This paper will examine 5 key business and IT stress points that can be predicted and prevented with the right use of software and tools when planning your next SAP lifecycle event.
Managing the Convergence of IT and
Business Change: A Case Study of IBM's
Deployment of IntelliCorp Software
Joshua GreenbaumEnterprise Applications ConsultingWinter 2006
EAC2303 Spaulding AvenueBerkeley CA 94703t e l 5 1 0 . 5 4 0 . 8 6 5 5f a x 5 1 0 . 5 4 0 . 7 3 5 4josh@eaconsult.comwww.eaconsult.comTable of Contents
Introduction: Business and IT Change Management and the CFO............................................page 1
The Business Case for Risk-Free Change .................................................................................page 2
IntelliCorp Assessor for SAP: Product Overview ........................................................................page 4
Using Assessor for SAP at IBM: Anatomy of a Successful Upgrade ........................................page 6
Conclusion: What's Good for Change Management is Good for the CFO ................................page 7IntelliCorp Assessor for SAP at IBM
Introduction: Business and IT Change Management and the CFO
The complex issues that drive business change - merger, acquisition, compliance, and newbusiness opportunity, as well as customer and partner demands - have always had a direct impacton corporate IT management. As businesses evolve, one of the CFO's tasks is to ensure that theenterprise's investments in technology and business applications enable those assets to remain akey enabler of change and new opportunity, instead of a barrier. A well-managed convergence ofbusiness requirements and IT functionality is today's hallmark of a successful enterprise. TheCFO who understands this convergence reaps its rewards.
SAP customers, who count among their numbers leading companies in every vertical industry onthe planet, have a particular need to ensure that business requirements and IT functionality remainclosely synchronized. For most SAP customers, their R/3 and mySAP Business Suite systemsfunction at the very heart of the enterprise, and any disruption to their IT operations can have adirect and potentially negative impact across the enterprise.
This renders certain key IT events - upgrades and instance consolidations, for example - and keybusiness requirements - compliance and auditability - particularly sensitive to error. A failure toanticipate the impact of an upgrade or instance consolidation, or the inability to accuratelymonitor and report on key business processes for audit and compliance purposes, can haveprofoundly harmful effects. The result, depending on the business, can reach directly into theCFO's office, negatively impacting income, profit, and market capitalization, and resulting infiscal and legal sanction.
Against this backdrop of unwanted adversity, Enterprise Applications Consulting (EAC) has beenasked to review a software solution from IntelliCorp designed specifically to ensure that SAPcustomers are able to proactively prevent these key business and IT events from disruptingoperations and impacting the bottom line. EAC's review of this offering - Assessor for SAP -and EAC's interviews with joint SAP and IntelliCorp customers, shows a well-designed andsuccessful solution that can not only help mitigate the impact of dynamic business and IT changebut does so in a way that can lower overall upgrade costs while preventing upgrade andimplementation failure.
Copyright 2005 EAC 1IntelliCorp Assessor for SAP at IBM
The Business Case for Risk-Free Change
The synergy between IT and business makes change in either dimension a potentially riskyendeavor. The annals of business failure are replete with examples of companies that have failedto successfully synchronize business and IT change, and paid an enormous price in terms of lostrevenues, diminished market capitalization, lost customers, and lost opportunity.The growth of increased regulatory and compliance requirements - Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA inhealthcare, the FDA's 21 CFR 11 regime for electronic records and signatures, among others -has exacerbated the sensitivity of this synergy between business and IT. Compliance has to beexecuted not only efficiently, but in a way that is both auditable and reliable. Failure to do so canexpose a company to legal penalties, unwanted publicity, and financial uncertainty.
Compliance thus becomes a special case in the checkered history of software implementation: notonly are many IT-related activities now subject to co... [download for more]
