ERP Expert October 2008 Article "Communication the Key to Consolidating ERP Systems for Utah Department of Workforce Services"

1. strategy
Communication the Key to Consolidating
ERP Systems for Utah Department of
Workforce Services
When the support of your SAP ERP processes unemployment claims, provides
system relies almost exclusively on one economic and wage data, and provides We have very specific training
knowledgeable person — and that person public assistance services.
requirements for new employees
takes another job — the challenge of
As a government agency, the department to learn the policies and regula-
supporting the system can be nearly
insurmountable.
is strictly regulated, which in turn puts a tions for these programs, so the
premium on employee training. DWS
(SAP) Learning Solution is
The State of Utah Department of Work- relies on SAP Learning Solution and SAP
absolutely critical to our success
force Services (DWS) found itself in that NetWeaver Portal to help train more than
exact predicament when its one-man 2,000 state employees. New employees as an agency.
support team left the department. DWS, have anywhere between 60 and 80 train- — Chris Gordon, DWS
the state’s primary job assistance agency, ing sessions to learn their specific
limped along for a couple of years without functions, estimates Gordon.
dedicated support for its implementation
An example screenprint of the department’s The department also processes its payroll
of SAP ERP 4.7 and the SAP applications
portal application is shown in Figure 1. within the SAP ERP system.
on which the department runs its learning
management technologies. “We have very specific training require- Despite its broad responsibilities, DWS is
ments for new employees to learn the a relatively small unit within the state
“We sent some of our people to classes
policies and regulations of our programs government. With few resources for main-
but realized over time that if someone
and services, so the (SAP) Learning taining and upgrading the SAP system,
leaves, then we essentially have to start
Solution is absolutely critical to our Gordon says the ERP implementation had
over to train a new person. We realized it
success as an agency,” she says. fallen woefully behind — making it
would be extremely costly and time-con-
suming in the long run to continue to do
this on our own,” says Chris Gordon,
project manager for DWS.
Fortunately, another department within the
state government — the state Department
of Administrative Services, Division of
Finance— was using a fully supported
implementation of SAP ERP 2004 to run
the state’s payroll and other financial
functions. Consolidating the DWS and
Finance systems would allow the state to
run many of its critical functions from a
single instance of SAP.
Mission and Cost Drive
Consolidation Plan
Put broadly, the task of DWS is to connect
job seekers and employers within the
Figure 1 A typical employee homepage created in SAP NetWeaver Portal
state. The department posts job ads,
© 2008 ERP Expert Reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

2. strategy
impossible to enhance the SAP Learning
Solution for future initiatives such as We wanted to be able to run on one environment without having to develop
manager reports, correspondence, and duplicate expertise under another agency. So it becomes a cost-saving
online performance management. benefit to us and it provides an upgrade that gets everybody working on the
So representatives from DWS, the
same system.
Division of Finance, and the Department — Chris Gordon
of Technology Services investigated
the possibility of merging the two
systems. The consolidation now offers
Planning on a Budget “We discussed some of those things in our
kickoff meeting, but realized we needed to
DWS a fully upgraded and supported To sell the project to state officials and stay focused on the merger initially. Once
version of SAP ERP on which to run secure the required project budget, Gor- that was in place, we could move forward
its solutions. don’s team created a business case with some of the other things we’d like to
focused heavily on the cost savings and incorporate,” she says.
“Our goal is to run on one SAP environ- potential functionality enhancements of
ment without having to develop duplicate the consolidation. From the beginning, the
expertise. We’ve created a service level Because the team would hold off on
team was aware of the delicate nature of
agreement with State Finance so that they enhancements to the existing system until
tinkering with a system that processes
are essentially hosting our system. after the initial technical upgrade, the
nearly 20,000 paychecks for state
Together we’ve developed working rela- metrics used to measure the success of the
employees.
tionships, with the ability to work together project were defined largely by the
as an SAP team going forward. The Gordon’s group also needed to rein in the smoothness of the transition.
merger with State Finance provides a cost- scope of the project, which originally
saving benefit to us and it provides an included enhancements to the SAP Learn- “If we haven’t impacted payroll and DWS
upgrade that gets everybody working on ing Solution that would have complicated employees can still do their work, then
the same system,” says Gordon. the upgrade process. we’ve been successful,” says Gordon.
Figure An early draft of the project plan
For group rates on electronic access, call 1-781-751-8799 Volume 1, Number 4 • www.SAPexperts.com

