and Consolidation (BPC), youre sharpening decision making

makes expert course corrections that

keep the project speeding toward
success.

through faster and precision-targeted planning, budgeting,

2. Build the Right Internal Team

Now that youve decided to purchase SAP BusinessObjects Planning

consolidations, and reporting all leading to a profitable, enriching

conclusion.
How do you activate BPC and its
powerful skill array to meet those
objectives?

Sometimes the executive sponsor

proactively removes roadblocks. For
example, suppose another executive

Because BPC is a finely-tuned, multidimensional application, the right

procedures and implementation partner
are keys to success.
Meticulously employ these 7 keys to
help ensure the success of SAP BPC at
your company.

1. Understand and Effectively Use

the Executive Sponsor's Skills
Your executive sponsor is much more
than the person who secures resources
to proceed with an SAP BPC
implementation. He or she plays a key
role throughout implementation.
The executive sponsor confirms that the
design and roadmap are sound, making
sure that the internal team and
implementation consultant smartly
clarify requirements so nasty surprises
or roadblocks don't spring up.

drags you or another member of your

team into some distraction from a
critical stage of the SAP BPC
implementation. This snag may require
the equal or greater authority of your
executive sponsor to stride in and
explain your priorities to others.
The executive sponsor is also a key
decision maker. Suppose your team
cant agree on a certain design
requirement because of clashing
interests or egos. The executive
sponsor moves in, armed with an
overarching vision of the project, and

Your internal team is critical in

successfully implementing BPC at your
company; so take some time to choose
your team members thoughtfully.
Your team is critical because, under
your direction, it will provide your
implementation partner with
meaningful input during every phase
of requirements gathering, product
design, and programming. Your team
will also become your companys
BPC experts and trainers.
Your team should normally be made
up of about 2-4 power users but could
increase to as many as 10, depending
on your BPC user base. Dont plan to
divide your internal work load evenly
among the number of team members
that doesnt work. Regardless of your
team size, its important you have at
least one person on the project full time
while your consultant is on site to
facilitate communication and project
flow. Youd also normally have a couple
power users working extensively with
your consultant in establishing the
foundation of your implementation while
the others would be involved in ancillary
aspects of the project, such as building
reports.

You want representation on your team

from each of the key stakeholder groups
in your company, especially in the
design and blueprint phase, so that you
can get input from all the groups who
will use the system. This is a key to
customizing BPC to fit the needs of
different users so that people actually
use the tool after its installed. If your
company is international, it can be
helpful to add someone from a few
major locations to participate on a
remote basis.
Youll need a cross functional team,
made up of people who own the
processes, to properly implement BPC.
Specific people youll want on your team
include financial and accounting staff,
such as the controller, financial analyst,
and budget manager. An I.T. and data
management leader is also important.
When it comes to your team size, less is
more. Limit the size to 10 at the most as
any more makes managing the project
unwieldy. Keep in mind theres a direct
relationship between the size of your
team and the difficulty getting
consensus on requirements, scheduling
meetings, and keeping everyone current
on the schedule and issues. The
smaller the team, assuming youve got
the minimum required representation
and expertise, the better your BPC
implementation will go.
When choosing your internal BPC team,
consider how team members will work
together. People should like each other.
While not always possible, try to avoid
ego and pride, two big collaboration
killers. Look for people who will not only
be qualified from a functional
standpoint, but also excited, reliable,
committed, and able to learn new
technology.
Also keep in mind that your team will

become the SAP BPC experts and

trainers at your company. While your
consultant will train your team, your
team will train the rest. Involve your
consultant in helping you develop a
training program, and record the training
sessions, which will be helpful for new
users.
Most of the time, your consultant will be
able to train everyone on your team
without problems. But to mitigate
training risk, choose people for your
team that are adept at picking up new
procedures and software. Your
consultant will likely be the first to notice
and advise you if someone on your
team is struggling with the tool. Dont be
afraid to replace that person with
someone else. Youll likely find the
struggling team member will feel
relieved, and your training, knowledge
transfer and user adoption will go much
smoother.

3. Choose the Right

Implementation Partner
There's no doubt that choosing the right
implementation partner is crucial to the
success of your BPC implementation.
Get the right partner and you avoid
mountains of project risk and move
smoothly into action; get the wrong
partner and your project could be
doomed before it starts.
So, how do you choose the right
implementation partner? Its mostly a
people issue, but the consultants track
record is also important to consider.
- Choose a Partner Based On
Their Unique Skills and Qualities
Choosing a BPC implementation
partner, also known as a BPC
consultant, is largely a people issue.

