With the expand­ed focus that SAP has on its SAP Sig­navio suite and ser­vices, ASUG recent­ly dis­cussed the strat­e­gy. We also dis­cussed how the orga­ni­za­tion itself first used — and con­tin­ues adding to and deploy­ing — new SAP Sig­navio capa­bil­i­ties inter­nal­ly. The fol­low­ing is the sec­ond in a series of con­ver­sa­tions with Was­sil­ios Lolas, Glob­al VP and Head of Cen­ter of Excel­lence, SAP Signavio.

SAP Sig­navio is among the focus top­ics for our upcom­ing ASUG Best Prac­tices: SAP Cen­ter of Excel­lence (CoE) con­fer­ence. Find out more about the event here.

This is an edit­ed ver­sion of CoE-focused ques­tions and Was­sil­ios’ responses.

Ques­tion: When and how did SAP begin to use Sig­navio tools internally?

Answer: SAP start­ed using Sig­navio in 2015. Our process­es are doc­u­ment­ed in Sig­navio and acces­si­ble for employ­ees. SAP was one of the biggest Sig­navio cus­tomers at the time of the acqui­si­tion (SAP announced the Sig­navio acqui­si­tion in March 2021).

Q: What were the busi­ness dri­vers? And the tech­nol­o­gy drivers?

A: SAP need­ed to change on a fun­da­men­tal lev­el to tru­ly become a cloud com­pa­ny and to inte­grate the many acqui­si­tions it had made. For the busi­ness, becom­ing a cloud com­pa­ny meant chang­ing process­es across the board — from how we devel­op a prod­uct, to how we deliv­er it, to how sales teams are com­pen­sat­ed, and to how we com­mer­cial­ize prod­ucts, etc. Tech­ni­cal­ly, we need­ed to opti­mize our own inter­nal sys­tems, con­sol­i­date redun­dan­cies, and improve efficiency.

Q: What were con­sid­er­a­tions when devel­op­ing a Sig­navio CoE at SAP?

A: It is a best prac­tice to devel­op a CoE to man­age process man­age­ment strate­gi­cal­ly. It is also a best prac­tice to have a CoE to dis­sem­i­nate knowl­edge and exper­tise across the SAP orga­ni­za­tion, as well as across the ecosystem.

Q: What was the ini­tial struc­ture and oper­at­ing mod­el for the Sig­navio CoE?

A: SAP fol­lows the 4D-mod­el for change. The dimen­sions are peo­ple, process, data, and sys­tems. All need to be catered to for a suc­cess­ful change. The SAP Sig­navio solu­tion allows us to keep all projects in sync and lets teams col­lab­o­rate. Best prac­tices are: a) to have a cen­tral CoE with exper­tise, b) to have cham­pi­ons in all busi­ness units who act as mul­ti­pli­ers, and c) to host doc­u­men­ta­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion on the same platform.

Q: How has that struc­ture evolved?

A: We start­ed with finance as the first busi­ness unit (e.g., shared ser­vices) and have rolled out to oth­er lines of business.

Q: What have been key chal­lenges that the CoE has addressed and overcome?

A: We’ve reduced com­plex­i­ty. Insights into process per­for­mance have been help­ful. We did not have that at the begin­ning, but we do now thanks to Process Insights. We’ve gained vis­i­bil­i­ty and col­lab­o­ra­tion; both help to get buy in.

Q: What busi­ness prob­lems have been resolved by and through the CoE?

A: Not only through the CoE, but also, SAP finance, for exam­ple, was able to reduce the effort-per-dol­lar gained. The SAP finance head­count was reduced, while at the same time, SAP rev­enue was grow­ing — doing more with less.

Q: Why should any orga­ni­za­tion that has, or is con­sid­er­ing SAP Sig­navio, do so with a CoE in the plan?

A: SAP Sig­navio CoE sup­ports the rapid shar­ing of knowl­edge, exper­tise, and best prac­tices. The CoE acts as hub for rolling out process changes; iden­ti­fy­ing new ideas and best prac­tices; and con­tin­u­ing this vir­tu­ous cir­cle. The CoE acts as a bridge across depart­men­tal boundaries.

Q: How does the Sig­navio CoE help SAP (and poten­tial­ly all orga­ni­za­tions) achieve the most val­ue from its invest­ment in SAP technology?

A: With its CoE, SAP ben­e­fits from tai­lored rec­om­men­da­tions, mon­i­tor­ing progress and impact, and accel­er­at­ing the roll­out of change.

Q: What is your best advice for orga­ni­za­tions build­ing and opti­miz­ing a CoE gen­er­al­ly, and a Sig­navio CoE in particular?

A: Just do it! Start small and learn fast; it’s bet­ter than spend­ing ages design­ing. Look for quick wins to demon­strate val­ue to all stake­hold­ers and participants.

Vis­it our Busi­ness Trans­for­ma­tion Man­age­ment and SAP Sig­navio foun­da­tions Con­tent Col­lec­tion to learn more about SAP Sig­navio, updates, and more.