2025: Issue 02 ANZSAP Magazine

INSPIRING THE SAP ECOSYSTEM

FEATURE

MAKE BUSINESS

FRUGALITY SEXY

TECHNOLOGY

INTERVIEW HARNESSING AI FOR ANALYTICS

WOMEN MAKING SAP HAPPEN

MIND THE GAP

Independent Transformation Program Adviser

Clive Ewin discusses why there is often a gap between clients’ expectations and what is actually delivered

Data is currency: Learn why FIONA THOLENS

Purposeful service and leadership DENISE LUCERO

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FROM THE EDITOR

A NEW CHAPTER FOR THE ANZ SAP ECOSYSTEM

Ican‘t believe it‘s 11 months since we launched our first-ever issue of ANZSAP Magazine, but, as the saying goes, time flies when you‘re having fun!

It‘s certainly been a whirlwind, yet we’ve all taken so much enjoyment in working with our Issue 01 contributors to get the magazine out to as many of the community we can. At the same time, building new connections and collaborating closely with them to pull together our second issue.

It was always going to be hard to top the first issue, but with lots of help from our growing list of supporters and contributors and an incredible amount of work from our small team, I believe we‘ve got a very impressive Issue 02 to share with you.

The magazine is certainly evolving into the resource we envisioned; one written by the community, for the community. Inside, you will see just how generous our contributors have been in sharing their time, experience, and knowledge. And, alongside their obvious expertise in their field, a little bit of themselves as well.

For a specialist publication there is a surprisingly wide array of topics inside for you; learn why business frugality can be sexy, how ancient wisdom can lead to successful modern-day SAP transformations, and what Alice in Wonderland has to do with SAP BTP. Also, gain insights on things like SAP technology modernisation, purposeful service, avoiding the SI expectation gap, and creating SAP AI business use cases.

Given there is so much for you to get through, I‘ll stop there and just let you read. As always, your honest feedback is welcome, including what you would like to see in future issues. In the meantime, enjoy!

Chelsie White Editor

EDITORIAL TEAM

SHANE MORGAN Founder

CHELSIE WHITE Editor

DANIELLE CHUNG Client Services Manager

EMILY HARRIS Head of Design

STEVE COLQUHOUN Sub Editor

EVA GOROBETS

Photographer

AIMEE CHANTHADAVONG Senior Journalist

DR DEREK PRIOR Guest Writer

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

DONNA LLEWELLYN

MURALI SHANMUGHAM

CLIVE EWIN

AVA KODEIRI

CELENA TAN

DENISE LUCERO

LYN CAMPBELL-ANDERSON

FIONA THOLENS

REBECCA BOTTOMLEY

MATTHIAS BRAEUER

MUSTAFA BENSAN

NISHANT JAIN

POORNIMA L NATHAN

RICK PORTER

SAMIR MISTRY

MOHAMMAD BILAL NAZIR

SCOTT BINGLEY

GINA MCNAMARA

SAHIL NAQVI

BEN PRICE

JUDITH O’CALLAGHAN

JORG THUIJLS

THIAGO OURIVES

PRASHANT KUMAR

ANTHEA ARNOL

TARA ROSENZWEIG

ALEX AITKEN

TIAGO MENDES

MICHAEL GRENRICH

TRAVIS SMITH

AIDEN DAVIS

GARY CHUA

CANDICE THOMASON

CONTRIBUTING COMPANIES

FAIR CONSULTING GROUP

SYNITI

GLOBAL ERP ADVISORY

INTENTUM

AUSFORMING

SAP AUSTRALIA

SAPTURE

LEG UP SOFTWARE

THE MUSHROOM GROUP

SHEBANG SOFTWARE

ISSUE 02

FEATURES

28 FRUGAL IS SEXY

A challenge to embrace frugality this coming year.

38 THE CLOUD JOURNEY

Insights from SAP's BTS Team on the key to successful implementations.

102 AI USE CASES

A framework for building a practical SAP AI business use case and how to apply it.

122 COVER STORY: GREAT EXPECTATIONS

A delve into why there is often a gap between what a client expects from their SI and what’s delivered, with guidance on how to avoid it.

142 TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE

A clean core and RISE with SAP are transforming the SAP landscape. Will you embrace the change and transformation or be resistant to it?

154 SAP BTP ADOPTIONS

Round-the-table conversation featuring best practices, anti-patterns and lessons learned.

184 BEYOND GO-LIVE

Setting your S/4HANA transformation up for success.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD SAP BTP adoptions 154

Thiago Ourives

22 QUALITY

Why quality shouldn’t be neglected in SAP projects and how to achieve it.

60 SAP BEST PRACTICES

Dr Derek Prior reveals three of his classic “SAP Best Practices”.

84 NEXTGEN SAP CONSULTANTS

The shifts SAP Consultants must undergo to thrive in an VUCA economy.

114 SOFT SKILLS

Why those who are new to SAP Consulting should value and cultivate soft skills alongside the technical.

130 ANCIENT WISDOM

A look at how ancient wisdom can be applied in an SAP project context to help overcome challenges and look for the lessons presented.

136 A VIEW FROM WITHIN

A personal story of a passion for purposeful service and leadership.

170 ELEVATING SUCCESS

Revealing the strategic impact of the SAP Store on business growth.

NextGen SAP consultants 60

82

NEWS

10 MOVERS & SHAKERS

Some of the key moves within the ANZ SAP ecosystem since ANZSAP Issue 01 was published.

11 UPCOMING EVENTS

Overview of upcoming events aimed at the ANZ SAP ecoystem.

12 PREVIOUS EVENTS

A look at the finalists and winners of the 2024 SAP Best Run Awards.

16 SAP Concur winners interview: The Mushroom Group.

INTERVIEWS

90 WOMEN MAKING SAP HAPPEN

Sapture talks to Poornima L Nathan, Chapter Lead, about diversity and her biggest inspirations.

148 INTERNAL CHANGE & TRAINING

Lyn Campbell-Aderson interviews

Rebecca Bottomley, Head of Training & Adoption Solution Advisory at SAP Australia.

192 AI & FINANCE TEAMS

Interview with Gina McNamara, SAP’s CFO for the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region.

TRENDS

18 DATA IS CURRENCY

Why data is one of the most valuable commodities in an implementation.

72 SAP RECRUITMENT TRENDS

Discussing the latest talent trends in SAP.

98 NURTURING SAP TALENT

Find out more about SAP and Victoria University's SAP ACC.

& MOVERS SHAKERS

A quick look at some of the key moves within the ANZ SAP ecosystem since ANZSAP Issue 01 was published.

Rod Gallagher CEO, Discovery Consulting

Discovery Consulting announced the appointment of Rod Gallagher as CEO of Discovery Consulting in August 2024.

Evan Mantis

Managing Director, Enterprise Wide

Enterprise Wide announced the appointment of Evan Mantis as Managing Director in August 2024.

Pete Andrew Managing Director, Fair Consulting Group

Fair Consulting Group announced the appointment of Pete Andrew as Managing Director in June 2024.

Amanda Williamson

Managing Director, SAP Business Group Leader ANZ, Accenture

In November 2023 Amanda Williamson was appointed Managing Director, SAP Business Group Leader ANZ for Accenture.

Denise Lucero SAP AU & NZ Practice Lead for DXC Technology

In September 2024 Denise Lucero was appointed SAP AU & NZ Practice Lead for DXC Technology.

Bruce McKinnon Senior Strategic Advisor Asia-Pacific, SNP SNP announced the appointment of Bruce McKinnon as Senior Strategic Advisor for the AsiaPacific region in July 2024.

Charlotte Curtis Partner, Deloitte

In April 2024 Charlotte Curtis became Partner at Deloitte.

2024 SAP BEST RUN AWARDS

Telstra, Powerlink Queensland and BHP crowned winners of the annual SAP Best Run Awards for Australia and New Zealand.

By Aimee Chanthadavong

SAP announced the 2024 winners of its annual SAP Best Run Awards for Australia and New Zealand in August.

The award, which entered its sixth year, celebrates the top companies and people using SAP products to transform their businesses and drive innovation.

Open to SAP customers and partners, the awards recognise 14 winners across categories including Next Gen Innovator, Human Capital Management, Business Transformation, Customer Experience, Data and Analytics, and more.

2024 winners included Sigma Healthcare for the Industry Disruptor category and BHP for Business Transformation. Telstra was awarded for the Intelligent ERP Enterprise category, while Metcash took out the Customer Experience award.

Other award recipients included Transport for NSW for its

The full list of winners and runners-up of the 2024 SAP Best Run Awards for ANZ:

SAP Human Capital Management Winner: The GPT Group + EPI-USE Runner-up: Woodside Energy

SAP Next Gen Innovator Winner: Zespri + Califruit

SAP Intelligent Spend & Business Network Winner: Transport for NSW + Accenture

SAP Business Transformation Winner: BHP + PwC

SAP Customer Experience Winner: Metcash

SAP Intelligent ERP Enterprise Winner: Telstra + Accenture Runner-up: Zespri

SAP Data & Analytics Winner: Powerco + Bluetree Solutions

SAP Data Supply Chain Winner: CSR + ArchLynk Runner-up: InfraBuild

SAP Industry Disruptor Winner: Sigma Healthcare + EY

SAP Concur Winner: Mushroom Group

SAP ERP Fast Growth Winner: Viridian Glass

SAP Chris O’Brien Award Winner: Powerlink Queensland

SAP Business AI Joint winner: CITIC Pacific Mining + DalRae Solutions, Winc

Host, SAP ANZ President and Managing Director, Angela Colantuono.

“One Procurement” digital transformation project, earning it the Intelligent Spend and Business Network award, and CSR, which won the Data Supply Chain award for standardising its transport management, optimising efficiency, and reducing costs.

2024 saw the addition of the new Business AI category, jointly won by CITIC Pacific Mining and Winc.

There was also the SAP Chris O’Brien Award, which recognises organisations that have successfully implemented SAP solutions to achieve sustainability goals, improve social impact and create shared value for stakeholders. Powerlink Queensland was recognised as this year's winner for implementing SAP Datasphere and Sustainability Control Tower to empower sustainable change through climate reporting.

According to SAP, the winning entries demonstrated real-world results, including improved productivity, reduced costs, increased employee satisfaction, reduced turnover, and overall business success.

The winners were announced at an in-person awards ceremony on 30 August at Pier One Sydney. The event was hosted by SAP ANZ President and Managing Director Angela Colantuono.

“We are thrilled to recognise the incredible achievements of our valued customer and partner community over the past year. We’re navigating a testing market right now, so it’s encouraging businesses in ANZ are turning to technology and data to provide the certainty they need to make the right decisions and bring out their best,” she said.

SAP ANZ President and Managing Director Angela Colantuono, “I am in awe of our winners and finalists – each representing businesses that have brought bold visions to life and driven real-world results. And it’s great to see cutting-edge innovation in the new Business AI category. I can’t wait to see what our customers and partners do next in 2025.”

SAP CONCUR WINNERS: THE MUSHROOM GROUP

ANZSAP caught up with Candice Thomason, Head of Business Intelligence & Data, The Mushroom Group, to find out more about their award-winning implementation.

Candice Thomason

What was your biggest challenge in implementing Concur? And how did you overcome it?

One of the toughest challenges we faced was integrating SAP Concur with our existing ERP system (SAP ByDesign). Before Concur, everything had to be done manually, which was prone to errors because of the complexity of our business structure. We fixed this by implementing an API that updates approved claims every 30 minutes, making processes like credit card reconciliation and intercompany allocations much smoother and less hands-on.

Another big challenge was the impact the rollout had on every single person in the business. We knew change management would be key, so we built a dedicated website with training videos, a calendar to schedule one-on-one help sessions, detailed guides for our expense processes.

process a lot smoother and saved us some time.

What were the key influencing factors in successfully achieving your high user adoption rate?

“It’s a real testament to the hard work of the team and how open everyone was to adopting new tools that made a big difference in the way we work.”

It’s clearly a very successful project – what do you think made it so successful? And what are you most proud of?

I think the success of the project comes down to a few key things:

• The seamless integration with our ERP system, which gave us real-time data and helped with faster decision-making.

• The reduction in manual tasks, which freed up our employees to focus on more strategic and value-added activities.

• We improved compliance and financial transparency, especially when it came to things like intercompany allocations and credit card reconciliations.

We also ran a targeted email campaign, making sure our people knew what to expect and how to get involved at every stage of the project.

If you were to do the implementation project again, what would you do differently?

Looking back, I think we would have benefited from earlier identification of the complexity of our intercompany workflows. Setting clearer guidelines for intercompany cost allocations and formal approvals from the start would have made the whole

I’d say there were three main factors that drove our high adoption rate:

1. SAP Concur has a userfriendly interface that made managing expenses a lot easier for everyone, allowing our employees to spend less time on paperwork and more time on their actual jobs.

2. Faster reimbursements were a game-changer, and that really boosted employee satisfaction and financial wellbeing.

3. The ability to integrate with apps like Uber and Yodlee made it more versatile and convenient, especially for our people who are always on the move.

Personally, I’m most proud of how the implementation changed the finance team’s role. They went from spending time on manual tasks to becoming true partners in strategic decisionmaking.

Any additional comments on your success in the Best Run Awards or the project?

Winning the Best Run Award was a big moment for us and really showed our commitment to innovation and efficiency. The project didn’t just streamline expense management, it also improved the overall employee experience and made our financial processes a lot more efficient.

It’s a real testament to the hard work of the team and how open everyone was to adopting new tools that made a big difference in the way we work.

Fiona Tholens, Global MDM Director, explains why data is one of the most valuable commodities within any SAP implementation, yet how it is also the most undervalued and least understood. She discusses common challenges around data management and provides advice on how to overcome them.

DATA IS CURRENCY

In SAP, data is the most valuable commodity, yet most undervalued, under-resourced and least understood area of any SAP implementation. Before I delve into this further, I think it is useful to define data by asking the question …

WHAT IS DATA?

Data is the foundation of how the system will support the process that has been built to run the business.

Data is in every corner of running the business.

Data describes the product to develop and market to sell; how you distribute; how you are performing as a business; and is used for reporting and finance.

Data is the actual currency in the bank. Without it, you just have a building without the strength of the currency to give it the power.

Data is all these things, yet in SAP implementations, solution design is always the most resourced area of any project. This leaves data typically resourced with members of the business. This can be problematic, as these are team members that are not usually 100 per cent dedicated to the project and who must juggle their normal ‘day’ position alongside additional expectations put on them. These expectations include analysing data, mapping it and enriching and validating it, based on the strategy put in place by a very small consulting team.

Due to the inexperience and additional pressure put on the business team, data quality is very often compromised when taking it from the legacy environment and migrating to shiny new environments. Usually with the expectation that this will just run perfectly.

Fiona Tholens

STAFF NEED TO BE TRAINED IN THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING THEIR DATA, AND TAKING OWNERSHIP TO SUPPORT AND GOVERN

IT.’’

Additional challenges we face with any implementation around data management are the following:

• Resourcing: Sufficient resources from the business and consultants with the required combined functional and technical knowledge.

• Time frames: Implementations are usually under a time crunch to deliver a project within a condensed timeframe.

• Governance and ownership: The need for a clear strategic

vision and framework to govern and manage the data, long after it has been migrated to the new system.

To overcome these challenges and support a business through implementations, staff need to be trained in the importance of understanding their data, and taking ownership to support and govern it. (This is a challenge I’ve faced in every deployment that I’ve worked on). Then the issue becomes understanding the complexity that comes with that responsibility.

It’s complex and time consuming, yet there is always the expectation that this work can be completed within a compressed timeline. Conversely, this timeline could actually be met if, during the mobilisation of the project, a team is data profiling and understanding the data architecture, and also if the project is properly staffed with the business resources to fully support the project.

This team can then be brought along on the journey throughout the deployment and develop the required knowledge on their

own data, governance, and ownership to support the longerterm maintenance strategy post deployment.

To have good quality data in the system requires two fundamental prerequisites:

1. Governance for, and knowledge on, every attribute of every data object (materials, business partners, pricing), and the ownership and accountability within the business to support and manage the data to ensure a

high data quality standard.

2. Post deployment, there must be a strategy on the maintenance, governance and organisation structure.

It is essential when the deployment and hyper care are completed, for a business to take responsibility for the management, understanding and governance of its data. The business owns its data, and therefore the organisation structure needs to take into consideration the role of its employees in owning their data on a day-to-day basis.

Data ownership drives data quality. Lack of knowledge and understanding of the data leads to poor data quality.

Summary

In summary, data is currency. All companies are driven by it; however, without the ownership taken to drive the data, it will spiral out of control. Businesses at every level therefore need to take ownership and responsibility for their data. Never underestimate its complexity!

Celena Tan

QUALITY

A neglected but important topic

Celena Tan, SAP Business Specialist - Supply & Logistics, discusses quality in the context of SAP projects and how it is often neglected in the pursuit of meeting project goals. She looks at what good and poor quality in an SAP project might look like, and offers insights into how to both measure and achieve it.

WHAT IS QUALITY?

Quality is a common word, but do we ever think much about what it actually means?

The simple definition from the Cambridge Dictionary is ‘how good or bad something is’.

If we stop to think about this in terms of SAP projects, the question becomes, what makes a ‘good’ (high quality) project versus a ‘bad’ one?

Too often we hear that to meet the goals of a project we need to be on-time, on-budget and meet requirements. Yet you can meet these goals and still not deliver on quality. Often, as we tend to focus on achieving project milestones, quality can fall by the wayside, especially if we are pushed to meet tight deadlines.

SO HOW SHOULD WE DEFINE PROJECT QUALITY?

Some examples of good quality in an SAP project:

• Minimal defects raised after go-live, along with no major defects.

• Clarity of roles and responsibilities within the business.

• Lack of system issues when executing day-to-day tasks.

• A defined point of contact for issues or questions for all business end users.

• A formal change plan to improve day-to-day activities based on feedback and analysis, leading to ongoing time and efficiency savings.

Often, as we tend to focus on achieving project milestones, quality can fall by the wayside.” ”

On the other hand, examples of poor quality in an SAP project:

• Constant system issues for the end user.

• A lack of clarity regarding roles and responsibilities.

• Business users unsure where to get help from.

• Major defects discovered and raised after project go-live.

• A lack of confidence in the system reported by business users.

• Feedback from business that they have lost confidence in the system.

One of the things I derive great personal satisfaction from is delivering a solution that puts a smile on the faces of the end business users. SAP is an intimidating software solution for many of them and seeing them happy about the changes that are coming in and having clarity about how it will assist them to manage their day-to-day processes, makes

my day. Do these smiles also reflect the quality of the solution? I would like to think that they do.

WHY IS QUALITY IMPORTANT?

Quality is important because it affects how much value, satisfaction, and trust we get from whatever it applies to. It can have a direct impact on how well an organisation, a team, or an individual performs, works, and achieves. Quality can also have a long-term impact on growth and how sustainable, dynamic, and innovative an area is.

Having worked in the BAU (business as usual) space for many years, quality is close to my heart. I have seen the impacts of projects that have gone live without robust processes that ensure the longevity of the solution and the result is months (possibly years!) of issue resolution by the BAU support team, alongside angst and dissatisfaction from the business users.

MEASURING QUALITY

Quality is a difficult topic to address

and measure. How do you ensure you have covered all angles? How do you know if you have tested the solution thoroughly enough? How do you know if it is robust enough to withstand the test of time?

Some things that should be considered:

• Constant collaboration and consultation with the business to ensure all requirements and processes are covered.

• Internal QA process to ensure solutions are robust and designed properly.

• Allowing enough time for thorough testing by the project team and the business teams.

• Implementing clear satisfaction and sign off parameters from the business, to ensure that all requirements and expectations have been met.

I was lucky enough to have a mentor and a colleague who taught me the importance of considering the supportability and

robustness of the solutions that I work on. I will always remember this phrase: “If the solution can be ‘broken’, the users will break it, so we need to close the loopholes before they find them!”

The positive impact of adopting this approach is clear. When a highquality project or solution is delivered, everyone will be talking about how it benefits them and asking if it can be rolled out to more people, rather than complaining about how many issues need to be resolved.

ACHIEVING QUALITY

How can we improve the quality of the projects and solutions we work on?

The biggest enemy of quality is time. Shortcuts are often taken to fulfil requirements if not enough time is allocated for the team to build and test robust, high-quality solutions as everyone rushes to the finish line. Ironically, an enormous amount of time fixing issues and patching holes must then be spent after the solution is deployed.

It is important to ensure quality is a topic of discussion when setting up projects. Quality improvement is a team effort and a cycle that involves setting goals, measuring performance, analysing problems, implementing solutions, evaluating outcomes, and learning lessons. Listen to feedback and ideas on how good quality can be achieved, and ensure the timeline does not work against quality goals.

CONCLUSION

At the end of a project that has been focused on quality, everyone is happy. On a personal level, I love it when I finish a project knowing that there is a positive impact on the business without compromise. There is no greater satisfaction than being recognised for a well implemented solution that will stand the test of time.

”There is no greater satisfaction than being recognised for a well implemented solution that will stand the test of time.”

The challenge: Embrace frugality in 2025

MAKE BUSINESS FRUGALITY SEXY

In this feature Ben Price,Project & Integration Specialist,Covantage, presents his challenge to embrace frugality in 2025. He explains why he believes business frugality is strategic and necessary, yet also sexy and reveals practical ways to fully embrace it.

Embracing frugality in 2025 is a strategic move. Let me convince you it is also bold and sexy. Let me go further and say by innovating and leading on frugality topics, business frugality in particular, you will pick up a sexy new skill we all need to learn.

I am convinced already. At Covantage we commonly work with CFOs aiming to enhance their company’s financial health, foster IT innovation, and build corporate resilience. As part of those project teams, I’ve gained a unique insight on frugality in action, and I’m impressed.

Before I delve further, let’s look at the official definition of frugal:

Frugal/ˈfru:ɡl’/ economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful.

Source: Dictonary.com

Taking this definition of frugal, now ask yourself the following questions:

Why does my Chief Financial Officer care about being frugal?

Should I care?

Yes, absolutely you should!

Whether you’re a CFO, CIO, Project Manager or a Human Resources Leader, frugality can help you increase value, agility and return on investment, and reduce risk, uncertainty and costs.

For more detail see Figure 1 (next page), Yes, You Should Care.

Embracing frugality is not about cutting costs at the expense of quality or growth. Instead, it's about smart management of resources, driving a culture of innovation and efficiency, and

preparing the company to thrive in an unpredictable circumstance. I therefore put it to you that the definition of frugality should be changed to:

Frugal /ˈfru:ɡl/ Bold choices in spending, leading to better outcomes. Source: Ben Price.

On the back of this new definition, I predict that frugality will be an in-demand sexy skill in 2025 leading to:

• the CFO being sustainable and not wasting resources;

• the project manager unleashing innovation and creativity within IT projects;

• the CIO delivering quality over quantity; and,

• the HR department leading improvements in the entire workforce through community and sharing.

WHY SEXY?

The allure of a person extends beyond mere visual aesthetics. For instance, a sense of humour, a tone of voice, a smile ...

Similarly, the concept of frugality possesses its own unique qualities beyond conventional visual notions of sexiness.

Frugal individuals embody boldness, demonstrating courage to challenge the mainstream and prioritise value and sustainability over fleeting pleasures. This boldness, a refusal to follow the herd, often translates into a form of confidence that is inherently attractive.

Moreover, frugal people often achieve a level of success in their ability to live a rich, fulfilling life

Embracing frugality is not about cutting costs at the expense of quality or growth.’’

Figure 1. Yes, you should care

CFO

Your typical CFO cares about improving the financial position of an organisation.

They can overcome economic uncertainty, mitigate future business risk, and overcome supply chain disruptions forcing high costs.

A typical CFO can implement frugal practices to minimise wasted investment and resources, and financial risks.

PROJECT MANAGER

A typical Project Manager cares about innovation and meeting project deliverables.

They can increase innovation by forcing teams to think creatively with limited resources. They can also lead breakthroughs within their project that are not only cost-effective but impactful.

A typical Project Manager can implement frugal practices to improve finances and meet budgets. They can reduce unnecessary expenditures, optimising processes and operations.

CIO

Your typical CIO cares about running an IT function that is agile, adaptable, and reactive to opportunities.

Frugality allows them to run a lean operation, allowing project and technology pivots.

A typical CIO will demonstrate frugal intentions by using value-focused services.

HUMAN RESOURCES LEADER

Your typical Human Resources Leader cares about an engaged and productive workforce. They can run a sustainability program to instil a sense of ownership and accountability among employees, with everyone focused on a shared goal of maximising value and minimising waste.

A typical Human Resources Leader can use frugality to help ensure resources are allocated to areas with the highest ROI, and that the company is not over extended in less critical areas.

– without succumbing to the pressures of excess – that is both admirable and sexy, as masters of self-control and resource management.

Frugal individuals are influencers who also have a positive impact on their environment. Their innovative thinking and efficiency can inspire improvements in processes, reduce waste, and foster a culture of mindfulness and responsibility. Their influence often encourages others to adopt more sustainable practices, leading to a collective enhancement of the work environment.

The sexiness of frugality, therefore, lies not just in the tangible benefits it brings but in the values it represents –boldness, success, and a positive impact on the environment. These qualities make frugal individuals not only attractive but deeply admirable, challenging the conventional markers of allure with something far more substantial and enduring.

