SAP Upgrades in 2010

SAP UK and Ireland have found that over 50% of clients are planning to upgrade their SAP systems in 2010. I was shocked to read that only 35% of companies were currently on ECC 6.0, and was somewhat surprised to see how many organisations were showing negativity about upgrading. One of the major fears seems to be over cost but this surely is mislaid.

I speak to many clients and contractors and those that have seen ECC 6.0 are almost unanimous in their praise, especially in the additional functionality available to them once they have upgraded. SAP is an expensive investment, but once clients have made the outlay, it is false economy to not make the most of it, as Alan Bowling suggests when he says "Older versions of software typically require more maintenance and have comparatively limited capability to support business change and growth," in Computer Weekly -    http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/11/02/238370/sap-users-delay-software-upgrades.htm

Bowling suggests that his upgrade to Netweaver was cheaper than anticipated when he worked at Northern Foods, and for me the key to keeping costs down but not compromising quality is to use contractors rather than consultancies. Many of Vector’s best SAP contractors have worked on several upgrades to ECC 6.0 already, for the multinational companies which Bowling calls ‘ the big boys’, so they can use this experience and knowledge to work with slightly smaller systems upgrading.

I suggest those users looking at upgrading in 2010 meet Alan Bowling and co at the SAP user group for free advice and then carry out the work using contractors rather than consultancies. Using SAP contractors is not only cheaper but retains client’s power over their own system.

For my mind too many clients are over-dependent on consultancies to run their SAP systems. I met a client a couple of years ago who found out once they recruited a permanent ABAP consultant that the consultancy they were using before were regularly charging them two man days for work that took two hours to complete. Even after discovering this the client were persuaded that for an implementation of SAP QM the consultancy alone should be allowed to carry out the work out as ‘no-one else would understand the system.’ That does not say much for the system the consultancy had built!

With a combination of SAP users sharing their experiences and avoiding consultancy ‘upselling’ by using contractors, an SAP upgrade can be the success and bring the benefits it should. I suspect once clients are asked in a year’s time for their feedback on the upgrades those who used contractors will find it was cheaper than expected and that they will regret not having carried it out sooner.

I am keen to speak to SAP clients looking to upgrade next year to discuss how Vector can continue our tradition of providing teams of the best contractors to successful projects and to contractors wishing to work with the leading team of SAP contract recruiters.

Contact me on ws@vector-uk.com with any comments on this blog; I would be interested in other people’s views on this.

Wayne Starritt, SAP Specialist, ERP Team, Vector Resourcing Ltd.