A 10 step approach to designing & delivering an integrated solution

When talking about integrating an ERP solution with internal or external systems, it’s easy to get carried away with the details to the extent that a high-level streamlined plan is often overlooked.


Given my experience in the industry, I thought I’ll put down a simple 10 step plan that if followed at
a high-level will at least guarantee an effective integrated system being delivered.

1.Firstly, list down the key processes, those that at a high-level cover the many facets of the business, these are processes such as Procure-to-pay, Make-to-stock, make-to-order etc.

2.Next draw up some process flow diagrams of these business processes. Given that these are existing process there is likely to already be process flows when the initial implementation was done (if you don’t have them, contact the hiring managers and inform them that these documents are the lost intellectual property for the company because of the few $100 that was saved employing an amateur)

3.Identify each process by its system components, e.g. Finance & Controlling, Sales & Distribution, Material Management etc.

4.Identify the relevant business process owners and departments handling each of the above business processes identified, these names are important for actual integration testing.

5.Draw up different scenarios for each of these processes and perform integration testing for each of these scenarios, these should follow the same sequence as the process flow diagrams.

6.Pass onto the business owner’s the ownership of their business processes, they need to feel the ownership and take responsibility for their process when the system goes live.

7.Always records all test results, issues, errors or problems.

8.Perform the routine processes of addressing the issue. Make sure any missed processes are recorded, validated and implemented.

9.Setup workshops/ training session where the business owners run them for all the internal users, try and keep this session very interactive and interesting, otherwise the end-users will see these are extra work rather than taking ownership. Refer to my post  - 13. Training vs Educating (Just Sayin>

10. The key now before GO LIVE, is to make sure all the  concerned parties have a clear idea of the areas integrated and the importance of doing their tasks correctly, no matter how good the integrated solution is if the users don’t know how to use it then this solution might not fly, so make sure the users know how to use the tools to make the delivery a success.

There you go , a high-level simple check-list of the 10 steps to help design& manage & deliver an integrated solution, all the best.

Skills that matter !!

I strongly believe it’s the mix and match of technical and personal skills that makes a consultant tick, keeping this in mind I have listed out some important personal skills that every consultant needs to be aware of, and most importantly practice!!

Interpersonal & Communication skills

• Remember consulting is 70% listening and 30 % talking. So listen more until you know exactly what the client wants and rephrase the same requirement to  get it confirmed from the clients before beginning to work on it, most importantly always have it in black and white.

• In any meeting give the customer the first 10 minutes of it, and if possible get others from the clients side involved in the initial discussions too, this gives you time to assess the situations your clients are in and identify the key players in the meeting, then you can begin to discuss your points with these key players.

• Keep it simple, simple and simple. Use jargon with your colleagues who understand and would praise the fact you know these, but avoid doing this with a customer who isn’t familiar with these jargons, speak the customer’s language.

• After your first interaction with a potential client on what your services or product is about, make sure to draft a document with most of the exact same words you used during the discussion and circulate it with him. This way there is a record of it and he could get back to it anytime he would like to. Always inform your clients to let you know if someone else is interested in your service so you could approach them directly, referrals most often than not, work well.

• Be truthful, period. If there is something you are not sure of, it's always fine to let the customer know that you will research on the matter and get back to him, and make 100% sure you do in the next 48 hours.

Keeping customers in mind

• A general rule that all consultants have to play with is that “Customers are king”, that’s fine cause they pay for the service or product, but a consultant should be able to question a clients assumption, ask "why not” questions if the clients assumption are vague!!

• Always rehearse the question in your mind before putting it across, it’s a combination of good questions and good confident answers that’s shows the consultants ability to understand the issue at hand.

• You must have the ability to say “No” sometimes in the best interest of the projects, however before making this call its always better to get another perspective on it and always be nice about it.

• Do something the customer would appreciate but didn’t ask for. There is fine line between doing this and doing too much, so make a realistic delivery plan before doing so and keep the client informed of the plan.

• Always consider the impact a decision in the project can have on the project environment, best way to do this is to keep other relevant parties informed as well when an important decision is made. No one likes to feel left out!!

Brand Image & Attitude

• As a consultant you are selling yourself together with the service and product. You are your own BRAND ambassador. Make sure you have everything set to make a good first impression, because like the saying goes 'there is never a second chance to make a good first impression'.

• Don’t make Promises you can’t keep, and if you can’t keep your promises…. don’t make excuses!!!

