Study initiated and realized together with IBM . Goal was to share the value , the decisions criterias, the KPI used and the success factors of an ERP implementation at 8 SME companies

1. Value and key learnings of ERP
projects in Mid-Market
companies
Results of the survey performed by SAP and IBM at
Belgian Mid-Market companies in winter 2006/2007
1

2. Executive Summary
Mid-market1 companies are facing challenges that are specific to their segment: their
suppliers and customers are mostly larger and more demanding companies with stronger
bargaining power. Mid-market companies are thus forced to adopt the level of standards
of their business partners (information exchange, JIT deliveries, quality certifications, …)
with much less available resources. It is therefore critical for them, in order to remain
competitive, to be able to rely on an efficient, well-structured and performing Information
System.
This study aims at demystifying SAP implementations in the Mid-Market sector as well as
providing some key learnings and a common practice to companies that are considering
further structuring their business processes.
The document outlines the drivers for starting an ERP project from the selection process
to the success criteria of the project and goes through the related objectives, allocated
resources and achieved results.
We have seen a shift in the strategic focus of companies in the past ten years, from cost
reduction at the beginning of the decade, to growth a few years ago, and to innovation as
enabler of this growth today.
The key driver for an ERP system, today as before, is the optimisation of resources
(time, money, people), however serving the successive strategic goals outlined above.
This is clearly translated into the scope of ERP systems implemented, shifting from back-
end support functions (cost-reduction), to core critical industry-specific applications
(growth through innovation).
Due to ever faster-moving market conditions, C-level executives expect their Information
System to support the shifts dictated by the business imperatives (business model,
products and services, and effectiveness and efficiency of core processes and functions).
Some interesting side consequences have been observed. CEOs are increasingly
involved in ERP projects and CIOs report more and more directly to them.
The level of maturity of companies towards the ERP concept will directly influence key
aspects of the project.
Our study shows that ERP systems, and more specifically SAP, are not as expensive, as
slow to implement, or as rigid as commonly believed. Our respondents highlighted that
even though there is a substantial entry ticket for the smaller companies to implement
SAP, the level of maturity of the solution and of their own company allowed most of them
to respect original budget, schedule and scope, which led them to consider the
implementation as a success.
Nevertheless, they widely reported difficulties in measuring the achieved business
benefits, either because they lacked baseline information needed to compare actual
performance and/or due to exogenous factors that slightly modified these baselines.
Guy Tricot Lawrence Steeman
IBM SMB SAP leader SAP SMB Manager
1
Mid-market is defined as the set of companies with a turnover comprised between 20 and 500 million
euros, and with 100 to 2500 employees, with their main decision centre located in Belgium.
2

3. Table of contents
Executive Summary.......................................................................................................2
1 Introduction .............................................................................................................4
2 SAP: an IT project, a Business project or both? .................................................6
2.1 Business Thinking ..........................................................................................6
2.2 IT Thinking ......................................................................................................7
2.2.1 Information System responsible............................................................8
2.2.2 Information System structure ................................................................9
2.2.3 Information System budget..................................................................10
2.3 Drivers for implementing an ERP solution .................................................11
2.4 Decision and selection process ..................................................................13
2.5 Selection criteria ...........................................................................................15
2.6 Scope of the SAP project ............................................................................18
2.7 SAP evolution ...............................................................................................21
2.8 SAP Implementation and integration..........................................................22
2.8.1 Achieved Schedule – Budget – Scope ...............................................22
2.8.2 Project success factors ........................................................................24
2.8.3 Change management...........................................................................25
2.8.4 Implementation rating...........................................................................26
3 Expected Benefits and success criteria for the project ....................................27
3.1 Expected vs. achieved benefits ..................................................................27
3.1.1 Enhance operational efficiency ...........................................................28
3.1.2 Lower risk ..............................................................................................30
3.2 Success criteria ............................................................................................32
4 Conclusion: ...........................................................................................................33
Table of figures ............................................................................................................35
Contacts........................................................................................................................36
3

4. 1 Introduction
IBM and SAP have conducted a joint multi-client study of the value brought to their
business by implementing SAP.
This study is directed at Belgian Mid-Market companies with their main decision centre in
Belgium, falling in the highlighted SAP market segmentation shown in the diagram below.
>500m€ turnover Large
>2,500 employees Enterprises
20-500m€ turnover
Mid Market
100-2,500 employees
1-20m€ turnover
Small Enterprises
1-99 employees
The objective of our study is threefold:
Demystify Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and more specially SAP
implementations in midsize companies
Provide key learning’s about duration, investment, and ROI of similar companies
(size, functional and geographical scope)
Serve as the basis for reflection using experience from both SAP and IBM
Characteristics of the respondents
This study does not aim to be statistical, but rather to illustrate the experience of
the different respondents with implementing SAP. The questionnaire included
sections about success criteria, change management tools, decision criteria, …
SAP and IBM have had face-to-face interviews with eight companies in the target
segment of the study. While their main activity is evenly spread amongst the
different segments of the private sector, it is to be noted that most companies had
activities in more than one segment. The public sector was intentionally left out of
this study.
4

5. Yearly turnover of the
interviewed companies follows
a normal distribution, with the
CPG majority comprised between
Services
100 and 200 million euros per
year and the rest equally
spread above and below those
limits
Process
Industries One half of the companies
Discrete employ between 14 and 500
Manufacturing employees and the other half
Industries employ between 500 and 2000
employees.
This combination of turnover
and workforce is representative
of SAP’s criteria for defining the
Mid Market segment.
Figure 1: This figure shows the repartition of the respondents in different sectors.
The majority of the respondents have international activities largely focusing on
the neighbouring countries (France, Germany, the Netherlands), but are
extending their reach to Asia and America, mostly via sales offices or
partnerships with local players. It is interesting to note that, except for one
company, SAP was only implemented in one central location.
None of the interviewed companies had implemented SAP before and half of the
implementations took place in the past two years.
5

6. 2 SAP: an IT project, a Business project or both?
2.1 Business Thinking
As further demonstrated in our survey, it is nowadays a well-accepted fact that the
purpose of an ERP solution is more than ever to support business strategies and
objectives rather than a sole IT solution.
Bring Innovation in your
business model
7,8
Provide Innovation 7,3
Build new external
collaborations 6,5
Have a better view 4,8
Move to a componentized
business model allowing 4,8
for business externalisation
Lower risk 2,8
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Figure 2: This figure shows the importance of some key points in the business model. The values are
the mean of all the respondents (maximum being 10).
The results shown in the above diagram confirm this, demonstrating that innovation is the
key strategic focus of the interviewed companies either in providing it to their customers
or in applying it to themselves.
Such innovation processes can be categorized as follows:
Business model – Innovation in the structure and/or financial model of the
business
Operational – Innovation that improves the effectiveness and efficiency of core
processes and functions
Products/services/markets – Innovation applied to products or services or “go-
to-market” activities.
According to the 2006 IBM CEO survey, one CEO suggested that “the three areas are
essential, equally important and inseparable from each other.” To support this, one
respondent mentioned that while they were innovating in the way they interact with their
customers, they were also making major changes to their business model, focusing on
core activities and reshuffling their organization.
However, Innovation does not always need to be as complex as the example above
(albeit with lesser results): for one of the respondent, using standard electronic exchange
6

