ATCO-BaasKaar Roadmap to SAP Quality Award 2014

Prepared by Ahmed Rami Elsherif26/01/2015

ERP Projects Challenges

Failure Factor %

Executive Support 18%

User Involvement 16%

Experienced Project Management 14%

Clear Business Objective 12%

Clear Project Scope 10%

Standard Software Infrastructure 8%

Firm Basic Requirements 6%

Formal Methodology 6%

Reliable Estimates of Budget & Time 5%

Others 5%

Total 100%

Based on the Chaos study by Standish group only 30% of ERP projects are considered successful, the rest is either failure or challenged. The same study identifies to following as the top 10 reasons for ERP projects failures:

As you can see from the top 5 reasons of failure that such a project is all about people and involvement for which we all have to commit even before we allocate the funds.

This is not an IT or Finance project it is a Business Transformation Project , for which we all have to

participate actively.

What could go wrong in such a project?

How we got this project right on track and WON the SAP Quality Award?

Delivering Successful Solutions

Following ASAP and PMBOK Project Management Methodologies and Best Practices.

The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a collection of processes and knowledge areas accepted as best practice for the project management profession developed by the Project Management Institute.

Accelerated SAP (ASAP) is SAP's standard implementation methodology. It contains the Roadmap, a step-by-step guide that incorporates experience from many years of implementing R/3.

Accelerated SAP contains a multitude of tools, accelerators and useful information to assist all team members in implementing R/3. Quality checks are incorporated at the end of each phase to easily monitor deliverables and critical success factors.

And committing to SAP 10 Quality Standards Explained next…..

Principle 1: Anchor Business value firmly in your project.

1. The project main objective is establishing a solid ERP infrastructure that will be able to handle business current and future growth requirements.

2. Improve business processes by following SAP business Process Best Practices.

3. Unify processes and master data across different business units by making use of SAP functionality in that respect.

4. Introduce production planning (PP), Plant Maintenance (PM), customer service (CS), Payroll (HCM), and Fixed Assets.

Principle 2: Determine clear requirements early on.

1. Requirement gathering started early in the project preparation phase (1 month) and continued during the Business Blueprint phase (2 Month).

2. Senior FI consultant was involved from day-one by visiting different business units and understanding their business requirements from FI and Operational point view.

3. More detailed requirement gathering was done by the different specialized consultants based on the preliminary findings of the FI consultant.

4. Interviews and business walkthroughs conducted with end users and middle and higher management in each business unit.

5. Findings and proposed solutions verified and confirmed with business unit management and corporate management.

Principle 3: Cooperate with stakeholders and use a proper governance model

1. Business unit’s management teams were participant in the ERP selection process. They have attended evaluation and solution presentation by SAP, Oracle and Microsoft. Based on their scoring and other criteria’s set by IT/ERP Manger, CFO and CEO SAP was selected.

2. Orientation on ASAP implementation mythology was given to higher management and to end users before the kickoff of the project. Two important messages where stressed in such meetings:

a. The fact that this is not only an IT project but mainly a business transformation project.

b. Stakeholder (end user, Manger and executives) active participation is indispensable for the success of the project.

3. Project charter was drafted jointly by ATCO and BaasKaar project managers and approved by ATCO executive management before project start.

4. Kick off meeting held with the attendance of ATCO executive management, ATCO-SAP team, and implementation partner team.

Principle 4: Ensure Timely delivery and effective tracking.

1. High level project scope and time line were agreed with implementation partner and ATCO stakeholders before project kickoff.

2. A better understanding of project scope and requirements, during project preparation phase a led to some schedule adjustments. These adjustments in time and budget (project 2 month extension) were discussed and formally agreed on with implementation partner and ATCO project sponsors.

3. Go live date was split into 2 groups of company codes.

4. Further discussions and consideration happened during the business blueprinting phase , which resulted in modifying some milestones while maintaining the overall project timing.

5. Weekly reports where generated and discussed comparing actual versus planned activities status and who is the responsible person. This reports discussed between ATCO and BaasKaar teams.

6. Project steering committee was informed on a monthly basis on the status of the project schedule, and involved when needed to facilitate activities that might affect the project schedule.

Principle 5: Staff Project with sufficient, competent, motivated people.