By contrast, behaviours considered “not sexy” encompass actions or attitudes that are unattractive, undesirable or unappealing, especially when they lead to negative consequences or inefficiencies. A quintessential example of such behavior is reckless expenditure that escalates waste. For instance, a staggering revelation highlighted that companies squandered approximately $6.15 billion on digital advertising in 2023 alone. This wastage accounted for nearly 43% of the $14.1 billion allocated to digital advertising nationwide.

THE FUTURE OF FRUGALITY

As we look forward, the synergy between frugality and sustainability offers a powerful blueprint for individual and collective action.

Sustainable practices are increasingly vital in today’s world, and the principle of frugality lies at its heart. Frugality encourages money-saving behaviours that also conserve resources and reduce pollution.

One area where this alignment is visible is in transportation. Cities such as Copenhagen are exemplary in showcasing this modern frugality. Known for its bike-friendly infrastructure, Copenhagen has successfully integrated cycling into the daily lives of its residents, making it an efficient, healthy and eco-friendly way to navigate the city.

The sexiness of frugality, therefore, lies not just in the tangible benefits it brings but in the values it represents − boldness, success, and a positive impact on the environment.’’

Optimise Cloud spending 1

Implement lean IT practices 2

Enhance IT procurement strategies 3

Promote a culture of cost awareness

Invest in automation and AI

Consolidate and rationalise software licenses

Prioritise cybersecurity with cost-effective solutions

Adopt energy-efficient technologies

Shift toward agile and DevOps

Encourage remote and hybrid work models

Use community to improve and celebrate frugal practices 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Regularly review and adjust IT strategy

Likewise, EVs represent another frontier where frugality and sustainability intersect. EVs, powered by renewable energy sources, offer a cleaner alternative and lead to long-term financial savings from lower fuel and maintenance costs.

Frugality, in the context of sustainable practices, encourages us to question the necessity of each purchase, to opt for products with lower environmental impacts, and to embrace a minimalist lifestyle where quality and durability trump quantity and disposability. This mindset also fosters a deeper appreciation for the resources we have, encouraging their use in a manner that ensures their availability for future generations.

While frugality and efficient resource usage are commendable, they must be balanced with wisdom and a holistic view of outcomes.

At the core of what makes frugality “sexy” is the admirable trait of making bold decisions in spending that lead to superior outcomes for your company. To illustrate this, let’s explore three examples that highlight the essence of the modern frugal leader.

Embrace boldness in frugality

Frugal leaders distinguish themselves by making courageous decisions that disrupt the status quo. For instance, dedicating 20 per cent of discretionary spending to partnerships with indigenous organisations, fostering social change, and positioning the company as a leader in corporate social responsibility. This bold approach can extend cross-sector, including allocating budgets towards sustainable energy solutions, investing in community-

based projects, or supporting innovation in underrepresented industries. Such decisions not only contribute to a greater good, but also challenge the company to think creatively about resource allocation.

Lead, don’t follow

To be frugally attractive, leadership involves controlling your operational environment and continuously seeking improvement. Traditional frugal practices, such as meticulous budgeting, consumption reduction, and asset recycling, are foundational. However, the modern frugal leader goes further by fostering a culture of openness and collaboration. While not all companies practice transparency, those that do often find themselves ahead, benefiting from collective intelligence and shared motivation.

Implement a “No Week”

A practical exercise in frugality is to implement a "No Week" where for a period, new expenses are scrutinised and often rejected. The logic is simple: to enhance profits, a business can either increase revenue or decrease expenses. Regular reviews of expenses are essential, but it’s also crucial to challenge the status quo by temporarily halting additional spending. If, after this week, the need for the expenditure remains clear and justified, then it may be considered necessary. However, this practice often leads to innovative ways to achieve goals without increasing costs, encouraging creativity and problem-solving within the team.

These strategies underscore the fact that being a modern frugal leader is not merely about cutting costs; it’s about making intelligent, forward-thinking decisions that enhance the company’s value,

At the core of what makes frugality ' sexy ' is the admirable trait of making bold decisions in spending that lead to superior outcomes for your company. ’’

reputation, and effectiveness. By adopting a bold approach to spending, leading by example, and occasionally saying no to uncover hidden opportunities, business leaders can turn frugality into a compelling and sexy trait that drives success and innovation.

FRUGAL IS SEXY

In a world often captivated by the allure of extravagance and excess, embracing frugality offers a compelling counter-narrative that is not only practical but undeniably sexy. The true essence of frugality lies not in mere costcutting but in the intelligent allocation of resources, a bold commitment to sustainability, and the pursuit of innovation through constraint. It challenges us to rethink our values, to find beauty in simplicity, and to recognise the profound impact of our choices on the world around us.

As we navigate the complexities of the modern world, the challenge before us is to redefine what it means to be attractive in the context of our businesses and personal lives. Let us embrace frugality as a badge of honour, a testament to our ability to thrive within limitations, and a declaration that the most attractive qualities are often those that foster a better world for all. In doing so, we not only enhance our own appeal but also contribute to a movement that values sustainability, efficiency, and meaningful impact over mere opulence.

I rest my case. Frugal is undeniably sexy. The question is, will you take up the challenge to embrace it?

The true essence of frugality lies not in mere cost-cutting but in the intelligent allocation of resources, a bold commitment to sustainability, and the pursuit of innovation through

THE JOURNEY FROM ON-PREMISE SAP ECC TO S/4HANA CLOUD

In this feature aimed at organisations planning the move from existing on-premise SAP ECC ERP to S/4HANA in the cloud, ANZSAP Magazine’s Danielle Chung caught up with SAP’s Business Transformation Team recently to gain their insights.

The team discussed common challenges involved and shared information on some of the different approaches within S/4HANA Cloud Transition and Transformation. They also gave insights into key businesses, technology, value, and people considerations when preparing for successful implementations and beyond.

(From left) Alex Aitken, Tara Rosenzweig, Anthea Arnol and Michael Genrich.

The SAP ANZ Business Transformation Team

Can you tell us what’s necessitating the need for organisations to move off on-prem to the cloud?

MG: There are a few key drivers necessitating this.

Firstly, the need for cheaper. Organisations can see the numbers and can appreciate the complexity and the cost that they have to worry about and manage with their on-prem.

Also, obsolete technology. They need to move because their underlying infrastructure or underlying applications are no longer supported or maintained and that’s an unacceptable business risk.

The cloud provides cost and business efficiency with ongoing technology agility to enable business change at the maximum speed an organisation can absorb. It also reduces an awful lot of complexity regarding support and management.

With cloud, there is rigour and discipline that makes sure a business is always on the latest version and has minimal customisations. There is far less risk and cost with an ongoing choice of the latest best practices and capabilities to adopt.

As an organisation I benefit from an alternative model that says ‘I can focus on my business, pay only for what I use, and can change at the maximum speed

my business can absorb. I’m not limited by inflexible technology. I can focus on what makes me different and somebody else will take care of the rest’.

This is where the real value is, and I talk a bit more in-depth about that in my Value Management & How to Gain Buy-In mini-guide. [See Page 48]

Alex: In my opinion, the advent of Gen AI capability and the significant investment into that area, not just from SAP but from across the IT industry and beyond, has elevated the conversation on that value proposition from a CIO to the C Suite, including CEO.

They want to see how their organisations are responding, but that’s not easy if you don’t have the ERP platform to embrace it. Often existing SAP ERPs are heavily customised and stifle innovation due to cost and time to upgrade and apply new digital and AI capabilities.

It’s rarely just about cost saving, it has become far more about the cost of not staying contemporary as a minimum and ideally leveraging innovation and creating competitive advantage. Maximising the resources you currently have by augmenting them with Gen AI capability in your process base.

Let’s talk a bit about the journey. From your different perspectives, what are some of the

A bit about the Business Transformation Team and what it does at SAP ANZ.

ALEX AITKEN

HEAD OF BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION SUCCESS

“Our team are primarily here to work with our customers to set up and guide their successful business transformation on SAP and each part of the team has a crucial role in ensuring that. It’s not a case of doing the work and then leaving, our job is to ensure that the people and support teams are selfsufficient and able to maintain and continue post implementation.”

TARA ROSENZWEIG

SAP ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT

“As Enterprise Architects we spend time with customers trying to understand strategic goals and objectives, and then focus on defining a target state architecture to support those. We then collaboratively create a value roadmap to achieve that. This process encompasses not only technology considerations but also addresses the critical aspects of people and processes. In sequencing the roadmap, we consider many factors such as ongoing organisational initiatives, the appetite for change, technology dependencies, release dates, the organisation’s capacity to absorb change, BAU changes, and of course, value realisation. The aim is to clearly articulate what needs to happen, by when and why. Our team of architects also have experience in program delivery and helping to manage architecture changes and key decisions effectively as they arise.”

challenges that you’re seeing with organisations at the moment, around moving from on-premise SAP ECC ERP solutions to S/4HANA.

Anthea: A common one from a change management perspective that we find with a lot of our clients, is ownership and responsibility for projects and decisions, especially when it comes to the move to cloud. Establishing who has the business authority to make those decisions, who is taking ownership of the implementations and who is going to maintain and own that responsibility going forward. When there’s a lack of clear responsibilities or accountabilities, success is challenging. Communication and transparency throughout the journey is key.

Then it’s resistance to the change. It’s a whole new way of looking at technology, as opposed to perhaps a one-off update or transition. To me, the biggest switch is not just the transformation, it’s the actual change of the whole culture of an organisation to one of continual change. And change is scary for a lot of people.

It’s important to promote the positives of that, helping people understand that the new technology is a growth opportunity, a way of innovation and excitement. It’s about creating a culture of change. One that embraces ongoing learning, flexibility, and excitement. For example, if part of a persons’ role may be automated, getting them to think about what else they would like to do with the extra time they now have. How can they maximise their skillsets now they’re not focusing on all of those manual tasks.

Alex: I think it’s important to add that, although the volume of initial change you experience going through the implementation into ‘go live’, can be significant, it obviously does reduce as you stabilise and is eased with the addition of in system ‘live’ enablement. But due to the nature of cloud and the pace of change in capability it can enable, it’s important to be better equipped and to welcome that change. Evolution, not revolution, is going to be a constant. Therefore, there’s a continuous change mindset and culture that needs to be embraced by everyone.

Anthea: It’s a really good point. That ability for an organisation not to sit back and sigh with relief that they’re done now, instead looking forward to things, that’s key. It's about promoting “oh, wow, they’ve just released this, they’ve just released that!” It’s that excitement of something new.

AA: There’s all the tooling and processes you can

It’s a whole new way of looking at technology, as opposed to perhaps a oneoff update or transition.

If you don’t have the right mindset as an organisation, then it’s going to be hard yards to implement.

apply out there in the world from SAP and others to help you have ongoing, robust enablement. But if you don’t have the right mindset as an organisation, then it’s going to be hard yards to implement. I think there’s a Peter Duncan quote, “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. You can have all the strategies in the world you want. But if you don't have the right culture, you can’t embrace those strategies moving forward.

TR: From an enterprise architect perspective, I also see a lot of challenges in determining the method and timing of a cloud move. Companies are aware of the end-of-maintenance deadline and know they need to move, but are unsure of how to move, when the right time is, and how much business transformation to take on all at once.

Are you also seeing a lot of organisations with heavily customised platforms that they need to maybe pare back?

TR: Yes, that comes into that “how I am I going to move?” question a lot of the time.

And one of the key decisions to help answer that is working out what your target is. Will you move to S/4HANA Cloud, Public or Private Edition, as there are different paths to both.

For instance, if you go S/4HANA Public Cloud, your only option is a greenfield approach, a new implementation. This means you aren’t taking any of your old code with you. You essentially start with a clean core with the emphasis on setting up the strategies, governance, and practices to keep it clean.

And if you look at it from the other side, the Private Cloud edition, there’s four different transition paths to get there. You could, for instance, go with a system conversion, taking your existing system across, or a new implementation, or selective data transition. And then with selective data transition, there’s different versions of that, where you can take all your configuration across and be selective of your data (shell conversion) or you can take a mix-and-match approach and be selective of your configuration and your data.

There is a standard set of criteria and a framework for choosing a transition method that we can help customers navigate through, adjusting to meet their specific scenario. Customers weight the criteria according to their priorities and then we help with the evaluation of the methods against the

A bit about the Business Transformation Team and what it does at SAP ANZ.

ANTHEA ARNOL

SAP CHANGE CONSULTANT

“It’s important to focus on the people aspects of transformations, which is where Change Consultants like me come in. We focus on ensuring employees know what the new environment is going to look like, setting them up for success, upskilling them and training on any new processes or procedures and the new technology. Also ensuring that that they not only know how to do the new requirements, but that they’re willing to take them on. Essentially gaining buy-in for making the transition and supporting them through it, facilitating success well past the project implementation.”

MICHAEL GENRICH

PRINCIPAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION

CONSULTANT

“Our Business Transformation Consultants are tasked with ensuring original objectives and business value of large scale and complex transformations are actually achieved. It requires the practical definition of what the change looks like from an IT and business perspective and implementing it ‘fit for purpose’ for the size and dynamic of the business and no more. It’s a bit like saying ‘a new iPhone will make me more efficient and effective’, but what I actually use it for and how often I use it needs to managed so I don’t waste time configuring every feature. I also need to focus on how I will achieve future outcomes and not waste time trying to make it work like my last phone. Our team have to ensure that vision isn’t eroded by the larger pool of implementation resources and their own views of how things work and success requirements. Always prioritising value to enable true success.”

weighted criteria. The framework we use allows you to see the effects of different weightings if priorities change and provides the business with a clear methodology to re-evaluate their decision if required. And then if priorities change, the business has a clear methodology to re-evaluate.

And it’s not always about costs. There are so many variables involved. For instance, if you bring everything across, you know your database size is going to be bigger, so you will have higher infrastructure costs. But if you start with a greenfield, then transition costs will be less, but the business transformation costs will be higher.

Sometimes they balance themselves out but there’s so many pros and cons to consider with each option.

Anthea: And also, in respect of the customisation, there’s the engagement piece, especially if the business team already has a heavily customised system that already meets their needs yet will have to be pared back.

Everyone is familiar with it, when senior leaders decide, from a corporate perspective, to move to the cloud. This quite often means a disconnect between them and the system users – reluctant to change what they feel isn’t broken.

They often feel left out of decisions and so, therefore, when it comes to the implementation and the transformation, if they don’t understand why it’s being done and what they’re going to get out of it, it can be a very, very challenging journey for them. They may feel unsupported and therefore resistant to the change. And often the decision makers can’t understand this resistance or why they aren’t on board.

In the majority of cases, it’s not that they’re being difficult or challenging. It’s usually because they are questioning why it’s being done. If they were involved in the original customisation, it can also sometimes become part of an individuals’ identity within the business.

It’s therefore crucial to bring them on the journey. Making them feel part of that journey, to have a say in that journey. Otherwise, they just won’t adopt or adapt or worse, become disengaged in general. No matter how good it is for the business, it has to meet both the business needs and the needs of the people who will be using it. For me, the fact that organisations are perhaps overlooking the impact of people engagement on transformation success, is

Everything goes back to the ‘why?’ Why are you doing this? This has to be clear because it influences all of the decisions downstream.

going to be one of the biggest challenges.

TR: Absolutely! Also when a decision’s been made higher up without buy-in from the people on the ground, the implementations tend to take much longer.

It seems that there is a lot of complexity and a lot of decisions to make. What can companies do to get the decisions and pathways right?

Alex: Firstly, decisions made in the preparation phase are the most important ones. Getting them right starts with asking the right questions. For instance, rather than asking “greenfield, brownfield or bluefield?” Ask “what is really motivating the move?” Is it because it’s important to stay reasonably concurrent with the latest versions of SAP? Is it because there’s a date coming up where certain things will change with regards to maintenance, etc? Or is it because you want to embrace new technology, you want to innovate, and you want to be agile in the future?

The answer, to a certain extent, is what determines the pathway.

TR: Absolutely. That clear understanding of the business drivers is going to influence the decision on whether to go public or private edition, whether to lean towards systems conversion, or a new implementation. Everything goes back to the ‘why?‘ Why are you doing this? This has to be clear because it influences all of the decisions downstream.

Also the ‘why’ needs to be consistent across all levels of the business because the ‘why‘ of the decision makers might be different to the ‘why‘ of the teams on the ground.

Anthea: That’s a good point, the right business case is so important because sometimes we see that it might be purely based on financial or risk at an executive level. If it is solely based on this, it can be really hard for those on the ground, that may be resistant to a move, on why it will be good for them.

Using a business case to share all of the positives, not just financial, can help facilitate understanding and what’s in it for everyone. That‘s the part that really is very challenging.

TR: I think that’s why the ‘why‘ that Alex spoke about earlier is one of the most important things.

For instance: Why are you trying to move to clean core? What is it going to give you? If the reasoning is around adaptability, agility and innovation and everyone understands those drivers, they‘ll be more receptive to it. Then when principles, governance and strategy are set up as to how to keep it clean, everyone will understand the benefits and that will help drive the right behaviours.

On the topic of the clean core, how does that fit into customisation needs and decisions?

Alex: There seems to be a common misconception, as everybody talking at public events is bringing to the table, “How do you expect me to redo all of this customisation in the cloud?”. The answer is, we don’t. That is not what the clean core concept is all about.

The customisations do create challenges in getting to both the public and private cloud. However, to realise some of the benefits and to avoid the cost of not keeping pace with your competitors, you do need to clean up those customisations, but not as a onetime event and not by just redoing what you’ve got on a different platform. Adopt standard rather than adapt the system and look at doing extensions, your integration, your data management etc. in a cloudcompliant way.

In the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) world, agility and being proactive rather than reactive, so that your organisation can shift and respond to volatility, is key. It requires a new way of looking at and doing things.

So, the question becomes, how you might replicate some of those customisations in the cloud as a competitive advantage, but also, importantly, how do you retire stuff from an extensibility perspective? Those customisations you did 20 years ago that you don’t use any more, do you really need them?

The subject can feel complex, with many moving parts but they can be broken down into five or six pillars. I think Tara could break these down a bit?

TR: Yes. So overall, the clean core concept is to have a system that is as standard as possible, whilst

It’s a whole new way of looking at technology as opposed to perhaps a oneoff update or transition. Using a business case to share all of the positives, not just financial, can help facilitate understanding and what’s in it for everyone.

running cloud compliant extensions and integrations. It allows you to adapt your system to changing business requirements and to adopt new capabilities.

The five pillars being:

Extensibility

Keep the extensions clean.

Data

Keep the data lean.

Integrations

Keep the landscape reliable.

Processes

Keep the processes reliable.

Operations

Keep the operations effective and efficient.

We could talk about the clean core forever, I think, there’s so much to discuss. But for our final point I’d like to hand over to Alex to close ...

Alex: There are many reasons why digital transformation and a move to the cloud is beneficial, and I would say, a necessity, for organisations. Whilst there are still challenges to be overcome, especially regarding the change of approach and mindset, the transformation tools that are available now, like LeanIX, Signavio and CALM make the process more straightforward, and for those that are ready to embrace a new way of thinking will reap the value and rewards.

The cloud will provide the agility and proactivity necessary for a business to not just survive, but also to innovate and thrive in this VUCA world.

Value Management & How To Gain Buy In

WHY REPLACING YOUR CAR WITH UBER IS THE PERFECT ANALOGY FOR THE MOVE TO THE CLOUD

Danielle Chung & Michael Genrich

Talk to me about value management, what things should be considered in this respect?

MG: As a business it really isn’t enough to have a retrospective review, calculate some dollars and say “hey, by the way, 12 months after we went live, we saved some money.” It really isn’t.

Let’s look at business reasons for moving. An organisation looking to move because of technical obsolescence wants to remove risk. What‘s important to them is supported systems and that’s what they should stay focused on as they build.

For instance, you’ve had a car for years. It’s getting too costly and hard to service but you love the car, it works for you, you just need another one like it. You don’t want a complicated purchase process. You don’t want 100 different options for different features or functions, you just need the same thing again. So that’s the value. Focusing on trying to stay true to the technical obsolescence, just replacing it.

Similarly, if your reason for moving is because you want to save costs, then you stay focused on reducing them. In the instance of the car, instead of replacing it, you might decide you’re moving to Uber, an entirely different option.

Its a bit like moving to the cloud, you don’t own that

car anymore, so it’s cheaper, but you still get a car when you need one. There’s no point, therefore, in discussing where the car is serviced, what kind of fuel it takes, or any other features or options, because it’s an Uber and you aren’t involved in those choices/ discussions any more.

So, value is about understanding what it means to different people and staying focused on that. It’s about practically describing what the change actually looks like on Day 1 and how to measure the change from Day 1.

In the Uber example, Day 1 looks like a person using an Uber to get to work or sport, and the Day 1 metric is “Uber trips per week”. If I focus on this then the (lag) value of lower transport costs per year will follow.

Staying with the car, you still need to travel but it’s important to develop understanding about why/how you’re travelling. There’ll be some things that are nonnegotiable – for example, if you have an expensive bike, you need to have a car with enough room to transport it. You don’t care how it’s transported, as long as you can transport the bike to your destination safely. If it can, then you’ve achieved what you need and that’s the value management piece. Can you get your required outcome, and in a satisfactory way? If yes, don’t worry about anything else.

OK, so I’ve got my business case and my perceived value and I’m going to need some people to be part of implementing the change. Can you talk to me a little bit about the governance around this?

MG: The biggest challenge will be finding people who have the knowledge and understanding of your business, yet who are able to recognise that they are now operating under a completely different business paradigm. Going back to our Uber analogy – I no longer own the car. This is why governance is important.

To explain further. If I’m a businessperson and I’m really good at my job, I know the complexity of the way I travel, know my car really well, know how to service it and the sort of things that go wrong. So when I’m involved in the project and look at what I need, my point of reference is all of those years of detailed experience on how I used to run a car, yet most of it is not useful anymore.

Therefore, the first thing we need to do regarding governance, is to immerse that businessperson in

It’s a bit like moving to the cloud, you don’t own the car any more so it’s cheaper, but you still get a car when you need one.

the outcome – i.e. they’ll still have access to a car which will enable them to do all the things they want to do; yet also immerse them in the fact that it’s delivered in a different way. Otherwise, they will be making decisions based on the assumption that they still own the car. They may start spending time on the sort of car available, where it will be serviced, what fuel it will take and how long it might last – all totally irrelevant for the Uber example. They actually don’t need to care about these things because every time they need a car, one just appears. Therefore, governance for this is really understanding the outcome that’s needed alongside the dynamics of that outcome, then focusing on that through day-today decisions.

If we continue with our Uber example … the businessperson is also a cyclist who needs to transport their bike to the velodrome throughout the week, usually before 5am. The outcome is they need a car, the value derived from that is that it will also transport their bike safely, at the right time, and they feel safe with that. The people involved in the implementation need to work within those outcomes and value management structures and focus less on how the outcomes are achieved.

Bringing it back to the cloud. Before the move there’s a nice big complex piece of software. Afterwards it will still do ‘procure to pay’, for example, as it always did. How it executes it or who supports it, is no longer anyone’s concern. As long as the outcomes in ‘procure to pay’ are still achieved; if the same items are available, at the same volume, with a certain approval mechanism, all achieved at an acceptable rate, then there‘s no need to worry about the rest.

The way a project is run, with a project manager and structures around it, aren’t fundamentally changing.

trying to move away from is waiting three months, looking at the balance sheet and P&L and saying, “hey, great job”. Because if the business hasn’t been using for three months, it will be difficult to recover from that.

That’s the first reason of why we do it, to ensure we can see what’s occurring. I appreciate the challenge. All change is a different way of thinking that’s difficult. It takes some time to be proficient in, regardless of if it‘s good, bad, or indifferent.

So how do we measure? How can we understand where we need to focus our energies to help improve the performance we‘ve got? There are a few things we can look at. Firstly, because we know the significance of the differences between on-prem and cloud, we know the usual sorts of challenges in those adoptions, so we‘re looking for the things where that adoption leakage occurs.

The key here is having a practical definition of key future business outcomes and volumes and holding true to it with governance – if it is not a defined key outcome or business volume predicted then you can’t have it. In my Uber example, my businessperson wants a performance car (because they never want to be late), maybe specifies the car must be dark blue (because it’s a nice colour). It’s unlikely these form part of the value outcome for the vehicle and the governance “answer” is – no, you can’t have them.

The value-based governance becomes the carrot. The carrot that says “are we getting this outcome with the right sort of dynamics? It’s that discipline or focus that’s necessary. The way a project is run, with a project manager and structures around it, aren’t fundamentally changing; it’s the discipline and focus on the outcome. If something new is wanted, if something needs testing, if there’s a new idea – all of these are tested against the desired outcome. If the outcome is still achieved then great; if not, then let it go.

That all makes sense. So, say we completed our governance and implemented the change, how do we measure the end-user’s uptake and buy-in from day one, so that we can also get support for any challenges going forward?

MG: That’s a good point of focus because from our perspective, we’ve started with these very large, grand ideas with an executive. We need to be able to measure uptake on the ground correctly. What we‘re

The other example we‘re looking for is the core things people need to do that will indicate an uptake in that new way of working; in using cloud-based solutions to run the business.

Using my Uber example from earlier …

You’ve got your bike, you’re going to the velodrome, you get up late. Previously, you would rush around the house, grab your bike, throw your bike on the car, and go. But now you can‘t do that because you‘ve got to call an Uber at 5am and the Uber needs a little bit of time … we look at this and assess what behaviour we want to change or encourage.

We want you thinking about it 10 minutes earlier, so when you wake up you order the car. Because if you order it over 10 minutes before you‘re supposed to be at an appointment, the rest of it will hold true. So therein we’ve looked at and understood the behaviour that will help drive that benefit or uptake and can measure that.

