Mission: Drive ERP..

My goodness Oracle applications have given me some great experiences over the years but left me with an underlying sense of frustration.... In today's recession, it's even more important than ever that clients secure value for money from their investment in Oracle.

My background as a management accountant and general manager combined with my functional and technical knowledge has certainly helped me manage ERP systems. As a contractor I've had project, support and change management roles in the UK, Europe and the Middle East; both public sector and multinational corporations.

I'm on a mission now at www.DriveERP.com to address these frustrations... Questions I need to answer.. I believe to the benefit of our clients.

Why are Oracle applications rarely managed as a business unit, or cost or profit centre? Does it really fit in IT? Or should it sit between the business and IT? How much is your organisation spending over the next 10 years? Time to give it some focus.

How many organisations monitor and report on the performance of their Oracle systems? I don't just mean database and transactional performance. What about customer service? The efficiency of the support system? Measuring the success of project objectives? Internal and external benchmarking? The measurement of solutions delivered after the implementation can raise the profile.

Why are some businesses driving business intelligence initiatives when their basic reporting capability is mediocre? Why are Oracle clients still heavy reliant on Excel and Access databases? Why do reporting and intelligence tools give different results to the same query? Let's get the basics right and ensure the business drives BI rather than the technology.

Why do large Oracle implementations fail to meet expectations? And fail to deliver the desired benefits to the business? Is it enough just to tick boxes for training, communications, and documenting process and job description changes? There must be more to successful change management.

Why are support teams often restricted to being a purely reactive force? What real value can and should they add to Oracle applications? Is there room for a more proactive approach here? Time to empower the professionals and the users.

Why is there such a heavy focus on data rather than on information? Isn't data management merely preparation for the added value product of delivering information? Is data an IT issue? And information one for the business only? Information is to key to business success.

Who are our customers? Is the internal customer really 'king'. Does this premise drive Oracle applications successfully? I believe a more realistic view of internal customers will bring improvements.

Are we really delivering the full potential of Oracle applications? Is the 'go live' an end date or the start of a much bigger process ? How do customers or users know what else Oracle applications can deliver? Too often the 'go live' signals the end of planning and progress.

I'll continue to articulate these questions. I have some answers and I'll be looking to test those solutions in the future:

• Actually Managing Oracle Applications
• Successful Change Management
• Leading a Support Team
• Measuring Success and Value for Money
• Data and Information
• Customers and Collaboration
• Reporting and Oracle Technology
• Empowerment and Super Users
• Change Control and Value for Money
• Project Management Kept Simple
  

It's a huge challenge which I am relishing. Contributions are invited from business and IT managers; ERP functional and technical consultants; subject matter experts; and Oracle applications users.


Enterprise Resource Planning: a business management system that integrates all facets of the business,

Supported by Oracle applications and driven by people.

www.DriveERP.com

http://twitter.com/John_McGrann

Outsourcery...

We are in a global recession. The future is unclear. Sales and revenues are declining. Profit margins are under attack. Costs need to be cut. The The drama begins....

Even before recessionary times of course, outsourcing has been a legitimate tool for Oracle applications implementations, development work and support services. I could put a good case for outsourcing, but I'm not going to...

I have witnessed outsourcing in various guises: Competing for Quality; Market Testing; Private Finance Initiative; et al. What grinds with me is the unfairness at times to the client's in-house team. The guys and girls who have been doing the job for years, albeit maybe not as efficiently as is possible. Suddenly, they feel they are under attack and for good reason.

So just in case you find yourself in that position I've made a shield...

In summary, the quoted advantages of outsourcing are:

24 x 7 application support
Clients focus on their core business
Cost savings
In-house staff risks such as holiday/sickness/leaving
Access to a large pool of Oracle skills
Improved customer service

24 x 7 application support

I have yet to see effective 24 hour cover provided by a supplier support team. Quite often you either get the company help desk which is not very helpful, or it fails to send the message on to the right analyst or DBA. The alternative is to talk to the guy directly who is often out of the office or home and away from his computer until later. Additionally, they usually know little about your company or the urgent issue. Language and communications are further difficulties at times too.

Very frustrating and and a lots of wasted time.

