Consultancy And Technological Innovation

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Submitted by: 21201806 Submitted to: Bruce Laurie Module: CTI Module Code: 70028E

TASK 1

Table of Contents

Introduction

ERP is an information system that integrates all departments and functions across a company into a single system that serves all those different departments’ needs.

SAP is a leading ERP Solution system widely used by leading companies worldwide. SAP’s business management, supply chain management, customer relationship management, business intelligence and mobile solutions are designed to work together with existing infrastructure.

The potential benefits of using an ERP system are streamlined business processes that benefits in lower costs and risk, improved cash flow and better financial management, higher workforce productivity, speedy and informed decision making.

SAP ERP to Severn Trent: Implementation of an ERP system involves higher involvement of cost both, money and resources. It also requires the support of the top management to the lower level of stake holders of the company.

We have selected five well reputed SAP consultancies based on company strength, past experience in implementation supports and maintenance.

SAP implementation consultancy market and a short list of five consultancies

Infosys: Offers SAP consulting service to the largest Corporations in worldwide. They are service partner of SAP. Both SAP and Infosys are working closer on strategic initiatives.

Infosys offers business consulting, outsourcing, technology and engineering services to help clients in many countries. They offer consulting services, enterprise application integration, production support and maintenance, SAP Data management services, Implementation and rollouts, SAP upgrade services, SAP Enterprise risk management services…etc.

Reference: From Company site

Wipro: They Offer SAP services across multiple verticals; Wipro is a leader in Energy and Utilities space. They have established Sap practice Enterprise Application Services over a decade ago and delivered various services to their worldwide clients.

Accenture: They offer global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing services to worldwide. They work together with vendors/clients to help them become high-performance businesses.

Gradient consulting: They specialise in helping companies to select a new ERP system or vendor, implement and improve how they work with their ERP/information systems.

They are independent and highly regarded ERP consultancy firm. They provide businesses with practical, impartial advice on how to improve their business performance through better use of ERP.

Deloitte: They are a Global SAP Partner; having over 1000 clients globally with more than 5,400 SAP professionals in 35 countries.

According to Deloitte web site, Deloitte SAP practice is experienced in the full range of implementation challenges.

Reference: All the above 5 companies taken from Company site

Reasons for selecting above five consultancies are below

They are with years of SAP expertise and got very large number of consultants.

They provide SAP full fledge services to world leading companies. Those are SAP Data management services, consulting services and package evaluation, enterprise application integration, SAP upgrade services, production support and maintenance services, Implementation and rollouts, Basis and technical consulting, SAP Enterprise risk management services, SAP package assurance services and SAP net weaver road map assessment services.

Their reputation of Successful implementations, faster rollouts, de-risked upgrades, dependable production support and best quality supports are well appreciated by the SAP Partners.

In addition to that they have experience in successful SAP implementation to Utilities companies.

A selection criterion developed to select the implementation consultants for the projects from the above list of consultancies.

The criteria used to select SAP consultants are Good references, Flexibility and Agility, Service and Support, Knowledge and Suitability and Price and Return of investment.

1. References

Testimonials from existing and past customers can provide an insight into the each and every consultant. Independent industry reports, ratings, awards of achievements are would add credibility to the reference search.

The reference-checking process may takes place before price and other detail implementation issues discussed. This helps to avoid an unqualified consultant at the earliest stage as possible.

 2. Flexibility and Agility

The consultant’s technical and business strength to cope with the Severn Trent future needs. The ability and flexibility to customize the system, to integrate with other external systems which may require to be integrated to the proposed ERP

When implementing ERP system like SAP, it is difficult to accurately assess how easy it would be to modify and maintain certain solutions. It is also difficult to predict the company’s future needs. Therefore, the consultants who are able to implement the solution in a way that eases future changes and growth and provide scope to provide an arrays of services in order to anticipate and support the ST’s future needs and growth.

3. Service and Support

The consultant’s ability and charges involve in providing long term maintenance support. The support services involve both remote and onsite. It is important to evaluate the lead time in responding to a support call, as ST operate in different locations.

Some large consultancies are too big to manage the clients; the clients are then forced to allocate their own resources to perform tasks that the consultants should be performing. It is widely known as the responsiveness and attitude of the consultants throughout the bid process will give an indication of the type of service that can be expected from them.  

4. Knowledge and Expertise

The knowledge and experience in the relevant industry are top factors to consider. The questions that to be asked;

Do they have the skill set and ability to deliver what they say they can?

Do they understand our line of business?

Is their solution a technical fit?

Do their short and long-term strategies for the solution / services match the company’s short and long-term strategies for the implementation?

Do they work in a partnership-like relationship?

5. Price and Return of investment

The most important factor in any purchase decision, does the price paid is justifying the productivity and efficiency the system provides. The long term cost involvement in maintenance support and future upgrades are factors to consider. It is also noted that selecting a consultant on only based on price is not rational, to the type of project like this, an expert consultancy firm would give a quality service but in a considerably higher cost. The success of this project will be measured on long term success of the SAP deployment to ST, thus the success of this project only generate a bigger ROI in longer term.