7. formats as a means of exchanging data with customers and suppliers is seen as a new
manner of collaborating with business partners.
It is important to note that only one respondent considered innovation as not important at
this stage, as their focus is mainly on reducing costs by optimising their distribution
network.
2.2 IT Thinking
Be reliable 9,5
Ensure resilience 6,8
Think web-based 6,0
Support business needs and
evolution
6,0
Move to a Service Oriented
Architecture
5,0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Figure 3: This figure shows the importance of some IT characteristics. The values are the mean of all
the respondents (maximum being 10).
When asked about the attributes of an efficient ERP system, most respondents have
singled out reliability as the most important characteristic, mostly in terms of consistency
of data across the different functions, as the basis of the integration of their systems and
business processes.
Resilience is defined as the ability to guarantee the continuity and integrity of the
business processes should major and unexpected changes occur. This is closely linked
to the imperative of supporting business needs and evolution. It must be noted that while
respondents were originally not given the possibility to select this answer in the survey,
we have decided to add this characteristic to our results, as the majority of them
expressed this last point as being the key mission of IT during the interviews.
“The IT mission is the support of all processes allowing growth geographically as well as
of the number of products sold.
“To deliver on time the right information to the right people in the right format at the right
moment.”
Such unanimity shows a key evolution of the CIO‘s mission, as well as the perception
they have themselves of it, demonstrating a strong shift from IT technology to business
focus.
Web-based thinking also scored rather high on the agenda of the people we interviewed,
but can be interpreted in two different manners:
For the majority of the respondents “think web-based” means providing
information to their customers via web pages. Their Extranet or Intranet set up
mainly serves as an informative support. These companies actually do not plan to
expand the scope to business exchange platform.
7

8. However for some of the respondents, “think web-based” means much more. It is
in their view a way of exchanging transactional data in different forms (orders,
invoices, co-design documents) with different kinds of business partners, be it
channels, customers, suppliers or regulatory bodies. It is notable that the same
respondents gave a high ranking to Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).
Nevertheless, it is to be noted that there is a large disparity in the rating. The largest
companies participating in the survey have practical plans built up to implement an SOA
architecture. For the others, it is merely an interesting concept to follow up.
From our point of view, it clearly demonstrates that SOA is not just another technological
‘buzz’ concept. It corresponds to a strong demand from the business for adapting the
overall Information Systems architecture to increase evolving market and business
pressures. Creating an IT architecture, where components may easily and quickly be
turned into services that are filled in by business partners, becomes of utmost importance
for the companies that are engaged into globalization and though competition.
Typical areas where “Think Web-based” combines web access with capabilities to
exchange intelligent formats are:
Collaborative product design: Technical characteristics are exchanged between
the main manufacturer and its subcontractors in order for them to effectively “joint
design” their specific parts. The exchange needs include back and forth transfer
of technical product data together with CAO 3-D models completed by specific
product configuration data (serial number, bill of material,…).
Customer services: online helpdesk and services allowing customers to process
requests via web-based forms.
2.2.1 Information System responsible
When looking at the position of the person(s) responsible for the company’s information
system, we have noticed an interesting evolution. Only one of the respondents reports to
the CFO. All others report to the CEO or COO, demonstrating the point we were making
earlier that IT is no longer exclusively used as a tool to bring financial structure and
control but also to underpin all other operational aspects (Transport, Production,
Warehouse, Customer information, Human resource). Further confirming this evolution of
their role, nearly all of the respondents have IS objectives linked to the strategic
directions dictated by the business.
In some of the smaller companies, the respondents are cumulating their IS responsibility
with an operational task (supply chain responsible, financial director, CFO).
8

9. 2.2.2 Information System structure
Maturity of IS structure before the ERP implementation
13%
88% 63%
63%
88% Extranet
ERP/Point solutions
Intranet
Network
Server
Figure 4: This figure shows which IS elements existed in the respondent companies before the SAP
implementation. The percentages indicate that x% of the respondent had the referenced elements.
Nearly all the respondents had a network and server before implementing their ERP
system. This can be interpreted as a first step of maturity in the IT technology. It is
indeed a prerequisite before the implementation of an ERP.
Today’s lower IT cost and simplified technologies facilitate the usage of IT basic
elements and free up internal resources for added value project like ERP
implementations.
Prior to implementing their ERP system, nearly all the respondents had put in place
some point solutions in order to streamline some of their internal processes (finance
controlling and logistics). For almost all of them, it was their first ERP implementation
replacing their patchwork of systems. As such most of the respondents considered an
ERP system as the natural evolution towards building synergies between the different
business units or countries and breaking down silos that have gradually built up
between parts of the organisation as a result of unmanaged growth.
Point solutions were a structured commercial application, or as often seen in Mid-
Market companies, a home-grown solution developed by an individual in the business
(automated queries in an Access® database,…).
“The difficulty was that each department looked for its own objectives/challenges. ERP
was going across the different organisational silos. “
9

10. 2.2.3 Information System budget
In half of the companies interviewed, the annual IT budget represents over 3% of their
total annual revenue. For the other half, IT budget falls between 1 and 3% of their annual
revenue.
This budget includes the IT investments (capex) as well as the operational cost (opex).
There is a notable difference between larger and smaller companies when considering IT
budgets. Not only is the IT budget of larger companies higher in absolute terms, but also
when measured as a percentage of their total turnover. This is the translation of the
increased complexity of the model and thus of a greater need for an ERP system,
structured tools to support the processes and communication, even within their
organisations.
Furthermore, we have noticed that while larger companies run them in a Total Cost of
Ownership (TCO) reduction mode, smaller companies tend to run ERP projects in a
more “Business case/ROI” mode.
Generally, the budget for an ERP implementation is considered as an exceptional
investment next to ongoing IT operations. To our surprise, most of the respondents’
budget is not including the business reengineering effort and the time spent by end-
users.
According to our knowledge, the involvement of the end-users is lower in Mid-Market
companies (due to their availability) than in larger companies. Key-users in this segment
are assigned to the ERP project on top of their daily activities.
For one respondent, the IT spending was above 10%. In this very specific case, the
solutions provided by SAP are an integral part of the portfolio they are offering to their
customers.
The IT spending of our panel is in line with the results from The “Western Europe IT
spending and staffing survey 2005 of Gartner”. Indeed, the average IT spending as of
percentage of revenue is about 9 % in the services area and from 2.5 to 5 in the
manufacturing sector.
10

