SAP Consultants: Winning and Keeping Executive Sponsorship

By Sam Sliman
President, Optimal Solutions Integration, Inc.

Executives responsible for green lighting SAP initiatives realize that cost, complexity, and risk increase exponentially with the number of projects they approve. They also know that their professional advancement can hinge largely on whether IT projects with their name on it achieve ROI. With their paycheck and reputation on the line, you can bet that these executive sponsors are fully involved in every aspect of an SAP project, and are ready to pull the plug at the first sign of trouble.

Today’s corporate heroes are often those individuals who step up with a creative IT solution to a pressing business challenge. The potential down side of this brand of heroism, however, is being stigmatized as someone who drops the ball should a large project go awry or fall short of meeting its stated objectives. In today’s high-stakes world of enterprise technology, when a project fails, it matters little if the sponsoring execs offer up a mea culpa or start the finger pointing. Once things have gone irreparably south with a big-budget SAP initiative, excuses mean little and second chances are rare.

Successful SAP consultants know the importance of winning and keeping executive sponsorship. They know full well that the executives they help to achieve hero status today will not forget them down the road when new projects surface.

Here are a few ways SAP consultants win and keep executive sponsorship:

Make the business case clear and compelling

If the executives you need as sponsors aren't excited about the clear and immediate benefits of your project, or if they can't articulate the benefits to their peers and superiors, they'll either squash the project immediately or let it die a slow death in project limbo. Never forget that these execs are routinely bombarded with multiple project requests from which they must construct a strategically sound roadmap  moving forward only with those projects where risk is mitigated and the business advantage clear.

It is vital that consultants do the requisite homework, talk with business managers, and clearly understand all relevant needs and pains prior to mapping out a solution. Putting the effort into creating a focused, meaningful dialogue with senior executives to understand their specific business issues not only demonstrates a real commitment to their success but also helps to establish a consultant’s credibility and capability. When the business case for a project is well thought out and tightly wedded to immediate business issues, and the objectives, timeline and metrics for success are clearly presented, the decision to green light the project is made easy. An added advantage of working closely with sponsoring execs to build a clear business case is deeper relationships and increased loyalty.

Plan for political obstacles

The cross-functional nature of SAP initiatives ensures that numerous, historically disconnected business units will be brought together, often for the first time. This inevitably creates a politically charged environment where unit executives and managers might adopt a defensive stance, prove difficult to work with, and possibly derail an important project.

Accordingly, it behooves SAP consultants to know in advance whose toes might be stepped on or whose fiefdoms may be affected by a project. Armed with accurate knowledge of a company’s political landscape, a consultant can identify potential obstacles beforehand, prepare insightful, proactive responses, calculate how to minimize disruption and have pragmatic workarounds and compromises always at the ready.

Be visible, responsible and responsive

When both the sponsoring executives and the lead SAP consultant have much on their plates, an unhealthy inertia or dangerous disconnect may set in. If the project is not in immediate crisis, regular reporting tends to grow lax, calls are put off and communication, in general, lapses.

Successful SAP consultants know from experience the importance of reporting clearly, often and honestly. They promptly handle the challenges they can and don’t shy away from calling in support if they find themselves in over their head or falling behind on deliverables. Most importantly, they don’t let things go too far astray or get too far off track. They know scope creep can be a silent but deadly project killer. Quality consultants respect the need and understand the value of establishing and maintaining processes by which to discover and continually measure a customers' view of the project and of its value. They stay in the good graces of executive sponsors by staying visible, responsible and responsive.