Weighted evaluation model and reasoning - Criteria for selection of a specialist consultancy

To evaluate the consultancies to select the implementation project an evaluation matrix is developed against selection criteria.

Weighting factors are used to define the level of importance of criteria.  

Meaning Weight       Meaning Weight  

Very high importance 5 Mandatory 5

High importance 4 Desirable 2

Medium importance 3 Optional 0

Low importance 2

Very low importance 1

Not important 0

Assign Weighting Factors to each Criterion - Assigning weighting factors are important based on their criteria. It is very important for Severn Trent to determine the weighting factors and how to assign weight factors to understand the strengths and weaknesses of a service provider.

Construct a table with criterion against consultants. Each criterion is subdivided, example shown below. The weight and scores then assigned. Finally total scores based upon the companies calculated.

Determine Scoring Factors and Calculated Weighted Scores - Each criterion is evaluated for each alternative according to how well the alternative meets that criterion. 

Use some satisfaction ranks when assigning meaning to scoring factors.  For example:

 

Meaning Score   

Fully satisfies 3

Substantially satisfies 2

Partly satisfies 1

Does not satisfy 0

Calculate Weighted Score Totals- To calculate weighted scores for each criterion, multiply the weighting factor by the scoring factor.  Total the weighted scores for each criterion to calculate the weighted score totals for each alternative.

Example Weighted Matrix with Categories - The example weighted matrix with categories illustrates how the category weights are used to balance out the effect of the different categories of criteria when determining the final weighted score totals. 

Weighted Evaluation Matrix with Categories

Criteria

Consultancy 1

Consultancy 2

Consultancy 3

Consultancy 4

Consultancy 5

References

Weight

Score

Weight

Score

Customer Ref

5

5

5

5

Industry ratings

4

4

4

5

Awards and achievements

2

3

2

3

Knowledge and Expertise

technical fit

5

4

5

5

line of business

5

4

5

4

Skills

5

5

5

5

A category score is calculated by summing the weighted scores for each criterion in the category and dividing by the sum of the weights for the criteria in the category. A weighted category score is calculated by multiplying the category score by the category weight. The final score is calculated by summing the weighted category scores and dividing by the sum of the category weights.

TASK-2

Table of Contents

Technical and operational issues involved in deciding an implementation strategy

An ERP implementation strategy determines how the ERP system will be installed. There are several transition strategies but most important of them are:

Big bang - Implementation happens in a single instance. All users move to the new system on a given date (Over the night changeover)

Phased rollout - Changeover occurs in phases over an extended period of time. Users move onto new system in a series of steps. (Department by department)

Parallel adoption - legacy and new ERP system runs at the same time for specific period of time until all issues are addressed. Users learn the new system while working on the old.

These techniques focus on the strategy of how to make the transition from a legacy system to the new ERP system. The selection of the transition strategy that is best suited for the company is crucial as a wrong strategy can result in a failed or flawed implementation. Understanding the relationships of ERP transition strategies between the process, people, and technology will assist the ERP implementers to better understand what type or combination of types of ERP transition strategy is suited.

I. Big Bang Transition Strategy:

The installation of ERP systems of all modules happens across the entire organization at once. The big bang approach promised to reduce the integration cost in the condition of thorough and careful execution. This method dominated early ERP implementations and but it contributed to the higher rate of failure in ERP implementation. All the business functions performed in the legacy system across the entire enterprise are concurrently transferred to the new system during a period of one day or a weekend.

The present day IT professionals are not encouraging big bang approach to ERP transition as it consumes too many resources. Success in using the big bang approach comes with careful pre preparation and planning.

II. Phased / Modular Transition Strategy:

The ERP system is implemented into a single functional department at a time. Independent modules of ERP systems are installed in each department, while integration of modules is done at later stage of the project. This has been the most commonly used method of ERP implementation. Phased implementation reduces the risk of the installation, customization and operation of ERP systems by reducing the scope of the implementation.

The interface programs that are used in this strategy bridge the gap between the legacy system and the new ERP system until the new ERP system becomes fully functional. This strategy is often used in situations that not have strong centralized synchronization in the ERP project. But this strategy is seen as not desirable for centralized ERP systems like SAP.

III. Parallel Transition Strategy:

The parallel approach keeps both the legacy system and the new ERP system active concurrently for a length of time. The functional business areas; finance, manufacturing, marketing etc. are operating at the same time for both the legacy and ERP systems.

An advantage of the parallel strategy is that it gives options to improvement if anything goes wrong other than planned. The business processes will not be broken up in the event of new any breakdowns in new ERP system.

This approach also provides the most sensible one to one comparisons to authenticate that the new ERP system is performing the necessary business process flows. This is ideally suited for mission critical situations that cannot survive a major break down of an ERP system.

Selecting the right transition strategy for Severn Trent

As discussed above the parallel transition strategy would be suitable for the Severn Trent. The company works around the clock since their will big risk factor involves if the Big bang strategy followed. Further the phased transition strategy may not be suitable for centralized ERP system like SAP.

In following the parallel transition strategy the company has to use resource allocations to specific departments to do the duplicate work in both systems. Company will occur extra cost in labour and technology but this system is less risky than other two.