Since March 2020, the motto for project managers is: keep your distance. How can large IT projects such as the conversion of the central SAP ® system to SAP S\/4HANA ® there be brought to a successful conclusion??<\/p>\n
A project manager must be "close to the action" in the project. This is especially important for large IT projects with a lot of extremely expensive personnel – the media reports about failed large projects are well known.<\/p>\n
But since March 2020, project managers have been told to keep their distance. Daily life in the home office is dominated by video conferencing, chat requests, messenger messages, cell phone calls. Common measures such as open-plan offices for task forces have become just as unthinkable as travel to ensure global rollouts on site. Not today anyway – and even with formally reopened borders, travel policies and budgets will set strict limits here in the future: "Didn't it work via videoconference in the Corona days?!".<\/p>\n
Spontaneously, one might think: "Maybe it's a good thing that SAP had already announced before Corona that ECC support will be maintained even after 2025."On the other hand, isn't it precisely because the calls for immediate digitization are coming from all corners that corporate IT continues to feel totally overstretched?? Hasn't the lockdown, at the latest, made it clear how much a company's success can depend on how digitally innovative it is??<\/p>\n
SAP will drive digital innovation of its ERP system – modernized user experience, intelligent processes, further cloud innovations, … – primarily in the context of SAP S\/4HANA ® software. In short: Anyone who wants further digitization here will have to implement SAP S\/4HANA.<\/p>\n
In this respect, provocatively asked: How much better should the moment to tackle the changeover actually get??<\/p>\n
The COVID-19-related collapse in demand will ensure relatively low capacity utilization for many companies in the next 6-18 months (see IMF). If the employee capacity freed up as a result of this is not sent completely into short-time work, but used for the SAP S\/4HANA implementation, one of the most critical challenges of all implementations of SAP ® solutions – the lack of highly qualified business capacity for designing and testing the new processes – can be solved as easily as seldom in recent years.<\/p>\n
In our own experience, while most of the SAP S\/4HANA projects that have been started are currently ongoing, many companies are hesitant to start new projects or even new phases. This is also in line with the experience of others (see also IT-Onlinemagazin). At least in the short term, the daily rates of the corresponding consultants – often the largest cost block – could therefore come under much more pressure than the prospect of the many upcoming SAP S\/4HANA conversions would have suggested just a few weeks ago. The foreseeable reduction in travel costs is a small, additional bonus.<\/p>\n
Conversely, if economic demand and the willingness to invest pick up again, the pressure will quickly increase everywhere to eliminate the investment backlog and to finally "bring the ERP systems up to speed" for better corporate management – with corresponding effects on the daily rates.<\/p>\n
In 2019, there was often a wait-and-see approach – "let the consultants gain the necessary experience with SAP S\/4HANA first.". The under 2. described effect will tend to prolong a corresponding "wait and see" period. The potential knock-on effects: On the one hand, the future changeover project will be significantly larger, more complex and thus more expensive; on the other hand, the opportunities to manage and drive the business more efficiently with digital innovation will remain limited for longer.<\/p>\n
In short: For many future-oriented companies, there is actually no better and more favorable time to tackle the changeover to SAP S\/4HANA – if it weren't for the concerns described at the beginning that the classic methods of managing such large-scale projects are currently not feasible.<\/p>\n
In the past, we have experienced ourselves how difficult it was for some companies to deal with offshore developments within the scope of large SAP ® projects – even to the point of having the corresponding developers flown into the project rooms at some point. However, there are two major differences between this and the current situation: (1) offshore work usually involves only part of the project, while other parts of the team continue to exchange ideas in the shared office, and (2) project work without physical meetings was previously rather unfamiliar to many employees or was not considered efficient.<\/p>\n
If a large proportion of the project team works "remotely" and this way of working is recognized, then in our experience even large SAP projects can be carried out very well "virtually".<\/p>\n
At Basycon, for example, we have moved the work in an SAP project for a very large client almost entirely into the virtual space over the last few years. At the beginning there were on-site appointments every second week. Later, we switched to working together exclusively virtually for the entire time between the presence kickoff and a presence training shortly before go-live. In the meantime, kickoffs and trainings also take place via video conference for global rollouts – and we still manage to build the personal relationship and corresponding trust across borders and cultures that is needed for the project work.<\/p>\n
"Chat is like coffee break [for us]. When the camera goes on for a meeting, we like to have a quick chat about the weather before we get to the actual content," said a colleague recently. Space for this personal exchange – as would also take place in the project office – builds the bridge to be able to enter into technical discussions in greater depth. As a project manager, taking time for technical discussion and making the other person aware in front of the camera that you are serious about the common challenges makes you virtually credible and leads to a shared sense of purpose.<\/p>\n
The risk of being completely lost in the creativity of virtual communication fueled by global lockdown is averted by a clear etiquette of which medium is used for which purpose and a plan that reserves specific times for specific purposes.<\/p>\n
This can look very different: Sometimes a short, daily morning round is useful, sometimes weekly status meetings, others get by largely without regular appointments with "short official channels via chat". In all cases, it is important to clearly define who has to react when and how to get involved – for example, that a short message does not require an immediate response. Despite the informality of chats and videoconferences, it is essential to set up formal frameworks (including collaboration tools, project plans, open-point lists, etc.) for virtual projects as well.<\/p>\n
Conclusion: If you ensure both formal and informal collaboration and are prepared for virtual collaboration, then physical distance is no longer a project risk today. Establishing this virtual communication culture is now one of the tasks of every project manager.<\/p>\n
The "Corona winter" has hit many of us unexpectedly. He showed us the importance of timely information and digital positioning, and how important it can be to make the right, far-reaching decisions without delay (see M. Rosemann). How long the opportunity shown here will actually exist, no one can predict. What we do know is that with good project management, SAP ® projects can be successfully carried out even in virtual collaboration.<\/p>\n
Companies with highly seasonal businesses tend to use winter less for hibernation and much more for investment in preparation for the coming summer. Therefore, our recommendation: Despite all cost-cutting measures, check now (once again) whether a quick start of the SAP S\/4HANA conversion in your company could make sense in the current situation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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