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Successful enterprise resource planning (ERP) programs enable transformation and help companies achieve their strategic objectives. To achieve true transformation, a successful ERP program requires a team of multi-disciplined professionals from the business, IT, HR, program management and external resources, working towards a common goal. A business integrator (BI) plays a key role capitalizing on this talent to optimize the solution, deliver timely results and generate a larger return on investment.
Understanding the business integrator role
Why a business integrator role is needed:
- 60% of implementations encounter delays or exceed budget projections
- Nearly half of the implementations do not achieve the anticipated business outcomes
- 50% of the projects are misaligned with the organization’s overarching business strategy
Unlike system integrators, who primarily focus on the technical aspects of an implementation, BIs take a holistic approach, bridging any gaps between business strategy and technical enablement, ensuring the system aligns with organizational goals, delivers business value, and accelerates adoption.
Business Integrators:
- Ensure the implementation meets specific business needs, while effectively managing scope
- Manage change effectively by preparing the organization for operational shifts and adoption
- Possess deep industry, process and functional expertise and understand key value drivers
- Facilitate communication with technical teams and business users to drive key decisions and accelerate delivery
- Play a key role in problem-solving and decision-making, influencing project outcomes significantly
Ultimately, BIs focus on delivering long-term business value, ensuring the implementation enhances business performance and justifies investments made in the new system.
Protiviti’s strategic implementation approach
Protiviti’s business integrator approach for system implementation defines crucial components under the program scope, governance structures, design and documentation of user centric business processes to ensure that the program is aligned with the overarching business strategy. In addition, it involves engaging business stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle, creating comprehensive training on business process changes, defining adequate support structures, and monitoring performance through KPIs.
The approach emphasizes the importance of a well-defined target operating model that serves as a blueprint for achieving operational excellence. A critical component of the approach is a robust data strategy, which includes support for data migration, ensuring data integrity and accessibility across systems. To facilitate smooth transitions, Protiviti focuses on end-user adoption and change management, preparing the workforce for new processes and technologies through comprehensive user acceptance testing (UAT), training programs and ongoing support post-go-live. This holistic approach ensures organizations implement new solutions while fully realizing their business objectives through optimized processes and effective stakeholder engagement.
One of the key goals of the BI is to ensure that business case objectives are captured and realized throughout the course of the engagement. Whether functioning as a business integrator or assisting a system integrator, our teams tailor our strategic approach to the unique needs of each organization, delivering value and maximizing business and process excellence while delivering the critical factors of change and process management, across five phases:
Prepare: Set a clear vision and define expected outcomes to align the project’s objectives with the organization’s strategic goals; align the business and IT, refine the operating model and develop a robust adoption strategy; and formulate a comprehensive data and analytics strategy to ensure data integrity and actionable insights.
Explore: Define statutory, legal and tax requirements for localizations, ensuring compliance across different geographies; prepare detailed Level 4 processes that include end-to-end controls and key performance indicators (KPIs), establish data governance frameworks, validate access roles and plan for organizational changes, setting the stage for a smooth transition.
Realize: Decompose UAT scenarios into prioritized scripts to facilitate effective testing. and training; develop a detailed training plan and create materials tailored to meet specific needs; oversee business data governance, profiling and cleansing to maintain data quality; pre-validate reports, execute fit-for-business UAT, update SOPs and complete a comprehensive ramp-up plan from day one to day 60, ensuring all systems and processes are optimized for live deployment.
Deploy: As deployment nears, ensure pre-go-live readiness, execute golden transactions to test system functionality, and reinforce master data governance; provide intensive business hypercare to address any immediate post-go-live issues.
Run: After deployment, establish centers of excellence (CoEs) such as reporting CoE, FP&A CoE, and Supply Chain Command Center, which play crucial roles in ongoing process optimization and strategic decision-making; facilitate formation of an innovation council to drive continuous improvement across business processes. Review the business case and assess overall program performance and create a plan to address any gaps.
Through these phases, the BI ensures every aspect of the project is strategically aligned, operationally sound and geared towards achieving long-term success and transformation.
The business integrator’s value proposition
- Designing a solution that optimizes value
- Accelerating the implementation timeline by more than 25%.
- Decreasing the cost of implementation by up to 20%
- Reducing adoption time by 50% enabling accelerating of business value
- Leveraging extensive knowledge of industry-leading practices
- Applying lessons learned from previous implementations to enhance the business integrator role and improve project outcomes.
- Generating a 200 to 400 percent return on investment, when considering the higher value and lower costs delivered to the organization.
How our clients have seen success
Here are just several examples of how our clients have successfully implemented SAP S/4HANA using our teams as a business integrator:
Financial transformation: A prominent retail chain faced challenges with its financial reporting and operational efficiency due to legacy systems that could not handle its scale. We facilitated the transition to SAP S/4HANA, focusing on integrating financial processes. This standardized procedures across the company’s extensive network, resulting in improved real-time reporting, enhanced compliance and significant cost savings.
Supply chain optimization: A global manufacturing company partnered with us to implement SAP S/4HANA to revamp its supply chain management. The integration provided end-to-end visibility and greater control over inventory, procurement and distribution. The result was a more responsive supply chain capable of reducing delays, optimizing stock levels and improving service delivery to customers.
Human resources consolidation: A multinational corporation with a fragmented HR system underwent a consolidation through SAP S/4HANA, guided by Protiviti. This integration centralized various HR functions, including payroll, talent management and employee engagement. It streamlined HR processes, enhanced data security and improved overall employee satisfaction.
Business integrators for SAP S/4HANA are a crucial element for companies looking to enhance their operational efficiency and to achieve their desired transformation outcomes and business case. Through tailored strategies, focused implementations and expert guidance, clients incorporating business integrators into their implementations will not only meet but will exceed their transformation objectives.
To learn more about our SAP consulting services, contact us.
