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Is Blood Coming Out of Your Eyes?Simplifying the SAP User Interface! ... p2

Grateful to Those That Serve and Have Served in the US Armed Forces! ... p2

What Starts Well, Ends Well! ... p3

Mark Your CalendarUpcoming events... Don’t miss out! ... p4

November 2016

It was month-end; the numbers did not agree. Our client’s off-shore team was taking too long and couldn’t promise that they would solve the problem before the books had to be closed.

At Titan Consulting, we deal with this type of urgent care and support situation all the time. You have a problem you thought your off-shore team could respond to in time; wrong!

We developed our Fractional Consulting Services for this reason, to help you when you need it most. You may have heard it called by other names: Micro-Consulting, or Micro Services.

We wrote the book on delivering fractional consulting; blocks of short-term work to fix specific problems aka break / fix. We have been providing Micro-Consulting to 20+ clients for the past 10 years.

A good example of how to identify problems and fix them fast!

Our client was trying to close the books at month-end. The sales tax values were out of sync. Their offshore team looked at the problem and said that it would take a couple of weeks to diagnose the issue. That response doesn’t help when the business needs an answer now.

We assigned one of our consultants that had the right experience to take a look. He diagnosed the problem, provided a detailed solution, an estimate, and date to complete the work.

He delivered the solution, and they closed the books on time.

SAP Micro Services and Micro-Consulting has popped up frequently on Google ads and searches. But it takes more than an app backed by freelancers to fix business and development issues in your SAP system.

Our clients rely on us to help them with break / fix issues like this one. Ask your offshore provider if they can: •Guaranteefeesandtimeframetofixaprobleminmostcases. •Assignseniorconsultantsthatdiagnose,solveanddeliver solutions when you need it. •Understandbestpracticesandtechnologytodevisetheright short and long-term solution. •Providespotconsultingassignmentstohandlebusinessor statutory changes.

Examples of how we have used fractional consulting to help our clients are: • Provideanon-callresourcefora specified number of hours per month. • Anintensivepart-timeresource focused on related work packages i.e. ABAP / Reports •Remote,part-timeresourcesforskill sets not needed full-time or evolving skill sets i.e. Security and Governance, Training, CRM or BW Rollouts. • Year-endlegalandstatutorychanges for HR, Payroll, Taxes, etc.

This approach may not work in all situations, but we find that in many cases, fractional consulting delivers high value in the timeframe when your business needs it.

Don’t wait for a problem to arise at month-end to find out about our Fractional Consulting Services. For more information on how Titan’s Fractional Consulting Services meet your business needs, contact Kent Lamb at 972.377.3525 or email him at kent@titanconsulting.net. Or, contact your Titan Consulting Director.

- Kent Lamb

Micro-Consulting: We Wrote the Book on It!

TiTaN’s FracTioNal coNsulTiNg services

“When we have a need for

specific and expert help,

we turn to Titan Consulting and

their Fractional Consulting offerings.

The flexibility and quality of the

consultants are great,

and Titan provides the right

resource at the right time!”

-ERP APPlicAtions MAnAgER foR Audio EquiPMEnt MAnufActuRER

972.377.3500 Produced by QMN Services2 |

Are your users still complaining about the complexity of your SAP screens? Are they sticking pins in their eyes to ease the pain of moving through multiple screens to process a transaction?

Since the inception of SAP’s R/3 product and still today, I have heard users complain about the SAP GUI and screens. Many software development companies developed screen-scrape applications specifically designed to help SAP customers simplify the interaction between users and SAP.

In S/4 the ABAP development environment (SE38 etc.) is still very much alive and well. However, SAP has also created new tools to use with the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment. These tools include ABAP, BW, Cloud, SAP Gateway, SAP HANA, SAP HANA Cloud Integration, and SAPUI5.

To SAP’s credit, they have introduced tools and development environments to enhance the user experience. Since the release of the HTML5 standards, SAP has created their own HTML5 development tool, SAPUI5, to take advantage of the features and capabilities of this platform.