And then, if we go live on Monday and by Tuesday or Wednesday, we can see you not turning up to the velodrome, we realise we have a potential uptake issue. And we investigate and try and overcome, rather than waiting until month-end to realise you just can‘t make the Uber thing work when it‘s too late. We're looking for those indicators that help us understand the businesses uptake for that new solution.

When we focus on what the behaviour is that will

drive the overall outcome, we are looking for the benefit. Oftentimes this creates positivity. Being able to explain to the people, ”hey, if you do this, we‘re in a better place”.

In our real world, going from on-prem to cloud, you used to have all this control and all the features/ functions and could change them whichever way you wished, doing whatever you want. We’re now asking you to let that go. Therefore, we focus on communicating the positives rather than the negatives so that you gain a sense of control in that situation.

In our Uber example it looks like …

“Look, when you get up in the morning, the first thing you do is just ping the Uber. If you can do that, then you know what? You‘re going to be able to check your socials on the way to the velodrome. Somebody else will drive. You haven‘t got to worry about that. You haven‘t even got to worry about traffic.”

This supports selling and encouraging a change which might otherwise be uncomfortable. Helping them understand that they benefit, and also to realise their true worth. What they’re really trying to hold onto is the ability to deliver an outcome to the business. That’s what makes them or business groups important. We’re not detracting from that. We’re making that stronger, as the right outcome is now more likely.

We want people to understand the perspective that technology can empower them to a better outcome, rather than fearing that technology can dictate or change the outcome without permission or control. We see this fear expressed particularly around AI, but also around our less exciting example of on-prem solutions moving to the cloud.

People are afraid that it will de-empower them and take away their importance or the ability to drive a business outcome. Yet it’s actually a tool that helps empower them to do more.

The architecture not often discussed

Jorg Thuijls, SAP Cloud Architect, Shebang Software, explores all things architecture, and how it is changing and evolving. He outlines the costs of unsound architecture, the steps to take to mitigate this, and urges us all to take architecture seriously.

As SAP professionals, we play a crucial role in aligning technology with business objectives. We provide a comprehensive overview of the organisation's systems and processes, ensuring everything works together smoothly. Our focus is on promoting consistency and standardisation while enabling scalability and flexibility for future growth. We establish measures for governance and compliance, ensuring that the organisation operates within regulatory frameworks. Additionally, we continuously seek opportunities for improvement and prioritise user satisfaction in all our endeavours. Ultimately, our goal is to leverage technology effectively to deliver value to stakeholders in a structured and systematic manner. A lot of this is done through systematic designs, often referred to as architecture.

Exploring SAP architecture

There are many types of architectures. Here is a general outline, which is in no way meant to be exhaustive but hopefully captures the general concepts.

Business Architecture – also known as Enterprise Architecture – involves defining the overall structure of SAP systems and their integration with other enterprise systems and processes. It considers factors such as business strategy, organisational structure, governance, technology standards, and security to align the SAP system with the organisation’s long-term vision and deliver value to stakeholders.

Data Architecture – architecture for the various functional domains such as SD, MM, HR, etc – defines how SAP modules and applications are configured and integrated to

Jorg Thuijls

support the unique requirements of each functional area. It ensures consistency, efficiency and alignment with overall enterprise architecture principles.

Technical Architecture focuses on how SAP systems are integrated with each other and with external systems such as legacy applications, third-party software, cloud services, and partner systems. Integration architecture focuses on interfaces, protocols, messaging formats, middleware etc, whereas systems architecture puts all systems in their functional place.

Application Architecture is the discipline of creating highlevel designs and structures of software systems. It encompasses decisions and principles regarding how software components and modules are organised, interact and function within an overall system or ecosystem. Software architecture involves defining key components and abstractions in software design, and often database or scheme design, and this includes considerations such as scalability, maintainability, performance, security and integration with other systems.

Cool, so what’s your point?

The further down that list of architectures we go, the more technical the architecture gets. This is no surprise, since all the different types of architecture as described above sort of follow each other: First, a company needs to be placed in its industry and its requirements evaluated, before we can work out how the processes of sales, HR, procurement, etc work together. After that, we work out how to capture that in terms of IT products and system landscape. Last, we figure out what gaps we still have and produce custom

I've seen systems on their RISE journey for years, or systems that started and restarted S/4HANA upgrades several times and failed."

designed solutions for this that fit well into the whole.

The thing is though, the more technical it gets, the less it seems generally understood and the less its impact on the overall cost and health of a system is considered by decision makers. We are pretty good at enterprise architecture, domain architecture, overall solution design. We create big diagrams and documents describing processes, data flows and systems, but it’s harder to find someone who presents you with a well thoughtout UML class diagram, service mesh, unit testing strategy or program flow before getting to work. At some point in the general lifecycle of a project or system, the only evaluation placed on custom software is implementation time and upfront cost.

SAP software architecture and development is rapidly changing

In NetWeaver, where everything is still ABAP, SE80 and monolithic runtime platforms, code bases were already fragmented. Often a mix of not-invented-here syndrome, hacks and various implementation partners reinventing the wheel, driven by customers who just really need their own forms solution, SAP systems became unwieldy, and upgrades became extremely complex and expensive. Many SAP systems have a long history behind them, sometimes even decades. In terms of software, “decades” is a very long time to accrue technical debt. I’ve seen systems on their RISE journey for years, or systems that started and restarted S/4HANA upgrades several times and failed.

On the other hand, SAP has been trying to figure out ways for us to leave the monolith alone and make it externally extendable

for a long time. See Enterprise Portal for instance, with somewhat mixed success. Then along came SAPUI5 as the proverbial pale horse. WebIDE on NEO shielded many from the realities of largescale JavaScript SPAs and their runtime environments, but now that we have BTP with Kyma and Cloud Foundry, us SAP folk must get adjusted to the pace of change and the style of development more commonly found in modern web land. All this to help you keep your core systems tidy.

The cost of unsound software architecture

This leads me to the point I’m trying to make. As an industry, we often ignore the actual quality of the codebase we’re building up in an SAP system. This technical debt can have serious cost implications for organisations, from increased BAU cost all the way to missed opportunities for innovation and growth. Investing in sound software architecture and design principles upfront can help mitigate these costs and ensure the long-term success and sustainability of software projects.

• Unsound software design leads to higher maintenance costs due to frequent fixes and updates.

• It reduces developer productivity by making codebases harder to understand and work with.

• Development costs rise as rework and refactoring efforts become necessary.

• Technical debt accumulates, demanding future investment to address design deficiencies.

• Poor design results in a negative user experience, impacting satisfaction and support costs.

• Security vulnerabilities increase, posing risks of breaches and data loss.

• Opportunity costs arise as resources are diverted from innovation to address design issues.

That’s dreadful! What can we do?

Many organisations are faced with the 2027 deadline to get onto S/4HANA. You can kick the can down the road by just trying to port your legacy ABAP, or you can take it as an opportunity to try and clean house. It is not on me to make that decision. If you do decide to clean up your systems, please set yourself and

your codebase up for longterm success. Here are some things to consider when it’s time to work out what to do with your customisations.

01 Training

Perhaps a no-brainer, but train your people and train yourself. The skill gap between the old and the new is much bigger than you think.

As an industry, we often ignore the actual quality of codebase we’re building up.”

02 Business Technology Platform

Use the Business Technology Platform. Its main purpose is to help you keep your system upgradeable and tidy. Keep the core clean, as they call it. Sign up for free tier and pick some low-hanging fruit, preferably a Z-riddled application that does not touch on a lot of standard SAP and move it to BTP instead.

03 Set up

Set up your environment for software success. Spending is not sexy, but you’ll save yourself a lot of heartache if you invest in a proper development pipeline. I’m saying working with GIT and other version management tools. Continuous integration/continuous delivery options. Automated unit tests, for both front-end and back-end. Code reviews. This should include ABAP! At least implement and run the extended code check.

04 Integration

Consider integrating micro products or micro subscriptions as part of your strategy. Not all software in your landscape needs to be either custom or produced by billion-dollar companies. SAP’s current direction seems to be to embrace the Build Partner delivery model; perhaps any of your implementation partners or the SAP Store have alternative options to fill a hole.

05 Stand out

My last point, and I say this as a guy who produces systems and code for a living: ideally, investments in custom software should focus on parts of your business that make you stand out in your industry and make you more competitive than the next person. Don’t jump to custom solutions simply because you can. You end up paying far more and for far longer than the quote in the statement of work you signed off on. For most processes, 80 per cent feature complete is often just good enough.

Take all architecture seriously

Taking all this into account, it is crucial that we take all architecture seriously.

We can start by scrutinising if a customisation is necessary or not, and then we can figure out what we have that can be abstracted or reused.

We should also take the time to properly set up a mature, automated development pipeline and go through the hassle of writing unit tests and integration tests. So much headache in custom software can be mitigated by putting in this upfront effort.

We need to be producing less but better code overall, and we need to spend more time on the code we do write.

By getting better at the actual design and production of software, we can avoid the issues associated with unsound architecture. This will reduce technical debt and the associated costs, ultimately ensuring the long-term success and sustainability of software projects.

We need to be producing less but better code overall, and we need to spend more time on the code we do write.”

Companies with excessive authorisations face overinflated licensing costs in RISE with SAP.

Turnkey’s Licensing Review examines your company’s actual SAP usage to produce a licensing requirements target based on the principle of least privilege and identify opportunities for role remediation or redesign.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THOSE GOOD OLD SAP BEST PRACTICES?

Former Gartner SAP Analyst Dr Derek

Prior shares a recent conversation with two English SAP consultants currently experiencing SAP implementation and support issues. He discusses how these issues are the same as those his global clients were having years ago and reveals three of his classic “SAP Best Practices” to help overcome them.

One of life’s pleasures is to meet up with old friends not seen for ages. But that’s just as true when meeting up with former work colleagues, to catch up on the news and latest gossip, plus to pull a few legs!

So, there I was a few weeks ago in The White Horse, one of our favourite old English pubs, doing exactly that with two expert SAP consultants who I have known for at least 20 years. We ended up in an unbelievable conversation that I have to share with you …

As a former analyst in the Gartner ERP team, I was so lucky. I got to speak to hundreds and hundreds of Gartner clients all around the world. All the ones I spoke to had major investments in SAP and many of them were having very real (and expensive) problems that I tried my

best to advise on, to see if Gartner could help them alleviate.

It was incredible. It was not unusual to have separate client telephone inquiries with two clients from exactly the same industry on the same day. Why was it that company A in the batch chemicals industry was struggling to complete their SAP ECC upgrade on time and on budget –whereas company B, also in batch chemicals, had just completed exactly the same ECC upgrade on time, on budget, with zero business downtime?

As an analyst I used to ask myself this sort of question all the time. Digging into the differences in approach between companies A and B, I was able to write case studies and identify a number of clear ‘SAP Best Practices’. My best practices dealt with SAP implementation and support

issues, for all industries. But, if you speak to the SAP vendor directly, their interpretation is very different. To SAP, their best practices are all about how you configure their business application products to match industry requirements.

So, back to our conversations in The White Horse. You see, I am almost retired now, but those two SAP consultants were still working on impressive SAP projects around the world. Both of them described a number of classic implementation and support issues on their projects. “But these are not new, they’re the same old problems!” I shouted. “Exactly Derek, can you just send them some of your old Gartner research notes please,” they responded.

If I could have done, I would have sent them the notes describing my very own three classic SAP Best Practices. Read on ...

As a former analyst in the Gartner ERP team, I was so lucky. I got to speak to hundreds and hundreds of Gartner clients all around the world.”

Words and pictured: Dr Derek Prior

BEST PRACTICES

DIG OUT YOUR SAP ERP STRATEGY

Let me ask you a really simple question: Would a house builder start to build your dream house without a fully detailed design document? Of course not. So why do companies spend

So, what exactly is an ERP Strategy? It is, quite simply, your ERP goalposts. It is a document that defines the business objectives of your (huge) ERP investment. The ERP Strategy is driven totally by your business strategy. It identifies exactly which business processes are covered by the ERP footprint, e.g. order-2-cash, procure-2-pay, manufacturing planning, finance, etc. It then identifies the business value expected from ERP, including

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of each business process. The ERP strategy includes vanilla/customisation principles, business governance and ownership strategy, as well as instance strategy and basic sourcing strategy. If you don’t have one, write one!

If you have a proper ERP Strategy in place, when someone asks: “Can you just add this feature to the ERP system?”, you can challenge them. “Well, we could, it would take four months and use a large part of our annual budget – but it doesn’t line up with our ERP Strategy.” Now you can see where I'm coming from. But crucially, your ERP Strategy has to be written by and owned by your business execs.

They spend countless millions implementing a version of SAP ERP, with SAP S/4HANA being the latest incarnation, and hopefully their ERP project goes live smoothly, on time and on budget. If they are smart and business-driven they will hopefully be on value, too.

SHOW ME YOUR SAP ERP LIFE-CYCLE PLAN

Most SAP customers choose to become SAP customers because of the robustness of SAP ERP.

But everyone keeps their ERP system for 20 or 30+ years. They keep upgrading it, enhancing it, tweaking it, rolling it out, etc. So, ERP is not a project – it’s an ERP lifecycle! It has the characteristics of a business asset, not a project. This means that you need an ERP lifecycle plan, whether you are using SAP or any other ERP vendor.

A realistic ERP lifecycle plan is another key document to maintain. It correctly anticipates all ongoing support costs – especially upgrades! If every SAP ECC

customer out there today had a proper ERP lifecycle plan, they wouldn’t be struggling to compile a business case for their S/4 upgrade project! It would already have been anticipated in that plan. So, an ERP lifecycle plan means one thing: no surprises.

3

DON’T HAVE AN SAP CoE? GET ONE

As a Gartner analyst I observed one thing that all the most successful SAP customers had in common, which is my third SAP Best Practice. They all had a highly effective SAP Centre of Excellence (or Centre of Expertise, or Customer Competence Centre).

An SAP CoE is a team of both business and IT experts within your organisation that is set up after the first big ERP implementation go-live. Its job is to handle all supportrelated issues for SAP end users and

the underlying SAP systems. Sure, external service providers may complement this, but your SAP CoE owns the problems and knows best how the SAP apps were originally configured to enable your business processes. With that key integration knowledge, the SAP CoE is always involved in SAP changes and enhancement projects.

An effective SAP CoE offers huge benefits. These include lower ongoing support costs, by minimising external consulting costs. The SAP CoE also offers greater agility to business change requests and superior exploitation of the standard SAP software in line with the ERP Strategy.

So, there you have it – my three classic SAP Best Practices, still as relevant today as they were all that time ago.

I’ll leave you with my final question … Is there a White Horse pub near you with these same animated discussions taking place right now?

Would a house builder start to build your dream house without a fully detailed design document?”

Harnessing generative AI for swift application development and analytics Fast-track development:

Murali Shanmugham, Global Business AI Strategy Advisor at SAP, explores the numerous ways in which Generative AI can be harnessed for development and analytics purposes, alongside some of its limitations and how developers can overcome them. Additionally, he gives us insight into some of the newer services and tools being introduced by SAP to leverage the power of Generative AI within the application development lifecycle.

Murali Shanmugham

In 2023 Generative AI (GenAI) took the world by storm. In just five days ChatGPT, a popular application to access Generative AI, reached one million users, obtaining vast reach in a very short timeframe.

The reason behind its popularity is its ability to create new content. Traditional AI models, which are well-known to many development practitioners, aim to identify patterns or execute specific tasks using rulebased systems or machine learning algorithms. What makes GenAI different is its ability to generate novel outputs.

Powered by Large Language Models (LLMs), learning from vast amounts of data and grabbing complex patterns enables generation of entirely new, realistic and meaningful content. The output comparable to human-like text, images, music and much more.

This ability to create something novel is an immense leap forward in the world of AI and is set to reshape the way many businesses approach innovation and creativity. As a result, we’ve recently seen it open the door to various practical applications. For example, we are starting to see it:

• used within drug discovery in healthcare-simulating molecular structures and generating synthetic medical images for training diagnostic tools; and,

• used within design and manufacturing, to create prototypes and optimise designs.

The most exciting part is that the output of AI is easily accessible to everyone. Today, you can access GenAI concepts using various apps to instantly create music, art, marketing content and a host of other things. You no longer need to be a data scientist or write complex algorithms to see AI in action.

This ability to create something novel is an immense leap forward in the world of AI and it’s set to reshape the way many businesses approach innovation and creativity.”

At SAP, we have recently launched ‘Generative AI Hub’ as part of SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) to enable customers to access various LLMs and integrate them with their own business processes.

These tools offer benefits to business users, helping them become more creative, automate manual tasks, and improve efficiency. However, benefits are not only limited to business users, but also to developers. This article explores these benefits and how GenAI is revolutionising the world of app development, alongside the precautions that developers must take while embracing it.

01

Simplifying application development

Application development is often a complex process which involves writing several lines of code, developing user interfaces, and debugging errors. GenAI assists developers by providing templates and automating repetitive tasks. In fact, there are tools that can generate entire code segments based on the described scenario, and also suggest improvements based on patterns. This enables developers to focus on business

logic and accelerate their app development timeline. GenAI can also assist with automated documentation for developers by generating comments and explanation of the code, making it easier for them to understand and maintain that code.

‘SAP Build Code’, a new service on SAP BTP, leverages GenAI to achieve this. It enables developers to describe their requirements and automatically generates the underlying table structure, service layer to expose the table as OData APIs, and uses Fiori Annotations to compose the UI layer.

It’s now possible for developers to have a full-stack application generated for them to review and enhance within a few minutes –previously a four-to-five-hour task.

02

Creating UX mockups

GenAI facilitates rapid prototype development by generating various interactive UX mockups based on the parameters that are provided. This enables designers to quicky test the user concepts, obtain feedback, and accelerate the iterative design process.

There are tools that can generate entire code segments based on the described scenario and also suggest improvements based on patterns.”

There are many AI-powered wireframe generators such as Figma’s WireGen that uses ChatGPT to create wireframe mockups for both desktop and mobile platforms. These tools have significantly helped designers accelerate the creation of mockups, offering exceptional user experience with ease.

03

Generating unit test scripts

Unit test scripts play a crucial role in the software development

lifecycle. They ensure individual components operate correctly. GenAI can analyse the code and generate test scripts which cover various scenarios. GenAI can also help in identifying potential bugs and proposing fixes for them. Based on the data structure, it can also generate sample data to test the application. Automating the generation of unit test scripts is helpful for the developer as they can obtain a comprehensive set of test scripts instead of having to manually create them.

‘SAP Build Code’ offers capabilities for developers to generate unit test scripts for the code which

has been generated based on the requirements provided by the developers.

04

Building automation projects

GenAI extends its capabilities beyond app development and offers the ability to generate automation projects that can be used to streamline repetitive tasks. ‘SAP Build Process Automation’ is a no-code tool on SAP BTP that helps customers build their automation projects. SAP Build Process Automation will be enhanced with GenAI capabilities to make the no-code experience even simpler. Automation developers will be able to create process components such as workflows and business rules by simply describing their requirements. Developers can then leverage the in-context recommendations to ease development and integrated access to SAP Business Accelerator Hub.

05

Developing integration artefacts

Integration of processes is the backbone of digital transformations. Integrated enterprises are intelligent enterprises. Yet development of integration is often a complex process, especially when dealing with different types of systems and protocols. GenAI can play a significant role by generating integration artefacts and providing proposals for developers to use to accelerate their integration journey. The design time tooling

of SAP Cloud Integration is being enhanced to offer developers the ability to leverage these GenAI capabilities to generate integration artefacts, as well as API development.

06

Querying using natural language to visualise your data

How good would it be to simply type in your query using natural language to receive an instant report with visualisation? GenAI is being used a lot in the field of analytics to enable this, helping organisations to unlock the full potential of their data and derive greater value from analytics and planning. The ‘Just Ask’ feature of SAP Analytics cloud currently applies GenAI to enable searchdriven analytics. SAP Analytics Cloud will also have a story design assistant that can design and generate stories on the fly, based on the prompts provided by the user.

Precautions

While GenAI offers numerous benefits, developers need to be conscious of, and cautious with, its limitations to ensure responsible and effective use. Below are a few to consider.

• Over-dependence: Developers should use GenAI as a tool to enhance their work, rather than replacing human expertise completely. Developers need to maintain their control on the artefacts that are generated and understand and verify the code to ensure they meet the business requirements.

• Security risks: Code generated by GenAI could possibly introduce vulnerabilities. Hence, it's essential that developers review the generated artefacts and test the output to ensure they meet security standards.

• Ethical concerns: GenAI models are trained on large datasets. If the datasets contain biases, the model may produce a biased output. Therefore it’s important for developers to review the generated artefacts and correct any piece of code that could lead to any biases.

Conclusion

GenAI is a game-changer for developers, offering various innovative solutions that can improve their efficiency throughout the development process. SAP has a strong commitment to embed GenAI capabilities across SAP Business Technology Platform to enable the developer ecosystem to leverage the benefits in a responsible manner. Developers must approach the use of GenAI with caution, acknowledging the potential risks and limitations. It’s important to maintain a balance between automation and human oversight while harnessing the potential of GenAI in software development. As technology continues to evolve, developers must stay vigilant, adapting best practices to ensure the responsible and effective use of GenAI in the ever-changing landscape of software development.

Here we are, moving into the last quarter of 2024, and the only thing that is consistent about the SAP recruitment market of ANZ seems to be the inconsistency.

In some areas there are fewer jobs, yet in others there is a shortage of talent. Costcutting amid recession fears means we see some organisations making redundancies and putting projects on hold, whilst factors like the 2027 deadline mean others are looking to hire for multi-million-dollar transformation projects. This is influencing unpredictability regarding rates and salaries, with some on an upward trend and others going down.

The ‘quiet quitting‘ of 2023 is already relegated to history, making way for the ‘great regret‘ or ‘great return‘ and talk of ‘boomerang employees‘.

SHANE MORGAN Founder, Sapture

SAP RECRUITMENT TRENDS

Brought to you by

AI continues to be both a source of job security anxiety and the hot topic on everyone’s lips, yet the word on the ground (and from some of the results so far in our S/4HANA survey) is that, at this moment in time, it’s a nice-tohave. Usability, speed, and reporting capabilities rank much higher in the S/4HANA wish-lists of those in the ANZ SAP ecosystem.

With all the volatility, change and uncertainty it seems to me what the world is crying out for is simplicity. So, here’s my attempt at simplifying where we are at right now ...

If you‘re a candidate, either permanent or freelance, looking for work, brush up on your soft skills, ensure you are elevating your personal brand, networking, and making connections that are mutually beneficial. Assess how versatile you are and how much value for money you can give to an organisation. This is not always around dropping your expectations on

salary or rates, but demonstrating the practical ways that your experience and talent will save costs in the long run.

If you‘re an organisation looking to hire either permanent or even for a shorterterm contract, consider employee experience. From our research, people are looking for fairness, flexibility, strong ethics, empowerment, consistency, and authenticity from an employer. Sounds so simple, yet so often these basics seem difficult to get right.

As we get ready to analyse the results from our S/4HANA survey and launch our salary and trends research towards the end of the year, I’m looking forward to seeing what they reveal. In all this uncertainty I‘m certain that there will be some interesting and unexpected findings!

Permanent v contract

Both permanent and contract have remained largely stable throughout 2024, although we have noticed a decrease in the number of SAP contract jobs available in the last quarter of FY24 than for the same period last year. Using Staffing Industry Metrics to analyse our experience against other industries/markets, we see that this is reflective of the technology industry in general, not just SAP.

Although permanent recruitment remains stable, sign-off on permanent positions is taking much longer, and this has a knock-on effect on job availability. Regarding freelance roles, we are noticing there seems to be a push to hire contractors for shorter periods rather than longer ones. Often companies are using short-term resources to upskill existing permanent staff.

The increasing global uncertainty of the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) economy continues to influence business strategies. Projects and budget sign-offs face delays as a result of the instability and uncertainty, as well as due to continued hesitancy around migration to S/4HANA. The speed and scale of technological change also has a part to play in the delays, with most businesses racing to finalise AI strategy before migration, resource or project decisions are made.

In some cases, this is slowing the recruitment process, with organisations at risk of missing out on talent to competitors through counter-offers in the latter stages, if decisions are delayed.

Project hesitancy is also contributing to the lower SAP job availability overall. Availability which is indicative of the wider Australian jobs market, which continues on a downward trend. However, we are still seeing high demand for senior SAP talent with high levels of communication and people skills, coupled with technical and strategic acumen, of which there are continued market shortages.

It is these types of people who continue to command the highest salaries and rates.

Permanent annual salaries

In our last update we discussed how annual salaries were levelling off despite the slow-down of permanent recruitment. And nearly a year on, permanent salaries continue to remain stable.

However, businesses are looking for more value from their permanent hires. They want more bang for their buck, an expectation for a well-rounded person who can make up for leaner teams and take on increased responsibility.

Contract rates

Although contract demand is outstripping permanent – as discussed earlier – there is a mixed story regarding contract rates. For those in most demand with the additional soft skills and business experience, contract rates are remaining stable or, for exceptional candidates, increasing. Yet rates for certain SAP technical skillsets are decreasing from post-pandemic highs. This could be influenced by uncertainty and also by other factors. For instance, the adoption of cloud-based architecture enables involvement of

"

Businesses are looking for more value from their permanent hires. They want more bang for their bucks, an expectation for a wellrounded person, who can make up for leaner teams and take on increased responsibility."

