet food manufacturer Sunshine Mills $61 million in connection with a suit it had filed against ERP vendor Ross Systems, a subsidiary of CDC Software.
On another note, if you have been following my article updates, very recently SAP itself was successfully sued by ORACLE over the TomorrowNow saga. The final verdict was that SAP was ordered to pay 1.3 billion dollars in damages in a record-setting copyright infringement award, and now ORACLE wants SAP to pay a further $211M for interest. Oh Larry!!
However it’s important we don’t get carried away by these, since given the number of ERP projects out there, there is always a chance that some could topple over also keep in mind that there are over 1000’s of successful ERP projects rolling out every month.
All this makes you wonder, is it the channel partners or is it the business model, since there are ERP Companies out there who setup their own local offices in every region and market that they enter. This way the top tier management of the actual ERP Company have a direct influence over the large projects, well we can’t expect these from all ERPs since some of them are just too big to maintain control at a project level.
Being aware of these developments in the industry helps you stay on your toes in whatever you do !!
Hope you enjoyed this post.
Have a nice day!!
ssurenlk@msn.com
Sometime back I had posted an article “The Business Model that worked“, in which I explained how SAP’s business model reaches out to clients far and wide from their backyard Germany.
With the increase in SAP Consulting partners and the lucrative market for senior level SAP Consultants, everyone wants a piece of the pie and hence SAP Vendors kept popping up all over the place.
I am sure SAP has a tough screening process where vendors need to submit a business plan before they are accredited as a SAP Channel Partner, however with the latest developments you just begin to think maybe SAP needs to keep a close eye on the resources deployed on large projects of their SAP Channel Partners.
Only recently Deloitte was being sued by the California's Marin County with a $30M lawsuit over an ERP project with them, which they state was substantially worse than legacy system it was meant to replace and accuses Deloitte of misrepresenting its skills and capabilities when originally pitching for the project in 2004.
Not so long ago we saw one of the largest ERP lawsuits which was for $61M. This was in December, when an Alabama jury awarded pet food manufacturer Sunshine Mills $61 million in connection with a suit it had filed against ERP vendor Ross Systems, a subsidiary of CDC Software.
On another note, if you have been following my article updates, very recently SAP itself was successfully sued by ORACLE over the TomorrowNow saga. The final verdict was that SAP was ordered to pay 1.3 billion dollars in damages in a record-setting copyright infringement award, and now ORACLE wants SAP to pay a further $211M for interest. Oh Larry!!
However it’s important we don’t get carried away by these, since given the number of ERP projects out there, there is always a chance that some could topple over also keep in mind that there are over 1000’s of successful ERP projects rolling out every month.
All this makes you wonder, is it the channel partners or is it the business model, since there are ERP Companies out there who setup their own local offices in every region and market that they enter. This way the top tier management of the actual ERP Company have a direct influence over the large projects, well we can’t expect these from all ERPs since some of them are just too big to maintain control at a project level.
Being aware of these developments in the industry helps you stay on your toes in whatever you do !!
Hope you enjoyed this post.
Have a nice day!!
ssurenlk@msn.com
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