Case Study (from 673 to the end):

Learning from the early SAP Releases:

Release 1:

 Involved implementing SAP as part of the consolidating of financial operations,

including the centralization of accounts payable, expense and travel accounts, and
payroll systems.
 An example of implementation problems they face is a software glitch that delayed
the printing of payroll checks.

Release 2:

 It was driven by global teams.

 One of the challenges they face that the resources needed for deployment
preparation and for actual deployment had been significantly underestimated.
 One of the most advantages of this release that it has brought the IS people and the
business process leaders together. They understood each other’s work more than
before. In other words it increased the mutual understanding and each party
appreciated the work of the other more.
 The release was successful and everyone was contributing and working closely to
each other.

Release 3:

 It was about creating a simple, common and global infrastructure that enable
reliable desktop access to the Toledo headquarters worldwide as well as lower
global support costs.
 It was the first implementation that involved widespread technology change across
the company.
 It established both client/server infrastructure and the basic end-user computing
skills required for effective SAP R/3 deployment.

Release 4:

 Its objective was to get all the business running on a common platform.
 It was to be deployed in successive waves, one business unit at a time. The company
would not be able to sustain the successive 30-day deployments at these major
business units, and the plan was changed to allow 60 days between waves.
 It included new configurations due to process changes as well as new functionality.
 There were some lessons from release 2 which incorporated into the release 4:
 i) More accountability for deployment activities was given to the Release
Management Capability and less to the GDLs.
ii) Increase the training time on the new business processes. Consequently, the
business owners would also be more involved in and have greater accountability
for the deployment.
 The number of business employees that would receive training at corporate
headquarters was significantly increased.

The March 1997 Roofing & Asphalt Rollout:

 Process consolidation and simplification to improve profitability were the major

goals of release 4 for Roofing & Asphalt.
 The first problem they had that they did not have enough labor, the division did not
have enough business leader recourses to fully populate the project teams. To solve
this problem they decided to have some of the insulation division’s business leaders
represent Roofing & Asphalt’s interests.
 Many risks were identified related to the training of the workers
i) Only 60% of the workers had been certified close to the “go-live” date.
ii) Some of the workers play multiple roles in the company which increase the
complexity of the training.
iii) The training had not been designed to allow enough time for a single individual
to come up to speed that quickly for multiple processes.
 These risks were managed by leveling up the certification to 70 percent and
accepted this level of risk to support the go live date.
 Implementation problems
i) System: 60 bugs in the new SAP version.
ii) People: - the function and the size of the plants
- Consolidating the customer service function.
iii) Process
iv) Data
v) Organizational
 One of the big mistakes they did that they changed the customer service from 32 to
1 at the same time as they went live with Advantage 2000. This meant having a lot of
variables which were difficult to understand and fix.

What to Do Next:

 This implantation had many benefits as well as many drawbacks and some mistakes
were made. There is still many questioned to answer and many decisions to be
made.
 This implantation of advantage 2000 is great lesson for future implantations.
f. A summary of different releases of the soft.

Release 1: Involved implementing SAP as part of the consolidating of financial operations,

including the centralization of accounts payable, expense and travel accounts, and payroll
systems. It had some problems like is a software glitch that delayed the printing of payroll
checks.

Release 2: It was driven by global teams. One of the challenges they face that the resources
needed for deployment preparation and for actual deployment had been significantly
underestimated. One of the most advantages of this release that it has brought the IS people
and the business process leaders together. They understood each other’s work more than
before. In this release everyone was contributing so the release was successful.

Release 3: It was about creating a simple, common and global infrastructure that enable
reliable desktop access to the Toledo headquarters worldwide as well as lower global
support costs. It was the first implementation that involved widespread technology change
across the company. It established both client/server infrastructure and the basic end-user
computing skills required for effective SAP R/3 deployment.

Release 4: Its objective was to get all the business running on a common platform. It was
to be deployed in successive waves, one business unit at a time. The Company would not be
able to sustain the successive 30-day deployments at these major business units, and the
plan was changed to allow 60 days between waves. It included new configurations due to
process changes as well as new functionality. There were some lessons from release 2
which incorporated into the release 4: A) More accountability for deployment activities
was given to the Release Management Capability and less to the GDLs. B) increasing the
training time on the new business processes. Consequently, the business owners would
also be more involved in and have greater accountability for the deployment. The number
of business employees that would receive training at corporate headquarters was
significantly increased.

g. Explain some of the problems associated with the implementation.

1. The implementation problems were analyzed according to five categories: system,

data, people, process, and organizational. The system problems included about 60
bugs in the new SAP version. Some of the people problems were the function of the
size of the plants. Others were due to consolidating the customer service function.
2. The first problem they had that they did not have enough labor, the division did not
have enough business leader recourses to fully populate the project teams. To solve
this problem they decided to have some of the insulation division’s business leaders
represent Roofing & Asphalt’s interests.
3. Another problem that was encountered related to the training of the workers. Only
60% of the workers had been certified close to the “go-live” date. Some of the
workers play multiple roles in the company which increase the complexity of the
training. The training had not been designed to allow enough time for a single
individual to come up to speed that quickly for multiple processes. To solve this
Director of Human Resource Development said: “We only had about a 60 percent
certification level. One-third of the Roofing & Asphalt sites were flawless. Another
third needed help–they weren’t comfortable yet but were getting there. Another
third were struggling. We had to decide: Do we learn from that and “go live,” or do
we minimize the risk and then “go live”? We got the certification level up to 70
percent and accepted this level of risk to support the go live date”.
4. One of the big mistakes they did that they changed the customer service from 32 to
1 at the same time as they went live with Advantage 2000. This meant having a lot of
variables which were difficult to understand and fix.
5. Some delays were encountered in the implementation. For example, The Company
would not be able to sustain the successive 30-day deployments at these major
business units, and the plan was changed to allow 60 days between waves.