How To Have A Successful ERP SAP S/4HANA Implementation

When implementing new ERP software, companies often spend a lot of time identifying their requirements but relatively little assembling the team that will drive the implementation. Yet, the ERP project team is without question the biggest success factor, one that can make the difference between on-target implementation and a project that goes sideways.

Deceptively simple, here is the formula for a successful implementation: the right people, with the right skills, following the right steps. Make sure you start your ERP planning in tandem with the team selection process. These eight steps will help you structure your project team, create your plan, and put the right measures in place.

The formula for a successful implementation :
1. Recognize that it’s not an IT project
2. Secure executive commitment
3. Choose the right project team leader
4. Get the right people on your ERP implementation team
5. Follow a structured and inclusive implementation planning process
6. Track your project plan

The Solution for a successful implementation :
The SAP Activate methodology is SAP’s content rich, agile methodology for the implementation and/or upgrade of SAP solutions across industries and customer environments. Built on our experience from tens of thousands of SAP projects, SAP Activate Methodology provides pre-built implementation content, accelerators, tools, and best practices that help consultants to deliver consistent and successful results across industries and customer environments.

Discover Phase:

The Discover phase is where the customer realises there is a need for a solution to satisfy their business pain point and starts looking out for the right SAP solution to map their requirements.

During this phase, customers can apply for a free trial solution if applicable and try it out for themselves to check the features and functionalities of the solution. Customers can even reach out to partners like iQuantM to get the best consulting advise based on years of industry and SAP product experience to find the best solution.

By the end of this phase, customers finalize to go ahead with the required SAP solution and move to the next phase in their implementation
lifecycle.

Prepare Phase:

As the name suggests, this phase is crucial to both customers and partners as key activities that are crucial to the success of the project are completed with mutual consent. The system is provisioned to the customer post-signing of the contract with SAP and the partner.

Simultaneously, key resources are identified from the partner side in terms of the SAP Consultants getting onboarded and enabled. From the customer side, business process owners are identified to provide the right requirements to the consultants implementing the project. A high-level project plan along with roles and responsibilities is finalised along with the project team, project governance procedure and escalation matrix and the project is ready to kick-off!

Explore Phase:

The Explore Phase pretty much lays the foundation for the success of the project. In this phase, customers and partners collaborate with each other for 1 outcome – to finalize the business process to be followed in the new SAP system. Consultants first display a flowchart of the business process and later drive a demo of the same using the initial system that was provisioned to them.

The project team then have a healthy discussion on how the business can map their business to the best practices. This is the usual process when it comes to SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, otherwise known as SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Multi-tenant Edition. For the SAP S/4HANA business suite and SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud otherwise known as SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Single-tenant Edition, there is an additional “Fit-to-Gap Analysis” session where, additional requirements of the business can be noted and later mapped to the SAP system based on feasibility.

Realize Phase:

Once the Explore Phase deliverables are signed off, the project team can start working on the Quality system provisioned by SAP. In this phase, the SAP consultants start configuring the SAP system according to the Backlog document that is signed off.

This happens in an iterative approach where the project team works based on multiple sprints that have been planned to execute the project by breaking down the backlog requirements into smaller deliverables that need to be showcased to the business process owner and signed off as completed once it
matches the agreed-upon completion criteria.

This is the phase where consultants are in regular touch with the business process owner to showcase to them, the SAP system they are building through multiple Solution Walkthrough’s that are scheduled through the Realize Phase.

Deploy Phase:

In the Deploy Phase, once every checkbox is ticked and everything is ready, the business faces a temporary downtime as the new SAP system is Deployed for usage to the business users. This is typically done during a weekend to ensure that customers have little to no effect due to the downtime.

The cutover is a process that sometimes gives consultants sleepless nights as this is
the culmination of all their hard work being moved into the SAP system for the usage of an entire organisation.

Run Phase:

The Run Phase signifies the end of the customer’s lifecycle from identifying a solution for their business need to finally implement the solution and running their business process on the same. In the Run Phase, the customer project team are given only 1 task – to be updated with the latest innovation and technologies in SAP, especially in the product they have implemented by having a “Continuous Learning” to keep up with the pace of technology.

Summary

SAP Activate Methodology combines guided configuration, SAP best practices, and methodology that gives you the capability to streamline your company’s build- and run activities. This represents a giant step forward in exploiting the potential and power of SAP S/4HANA. It uses the agile approach, which advances greater flexibility and lowers total cost of ownership. Plus, S/4HANA improves user experience through the Fiori front end application for a quick, well-executed implementation.

source : https://insights.sap.com/erp-implementation-team-structure/