"

Organisations that involve employees in any change process as soon as possible have a better chance of keeping engagement and retaining their people."

any developer, not just those with SAP experience.

Many contractors continue to remain flexible on rates if they can gain flexibility or project and technology exposure. And we are starting to see an increase of contractor availability, which has the potential to influence rate reduction over the coming months.

Engagement and attraction trends

The technological change that is taking place across the globe is reflected in the ANZ SAP ecosystem especially around AI, automation, and the continued migration to the cloud. The concept that ‘every business is a digital business’ is becoming reality and with 2027 looming, traditional business models are being replaced. The sheer speed and scale of change is unprecedented.

Change takes time to bed into a culture, usually meeting with some resistance, at least initially, as

people adapt to a new way of working. Anxiety about AI and automation adds to this change resistance, with a plethora of research showing people are worried about the impact on jobs. Meanwhile, S/4HANA migration requires a whole business model shift, which many will be uncomfortable with.

Organisations that involve employees in any change process as soon as possible have a better chance of keeping engagement and retaining their people. A recent report by Deloitte cites research showing employees are 230 per cent more engaged and 85 per cent more likely to stay beyond three years if they feel supported by the technology they use.

This is mirrored year after year in our own salary and trends reports, where technology is high on the list of both attraction and retention factors. Especially in the freelance market, whereby contractors are often willing to compromise on

rates for leading-edge technology exposure.

It is now clear that employee experience and technology use are intrinsically linked. Therefore, investing in the right platforms and tools is crucial to attract, retain and engage the right people over your competitors.

Although flexibility has topped the agenda in our surveys for a while now, since our last update there has been an increase in returnto-office mandates. However, employees remain reluctant to give up their hybrid working models, and organisations who recognise this have better engagement and are better able to attract the right people.

In fact, an emerging trend in HR – Shadow Policies – whereby managers are agreeing to unofficial remote working patterns for their workers to keep them engaged, provides further evidence of this.

It is now clear that employee experience and technology use are intrinsically linked. Therefore, investing in the right platforms and tools is crucial to attract, retain and engage the right people, over competitors."

Nishant Jain

HOW SAP ARIBA’S SUPPLIER RISK MODULE IS TRANSFORMING SUPPLY CHAINS

Nishant Jain, Global Solution Architect, explains how SAP Ariba’s Supplier Risk Module is driving sustainability in the supply chain. He also gives examples of brands that are using it successfully to underpin their sustainability aims.

In the urgent pursuit of sustainability, businesses in Australia are increasingly seeking innovative solutions to manage supplier risks responsibly. They need to identify, monitor, and mitigate sustainability risks, not only locally but also internationally.

SAP Ariba’s Supplier Risk Module stands as a beacon of change in this quest. It empowers companies to monitor in real time, have transparency and collaboration with suppliers, and use predictive analytics for sustainability, which has been a long-term demand from any industry.

In this article I would like to explore how SAP Ariba’s Supplier Risk Module is transforming supply chains, providing real examples of its impact on industry leaders:

REAL-TIME MONITORING FOR SUSTAINABILITY

SAP Ariba’s Supplier Risk Module provides companies with a realtime view of their supplier risk profiles, allowing them to spot sustainability challenges as they arise. This proactive approach enables companies to address sustainability issues promptly, minimising their environmental footprint and fostering a more sustainable future for all.

Ariba Risk provides a dynamic view of supplier risk profiles, enabling companies to identify sustainability risks as they emerge and take immediate action to address them. The following are key features:

• Instant alerts for sustainability risks –

offering alert systems that notify businesses of any emerging sustainability risks in their supplier network.

• Dynamic risk profiles –provision of dynamic risk profiles for each supplier, reflecting their current sustainability performance. This allows companies to track changes in supplier sustainability practices over time and adjust their strategies accordingly.

• Proactive sustainability management – enabling companies to take a proactive approach to sustainability management. By identifying and addressing risks early on, companies can prevent potential environmental harm and build a more sustainable supply chain.

• Comprehensive sustainability insights – comprehensive insights into supplier sustainability practices.

SAP Ariba’s Supplier Risk Module stands as a beacon of change in this quest.”

This includes data on energy usage, waste management, carbon emissions, and other key sustainability metrics, helping companies make informed decisions about their supply chain partners.

TRANSPARENCY AND COLLABORATION

At the heart of SAP Ariba’s Supplier Risk Module lies a commitment to transparency and collaboration. By facilitating open

communication between buyers and suppliers, the module creates a culture of sustainability where companies can work closely with their partners to implement sustainable practices. This collaborative effort drives positive change throughout the supply chain, benefiting both people and the planet.

INTEGRATED RISK ASSESSMENT

SAP Ariba’s Supplier Risk Module

integrates risk assessment across the entire supply chain, providing a comprehensive view of sustainability risks.

This integrated approach allows companies to identify interconnected risks and implement coordinated mitigation strategies, ensuring a more sustainable operation that considers the wellbeing of all stakeholders.

PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS

Through predictive analytics, companies can forecast sustainability risks and opportunities in their supply chains. This forward-thinking approach enables companies to proactively manage sustainability risks, driving continuous improvement in their sustainability practices and paving the way for a more sustainable future.

Summary

To summarise, SAP Ariba’s Supplier Risk Module is revolutionising sustainability in supply chains. By embracing real-time monitoring, transparency, integrated risk assessment, and predictive analytics, companies are able to proactively manage sustainability risks and drive positive change. As more companies adopt these innovative solutions, the future of sustainability looks brighter, more inclusive, and more sustainable than ever before.

As more companies adopt these innovative solutions, the future of sustainability looks brighter, more inclusive, and more sustainable than ever before.”

Selected case studies

As per my experience, the following are selected case studies of companies harnessing the power of SAP Ariba’s Supplier Risk Module to achieve sustainability.

INTERNATIONAL COSMETICS BRAND

This company, renowned for its commitment to sustainability, has enhanced transparency and collaboration with its suppliers using SAP Ariba’s Supplier Risk Module. This collaborative effort has empowered the company to drive sustainable practices throughout its supply chain in the Americas, protecting the planet while producing high-quality, sustainable products that consumers can feel good about.

GLOBAL RETAIL COMPANY

By leveraging SAP Ariba’s Supplier Risk Module, this company has been able to forecast sustainability risks and opportunities in its supply chain. This proactive approach has not only helped the company to reduce environmental impact, but has also contributed to building a more sustainable future for generations to come.

AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURER

This manufacturer has embraced an integrated approach to sustainable supplier risk assessment with SAP Ariba’s Supplier Risk Module. By integrating sustainability risk assessments across its supply chain, it is able to identify and mitigate sustainability risks proactively, ensuring sustainable operations that prioritise the wellbeing of people and the planet.

NextGen SAP consultants: The new normal in a VUCA economy

Samir Mistry

At a time of turbulence and uncertainty, it is critical that SAP consultants adapt to the new normal of a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) economy to continue to deliver value to clients, many of whom are undertaking a reinvention journey.

Most companies and government organisations are moving to cloudbased ERP such as S/4HANA and those organisations with more complex value chains (e.g. consumer goods, retail, mining businesses) are looking to keep their core ERP system simple, standard and maintainable.

In addition, the time-to-value expectations from clients is ever increasing with the need to move towards compressed transformations.

Samir Mistry, SAP Transformation Leader & Adviser,explains how client needs are changing rapidly in a VUCA economy and how the SAP consultant must undergo necessary shifts to support them in the future. He discloses his guidance on the skills needed to evolve into a NextGen SAP consultant. At a time of

The CIO’s role is also driving towards a maintainable core ERP system (system of record) and related eco-systems, with a continuous reinvention and innovation culture/mindset in a VUCA economy.

For SAP consultants, to survive only on traditional SAP modulebased skills for implementation will become increasingly challenging. Clients will expect them to stay ahead of the curve and provide guidance on what is around the corner and how to make better platform and technology choices/ decisions.

Hence, there are a few “shifts” required in the SAP consultant’s role going forward. In the future, successful consultants will be the ones who are at the intersection of platform expertise (SAP), functional expertise (e.g. supply

chain, procurement) and industry expertise (e.g. retail, consumer goods, mining). Along with these core skills, the following will be “must haves” for the NextGen SAP consultant.

BECOMING A VALUE ARCHITECT, NOT JUST A SOLUTION ARCHITECT

We have all seen stories where the value from ERP diminishes over a period due to lack of value realisation. Issues clients face in sustaining the solution generally end up in remediation or reimplementation with the same or a different ERP altogether, leading to more costs.

Currently: Crunching numbers to estimate man days required, with known scope to architect a solution for a module/product or set of modules required for SAP

implementation is only part of the story.

Future needs: Clients’ (SAP customers) business and value cases have an expectation to extract more value out of ERP investments and want to focus on what matters for them as a business, aligned with their own business strategy, e.g. utilise data-driven approaches such as using SAP Signavio or similar tools to process or mine data from current legacy ERP systems, and identifying where processes are required to be optimised or transformed.

Future skills needed:

• Ability to demonstrate what value will be delivered and track value realisation along the way, during and after SAP implementations.

• Being aware of and architecting value by utilising SAP and ecosystem solutions from SAP and their partners which are most relevant for the industry and use case, to deliver value.

PRACTICING HUMAN AND CUSTOMER-CENTRIC DESIGN

What works today for enterprises to achieve business performance will not take them into the future to be able to survive in the marketplace.

Currently: SAP implementations seldom consider human-centric design of processes, functions, and activities. This is due to lack of skills, available budget, and lack of understanding of industry value chain.

Future needs: The adoption of radical and human-centric design in the future will be more important. Due to the amount of automation, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning it will be

key to be able to improve the human/machine interaction and find ways to do the same task, operation, transaction, running of functions and enterprises more accurately, efficiently, and with resilience.

Future skills needed: Ability to go beyond the four walls of knowing an SAP module/ product, ensuring that humancentric design is an integral part of the overall design. For example, thinking how processes, automation/intelligent engines and the actors/business roles involved (internal and external) will interact in a way to optimise differentiating capabilities which are resilient and responsive.

This needs to become a default and embedded way of how

Lack of clarity about meaning of an event

Unclear about the present

Figure 1: VUCA diagram

... the NextGen SAP consultant will have the skills required to help the C-suite gain maximum value from their ERP and thrive in the VUCA economy.”

SAP consultants need to think and operate to deliver the experience, to ensure better adoption of technology, processes and create value for stakeholders, e.g. automation on top of standard SAP functions in Finance, or using GenAI to provide quick information.

DRIVING INDUSTRY-LED INNOVATIONS TO STAY RELEVANT AND AHEAD OF THE CURVE

Each industry faces vastly different challenges today and this will

continue in the future. This is in addition to things like extra constraints due to scarce resources, or industry disruptions due to technology hype cycles, etc.

Currently: Industry challenges and their pain points are important to understand, and it is hard to define processes for resilient value chains.

Future needs: Business processes mapped in SAP are the key building blocks for core processes that drive business functions, and business functions drive enterprises.

Future skills needed: Consultants must understand the industry value chain and invest enough time to be across current and future industry trends. This will enable them to architect solutions to real-life industry challenges and pain points, which are future-proof using composable architecture, allowing for resilient and responsible operations.

An innovation mindset is important to draw attention to future challenges to continuously reinvent and help clients see the

future, e.g. innovate to create new revenue models using data coming from our system of record (SAP).

COMMITTING TO CONTINUOUS LEARNING

The Marshall Goldsmith phrase ‘What got you here will not get you there’ is also true for SAP consultants – what got us here will not get us there. Upgrading knowledge is a necessity to excel, not only in the technical and functional skills, but also in the soft skills needed to be successful

in making the “shifts” already described.

Future needs and skills required: SAP consultants need to develop their skills at the intersection of functional expertise and industry, and to be able to demonstrate value through deep understanding of industry challenges and value chains. These skills need to be combined with adaptive ways of working such as design thinking for complex problems and consulting advise to clients based on a ‘fit to standard’ approach; or to keep

the core ERP system simple and standard.

By undertaking these considerable shifts, SAP consultants will be able to stay relevant for the next decade and will be better equipped to guide the inevitable client reinvention journey. Whether the client is grappling to stay in business, transforming the core business or scaling the new business, the NextGen SAP consultant will have the skills required to help the C-suite gain maximum value from their ERP and thrive in the VUCA economy.

Women Making SAP Happen is a Sapture initiative highlighting some of the amazing women working in the ANZ SAP ecosystem. In this issue’s interview, Sapture’s Amy Robertson speaks to Poornima L Nathan, Chapter Lead, about her biggest inspirations and diversity in SAP.

MAKING WOMEN

HAPPEN SAP

Poornima L Nathan (left) Amy Roberston (right).

“Growing up, I was surrounded by strong, no-nonsense women who didn’t let anything stand in their way.’’

‘‘

QCan you tell us a bit about yourself?

> Currently I’m a Chapter Lead at 7-Eleven, based out of Melbourne, leading, and overseeing a team of business analysts and the SAP competency. I have close to two decades of experience implementing, integrating, architecting, leading and managing SAP projects at major clients around the world.

I thrive in helping businesses deliver value in SAP by refining the practice, building great teams, and doing hands-on work. I’m also a Roboticist, pursuing my Masters in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology, specialising in Robotics and AI. On home ground, I’m a mother to an astute and talented teen, and an avid music learner.

Q What inspired you to have a career in SAP?

> My journey into the world of SAP was significantly influenced by my dad, who was employed at Caterpillar. Growing up, conversations often revolved around his day at work involving orders, maintenance, parts, and other industry-specific terminologies. These discussions unknowingly laid the groundwork for my future career.

When I embarked on my professional path and delved into SAP, I realised that the concepts and language that had been introduced to me earlier had found their parallels within this technology. The familiarity provided me with a basic foundation in this new arena, and I seemed to find it easier than my peers to understand how SAP works.

As my career progressed, my appreciation for SAP deepened, driven by its robust capabilities and adaptability across vast enterprise

landscapes. The platform’s ability to offer comprehensive solutions, from configuration and governance to settings and industry-specific processes, with comparatively minimal customisation, is remarkable. Clients who choose SAP are equipped with a worldclass product, a testament to the collective expertise of countless domain specialists who have contributed to its development.

What continues to inspire me about SAP is its relentless evolution. The platform has made significant strides in enhancing user experience, seamlessly integrating cutting-edge digital technologies while remaining the core operational system of an enterprise. This blend of innovation and reliability cements my belief in SAP as a pivotal tool for businesses worldwide.

Q Tell us about your career journey to date?

> My career in technology commenced immediately following my undergraduate studies when I was first introduced to SAP. Initially, I embarked on this path as a consultant, driven by a profound interest in programming, logic, and analytical skills. This role provided me with the invaluable opportunity to collaborate with leading global organisations including Honeywell, Diageo, Woolworths and AGL, among others. These experiences not only honed my technical skills but also enriched my understanding of diverse business landscapes.

Progressing further, I transitioned into leadership and management roles that afforded me a more strategic view of business operations, and the opportunity to work with amazing teams to deliver key initiatives. These positions allowed me to witness first-hand the tangible impact of our initiatives, giving me pivotal experience in

shaping my approach to leadership and management.

Complementing my SAP-centric career, my background in AI and Robotics has been instrumental in helping me gain insight into modern challenges and opportunities within enterprises. This interdisciplinary expertise equipped me with a unique perspective, enabling me to explore possibilities of leveraging cutting-edge technologies to drive opportunities of innovation and efficiency.

Overall, my journey through the realms of SAP and technology has been a journey of delivery, implementation, and strategic leadership, underpinned by a continuous quest for learning, and adaptation to the evolving demands of the industry.

Q Can you tell us about the female inspiration you’ve had in your career?

> Absolutely! My career has been hugely influenced by the amazingly strong women in my family. Growing up, I was surrounded by strong, no-nonsense women who didn’t let anything stand in their way. They had this incredible ability to tackle tough situations with a mix of smarts, grit, and a straight-to-the-point attitude. They’re proof that persevering against challenges and standing up for what you believe in really does lead to a happy and satisfying life. It’s something that sticks with me every day, shaping my take on my own career and life in general.

Q What do you believe is the best thing about working in SAP technology?

> Two words – direct impact. Anything and everything that is implemented in SAP has a direct impact on operational efficiency, strategic decision-making, and ultimately, the bottom line of the business. This necessitates that

we have the best team, processes, and solutions in place to set an enterprise up for success.

Q Why do you think tech/SAP have been traditionally male dominated?

> Some of the first senior SAP consultants I’ve worked with were people who transitioned from the respective domains, including manufacturing, which is what SAP was originally designed for. Since this was traditionally male

dominated, this pattern flowed organically into SAP as well. Even for women who put their best foot forward, opportunities like networking still are a stigma –in reference to Harvard Business Review’s article: Why “Network More” Is Bad Advice for Women (hbr.org) 1

Q What can we all do to inspire more women into working with SAP?

> I think that the main three

“Equality, to me, is a state where no one feels the need to advocate for themselves or their needs.”

things we can do are:

• Showcase role models – amplify the stories and achievements of women who have succeeded in the SAP ecosystem. Role models serve as powerful examples of what is possible, breaking down stereotypes and providing inspiration for women at all stages of their careers.

• Create inclusive communities –foster inclusive SAP communities and networks that support women’s participation and

growth. These platforms can offer resources, mentorship, networking opportunities, and a supportive space for sharing experiences and challenges.

• Promote STEM education – encourage girls and young women to explore STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields from an early age through educational programs, workshops, and mentorship opportunities. Highlighting

the role of SAP within these disciplines can pique interest and foster early engagement.

Q What does equality mean to you?

> Equality, to me, is a state where no one feels the need to advocate for themselves or their needs.

Q What shifts would you like to see in the diversity landscape in the industry in the coming year?

> In the coming year, my aspiration is to witness a significant shift to women, including those re-entering the workforce after a hiatus, or transitioning from parallel domains into the SAP landscape.

Individuals returning to the workforce or shifting career paths often bring a unique blend of determination, fresh perspectives, and a commendable work ethic, fueled by their keen awareness of the skills gap they need to bridge.

Their journey towards upskilling and adapting to new roles is testament to their resilience and commitment, invaluable qualities in the fast-evolving tech sector.

Beyond this, I advocate for a more holistic approach to diversity that transcends gender to encompass varied cultural backgrounds, age groups, and experiences.

Such a rich tapestry of perspectives can foster innovation, drive creative problem-solving, and lead to more empathetic and user-centric solutions in SAP implementations.

Q How will you or your company be making that happen?

> Oh, I’m so glad you asked this question. We have a lot of action happening in this area, including:

• We have a strong Diversity Inclusion and Belonging (DIB) policy where we aim to improve our diversity by implementing specific strategies.

• Hiring managers work actively with our internal recruitment team to implement more gender-neutral hiring practices. This includes tweaking job descriptions to exclude masculine-orientated words and include more inclusive ‘female friendly’ words, and encouraging

“I advocate for a more holistic approach to diversity that transcends gender ...”

those who are not a complete fit to apply.

• We have, as of now, two communities with a strong cultural presence:

− OPEN for the LGBTQIA+ community

TechWise for women in technology.

Both serve as a forum for people who have common ground, and people who strongly stand by them, increasing their sense of belonging with our company.

Q What inspirational words would you offer to other people considering a career in SAP?

> Build bridges, not just systems; SAP is more than just software,

it's a language that connects various facets of a business. Strive to be not just an implementation expert but also a communicator who bridges gaps between technology and business needs. The most successful SAP professionals are those who translate complex processes into coherent, impactful solutions that resonate across departments.

Q What final piece of advice would you give you to women working in the SAP ecosystem and looking to advance their career?

> There is no better advocate for you than yourself.

But at the same time, remember to keep an open mind.

Mohammad Bilal Nazir (left)

Dr Scott Bingley (right).

SAP and Victoria University’s SAP ACC: Nurturing

the next generation of SAP talent

By Dr Scott Bingley and Mohammad Bilal Nazir

Have you ever wondered how SAP is developing the next generation of talent? What the pipeline looks like? Or what systems students are being taught on? Dr Scott Bingley, Senior Lecturer of Information Systems and Director of the SAP ACC (APJ) at VU, and Mohammad Bilal Nazir, SAP ACC Operations Manager, answer these questions whilst giving further insights into SAP’s partnership with Victoria University in developing future SAP talent at the SAP Academic Competence Centre in Melbourne.

In an era driven by digital transformation, the demand for skilled young professionals in SAP is soaring. Recognising this need, SAP partnered with Victoria University (Melbourne) in 2019 to create an SAP Academic Competence Centre (ACC) to cultivate the next generation of SAP talent. Through innovation and collaborative efforts, the aim is to shape a workforce equipped to navigate the complexities of modern business technology.

SAP’s university arm, known as SAP’s University Alliances program, works with hub universities (known as ACCs and UCCs) and other universities around the world, to bring SAP into the classroom. Victoria University is one of these ACCs, managing SAP systems in the classroom for the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region. The University’s vision for 2028 is to be a global leader in dual-sector learning and research, and it has been at the forefront of using SAP within their degrees, namely the Masters of ERP set up in 1997.

The SAP ACC at VU was established in 2019 (taking over from Queensland University of Technology) and supplies SAP teaching systems, curriculum, and support to universities throughout the APJ region. Currently, there are around 160 universities within the program and around 32,000 active users/students.

These programs focus on offering students a comprehensive understanding of SAP’s suite of software applications, including SAP S/4HANA, SAP Analytics Cloud, and SAP HANA among others. Additionally, students gain practical experience working with model Global Bike datasets developed to enhance their learning.

Another system that is offered is

the simulation game ‘ERPsim’. This game has students teaming up to run a fictitious company using SAP S/4HANA. The company with the most market value wins the competition. Students compete against other universities in ERP Regional Cups and can advance through group stages to the ERPsim World Cup final. The APJ region has won the last couple of these.

SAP university alliances, UCCs and ACCs are bringing some of the niche SAP Cloud technologies to the classroom. These include SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Datasphere, SAP Ariba, and SAP SuccessFactors.

SAP Certifications are also part of the portfolio of services available to students. SAP Student Zone under

SAP Learning offers students self-paced certification courses and currently provide inexpensive exam seats to students wanting to sit their certification exams.

Crispian Tan, Senior Director, SAP University Alliances APJC, says: “Together with our academic partner, Victoria University as the Academic Competence Centre, the academic community in the APJ region has grown to more than 160 universities across 10 countries, supplying thousands of work-ready students every year for the SAP ecosystem. We are very grateful for the wonderful support from Victoria University since 2019 when it became the centre to support our UA community.”

SAP and Victoria University

have also created avenues for experiential learning and professional development. Students have access to internships, and industry projects facilitated by SAP’s partner organisations and the SAP Next Gen Lab at VU. These opportunities are designed to not only expose students to diverse business environments, but also foster invaluable industry connections and practical insights into SAP’s ecosystem.

Through this investment in SAP systems, curriculum, support, competitions, gamification, cloud technology and certifications, students are better equipped to make an immediate impact when they start their first job in the SAP ecosystem.

THROUGH THIS INVESTMENT, STUDENTS ARE BETTER EQUIPPED TO MAKE AN IMMEDIATE IMPACT WHEN THEY START THEIR FIRST JOB IN THE SAP ECOSYSTEM.”

Matthias Brauer

HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SAP BUSINESS AI USE CASES

In this guide, Matthias Braeuer, CTO and Principal Architect at FAIR Consulting Group, tells us that most AI and machine learning projects fail in practice, due to lack of robust business use cases. This is often due to confusion on where to start and the technical building blocks involved. Matthias offers a solution by providing a framework for building a practical SAP AI use case and giving guidance on how to apply it, with real-world examples.

Studies suggest that AI, particularly Generative AI, will add trillions of dollars in incremental value to the global economy. As argued in an article by Dr Kim Oosthuizen,1 in the last edition of ANZSAP Magazine, “AI has become a critical driver for innovation and efficiency. Adoption is no longer a choice but a necessity”.

However, like other digital transformation initiatives, defining and implementing AI use cases can be challenging.

Key questions arise such as:

Where do you start and how do you

select the right use case for your business? What are the prerequisites and technical building blocks?

Moreover, every organisation’s journey to adopting AI capabilities begins from a unique starting point, with no two system landscapes alike. Commonly held beliefs such as SAP Business AI being only available to organisations running SAP S/4HANA Cloud increase complexities further.

In response to these challenges, this article introduces a structured framework for defining AI use cases. This can be applied by businesses irrespective of where they are on their SAP ERP journey. It simplifies the key elements

required for a successful AI use case and reveals the various SAP technologies available to support its implementation.

FRAMEWORK FOR SAP BUSINESS AI USE CASES

Figure 1 shows the structure and components of the proposed SAP Business AI use case framework.

Let’s look at each of these components in greater detail:

VALUE

As you can see from the diagram, value sits at the top, as every SAP AI use case must deliver tangible business value. Quantifying value

via suitable metrics (KPIs) helps to justify investments in AI use cases and measure the impact of AI initiatives after implementation. Organisations cannot afford to invest in AI for vanity, or simply because it is technically intriguing.

Value can manifest in various forms such as cost or time savings, enhanced efficiency, improved customer satisfaction or better decision-making.

BUSINESS APPLICATION

Business users do not want to perform manual processes to make use of AI. Thus, a business application provides the interface through which end users interact with the AI engine and its generated insights.

The business application calls the AI engine, processes the results, and presents them in a user-friendly manner.

In an SAP ERP context, AI-enabled business applications can take various forms, but the most common are:

• Fiori applications in SAP S/4HANA

• SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics

• Custom apps and automations built on BTP

• AI engine.