• If you have promised your customer you will deliver something against a deadline, make sure to send a reminder that you are working on it!! Clients like to know that someone is working on it rather than being left in the dark.

• As a consultant you’ll have a lot of challenges, just enjoy it and keep moving forward. Remember Murphy’s Law "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”, but remember it’s your reaction in the end that could determine the outcome of such a situation.

All the best.  Hope you liked that. Your comments, feedback and suggestions are welcome at ssurenlk@msn.com

13. Training vs educating (Just Saying…)

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that training a user is different to educating a user. Most often in an ERP implementation, a training on how to do stuff in the new system takes precedence over educating the user on why they’ve got to do that, this, in turn, leads to (in most cases) the users not understanding the overall process and they’ll not bother about what happens elsewhere, its human mentality after all. So, when training make sure you educate the users on the entire process rather than just showing them what to do in their area, give them a sense of ownership of the entire process, however there will always be those users who don’t want to do more, well that’s where a good consultant can make a world of difference. Remember, the chain is only as strong as its weakest link, if its weakest link breaks the whole purpose of the chain is lost, just saying….

What is S/4 HANA Finance ?

Given that I've been working on the latest version S/4 HANA Finance, I thought I'll share with you all some sneak peeks of the latest version without making it sound more complicated than it actually is.

SAP S/4 HANA Finance (formerly SAP Simple Finance) is a comprehensive finance solution based on SAP HANA. To keep it simple "SAP HANA" is an innovative in-memory data-platform where d application logic can be done within the in-memory engine (more on this topic can be found on SAP.com)

Now coming back to how S/4 HANA Finance came to be, SAP had decided to take the key components of the previous FI/CO suite and re code them to be able to harness the full advantage of running SAP FICO on a SAP HANA Database.

Initially, SAP Simple Finance (version 1.0) was released in 2014, then came SAP Simple Finance 2 in 2015. The version 1503 was followed by 1505, 1508, and 1511, the releases are versioned based on the year of release (first 2 numbers) and the month (last 2 numbers),

From September 2015 onwards the term SAP Simple Finance was made redundant and was renamed to "SAP S/4 HANA Finance".

S/4 HANA Finance has been designed to be easy to use, it can deliver instant insight for finance professionals. It enhances the current finance solution portfolio from SAP, preserving its functional strength while enabling no disruptive migration (more on how it does this is future posts).

SAP S/4 HANA Finance, on premise edition covers SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA and SAP Cash Management powered by SAP HANA, and is complemented by SAP HANA Live content, SAP Fiori apps, and SAP Smart Business apps designed for SAP Simple Finance.

That is basically a wrap-up of what S/4 HANA Finance is.

Your questions , comments & suggestions are welcome at ssurenlk@msn.com.

12 - Are you more productive working from home ? (Just Saying…)

So, this is a question that’s always discussed, working from home tends to be very productive if the task involved is something that needs absolute focus, because you can work in a quieter environment. You can start early using your commuting time, and more often than not while working from home people tend to work until the end of the day. Studies suggests that taking short breaks at home in your own environment helps the mind relax and energizes your brain, this is because when you are home you are the most comfortable which in turn fuels your ability to be more efficient simply because you are in your own zone. Studies also suggests that working from home can be more productive, however not everybody is disciplined enough to do this, but if they can be it’s a win-win situation for both employers and employees, some of the best ideas started off in a garage, that is home right!!  Just saying……

"11 – The Acronym Consultant also known as “TAC” (Just Saying…)

Very recently I met a consultant who definitely knew what she was talking about but found it very hard to accept the fact that others in the room didn’t all know all of the acronyms, that to her, seemed pretty basic. 

One thing I found out after a quick survey of the other consultants around in the room was that the “TAC” was difficult to understand, and if these consultants who are in the same industry found it hard to understand just spare a thought for consultant's clients. A wise man once told me, no matter how knowledgeable you are, if you don’t know how to articulate what you want to say without using much jargons or acronyms, then the sole point of being a consultant is lost, just saying…… 

10 - Cloudy future ??? (Just saying...)

If you are organization is contemplating going to the cloud, first and foremost a good idea would be to draw up a “Cloud Road-map” for the various systems currently on premise. Once this done, make sure you cross check this with the existing “Strategic System Road-map” you had in place for the existing on-premise systems. Then it’s the process of doing some analysis and putting it all together, a catchier term for this process is “Cloud Choreography “this will help make a good call on which of the systems are cloud extendable & cloud ready and which are not, just saying….