3. strategy
Assistance from Across Lessons Learned tion was fundamental to the success of the
the Globe While the SAP ERP consolidation project
collaboration.
has gone smoothly to this point, Gordon “When you can’t actually sit down with a
To execute the project, Gordon relied on a
says project managers attempting similar team member and show them what you
team of consultants from LAZAR Consul-
projects should heed three critical pieces mean or do a demo on the screen, you
tants led by Michael Prakhina. LAZAR
of advice: realize you need to be careful and not
Consultants helped with every facet of the
assume that someone knows what you’re
technical upgrade, from extracting and
uploading the DWS Portal data to the 1. Find consultants who can work talking about. You might need to add a
Finance SAP ERP system to configuring within your means. little more descriptive information in your
request to ensure that it’s clear for the
the SAP Learning Solution. Because DWS was working within a tight reader,” she says.
budget for the upgrade and consolidation,
“We were incredibly fortunate to select
it was under pressure to keep costs down. To deal with communication misfires,
consultants that have experience with a
Flying a team of on-site consultants to Gordon and Prakhina occasionally found
remote project. That was critical for us
Utah for the project would have been too themselves arranging group meetings to
because it saves us time and money from
expensive. Because LAZAR Consultants clarify requests and objectives.
having people fly out here to be on site,”
had experience working remotely, the firm
she says. “You have to be able to say, ‘You know,
was able to manage the technical aspects
with consultants spread from Canada to you really have to explain this better and
Because the LAZAR team was distributed maybe we need to get on a conference call
Russia.
geographically, communication among so that we can talk about it.’ Maybe the
team members was critical to the success team can send some screenprints back and
of the project. An early version of the 2. Reconcile your project manage- forth and try to replicate the issue or the
project plan is shown in Figure 2. ment processes. environment they are looking at,” says
When teaming up with experienced con- Gordon.
To accomplish this, Gordon and Prakhina
sultants on a project, as DWS did with
engaged in two or three unscheduled con- To assist with effective communication,
LAZAR Consultants, it is important that
versations per week about the progress of the project team implemented an “as
project leaders from both sides agree on
the project. The pair also opted to enable needed” Project Update system. An
how progress will be measured and team
team members to circumvent bureaucratic example Project Update is shown in
members will communicate.
channels when discussing project points. Figure 3. In addition to ongoing email
“I suggest negotiating project management and phone conferences, the Update pro-
“We wanted to make it clear up front that vided a concise overview of the team’s
processes up front with the other project
project members didn’t have to go through progress.
manager to ensure that there is a system in
Michael or me to communicate with each
place that will work for both entities to
other. We used project plans to ensure that
we were accomplishing the assigned tasks.
track completion of tasks and the project A Foundation for the Future
as a whole,” says Gordon.
Everyone has been very cooperative. As with most technical upgrades and con-
We’ve had questions, and we’ve had solidations, Gordon hopes the project has
issues arise, of course, but once we got 3. Push for clarity of communication. no immediate impact on the department’s
everyone together we were able to clarify Because Gordon and Prakhina had SAP users. In the future, however, the
the issues and determine appropriate solu- enabled their respective teams to commu- upgrade will serve as a framework for
tions,” says Gordon. nicate with each other directly, they system-wide improvements. In return, the
quickly learned that clarity of communica- Finance department will benefit from
The project kicked off in late January
2008 and is scheduled for completion We were incredibly fortunate to select consultants that have experience with
around the time this issue is published.
a remote project. That was critical for us because it saves us time and
The team recently found a bug in one of
the approval processes in the payroll money from having people fly out here to be on site.
system, but will be ready to go live once — Chris Gordon
that issue has been resolved.
10 © 2008 ERP Expert Reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

4. conferences education
DWS’ expertise with the Learning Solu-
Career Management Services
tion. And together they plan to use SAP’s
Project Update
Homepage Framework to further custom-
03/18/2008
ize portal content.
SUMMARY
“This provides us a foundation from
I am pleased to report that all of the Basis activities are complete! The State Finance which we’ll be able to make changes and
Basis team has finished their required activities, so that configuration work can enhancements. Once we’ve got the key
proceed. This is a huge step forward! Our LAZAR consultants have begun configuring pieces in place, we’ll be able to upgrade
the R/3 environment on the State Finance system, and the DWS team will begin their the system along with the State Finance
configuration activities this week.
system. They have a regular schedule for
ACCOMPLISHMENTS upgrades and support packs, whereas
DWS has had a lack of technical support
• All Basis activities are complete. This means that the LSO is ready to be config-
and is severely behind. With the merger,
ured on the State Finance system.
everything will be in place so that we can
• Some of the LSO configuration has been completed by LAZAR. move forward. That’s been our stumbling
• Michael, Anna, and Chris met to determine which configuration activities will block all along — we didn’t have the
be completed by LAZAR, and which will be completed by DWS. Those involved in pieces in place so that we could move
the configuration will be notified. Primarily this will involve JJ, Victor, Quinten, forward,” she says. n
and Chris.
• A Project Team Organization Chart has been added to the FTP site, in the Project
Preparation folder.
UPCOMING EVENTS / NEW DEVELOPMENTS
• Igor Khmel (Portal Consultant) and Ekaterina Savvina (HCM Consultant) from
LAZAR have joined the team and begun work on the project. Welcome!
• The Security group is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, March 25th.
TASKS IN PROGRESS
• Work is underway to determine roles needed for DWS staff in the State Finance
system.
• The Project Plan is currently being updated. Please check the FTP site for regular
project plan updates.
DECISIONS
•
QUESTIONS / SUGGESTIONS
•
Figure A sample Project Update