The AI engine is the component that executes the AI models, performing all the computational heavy lifting needed to process data and generate insights.

In the SAP ERP ecosystem, customers have the choice between four main engines:

Figure 1: The proposed AI use case framework

• The SAP HANA database within an S/4HANA system

• The SAP HANA Cloud service on BTP, including its new Vector Engine

• The SAP AI Business Services on BTP

• The SAP AI Core service (including the recently released Generative AI Hub) on BTP.

MODEL AND TASK

The model embodies the artificial intelligence in AI. It is the brain of the AI system, responsible for analysing data and performing tasks. Models can range from simple linear regression models to deep neural networks. Once a model has learned enough from the training data, it can make inferences or predictions about new, unseen data.

The choice of model depends heavily on the business problem being addressed. Therefore, it is important to clearly articulate the task that the model is meant to perform for a particular AI use case. Common tasks are prediction, summarisation, categorisation or classification, text extraction, semantic search, queryanswering, image generation, or triggering actions in an external application.

In the context of SAP ERP, AI models can be categorised as follows:

• Predictive models provided by SAP that run natively on the SAP HANA database

• Pre-trained models available through the SAP AI Business

DATA IS THE FUEL THAT POWERS MACHINE LEARNING MODELS, ENABLING THEM TO LEARN PATTERNS AND GENERATE INSIGHTS.”

Services on BTP, including models for:

− Extracting information from business documents

Recognising business entities in unstructured text

Proposing the value of missing data attributes based on similar entities

Creating personalised recommendations for website visitors

Translating user interfaces and related documentation.

• Large Language Models (LLMs) from various providers (e.g. OpenAI GPT-4, Falcon-40b)

• Custom-built or fine-tuned models (e.g. custom predictive models).

In short, SAP provides several pre-trained AI models out of the box, but also offers tools for data scientists to create and train new models for organisation-specific use cases.

DATA

Without data, there is no AI use case. Data is the fuel that powers machine learning models, enabling them to learn patterns and generate insights. In an SAP ERP context, AI-relevant data covers a broad spectrum – from customer records and transactional data to supply chain information and financial reports.

From a technology perspective, accessing data for SAP AI use cases typically involves one of the following scenarios:

• Data stored natively in the

ORGANISATIONS SHOULD NOT FALL INTO THE TRAP OF INVESTING HEAVILY IN A SINGLE HORIZONTAL ASPECT.”

APPLYING THE FRAMEWORK

AI USE CASE EXAMPLES

Following are three example use cases where SAP Business AI can simplify and automate ERP processes. Figure 2 (below) illustrates how the AI use case framework introduced in the earlier sections allows to document these scenarios.

1. PROFESSIONAL SERVICES INDUSTRY

Consider a typical process in the professional services industry. A consulting organisation uses S/4HANA Cloud to manage projects, timesheets, and billing.

• Consultants staffed on a customer project book time against work packages and add comments to describe the work performed.

• At the end of the month, the consulting firm bills the WIP-accrued revenue by summarising multiple related time entries into a single billing line item.

In scenarios with many time entries per work package, it would be useful to automatically summarise the corresponding timesheet comments as a reference for the customer. This would save project managers hours of manual work reviewing timesheets and drafting summaries.

SAP Business AI offers a solution to this problem by building an S/4HANA extension app that leverages LLM capabilities through the GenAI Hub on BTP.

2. PROCUREMENT TEAM FOR A RETAIL ORGANISATION

Imagine a procurement team for a retail

Figure 2: AI use cases through the lens of the framework

organisation receiving hundreds of emailed PDF invoices per month from their suppliers.

• Each supplier uses a different invoice format and lists line items using their own article numbers.

• Manually processing and entering these invoices into SAP ERP is error-prone and time-consuming.

Fortunately, SAP provides a pre-trained AI model for extracting invoice data from structured and unstructured documents as part of the SAP AI Business Services on BTP. Embedded into a workflow on SAP Build Process Automation, the entire process can be automated – from reading the PDF attachments to posting the invoice to SAP ERP. If the AI model cannot confidently extract all required information, the workflow delegates to a human operator as a fallback.

3. ORGANISATION IN THE CONSUMER GOODS INDUSTRY

Assume that an organisation in the consumer goods industry receives a significant percentage of periodically recurring sales orders through automated channels (e.g, order forms, APIs, or emails).

• Whilst this reduces the need for manual sales order creation, it can also lead to incomplete sales orders due to missing data.

• Common culprits are shipping conditions or the delivery plant at item level.

• This, in turn, demands manual intervention from sales representatives to review incompletion logs and fill in the missing information.

To address this challenge, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402 introduced AI-assisted recommendations for incomplete sales order fields. Based on training data from historical sales orders, the model will propose recommended values for missing data based on probability. This can save hours of manual review work and prevent missing delivery cut-off deadlines in time-sensitive B2B replenishment scenarios.

As shown in Figure 2: AI use cases through the lens of the framework (previous page), an AI use case relies on a clear definition of all parameters of the AI use

case framework. Organisations should not fall into the trap of investing heavily in a single horizontal aspect – say, the data layer or AI engine – while neglecting to identify the value of an AI scenario or clarify what task the AI model should perform. Similarly, not addressing lifecycle questions (MLOps) and AI ethics upfront may lead to surprises (such as deteriorating model performance or legal implications) later.

Instead, recognising individual use cases as vertical slices of the framework via an iterative proof-of-concept (POC) approach, can enable organisations to quickly gain experience with defining, implementing, and measuring the impact of SAP Business AI.

UNDERPINNING THE AI USE CASE FRAMEWORK IS THE CRUCIAL ELEMENT OF AI ETHICS. THESE ENSURE THAT AI TECHNOLOGIES ARE USED RESPONSIBLY.”

AI ETHICS

Underpinning the AI use case framework is the crucial element of AI ethics. These ensure that AI technologies are used responsibly by defining processes and guidelines addressing issues such as bias, transparency, accountability, and privacy. This is particularly important in business applications where AI decisions can significantly affect customers and employees. Beyond the moral obligation of reviewing AI use cases for potential ethical risks, it is also crucial for businesses to stay compliant with laws and regulations that govern the use of AI. Whilst government policies vary between countries, there is no doubt that regulation and oversight will increase in the coming years. Both Australia and New Zealand have published guiding AI ethics principles.

Organisations that are yet to develop their own AI ethics guidelines can take inspiration from SAP’s Global AI Ethics Policy. The SAP AI Handbook details a structured “AI Factory Process” for reviewing ethical risks in AI use cases.

CHARTING A TAILORED AI ROADMAP

In addition to defining an SAP Business AI use case, the framework also helps to identify technology options available for customers at different stages of their SAP ERP journey.

Figure 3: Technology enablers for different SAP ERP scenarios (overleaf) shows which SAP Business AI technologies are available to customers on S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition,

ON-PREMISE CUSTOMERS DO NOT NEED TO WAIT FOR A MOVE TO S/4HANA CLOUD TO DIP THEIR TOES INTO AI.”

*Note that the diagram only covers the ERP-related technologies introduced in the earlier sections and does not consider SAP Business AI capabilities in Line-of-Business applications such as SuccessFactors, Concur, or SAP Customer Experience.

Figure 3: Technology enablers for different SAP ERP scenarios

S/4HANA Cloud On-Premise, and SAP ECC, respectively.

Unsurprisingly, the business application component is where capabilities differ starkly depending on a customer’s SAP ERP edition:

• Businesses that run S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition get access to new AI capabilities via frequent automatic releases.

• Private Cloud and on-premise customers need to upgrade to the latest feature pack stack (FPS) or release to benefit from new innovations.

• Organisations still on SAP ECC do not have a choice but to rely on extension apps built on BTP.

However, the diagram also highlights that on-premise customers do not need to wait for a move to S/4HANA Cloud to dip their toes into AI. With the help of BTP, they can define and implement SAP Business AI scenarios today.

CONCLUSION

Market research suggests that most AI and machine learning projects fail in practice. Thus, it is paramount to put robust SAP Business AI use cases in place, which

Yet businesses often neglect to do so, due to complexities, misconceptions, and lack of direction or knowledge. The use case framework introduced in this article will help overcome this and help organisations identify key innovations and the enabling technologies available to them at their unique point in their journey. This will help to ensure that AI initiatives are well defined and, ultimately, set up for success.

SOFT SKILLS EVERY JUNIOR SAP CONSULTANT SHOULD CULTIVATE 7

Tiago Mendes, Senior Supply Chain Functional Consultant, shares advice for consultants new to SAP Consulting. Whilst it’s important to have strong technical abilities, he explains why soft skills are equally important. He reveals his seven main soft skills to cultivate, and explains his rationale around them.

The

art of effective communication with clients and the fostering of a positive attitude amongst peers is

often undervalued."

Tiago Mendes

Embarking on a journey in the dynamic land of SAP consulting as a Junior Consultant can be both exciting and challenging. As you step into the complex landscape of enterprise solutions, I hope this article offers useful advice to help you build an easier path into the SAP consulting field.

Whilst the spotlight often shines brightly on technical expertise, it is important not to reduce focus on the equally valuable aspects of soft skills. Technical abilities are undoubtedly essential, however the art of effective communication with clients and the fostering of a positive attitude amongst peers is often undervalued. Yet the consequences of not having these skills can be hugely detrimental to a consultant’s career. I’ve seen technically outstanding consultants with brilliant solutions who, being unable to present or translate their solution appropriately to the client, have been replaced by someone who could.

Clients are not just seeking solutions; they are looking for a positive experience, and soft skills play a central role in delivering that. Sometimes all it takes is the creation of a clear, quick PowerPoint presentation, or a demo video using easy-to-understand language and no SAP technical jargon.

Therefore, in the rush to acquire technical expertise, it’s essential for Junior Consultants to recognise that a wellrounded professional not only excels in hard skills but also nurtures the softer, more human side of professional interaction.

I’ve therefore gathered the seven most important areas that I believe you should focus on. I recognise that these come from my own experiences and may not fit everyone or every situation; however, I do think they are worth noting and understanding. While they might seem like common sense, it can be easy to overlook the importance and value of these seemingly simple insights. So I urge you to read on and keep an open mind, despite the overuse of metaphors!

In the rush to acquire technical expertise, it’s essential for Junior Consultants to recognise that a wellrounded professional not only excels in hard skills but also nurtures the softer, more human side of professional interaction.”

1.

ATTITUDE DETERMINES ALTITUDE

This industry is, like many others, constantly evolving so you have to keep updating and adapting your skillset (if you have been consulting for more than two months you have already realised that). However, your attitude is something that makes a huge difference on how steep your learning curve will be. You need to be willing to learn, listen, be thrown in the deep end, and to come out swimming. Technical skills you can acquire; but attitude, you have it or you don't.

The fact of the matter is that all projects are stressful in different degrees. If you don't have the can-do attitude or aren’t ready to add to, and be part of, the solution, your journey will be much harder. Be willing to express your opinion, be honest enough to admit when you don't have answers to the questions being asked, and then commit to finding them.

2.

WE HAVE TWO EARS AND ONE MOUTH. LISTEN TWICE AS MUCH AS YOU SPEAK

Be willing to truly listen, not only to your peers but also to the business. Sometimes “we’ve always done it this way” has its merits. You never know how many others before you have looked into the problem and delivered the current solution (which made sense at that time). So listen and analyse to find out if it is still valid and will fit the overall solution going forward. Also, this way you get a bit of buy-in from the client, as it helps them feel involved. They are not just at the end of the line getting a solution imposed by someone external who, in their opinion, doesn’t understand their processes or how the company works in practice.

It takes time to build good rapport and gain trust, so pay attention to their reactions and body language, and learn when to push or pull back. It’s important to be patient, listen to their outputs, discuss the options and make them feel part of the solution.

LEARN THE BUSINESS LINGO

Each industry/business has its own terminologies, jargons and acronyms, and it’s important that you learn them.

Mastering the business language accelerates your understanding and facilitates effective communication, preventing crucial details from getting ‘lost in translation’ during informal discussions or while trying to understand/map current processes.

Keep in mind that it can be a bit overwhelming at the beginning; however, this goes both ways. The client will also experience a steep learning curve trying to adapt to ‘the way they say things’ with the always-growing SAP language of three or four letter acronyms, modules or features.

4.

DON'T BE THE TOOTHPASTE CONSULTANT

Be prepared to engage actively when queried about something; don’t just give a yes or no answer. For example, when asked about ‘A’, analyse it and be ready to suggest something that could complement or be a better option to it. Explore combining it with other alternatives such as ‘B’ or ‘C’ by suggesting best practices or giving more appropriate ways to address certain issues.

It will certainly streamline the discussion and avoid prolonged exchanges. Users typically focus on their own domains, so it’s up to the consultant to ‘remove the blinkers’ and examine the overall landscape, identifying areas of improvement or potential issues by considering touchpoints as well as the end-to-end solution.

A business will appreciate you not being the consultant they need to keep squeezing to get something out of (like a tube of toothpaste!).

5.

KISS THE BADGE (OR CREST)

Embrace your project and solution with pride. Even if your contract is short-term, channel your inner South American soccer player and imagine yourself as the player on loan for a season. Wear the company jersey proudly and celebrate successes by ‘kissing the badge’, representing your shared commitment to scoring company ‘goals’.

It is not uncommon for companies to treat contractors differently from full-time employees; however, by showing your commitment, building strong relationships with key stakeholders and demonstrating your expertise, you can help to bridge the gap and earn internal respect.

Remember, although your employment terms are different, your primary goal still aligns with the full-time team – to deliver a suitable and scalable solution, leaving a positive impact. When you finish your project, you should look back and feel confident that you left the business in a better state than when you started.

BE BUDDIES WITH YOUR DEVELOPERS

Learning a bit of code can make your development work much simpler and help save unnecessary headaches. When you’re trying to implement a functional specification, having a foundational understanding of coding enables you to articulate your objectives more clearly. You can even incorporate pseudo code to enhance comprehension.

Be ready to listen to your developer’s options on how to get it done (the coding side of S4 has evolved a lot) and keep open communication channels with your development team so you can gain efficiencies.

Additional advice: Learn to debug (if possible); it’s like having a time-saving superpower. In larger implementations in particular, developers are assigned to multiple developments in different areas. You can speed up fixes by identifying the specific line of code where the result appears incorrect instead of sending a vague “sorry, it’s not working” email.

7.

BE MINDFUL OF YOUR BRAND

Particularly in our ANZ bubble, reputation holds immense significance. I’ve heard many stories of consultants who were blacklisted due to their performance on past projects. Always keep in mind the saying, “you’re only as good as your last gig”. The manner in which you engage with the business and colleagues is very important. For example, imposing solutions simply out of habit or hiding so you can fly under the radar, is likely to land you in hot water. Remember, nobody is irreplaceable.

In the dynamic area of consulting, it’s essential to continually reassess the methods used and be willing to explore fresh, innovative solutions to meet the ever-changing demands of clients and the industry. Consider that the business will need to live with that solution for several years, so ensure it is scalable and facilitates the addition of other scenarios without increase in complexity or a full rework.

To maximise your own personal journey as an SAP Consultant, make it your goal to not only meet expectations, but to exceed them.”

Soft skills are crucial to working well with others – essential for navigating the complex network of relationships (at all levels) within any project or even the typical workplace environment. Balancing technical knowhow with strong communication skills and a positive attitude creates a more resilient and adaptable consultant, capable of navigating the complexities of the ever-changing consulting landscape.

Don’t make the mistake of believing that as long as the client gets what they want, that is all they need. A client will choose to engage with a consultant in the future, not only for what was delivered but also for their professionalism and conduct during the assignment.

To maximise your own personal journey as an SAP Consultant, make it your goal to not only meet expectations but to exceed them. This will help create a legacy that sets you apart as a consultant, one who is always in demand, not only for your technical skills, but also for the outstanding value and positive influence you can bring to every project you undertake.

sapture.com.au/survey

Great expectations or

Clive Ewin, Independent Transformation Program Adviser, discusses why there is often a gap between what a client expects their system integrator (SI) to deliver during IT transformation projects and what is actually delivered. He explains why it is vital to plan, divide and manage partnership accountabilities in order to achieve successful and sustainable program outcomes, and provides guidance on how to avoid the common, and sometimes catastrophic, expectation gap.

Clive Ewin

Picture the scenario –you’re embarking on an IT-enabled business transformation program.

The Executive Team is supportive, the business case is complete, and a budget is in place. You have a shortlist of reputable software providers, and the hyperscalers are beating down your door to host the solution. It’s time to engage an implementation partner – a system integrator (SI) – to bring it all together and provide the specialist implementation skills.

As you pull together the RFP and then sit through hours of consulting firm sales decks, the question arises, “what specifically should the SI be responsible for, and what should be retained by you and the business?” Whilst the question might be clear, the answer can be murky. There is often a gap between what the client expects their SI to be responsible for, and what is actually delivered.

This expectation gap is a very common and sometimes catastrophic problem for IT-enabled transformation programs, compounded by the fact there are also often components of a project that clients attempt to outsource that may have both long- and short-term negative consequences for the business. Not all of these components are obvious.

Setting expectations

The perception of what an SI does often starts with the “Big Four”. The shiny cufflink brigade with grand CBD offices and global capability and experience. At this end of the market, the pitch is usually about business outcome rather than technical deployment. The expectations of what this group promises can seep down the food chain, so the perception can be that all consulting businesses will deliver the same range of services and have the same focus on business outcomes.

There is often a gap between what the client expects their SI to be responsible for, and what is actually delivered.’’

This is rarely the case. Most SIs trade primarily on their technical capability, i.e. the number of available consultants with specific skills. The non-technical capability is there to round out the offering.

The expectation gap

Regardless of the focus and services provided by an SI, the real consideration is what they will actually take responsibility for. Consider Figure 1 (right).

Technical implementation

This piece is usually the most straightforward. The SI has the functional (software configuration) consultants, that’s why they were engaged, and offer skills across integration, data migration, cloud and testing.

The spilt in accountability is usually quite clear, although clients need to tread particularly carefully in data migration – ensuring it’s clear who is doing the transformation in ETL and who is ultimately accountable for resolving defects.

The ‘gap’ will be in assuming the SI will ensure the solution being implemented will operate efficiently in the overall IT landscape. They may do that, but in most cases that accountability will sit entirely with the client.

Process change

Process change follows the software, with the mantra being ‘change the business’ rather than customise. The ‘gap’ here is the specific design of end-to-end processes that cut across functional areas and entail steps outside the system. It is these business process changes that typically deliver the most business benefits. The questions that need to be asked are – who is accountable for the pieces of the process that are outside the system? And who is considering

the cross-business, end-to-end processes? Often this isn’t clear until after the build is complete; or worse, after the project is completed, and the business outcomes are only partially achieved.

There is a natural project inclination to rely on the SI to define the ‘best practice’ processes, based on the software and their experience, and for the business to sit in workshops/sprints and duly accept those processes. However, these workshops usually move at quite a pace in line with project timelines and budgets, and before you know it, you’re in testing without fully having comprehended what you’ve accepted and what might be missing.

The issue here is ownership.

The business needs to have strong, capable process owners that have an informed view of end-to-end process requirements and their link to business benefits. If there is not top-down ownership of the new processes, then the risks associated with adoption and fit-for-purpose blow out. In short, you cannot outsource accountability for process change.

Organisational change management, benefit realisation and governance

Large SIs will provide an integrated change management (OCM) service, while smaller ones will find a contract change manager if you need one. The long and the short of it is,

Typical IT-enabled business transformation project

What the SI believe is their responsibility

TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION

PROCESS CHANGE

The business needs to have strong, capable process owners that have an informed view of end-to-end process requirements and their link to business benefits.’’

What you expect the SI to deliver

ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

MANAGEMENT & BENEFITS REALISATION

GOVERNANCE

BUSINESS OUTCOMES

FIGURE 1.

ANZSAP's Danielle Chung interviews

Clive Ewin.

accountability for getting the business to adopt/own the new ways of working cannot be outsourced. It MUST be owned and driven by the leadership of the business.

No SI will take on the achievement of adoption targets as a KPI for payment, there are too many variables that they cannot control, e.g. job role changes, individual capability shortfalls, rogue executives who are white-anting the project for their own personal objectives, etc … you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.

Similarly, the number of elements outside their control means few SIs will take genuine accountability for the achievement of your business benefits. If they do put their money at risk, there will be swathes of dependencies for the business to satisfy.

Business outcomes

Business benefits means business outcomes – the pointy end of Figure 1. There is an assumption that the consulting partner, the SI receiving millions of dollars, will be naturally focused, at least in part, on ensuring the business outcomes so succinctly dot pointed in the opening section of the business case, are achieved. That they will point out where a dependency for achievement has been overlooked, or an end-to-end process is not aligned. A good one might, if they have the capability to do so; but most will not as they are focused strictly on producing the deliverables set out in the statement of work (SoW). Their budget and appetite for risk will not extend further than the SoW.

Meet the key players and listen to your gut. Capability is important, but attitude is everything. Yours and theirs.’’

Avoiding the expectation gap

As a business executive going to market with an RFP for an SI, or an SI on the receiving end of an RFP, how do you avoid the expectation gap?

The first thing is to be realistic and transparent in the accountabilities that the SI is prepared to take on, and the accountabilities they should not take on. For the latter, the capability requirement of the client needs to be understood and met by asking the following.

• Are there capable process owners?

• Is change management and benefits realisation being driven?

• Is governance for the overarching business transformation, of which the technical implementation is a part, being provided?

The expectation gap cuts both ways.

Beyond the imperatives of the accountability split is a balance based on capability and culture.

For example, big SIs are usually good at project/ program management. They have heaps of experience and this is their core skill. It’s not yours, so let the SI do it. Don’t make the mistake of inadvertently becoming the SI with your consulting partner(s) as technical delivery. There are many program disasters that fall into this bucket, with the Public Sector being particularly prone. Large SIs do not behave

well when shut into a technical implementation box.

The accountabilities need to be detailed in a clear and comprehensive statement of work (SoW) underpinned by a balanced Master Service Agreement. It’s worth spending time with your SI to get the SoW right. It is the foundation for the whole program and if there’s a problem in the project, it often starts with the SoW.

SI procurement tactics often work against a sense of partnership. If you beat your SI in the contract with punitive, detailed leading indicator targets, e.g. data migration defect rates during System Integration Testing, this is where they will focus and how they will behave. Instead, it is useful to map all the dependent actions and resulting states necessary to achieve the business outcomes (or benefits) and then carefully allocate those dependencies to people in your organisation and to your partners. This will ensure that imperatives such as system useability are covered as well as defect rates.

Finally, the magic sauce on top of the SoW is creating a true partnership with your SI. This requires real maturity on both sides. In selecting a SI, look for examples of partnership, where the SI and their client were able to ride the ups and downs of the project to a successful business outcome. Meet the key players and listen to your gut. Capability is important, but attitude is everything. Yours and theirs.

The ancient wisdom of

FAIL FAST, FAIL FORWARD

Judith

O’Callaghan,

Co-founder,Executive Advisor – Business

Transformation & Change Management Global ERP Advisory, shares her love for ancient wisdom and a story which teaches us that failure, if used well, can turn into opportunity. She looks at examples of projects where failures have been their biggest strength, and urges us to look for the lessons presented in every challenge, to use them as a chance to move forward.

As someone who is on a personal journey to discover ancient wisdom, I love sharing what I’ve learned. There are so many insights and valuable lessons, and I am constantly amazed at how many parallels I can find within modern life. I truly believe that embracing it will help us make the world today a much better place.

In this article I want to explore a saying that I’ve often heard spoken by elders during times of reflection – “remember to embrace the opportunity and look for chances to capitalise’” – and how that concept can be applied in SAP implementation projects, and in life in general.

This saying has its roots in an ancient story which I believe brings

this concept to life. The story of the first battle of Ai. A story fondly shared by my grandmother and which has always been a guide for me during challenging times.

The story is about a man named Joshua, who, alongside his team, had recently successfully conquered a city called Jericho. Success in the battle had relied on meticulous planning and coordinated activities from the extended team, with everyone having a part to play. However, despite the same level of careful planning for the next battle, Joshua and his team were defeated catastrophically. Rather than be crushed by the failure, they took the opportunity to consciously reflect and reassess their strategy, learn where they went wrong and try a different approach. This time, with a little help from the divine, they were victorious.

Whilst, on the face of it, this story is simply about a battle, what resonates with me is how Joshua took the opportunity to accept his failure and learn from it, using it as a stepping stone to future success.

I believe the story provides clear lessons for us all, both personally and professionally.

01

Value planning and preparation

Success, large or small, requires investment in preparedness and preparation. Every input and every step counts. Everyone involved has a part to play to make things happen.

02 Accept that things may not go to plan

Despite meticulous attention to detail, sometimes life just doesn’t go to plan. Be ready to adjust and adapt the plan along the way as things change or progress.

03 Choose to capitalise on the lessons

Failure offers opportunities that success does not. Invest time to reflect, understand and reason. This will provide powerful knowledge that can be capitalised on in the years to come.

04

Allow for the divine factor

Every successful outcome has room for faith, whether that’s a belief in a higher power than yourself or, if you prefer, a little bit of luck. Having trust and positivity can make a big difference. It enables everyone to see beyond the obvious and work towards the near-impossible.

For me, the story is a great example of the “fail fast, fail forward” approach, one that is often applied in agile environments under the notion that it is good to fail quickly, as it is an opportunity to learn and then adapt accordingly.

