SAPinsider Technology Executive Forum Issue 1 2021

From a planning perspective we run SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer and OMP, along with SAP Business Warehouse. As we move for- ward with SAP S/4HANA we’re implementing SAP Integrated Business Planning to replace both SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer and OMP, as well as various other software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings from SAP to extend the solution. Q. Where are you right now in this multi- year transformation journey? We launched our transformation initiative in July of 2020 — during the pandemic. So that's been an inter- esting journey in its own right. How do you implement a global business transformation leveraging SAP in a remote working environment? We had to figure that out early on and it can be done. Our systems integrator partner is Capgemini, so they've done a lot to help us hit the ground running and get that program off the ground. We're about to exit the build phase and enter the testing phase. Our first deployment of SAP S/4HANA is scheduled to occur in October 2021. Ahead of this, we decided to start by deploying SAP Integrated Business Planning modules to get some quick wins and early benefits. We’re deploy- ing the modules in phases, starting with demand planning and then moving on to supply, and so on. Q. What are some of the lessons learned from 2020 working remotely and managing this kind of project through disruption, and how has this experience changed your outlook for 2021? I've been in the SAP space for more than 20 years and I've done multiple SAP implementations during that time, and the biggest hurdle of this implemen- tation has been not being able to get together in the storming-norming-forming phase of bringing a project team together. For many of our people, this is their first SAP project or first major implementation. We’ve had to rely more heavily on our integrated systems to make sure that the methodology and the process is clearly understood and articulated in advance of each of the different phases. We're also doing an agile implementation, which we've never done before, so that's different to the traditional waterfall and has been a learning curve. Despite the challenges, we keep telling folks to just trust the process. It works, we'll get through this. Do we hit every date with every deliverable? No, but that's okay. In those cases, we readjust. Another challenge is that people are getting burned out, as they do on every project, but in the remote workforce they're getting burned out in isola- tion. We’re very focused on that from an internal organizational change management perspective, keeping tabs and keeping an eye on the team and making sure people have an opportunity to voice concerns and checking in regularly. SAPinsiderOnline.com 37