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Transcript of Accentures Own Erp Production Support Model4575
8/12/2019 Accentures Own Erp Production Support Model4575
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Planning for and sustaining high performance
Accenture’s Own ERPProduction Support Model
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This effort has produced clear winners
and losers—some companies get
considerably more value from their
ERP implementations than others.
A 2006 Accenture research effort
entitled "New Growth from Enterprise
Systems" found that while
organizations have made progress in
realizing value from their enterprise
systems, most still have significant
opportunities to maximize the value
from their investments. For Accenture,
creating and managing a production
support environment was a key
contributing factor to realizing
benefits from their enterprise system.
Production Support helps ensure the
stable and efficient operation of the
ERP system on which an organization
depends. Many companies focus
intensely on developing, testing and
deploying their ERP solution, but give
much less attention to the need for
post-implementation management
and maintenance. Instead, these
companies find themselves scrambling
to create or update the support
structures-while concurrentlystabilizing the solution-immediately
after the implementation. As a result,
the productivity declines that are to
be expected immediately after
implementation are exacerbated and
can last months or even years. The
longer the stabilization period, the
longer a company has to wait to
generate results.
Over a 21-month period, Accenture
introduced a comprehensive ERPcapability based on the SAP
application suite to deploy new
solutions for its three core functional
areas of Finance, Human Resources
and Sales. This effort not only marks
one of the world's most ambitious
ERP implementations in the services
sector, but it also leverages a single
global instance on a uniform, cross-
functional platform. This is unique,
given that Accenture research
confirms that only one-third of high
performing companies haveconsolidated its enterprise system into
a single global instance. More
important and even more unique is
the fact that the Accenture program
incorporated-from its very inception-a
rigorous production support model to
ensure its immediate and long-term
success. This innovative production
support model allowed Accenture to
take full advantage of its single-
instance, multi-function ERP solution
from day one. It enabled a
transformation to a process-driven
environment, firmly aligned to
business needs. And it provided a
critical foundation for long-term high
performance for its key business
functions.
Over the past decade, most large corporations haveturned to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)solutions to enable a seamless flow of informationand transactions across diverse business functions,business units and geographic boundaries. Thesecompanies have transitioned to common ERP
solutions with the intention of maximizing efficiency,improving internal controls, facilitating moreaccurate business planning and generating greatervalue from their technology investments.
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productivity by focusing on end-to-
end processes, across countries,
throughout the enterprise. The
company also believed it could
benefit from a single instance of integrated business data, which would
provide much greater visibility into
the business and enable the earlier
identification of challenges and
opportunities. Finally, Accenture
believed a comprehensive ERP
solution would not only help address
statutory compliance risks that vary
by country, but also facilitate the
integration of new business areas and
acquisitions by providing consistent
processes and tools across Finance,
Human Resources and Sales.
To achieve these benefits, Accenture
first needed to overcome a significant
challenge. The proposed program
replaced the core Finance, Human
Resources and Sales systems, taking
away the familiar applications and
reporting tools that had been used to
run Accenture's business for years. At
the same time, the program needed to
create an environment that would
enable internal organizations to work
together on a shared, fully integratedsystem. As quickly as possible,
Accenture had to get its people back
to where they had been with their
core proficiencies, but with
completely new tools and processes.
From the very beginning, Accenture
knew that implementing a multi-
function ERP system entailed more
than simply changing the company's
technology platform. The company
also needed to introduce sweepingnew user and application support
processes and methodologies to help
employees master the solution quickly
and to maintain the solution for long-
term gain. For this reason, Accenture
set out to build a leading-edge
production support environment.
Business challenge
Accenture's ongoing research into the
characteristics of high-performance
businesses reveals that top companies
regard IT as a source of both
operational excellence and
competitive advantage. They look
beyond using IT as a tool for
controlling costs. Rather, they
understand that IT is a strategic asset
that can drive productivity and
generate bottom-line results. In this
regard, Accenture itself operates like
a high-performance business.
To generate greater value from its
own IT investments and help manage
its explosive growth, Accenture made
the strategic decision to migrate to a
single global instance of SAP and
establish a global production support
model. By implementing a fully
integrated ERP solution-starting with
the Finance function, followed by
Human Resources and then Sales,
Accenture felt it could improve
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What Accenture didTo achieve the full benefits of its ERPsolution, Accenture created aproduction support capability that
could rapidly build employeeproficiency and drive collaborationacross the diverse business functionsthat use the ERP solution. Resourcesfrom Accenture's Operations Supportfor the Enterprise (OSE) partnership, incollaboration with Accenture'sconsultants and IT Organization, beganby examining production supportcapabilities at a number of Accenture'scorporate clients. Based on thisassessment, Accenture set out torethink the entire concept-andeffectiveness-of production support.The result? A powerful new ERPproduction support paradigm steepedin early planning and comprising threeprimary components.