Client focus on their core business

Ah OK so we concentrate on producing, packing, marketing, distributing and selling our widgets then. Fine. Except that we inevitably want to do all these activities much better. To do that we need meaningful information. Which in turn means we process huge amounts of data, refine it and the end product is company information.

Our information is therefore very near the core of our business.

Do we need to pay out large fees to outsourced consultants to constantly enhance and optimise reporting and intelligence. Can we afford to trust them to deliver and secure company data and information?

Cost savings

These are likely to be short term only. The supplier will press for a short term contract. The client company will lose is own experienced resources and the next time the contract negotiation comes up there will be a big hike in price.

Make sure you have a good accountant look at the costs of the rival camps. For decision making purposes, only in-house 'avoidable costs' should be considered rather than total costs for the in-house team. Basically these are the client company's cash savings as a result of outsourcing.

The vast majority of Oracle internal applications services are for internal use only. They don't need to make a profit. The supplier should be at a distinct disadvantage here. A rough guide would be that the service provider needs to be 25% more efficient on cost than the in house team.

In-house staff risks such as holiday/sickness/leaving

Get yourself some staff turnover figures for IT companies and you will probably find the in-house team fares better than most of them. A well managed and flexible applications team can cover sicknesses and holidays and a fall back position is to employ contractors on short term engagements.

Access to a large pool of Oracle skills

Another myth in my opinion. Only the very biggest companies have such a pool and many of the smaller and medium sized companies engage contractors on individual projects.

Cover this risk with an Oracle Support contract.

Improved customer service

It is hard to see how remote working can improve the service offered to users and ultimately the customer. The warm approach engendered by working for the same company is lost and the supplier's team will be pressurised to deliver new pieces of work at a significant cost to the end client.

Offshore support and development can be particularly difficult especially around communications. Many times in the past I have had to replicate discussions about issues during a telephone call by email because the analyst's English just wasn't good enough.

World class organisations will always treat their employees in a fair manner. Executives and managers responsible for the past performance of their in-house teams should not be allowed to shop internal resources. In-house teams can offer an efficient and effective Oracle applications service given a level playing field.

Otherwise they may well have an axe to grind...

www.DriveERP.com

A Numbers Game...

The best job interview I ever had was laying on the sofa watching television. Shorts and tee shirt was the attire. It was a telephone interview of course. The client was a large multi-national and 'needed someone like me asap'. Two days later I had seven face-to face interviews with the IT and Finance teams at their EMEA HQ in a beautiful European capital city. Three days later I was in at the deep end...

There was much to do. A large and diverse professional user community was very demanding, Super User groups needed to be established, new modules to implement and upgrade, and an EMEA project on the horizon. Great stuff I thought and a big challenge. Especially, trying to keep up with the Harvard and Oxbridge starlets that swarmed around the place. Everyone had to add value at SUPER ORG PLC, and egos reigned supreme.

I managed to build a bridge between the IT and Finance teams – no mean achievement. I translated and interpreted, and kept the 'company interest' as the focal point. Super User groups were set up and were driving value out of the applications. Everyone seemed content, even happy, except the IT director one day....

“John this is your No. 1 priority this week. There is a top management graduate from the USA who is torn between two offers of management positions. One in Finance and one here in IT. He must end up here working on Oracle applications. Joe will give you all the details and I've agreed with the Finance Director that you will talk to the graduate and after that we need a decision from him. The right decision John.”

“ OK I understand” I said. “He must end up in IT to massage your ego and it's one in the eye for Finance. And it won't look too bad for you back in CORP HQ .“

“ Correct, and it must be in the company interest of course” he concluded with a wink.

The young guy was a fast-stream candidate with many connections back in the USA. He enjoyed his time in Finance and IT as part of his graduate programme and had a degree in accountancy. He understood the challenges and rewards within the company. They were virtually the same whether he was in Finance or IT.

I spoke to him for less than 3 minutes. He joined IT and the director was ecstatic...in the company interest of course.

“Brilliant John! How did you manage it?“ asked the IT Director.

“ I told him there was a world outside of SUPER ORG PLC and it was full of opportunities. And it was a fact that 70% of graduates left the company within 5 years of becoming managers.”

“ And?” he asked.

