The Trojan Horse Approach to Organizational Change Management
I recently wrote about how organizational change management is dead. The premise of this article is that traditional change efforts, frameworks, and approaches fail time and time again, so something needs to change if we are going to be more effective at managing change. These failed change efforts are creating a vicious circle of continuous […]
Your Business Blueprint Should Dictate Your SAP S/4HANA Implementation – Not the Other Way Around
At the moment, our team is helping about half a dozen larger organizations manage their SAP S/4HANA implementations. The biggest lesson so far? Your business needs should dictate how S/4HANA gets deployed – not the other way around. Myths and propaganda from SAP S/4HANA system integrators If you talk to a sales rep from SAP […]
How to Avoid Losing Control of Your SAP S/4HANA Transformation
Over the last 20 years, I have seen plenty of organizations lose control of their SAP implementations. These projects tend to be bigger and more complex than many organizations can handle, which is why there are so many SAP failures like those at Lidl, National Grid, Haribo, and other publicized challenges in recent years. Common […]
Determining Your ERP Total Cost of Ownership
One of the first questions we are asked when discussing an ERP initiative with a new client is “how much is this whole thing going to cost us.” The easy and accurate answer is: “we have no idea at this time.” Unfortunately, executive committees and board members generally won’t accept this answer and need to […]
My Name Is Eric, and I Am a Recovering Big 5 SAP Consultant
My first job when I graduated with my master’s degree was with one of the big system integrators. I was a Big 5 SAP consultant focused primarily on organizational change management at some very large, multi-national organizations. Though colleagues and I have written about being Accentured and the dark side of the digital transformation, I […]
How to Negotiate an SAP S/4HANA Contract
It’s not every day that most of us negotiate multi-million-dollar contracts with significant cost implications for the future. When we do, it’s important to get it right. Before embarking on an SAP transformation or bringing SAP S/4HANA consultants on to your team, it is important to understand how to negotiate an SAP S/4HANA contract. We […]
Organizational Change Management Is Dead
I have been afraid to admit this, but I think I have known it for a while: organizational change management is dead. This is particularly hard to admit since I grew up in the consulting world as an organizational change management consultant. After 20 years of doing something I love, it is becoming painfully clear […]
How to Define Your Global Digital Transformation Strategy
Every organization has a lot of decisions to make regarding its digital strategy. But, companies with international operations have an entirely different set of decisions to make and challenges to address. This can make it difficult to define your global digital transformation strategy. We work with a number of organizations like this every day. For […]
Why Your HR Department is the Key to Your Digital Transformation Success
Chief Information Officers and Directors of IT are often on the hot seats to make their digital transformations and ERP implementations successful. But it is more likely that your Vice President or leader of your HR department may be the real key to digital transformation success. Many people think that HR leaders are important only […]
Could a Better Digital Transformation Have Saved PG&E?
It’s been a rough few months for the utilities and energy industry. Oil prices have been volatile, National Grid settled a costly lawsuit with Wipro over its SAP failure, and PG&E announced earlier this week that it is filing for bankruptcy protection. As one of the largest US gas and electric utilities, which services over […]
How to Ensure a Successful Workday or SuccessFactors HCM Implementation
Implementing any sort of digital transformation technology has its challenges. In some ways though, successful Workday or SuccessFactors HCM implementations are even more challenging. For one, Workday and SuccessFactors implementations typically affect more employees when compared to ERP or CRM implementations. Second, HR functions and processes aren’t the top priority or focus for most people […]
Is It Time to Fire Your SAP, Oracle, or Microsoft Dynamics System Integrator?
In my 12 years as an ERP expert witness and digital transformation specialist, I’ve seen more transformation failures than I’d like to admit. With the news of recent failures (the SAP failure at Lidle, SAP problems at Haribo, National vs. Wipro lawsuit, etc.), it seems that the industry is becoming numb to the realities of […]