Best Practices for delivering successful Global SAP Rollouts

As organisations grow, they often try to increase their presence by expanding existing operations locally or into the global market. As they make this move, technical infrastructure plays a vital role in supporting these operations, a fact that more and more organisations are becoming aware of.

In June 2019 I wrote an article entitled - How can we deliver more cost effective SAP upgrades this article builds on this premise.

How to transition Globally diverse units to a standardised process on a Global scale.

Because of this increased role for IT, many organisations are rolling out SAP ERP systems to support operations across entire regions or countries, or around the world. This allows for a standardised solution for all business entities. Instead of having different business processes and operations, organisations can rely on more accurate and consistent business processes at any given time in any given area.

In this article, we will discuss the challenges of a Global SAP Rollout, how to minimise those challenges, and some of the best practices to consider.

 The Challenges of an SAP Rollout

Although a SAP rollout has its benefits, it’s worthwhile to be aware of its risks and challenges, especially when executing it Globally. Here are some factors to pay attention to when planning an SAP Global rollout.

Different Regulations

For a local or regional rollout, regulations (i.e., tax and compliance regulations) are unlikely to be different.

 On the other hand, a Global rollout will probably be a significant challenge because many country have unique regulations regarding organisations’ business activities. Since the objective of the rollout is to establish standardised international operations, business unit need to follow the organisation’s internal global standard, while, at the same time, complying with the local regulations of the specific country that it operates in.

 This standardisation and regulatory compliance is often related to auditing, a process needed to ensure that the system’s security access and regulatory laws have not been violated. Without a standardised system and business operation strategy, both internal and external audits will be very challenging.

Characteristics of the Organisation

One of the most important, yet often forgotten, issues at stake is an organisation’s own characteristics. Organisations that are homogeneous in terms of business process activities will have no difficulty adapting to new centralised operations because they are already used to dealing with internal standardisation across all units.

 However, for organisations with globally diverse units that have the autonomy to manage their own business processes, it might be difficult (or more challenging) to transition to a standardised process on a global scale. Moreover, due to different languages and cultures, these organisations will also have to implement varying approaches and strategies to fulfil the standardisation needs of units in different countries.

Time and Cost

A rollout requires management and key users from all business units to collaborate in order to ensure a smooth transition. However, this can be difficult when units are spread across different countries in different time zones. Even when they are in the same region, challenges can still arise, as stakeholders have to simultaneously fulfil their daily responsibilities and focus on the rollout project.

 Budget should also be considered. For example, when delays occur due to conflicting schedules, there might be additional costs, depending on the agreement between the organisation and the SAP consulting company.

Minimising the Challenges of a Global SAP Rollout

No matter how difficult the challenges are when undertaking a Global SAP rollout, there are always ways to overcome them. Below are several approaches that can help minimise these challenges.

Clearly defining the Scope

Defining the scope is critical. In order to properly plan a project and estimate a timeframe and budget, organisations need to have a clear breakdown of what solutions should be developed, which processes should be standardised, and which processes can be tailored to local needs. If a specific customisation is needed (i.e., a certain form should be designed to fulfil local tax regulations), make sure that this additional development is included in the scope.

Organise Diverse Teams effectively

Choosing the right people for the team is essential for achieving objectives. A Global SAP rollout requires a diverse team of people—from those who have deep skills and an understanding of the whole process across all business units to those who are able to collaborate with different stakeholders (i.e., key users and developers).

Clearly define Global Template

A Global template contains basic information about the standard operation or process that will be used by all business units and entities, regardless of geographical location. In order to ensure that all business units meet an organisation’s global standards, a global template is required. An organisation needs to define what should be standardised globally and what will be allowed on a local level to cater to the unique needs of each business unit.

Find the Right Tool to Support the system Testing Process

Testing often becomes a major bottleneck when rolling out a new deployment. One of the reasons for this is lack of a testing sequence and procedure. Thus, preparing a structured testing solution and using the appropriate testing tools and products are critical steps in achieving a successful new SAP rollout.

Best Practices for Global SAP Rollouts

In general, executing a Global SAP rollout involves four phases: requirements gathering, design, testing, and deployment. In this section, we will discuss best practices for each phase, which will help achieve a successful rollout.

Requirements Gathering

First, identify the requirements, such as business process, integration flow, and testing scenarios, and then analyse the impact those requirements will have on the organisation. For example, when planning to release a certain global standard in the organisation’s financial reporting, each unit may have to create a specific financial transaction/process in SAP to meet that standard requirement. In this case, be aware that there are regions/countries that might have to simplify, or even add more processes, in order to follow this new rule.

 It is critical for every unit to be able to identify the risks of implementing standardised operations and how to mitigate those risks at the earliest stage possible. If a transaction has to be modified on a local level, the organisation must make sure that any such modifications will not affect the global standard. Therefore, careful planning and effective strategy are vital to which requirements can be easily standardised and which will have to be modified locally. This will ensure a smooth SAP rollout on a global scale.

Design

During this phase, the delivery team and the business will be transforming the strategy into a detailed plan and design. As mentioned above, defining a Global template is critical during an SAP rollout. In this phase, the organisation should define the content required of its global template in detail to confirm the new global standard of its business operations.

 Here are some examples of the components of a global template:

Business process blueprint

Technical architecture (e.g., system requirements, data integration layer)

Documentation for the solution (e.g., configuration, functional specification, master data)

Roles, authorisation, and compliance framework

Testing procedure and testing products

Training documentation

Data conversion tools

Build and Test

In this phase, the development team will build the SAP system based on the design and template that were created in the previous phase. In order to ensure that the system is built accordingly, testing should be done iteratively. System errors that occur when an SAP rollout goes live are most often due to lack of testing, and failing to test the relevant transactions and processes during development will have a negative impact on the deployment process.

 Therefore, designing and conducting the most relevant test scenarios is critical. It is also imperative to follow the testing scenarios carefully, from unit and integration testing to system performance testing. Note that using real data is one of the key attributes of successful testing for any SAP rollout.

Deployment and Optimisation

As a final step, a detailed go-live plan and schedule is necessary to ensure a smooth and effective deployment. It’s also vital to determine the proper approach when implementing the rollout. An organisation has several options to choose from when deciding how to do this: a “Big Bang” approach (doing it all at once), a rollout by geographical region, location or business unit, or a combination.

Several factors, such as business case, resource availability, and technical considerations, should be taken into account when selecting an approach. Moreover, the business should also carefully consider support for each option after the SAP rollout is live, as it can be quite costly to have parallel go-lives in multiple sites.

Conclusions

The global market offers many opportunities for organisations to expand operations. However, to fully capitalise on this, the appropriate technical infrastructure is needed. It is also imperative to have a global standard of operations in order to ensure that every business unit is meeting local and international regulatory compliance. Therefore, when expanding internationally, consider the key points mentioned in this article before starting a Global rollout.

My name is Mike Davis and I have been managing and supporting transformational change within major corporates for over 20 years. I am a keen contributor to the digital agenda and would be very interested in supporting and advising on successfully delivering business transformation change programs. Feel free to review my LinkedIn profile and should you wish to have a brief confidential discussion, a project or program review or engagement for a bid or program delivery please do not hesitate in contacting me.