UK electrical utility seeks partner for £81M SAP overhaul as support deadline closes in A UK electrical infrastructure biz is seeking a systems integrator to help it migrate from a 25-year-old SAP ERP system to the latest S/4HANA platform in a contract set to be worth almost a quarter of its annual turnover. In a project expected to accommodate integration with non-SAP applications and some custom development, …
Usually, few read articles on SAP, and even fewer bother to comment on them, see the last 3-4 instances.
Which incites me to the following experiement: if I were to mention here the barbaric and unprovoked aggression of Putins's mafia state on its neighbour, Ukraine, would this reach the news aggregators of Leningrad troll-farms, allowing me to sit back with a bag of popcorn and watch the whataboutism orgy unfurl?
Usually, few read articles on SAP, and even fewer bother to comment on them, see the last 3-4 instances.
I'm still pondering this-
... seeking a systems integrator to help it migrate from a 25-year-old SAP ERP system to the latest S/4HANA platform in a contract set to be worth almost a quarter of its annual turnover. In a project expected to accommodate integration with non-SAP applications and some custom development..
In much the same way as a bunch of college kids might ponder the wisdom of venturing into the basement of an abandoned building. So there will be blood, screaming and it'll probably end up costing a lot more than £81m. Strange the way only a few words can invoke such dread and horror, and almost makes me wish I'd become a SAP consultant. Can't help but feel they'll be a tad busy trying to convert 25yrs worth of kludges and 'business critical' processes into an entirely new platform.
Can't help but feel they'll be a tad busy trying to convert 25yrs worth of kludges and 'business critical' processes into an entirely new platform.
True that, but the end result depends on the contractor. There are good ones, who can manage it, overshadowed however by the mass of the usual suspects, like Accidenture, who are prone to send - and bill - a legion of newbies to upskill themseleves by breaking things and learn from the wreckages.
And S/4HANA is not entirely a new platform, ECC code base is still there, mostly used - including the Utilities industry solution. It depends on how the custom development was made (modifications or not), and how the integration to non-SAP applications was done (since some older technologies might have been deprecated).
And S/4HANA is not entirely a new platform, ECC code base is still there, mostly used - including the Utilities industry solution. It depends on how the custom development was made (modifications or not), and how the integration to non-SAP applications was done (since some older technologies might have been deprecated).
I know very little about the inner mysteries of SAP, but in keeping with the film theme.. Was thinking about Adam Savage's clapper board with its layers of gaffer tape. So after 25yrs of sticking tape and bandaids, jobs like this seem a good idea as a way to rip the tape off. So hopefully understanding what processes are needed, and what band-aids have been applied and can be ripped off to get a cleaner set of processes for the next 25yrs. But that seems to be where these jobs go wrong, ie BPOs often have a rather different idea about how the business should work rather than how it does work because minions have developed their own ways to workaround broken/inefficient processes.
So my only use of SAP is to fill in timesheets apart from once having to approve a purchase request after which I needed a lie down in a darkened room because it was so labyrinthine.
But I’ve seen business processes used and abused and half the time they appear to be designed by mythical beasts who make you go on a quest to carry out what should be straightforward tasks. So I’m guessing the first step of the lucky contract winner will be to open the large creaky book of processes and say some incantation to get it to reveal its truths. Only then, little hobbit, can you get down to the small matter of SAP migration.
There's a good Freakonomics episode on why infrastructure projects always go horribly wrong / over budget. In summary the best guide as to how a project will go is how previous projects went. I wonder how NIE's ECC deployment project went 25 years ago. Anything in TheReg's archives?
I live in NI, and this doesn't give me a good feeling. Can't help wondering if it'll follow a common path of runs very late, runs massively over-budget, end customer pays for it all.
More complex than expected, lack of clarity about requirements, inadequate project management, lessons will be learnt, etc, etc ...
A UK electrical infrastructure biz is seeking a systems integrator to help it migrate from a 25-year-old SAP ERP system to the latest S/4HANA platform in a contract set to be worth almost a quarter of its annual turnover.
And will end up costing at least 4x their annual turn over.
"Multiple internal non-SAP applications and external partner systems are integrated with the SAP system estate, working together to provide end-to-end business capabilities and overall compliance with regulatory, market, and statutory obligations,"
Yeah, right. Anyone like to take a punt on how many of the non-SAP systems are properly documented or their interfaces with SAP properly defined and integrated? Bearing in mind that most of the people who wrote the original software will have moved on, retired or died.
I'm with @druck on the potential cost.
>The Register has asked NIE Networks why it has decided not to move to the cloud and use RISE with SAP, the vendor's preferred method for getting there.
(Cloud mentioned in questionnaire...)
Plenty of ways to skin a cat. S/4HANA works perfectly well in Hyperscalers. Also, you haven't given the keys of the kingdom away.
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