We know that many fac­tors play into com­plet­ing a suc­cess­ful SAP S/4HANA imple­men­ta­tion. We also know that there are often bumps in the road — both expect­ed and unex­pect­ed — along the way. 

In this three-part series, we uncov­er the com­mon fac­tors that lead to failed projects, what steps an orga­ni­za­tion can take to avoid them, and how to plan for bet­ter deci­sion-mak­ing. ASUG News sat down with John Belden, project exe­cu­tion audit prac­ti­cal lead at UpperEdge, an orga­ni­za­tion that helps cus­tomers nego­ti­ate their deals with SAP and sys­tem inte­gra­tors (SI).

John has more than 30 years of expe­ri­ence imple­ment­ing SAP sys­tems. In the first part of this series, he iden­ti­fied com­mon traits that can lead to a failed project and the ear­ly first steps orga­ni­za­tions can take to avoid them. In this next part, we dis­cuss the crit­i­cal first steps an orga­ni­za­tion should take for the imple­men­ta­tion phase. We also explain­who should be at the table and how to plan for high-lev­el deci­sion-mak­ing and bud­get expectations. 

Sharon: What are the most crit­i­cal first steps busi­ness­es should take before imple­ment­ing SAP S/4HANA?