“ I asked him a question. 'If I could show you a way of earning $1000 per hour would you join the IT team?' He agreed he would if I could show him how to achieve it.”

“ And”, he pressed me.

“ Well we agreed that he would probably leave SUPER ORG PLC by the age of 30. And he would work for 30 years in the 'other world' outside SUPER ORG PLC. Where, and I showed him the research, Oracle applications staff earn at least $10,000 per year more than the accounting and finance equivalents.”

“And?”..

.“ He knew that training and development would mean him spending personal time on it also. About 300 hours was our agreed estimate. The rest was simple maths. Total additional lifetime income of 30 years x $10,000 a year divided by the number of additional training/development hours on Oracle”.

“Being?”...

“ $300,000 / 300 or $1000 per hour”.

“ Excellent John! Well they didn't teach us that one at Harvard! Where did you pick it up?” he grinned.

“ Bootle Tech......”.

www.DriveERP.com

A Numbers Game...

The best job interview I ever had was laying on the sofa watching television. Shorts and tee shirt was the attire. It was a telephone interview of course. The client was a large multi-national and 'needed someone like me asap'. Two days later I had seven face-to face interviews with the IT and Finance teams at their EMEA HQ in a beautiful European capital city. Three days later I was in at the deep end...

There was much to do. A large and diverse professional user community was very demanding, Super User groups needed to be established, new modules to implement and upgrade, and an EMEA project on the horizon. Great stuff I thought and a big challenge. Especially, trying to keep up with the Harvard and Oxbridge starlets that swarmed around the place. Everyone had to add value at SUPER ORG PLC, and egos reigned supreme.

I managed to build a bridge between the IT and Finance teams – no mean achievement. I translated and interpreted, and kept the 'company interest' as the focal point. Super User groups were set up and were driving value out of the applications. Everyone seemed content, even happy, except the IT director one day....

“John this is your No. 1 priority this week. There is a top management graduate from the USA who is torn between two offers of management positions. One in Finance and one here in IT. He must end up here working on Oracle applications. Joe will give you all the details and I've agreed with the Finance Director that you will talk to the graduate and after that we need a decision from him. The right decision John.”

“ OK I understand” I said. “He must end up in IT to massage your ego and it's one in the eye for Finance. And it won't look too bad for you back in CORP HQ .“

“ Correct, and it must be in the company interest of course” he concluded with a wink.

The young guy was a fast-stream candidate with many connections back in the USA. He enjoyed his time in Finance and IT as part of his graduate programme and had a degree in accountancy. He understood the challenges and rewards within the company. They were virtually the same whether he was in Finance or IT.

I spoke to him for less than 3 minutes. He joined IT and the director was ecstatic...in the company interest of course.

“Brilliant John! How did you manage it?“ asked the IT Director.

“ I told him there was a world outside of SUPER ORG PLC and it was full of opportunities. And it was a fact that 70% of graduates left the company within 5 years of becoming managers.”

“ And?” he asked.

“ I asked him a question. 'If I could show you a way of earning $1000 per hour would you join the IT team?' He agreed he would if I could show him how to achieve it.”

“ And”, he pressed me.

“ Well we agreed that he would probably leave SUPER ORG PLC by the age of 30. And he would work for 30 years in the 'other world' outside SUPER ORG PLC. Where, and I showed him the research, Oracle applications staff earn at least $10,000 per year more than the accounting and finance equivalents.”

“And?”..

.“ He knew that training and development would mean him spending personal time on it also. About 300 hours was our agreed estimate. The rest was simple maths. Total additional lifetime income of 30 years x $10,000 a year divided by the number of additional training/development hours on Oracle”.

“Being?”...

“ $300,000 / 300 or $1000 per hour”.

“ Excellent John! Well they didn't teach us that one at Harvard! Where did you pick it up?” he grinned.

“ Bootle Tech......”.

www.DriveERP.com

A 20% chance...

I'm not sure who had the more incredulous look. Me as I listened to the constant message '”It cannot be done”. Or the HR Senior Management Team as I advised them that it will be done, and done to plan. It was my initial meeting as project manager with the customer at SLOW ORG. Except the project sponsor, the HR Director, hadn't bothered to show at all. The Oracle HRMS / OTA project was clearly at risk.