As an SAP Project Manager, I have had many chances to see the

benefits of this approach first-hand in a work context. Two examples in particular that show the concept in action spring to mind:

In the first one, we were working with a client on a proof of capability to establish the feasibility of integrating a spatial solution within the SAP solution. We were approaching the end of the phase; the initial tests were proving to be a success.

During this process, one of our colleagues raised a valid point – we did not have evidence of how the solution behaved in high volumes, i.e. under pressure. As a team, we discussed the options and decided to embrace the concept of ‘fail fast, fail forward’.

We got the vendors, partners, and rest of the team together and started with a three-day program of load-testing to validate the performance at different stages. This proved to be a huge success as the team was able to identify the key points of failure.

The value of the information was worth its weight in gold. In addition to providing the information needed to address the issue, it provided valuable information on increasing the performance and the solution resilience, saving the client a lot of money. A major defect in the real solution was averted, which enabled other savings and possibilities.

We utilised the data gathered to go back and make the adjustments needed. The solution came together very well, increasing performance, resilience, and sustainability.

On the second project example, we were working on a payroll implementation. The client was in a remote location, with the

nearest city more than two hours away and the main language of communication was not English.

During the parallel runs, the team observed that a small percentage of the payslips of a certain employee subgroup had a variation in the pay every six months.

The team working on the implementation was very experienced and extremely thorough. We did not leave any stone unturned, so this unexplained variation puzzled all of us.

One of the team had an ingenious idea, to obtain the board approval to release the payslips from the trial runs early to select members of the organisation and ask for their feedback.

We took the bold step of explaining the mystery variance to the board and obtaining their permission to do an ‘early release’ through a series of meetings. Considering the sensitivity of the issue, the board members worked with us to put together an engagement plan that would deal with potential confidence issues. The board also selected the members who could be involved in the early release meetings.

The outcome of the process surprised us. After more than a week of preparation for the early release meetings and the careful preparation of multiple talk tracks and redundancy mechanisms, we were given the green light to go ahead.

During the first few minutes of the first meeting, we hit the jackpot. One of the members in the sample we engaged with had the answer that explained most of the variations. Together we were able to derive the solution for the others.

Failure should not be seen as the opposite of success, but a valuable insight into how to do things differently.”

This saved considerable time (in this case it was highly important), in addition to gaining the much-needed confidence in the process and the system.

To me this experience is a classic example of having the courage to fail fast, and fail forward. A reminder to remember the basics when times are tough, and to move forward with added confidence.

In essence, it is inevitable that in our lives – whether at home, at work or during SAP projects – we will often face failure. Yet failure should not be seen as the opposite of success, but a valuable insight into how to do things differently. It is important for us to embrace those challenges that require us, like Joshua and his team, to take time to reflect, capitalise and fail fast and fail forward.

This is just one example of how ancient wisdom is still highly relevant and can be applied to the modern world in many ways.

Denise Lucero

VIEW WITHIN FROM A

In this thought piece, Denise Lucero, SAP AU and NZ Practice Lead for DXCTechnology, discusses her passion for purposeful service and leadership. She shares the books she reads to shape her perspectives and behaviours. She also gives insight into the influence her childhood has had on her core values, and her view of consulting as not just a job, but a way to continually test her core values and the ways she serves clients.

Ihave been an SAP practitioner for 24 years, and in consulting for about the same time. I know I have a strong passion for technology – I maintain my fluency and relevancy in the field, and I can say with confidence that I have had success. But that is not the burning passion that drives me.

I was born into a family that worked in public services, whether in the military, the social services or the medical field. As a faith-based family we found our purpose in serving others.

Alongside this grounding in serving others, my leadership foundation was forged early. My mom says I was leading kids around the neighbourhood at a young age and when I was in first grade, I was awarded the schools leadership “pin”. My leadership then truly blossomed during my military service.

This focus on purposeful service and leadership continues to be my passion and drives me to this day, especially through stormy times. I feel lucky to be part of an organisation that serves only the public sector, and I aim to provide services that go beyond just meeting immediate needs, instead focusing on adding meaningful value and making a positive impact.

I help to hone my innate perspectives on service from reading books – not necessarily “business books”, but books about varied topics such as; military tactics, religion, philosophy, the industrial revolution, freedom of speech, and biographies of all sorts. All of them have interesting correlations to how I view and carry out my service to the public sector,

and what it means to lead with purpose.

For example, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War reminds me that understanding my client’s organisational landscape and vision enables me to help them understand the value of careful planning and strategy. It is not simply about landing a handful of people, but providing purposeful advice as clients navigate complex initiatives.

My many readings on freedom of speech are important because of the common theme of diversity of voice, and the reminder that every conversation has meaning and intent. Listening and speaking with transparency and simplicity drives trust and helps to clarify my client’s own intent and vision.

When discussing purposeful leadership, how could I not share my total admiration for the United States’ 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. The book, Lincoln on Leadership, puts on display one man’s courage to manage diverse opinions on military tactics and leadership, his ability to make prompt and effective decisions, and delivering arguably one of the greatest speeches of all times, in the Emancipation Proclamation. To me this is a pure example of leading with purpose and conviction, and dealing with the unsettled nature it can create. I hold true to the fact that consulting is ambiguous and fraught with uncertainty. Serving with purpose means making sense of that ambiguity and gaining the trust of clients.

Daniel Bell’s The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society has a wonderful chapter on culture and its relevance on society, he

Understanding purposeful

service plays a crucial role in fostering a strong client-service mindset."

called it “the fabric of society”. His context fundamentally refers to new forms of knowledge production, communication, and social organisation. It’s interesting in direct correlation to our life as consultants and our understanding of our client’s world, the culture they work in, and how sound relationships drive a wellperforming organisation.

And lastly, the books of religious relevance – The Bible, The Torah, The Quran, The Book of Mormon – simply because the common thread in all these books is a sense of goodness, being the best person you can be, recognising the common good. There is no greater purpose than serving with faith, love and hope.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

On a personal level:

• I grow stronger in service to all – family, friends, society, and clients.

• I embrace virtues such as wisdom, courage, justice and temperance. I strive to align my thoughts, words and actions with these virtues in my life.

• I will cultivate moral integrity, self-discipline, and ethical

behaviour, even in the face of temptation for personal or professional gain or adversity.

IN OUR WORLD OF CONSULTING

• Challenges and setbacks should be treated as opportunities for growth and learning, to use to our advantage to grow with purpose.

• We should advise our clients of the same, as exercises in resilience and organisational development.

• We should always approach obstacles with a mindset of curiosity and perseverance, and seek wisdom from every experience, whether positive or negative, continuing to grow and build strength and resilience.

Understanding purposeful service plays a crucial role in fostering a strong client-service mindset, building and maintaining trusted relationships, and championing a commitment to excellence and ethical conduct. Overall, service in consultancy is about driving the organisation to fulfill its mission and deliver exceptional value to clients, while cultivating a culture of accountability and growth.

TRANSFORMATIONAL EMBRACING THE

IN CHANGE PROJECTS

In her 30 years of experience in initiating organisational change Donna Llewellyn, Account Executive, has observed the human reaction to it and how difficult it is for some. Yet she urges anyone who wants to get back to a clean core ERP suite, using the RISE with SAP strategy, to embrace it fully.

Donna Llewellyn

The rise of RISE with SAP, or GROW with SAP, brings a new era of change, and the adoption of cloud services will require companies to adapt and innovate. A clean core is the future.

It is essential for companies to embrace the vision of a core ERP solution that can be easily upgraded annually, to take advantage of the cool stuff being delivered in quarterly upgrades. Faster and cheaper to upgrade is what the world has been asking for, and SAP is delivering.

For 30 years my life has revolved around thinking about the “art of the possible” and working with companies to envision a future of efficient processes, automation and competitive advantage. For many of those years we were simply looking for integrations to solve problems of data duplication, and for real-time computing to give us the data we wanted, when we wanted it. Now, in the era of machine learning, AI, and robotics. We have all that and so much more.

Yet even welcome change is sometimes hard. During my career I’ve been observing people’s reaction to it and noted they fall into two camps; those that love and embrace it, and those that hate and resist it. Picture the scenario …

The team have been in the presentation room since 6am and we’re all on our third coffee. The systems are ready. The demo scripts are prepared. Hours of rehearsals are complete and now the time has arrived to pitch the ideas for innovation that will drive a transformational change agenda for the customer.

The crowd move in and take a seat. Some are interested, almost excited, and animated in their body language. Talking about what they are hoping to get out of the sessions and what they think will be a glimpse of their future daily work lives. Others clearly would rather be anywhere else but in a demo for the next four hours.

The challenge with change comes from a tendency to see things as problems rather than opportunities for learning and growth.”

Whilst I’m trained (as a presenter) in presentation skills and how to read an audience, I am always fascinated about how some people love change and how others will do anything to avoid it. It starts right there; from the moment they walk into the room. Have they come with the desire to create a new future and change the way a company operates? Or have they come for the free coffee, snacks, and a snooze in the back corner of the room?

We start by looking at the processes and how we could improve them, automate them, or remove duplicate steps. We look for ways to save costs and remove risk or error out of the processes. These concepts on their own are not so disruptive, and there is usually a buzz of excitement in the room when the new screens, graphics and alerts are shown. Even those asleep in the back corners will often open their eyes for a moment to look at the future, before promptly returning to their phones for some distraction.

Why is change so hard for some?

I am not a change management specialist, but having initiated change in many organisations, I believe the challenge with change comes from a tendency to see things as problems rather than opportunities for learning and growth. Most people are afraid of changing their routines because they have built an empire of knowledge and power. People can’t always see the value in the new skills they will learn. Yet projects provide a wonderful opportunity to learn those new skills and add value to that resume that’s gathering dust.

Fast-forward three months on from the demos and the decision has been made to progress with the project. The contracts are signed, the team assembled, and the cups with the motivational project name are scattered along the desks. The project team is embracing the challenge of change, and this is the fun part – well, it is fun for those of us who love change. What can

we create? What can we do better? What can we streamline? How can we save money? What annoys us during our day that we want to make less frustrating? How can we grow revenue and bring on new customers? How can we save the planet? And the list goes on …

Coming back to the rise of RISE with SAP … there are so many innovations to be built in the BTP platform, embracing the cloud solutions of SuccessFactors, Ariba, Concur, CX etc; all while keeping the core clean and reducing the cost of future upgrades. However, for this vision to become the new reality, we need to ask ourselves, “How can we change and do this better?”. Otherwise, we could be simply moving from a 20-year-old installation of SAP to a newer version of the 20-year-old processes.

So, my question to you is, can you do it?

Can you see change as an incredible opportunity for learning and growth?

Can you be the person who walks into the demonstration with excitement, optimistic about the next evolution of your company’s core ERP suite, and then go back to the team and make the vision a reality?

I hope so. Artificial and human intelligence are reshaping ERP, and while AI may be the topic on everyone’s lips, we still need the human consultants working on the next generation of ERP to drive the transformational change projects of the future.

This will only be possible if you are willing to revisit the processes, to truly welcome change and embrace the delivery of a clean core strategy.

While AI may be the topic on everyone 's lips, we still need the human consultants working on the next generation of ERP to drive the transformational change projects of the future."

What is RISE with SAP?

RISE with SAP is how SAP is moving customers to the cloud, enabling them to modernise their technology stack with the world-leading infrastructure providers. Cloud solutions, infrastructure and services are combined to deliver a clear migration path to the cloud. Weave into the solution the business process tools from the Signavio suite, and you have the perfect platform to revisit and change (or simplify) those old processes into new ones.

Embracing a clean core with standard processes will make those future upgrades more cost-effective and faster, and should also reduce the total cost of ownership. But only if we don’t bring across the 20-plus years of emotional baggage. Use the Signavio tools to look at how to improve and reinvent your processes by collaborating with your team.

SAP S4/HANA cloud, along with the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), provides customers with the solutions they need to enhance and extend their process – all while keeping the core clean.

Why an internal change & training team should manage your transformation project

Why should organisations invest in an internal change and training team versus a full outsourced model?

Lyn CampbellAnderson, People Change Lead and Rebecca Bottomley, Head of Training & Adoption Solution Advisory Asia Pacific Japan at SAP Australia share their views.

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to sit down with Rebecca Bottomley, Head of Training & Adoption, Solution Advisory Asia Pacific Japan at SAP Australia. I wanted to get her perspective on a question that is often asked during a ‘software’ change journey:

Why should businesses consider investing in an internal change and training team versus a full outsourced model?

In my view this is a crucial consideration often overlooked or misunderstood by a business on how to embark on the journey. Rebecca agreed, expanding with:

“Harnessing internal expertise helps target the right outcomes for your business. Internal teams are the secret sauce for success, blending professional skills with an intimate knowledge of the organisation. By leveraging

Rebecca Bottomley (left)

Lyn Campbell-Anderson (right).

your own experts, you amplify the impact of your SAP investment. Your internal change and training teams aren’t just conduits for change, they’re strategic partners in navigating the transformation journey. With their guidance, businesses can identify and mitigate risks before they become a problem.

“Your internal champions understand the intricacies of your business, ensuring seamless alignment between technology and strategy. Investing in your people isn’t just about ticking boxes; it’s about driving tangible results. Your key to transformational success lies within your organisation. Harness their expertise and chart a course towards greater return on investment.”

We both concurred that, regardless of whether an internal or external team is assigned to the project, there needs to be a focus on the people component throughout the lifecycle. Yet the depth of cultural and business understanding held by an internal training and change management team is just one of many advantages they have over an external consultancy.

Rebecca and I then delved further into the numerous benefits of investing in an internal training and change management team to oversee the project transformation activities.

Our conclusions ...

Empowering your people: the strategic imperative for an internal change and training team

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital transformation, the true measure of success lies not just in successful software deployment, but in the people who embrace and

While much emphasis is placed on the technical aspect of IT projects, the effort required to take care of the human element is often underestimated.”

use it effectively. As someone deeply passionate about facilitating change and training for software systems, I have witnessed first-hand the critical role played by internal change and training teams in ensuring the seamless adoption of new technologies. This mirrors Rebecca’s experiences.

The human element in digital transformation

While much emphasis is placed on the technical aspect of IT projects, the effort required to take care of the human element is often underestimated. The project team can become so engrossed in preparing the software that they neglect to adequately address end-user training and change management activities.

It is crucial to recognise that the ultimate value of the software investment is only realised when end-users start using the systems proficiently. And that requires endusers to be well trained.

Avoiding the pitfalls of failure

Statistics reveal a sobering reality: The primary reason for the failure of software implementations is often the lack of effective training and change management. We have seen many a failed project hit the headlines with the business blaming poorly-executed change management as the key cause. Without a structured approach to prepare end-users for new systems and processes, businesses risk costly disruptions to their operations post-launch.

Optimising internal change and training expertise

Businesses that invest in internal change and training resources to work alongside the project team reap numerous benefits. Dedicated internal resources serve as the custodians of organisational knowledge, ensuring that change and training strategies align closely with business objectives, priorities, and budgets. By overseeing the

quality of training across various projects, the internal team can provide cohesion and consistency alongside valuable insights and guidance, ultimately driving project success. That expertise will stay in the business for the next project.

A unified approach to change and training

One of the key advantages of having internal change and training resources work with the project team is the consistent application of organisational guidelines and methodologies. Rather than each project devising its own approach to change and training, the internal team can provide standardised tools, templates, and best practices, fostering consistency and efficiency across the organisation.

From setting clear objectives to enforcing quality standards, internal change and training team members play a pivotal role in every stage of the digital transformation journey. By leveraging their expertise and insights into cultural nuances, businesses can accelerate project timelines, reduce duplication of

effort, and deliver training that resonates with end-users.

Sustaining success beyond go-live

The role of an internal change and training team extends far beyond the initial implementation phase. These teams are instrumental in maintaining training materials, updating content, and ensuring ongoing user proficiency long after the project has concluded.

Maximising knowledge

management effectiveness in the digital era

In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital transformation, the seamless integration of diverse training, support and knowledge management tools is essential for effective end-user training. Internal change and training teams serve as the linchpin in selecting and integrating these tools, establishing a cohesive knowledge management architecture. Leveraging enterprise training tools such as SAP Enable Now and integrating them with key platforms like SAP Cloud ALM, as well as the organisation’s

As businesses continue to navigate the complexities of digital transformation, it is crucial not to overlook or misunderstand the importance of investing in training and change management.

Whether they choose to invest in an in-house team or outsource to a consultancy is up to the organisation. However, the costeffectiveness, longevity, consistency, and benefits of investment in an internal team that can be augmented with an external consultancy cannot be overstated. By prioritising the human-centric element and empowering their people, businesses can unlock the full potential of their technology investments, driving growth, innovation, and ultimately, long-term success.

business process mapping tool and testing tool, ensures the seamless alignment of training with production system releases.

This integrated approach not only streamlines training processes through dynamic synchronisation across the knowledge management landscape, but also reduces the effort to create, maintain and deploy end-user training content. With the guidance of internal experts, organisations can harness the power of these tools to empower their workforce, drive innovation, and achieve long-term success in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

Embracing a strategic imperative

In an era defined by rapid digital transformation and AI, businesses must recognise the strategic imperative of investing in their people. By establishing an internal change and training team to oversee project training activities, businesses can empower their workforce, drive innovation, and position themselves for sustained success in an increasingly competitive landscape.

Find out more

Why digital adoption is so important to the success of SAP projects – blog post by Thomas Jenewein 1

Sydney Water Implements Digital First Learning Approach 2

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

BEST PRACTICES, ANTI-PATTERNS AND LESSONS LEARNT FROM SAP BTP ADOPTIONS

Prashant Kumar, Mustafa Bensan, Thiago Ourives and Aidan Davis sit around the table with ANZSAP Magazine’s Danielle Chung in this conversation focused on SAP BTP. They discuss technology stack choices, user adoption, and the benefits of adhering to predefined architectural patterns in BTP implementations.

Prashant Kumar

Mustafa Bensan

Thiago Ourives

Aidan Davis

THE PANEL

MUSTAFA BENSAN ( MB )

Founder and Chief Architect, Intentum

My name is Mustafa Bensan. I’ve been involved in the SAP community since 1992 when I first started on an R/2 project as a functional consultant for the finance domain covering the FI/CO areas. As a result of that I gained an understanding of all of the other integrated business processes. My journey has gone from functional consulting transitioning to reporting and analytics, and then to solution and enterprise architecture.

Being adventurous, I’ve taken the plunge to establish a boutique SAP consultancy, Intentum, where I work with clients in the quality assurance of SAP S/4HANA implementation projects and solving problems using SAP Business Technology Platform and other complementary cloud platforms.

“If you don't know where you want to go, then it doesn't matter which path you take.”

Prashant Kumar, quoting Alice in Wonderland

How much should the current capabilities strategy dictate the choices on the technology stack, and what other variables should a customer consider?

MB: I’ve found, especially if the IT department is involved, there’s a tendency to look at what toys you have to play with, meaning the technology stack is looked at first. Yet ultimately, the business problem should drive the technology. This means understanding that problem first and then looking at the current technology stack to support it. Then also look at complementary technologies that might address it.

So, in the case of non-BTP SAP customers, we can make decisions about whether BTP might solve the problem. Alternatively, if a customer has BTP, alongside other technology stacks, such as AWS or Azure – can we use complementary services, from the other stacks, that might do something a little better than BTP or vice versa? And how can we mix the two?

The key point is that it’s “a problem looking for a solution” perspective rather than a “technology solution looking for a problem to solve”.

PK: I agree 100 per cent with what Mustafa said. I will just extend the thought chain. One of my favourite quotes from Alice in Wonderland is “If you don't know where you want to go, then it doesn't matter which path you take.”

It’s no different for technology adoption. From the organisation perspective you have to know what you want to do, otherwise if you blindly start following a vendor’s road map, it can be a bottomless pit. Budget constraints mean you need to know where you want to invest. Therefore, you have to be aware of your top challenges and how you want to resolve them. Wishful thinking is not a strategy.

“A good software solution is not built, its grown”. You have to “grow” a solution using different technologies and products and therefore a good understanding of the current capabilities and catalogue is important.

Gartner has a useful model for looking at it from the Pace Layer perspective. You can classify your systems into three layers – System of Innovation, System of Differentiation and System of Record. A higher rate of change is expected in the Innovation layer and a greater stability in the System of Record layer. Your IT strategy and technology choices should reflect this.

TO: Although I think internal capability and team skillset does influence any future SAP roadmaps and technology decisions, it shouldn’t be used as a limiting factor, rather an opportunity for personnel upskilling and retraining. This allows the business to retain key people and knowledge while moving forward with the technology roadmap.

That being said, looking outside the SAP team will allow a whole company strategy, which enables cost optimisation and resource allocation. This is especially true where there’s higher maturity and frameworks already in place, or an ownership overlay.

Good examples are data and analytics, and digital applications. With an existing and non-SAP modern data platform, it makes sense to consider an integrated approach instead of creating a new and SAP-centric solution, which can then lead to siloed information. Going back to internal capabilities, if there’s a strong internal team for app development that’s fluent in React, it makes sense to co-create any custom Fiori apps leveraging the existing skillset.

“From the organisation perspective you have to know what you want to do, otherwise if you blindly start following a vendor’s road map, it can be a bottomless pit.”

Prashant Kumar

THE PANEL

PRASHANT KUMAR ( PK )

Director SAP Architecture and Innovation, Capgemini

My name is Prashant Kumar. I started in the SAP ecosystem back in 2005. Currently I’m working at SA Power Networks as an Enterprise Architect.

For the past 10+ years I have been involved in Architecture, Strategy and Technology advisory globally. I have lived and worked in USA, UK, Canada, Sweden, India before moving to Australia in 2018.

In a past life my team were runners-up for the SAP HANA innovations award (2015) and for quite some time I was a topic leader on SDN for Enterprise Portal. I just gave away my age!

I started my SAP journey as an ABAP developer before moving to SAP NetWeaver, SAP BTP and finally to a technology agnostic problem solver.

In my current role I am responsible for bringing Business and IT together to develop fit for purpose cost effective solutions and drive innovation.

AD: Mustafa brings up a great point—whether BTP is the right choice for a given project should always be questioned. In my view it’s crucial that business requirements drive these decisions, favouring a cohesive architecture and laying foundations for future business changes. That’s why the clean core is so important; keeping the core system untangled from customisations means easier upgrades and adaptations as businesses evolve.

I also agree with Prashant in how reliability and scale requirements should ultimately guide technology choice. As a developer, it’s tempting to dive into the latest shiny technologies, but in many cases, opting for a slightly less recent version with long-term support is the more practical approach.

Finally, Thiago’s suggestion about leveraging existing skillsets within the business is valid, especially when it aligns with project

requirements. However, this needs to be carefully balanced against what’s best for the business. It’s not just about using the skills you have; it’s about ensuring those skills can deliver the right solution.

What’s been your experience with user adoption of BTP solutions?

PK: My recent focus has been on building customer-facing portal solutions. I’ve found that end users don’t care much about what is under the bonnet. What they’re looking for is a simple and intuitive user experience. And the bar is set high in respect of expectations because their point of reference is Facebook, for example. I’m not saying that it’s always possible or desirable to create a Facebook-like user experience but it’s pretty much a North star, especially for the new generation. Their experience has been shaped by browser or mobilebased applications. Therefore, when you’re rolling out a BTP solution, it’s very important that you have the

end user in mind, not only for B2B or B2C, but also for internal people. People want and expect simplified user experiences.

MB: A very common area and probably currently, the most predominant, is around integrations, so adoption of SAP’s middleware solution, Integration Suite. Typically, when you’re moving to S/4HANA, there’ll be a lot of integrations with other SAP products such as SuccessFactors, Ariba or even nonSAP products. By standardising the integrations or providing prebuilt integrations with the other SAP products, you could say Integration Suite has almost been mandated by SAP. Certainly, customers tend to go with it, rather than picking a non-SAP integration product.

Then there’s the building of new solutions to address gaps in the standard SAP functionality. Questions arise on how to do that, also whether to do that as an extension on BTP and integrate

THE PANEL

THIAGO OURIVES ( TO )

Solution Architect - Independent

My name is Thiago Ourives and my SAP journey started as an ABAP developer for SAP R/3 implementation projects for one of the lead SI’s in LATAM, passing through Solution Architect at SAP Labs where I was lucky enough to work with SAP HANA and UI5 before general availability.

Moving to Australia in 2015 and working in Solution Architect and Process Intelligence roles ever since, currently with a greater focus on delivering SAP solutions with a process-oriented mindset and having value realisation as the end goal.

THE PANEL

AIDAN DAVIS ( AD )

Senior Manager, Deloitte SAP Practice

Australia

I started my SAP career in my second role out of university as a mobile application developer, building native applications with an SAP backend for warehousing and logistics. This led me to join the Fiori development team within the same company, which was quite advanced at the time. I learned the full ABAP stack alongside modern Fiori and cloud development, and always pushed to bring modern application design approaches into the SAP world.

Several years later, I joined Deloitte, where I’ve applied these skills to numerous client projects, both within and outside of S/4 implementations. I have had a large hand in developing our Australian BTP market offering and am heavily involved in the SAP AppHaus, where we apply design thinking and human experience to application and solution development.

with the back-end systems such as S/4HANA.

This would depend on the level of maturity of the client and, especially coming from ECC to S/4HANA, adopting based on circumstances and requirements.

That’s also being complemented by automation. SAP Build Process Automation is one of the other products under the BTP umbrella and, as a low-code, no-code tool it’s easier to adopt. This means taking certain business processes, such as maintenance and approval of business partners for example, creating a workflow to capture the necessary information, initiate the relevant approvals, and other automations for mass uploading of data into SAP. That’s another class of adoption.