Did you know that Veterans Day, celebrated annually on November 11 was the last day of WW I? Veterans Day honors and recognizes those that have served in our countries Armed Forces: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Air National Guard and Coast Guard.

Titan Consulting salutes those that have served and recently sponsored operation gratitude during the SAPinsight and ASUG All Texas Chapter meeting in Dallas. We are honored to partner with these great organizations to recognize the sacrifice and commitment of our troops and their families.

At the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, a separate room was set aside where more than 500 attendees over the 2-day event contributed care packages and wrote letters to active service members.

The results were stunning: H Over 400 care packages were assembled, and; H Attendees wrote 120 letters to active duty members overseas.

Ginger Luttrell, the founder of SAPinsight, said the support for Operation Gratitude was overwhelming. When she wrote her letter to an

anonymous service member, the emotions were pouring out. She was caught in the moment, thanking all those men and woman that serve and their families for their sacrifice. The words flowed onto the paper with gratitude!

What makes this even more surprising is that this occurred during a fast-paced, high-value conference. Attendees were moving from Keynote sessions to informative presentations on the Department of the Future, IT Operational Analytics, and the Digital Boardroom.

Many letter writers commented that it was a special highlight for them.

Operation Gratitude distributes the packages and letters and ships them to active members overseas. At this time of year with Thanksgiving and the Holidays, these gifts boost morale for our troops.

The SAPinsight and ASUG All Texas Chapter meeting have passed, but you can still contribute. Go to the LINK operation gratitude and contribute what you can. Microsoft has generously offered to match your financial contribution to Operation Gratitude.

Thank you to all those who participated at the Dallas event.

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Is Blood Coming Out of Your Eyes?

graTeFul To Those ThaT serve aNd have served iN The us armed Forces!

simpliFyiNg The sap user iNTerFace!

www.titanconsulting.netProduced by QMN Services | 3

WhaT sTarTs Well, eNds Well!core values improve The success oF your sap projecT

Is a new project like the start of a new day? Is it an opportunity to collaborate, develop your career skills and build value for our customers?

Do you look at each new project as an exploration of the possible or a slow dredging of careers, spirits, and souls through the mud of the improbable?

We believe that “what starts well, ends well!” Moreover, to progress successfully through your challenging IT projects or portfolio you need Core Values to guide you.

Why have core values for your project?

To consider this, you should first consider why most projects fail? •MasterDataandDataConversionissues; • InadequateTestingandTeamTraining; •LackofCommunicationorOrganizational Readiness.There are many other reasons to blame for the failure of ERP projects.

When asked what are the Core Values for your project team, we often hear “no problem, we have a charter, mission statement, project goals, and objectives.” Often these documents are a cut and paste exercise, taking the project initiation documents from the last project and editing them for the current project. Does this sound familiar?

The problem, typical Project Initiation Documents are created at the beginning of each project to align purpose, goals, responsibilities and more. These documents are required by the PMO, sponsors, and auditors, but may not see the light of day once the project begins.

core values drive the culture and behavior of your project!

Are you convinced that Core Values are important? But that will not be enough to go through the process of Core Values discovery, convey your passion to others, and ultimately align the entire project team and stakeholders around them.

Evolving companies like Zappos and Apple are known for their Core Values. These values define the culture and value integrity of the company. Your values apply equally to your projects. Values work well because they replace policy manuals, guidelines and rule books and guide action and behavior.

Some benefits of Core Values: •Valuescreateaself-managedandresponsibleteam; •Valuessupportyourdecisionsordecisionslinkedtoyourvalues; •Valuesdefinethecultureandexperience;and •Valuesoutlivepeople,trends,goals,andchallenges.

Why does this work?

Zappos leaders will tell you that values provide loose constraints; no rule book is used around expectations, but high integrity in behavior.

When chaos hits during a project and you know it will values are essential to driving the norms for communication, trust, and action.