It was a government agency established a couple of years earlier. The workforce was long term public sector in the main and the pace was moderate to slow. Funding had become available centrally and the Chief Executive wanted an HR system by the year-end. The HR Director and his team were under pressure and had seen it attempted twice before without success. They had no resources and the data was poor. Very poor. So poor that they had 3000 personnel paper files as their legacy system and much was missing from those files.

Traditionally, change management around Oracle applications projects meant:

• Communicating features and benefits of the new system

• Training, education, and external information programs

• New organisational structures, policies, and procedures

• Monitoring and evaluating the organization's performance

All of this is required but doesn't deal with the 8 reasons projects fail to meet their stated change objectives. Two of those reasons are:

• There is no effective leadership alliance

• Obstacles are allowed to block the change vision

Back at SLOW ORG I had decided these were the two most likely reasons for failure. The HR management team were not going to lead the HRMS implementation and change project to success. Additionally, they would be the obstacles to the achievement of the project objectives. I formulated a radical proposal and went off to see the Chief Executive.

“ Your HR management team are not supportive and will block any new ideas and drive to a successful project. conclusion I need you to be Project Sponsor and your Finance, IT and Operations directors to fly the flag for the project. “

“Agreed” she said.

“ I need total flexibility in the budget spending to appoint some casual staff...basically to do the work of the HR staff working on data issues”.

She agreed again.

“Finally, I also need you to do something you really won't like doing but there is no other way”.

“ Try me” she said smiling.

“ I need you to communicate an open letter to all your employees informing them that the data we have on them for HR purposes is poor and much is missing. Also explain the benefits to them of the new HR system around speedier administration, pay issue resolution, training and career development. We need them in the next 4 weeks to complete a 100 point questionnaire which I will design and issue. It cover everything from personal details and work history to ethnicity questions and skills and training”

She needed to think and consult with her directors. They agreed and somehow I got the feeling that this alliance was based on getting even with HR team. I didn't care...

The email letter went out. We designed a powerful user friendly questionnaire well tested and distributed to all employees including directors. Casual staff were brought in and fired up. League tables were set up to monitor and publish submissions by functional and operational teams on a regional basis. The HR team were to validate the data as much as possible.

I still needed to keep them on board of course and my next meeting was a communication exercise. Their noses were put out but I went for the jugular anyway. “ Honestly, what are the chances of success now?” I asked. “ About 20%” said the HR No. 2. The others agreed.

Six months later and it's my final day and my final Steering Committee meeting.

“This will be a short meeting.“ said the Chief Executive. “I believe our deputy HR Director would like to say a few words to our Project Manager”.

He smiled and said thanks for their new HR system which they are thrilled about. Yes 98% of employees had returned completed questionnaires. Sorry for being disbelievers. And more importantly, thanks for demonstrating everything is possible.

I headed for Heathrow bound for home in Cyprus..his words ringing in my ears...:-)

www.DriveERP.com

Knee Jerk costs....

Achievement not activity. Results not process. Facts not emotion.

That's what it should all be about in the exciting world of Oracle applications.

In a big organisation with multiple modules and a bureaucratic culture, there are usually more crises - and also more people to deal with them of course. Some, however, just have that bit more drama than others. Today was one of those days at BadOrg PLC.

'There's a problem' was written all over my Technical Support Manager's face. Not a functional, technical or database issue which we dealt with at the rate of 500 per week. This was a 'management' problem. Two of the Senior Leadership Team had phoned my No. 2 in my absence. There were emails and voice mails all within an hour of the incident. The CEO on walkabout at one of the many organisation's locations had received a complaint from an Oracle Financials user to say the 'support for a reporting issue was taking a long time to get to resolution'. The CIO got a call, then her team, then us in the support team.

We had a name and location and that it was a 'reporting issue'. I got my No. 2 to lead on it and dedicated an Oracle Financials analyst and my business analyst on the case. There was no support call number. My team ran around like headless chickens and rightly moaned about the lack of information. Politics prevented asking the SLT members for more useful details.