Then the third area of adoption relates well to Prashant’s point around user experience. The offering under BTP, in this respect,

is SAP Build Work Zone. This gives various options of consuming SAP’s products, such as S/4HANA, so there’s a simple launchpad or more of a portal-like concept. And what I’ve seen customers do is start that journey even before they move on to S/4HANA, to maximise the user experience and adoption.

For example, an ECC customer implementing Build Work Zone and the launchpad for centralised access, not only to their ECC system, but to other systems such as Ariba and SuccessFactors. They’ve then improved the user experience and started the enduser transition while they’re still on ECC, because as Prashant mentioned, what the users care about is what they see and interact with on the front end, without caring about what’s under the covers. Then when they upgrade and transition to S/4HANA, they still have the same front end that continues to work with some enhancements.

An important point here is related to Prashant’s comments about current generation user expectations, what I would term “consumer grade user experience”. What’s interesting is you can create a user experience that doesn’t have to look like typical SAP, especially where you want a portal to interact with suppliers or customers not familiar with SAP. And I know with the portal that Prashant’s mentioned, they’ve done a great job of creating that consumer grade user experience. Even though it’s deployed and built on BTP, you wouldn’t necessarily think it was an SAP solution.

Regarding this, I’ve had experience of trying a different approach whereby we applied technology not typical to SAP for the user experience. So, getting a little technical here, but if you follow the Fiori approach, there’s SAP’s UI5 library and that’s where you get the common Fiori look and feel. We wanted to use BTP but

provide that consumer grade user experience, so we used completely different front-end technology, more around React and Bootstrap. When you look at the solution, it’s geared towards a consumer grade user experience, but under the covers it is still actually SAP.

TO: The SAP landscape is moving from one large application to endto-end solutions delivered across multiple technologies. I believe a good success metric and key to user adoption is offering a seamless experience across all technology stacks. That, for me, is where SAP BTP will perform best, as a platform for process orchestration across the SAP landscape.

To Prashant’s point that people want a simplified and easy experience … from a technical perspective, this may translate to some additional love when thinking about the UX. Understanding for example, that nobody wants to put their password in twice to go from timesheets to setting their performance goals, and that this additional care will buy you goodwill for future changes.

In terms of how to achieve Mustafa’s “consumer grade user experience”, a few common observations I can share relate back to collecting data on how the system is currently being used, understanding the end-to-end process, finding any blind spots, and using BTP to either connect the dots or to create a streamlined workflow.

The BTP services chosen to realise this strategy will vary, but Signavio Process Intelligence is a good starting point for understanding current system usage, leading to a Value Realisation Roadmap that can engage business stakeholders early on.

Regarding IT departments, BTP adoption relies on an understanding

of SAP as an asset. Achieving this requires either a maintenance plan or a framework for continuous improvement – there’s a large difference in the lifecycle of a webbased application compared with a solution built on top of a traditional SAP NetWeaver stack. There are cases of ABAP reports and jobs running for 10 years-plus without any maintenance or change. That won’t be the case with BTP, as it’s built on top of modern browserbased runtimes that require more frequent adjustment and updates.

AD: Regarding user adoption of SAP, the reality is that users often don’t have much choice. The decision to implement SAP solutions are typically driven by enterprise needs, and traditionally change is done to users rather than with them. BTP has the potential to shift that balance, bringing user experience and design thinking to the forefront.

In my experience, BTP provides far more flexibility in developing and designing solutions. This allows for a more agile approach, where you can involve users in the development process and make iterative improvements based on feedback. This is a significant shift from the traditional waterfall approach, where user input often comes too late in the process to make meaningful changes, resulting in a lack of the end user buy-in that’s critical for success.

Involvement with the Deloitte SAP AppHaus has shown me first-hand the significant benefits of human experience design. Gaining stakeholder involvement and investment during the explore and design phases of a project, ensures the solution will meet the real business needs and also work effectively for the end user.

Looking to the future,

Looking to the future, automations and AI present major opportunities for enhancing BTP user experience. SAP has already demonstrated some impressive use cases, such as AI-driven approvals for common work items.”

Aidan Davis

automations and AI present major opportunities for enhancing BTP user experience. SAP has already demonstrated some impressive use cases, such as AI-driven approvals for common work items. By automating routine tasks, we can free up human operators to focus on more valuable and engaging work.

I think what we can take out of this conversation is, there's so many different ways to skin a cat, right? There are so many things you can do with BTP. Prashant, do you have any more to add before we move on to the next one?

PK: Yes, one critical part which

I missed from a BTP adoption point of view, is that it’s not only about the end users but also the development teams. The evolution of BTP embracing Open-Source technologies has been fantastic. The cross pollination of ideas and best practices have enriched the SAP ecosystem.

How can we effectively balance the need for customisation with the benefits of adhering to predefined architectural patterns in BTP implementations?

MB: When we talk about patterns, we are discussing a way of laying an architectural foundation and

governance around how to build solutions on BTP. And that’s where IT and the development team have a big input. However, I think with patterns it’s important to understand that whilst they form a foundation for best practices and guidelines for the development team to solve various problems, it’s important to make sure that they’re aligned with business requirements.

Also, to treat these patterns almost as a living document or a living pattern. Because you can’t capture everything at the beginning, and what you’ll find as you start solving business problems and looking at the patterns and trying to solve the

problems with those patterns, is that they may need to be adjusted.

You may even find there are new patterns that have arisen, so ultimately, the way to balance is to understand that the patterns are just the foundation. They’re not set in stone, and they need to evolve over time as business needs evolve and as the customer establishes and gains more maturity in their technology stack to understand how BTP fits into that stack.

PK: To emphasise what Mustafa mentioned, a map is not a territory. Just because you have a pattern, you can’t go and implement it

“

The patterns are just the foundation. They're not set in stone and they need to evolve over time.”

Mustafa Bensan

blindly. A pattern is context bound. A pattern in one context can become an anti-pattern in another. Patterns and principles provide decision consistency. Patterns are also an excellent way to build composable solutions. However, you don’t want to become a purist and forget the end goal. First make a solution ‘usable’, then worry about making it ‘reusable’.

SAP has become really good with the BTP architectural patterns. The repository which they have now has got some really good examples from customer sites and implementations. These patterns are excellent starting points to learn from the experience of others and tweak them based on your needs.

TO: To me, Barcelona is the perfect example of what a good architecture framework should look like. Everyone talks about the beautiful Gaudi buildings, but not much attention goes to the urban planning from Cerdà that made those buildings possible.

Without digressing too much historically, the Catalan enclave decided to expand its centre, and Cerdà’s approach of building blocks (manzanas) was implemented, starting with six patterns, and evolving into a final number close to 20.

This was a unique approach creating a framework that was very strict on the patterns and the flow amongst them, therefore allowing the underlying technology (i.e. pipes, transportation, etc) to be kept uniform and easily maintained.

At the same time, it was also extremely flexible on customisations and user experience, resulting in a unique city with bespoke buildings that still follow a common blueprint to a T.

I believe that’s the aim for a Solution Architect: to provide patterns that are solid enough from a governance standpoint, but flexible enough to allow any use-case to expand on it with enough room for customisation.

In the context of SAP BTP, this can be realised by having a repository of pre-approved patterns, with enough documentation and guidance that will allow its implementation as part of the internal IT service catalogue and by projects alike, that of course, doesn’t need to be implemented all at once, but gradually, as the value of the solution will compound with time, rather than erode.

AD: In many scenarios, predefined architectural patterns in BTP are the most sensible approach. They’re tried and tested, avoid risk, and ensure maintainability. However, as Mustafa said, these patterns shouldn’t be viewed as rigid rules. They need to adapt over time, incorporating new technologies and methodologies as they evolve. BTP provides a unique opportunity to blend the best of modern web architecture with established enterprise practices. This flexibility is crucial because what works today might need adjustments tomorrow.

Customisation has its place, particularly in standalone applications or specific portals, but if each solution is customised differently, you risk losing this cohesion – introducing friction and making maintenance more challenging. For large-scale implementations, consistency and accessibility are key.

Final comments or thoughts on our BTP discussion?

MB: In the end, with BTP, I think

it’s a bit of a journey. Just like it’s a journey going from ECC to S/4HANA. You take it in steps, and you benefit from the experience of others.

Also, really look at the use cases and evaluate whether BTP or complementary solutions are the best technology for them. Juergen Mueller, the CTO of SAP at the time, at one of the virtual SAP TechEds a couple of years ago, said “BTP is THE choice”, but there’s an extension to that where he says “in an SAP context”. It’s always important to consider how BTP fits in to ultimately achieve the business requirement.

PK: If I may summarise my thoughts in one line: “Technology is a means to an end. Don’t lose sight of the ‘Why”.”

TO: There’s currently lots of information out there about SAP BTP, but my favourite message and use case still relates to process orchestration. I look forward to a more mature solution from SAP, in the intersection of process and AI, that will better empower process discovery, while also being keen to hear from customers and partners about how they’re building their technology roadmap to best leverage this toolset when the time is right.

AD: BTP introduces the opportunity to bring novel architectural approaches into the SAP ecosystem, combining the stability of predefined patterns with the flexibility of modern development techniques. This approach will not only meet today’s business needs but will position us well to adapt to future challenges.

ELEVATING PARTNER SAP SUCCESS

Revealing the strategic impact of the SAP Store on business growth

Sahil Naqvi, Co-Founder, Ausforming a two-time recipient of the SAP Store Excellence award, sheds light on the pivotal role the SAP Store plays in enhancing the visibility and catalysing the growth of SAP Build Partners, aligning their trajectory with SAP 's strategic objectives.

Sahil Naqvi

The future of procurement is digital. The future has arrived!

A study published in Dec 2022 by Futurum Research in partnership with SAP, forecasted that by 2024 the majority of procurement professionals (54 per cent) would prefer their primary approach of purchasing to be online. Digital marketplaces were identified as one of the key places to procure from, and the No.1 critically important feature identified was a “one-stop for multiple vendors”.

The SAP Store is an online marketplace operated by SAP, offering a comprehensive range of SAP products, solutions, and services. It serves as a centralised platform for SAP to showcase SAP Build Partner products that use SAP technology, thirdparty software vendors, and independent developers. A place where customers can explore and acquire SAP’s software applications, industry-specific solutions, cloud offerings, and SAP Build Partner integrations.

These partner solutions complement SAP’s portfolio,

providing customers with additional functionality, customisation options, and industry expertise. Through the store, customers can discover, evaluate, and purchase SAP Build Partner solutions alongside SAP products, enabling them to address their specific business needs and requirements effectively.

Presently, SAP Store hosts more than 2,200 SAP and SAP Build Partner solutions which can be accessed by 440,000+ customers along with tens of thousands of SAP’s global salesforce.

The key to success is ‘do more than discover’.”

The path to success on the SAP Store begins with becoming an SAP Build Partner, followed by submission for a readiness check before publication on the platform. SAP offers go-to-market support to “attract customers” which includes Search Engine Optimisation, marketing and opportunities management.

The key to success is ‘do more than discover’. This includes access to trials/virtual demos, simplified clear pricing, and a precise value proposition for SAP customers with business problems that the solution

addresses. Collaborating closely with SAP Account Executives in the sales cycle is essential to aligning and optimising the value proposition for the SAP customers.

There remains a single digital entry point for customers to engage with SAP and SAP Partners. Partners can manage leads, actively collaborate with SAP per lead, analyse lead data and ultimately transact via the SAP Store, enhancing efficiency and facilitating seamless interactions.

SAP advocates best practices for success on the SAP Store, including daily access to the SAP Build Partner cockpit and responding to inquiries within two business days. Efficient usage of SAP Store Analytics improves presence by identifying where opportunities are coming from, analysing trends, and understanding which call to action was taken. The content uploaded to the store must be updated frequently and follow the provided content guidelines. Solutions that provide clear pricing and adhere to content guidelines have twice the opportunities for success.

Progression on the SAP Store means exclusive suites of joint Go-to-Market (GTM) support for “top-selling” solutions. Benefits include an assigned SAP Build Partner Manager, preferred placement on the SAP Store, internal “Sales Win” campaigns, external success campaigns, SAP Build Partner promotional activities, and business and marketing development funds. As the solution elevates to higher tiers on the SAP Store, the value to SAP Build Partners via the GTM support increases proportionally.

See Figure 1: SAP Partner monetisation progression.

SAP PARTNER MONETISATION PROGRESSION

In summary, the SAP Store empowers SAP customers to take ownership of their enterprise solution requirements by buying in their own time and on their own terms. For partners it offers visibility, GTM support, and value selling guidance from a globally recognised brand.

For SAP, it increases the utilisation of SAP’s core products and caters to customers’ requirements beyond core products –keeping competition at bay.

Given this win-win-win proposition – nearly 25 per cent of SAP sales volume flows through it – the SAP Store stands as the beacon of digital transformation in procurement, heralding a new era of seamless and efficient business solutions acquisition.

Figure 1: SAP Partner monetisation progression

RELIEVING THE PRESSURE ON SAP IT TEAMS

Is automation the solution?

An observer’s point of view.

Rick Porter, Director, Leg Up Software, looks at the current pressure on SAP IT teams and investigates automation as a possible solution.

In speaking with SAP operational leaders every day, I am hearing a consistency in the conversations …

• There is more to do than time allows.

• Business expectations are high.

• Competing priorities are numerous.

• The need to do more with less is constant.

• Finding and retaining the right kinds of skills is difficult.

And more recently …

• S/4HANA is sucking all the oxygen out of the air.

In short, SAP operational teams are under pressure, and it doesn’t look like reducing anytime soon.

System stability and availability is paramount.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes millions, are processed every hour. Even a few minutes‘ downtime can be costly. The impact is significant.

System safety and data security are critical.

Security breaches damage reputations, erode trust, and can cost millions. Boards and executives are held personally responsible for significant damage. In fact, 30 per cent of SAP systems suffer some kind of impact annually due to system compromises.

Business requirements must be met.

Markets change, competitive situations arise, new functionality

S/4HANA is sucking all the oxygen out of the air.”

Rick Porter

brings new opportunities. System and process changes need to be made. User credentials and access needs to be managed.

System changes are relentless. Critical updates and patches must be applied. New, revised, or renamed SAP products must be evaluated. Solution Manager is going away soon, alternatives are required.

The responsibilities placed on SAP IT teams are vast. Just being able to keep systems up-to-date is enormous. Ensuring systems are stable, safe and secure is another full-time effort.

However, expert in-house SAP team resources are steadily reducing. Expert knowledge is being exchanged for lower-cost offshore general knowledge. Budget for extra resources is rare.

This current SAP operational environment is resulting in significant pressure on SAP IT teams. Managing systems, user requirements, and maintaining security, often conflict.

And the situation is unlikely to change any time soon. The pressure will remain, and quite likely intensify.

SOURCES OF PRESSURE

SAP operational teams need to navigate the conflicts of system uptime, resources availability and system security. A balancing act.

One of the key reasons SAP teams fall behind in applying security patches and updates is a fear of system disruption. An SAPsupplied patch is a small black box of changes. Its impact is unknown

and system disruption could result if applied.

Another reason SAP teams fall behind in applying security patches and updates is lack of time and resources. Analysing the contents of each patch or update, assessing the impact, and then testing for issues is resourceintensive. Often, the required resources are unavailable at the right time.

Every change applied to SAP systems can potentially disrupt production stability. Anything from a minor enhancement through to

a new business process can result in unexpected consequences. Assessing the impact of these changes is difficult, and testing is time consuming. Shortcuts are often taken to deliver to business expectations.

Although the policy often changes with the ins and outs of CIOs and CFOs, the trend toward reducing the size of in-house SAP team resources continues. Ranging from offshoring to lowercost contracted resources to outsourcing entire infrastructure and operations maintenance, CIOs and CFOs are looking to

reduce their overall costs.

Yet offshoring and outsourcing often leaves in-house teams devoid of the experience needed. The ability to quickly assess impacts, manage priorities, and keep system uptime and system security in balance is limited.

Another, and recent, source of pressure is the impending 2027 deadline for ECC support and S/4HANA transition. Many are yet to decide their approach. It’s not indecision; there is a lot to consider. For example, how to transition, when to transition,

where to transition to, and how to license? There are options and much research to be done – all on top of existing day-to-day activity.

IS AUTOMATION THE SOLUTION?

Many automation opportunities exist for a range of everyday operational tasks. Yet SAP operational teams have been, on the whole, slow on the uptake.

Why automate?

Reduced cost is often the first thing that comes to mind

when automation is mooted. However, in an era of limited resources and system uptime demands, increased consistency and reduced reliance on skilled resources are more important.

With critical activities outsourced and little control over the experience of resources deployed, automating processes to ensure consistent outcomes becomes important. Having fewer experienced resources in-house, automated activities will reduce the time impost on those who remain.

AUTOMATION OPPORTUNITIES

The range of automation opportunities for SAP operational teams is broad. From everydaybasis activities through to test automation and license management, most timeconsuming, error-prone and repetitive activities can be automated.

Here are some examples:

• SAP security

Few understand the entire breadth of SAP security vulnerability and if it were possible to uncover all of them, it would take months of work. There are several automation solutions that can make quick work of it, and accurately.

• SAP basis

The life of an SAP basis professional is one of reactivity, yet there are many opportunities to automate. System refresh automation is one area, and transport management is another. Both can eliminate weeks of human effort and mitigate human error.

• SAP testing

SAP test automation has been available for a long time, yet some reports say as much as 60 per cent of this work is still manual. Some solutions require major upfront work, but low-code, no-code solutions can reduce this substantially.

• SAP user administration

Often referred to as the weak link in SAP security, effective user management is critical. There are solutions available that can automate SAP user

management, optimisation, and monitoring, eliminating huge manual effort and improving the outcomes.

There are many other opportunities for automation, too numerous to document here.

WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS TO AUTOMATION?

If automation could be a pressure relief mechanism for SAP operational teams, why has, or is, the uptake slow? From my observations, there are three reasons.

• Lack of time

• Lack of budget

• Lack of exposure

SAP operational team members are time-poor.

SAP IT teams are in constant reaction mode. Their time is consumed by managing and maintaining their systems. Team members seldom have the time to be proactive.

Identifying and evaluating IT solutions is time consuming, and in many cases, a distraction.

SAP operational budgets are tight.

Budget for IT teams has always been hard to find. ROI is often hard to measure in terms of FTE saving or efficiency gains, other priorities are easier to justify.

Projects constantly consume the available budget.

SAP operational team members lack exposure to solutions.

If automation could be a pressure relief mechanism for SAP operational teams, why has, or is, the uptake slow?’’

Many SAP IT teams are not exposed to the wide range of automation solutions available. Time and budget restraints often prevent team members from attending events where new and emerging automations solutions are promoted.

MOVING FORWARD

With the need to relieve the intensifying pressure experienced by SAP operational

teams, a way for them to better balance system uptime and system security with resource limitations must be found. Given the current environment is unlikely to change soon, it’s not an easy task. However, automation stands as a potential way forward. Although it is no silver bullet, or complete answer, it can certainly help in some areas and for some team members.

THINKING BEYOND GO-LIVE

Setting up your S/4HANA transformation for success

The 2027 deadline for the end of mainstream maintenance for SAP ECC looms ever closer. Travis Smith, SAP Domain Architect of SA Power Networks, advises organisations to think beyond go-live when planning S/4HANA transformation projects, in order to set them up for optimum success.

Travis Smith

The end of mainstream maintenance for SAP ECC in 2027 rapidly approaches. For those customers with SAP ECC systems deeply ingrained and enabling critical business processes within their organisations, this presents as a formidable challenge. Yet also a transformative opportunity, one which naturally makes the C-suite nervous.

Many organisations will focus on the usual key topics within their S/4HANA planning including the transformation scope, risk mitigation, business engagement, and change management. However, many will neglect to plan for the development required in internal SAP capabilities to enable a digital transformation journey beyond S/4HANA go-live. Yet this is equally as important to plan for.

Your systems integrator will start the journey, it is your responsibility to continue it.

Most organisations will typically partner with systems integrators in their transition to S/4HANA. Systems integrators play a crucial role in the SAP ecosystem, and partnering with the right systems integrator will be critical to a successful transition.

Recognising that your systems integrator will only start this journey with you is crucial. It will be your responsibility to take the reins and continue it. This must be front-ofmind for all customers migrating to S/4HANA, but especially those who adopt a brownfield conversion, opting for an iterative transformation approach over a longer journey.

See Figure 1: Brownfield and greenfield implementations.

I am fortunate to have been part of two successful implementations

of S/4HANA, a greenfield implementation and a brownfield migration of SAP ECC to S/4HANA. Two very different projects on completely different scales, yet with shared learnings that resonate regardless of the implementation approach.

A key objective which can be easily missed within the original planning is ensuring you are set up to take the reins of your digital transformation journey beyond your S/4HANA go-live. Managing the initial scope, risk and efforts required for transitioning to S/4HANA often takes precedence, which means it may not always be the primary focus.

The phrase ‘transformation is a journey, not a destination‘ should be a pivotal consideration in your planning, recognising that your digital transformation will extend beyond your S/4HANA project, regardless of the migration approach selected.

Why do I need to be thinking beyond my S/4HANA go-live?

It is important to recognise that SAP S/4HANA and SAP ECC are fundamentally different products with considerable differences, impacting both end users and internal support capabilities.

• S/4HANA introduces foundational-level technology changes, delivering new capabilities along with a simplification of data models and processes.

• SAP Fiori provides a modern user experience in S/4HANA, which fundamentally changes how users interact with their business processes, driving actions through insights

The phrase ' transformation is a journey, not a destination ' should be a pivotal consideration in your planning.”

FIGURE 1:

Brownfield and greenfield implementations

Customers will be looking to embark on various levels of digital transformation in their transition to S/4HANA. Customers who adopt a greenfield migration approach will be looking to front-load a large percentage of their digital transformation within the go-live of S/4HANA, whilst customers who elect for a brownfield migration will typically adopt a more iterative approach to their digital transformation, post go-live, over a longer period.

Several systems integrators also now offer selective data transformation options, which allow a middle ground for customers seeking to balance transformation opportunity and migration effort.

Transformation journey for greenfield implementations

S/4HANA GO-LIVE

transformation

Transformation journey for brownfield migrations

Targeted transformation releases post go-live

Targeted transformation releases post go-live

Targeted transformation releases post go-live

Targeted transformation releases post go-live

S/4HANA GO-LIVE

Implementation will typically transform a large percentage of processes through a new implementation of S/4HANA.

Delivering increased value up front with a high degree of transformation delivered within initial go-live.

Implementation projects typically have a higher degree of investment and longer timeline compared to brownfield conversion, due to the level of business transformation included.

Brownfield conversions only allow for a small degree of transformation with the go-live and are instead focused on minimising the initial business impact.

Transformation must be achieved after go-live through iterative releases over a longer period.

Customers who opt for a brownfield migration, typically are interested in transforming a smaller number of processes compared to those opting for greenfield implementations.

leveraging an analytics capability previously not possible within transactional systems.

• Advancement in the underlying technology enables real-time operational reporting on live transactional data, along with embedded advanced analytical capabilities such as machine learning.

• Innovations in S/4HANA will only be delivered through SAP Fiori, therefore it is essential that you are embracing the new technologies and practices to extract value from S/4HANA.

The way in which extensions should be delivered within S/4HANA requires a significant shift for both SAP functional and technical resources:

• From a functional perspective, greater capabilities exist to optimise the user experience and deliver common extension requirements that are upgradeproof using so called “in-app” extensions. This will provide greater level of responsibility within SAP functional resources, as the majority of these can be completed without needing development resources.

• From a technical perspective, an understanding of the three-tier extensibility model and skills within UI5, CDS view development, and new technology stacks such as the Business Technology Platform (BTP) will be required. These changes will be just as much a cultural and mindset shift as a technology shift.

The new patterns will require an evolution of your governance models to incorporate the new flexible extension patterns and user experience considerations. Alignment to S/4HANA best

practices for extensions is mandated in S/4HANA cloud (public cloud), whereas those customers with deployments on S/4HANA private edition (private cloud) and on-premise will require discipline and clear governance to maintain alignment.

Are you set-up and ready to carry the baton from your systems integrator?

Beyond your initial S/4HANA go-live, there will be requests to address new business requirements supporting continuous improvement, as well as ongoing projects to deliver new capabilities and further larger-scale transformation. It is highly likely that a number of these initiatives will be delivered by your own internal resources, rather than a systems integrator.

Do you have the right roles and responsibilities, governance, and expertise in place for the new technologies introduced? For items that are outsourced, do you have enough internal knowledge to govern the delivery of those pieces such that they are consistent with best practice on S/4HANA? See Figure 2: Transformation Journey (right).

Implications and challenges

Consciously prioritising the upskilling of internal resources in the new capabilities within S/4HANA and BTP, along with a clear strategy and governance around extensions, is recommended as a crucial element within your planning. Doing so will help set you up for success beyond your S/4HANA go-live, ensuring that:

• The ability to drive new value from S/4HANA does not stagnate after the initial go-live. (Once you have momentum, it is important to keep it.)

• New requirements are built on the correct technology, aligned to

The ability to drive new value from S/4HANA does not stagnate after the initial go-live.”

S/4HANA best practice. (Let’s not bring the old furniture to our new house.)

There are potential barriers organisations will face in readying their internal resources to support ongoing transformation beyond S/4HANA go-live, such as:

• The need for operations to continue. Existing resources also need to manage business-asusual.

