Intro: Diary of an SAP Implementation Success Story

In early July, 2009, Colmobil Corporation successfully completed a cutting-edge SAP Automotive implementation.The stakeholder groups agreed unanimously that the project was a great success, and should serve as a model for future projects. The project made practical use of many implementation best practices, and and learned some interesting lessons....

The go-live was all functions at all locations at once, and it was extremely smooth. There were no major glitches - technology, security, or functionality - and the "no user left behind" goal was realized.  I have been the historian for this diary, and have asked members of the management team to contribute their own words and differing perspectives where appropriate.

The management team:

Gil Katz,             CIO

Itai Rotem,         Project Manager

Beny Meshi,        Change Leadership

Roi Zohar,           Integration Manager

Judy Orlin,           Me, Historian,
                           Methodology, Tools, and Risk Management.

Project SAPmobil received high praise from every stakeholder group – CEO, Steering Committee, lines of business, management, and most of all the people of the company in all functions, operational and infrastructural.

The design, configuration, and development that went into the solution were all executed very well, but the overall success came from the cooperation and teamwork of all the different business functions working together. The implementation teams included business leaders from each line of business. The head of each line of business was the team sponsor, and the sponsors were actively part of the teams. The sponsors together with the CEO, organizational change leader, CIO, and project management made up the steering committee. This effectively ensured that the business strategy, business requirements, and technical complexity were in synch. In addition, project management made sure that the design, build, and test phases were effective, comprehensive, and simplified as much as possible.

This diary is not about the technical or functional details of the solution. It is mostly about the "softer" aspects of business issues, personalities, agendas, decision-making and all the other complexities of any long-term, high visibility and budget project.

We want to share the successes and lessons learned from the project, so here is the diary of project SAPmobil. The blog is organized by the phases of the project. Each phase will have multiple posts, each dedicated to a single subject.

 It will be updated frequently as we progress through the diary, so if you want to follow the story you might want to subscribe to the blog. It’s easy, for those who don't know how - just click the link at the bottom left of the screen. Comments and feedback are most welcome.

The story begins at the end with Gil Katz, CIO,  describing Colmobil Corporation and the advanced Automotive solution achieved...


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