11. 2.3 Drivers for implementing an ERP solution
Cost control/efficiency 75%
Technology modernisation 75%
Increased productivity 63%
Faster access to shared information 63%
System consolidation 63%
Increased control 50%
Financial consolidation & reporting 50%
Governance & Risk Management 38%
Global performance optimisation 25%
Key process performance optimisation 25%
Business strategy and IT linking 25%
Innovation that matters to your company 25%
Y2K problem 13%
IT cost reduction 13%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Figure 5: This figure shows which drivers were considered by the respondents for implementing an
ERP package. The percentages indicate that the corresponding driver has been taken into account
by x% of the respondents.
It is interesting to note that while innovation scores high on the agenda of companies, it
plays almost no part in the decision criteria that were applied to the selection of an ERP
system. This is supported by the findings of IBM’s 2002/2003 CEO survey showing that
at the time when the respondents of this study were selecting an ERP package, the
strategic focus of companies was mostly on cost reduction.
In all of the cases, it is not one or two, but a combination of several drivers that led to the
ERP project. On average, the respondents mentioned 6 drivers as key selection criteria.
This reflects the diversity of the challenges the interviewed companies had to face at that
moment in time. Also, many different drivers are needed to mobilise the key people and
gain the focus of the management to help prioritise ERP projects, necessary due to the
proportion of resources allocated to those projects (in terms of key experienced
resources and financial budget).
These drivers can be classified in the following categories:
IT driven: system consolidation, Y2K problem, IT cost reduction, technology
modernisation, faster access to shared information,
Business operational driven: cost control/efficiency, key process performance
optimisation, financial consolidation and reporting, governance and risk
management, increase productivity.
Business innovative driven: innovation that matters, new external collaboration,
business strategy and IT linking, global performance optimisation
According to the respondents input, the focus stays on increasing the operational
efficiency and optimising the cost linked to it (as the acronym ERP says it: Resource
11

12. Planning). This is again in line with the drivers identified in the 2002-2003 CEO survey,
while today’s focus is on growth through innovation for largest companies. One can
consider this as a “domino effect” starting with Multinationals, going to large Mid-Market
players and reaching now the core of the middle market companies.
In line with this “domino effect”, we expect that innovation will lead to different projects
within the Mid-Market in a future stage. This innovation will also have further impact on
operational cost.
For the most of the companies, implementing an ERP was the only solution considered
to achieve the here above results. Point solutions or own development were quickly out
of scope.
“It was not realistic to develop and implement our own solution considering the
necessary time to market and available resources.”
“The main driver for an ERP was enhancing control & reporting”.
“The solution offered numerous functionalities, was used by a large number of
companies in our sector, there was a large pool of available consultants with good
knowledge of our sector and related processes”.
12

13. 2.4 Decision and selection process
The CFO is very often the ultimate decision-taker for the launch of the ERP project; but
the CEO has also been involved in this process by the quasi totality of the respondents,
illustrating the growing importance of ERP in the Mid-Market, where the focus goes
beyond the support of the financial flows.
Apart from top executives, an SAP project involves business and IT managers. We see
that the following departments are often involved: purchasing, logistics, warehouse,
finance, sales and IT, subject to the scope of the project. The business is involved from
the beginning of the project, by building up the business case and designing the to-be
processes. In 25% of the cases, this process was supported by an external partner.
Demo 75%
Software package
62,5%
selection (RFP)
References 37,5%
Short list package
37,5%
(RFI)
RFP implementator 12,5%
RFI implementator 12,5%
Blue print high
12,5%
level
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Figure 6: This figure shows the percentage of the respondents who used a particular selection
process.
The nature of an ERP project is such that it is, rightly, treated as a full fledged investment
and represents a strategic choice.
There is a large variety of the different steps that can be undertaken when starting an
ERP project:
Separate the choice of the package from the choice of the implementer
Go through a RFI/RFP process
Request for a tailored demo and references in the same sector
We have found that the software and the implementer are often selected at the same
time in Mid-Market companies. For those companies, one-stop shopping is more critical
as they do not have the necessary resources available to deal with several parties and
do not want to manage this risk. This gives the companies the opportunity to evaluate the
business expertise of the different intervening parties.
Depending on the chosen steps, the selection process of the respondents varied from 3
to 12 months. According to SAP/IBM experience, this is mainly related to the level of
13

14. maturity within the company towards the ERP concept and also reflects the variety of
goals that companies want to achieve in this selection process:
Making sure all the involved parties (software, implementer, different business
units in the organisation) understand the core challenges of their company
Start thinking end-to-end
Identify and commit all key resources (all champions) and ensure involvement of
the various departments
Define the right scope
Ensure that the required investment is in line with the available budget
Start the change management process
Get intimacy with the involved parties
…
One should consider the selection process itself
Why projects fail? as an integrated part of the whole project. From
our experience, the main reasons for failure
illustrated on the left do already apply in the
1. Incomplete requirements 13,1%
selection process. The companies that are
already “ERP-mature” experience shorter
2. Lack of user involvement 12,4% selection process as most of the risks are
mitigated from the beginning.
3. Lack of resources 10,6%
While all those factors are important, it is
4. Unrealistic expectations 9,9% important to keep the right balance between the
selection process itself and the actual side goals
5. Lack of executive support 9,3% of the process (easier acceptance, process re-
design, …).
6. Changing requirements 8,7%
7. Lack of planning 8,1%
One has always to remember that the selection
process represents an important investment.
8. Didn't need any longer 7,5% There must be a clear scope management during
this phase to prevent starting the blueprint/design
9.Lack of IT management 5,8% while the software has not been selected yet.
Complete requirements are necessary but should
10. Technology illiteracy 4,3% not be detailed during the selection phase.
Source: Standish Group
14

