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SAP for CIOs
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Making the SAP Plant Visible |
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 Making the Plant Visible:
by Jon Reed
Unabridged Edition, Never Before Released
Introduction: Why Does Plant Management Matter?
Manufacturing plants have been around for much longer than ERP systems. But the gulf between ERP and plant management has always been vast. Even in the latest ERP software, you can't always drill into the systems than run individual plant operations. In today's economy, there is a new urgency to optimizing plants and making plants "visible" to ERP users. The reverse is also true: today's plants want a better view into the ERP system that was not historically extended to plant operations.
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Who Said SAP Was Expensive? |
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Who Said SAP Was Expensive?
How Sedgwick County, Kansas
Spent Less Than 10 Percent
of Their SAP Consulting Budget
(While Maximizing User Buy-In)
Unabridged Edition, Never Before Released
by Jon Reed
I’ve been writing about the SAP market since 1995. That’s a lot of verbiage, and there are times when I think all the groundbreaking stories about SAP have already been told. But at this year’s Sapphire, I stumbled upon a new one. At the conference, I met up with an ERP Director by the name of Renfeng Ma, and he told me about how his project managed to implement a BW dashboard system with more than 800 KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). They did this while achieving a high level of user buy-in, bringing a greater transparency of information to taxpayers, and, drum roll - they spent under 10 percent of their projected consulting budget for the project. He had my attention.
Site Editor's Note: For those readers who want to read more about this implementation, Renfeng Ma has kindly provided a downloadable PowerPoint Presentation (776K) about the Sedgwick County BW Implementation to JonERP.com visitors. This PowerPoint will also give you a closer view of the two screen shots used in this article - Figure One below is slide 3, and Figure Two (on page 2) is slide 5.
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eSOA from the Outside In:
Lessons from "Mashup Corporations"
Unabridged Edition, Never Before Released
by Jon Reed
Jon Reed notes: I recently discovered that this article I did on eSOA for SAPtips in the Spring of 2008 did not find its way to this site. Paul Kurchina, co-author of Mashup Corporations and the recently released In Pursuit of the Perfect Plant, took the time to review and proof this article so I'm glad to have a chance to feature this article now. I hope you find it as interesting as I did while I was writing it.
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Best Practices in SAP Programming |
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Best Practices in SAP Programming:
How to Keep Your Development Shop in Tune with Where SAP is Headed
Unabridged Edition, Never Before Released
by Jon Reed
SAP development has become more confusing and more promising at the same time. Not long ago, the SAP development process came down to deciding which parts of SAP to customize and how to hire the ABAP programmers who would do the work. Now, in the Enterprise SOA (eSOA) era, the amount of SAP development options are dizzying.
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Say What? A Guide to the SAP Terms You Need to Know for ASUG 2008 and Beyond |
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Say What?
A Guide to the SAP Terms You Need to Know for ASUG 2008 and Beyond
Unabridged Edition, Never Before Released
I have a running joke with a friend of mine who insists on pronouncing ABAP "Ayy-Bop," as opposed to the more commonly heard pronunciation "Ahh Bop." He says it's just a case of "you say tom-A-toes, I say "to-mah-toes." I say that how we pronounce terms in the SAP world sends a clear message as to how much we know about the software.
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Enterprise SOA Mashups The Easy Way |
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eSOA Mashups Don't Have to Cost A Fortune:
How to Find Success with SOA and NetWeaver BI
Unabridged Edition, Never Before Released
by Jon Reed
In the October/November 2007 Edition of the SAPtips Journal, I wrote about how Enterprise SOA (eSOA) has the potential to "turn ERP on its head." I'm not going to take back those predictions, but I do have to acknowledge that eSOA comes with some drawbacks. The upfront investments in architecture, governance, and organizational change - all necessary to build a true eSOA platform - can be daunting.
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Changing the Way Companies Approach ERP |
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Turning ERP On its Head:
Can SAP eSOA Change the Way Companies Approach ERP?
Unabridged Edition, Never Before Released
by Jon Reed
Attendees of SAPPHIRE 2007 got one message loud and clear: Enterprise SOA (eSOA) has arrived. Or has it? True, we saw a number of case studies from SAP customers who have taken the Enterprise SOA plunge. But as of today, most companies are either in the “hypothetical” or pilot project phase. This provides us with an ideal opportunity to assess the value of eSOA before more companies dip their toes into that powerful current. In this article, I’ll take a look at the reported benefits from actual SAP eSOA projects that have taken place thus far. We’ll examine the true merits of eSOA, and by the end of this piece, we’ll have a better handle on what eSOA can do and why it may actually be one technical advancement that ends up living up to the hype.
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The "Human Side" of Midsize SAP Implementations |
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Talk Before You Leap:
What Midsize Companies Have Learned About the "Human Side" of SAP Implementations
Unabridged Edition, Never Before Released
by Jon Reed
Midsize companies are giving SAP serious consideration for their ERP installations because SAP has proven itself. Gone are the days where SAP’s price tag and implementation challenges were enough to scare smaller companies away before they could give SAP a serious look. At this year’s combined ASUG/SAPPHIRE conference, I had a chance to hear from a number of managers at mid-size companies who were in the process of implementing SAP. My goal was to find out what worked and what didn’t and to come away with some "lessons learned" about SAP’s expanding role in the ERP midmarket. Some of what I learned confirmed what we would all expect to hear about SAP’s ability to deliver value through one integrated software instance, and some of what I learned genuinely surprised me.
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