The first component was a robustmethodology. To ensure thatproduction support structures were inplace when the new solutions wentlive, the team leveraged the ServiceIntroduction components of the
Accenture Delivery Methods for SAP. Theteam tailored the tasks and deliverablesdefined in the methodology (based onthe unique requirements of each
capability being added to SAP) andincorporated them into the overallimplementation plan for each newcapability. As a result, the first report tobe designed coincided with the design of the first component of the productionsupport structure. In short, the teamtailored and then leveraged a repeatableproduction support enablementmethodology that ensured that theprocedures, tools and people were readyto support users as soon as they loggedonto the system for the first time.
The second component was stronggovernance. Because the single-instanceERP would manage and integrateinformation related to Finance, HumanResources and Sales, the Accenture teamrecognized that a sound governing bodywas needed to balance the three groups'requirements and guide the rightdecisions for the business, even underchallenging circumstances. According toTodd Harding, Accenture's Director of
OSE, "Our expansive approach togovernance is arguably the mostpivotal aspect of Accenture'sproduction support capability." The
governance structure includes businessleaders from Accenture's ITOrganization, Finance, HumanResources, Sales, Business Operationsand Geographic Services. As Hardingexplains, "Today, the governancestructure serves as an essentialintegrator. It challenges each memberand encourages each support personto think beyond their departmentalboundaries to understand the effectsthat any proposed changes to the ERPmight have on other processes."
Rounding out the governance model isa cross-operations team composed of IT and OSE resources, which workacross three support tiers to trackservice level agreements, measureproduction support effectiveness andmonitor benefits.
The final component was acomprehensive, scalable supportstructure. In planning the day-to-daysupport capabilities, Accenture aimed
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to create as comprehensive a supportstructure as possible. The goal was toestablish a single group to controlmaster data and user security access
and to deliver comprehensiveprocedural process and technicalsupport via a single global networkand a common toolset. To achieve thisobjective, a three-tiered support modelwas created in which both IT andbusiness representatives play crucialroles (see Figure 1).
• Tier 1 support is delivered by anetwork of actual end users who aretrained as Super/Lead Users toprovide their peers authoritative
answers about SAP-enabledprocesses and by the global HelpDesk organization, which providesanswers to technical questions dayor night.
• Within the Tier 2 support level,subject matter experts fromAccenture's business teams (Finance,Human Resources, Sales and OSE)are integrated as full-timeparticipants in the supportorganization. These resources workwith the IT team to answer escalated
queries from Tier 1, maintain usersecurity access and business datamodels, design and test fixes to thesolution in production, and identify,
prioritize and design enhancements.These fixes and enhancements entailnot only updates to the system itself,but also to the process andprocedures Accenture uses internallyto manage the business. Pivotal tothe structure at this level is thecentral team that governs andintegrates the core master andreference data used by each of thebusiness functions. The BusinessData Architecture team ensures thatthat common data definitions and
synchronized data values are used byeach capability.
• Tier 3 support is also providedthrough collaboration between the ITOrganization and business teams. Inaddition to the developers andtechnologists that keep theinfrastructure, solution and networkwell tuned, Tier 3 support includes arobust change management teamthat keeps user proficiency equallywell tuned. Within the Tier 3 support
level, OSE's Learning & KnowledgeManagement team manages the SAPBusiness Procedures website, whichlets end users help themselves.
Further, this group creates andupdates job aids, conducts trainingand distributes communications tousers to ensure that they are keptcurrent with issues and changes tothe solution.
Many companies take years tostabilize their ERP implementations.Accenture's early and ongoing focuson production support-as well as itscommitment to establishing robustgovernance capabilities, methodologies
and support structures-allowed thecompany to quickly generate valuefrom its solutions in the areas of Finance and Human Resources whilealso adding new capabilities. Within just 12 months after incorporating theHuman Resources functionality,Accenture's SAP production supportcapability was extended to includeSales-Opportunity Managementactivities.
Cross Operations and Governance
Prioritization, service management (SLAs), metrics and measures, monitoring benefit realizati
Integrated
Business
and IT
Teams
Tier 2
Production Support
Tier 1
End User Support
Tier 3
Production Support
Product andSolutionExpertise
ApplicationProductManagement
IT Teams GlobalTechnicalSupport
Help Desk
Technical DataExpertise
Technical DataArchitecture
Applicationmanagemen
TechnicalOperations
Basis (develoand technicaarchitecture
Production, and networkservices
Business
Teams
Process andBusinessExpertise
Process/SolutionTeams
LocalFunctionalSupport
Lead/SuperUsers
Business DataExpertise
Business DataArchitecture
Master datamaintenanc
FunctionalOperations
Learning andknowledgemanagemen
Usercommunicat
User Securityand Compliance
User SecurityProduction
Support(Tier 2 &3)
End User Support(Tier 1)
End Users
Geographical andOrganizational Leadership
Process
Owners
Figure 1: Accenture’s Integrated, ERP Support Model
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"The need for process and dataintegration with Finance and HR wasthe primary business driver behind thedecision to move Accenture's sales
systems to SAP," explains Mark Hawn,Managing Director, Sales Effectiveness."The implementation of SAP Sales-Opportunity Management extendedthe reach of Accenture's SAP programbeyond the back office, and out to thepeople who serve our clients. As thethird business capability to be addedto Accenture's ERP solution we wereable to capitalize on the productionsupport model already in place andimmediately reap the benefits of integration that the model enables."