15. 2.5 Selection criteria
Selection criteria to implement an ERP: Selection Importance/Actual Performance
Match to functional Requirements 8,5
Vendor viability 8,1
Cost 6,3
Ease of Use 6,1
Technology 4,3
International Capabilities 2 Selection Importance
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Figure 7: This figure shows the importance that the respondents gave to the corresponding criteria
before the implementation of the ERP. The values give the mean importance of all the respondents
(maximum being 10).
Companies were asked to detail and give the order of importance of the criteria that they
applied to the selection of the ERP package itself, as well as to give the rating that SAP
achieved for each of the selected criteria (maximum ten points per criteria)
Match to functional requirements is considered as the most important criteria,
nearly like a prerequisite element. It encompasses various aspects, from the
completeness of the solution to the depth of the most important processes. Some
actors also did focus on the vertical key processes, next to the classical backend
support (financial, logistics, procurement, …). This element was given the highest
score by the majority of the respondents.
When looking at the actual SAP performance vs. the selection criteria, SAP
scores quite high (8.5/10).
“Very broad functionalities”
“The board wanted an ERP system, and SAP was the only provider of a
circulation system integrated in an ERP system.”
Vendor viability was also pointed out as a quite important criterion; it can be
understood as the richness of services provided, number of references, ability to
support locally and being a long-term partner. The life-cycle of an ERP solution
ranging between 5 to 10 years, it is not surprising that vendor viability is a key
selection criterion.
This importance of this criterion increasingly goes up as we observe the
consolidation in the ERP world or financial instability of some key actors. There,
SAP obtains a rating of 9/10 as an average. This is the highest score of SAP in
the proposed category and reflects the perception of SAP as being a safe
harbour.
15

16. “SAP is the clear number 1 in Europe and proposes us a solid local partner for the
implementation”
Cost ranks third (6.4/10). It includes: ERP licenses, external implementation
costs, integration services, hardware and network, the cost of future maintenance
as well as recurring operational costs, but excluded the cost of internal resources.
Actual SAP performance on cost is judged as average by the respondents. But it
must be noted that external costs for the implementation and evolution represent
by far the largest cost item (60% to 70%) as mentioned by several respondents.
This is in line with data available at IBM and SAP.
Ease of use is defined as user interface (look & feel, ergonomics, configuration
and user setup), business rules flexibility and management, workflow capabilities
and ability for users to create reports and analyse data. This criterion was
similarly ranked to cost. Ease of use importance varies depending on the level of
comfort and knowledge with the different ERP systems proposed (e.g. an IT
Team will most likely have more time to be acquainted with the solution prior to
the demo).
Actual SAP performance on this criterion is rather average (6.1/10). One can
expect that SAP will score better in the future as new technologies (web
interfaces, portals) emerge, work is done around ergonomics, and also as the
attention given by the implementer to the ease of use concept goes up.
We feel that this average score is mainly caused by the wealth of functionalities
available in SAP, and that more time is spent on demonstrating as much of the
functionality as possible. The balance should be made between actual
functionality vs. “good looks”.
Astonishingly, international capabilities were perceived as the lowest criterion
decision: when we look at the profile of the respondents they are already present
in four countries as an average; this implies to support local accounting rules and
others specific legal requests. We thus think that there was some
misunderstanding in perceiving the different dimensions in the international
capabilities criterion. For the ones who evaluated these criteria, SAP was scoring
quite high.
One respondent added the criterion “compliance”. This in line with a clear
emergence of various regulation requirements. These also apply to Mid-Market
companies that are already quoted on public markets or are considering joining
these markets. Such regulations can be on Accounting and Financial functions
(IFRS, USGAAP, IAS and ultimately SOX), or core business ones (FDA, ISO,
Environmental, …).
In hindsight, the respondents pointed out a few additional criteria that they would have
liked to consider during the selection process or for the implementation itself:
Technology: convince the business that technology needs a little more weight.
For instance one respondent mentioned that the underlying software technology
should allow a growing number of transactions following the growth of the
business. This was one of the main reasons why this respondent is moving parts
of their current ERP system to SAP.
Flexibility: this is in line with the growing need for businesses to be able to adapt
to ever changing business conditions and models (growing importance of the shift
from products to services, externalisation of non-core functions, delocalisation).
16

17. Reporting: it must be a particular attention point in the selection process as it can
have a strong financial impact on the project. For instance, one interviewed
company added 5% to their initial budget in order to cover their needs.
Data gathering and cleansing tools: spending more time in the selection process
in assessing available tools and methodologies/experience in this area is one of
the elements that could speed up the implementation project and that should
have been considered from the beginning in the selection criteria.
The number of packages considered for selection ranged between 1 and 29. This
number is dependent on the maturity of the sponsor/stakeholders towards the ERP
concept and the solutions available on the market, as well as the side goals of the
decision process (increase awareness of the ERP concept, acceptance of new ways of
working, …).
It is interesting to note that in the case that another package had a close score to SAP,
the uncertainty about the future (evolution) of the other solution (due to a merge or buy-
out of the editor) was the clear final differentiator.
“We did score SAP and one other major software provider similarly (89 & 90%) but
eventually decided for SAP because of the uncertain future of the other party.”
This comment also reflects the importance of the perennity of the complete solution.
Another respondent did not originally consider SAP in their selection because of the
price, but after further investigation into the required functionality, it was put back in the
shortlist.
17

18. 2.6 Scope of the SAP project
There is unanimity between all respondents that SAP is synonymous with integration. It
is therefore not surprising that they did consider a large scope from the beginning either
phased or not. As number two, they also mention that they called upon the best practice
concept (vertical or not). Some of the respondents also pointed out the high cost and
high effort to grasp the whole benefits of an ERP project.
“Best Practices for integrated business Processes”
“Integration, Standard solution for Business Process, Enhanced reporting & controlling,
High cost & effort on implementation”
Functional scope of the SAP project
100%
90%
88% 88%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
38%
30%
20%
10%
13%
0%
Backend Core Application HR New
Business dimensions
Figure 8: This figure shows which SAP modules have been implemented by the respondents. The
percentages indicate that x% of the respondents implemented the corresponding module.
• Not surprisingly the ERP implementation was for almost all of the respondents
focusing on the back-end processes: financing, controlling, logistics, warehouse
management and sales. This is also in line with the operational efficiency the
companies wanted to achieve.
• Next to the back-end processes the majority of them also decided to support their
core processes. The modules they implemented varied then according to their
business (or PS, or PM, or Media,…).
Gradual implementation was chosen by half of the companies, in line with available
resources and to the risk management they valued.
Typical of the Belgium market, most of the companies have not implemented HR and
are still relying on the Application Service Provider platform (ASP) (Social
Secretariat).
18

