I enable SAP adopters to do things they couldn’t do before. Host of the “Transformation Every Day” podcast.
I once visited a company whose CIO was quite outspoken: "𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘯 𝘚𝘈𝘗 𝘌𝘊𝘊 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯’𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘈𝘗 𝘚/4𝘏𝘈𝘕𝘈". Their to-go SAP partner shared this view and continued to earn money selling ECC consultants for keep-the-lights-on activities. The CIO even mentioned that if SAP didn't come up with something significantly better, 𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘙𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘌𝘊𝘊 𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘥 2030. Meanwhile, the IT department and 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲. One glaring example was their MRP run: Back in 2003, when they first implemented SAP, the MRP ran twice daily. Over the years, however, complexity and data volumes skyrocketed, blowing up the runtime so much that now it only ran once a week—over the weekend. Despite massive investments in tuning (including disabling valuable features like alerts), the runtime stretched beyond the overnight window, so the customer IT had to switch to a once a week on weekend format. Consequently, planners came in on Monday to a “clean” dataset—only for it to grow stale already by Tuesday (no MRP!), making quick reactions to demand and supply changes impossible because: it was still 4 days till the next MRP run! SAP S/4HANA’s MRP Live would have instantly solved this problem and restored operational agility etc. And during a more thorough review, we discovered another dozen similar issues. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗜𝗢 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗮 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗔𝗣 𝗦/𝟰𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗔... This situation was like a Simpsons episode from the 90s in which Homer sits on the couch, complains about a dull show on TV, but then decides he’s not willing to reach for the remote, concluding, “𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗹, 𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗲 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗯𝗮𝗱.” All too often, the claim of “not finding a business case” 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗮 𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. SAP and its partners often fail to engage in the necessary deep-dive of a customer’s situation to demonstrate how new capabilities can solve real challenges. This lack of hands-on motivation from all sides kills innovation and competitiveness across the board. 𝗦𝗔𝗣 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺-𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 (𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻). By rolling up their sleeves and working collaboratively with clients to uncover genuine pain points, they can showcase how solutions like S/4HANA directly address these issues. Once the tangible benefits are made clear, the “no business case” argument typically falls away—often quite quickly. Fun fact: The successor of aforementioned CIO started a SAP S/4HANA initiative immediately after taking over... 😎 𝐃𝐎𝐇!