What is SAP CoE?
First, let’s start with some definitions.
SAP Competency Center
Provides an ‘always available’ application environment with extraordinary customer service delivered at a low cost.
SAP Center of Expertise
Provides technology-enabled solutions to business problems that increase the value of technology investments.
SAP Center of Excellence
Generates business value by solving business problems through a combination of business process improvements and innovative use of technology.
SAP Application Management Support
SAP AMS are processes and methodologies for maintaining, enhancing and managing enterprise SAP environments. AMS include development, implementation, integration, testing, maintenance and support (functional and technical), and help desk services.
Second, let’s understand the basic differences between an SAP Competency Center and an SAP Center of Excellence as related to maturity and function.
SAP Competency Centers seeks to employ change management strategies to regain system and business stability. SAP Centers of Excellence seeks to integrate application support staff and support technology into the business for competitive advantage.
SAP Competency Centers are reactive to any business need, waiting for unsolicited help desk tickets or business input. Competency Centers react to requirements. SAP Centers of Excellence on the other hand are proactive and try to find ways to apply technology and resources to value propositions and competitive pressures in an ongoing manner. Centers of Excellence actively look for value opportunities.
Third, let’s focus on the objectives of SAP CoE –
A SAP CoE is a formal support structure that provides business and application expertise to support an organization’s global or domestic SAP implementation, by designing new processes, optimizing current ones, managing complex implementation projects, providing user support and training, and keeping the complex SAP system landscape up and running 24/7.
Under the auspices of an SAP CoE, a support model is developed, a support strategy and vision takes shape, procedures are enacted, incident management processes are developed and refined, accountability is established, resources and budgets are allocated, and governance rules are put in place. All of these are critical success factors for ensuring an optimal support environment.
SAP CoE leverages business and IT talents and industry standard best practices to drive and achieve continued value. It's the building block for long term support success and system optimization. In short, the objectives are -
Enhance the value of the SAP Solution
Reduce Cost of SAP Operations (TCO)
Improve User Productivity/Customer Satisfaction
What are the top benefits of SAP CoE?
SAP CoE can be a highly effective way to implement and sustain specialist capabilities where a consistent, expert and cost effective service is required across organizational boundaries and where a comprehensive view is required to ensure synergies are identified and exploited.
SAP CoE is essential for maximizing the effectiveness and quality of the business and for greater success and increased value, at less cost and in less time. The result is an efficiently run business with improved technology management, tremendous value to IT, and successful end user adoption. The idea is first to ensure success and later to sustain that success.
SAP CoE represent a focus for a superior set of capabilities within the organization, including tangible resources such as equipment, licenses, and patents, and intangible resources such as knowledge and experience capabilities that can create value for more than one line of business.
Below are a few other reasons why SAP CoE’s are essential.
Cost Optimization and Innovation
Address the need of organizations to maximize the usage of hardware, software and highly skilled personnel to provide solutions to the customers, partners or end users.
Enhance the value of the SAP Solution - More standardization and better integration.
Enable to centralize technology as well as create a repository of solutions, and reusable components, sharing best practices and knowledge base. Reuse of technology can be leveraged across the organization.
Collaborate across business units to ensure consistency and integration of value stream, business data and governance models.
Implement the most optimal technologies, architectures, and frameworks to provide best-of-breed solutions and services to stakeholders.
Takes an organization wide view, enables reuse by identifying commonality. Provides a shared service across the organization.
Reduced Cost of SAP Operations (TCO) and Improvements in User Productivity.
Reduces the post production stabilization period, which translates into more rapid benefits achieved
Reduces internal costs by rationalizing the number of support teams, structures and tools and by leveraging common structures and toolsets across the functions.
Better Support
Provide timely information, measures, KPI’s to the users and senior management throughout the organization enabling them to take appropriate and timely decisions in competitive advantage.
Improved Service Levels.
Creates operation efficiency by reducing the slope of the learning curve for users and minimizing the productivity that is typically experienced.