High performance delivered"From the perspective of our ITOrganization, a critical success factorfor the implementation andmaintenance of our single globalinstance of SAP has always been theongoing engagement of our businessstakeholders," explains Dan Kirner,Senior Director-Finance CapabilityManager and SAP Program Lead. "The
collaborative partnership that we haveforged with Finance, HR and Sales,and embedding them into ourproduction support model at all levels,
has been instrumental to the internalprocess improvements that we havebeen able to drive for Accenture."
By tapping IT and business resourcesfrom across the organization,Accenture developed a leading-edgeproduction support capability thatenabled the company to quicklymaximize returns on its ERPinvestment. Specifically, theproduction support model has:
• Reduced the post-implementationstabilization period, which translatesinto more rapid benefits realization.Whereas it took four months tostabilize the initial SAP Financeimplementation, more recentreleases have achieved stabilizationin half the time or less.
• Created operational efficiencies byreducing the slope of the learningcurve for users and minimizing theproductivity dip that is typicallyexperienced.
• Reduced internal costs byrationalizing the number of supportteams, structures and tools, and byleveraging common structures and
toolsets across the functions usingSAP. For example, Accenture hasadded a number of new capabilitiessince the first SAP release forFinance in 2004. Consequently, thenumber of frequent users of theapplication has grown by 270percent. Despite this increase incomplexity and number of users, thesize of the production support teamshas grown by only 34 percent. (SeeFigure 2)
• Enabled the company to prioritize
and deliver enhancements, whichoptimize benefits for and acrossmultiple functions. Each successiverelease since the initial SAP Financeimplementation has added 50percent more batch processes.Despite this increase, the supportteams have reduced the quarterly-close-to-report cycle by nearly 25percent, from 30 days to 23 days.
Figure 2: User Growth vs Support Team Growth
*Frequent users of SAP routinely access the system to perform their ongoing job responsibilities
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SAP for Finance SAP for Fin & HR Extend SAP to Other Businessesand Opportunity Management
IT Support Teams
Business Support Teams
All Support Teams
Frequent Users*
+ +
0
100
200
300
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
2004 2005 2006
(270%)
(34%)
(46%)
(14%)
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• Established common, scalablesupport processes that facilitate thequick integration of support for newcapabilities, users and business
acquisitions, and which provide aplatform for off-shoring andoutsourcing opportunities. Currently,60 percent of the support teamresources are located offshore. Thismarks an increase of 10 percentsince the first SAP implementation.
Several important characteristics setthe Accenture production supportmodel apart and form a solid platformfor growth and high performance. Forexample, the model blurs the
traditionally narrow functionalboundaries separating Finance, HumanResources and Sales, encouragingcollaboration and an enterprise-wide,end-to-end process orientation."Production support has helped usintegrate our employee data andfinancial data in a powerful way and,in the process, eliminate many of thelegacy activities needed to reconciledata between Human Resources andFinance," says Michael Adamson,Senior Director-HR Infrastructure. "But
these advantages pale in comparisonto the benefit of having the integratedinformation necessary to make faster,better decisions and drive high
performance in our businessoperations."
The production support model alsopromotes standardization whereverpossible, which improves thecompany's business and riskmanagement capabilities, whilereducing costs. "We focus on qualityat the source, which allows improvedvisibility of key information across theenterprise," points out Grant Ireland,Accenture's Assistant Controller. "More
accurate information enables us tomanage risks, and provide businesssupport and analysis that helps growthe top and bottom line faster."
Importantly, the production supportmodel is highly scalable. OSE isresponsible for supporting more than atotal of 25,000 SAP users in the areasof Finance, Human Resources andSales-from "super users" to businessoperators and managers who use thesystem occasionally. Despite the rapid
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increase in the total number of Accenture users of SAP (from 2,700core Finance users with the originalimplementation just 3 years ago), few
additional production supportresources have been needed tomaintain the end-user SAP experience.The inherent rigor of the productionsupport model allows flexible, scalablesupport-even while support costs peremployee decline.
Given the success of Accenture'sproduction support model, thecompany plans to extend thecapability to additional applications,such as recruiting, forecasting,
procurement and performancemanagement. In this way, theproduction support solution will behelping Accenture optimize even moreof its business capabilities and lay aneven stronger foundation for long-term high performance.
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Copyright © 2007 Accenture
All rights reserved.
Accenture, its logo, and
High Performance Delivered
are trademarks of Accenture.
About AccentureAccenture is a global management
consulting, technology services and
outsourcing company. Committed to
delivering innovation, Accenturecollaborates with its clients to help
them become high-performance
businesses and governments. With
deep industry and business process
expertise, broad global resources and a
proven track record, Accenture can
mobilize the right people, skills and
technologies to help clients improve
their performance. With more than
158,000 people in 49 countries, the
company generated net revenues of
US$16.65 billion for the fiscal year
ended Aug. 31, 2006. Its home page is
www.accenture.com.