• Systems integrators may be hesitant to transfer knowledge.

• Executive focus may be on the original risk of transition to S/4HANA.

• Change is difficult. A lot of SAP resources have lived and breathed SAP ECC and ABAP for decades.

As you embark on your S/4HANA journey, I share the following recommendations focused on shaping your internal team for success beyond go-live

FIGURE

Shaping your internal team for success beyond go-live ...

01

Invest early in upskilling internal resources

There are several SAP learning resources available to customers today that didn’t previously exist, to help prepare your teams for S/4HANA, many of which are free of charge. For example, the “S/4HANA Fiori bootcamp” is offered quarterly by SAP, providing an opportunity to get hands-on training across all resource types in your team. The course provides a solid foundation of SAP Fiori knowledge including detailed experience with delivering upgrade proof extensions using the 'In App' extension capability.

I highly recommend putting your entire team through this week-long training prior to your S/4HANA go-live. Internally, we have put several resources through it twice, as recommendations have changed in the evolution of the S/4HANA product.

02

Create space for skill development

Naturally, executive focus will be on the risk associated with transitioning to S/4HANA. Conversations will be required to sell the importance of setting up the internal capability for

ongoing transformation. Consider back-filling staff for key roles to ensure the team can upskill through training and reinforce the learning within your S/4HANA project. Different resources will develop at difference paces, so consider establishing core working groups to champion the ongoing implementation of new strategies and patterns in S/4HANA.

03

Developing a user-centric culture in the team

A user-centric focus is a must within your original S/4HANA project to ensure the ongoing adoption of the new solution; however, it is equally important for continuous improvement. This means your internal team needs to have appreciation in the value of it, embrace it, and leverage user insights to tailor the user experience within S/4HANA.

The Fiori user experience in S/4HANA is, in many ways, a mindset shift; hence, a list of requirements is no longer enough. It is essential to understand the root cause of the current-state behaviour to enable a target-state experience which truly meets user needs, in order to achieve high adoption. Without consistent adoption, you will not achieve the sustained

outcome you are seeking.

A user-centric focus, coupled with the new capabilities possible within S/4HANA to optimise the user experience, can be a powerful combination. However, one without the other could leave you falling short.

04

Shape your own why

Change is far easier to achieve with collective buy-in to the ‘why?‘ and a sense of contribution to the outcome.

As mentioned above, several changes for your internal teams will be as much about a mindset shift as a technology shift.

Based on learnings, one approach we have taken internally at SA Power Networks is establishing a working group of internal resources to lead specific strategies coupled with some validation from SAP, rather than simply outsourcing it. An example of this is a refresh of our SAP extension strategy which aligns to clean core principles, guiding how extensions for S/4HANA should be executed. Such an approach has built collective buy-in for the strategy, and therefore a collective focus on the ongoing alignment to it.

05

Own the driver‘s seat

Lastly, as we move into a time in which technology change is occurring faster than we can keep up, you’re going to get a lot of advice, information and direction from different vendors and systems integrators. A strong architecture practice with a sound understanding of vendor directions, value proposition and implications, will be critical to safeguarding decisions that are in the best interest of your organisation’s strategy. Ensure you have a strong architecture capability in place to guide your transformation path and subsequent investment.

Define a clear transformation journey

In conclusion, it is essential to incorporate the development required for your internal capabilities in your S/4HANA planning. This will help maintain momentum and quality in your digital transformation journey beyond your S/4HANA go-live.

Set yourself up for success to navigate your S/4HANA implementation and importantly, your ongoing transformation aspirations, with confidence, by developing a usercentric focused team, equipped with expertise aligned best practices within S/4HANA. Without a map, any road looks promising. Take responsibility for defining a clear route in your transformation journey.

HOW WILL TRANSFORM YOUR FINANCE TEAM? AI

ANZSAP Magazine’s Danielle Chung (left) interviews Gina McNamara, SAP’s CFO for the Asia Pacific, and Japan (APJ) region.

Not so long ago, business finance management and Artificial Intelligence (AI) seemed to belong to entirely different conversations. Yet, according to Gina McNamara (right), SAP's CFO for the Asia Pacific, and Japan (APJ) region, SAP has been building AI into its products for years. Here, she tells ANZSAP Magazine’s Danielle Chung how SAP’s own finance teams are using AI and how it has the capability to reinvent the entire business finance landscape.

Gina McNamara (left) Danielle Chung (right).

To kick off, can you give us a progress update on SAP’s progress with AI?

Gina McNamara: We’ve had AI embedded in our products for many years and I‘ve had the benefit of working in our finance team and the ability to access that. However, generative AI took centre stage at our signature customer event, SAP Sapphire. We announced that SAP has infused generative AI throughout our business portfolio, which is allowing customers to exploit business AI specifically with our ‘Joule’ virtual copilot. We‘re well on our journey and I‘m really looking forward to embracing more of the technology and getting the benefits within my finance team in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ).

Thank you for the update. We did a callout for questions on our LinkedIn page, and thought this one was great: “How does AI in SAP plan to tackle operational gaps and organisational challenges in process, systems and data?”

Gina: That’s a good question. We‘ve set up an efficiency program which has top priority. From a global finance team point of view, we undertook a ‘finathon’ which generated over 300 submissions and ideas which will solve some of our biggest internal challenges.

There are many ideas we had already prioritised for funding specifically around our global commercial finance area, such as Chat QTC (Quote to Contract), which is a repository of all SAP’s finance policies in order to assist our sales and finance teams to service our customers much faster. They use a copilot-style prompt to generate the information required to not only serve the customers faster, but also for our internal

finance teams to make decisions faster on what we want to do with our customers. We‘re also utilising machine learning around our deal approvals. We also have our CFOs testing the machine results versus their own decision making.

So that‘s a couple of internal things that we‘re doing. But we definitely have an overall much broader process excellence program that we’re running across the entire company.

Great to hear how SAP is generating AI ideas internally. How is AI currently being used by finance systems, and can that apply in any sector, to improve business efficiency and accuracy?

Gina: A good example to show how my team is utilising it, is in respect of the forecasting process. This has traditionally been very intense, particularly around topline revenues, and we of course have the systems to cope with it. However, when I started this role three years ago, we would always ask our CFOs for a nearest-the-pin, which just means, “what do you think we‘re going to hit at the end of the quarter?”.

Being a quarterly-driven sales business, a few years ago we started to rely on machine learning for this process. As a regional CFO with responsibility for India, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Korea and Japan, it‘s really helped me to be faster in my advice to our regional President. The technology is only as accurate as the data you feed it. However, as the quarters and years have continued, it‘s become extremely accurate and given me a lot more time to spend on strategic topics over day-to-day forecasting. So, I think that’s quite applicable to most businesses where the CFO in particular,

AI CAN IDENTIFY OPTIMAL TIMES TO PAY SUPPLIERS AND COLLECT RECEIVABLES TO MAXIMISE CASHFLOW.’’

and the finance teams, are so involved in the day-to-day.

Anything you can do to speed up that time – and add time to generate more value in what you‘re doing – to me, that’s time well spent.

Can you give me some specific examples of mundane finance tasks that AI can automate?

Gina: There are so many. But from a financial steering perspective, our accounting teams spend an incredible amount of time on validation. So in the finathon, another idea that could be used in any type of accounting validation or FP&A process is a prompt editor which targets deviations between actuals, budgets and forecasts. As well as the root causes that trigger those deviations.

You could do it on any finance

process such as cashflow or receivables metrics, and it could be used not just by FP&A but commercial teams and shared delivery or shared service hubs. These teams are under great pressure on reporting deadlines, meaning there’s a really great opportunity to reduce their workloads so they can spend more time ensuring we are challenging the integrity of the AI. You embrace the AI and become better at managing it, rather than doing the mundane tasks.

Alongside AI helping to streamline and automate processes, what other advancements do you see in AI tech in finance, and how can finance teams prepare to integrate AI into their daily operations?

Gina: At SAP, our product stack covers all the business processes end-to-end, and what this means

is that customers who adopt will have a competitive edge in accessing not just their financial data, but also non-financial data. So daily business users can spend less time on the mundane tasks.

I encourage the CFOs in our customer base to run the finathon concept, not only for generating ideas but as a training mechanism to promote excitement over fear factor regarding AI.

OK so we’ve talked about automation and running more mundane tasks. Are there any ways in which AI can enhance traditional financial processes, such as budgeting and forecasting?

Gina: A lot of CFOs and their teams get bogged down in daily processes and don't have a lot of time for the strategic. Of course, they still have to do this, because

they have a responsibility to the company and shareholders to look at the long term. So often their workload can trigger burnout.

If teams are able to utilise AI to become more accurate on traditional finance processes, such as budgeting and forecasting, they can spend more time embedding some other very manual reporting around sustainability and diversity into their business goals. Having access to data and being able to drive decision-making on larger strategic goals will lead to stronger financial performance.

And if you’re not suffering burnout from mundane tasks, and are getting more brain stimulation from the strategic while still looking after your health and wellbeing, wouldn’t you be so much happier?

Absolutely! What about auditing and better cashflow management

– how can AI improve this for finance teams?

Gina: From an audit perspective, AI can process large volumes of data very quickly and accurately, detecting anomalies, patterns and trends that might indicate errors or fraud. So this would allow for continuous audits, rather than just periodic reviews. If you can get on top of human errors, you can use this to automate some repetitive tasks that are generating the problems.

In terms of cashflow, AI can identify optimal times to pay suppliers and collect receivables to maximise cashflow. It can also identify spending patterns, and therefore look at areas where costs could be reduced. AI can also automate invoice processing, payment scheduling, and reconciliations.

I notice SAP has been having

conversations about finance and SAP Concur regarding AI recently. Can you explain what SAP Concur is, and how AI can be used in conjunction with that?

Gina: SAP Concur is our travel and expense technology that’s always been quite ahead of its time. It can pair publicly available Gen AI results with your travel and expense data to create a personalised, enhanced AI experience for users. The embedded AI can also capture and pre-populate expense details. It has enhanced auditing functionality, where we can really improve the compliance for our customers. As a T&E tool, it‘s something that‘s very attractive because it automates so many of the processes that can cause fraud and other issues in a business.

We talk about curating a personal experience. Some of the technology that‘s in SAP Concur or

coming soon can facilitate that. For instance, you can tell it, “I want to travel to Japan and I‘d like to take the usual airline and stay at the usual hotel”. Whereas some traditional T&E tools, you sit there typing in different options and then trying to work out what‘s the best option per the company policy. Having generative AI available in a T&E tool is super cool.

The way AI powers SAP Concur is a great example of the human benefits that then integrate over to the financials. I definitely use it myself, and that means that I don‘t have to ask my EA to do things. That frees her up to help me with other different things. People are only just realising how much time we traditionally spend on these type of tasks.

The other thing is that SAP Concur is fully scalable – no matter whether you‘re tiny or big, it will work for you. And it’s not just quick – it knows all the compliance, regulations and policies, so you don‘t have to double check. I think that‘s gold.

We’ve been talking specifically about finance today, what other areas do you think are going to benefit from AI?

Gina: It‘s going to benefit everything, but something close to my heart regards all the increased regulations CFOs have to keep up with – particularly around data privacy, sustainability, diversity and inclusion. Non-financial metrics are something where AI can really add value in helping us to measure faster. Also, the way companies interact with each other. We have to often collect data from each other in order to keep up with regulation.

So, for me, there are so many opportunities to use AI to help finance teams, and it doesn't have to be in the finance areas. It can be across the business.

THE WAY AI POWERS SAP CONCUR IS A GREAT EXAMPLE OF THE HUMAN BENEFITS THAT THEN INTEGRATE OVER THE FINANCIALS.’’

CHART THE COURSE SAP TECHNOLOGY MODERNISATION

In this article Ava Kodeiri, Strategy & Transformation Advisor, sets out the steps necessary to successfully chart the course of modernisation for your SAP technology.

Ava Kodeiri

In the ever-evolving landscapes of enterprise technology, the move to SAP S/4HANA stands out as a transformative leap forward.

As businesses seek to stay competitive, agile and innovative, embracing S/4HANA promises unparalleled capabilities in driving digital transformation.

Demand for updated business processes that better fit current needs, meet regulatory requirements and provide end-user system satisfaction is a key factor driving S/4HANA transformations. This is only eclipsed by the looming 2027 deadline.

There is also tremendous pressure on CIOs to reduce costs and digitally transform existing ERP solutions to create a harmonised and centralised model.

Unfortunately, this leaves many organisations so focused on hurrying to jump on the transformation bandwagon, that they omit to define clear goals and business outcomes.

However, embarking on this journey requires meticulous planning, strategic foresight and comprehensive preparation to ensure a smooth and successful transition. With the end of SAP maintenance fast approaching, organisations must begin those preparations now.

To help, I have put together the essential steps to consider when preparing for an SAP S/4HANA transformation project and outlined them in this article.

”By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin

DEFINE STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES AND BUSINESS GOALS

The first step in preparing for an S/4HANA project is to clearly define the strategic objectives and business drivers for the initiative. Organisations must articulate their reasons for embarking on this transformation journey, whether it is to improve operational efficiency, enable data-driven decision making, enhance customer experience, or drive business growth. By establishing clear objectives, organisations can align their S/4HANA implementation efforts with overarching business goals and priorities.

DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE ROADMAP AND STRATEGY

Based on the assessment findings and strategic goals, organisations should develop a comprehensive roadmap and strategy for SAP modernisation. The critical step of building a business case should be undertaken at the outset of the planning process. It should outline the sequence of activities, milestones, and deliverables required to achieve the desired outcomes. Key components include scope definition, project timelines, resource allocation, budget estimates, and risk management strategies. By defining a clear roadmap and strategy, organisations can effectively plan and execute their S/4HANA implementation.

TECHNICAL STEPS

There are some technical aspects that can be undertaken in preparation of your SAP modernisation, such as Software Update Manager (SUM), readiness checks and process harmonisations using SAP tools (i.e. Signavio). Start these checks at least 12 months prior to project kick-off. That way you will have an accurate insight into your data and processes and can make informed decisions about redundant code, data, etc. In some cases, activation of SAP functionality can be done before the conversion. For example, Revenue Recognition has changed to Revenue Accounting & Reporting (RAR) in S/4HANA. You can migrate to the new solution before your conversion.

ASSESS THE APPROPRIATE DEPLOYMENT MODEL (Greenfield/brownfield/

selective data)

One of the biggest challenges for the organisations is deciding about the deployment approach. Ensure the options are thoroughly evaluated as each option has its advantages. Whether you are deciding on Clean Core strategy to reduce Total Cost of Ownership and enhance maintainability in the cloud or brownfield conversion on-premise, it is vital to dedicate time early on to determine which model is most appropriate for your organisation.

ASSESS CURRENT STATE AND READINESS

Before diving into the SAP modernisation process, organisations need to assess their current IT landscapes, technical debt, business processes, and organisational readiness for S/4HANA adoption. This involves evaluating existing systems, data structures, and processes to identify potential challenges, gaps, and opportunities for improvement. Organisations should also assess their technical infrastructure, including hardware, software, and network capabilities, to avoid any constraints in the future.

CONDUCT PROOF OF CONCEPT (POC)

Before rolling out S/4HANA across the organisation, it is essential to conduct proof of concepts and pilot projects to validate the solution and identify any potential issues or challenges. These POC allow the organisation to test the functionality, performance, and usability of S/4HANA in a controlled environment. By gathering feedback and insights from end users during the POC phases, organisations can refine their implementation approach and ensure a successful outcome.

Embarking on this journey requires meticulous planning, strategic foresight and comprehensive preparation.”

As businesses seek to stay competitive, agile, and innovative, embracing S/4HANA promises unparalleled capabilities in driving digital transformation.’’

PREPARE DATA AND SYSTEMS FOR MIGRATION

Data migration is a critical aspect of an SAP modernisation project. An assessment of the quality, integrity and relevance of their existing data and systems is required. Consequently, they need to consider data cleansing, transformation, and validation processes to ensure that data is accurate, consistent, and complete. System landscapes should also be assessed to identify any dependencies or integrations that need to be addressed as part of the migration process.

ENGAGE STAKEHOLDERS AND BUILD ALIGNMENT

Stakeholder engagement is crucial for the success of the initiative. Organisations must engage key stakeholders from across the business, including executives, business users, technology teams, and external partners, to gain buy-in and build alignment around the project goals and objectives. Effective communication, collaboration, and change management are essential for ensuring that stakeholders are actively involved and supportive throughout the implementation process.

ESTABLISH GOVERNANCE AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Effective governance and project management are essential for overseeing and coordinating the S/4HANA implementation process. It is pivotal to establish governance structures, steering committees, and project management offices to provide oversight, guidance, and advice throughout the project lifecycle. Clear roles, responsibilities, and communication channels should be defined to ensure accountability and alignment across stakeholders.

PROJECT TEAM STRUCTURE

During the external partner selection process, organisations must prioritise partners that have SAP expertise with relevant industry specific experience. Their experience history and customer references should also be evaluated carefully. They need to be a trusted advisor, not just a vendor. Engage with a partner that can help you build the roadmap, who can translate your tech goals into meeting your strategic goals and business outcomes. It is also pivotal for the organisations to have their own S/4HANA expertise familiar with the organisation’s landscape and environment, within their IT team. That is an essential success factor for the implementation process.

INVEST IN CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND TRAINING

The transition to S/4HANA represents a significant change for the organisation, impacting people, processes and technology. To ensure a smooth transition, organisations ought to invest in robust change management initiatives and comprehensive training programs. These initiatives should focus on building awareness, fostering enthusiasm, and addressing resistance to change among employees. By equipping employees with the necessary skills and knowledge, organisations can facilitate a successful adoption of S/4HANA.

MONITOR PROGRESS AND PERFORMANCE

Throughout the SAP technology modernisation program, organisations should continuously monitor progress and performance against established milestones and KPIs. Regular checkpoints, status updates and progress reports should be conducted to track project progress, identify any deviations or risks, and take corrective actions as needed. By maintaining visibility and transparency into the project status, organisations can proactively address issues and ensure that the project stays on track.

PLAN FOR ONGOING OPTIMISATION AND INNOVATION

Even after the initial upgrade is complete, the journey to S/4HANA is far from over. There is no such thing as ‘done and dusted’. At an early stage, define how the outcome of your project will continue to evolve and improve long after the project has wrapped up. It is essential to plan for ongoing support, maintenance, and optimisation to ensure the new SAP system continues to deliver value over time. The operating model must be clearly defined. Training programs and continuous improvement initiatives should be established to address evolving business needs and leverage new features and capabilities introduced by SAP.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the end goal of SAP technology modernisation is to be more intelligent and improve total experience. Preparing effectively for an SAP system modernisation that meets this goal requires careful planning, strategic alignment and proactive management.

It also requires cross-departmental collaboration and rethinking how organisations use technology, people and processes to improve user experience, ensure innovation, improve business operations, and drive value to the organisation’s bottom line.

As they embark on this transformative journey, organisations should embrace change, empower their people, and stay focused on their strategic objectives to unlock the benefits of S/4HANA and stay ahead in today’s competitive landscape. By charting the course and following these essential steps, organisations will set themselves up for successful SAP technology modernisation and realise the full potential of SAP S/4HANA.

It is essential to plan for ongoing support, maintenance, and optimisation to ensure the new SAP system continues to deliver value over time.”

EMBRACE THE FUTURE WITH EMPHASYS: YOUR ADVISORY PARTNER IN SAP S/4HANA MIGRATION

Transitioning from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA can be complex. Emphasys makes it predictable and at lower risk.

Fixed Price Emphasys SAP Readiness Assessment Package (25 days per ECC system):

Landscape Assessment: Includes archiving recommendations and addon analysis for compatibility to SAP S/4HANA.

Custom Code Analysis: A deep dive into all custom objects assessing the impact on moving to S/4HANA with effort estimation on remediation and impact to timelines, risks, and prioritisation of developments. Timeline & Effort Estimation: Detailed planning of your S/4HANA transition.

Begin Your Journey Today

Prepare for a future of innovation and efficiency. Find our solution brief on emphasys.com.au/sap-advisory-services or contact us to learn how our SAP Readiness Assessment can pave the way for your successful migration to SAP S/4HANA.

USING A DATA-FIRST STRATEGY TO ENSURE TRANSFORMATION SUCCESS

ANZSAP Magazine caught up with Gary Chua, Managing Director of Data Management Consultancy Syniti, which specialises in helping clients unlock the potential of their data assets. To find out why they advocate a data-first strategy for migration projects, we ask what a data-first strategy is, why businesses should care about it, and how to implement one.

Gary Chua

What is a data-first strategy and what role does it play in the move to S/4HANA?

A data-first strategy emphasises the importance of starting data work from day one, long before any business transformation projects begin. By leveraging modern data management techniques, businesses can immediately align their existing data with the target data model of the intended system – well before any design, process or IT work begins. In this approach, data becomes the driver of business transformation.

Implementing a data-first strategy is essential for ensuring first-time success in data transformation projects, including the migration to SAP S/4HANA. With SAP encouraging businesses to transition to S/4HANA by 2027 and phasing out legacy service support, the deadline is approaching rapidly. Given the arduous and intricate nature of the migration process, especially for large enterprises with high volumes of data and complex workflows, it is imperative for businesses to start their preparations now.

A data-first approach ensures that businesses can migrate to SAP S/4HANA on-time and within budget, while also achieving significant business value. Based on our experience, it is the proven way to get businesses to 99.99 per cent data quality, which subsequently results in on-time go-lives and delivers the intended business outcomes.

Why should businesses care about data-first?

There are three key reasons as to why businesses must prioritise a data-first approach:

1. Firstly, data is often an afterthought in major business transformations. When organisations overlook the quality, size, and scope of their data before embarking on any transformation activities, it leads to costly delays and mistakes.

2. Secondly, data transformation is integral to the success of any business transformation. In fact, any major business or digital transformation project warrants a data transformation. The primary reason for this is that data must be fit for purpose to deliver on the promises of these projects and drive real value.

3. Last, but not least, data must be a foundational element in decisionmaking for any transformation to succeed the first time. Addressing data quality from the outset lays the groundwork for success in any business transformation project.

In essence, starting data work early and focusing on the importance of high-quality data will be crucial to companies looking to drive value and innovate.

CASE STUDY

We recently worked with Zespri, the largest marketer and distributor of kiwifruit worldwide, to transform its data management and governance on S/4HANA, establishing a robust data foundation for the company‘s broader digital transformation objectives. The initial phase of Zespri’s data transformation focused on the company’s material master data, a cornerstone of Zespri‘s value chain, encompassing data such as fruit varieties, size, markets, characteristics, and packaging.

Utilising our data-first strategy in combination with our Syniti “Knowledge Platform”, we enabled Zespri to develop a solid core of reliable master data with strong governance – all accessible through a userfriendly, intuitive dashboard. This transformation effectively ensures that team members worldwide now have access to high-quality, trusted data, allowing for timely and informed business decisions.

Zespri’s Head of Data, Analytics & Enablement

Brett Hartman says: “The Horizon Programme has effectively given us an opportunity to reset our data management capability and start to build trust in our own data, which we can then use to help drive decision-making aligned with our strategy. We are starting to see improvements in the way we manage our data globally with the implementation of a trusted data platform.”

How should businesses approach an S/4HANA move to deliver positive data outcomes?

As a long-term partner of SAP, having successfully delivered SAP data initiatives to many clients, we have a proven methodology for data migration to S/4HANA that will help set businesses up for success. This methodology focuses on three key objectives:

1. Optimise spend on software and services to reduce total spend.

2. Create a minimised risk profile to ensure the project is delivered on-time and on-budget.

3. Deliver value during and postmigration, leveraging learnings about the systems, rules, and knowledge capture during the migration process.

Our methodology is centred around eight core steps (see Figure 1, below) starting with planning, doing the hard data work, all the way through to the final migration:

1. Extract: This step involves collecting and importing copies of source and target data. Built-in scanners and automation features will enable businesses to quickly do this – reducing data definition time from weeks to days and delivering complete data ecosystem visibility.

2. Assess: Conduct data quality assessments to define a comprehensive plan and build a complete picture of the project roadmap for the successful migration to S/4HANA. It is

Figure 1: The eight steps

important to aim for complete transparency and track the migration progress throughout.

3. Design: Build target design and calculate mappings.

4. Enrich: This is the process of data cleansing, with the aim of obtaining enriched and relevant data.

5. Transform: After cleansing the data, thoroughly test transformation rules through automated code generation. Identify issues and fix data errors as quickly as possible.

6. Simulate: The next step is to simulate a data migration release in a secure test environment. This is when data is optimised to match business processes and address any immediate issues ahead of the final migration. This step is crucial as it helps to eliminate unplanned

downtime that often comes with massive data migration projects.

7. Load: Once all the data preparation work is done, all business-ready data should now be transferred into the target system.

8. Reconcile: Migration metrics, errors and defects should be monitored, and any issues reconciled with business users.

Whilst these steps can apply to all businesses regardless of platform, it is important to utilise a platform that offers features such as automation, business-friendly dashboards, and simple point-andclick or click-and-go mechanisms. Leveraging a centralised data management solution such as our own Syniti Knowledge platform, which is purpose-built for the job, will ensure a more successful and streamlined migration process.

Starting data work early and focusing on the importance of high-quality data will be crucial to companies looking to drive value and innovate.’’

SAUG – It’s Like GPS for SAP

Let’s face it, navigating the vast SAP landscape can be overwhelming. There are so many tools and solutions available!

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From technical solutions to strategic guidance, SAUG helps you to stay informed and influential on your SAP journey.

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