Let’s review a few Core Values that align the PMO, Project Team, Business and IT organization. These values provide rationale, reasoning, and inspiration for enhancing your Project Initiation Documents with engaging and attracting the talent, investment, and resources that your project needs to succeed.

one of my favorite core values is “No surprises!”

We hear this from executive sponsors and project managers. How does your team respond to a value like this? We have introduced joint responsibilities in high-risk critical areas.

One of our manufacturing clients had some significant work to clean up their material master data before conversion. The developer and the business lead were both experienced, but after a few false starts and much frustration, we re-defined the communication rules.

To supplement the no-surprises value, we asked the fundamental question, “Can you run the business for the day with this master data?” At that point, we created a new value for success and simplified the expectations for the cleansing of the material master data.

Some other suggestions to help in a high integrity project environment: •Provideafewsimplerules–notabook •Workandwordsareopentointerpretation–challengeobjectively that there is agreement. • Inspire–don’tmicromanage.

Define the values that work for your company and project. The principle and benefit of values are universal. Don’t misinterpret that all values are universal and relevant to every environment.

How do you work through the right values for your project team? Consider the primary failures of projects bulleted above. What Core Values could prevent such consequences and occurrences?

Placing Core Values as the heartbeat of your project and following them through the good times and bad will help you to attract the best talent for your project teams. Team members will look forward to the project work as fulfilling and beneficial, and not a dead-end career move.

Do you believe that what starts well, ends well? Every project also needs a post-mortem review to ensure continuous improvement of your projects and business. Click Here.

Do you fall into the trap that your new projects look and sound just like your old projects? Do you have the confidence that these projects will succeed? If your project initiation steps need an independent review and assessment, contact Warren Norris, warren@titanconsulting.net, 972.679.5183; or contact your Titan Consulting Director. You can see additional information on our Advisory Services page at www.titanconsulting.net.

972.377.35004 |

C a l e n d a r o f e v e n t s

With the usage of so many computing platforms, user interfaces, and devices, the development of SAPUI5 was essential to provide access for developers and users across on-premise, cloud, and hybrid environments.

Can you imagine having to develop, test and maintain code for each of the different devices and computing platforms that are available (watches, phones, tablets, PC’s, etc.)? With SAPUI5 that is not necessary as the product handles that for you.

It also handles the screen orientation (portrait or landscape) for you as well! SAPUI5 relies on the Data Services of the SAP Gateway for its logic and data flow. Our architects can show you how to deploy these products to ensure streamlined, use anywhere, access to your SAP systems.

Fiori is central to the modern consumer-grade user experience. This great tool is a part of the SAPUI5 toolset and allows you to build simplified transactions to accomplish actions within your SAP ecosystem. While Fiori is not going to replace your order entry transaction, it can help significantly reduce your end to end process time.

As I mentioned earlier, SAP is incorporating many external tools into the Eclipse environment to better help development teams. This platform allows multiple people to work on the same project and is effective for in-house development teams with on-premise systems.

What if your SAP system is in the cloud and you want to use SAPUI5 development tools? Have no fear; SAP has a solution for that as well. You can also access the SAPUI5 development platform on the

World Wide Web. You have the ability to create SAPUI5 and Fiori Applications there as well.

As we saw and heard at the recent TechEd conference, there are many exciting development tools in the transaction space with S/4. When are you going to plan your approach?

Uncertain which development platform is best for your environment? Our clients rely upon Titan’s Technology Architects to guide and advise which tools best support your development and user experience. We also guide companies on the best strategies and tactics that reduce your TCO.

To discuss our SAP Advisory or Development Services, please contact Mark Vasinda at 972.977.3100 or mvasinda@titanconsulting.net or your Titan Consulting Director.

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Is Blood Coming Out of Your Eyes?

ThanksgivingNovember 24th, 2016

ASUG Philadelphia Chapter MeetingDecember 8, 2016 SAP Headquarters Newtown Square, PA

SAP-Centric FinancialsFebruary 21-22, 2017 Hyatt Regency Dallas, TX

Happy Thanksgiving!