Establishes common scalable support processes that facilitate the quick integration of support for new capabilities, users and acquisitions.
Enables the company to prioritize and deliver enhancements, which optimize benefits for and across multiple functions
Is aware about the importance of the quality of customer incidents forwarded to SAP and the associated certification requirements for Customer COE(s).
Ensures the appropriate Release and Enhance package level of the productive SAP Solution Manager.
Ensures that Early Watch Alerts are activated for all productive or connected systems.
Clear Governance and License Management
Provides a governance framework that enables open participation from every business unit, business partner, IT and other key stakeholders.
Provides a clear mapping between business models and IT modeling paradigms that can be used to clearly communicate business requirements to IT.
Creates a focal point where business strategy can be translated into operational reality.
Has an End-to-End lifecycle responsibility, e.g. from requirements definition and architecture through to operational support.
Has authority for its domain of responsibility.
Delivers clearly defined capabilities, boundaries, roles and responsibilities.
Provides strong process, methods and governance.
ensures processes and responsibilities for Contract and License Management are in place and documented.
is involved (Governance role) in speeding up the Contract & License Process overall.
has knowledge about the latest SAP pricing and conditions.
understands SAP´s License Key Administration and has appropriate internal processes.
guarantees that the customer system and user data are regularly updated in the SAP SMP (ongoing).
Enhanced Knowledge and Capabilities
To keep pace with SAP technologies such as HANA, Cloud, etc. and their impact on how business is conducted.
Leverage service and product expertise with the help of consistent methodology and industry knowledge.
Provides thought leadership, awareness of the market and how best practice can be applied to the organization and disseminates that knowledge.
A standard vehicle for deployment of SAP best practices. A central point of contact for all SAP related matters. Development of strong competencies in all SAP areas.
Follows a planned strategic approach for information management.
Conducts regular internal communication activities.
Has a clear view on each target group and their specific needs.
Has a structured and a well-established method for regular information research to prevent individual event driven search.
Has a dedicated responsible person or at least a role for information management in place.
Participates in SAP information events like ASUG Conferences, web conferences, Webinars, etc.
Has an established and active communication path to the SAP Account Executive or a comparable SAP contact person.
Conducts internal marketing or communication activities on regular basis using a planned approach.
What are the Best Practices for SAP CoE?
Building the SAP CoE
Develop a support strategy, build a business case for the CoE, and solicit help and expertise in SAP CoE design and roll-out.
SAP CoE should be evolutionary and agile, adapting to changing business requirements and future SAP initiatives. Let it grow, evolve, and 'morph' in unison with the business objectives. Flexibility and agility to adapt to changing end user, business, and company requirements is critical for SAP CoE.
Anticipate where the SAP issues or problem areas will be, and then plan and react accordingly. For example: plan for additional resources in this area as part of your post go-live support plan.
Establish a Support toolkit. At a minimum, a call tracking application, and the templates and forms needed.
Training is key, so make it a priority. It can save companies money as less tickets logged equates to less hours needed by the support team and users don’t have to try and figure something out in SAP.
Running the SAP CoE
Establish processes and procedures for your support operation. Make continuous improvement an objective.
Have clear processes for enhancements and system changes. For example, release and approval strategy, testing and transport.
Establish effective support processes and procedures for incident management and follow them. Ask these questions - do you have them? Are they any good? Are they followed? Are they reviewed periodically? Is there a process owner?
Take the time to perform root/cause analysis. Take corrective actions (ex: training). By being proactive, costs are optimized and resources are productive.
Establish a QA Process. Ask these questions - How well did you resolve the issues last month? Do you solicit feedback from the call owners to measure how you did? How effective is support?
SAP CoE should track and monitor performance daily/weekly/monthly and not just for 'if it comes up later', but rather for use as an internal barometer to fix and expedite corrective actions. Producing these metrics ensures accountability.
Keep SAP contract and license management together at one place.