The user had no support call on the system. They tried the HQ Finance team but no joy. They searched against other support calls at that location and came up with a couple of calls which they expedited. They eventually took the bold step of contacting the user, a provincial accountant, by phone and by email and via his boss...all to no avail. Yes the user who had the CEO and CIO in tow could not be found for 2 days...nor did he return any communications. I smelt a rat.

When he was eventually cornered ...... It was clear that:

1. The issue was related to OFA
2. No support call had been logged by the user
3. My team did not support OFA – Finance supported it themselves

My team was peeved but were accustomed to it all. I was furious and let the 2 SLT members know the outcome. I got a curt response. ' Thanks but he must have had a problem' . Oh so we have 3 or 4 people diverted from important tasks to chase around after a support call which either didn't exist or was never ours! And the bad publicity for my team.

. Time for a considered response.

Dear SLT

As always we aim to deliver excellent service in a very cost effective manner..

Today we closed a support call that never was, which was initiated outside our agreed process . We wasted a lot of time and received bad press on this non issue.

The cost of my time and 3 members of my team over 3 days?
£2100

The alternative course of action ( the support process) would have been an hour for a Finance analyst who support OFA:

£25

Additionally, in future we shall formally report back on these type of incidents to all interested parties.

Regards

John

I got no response from the 8 SLT members. I expected none. The point was made. There was no repetition.

It amazes me at the total waste of resources I see around Oracle applications projects, support and development. Nearly all decisions, activities, processes can be quantified and communicated more effectively in cash terms. It is far more powerful than reason and pure emotion.

Use it!

www.DriveERP.com

Always Prepared

The first day on a new assignment is always a mixture of dread and excitement. What are the problems? Who are the key people? What's the culture? Will the days be long or just flash by.... It's only 3 months this time..

It's no fun being a smoker in the UK these days, especially in the winter. Outside in the cold and rain smokers like to stick together. It does have its advantages though....

I soon found 'smokers corner' on my first day. My solitude soon broken by the arrival of a middle aged northern lass, well wrapped against the elements. I knew exactly what she was going to ask as she lit up her Marlboro Red..

“You're the new guy” she told me bluntly
“I am indeed” I replied. “Well new to here..” I added.
“Bet you're glad you came here. The last two didn't last long.”

I smiled. Maybe she was an informer for the London crowd. The big bosses at BadOrg PLC.
“I should be OK. There's lots of nice people here.” The PR bit done.

Her turn to smile. “Yes but they think you will soon get fed up here. It's a mess up there and you're just a contractor, passing through..”

“Well I like to think I can do a job even though I am only here for 3 months.” I countered.

“I hope you do“ she replied. “Better sort out the Finance people here. They pee all your guys off. And there's too many people playing on the Internet too. And the big bosses could do with getting themselves up here to show some support”. She continued: “They keep throwing more at your guys to support but they inherit problems from the project teams”

She was ranting but seemed to have an insight. I guessed she had waited her moment for our chance encounter in the smoking area. She was confident about her analysis.

I must stay positive. After all it was only my first week.

“I'm confident we can pull things around” I said. “I've worked in a few big organisations and they all have their problems. I'm looking forward to the challenge” I was on a roll.

“Good luck” she said stubbing out half a cigarette. “I got to dash I'm just starting my shift. Let's hope you're the decent manager they need upstairs....”. She smiled again cheekily.

“I hope so“ I smiled. “And what do you do then starting work at 6pm of a night?”

“I'm your office cleaner luv. See ya!”

I make a number of assumptions before I arrive at a new assignment site. It matters not whether the designated role is support, change or project management. I always find on arrival:

- The brief from the recruiter (agent or direct) has big holes in it
- The senior management brief is on their priorities and little on the problems and obstacles
- There are always good people willing to share their views on the issues
- No appraisal exists of whether Oracle applications give Value for Money
- A black hole exists between the business and IT teams
- A black hole exists between the Oracle projects and support teams
-The Oracle applications investment is rarely managed as a whole

Of course there can be many other issues to be addressed but these assumptions help me get off to a flier! Most other issues tend to be related to my assumptions. I like to do my best work in the early days of a contract. I'm careful not to divert too many resources away from support and projects activities whilst we address the basic problems and start adding value.

It does pay to be always prepared.

Oh and be careful what you leave lying around in your trays or throw in the waste paper basket!

www.DriveERP.com