Reports indicate that the SAP S/4 HANA upgrade is disruptive, costly and drives business risk. Expected benefits are debatable insofar as the current version is sufficient for most businesses.
Reduced profitability is likely during and immediately after the upgrade.
If this upgrade concerns you I have a solution.
Resolution: International vendor agreed to support the current version of the software for further five years, issues with the software resolved, client used the ERP for another eight years before moving to SAP R/3 — saving £1.1 million.
Action: In ten days, evaluated the situation, specified how to remediate the system to eliminate the frustration and provided legal advice to secure the current version of the software for five years.
Resolution: International vendor agreed to support the current version of the software for further five years, issues with the software resolved, client used the ERP for another eight years before moving to SAP R/3 — saving £1.1 million.
Some years ago I advised a client with another major ERP that had spent substantial (hundreds of thousands of Pounds) on bespoke development around their version 4 system only to be advised by the vendor that they were upgrading to version 5 by the end of the year and were withdrawing all support for version 4 at that time.
This upgrade would totally break the bespoke development around version 4 and require major further investment.
The client did not want to upgrade at that time and requested my assistance.
I shared a little known legal case that would require the vendor to continue supporting version 4.
The client requested that I negotiate on their behalf.
We arranged a meeting and I shared the legal case which required that the vendor continue to support version 4. We threatened legal action if the vendor did not comply.
The vendor referred to their US principals and returned three days later with a contract guaranteeing support for version 4 for five years, the term requested by the client.
I can help you with your SAP installation
The legal case is so intuitively sound that it is relevant to any such situation, including your current SAP installation.
We are offering a service to assist you to document your investment in your current SAP installation and then brief your legal advisors on addressing the matter with SAP with a high level of confidence that you will be able to negotiate a contract to maintain your present version of SAP for as long as you regard this as being necessary.
Meet with me for a no-charge, no-obligation Zoom call where you will come away with some useful knowledge that will add value to your business systems problem situation — click the button below:
On what basis do you allow a third party to add major costs, major business disruption and major business risk to your business unilaterally?
I can help you turn this situation around to your benefit, see below.
Would you allow the contractor who built and equipped your factory to unilaterally withhold support and require you to trash and replace the entire factory at your cost and risk notwithstanding the factory is working effectively and profitably?
Research on Google will reveal multiple articles reporting that SAP S/4 HANA is NOT an upgrade, it is a completely new version. Vendors are falling over themselves to offer implementation services. There are claims that there are not sufficient experienced consultants to ensure that all companies are reliably upgraded in the required five year timeframe.
There is talk of major business disruption and effectively a completely new implementation with all the risks associated with that.
Remember that some years ago the Financial Mail reported that “19 out of 20 ERP implementations fail to deliver what was promised!” – many companies have invested heavily in their existing installations to turn this around – this investment is now at risk!
Note also that the likely benefits of this disruption are unlikely to deliver a positive return on investment. The technology today is mature, we are talking about utility infrastructure not about some dramatic new technological breakthrough that will deliver major business ROI!
It is also important to note that most current SAP installations can be incrementally improvied with regard to business performance at nominal cost. I can assist with this.
Investigation will reveal that current successful SAP implementations include substantial amounts of bespoke development in and around the core SAP installation. Indications are that at the very least these bespoke applications will require significant modifications and may possibly have to be replaced completely.
An effectively running SAP implementation is accompanied by numerous reports, spreadsheets and other utilities all tailored to the current implementation.
So, the key question is “are YOU prepared to allow SAP to dictate profitability, business risk and business disruption for your business over the next five years?”
As a responsible business executive I would expect that your answer is a resounding “NO”.
“But, we have NO choice” I hear you say!
No so, there is a legal basis whereby you can refuse to move to SAP S/4 HANA and require SAP to provide reasonable support to your current installation in perpetuity.
I have previously facilitated this for a major client with another big brand ERP and I can do it for you. See case study above.
Meet with me for a no-charge, no-obligation Zoom call where you will come away with some useful knowledge that will add value to your business systems problem situation — click the button below:
I have regularly saved clients substantial unnecessary expenditure and improved profitability while in many cases improving competitive advantage.