19. Only one company planned from the beginning the implementation of a what is called
a “new dimension” product in the SAP product line (CRM, SCM, PLM, SCM). The
others are still stabilizing their ERP scope.
Against our initial perception, we do not see a rule to implement back-end functionality
first followed by core business processes support. This is reinforcing our view that it will
be more and more possible to break down large SAP projects into smaller and
manageable parts. This is supported by technology (SOA), and responds to the
increasing need of obtaining Return on Investment (reduction of payback period, need to
fund new projects, risk reduction).
The total budget mentioned by the respondents for the ERP implementation varied
between 250k€ and 2,5M€. This is in line with the diversity of the scope of the
implementations: from 8 employees using the implemented ERP to 450, from back-end
processes to a complete end-to-end processes scope (back-end + core + reporting +
HR). This budget includes the software licenses, hardware required and external
consultancy (in most of the cases needed internal resources for the business process
reengineering is not included).
Based on our experiences, the two main items in cost expenditures are:
The external consultancy that comes to more than 50% of the total external costs. It
was also the case for the companies which shared with us the itemization subdivision
of their costs.
The internal effort consists in IT involvement and the key users from each
department of the business. It should also take into account the business process
reengineering. According to our Best Practices, internal effort should be comparable
to the external consultancy workload, especially for change management aspect.
“We did foresee 8 key users being full time dedicated in the blueprint and ending by 30%
involvement.”
It is interesting to note that very few companies can extract the benefits of the wealth of
information that is now made available through the system. Some of the respondents are
mentioning that they are clearly preparing the next steps to extend the scope to
reporting. In our experience, education cost (participants time not included) is reaching 5
to 8% of the total implementation cost in the mode of a blended learning (mixed of
traditional classroom, ongoing weekly support of key-users, e-learning with traditional
manuals).
“Reporting cost was under valued. Eventually we added a new track for reporting; this
has come to 5% of the total cost.”
Number of users were quite different depending of the scope of the companies
(extension or not, new dimension or not, maturity to the IT of the company). As an
average, number of users comes to 17% of the number of employees.
Cost per user is much more substantial for smaller companies, due to the lack of
economy of scales, the fixed costs that stay valid regardless the size of the company
(time needed to analyse the processes, technology set up, …) and the relative
importance of the project team effort in small companies. As a result, ERP investment
should be considered as an enabler platform for growth. This should be translated into
the initial decision criteria for ERP choice: focus must not only be on functional mapping
of the needs but also must take into consideration potential and willingness of the top
management to sustain major growth.
19

20. For all of the respondents, it was their first SAP implementation. This is in line with the
maturity of the Mid-Market companies towards ERP concept. One can expect that some
of these companies will start a second wave, consisting in adding processes to their
current scope. This second wave could be launched when the first one is completely
stabilised and returns (partly) achieved. They would likewise follow the example of larger
companies who rarely go for a “big bang” implementation approach but rather a phased
one.
20

21. 2.7 SAP evolution
We asked respondents to give us their opinion on the evolution of SAP.
From the answers we have received, there is a clear recognition of the fact that SAP has
heavily invested in enhancing the usability of their system. This is an attention point in
the implementation project itself (getting rid of unused tabs/fields, hide unnecessary
transaction shortcuts, correct mapping of roles and responsibilities in the system,…). It is
also clearly recognised that SAP has heavily focused on radical technology shifts (open
architecture, SOA, J2EE,…), and that industry solutions have been integrated in the
standard package.
Some of the respondents pondered however the interest of the new dimensions in
supporting their core business and the evolution of it.
“Is CRM interesting for us?”
Next to the relevance comes the complexity of implementing these new innovative
solutions for small companies. Indeed they are still perceived at too complex, too rich,
and therefore too expensive at this stage. They do not exclude considering them in a
further stage when pre-packaged solutions will be available. Also their focus still is on
stabilising their current implementation and reaping the planned benefits from it.
In parallel to the response above, the respondents had the same opinion about the
availability of advanced services related to ERP or others (hosting, outsourcing, storage,
and application service provider). Those are very interesting concepts, but they do not
foresee the need to make use of them in the near future, as they would not feel that they
could fully profit from it.
Yet a respondent considered them as a “good evolution to improve IT cost transparency
and lower TCO.”
21

22. 2.8 SAP Implementation and integration
2.8.1 Achieved Schedule – Budget – Scope
Most of the respondents implemented SAP within a six to twelve month timeframe. Many
factors can explain such a reasonable timeframe:
Higher professionalism of the
implementers, leveraging
< 6 months
experiences from past
≥ 12 months implementations on the various
aspects of a project (project
management, Business Process
Review, knowledge of the package
6 - 9 months itself, change management, …).
Stronger methodology available:
9 - 12 months short and well-defined milestones,
sequenced by key deliverables,
well-described roles and
responsibilities, available tools and
accelerators.
Maturity within the organisation
Figure 9: Timeframe of SAP implementation towards the ERP implementation:
leverage of the experience of
peers, importance of change
management, involvement of key
sponsors, frozen scope, …
One can expect pre-packaged solutions to further shorten implementation times. In these
solutions, a number of processes are indeed already pre-defined according to standard
and industry best practices.
It is important to note that, unlike
commonly believed, most of the
projects were delivered on time or
≥ 30%
with a slight deviation (less than
10%).
10 - 30 %
Use of proper planning and smaller
0 - 10 % milestones linked to each other,
are key to identify potential issues
and their cause and therefore to
allow for rapid and appropriate
reaction.
These are key success factors to
achieve a project on time and are
recognized as major elements of
standard project methodologies.
Figure 10: Percentage of delay for the implementation
22

23. To further break SAP
implementation myths, 60% of
the respondents did stay within
budget limits or with a slight
≥ 30 %
deviation (10%).
Interestingly, the respondents
who did not stay on their
budget are amongst the largest
0 - 10 % companies interviewed that
10 - 30 % were early adopters in their
approach of implementing
vertical niche solutions. One
can expect now the usual
learning curve to allow for a
substantial reduction in the cost
(around 60 to 80% of their total
SAP implementation budget)
and timeframe of that sort of
Figure 11: Percentage of difference between the planned and implementation.
real budget
Another element that explains that initial schedule and budget were respected is the
minimal change in the original scope that companies have accepted. Indeed, only half of
the respondents mentioned some minor deviation of scope (5%):
some users were asked to make concessions on some key processes,
the go-live of an important block of reporting functionality was postponed to meet
the foreseen starting date.
In our experience, timeframe and budget are objective and well-measured data, and any
deviation is strictly controlled. Scope is by far more subjective and is subject to slight
evolution mainly during blueprint phase and along the realisation phase. It also greatly
depends on the eagerness of each one of the key users to defend their own view of the
required scope. Eventually, it is one of the main tasks of the project manager and of the
steering committee to arbitrate and list the priorities on this subject. It is the project
variable that is ultimately adapted to respect the agreed planning.
23

