How to staff the project - Fixed price integrator? ...DIY? ...Other?

Having decided both what to do…SAP… and when to do it…now… the next natural step was how to staff it. This, of course, meant deciding who was going to be the vendor of choice.

The answer was simple and quick, there was only one integration firm "battle proven" in the automotive industry in Israel and it had been the vendor for the gap analysis study that led to the decision. It was a "no brainer".

The company that performed the gap analysis was asked to quote their price for an implementation based on its results, including the staffing list for the project. Colmobil wanted to insure that the team being assigned for the project had the expertise and experience necessary to succeed.

Still, Gil was uncomfortable leading this process on his own because he didn’t feel he had enough SAP project knowledge. He decided to hire an independent consultant who could both advise in the staffing process and later the lead the project.

Itai Rotem is a veteran SAP project manager who has held high level management positions including CIO in his career. He was perfect for the job. Twenty years earlier he had been involved with Colmobil’s implementation of the Tafnit system (software being replaced). Later, while CIO for the manufacturing company Nilit, Itai was the advisory consultant to the S.M.L.T automotive company, Fiat and Kia importers, for their SAP venture. Itai was no stranger to the automotive industry and an expert in SAP projects.

Itai’s contribution was priceless. He brought insights that made Colmobil question some of the "no brainer decisions" and axioms that were common at the time. Working with Gil, they peeled back the cover to question different approaches and validate their relevance to Colmobil.

The first thing to be questioned was "the vendor has all the necessary expertise". Delving a little deeper into the staffing proposal, it turned out that most experts were not actually on the vendor's payroll - they were either freelancers or employees of subcontractors and they were not necessarily dedicated to only one project at a time.

Next was the belief that "fixed price turn-key" is the safest way to go. Looking at recent projects revealed that "fixed price" was not fixed. It was a basis for endless fighting on the initial project scope and the cost of "extras" - meaning requirement changes and improvements. And turn-key was an illusion as well, as most projects had to compromise on the final scope of the implementation and "turned the key" prematurely. This meant that the SAP system went live without critical elements required by the business to operate properly - a situation with failure written all over it.

The third belief was "select the vendor with the deepest pockets" because this vendor will be able to invest the necessary resources to complete the project successfully - and if not, there is someone to blame and sue for damages. Well, studying some recent projects proved both of these axioms wrong too. The largest vendors were not subsidizing projects if they were missing resources, they were finding reasons to charge the customer heavily for extra resources… so there went another common belief out the window. Up to that time no customer in Israel had ever sued a vendor for an unsuccessful SAP implementation (a few months later an insurance company sued for millions). So they could kiss that fake safety net goodbye as well.

Then Itai and Gil came to the eternal question: what is the key factor for success in an SAP project, or for that matter any project? The answer for Gil and Itai was simple - "the best team of experts has the best likelihood to succeed". Given that fact, the vendor's added value came down to their access to these experts and their experience in putting such teams together.

So if the necessary component for success is access to resources then why can't we do it ourselves; hire the best experts directly, for the duration of the project, including the managing team? The initial thinking was that Colmobil's management wouldn’t take the risk because nobody else did it that way. But there was another important reason for the DIY approach: removing the potential safety net of blaming the vendor would require Colmobil’s management to buy-in and take ownership of the project from the very beginning instead of sitting back and waiting to see how things went. This was an appropriate approach for Colmobil’s culture, which was not afraid of thinking outside of the box.

Gil and Itai decided to validate their thinking and approached Zvika Polak (CEO) with their learnings, conclusions, and questions. It was becoming more and more clear to them that a self-managed project with the "A Team" of SAP experts working full time for Colmobil had the best chance to succeed and was the way to go. It didn't take Zvika long to fully comprehend the risks and rewards of this approach. Two days later he gave the green light and Colmobil set out to recruit the best experts in the Israeli market.

Itai and Gil compiled the list of the best SAP consultants in each module, process, or business line in scope for the project. Each expert was approached with the offer to join as a freelancer for a full time duty for the duration of the project, it took some time for this new concept to sink in, but one by one they joined. As the team began to take shape a rumor was born that a special project team was forming and only the best were recruited. Of course, then everyone who believed he/she was the best in their field wanted to join. In the end only one of the whole list declined so Colmobil proceeded with the offer to the second choice.

The final part of the self-managed strategy was to make each person welcome and to do everything necessary to insure that they felt themselves part of the Colmobil team – not just a contractor on another assignment. Because of this approach every consultant was completely focused on doing the right thing for Colmobil without pressure from a vendor to reduce time, resources, or scope.