The SAP Green Book
A Business Guide for Effectively Managing the SAP Lifecycle
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 28. March 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
265 pages
978-1-59229-407-7 (ISBN)
Description
System up and running, project complete? Think twice! Read "The SAP Green Book" to learn how to continuously align your business with IT, and understand how best benefit from your SAP implementation. Written with the background of 15+ years of SAP implementation and post-implementation experience, this book is your guide to a truly successful and sustainable SAP project. Whether it's learning how to create a Center of Excellence, how to keep your end users up to date, or how to accelerate your ROI: This book is a must-read for all managers new to SAP!
Topics covered in this book include:
SAP implementation lifecycle
Assessing your organization's SAP maturity
Building and sustaining a Center of Excellence
Outsourcing SAP applications support
Continuous business process improvement
End-user training
Topics covered in this book include:
SAP implementation lifecycle
Assessing your organization's SAP maturity
Building and sustaining a Center of Excellence
Outsourcing SAP applications support
Continuous business process improvement
End-user training
More details
Person
Author
Michael Doane has 35 years of business and information systems experience, including 12 years of industry, 16 years in enterprise application consulting and six years as an industry analyst.
Since 2001, he has been advising clients on strategies, implementation and integration strategies, service provider selection and management, and best practices and methods for deriving value from enterprise applications investments.
Michael Doane has been publishing information about SAP since 1996.
Content
... Preface ... 13
... Introduction ... 17
1 ... SAP Marital Counseling: Addressing the Most Common Post-Go-Live Issues ... 25
2 ... An SAP Maturity Model ... 37
... 2.1 ... Denial, Realization, Determination ... 37
... 2.2 ... From Core Implementation to Evolving Center of Excellence ... 38
... 2.3 ... Elements of SAP Maturity ... 44
... 2.4 ... Assessing Your SAP Maturity ... 57
... 2.5 ... Best Practices for Evolving to a Mature Center of Excellence ... 62
... 2.6 ... The Overriding Importance of a Rational Business/IT Dynamic ... 66
3 ... Building and Sustaining a Center of Excellence ... 69
... 3.1 ... New Lifecycle ... 69
... 3.2 ... Pre-SAP Implementation Strategies and Best Practices ... 73
... 3.3 ... Why Firms Need a Center of Excellence ... 78
... 3.4 ... Center of Excellence Organization ... 80
... 3.5 ... Transforming the "Build" Team into a Continuous Business Evolution Team ... 89
... 3.6 ... Building a Center of Excellence ... 90
... 3.7 ... Variant Structures for Centers of Excellence ... 102
... 3.8 ... Mastering the Business/IT Dynamic ... 104
... 3.9 ... A Word about SAP Solution Manager ... 106
... 3.10 ... When It All Goes Wrong: How Centers of Excellence Become Centers of Mediocrity ... 107
4 ... We Do It Themselves: Outsourcing SAP Applications Support ... 115
... 4.1 ... We Do It Themselves ... 115
... 4.2 ... Applications Are What We Do ... 116
... 4.3 ... Why on Earth Would We Outsource Our Applications? ... 119
... 4.4 ... Application Outsourcing Adoption ... 123
... 4.5 ... Crossing the Bridge from Maintenance to Management ... 127
... 4.6 ... Governance for Outsourced SAP Applications Support ... 133
... 4.7 ... Fee Strategies ... 135
... 4.8 ... Basis Is Eternal (and Can Be Done from Anywhere) ... 137
... 4.9 ... Conclusion ... 142
5 ... Staffing, Sourcing, and Evolving ... 143
... 5.1 ... The SAP Ecosystem and the Wisdom of Crowds ... 144
... 5.2 ... Staff for Surprises, Not Just the Predictable ... 146
... 5.3 ... Be Your Own Systems Integration Partner ... 147
... 5.4 ... Beyond "Hyphenates": Business Process Experts ... 149
... 5.5 ... The Relative (Un)Importance of Certifications ... 153
6 ... The Art of the Upgrade ... 155
... 6.1 ... The Changing SAP Upgrade Landscape ... 155
... 6.2 ... Types of Upgrades ... 156
... 6.3 ... Nine Best Practices for Upgrade Success ... 159
... 6.4 ... Conclusion: The Upgrade as a Competitive Weapon ... 164
7 ... Intelligent Business Intelligence ... 167
... 7.1 ... SAP Business Intelligence Matures ... 167
... 7.2 ... The Data Fur Ball and the Cluttered Toolbox ... 170
... 7.3 ... Sources of Truth ... 171
... 7.4 ... Who Generates What and How and Why? ... 174
8 ... SAP as the Engine Behind Measurable Business Benefit ... 181
... 8.1 ... The Daily Doughnut ... 181
... 8.2 ... Sitting Tight is Not a Winning Option ... 182
... 8.3 ... Measures of Success ... 186
... 8.4 ... Getting Business to Take the Wheel ... 189
... 8.5 ... The Enterprise Applications Value Chain ... 191
... 8.6 ... Iterative Business Process Improvement--A Sample Exercise ... 193
... 8.7 ... The Deeper Green: Sustainability ... 201
... 8.8 ... Key Performance Indicators: A Basic List ... 203
... 8.9 ... Three-Point Planning ... 210
9 ... Drivers at Work: Supporting Your SAP End Users ... 213
... 9.1 ... Skills Gap--Training Canyon ... 213
... 9.2 ... Neglecting The Real Drivers of Business Process ... 214
... 9.3 ... The High Cost of Penny Pinching ... 217
... 9.4 ... From Inventory to Team Building ... 221
... 9.5 ... SAP End-User Maturity Model ... 225
... 9.6 ... Super Users Provide Super Results ... 231
... 9.7 ... Sources and Methods of Continuous Training ... 233
... 9.8 ... Conclusion ... 236
10 ... From Supplier to Advisor: A New Hat for SAP ... 237
... 10.1 ... SAP Life After Functionality ... 237
... 10.2 ... News Flash: SAP is Not a Not-for-Profit ... 239
... 10.3 ... Working Toward Partnership by Leveraging Your Efforts and Investments ... 240
... 10.4 ... Drive at Your Own Pace (and Show SAP Where You're Going) ... 242
11 ... Last Word Freak ... 245
12 ... Postscript: The House I Live In ... 247
... Appendices ... 251
... A ... Sources ... 253
... B ... The Author ... 257
... C ... Contributors ... 259
... Index ... 261