Role of IT team in UMOJA implementation

SAP is an application that took both business and IT world by surprise during late 90s and early 2000’s. The time was too short for these silos in an organization to own this and manage it. However the big six auditing firms quickly recognize the importance of this application and the impact that this was going to make during the Y2K issue was threading big corporations; forcing them to look for a sustainable alternative. They branded the IT solution a reengineering agent and started selling it to the CIOs and CFOs. Even though this happened decades ago, the mystery still remains, especially when it comes to the SAP implementation project. One factor that needs to be considered in this context is that SAP is an application similar to Microsoft office, but needs to be configured and enhanced to I fit to run your business better. There exists responsibility on all parts of the organization to carry it through equally and unequivocally.

In a typical situation, the business and IT usually end up having this conversation & mindset.

BUSINESS to IT: “I want this, this and this from our SAP systems. Go away and make it happen then tell me when it’s live. PS -- I’m not available to spec it out … I’m too busy to test … oh and it’s not coming out of my budget. And I need it tomorrow.”

IT to BUSINESS: “Sounds great, but you must have me confused for a mind reader. Am I supposed to have a crystal ball that magically predicts your needs and anticipates every issue before the solution goes live? Seriously, I just need to know where to start. My team and I are too busy to troubleshoot this entire project from scratch, only to find out you wanted something different. If you want me to take responsibility for its success, you need to give me the process requirements and insights we need to succeed.”

Does this sound familiar? While the dialogue above has been exaggerated slightly for dramatic effect, the basic scenario it describes is consistently played out at countless companies struggling to establish ownership and best practices for their SAP systems and including our own UN!

The problem here is there’s no clearly defined ownership. But what’s the solution? In order to get there, let’s take a look at the backstory. How’d we get to this point in the first place? We need to understand the perception and the actions following that

Many businesspeople make the mistake of considering SAP applications strictly as an IT domain, consisting of various programming tasks. (When those tasks aren’t automatically completed without their oversight, they think of IT as an obstacle to SAP success.)

IT people, on the other hand, don’t understand why the business departments won’t give them the information they need to make the organization’s SAP systems function efficiently and effectively. They see the businesspeople as the obstacle to SAP success.

The Solution:

The truth is somewhere in between. When it comes to optimizing our SAP systems, ownership should come from the top down. This means the DMS and the business experts should drive the entire implementation and optimization process through clear and comprehensive communication of all business requirements and parameters. When the business side of the organization owns the data and transactions, it has a vested and actively maintained interest in how the system processes fulfill their business requirements, including: master data, applications, transactions and reporting.

Where is IT’s role then? IT should be an enabler for the processes above. While ownership of the overall SAP systems belongs to the businesspeople, IT should be responsible for the infrastructure and architecture of the system. This means taking the requirements and data supplied by the business side and translating them into functional solutions that fulfill the company’s needs. IT also holds a great value addition to the process by keeping the application on the cusp of the technology curve and makes it adoptable to any new technological adoptions

One of the biggest mistakes most businesses make when it comes to their SAP systems is to treat them like a function of the IT department. It’s a fact: you can’t spell “profit” without IT. Of course, when implementing any IT business solution, you incur the overhead and business costs of supporting and maintaining your new system. And in practice I’ve seen the technical staff understand and adopt to business functions more comfortably than the other way.

When it comes to SAP implementation and optimization, you need to assess the costs of maintaining and supporting your new IT solution in terms of what it means for your business.

As a general rule, it helps to remember SAP (and IT in general) should be a function of your business, not the other way around. Only then will you realize the full value of your SAP system. The better the SAP implementation and optimization processes are at supporting and enhancing your business, the more value and ROI you reap.