24. 2.8.2 Project success factors
Project success factors are linked to the internal organization and reflect a high level of
readiness. All of them must be considered from the very start of the project and, as
mentioned earlier, even in the selection phase. But they need constant attention during
the whole duration of the project.
“We made use of existing regular business
Why projects succeed? meetings to keep the management updated on
the progress and keep their focus on deciding
1. User involvement 15,9% on key issues.”
2. Execute management support 13,2% It is interesting to note that all respondents
3. Clear requirements 13,0% dedicated key users per domain. Key users
must be knowledgeable, rely on a strong
4. Proper planning 9,6% network within the company, be appropriately
5. Realistic expectations 8,2% empowered and broadly recognised.
6. Smaller milestones 7,7% All projects should make use of a set of
7. Competent staff 7,2% methodologies (PMI, ASAP …), because they
ensure that all the success factors listed above
8. Ownership 5,3% are taken into account all along the
9.Clear vision/objectives 2,8% implementation project.
10. Hard work 2,4%
Source: Standish Group
Those methodologies are built around activities, deliverables, work breakdown
structures, roles and responsibilities …
The definition of these elements in the current ERP implementation project
methodologies do focus on key success factors.
As an example, high level representation of key deliverables and milestones as proposed
in the ASAP methodology:
Project Approach
Functional
Functional
Fiche
Fiche Project
Project Functional
Functional End-users Procedures
End-users Procedures3.1 Communication
Communication4.2 Support to End-users
Support to End-users5.1
Review
Review1.1 Charter
Charter1.2 Blueprint
Blueprint 2.1
End-users Training Material 3.2
End-users Training Material End-users Training 4.3
End-users Training
Detailed
Detailed Operational
Operational
Initial Initial Process (Re)design 2.2
Initial Process (Re)design Process
Process Detailed Scenario &
Initial Detailed Scenario & Helpdesk Preparation
Helpdesk Preparation4.4
Project (Re)design
(Re)design 3.3 Project Integration Go Live
Project Project Integration Go Live
Plan
Plan 1.3 Data Model
Data Model2.3 Plan
Plan 3.4 Testing
Testing 3.5 Plan
Plan 4.1
Technical
Technical
High Level
High Level Detailed
Detailed Baseline
Baseline Volume &
Volume & Cut-over to
Cut-over to Technical Support
Technical Support5.2
Technical
Technical Technical
Technical Configuration
Configuration3.7 stress
stress Productive
Productive
Blueprint
Blueprint 2.4 Blueprint
Blueprint3.6 Testing
Testing 4.5 Environment
Environment4.6
Final
Final Maintenance
Maintenance
Configuration
Configuration3.8
Unit
Unit
Testing 3.9
Testing
Quality Review Quality Review Quality Review Quality Review
Kickoff Go-Live
24

25. 2.8.3 Change management
In half of the cases, the project was coupled with business process reengineering (BPR)
initiative. In our eyes, this approach leads to the best return; especially for the companies
of a critical size that already implemented structured processes into their former
information systems. One can expect that the required effort for change management is
higher with this approach:
The middle management has to align and agree on the end-to-end processes.
Middle management must endorse new ways of working
The process that the users are responsible for is modified / enriched
New competencies must be acquired by users in the new processes
For the smallest companies of our panel, the processes are often not yet formally
described as such and are relying more on informal ways. In that case, a BPR is not
necessary. This is in line with our experiences where these implementations made
benefit from the best practices the editor/ implementers have defined with a positive
impact on the needed timeframe and related budget. Note that the reduced cost of the
implementation is offset by the small number of users and therefore the limited economy
of scales those companies could expect from the implementation.
In both cases (BPR or not), the respondents we get in this survey provided some mixed
feedback on the user acceptance.
“All users were interested and open. There was a strong evolution from interrogative to
acceptance.”
“Acceptance was positive but, under economical and market pressure the company was
obliged to transform itself.”
The users have to become more familiar with the ergonomic interface of the new tools.
Training is of course of key importance, as it is demonstrated by one respondent.
“Some resistance but not everyone has been trained.”
Different practices can be here considered to increase the user acceptance:
Train the trainer concept
Use of the concept of presenting the list of allowed transactions in appropriate
sequences
Tailored, to the point, documentation per user
Periodic presence of the project team during the weeks following the go live
25

26. 2.8.4 Implementation rating
Hard work 88% 0%
Proper planning 75% 13% easier
heavier
Realistic expectations 75% 13%
Smaller milestones 69% 19%
Competent staff 56% 31%
Clear requirements 31% 56%
Clear vision/objectives 31% 56%
Ownership 25% 63%
User involvement 25% 63%
Executive management support
13% 75%
Figure 12: This figure shows if the implementation was easier or heavier than planned for the
mentioned criteria. The percentages indicate that the corresponding point was considered easier or
heavier by x% of the respondents.
The most underestimated key element was the constant effort needed from the project
team. In many cases, the project team members are not fully dedicated to the project and
are sharing their time with daily operational tasks. This leads to overwork and conflict in
priorities.
There must be a clear recognition of the additional effort of the project team by the
management and we recommend that appropriate rewards should be foreseen. Those
rewards can be financial related or linked to the career path. One can also make use of
simple means like team event, dinner, celebration to maintain the motivation.
Realistic expectations, smaller milestones and proper planning are linked together. The
respondents’ answers (heavier than foreseen) highlight the complexity of this type of
project. A strong evolution has been achieved as of the methodologies and tools
available to increase the mastering of the project (PMI, ASAP methodology, solution
manager,…). These tools and methodologies must be tailored according to the needs.
Executive management support, user involvement and ownership were not experienced
heavier than foreseen by the respondents. According to us, there are different reasons:
Clear focus from the beginning of the project as it was expected to be quite
difficult to obtain
The entrepreneurship behaviour in Mid-Market business increases the
involvement and the ownership in the resolution of the key issues
The sense of belonging to the company allows mobilising key people in the most
efficient way
26