1. Project was announced to all company employees, and volunteers were requested to participate. They were asked to fill in a form explain how they can contribute to the project and what are their areas of experience.

2. In all orientation session with projects sponsors and business units managers it was always highly stressed the importance of committing their star employees to the project.

3. Business units were asked to nominate their power users in each module.4. Fully dedicated team was formed from IT for the project.

Principle 6: Apply appropriate methodology and plan for quality.

1. ASAP Implementation methodology and PMI-PMBOK standards were fully applied in the project because they are tested and reliable project management tools.

2. Joint ATCO-BaasKaarProject planning session held.

3. Weakly progress report of Actual Vs Planned activates reviewed.

4. Requirements gathering session held between consultants and end users. Confirmation session where held with general manager.

5. Blue prints were presented and explained to the business unit managers, before handing over for sign off. Question and answer session were held to clarify the requirements.

6. User acceptance testing session realized during the realization phase, together with training sessions. UAT was formally accepted by user sign offs.

7. Over all phase sign off was done based on phase deliverables individual sign offs.

Principle 7: Identify and manage risks jointly throughout the project.

Risk management plan was established during the early stage. The key elements of the project Risk Management process are as follows:

 

1.Risk Planning concerning with determining how to approach the Risk Management activities for business area or project.

2.Risk Identification involving identifying the threats to business or project objectives.

3.Risk Analysis involving determining which risks are the most important by way of a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the identified risks.

4.Risk Response involving deciding what actions to take concerning specific risks or opportunities.

5.Risk Monitoring-keeping track of the risks and the corresponding actions, and looking for new threats to predefined objectives.

Three most important risks identified during the project were

1.Accuracy of requirements: To mitigate these risk requirements were confirmed vertically within the department and cross checked with other related departments.

2.Data migration: requirements for master data and opening transactions were shared with the concerned departments early in the blueprinting stage. Owners, responsible and delivery date was followed on jointly by ATCO and Implementation partner weekly.

3.Training and user acceptance testing: training schedule was circulated and GM where asked to assign staff for the training. Attendance sheets signed by the users accepting the training and the solution testing. Different timing choices where given to accommodate daily routine work and SAP training.

Principle 8: Exploit standard software using solution best practices

1. Follow SAP best practices was a main assumption in the project conception and was followed strictly throughout the project.

2. Custom developments were very minimally used for reports and smart forms.

3. Integrations and interfaces with other systems were identified early in the blueprinting phase.

4. These interfaces were approved functionally with the end user, before sending them for development.

Principle 9: Achieve production readiness:

1. Routines for data extraction and conversion were discussed early on between ATCO and BaasKaar teams. This includes AP/AR/GL Balances, Stock, Open PO and SD.

2. Routines tested in quality environment.

3. Cutover plan discussed thoroughly between ATCO and BaasKaar teams. Agreed to lunch SD, MM, PP , PM and finally FI.

4. Closing dates were presented and agreed on with operations and finance departments.

5. Schedule of delivery of opening balance was closely monitored and controlled.

6. Go live was announced one week ahead with the distribution of flyers with frequently used T-Codes and contact information of ATCO SAPDESK.

Principle 10: Use organizational change management to transform business:

1. Buy-in, collective ownership and consensus at all organizational levels were main themes for this project. Starting with the ERP vendor selection process where all business units general managers and key users where actively involved ending up with going live and support.

2. A serious of executive and managerial presentation were delivered explain that this a business project in the first place and in technology one in the second place.

3. Business unit level kick of meeting explained, about possible difficulties during the project and how we plan to overcome them.

4. The importance of SAP business best practice process was repeatedly stressed and explained.

5. Measured the success of the strategy by hearing more “We” and less “SAP,IT people”.

6. Extensive end user training.

In Summary we attribute our success to:

1.Very intensive work on project communication and stakeholders management.

2.Clear distribution of responsibilities between ATCO team and BaasKaar teams.

3.Adherence to ASAP, Agile and PMI-PMBOK project management tools and standards

4.Following SAP best practice processes and minimizes customization.

5.Good understanding of business requirements by the ATCO IT team and transfer of this knowledge to BaasKaar teams.

6.Very enthusiastic end users’ contribution and cordial environment between users and the implementation (Baaskaar & ATCO-IT) teams.