27. 3 Expected Benefits and success criteria for the project
3.1 Expected vs. achieved benefits
Four categories of benefits were presented to the respondents:
Increase shareholder value
Improve competitiveness
Lower risk
Enhance operational efficiency
These categories correspond to the business values outlined in IBM’s Express Value
Creation methodology. Express Value Creation is aimed at helping C-level executives to
prioritize and align IT investments - to realize values that matter the most in reaching key
business objectives – short and long term, and is centred around delivering business
value through core strategy & change capabilities.
There is a clear tendency for nearly all the respondents to focus on “enhancing
operational efficiency” 2. This category gets nearly 50% on the relative importance.
“Enhance operational efficiency” also gets the double of the respondent attention in
comparison with the next ranked category that is “Lower risk”. (nearly 25% on the relative
importance)
“Increase shareholder value” gets an intermediate relative attention and ranked 3. When
looking in details in the sub-elements of this category, the following 2 elements get a
score of 60% on the relative importance:
Reduce cost of goods sold
Reduce sales and administration costs
It clearly illustrates the importance given to achieving a better cost efficiency rather than
acting on the different elements increasing the revenue (Volume optimisation and Price
optimisation). Furthermore, these sub-elements are mainly the results of actions
belonging to the category “enhancing operational efficiency”: For instance, improve
material logistics and services (that belong to category “enhancing operational efficiency
“) have direct impact on cost of the goods sold (that belong to category “increase
shareholder value.)
“Thanks to the SAP implementation we did reduce our IT personal budget by 50%. It
allowed us to free up 2 IT dedicated persons.”
The implementation of SAP in our warehouse and the linked business process
reengineering allowed us to achieve a 25% of productivity win, while our revenue
increased by 20% in the same period.”
“Improve competitiveness” ranked the last category as a minority of respondents focused
on it in term of expected importance. Therefore, it only achieved 10% on the relative
importance. It is interesting to note that these respondents valued this category as the
2
The total score of “enhancing operational efficiency” divided by the sum of the
importance of the elements of all the categories
27

28. second after the operational efficiency. These companies have very low margins and do
business in a very competitive environment.
“Implementing SAP allowed us to achieve a better ATP (availability to promise)”.
Three elements are particularly mentioned by the respondents:
Improve customer interaction, satisfaction and loyalty,
Improve responsiveness,
Faster time-to-market.
This shows the importance of the clear tangible short-term returns that companies want
to achieve. The other three sub-elements (Strengthen innovation, Improve brand
awareness, Improve partner and relationship collaboration) could be considered more as
long term plan to improve competitiveness. These three sub-elements together only get
15% of relative importance.
One can stress out that a side effect of the ERP project is to break down the
departmental silos within the companies. As a result, some respondents highlighted as
benefits reached through the project their increased ability to innovate in term of products
and go to market (increased collaborative models like partnership, alliances,…)
We focus our analysis on the two categories that together gathered about 80%:in terms
of relative importance:
Enhance operational efficiency
Lower risk
3.1.1 Enhance operational efficiency
35
Importance
Benefit met
30
29 29
25
24
23
20 22
21
15 16 16
14
13
10
8 8
5
0
Improve Improve logistics, Improve corporate Improve human Improve capital Improve data
development and materials and services capital management management
production services management
Figure 13: This figure shows 1) the importance that the respondents gave to some operational
efficiency benefits they expected to get with SAP and 2) the extent to which the expected benefits
were met. They had the possibility to rate each point from 0 to 5 (5 being most important). The values
in the figure are the sum over all the respondents (maximum being 40).
28

29. There is a clear correlation between the importance of the sub-elements mentioned and
the benefits met.
One can interpret this strong correlation as one way of measuring the success of the
project. We will further come back on it in the conclusion.
The importance of elements is spread more or less equally between the different
possible assets, being fixed ones, financial and informational. Human capital is largely
below the average.
When assessing the benefits met, it has to be mentioned that most of the respondents
had no clear KPI’s baseline.
There are different reasons explaining this lack of evolution in the indicators:
No wide consensus on the elements to be measured and followed up
Initial measure of the major indicators were not available
Target values for the selected criteria are not necessarily assigned
“It is difficult to evaluate the impact of the software implementation through KPI’s
because of external factors that can influence them and that are out of reach of the
project team.”
Nevertheless, the set up of the required indicators are part of the project. They are put in
place as a result of the implementation and are used to better manage the evolution of
the corresponding business units. Ideally, they must include some indicators that reflect
the external factors impacting the baseline of the business. Including those external
factors in the KPI’s analysis allows the management to better assess the return of the
different actions undertaken in order to improve the overall efficiency.
As an example, an increase in the customer orders to be processed will have immediate
impact on the cost of sales indicators which does not mean that the sales process
efficiency is decreasing.
“We do monthly follow, through KPI’s, replenishment, intakes, customer deliveries and
returns.”
According to their level of maturity, customers are producing various numbers of KPI’s. In
most of the cases, they are enriching the indicator quality and quantity following the
demands of their business lines and departments.
As an example, one respondent provided us a dashboard of more than 15 indicators that
are followed up for its inventory.
29

30. 3.1.2 Lower risk
25 Importance
Benef it met
22
20
19
18
17
15 16
13
10 11 11
10
8
5
0
Optimize intelligence Optimize regulation Improve risk planning Improve risk management Improve business
compliance recovery
Figure 14: This figure shows 1) the importance that the respondents gave to some risk related
benefits they expected to meet with SAP and 2) the extent to which the expected benefits were met.
They had the possibility to rate each point from 0 to 5 (5 being most important). The values in the
figure are the sum over all the respondents (maximum being 40).
From the answers it appears that the benefits met are slightly above the expectations.
This is almost the case for all of the 5 sub-elements that are touching the whole
company:
Financial and accounting department regulation compliance like SOX, IFRS,
DIMONA
R&D and production departments: regulation compliance like FDA, ISO
Management of the company: risk management and risk planning
All departments and especially IT: Business recovery and optimise intelligence
One can expect from the ERP implementation that the companies clearly improved their
business resilience (ability to guarantee the continuity and integrity of the business
processes should major and unexpected changes occur). This is of utmost importance
for stock listed companies or for the ones that are considering this move.
Risk management and risk planning are more and more on the top of the agenda of the
deciders for several reasons:
Increased versatility of the customers
Emergence of new players
Possible new channels like partners, alliances, internet,…
Impact of globalization as of the geographical spread
Possible substitute products
Reduced product and services life cycle
All of these elements force the companies to collect the needed information quicker and
to articulate their data in a structured way. The next challenges are now to better use the
30

31. huge bench of information gathered through the implemented transactional system. This
will allow for quick and sound decisions. “Optimise intelligence “has to be understood in
this context and much probably in our eyes, is one of the main dimension to be
developed in the next future.
This item is often under estimated in the initial budget and may vary between 5 to 10 %
of the total ERP budget. One can consider this as the top of the iceberg visible for the
management and representing their prime interest. This is the point where the true value
of the ERP implementation is seized.
31

32. 3.2 Success criteria
Internal satisfaction was the main criterion that companies used to evaluate the success
of ERP implementation. Depending on the respondents, this criterion was informal or
established in a well structured way.
“We did use 12 criteria (user friendliness, standard implementation, quality of the input,
quality of the output, efficiency realised by users,…) that all 5 internal departments were
monthly evaluating in rates from 1 to 4 (1: to improve; 4: above expectation). Our goal
was to get at least a rating 3 for the 60 criteria before Go-Live.”
According to us, establishing a structured way for measuring the success brings the
following advantages:
Clear monitoring on the evolution towards satisfaction
Allow to keep people focusing on the project
Prevent misunderstanding and emotional reactions when facing issues or
temporarily troubles
Allow to maintain the objectivity of the success criteria and the final results
achieved
Only 50 % of the respondents did calculate a financial ROI that has been used to
evaluate the success of the project. In our view, the importance of the ROI is increasing
as of the data from past experiences are made available and as the necessity to evaluate
the financial investment.
As an average, the respondents were largely satisfied and estimated that their project
was quite successful.
“We will give a success rate of 75% with the current version implemented. There are
significant improvements we hope to achieve with the upgrade in 2007.”
“We significantly achieved reducing the risk level associated with the performance of our
former information system.”
“Allowed us to implement Best Practices in business processes.”
Nevertheless, one respondent encountered significant issues as of the industry specific
vertical implementation: more than 70% of the effort were dedicated to the specific
processes that were not yet completely supported by the standard SAP industry solution.
To compensate this, they had to consider some specific developments that were quite
heavy.
.
32

33. 4 Conclusion:
It was clearly pointed out by the respondents that ERP investments imply the
involvement of the whole company and get the top management attention, particularly in
the Mid-Market.
There are numerous drivers leading to the decision of an ERP project. As an average,
the 6 mentioned drivers are spread between IT, operational and strategic business
objectives. ERP scope is not always limited to back-end support functions but more and
more covers vertical core business processes. We even encountered companies
prioritising their investment in the most critical core processes.
Selection process and duration vary quite substantially depending on the goals that the
project team wants to achieve. It is of primary importance to take advantage of the
selection process in order to ensure the largest needed user acceptance. This reflects
somehow the maturity of the organisation towards this cross departmental initiative.
Criteria used in the selection process are encompassing (in higher order of importance)
functionalities, viability of the solution, total cost of ownership and ease of use.
Higher professionalism of the different actors, large number of shared experiences,
strong methodologies, reduced functional software complexity and enhanced project
management tools are breaking down the old ERP myths: Too large, too complex, too
expensive,……
Our respondents mainly achieved their objectives in terms of timing, budget and scope.
Nevertheless, these successes imply strong user involvement and even harder team
work than foreseen.
There is a correlation between the size of the company and the percentage of the overall
turnover dedicated to IT investment. This also reflects the increasing role that IT is
playing in supporting the business strategy of the largest Mid-Market companies we have
interviewed.
In line with this, nearly half of the respondents are investing more than 3 percent of their
revenues in advanced transactional solutions and/or in building up SOA3 architecture to
increase their agility and responsiveness.
For limited sized companies in the panel of the respondents, there is a quite substantial
“entry ticket” to the ERP. These companies considered this very large investment as a
platform to sustain their growth in the future and also likewise reduce the relative cost per
users. Often, the SAP implementation is aimed to be depreciated in 7 to 10 years.
Benefits achieved by our respondents are mainly focusing on enhancing operational
efficiency. This optimisation is translated in a better use of the various assets in the
company being financial, fixed or informational. Lowering risks is also of main importance
in terms of expected benefits. This is particularly true in the ever increasing changing
world that the companies are facing today.
Many companies experience difficulties in measuring the net return of their investment
because of the lack of baseline KPI’s, exogenous factors impacting the business
environment and a focus on the short term tangible items. We expect a next move in
treating and analysing the information available through the transactional system in order
3
Cfr page n° 7 – IT Thinking
33

34. to better measure the return of the IT investment and to allow quicker and sounder
reactions to market changes.
Together with our respondents, we do also expect that innovative solutions (collaboration
platforms with ecosystem, CRM transactional system,…) will be considered by the
smaller Mid-Market companies (100 to 300 M€ turnover) in the next future. In this
context, current ERP implementation can be considered as the foundation for these
innovative solutions.
Several reasons will accelerate this acceptance: increasing internal IT competences,
access to knowledgeable solution providers, better user friendliness interfaces and
availability of pre-packaged solutions. All of these elements will reduce the total cost of
ownership and will shorten the timeframe needed for implementation.
34

35. Table of figures
Figure 1: This figure shows the repartition of the respondents in different sectors. 5
Figure 2: This figure shows the importance of some key points in the business model. The values are
the mean of all the respondents (maximum being 10). 6
Figure 3: This figure shows the importance of some IT characteristics. The values are the mean of all
the respondents (maximum being 10). 7
Figure 4: This figure shows which IS elements existed in the respondent companies before the SAP
implementation. The percentages indicate that x% of the respondent had the referenced
elements. 9
Figure 5: This figure shows which criteria were taken into account by the respondents for
implementing an ERP package. The percentages indicate that the corresponding criterion has
been taken into account by x% of the respondents. 11
Figure 6: This figure shows which SAP modules have been implemented by the respondents. The
percentages indicate that x% of the respondents implemented the corresponding module. 18
Figure 7: This figure shows the percentage of the respondents who used a particular selection
process. 13
Figure 8: This figure shows the importance that the respondents gave to the corresponding criteria
before the implementation of the ERP. The values give the mean importance of all the
respondents (maximum being 10). 15
Figure 12: This figure shows if the implementation was easier or heavier than planned for the
mentionned criteria. The percentages indicate that the corresponding point was considered
easier or heavier by x% of the respondents. 26
Figure 13: This figure shows 1) the importance that the respondents gave to some operational
efficiency benefits they expected to get with SAP and 2) the extent to which the expected
benefits were met. They had the possibility to rate each point from 0 to 5 (5 being most
important). The values in the figure are the sum over all the respondents (maximum being 40). 28
Figure 14: This figure shows 1) the importance that the respondents gave to some risk related
benefits they expected to meet with SAP and 2) the extent to which the expected benefits were
met. They had the possibility to rate each point from 0 to 5 (5 being most important). The values
in the figure are the sum over all the respondents (maximum being 40). 30
35

36. Contacts
SAP Belgium
Chaussée de la Hulpe / Terhulpsestwg. 166
1170 Brussels
SAP Contact Point: Cédric Mulier
Tel: +32/(0)486.13.66.44
cedric.mulier@sap.com
IBM Belgium
Avenue du Bourgetlaan, 42
1130 Brussels
IBM Contact Point: Jean-Bernard Dumont
Tel: +32/(0)477.78.27.56
jean-bernard.dumont@be.ibm.com
36