Treat your selection like any diligent

interview, minutely inspecting key
personnel of the proposed project team,
scanning the companys track record
and implementation methods, and finecombing their references.
Your implementation partner
(consultant) will normally supply you
with a team of 1 to 5 people, depending
on the size of your project, and below
are the characteristics and skills you
need to look for in that team:
Leadership. These days a plethora of
new companies calling themselves BPC
implementers or consultants try any
street hustle handy to nail your
attention. You instantly spot the
weakness writhing at the center of these
wanna-be's: a missing power and
vision-infused leader.
A strong leader is key to providing the
direction you need throughout the
project. Youre paying for a real
consultant and a genuine leader who
will actually sweat out the grind of rocksolid consulting, even if sparks fly
when clashing against the off-kilter
notions floated by your executive
sponsor or team. For example, you,
your team, or your executive sponsor
may actually need to be hauled back on
course if theyre not on board with the
BPC software design. In these cases, a
good leader on your consultant team
will make you aware of the risks of jerryrigs and provide the design consultation
to steer you on the best and truest
course. If youre not working with a
strong leader who will stand up and
provide the correct project vision and
direction, youre likely headed for
project shoals, keel-shearing rocks, time
delays, and, sometimes a gale-force
wreck. A strong leader will guide you
and your team toward a graceful and
timely landing.

www.sandpointc.com/contact

Management. In addition to leadership,

your consultant team needs a gale-force
manager to drive your BPC
implementation. Top-level management
skills include quiet power to organize,
charismatic communication, intuitive
planning abilities, and overarching
vision. Dont settle for great
programmers only. The skill set for
programmers and managers is not the
same; and great programmers are not
always great managers.
Experience. When considering your
consultants experience, carefully
review the experience of the firm and
the team they supply you with; neither
on its own will give you easy sleep
you need them both. If youre looking at
a firm thats been implementing BPC for
10+ years, thats a good sign but what if
they send you a bunch of eager ubberlimbed newbies? In this pec-flexing BPC
climate, companies weaken under the
pressures and bring in inexperienced
consultants to meet demand. Big-dog
firms muscle their way into market
share, and make easy room for
inexperienced pups, but this shouldn't
intimidate you from demanding a crack
team of seasoned pros.
Another way to look at experience is
whether the consultants team members
have ever implemented BPC as a client,
rather than just as a consultant? Can
they see the project from your
perspective? Have they hired a BPC
consultant, gone through the sweaty
brick-and-mortar work, have the frontline experience of being trained and
training others, and became masters of
successfully implementing BPC? You
may have to do some digging to find
such a partner team, but it surely pays
to have someone who actually lived and
breathed the BPC implementation and
tool as an employee of a client
company, one who will be able to
provide you with unique insights and
guidance that only comes from knowing

your perspective.
Knowledge. Knowledge long ago
forged its bond with experience and
neither on its own will suffice. Its
obvious that youre looking for a partner
with extensive knowledge of BPC
implementation. But youve also got to
ensure your partner has hardware,
software and accounting skills in his
arsenal. Your consultant must have a
solid foundation of finance and
accounting skills upon which to build
your implementation. A BPC project is
about 80% work by functional
consultants having accounting and
finance expertise. Solid accounting
background and closing experience is
required to translate BPC into the
functional consolidation requirements.

Likeability. Pick a partner you like. You

and your team will be spending lots of
time working shoulder to shoulder with
your BPC consultant, so make sure its
someone who fits your corporate
culture. Collaboration and
communication are natural by-products
of working with people you like, while
people who irritate are grit in the gears.
Hire a consultant you like and not only
will your implementation speed
precisely toward target, the fine rippleeffects of the good relationship will
wash over everyone. Ring up some of
the consultant's references and find out
what it's like to rub shoulders with this
person when the heat's on and the clock
is ticking. If the partner doesnt fit your
culture youll fight a bloody uphill battle
learning the technology and keeping

team chaos at bay while you struggle to

meet the deadline and deliver the
goods.
Communication. As suggested above,
youre looking for a great communicator.
A successful BPC implementation
requires great amounts of collaboration
and communication between you, your
team and your consultants team. The
consultants team needs to clearly
understand the requirements and the
design before they begin developing,
and youd be surprised how many jump
into the build phase before a clear,
bright and well-contoured map forms in
the team's collective mind and on paper.
Choose a consultant who will commit to
constant communication throughout the
project. Require the consultant to do
most of the work at your site so you can
speak to him or her and demand daily
updates that show percentage of
completion and how much is getting
done task by task. A good consultant
will also schedule weekly status
meetings with you and your team to
show what's getting done, what's
lagging and why, and what precisely
needs to be done to keep on course.
Its actually a good sign if the consultant
asks to work with a person from your
team full-time while theyre at your site
until the job is complete. This is a sure
indicator of a productive consultant.
- Choose a Boutique Partner, If
You Can Find the Right One
There are pros and cons to both large
and boutique BPC consultant firms, but
a compelling case can be made that
project risks and quality can be best
controlled with the right boutique firm.
Large Firms. Large firms have normally
been in been in business the longest
and usually have a high level of
expertise. The trick can be getting

www.sandpointc.com/contact

access to that expertise not only at the

beginning of the project, but especially
throughout the project. What percent of
the time will your teams top expert be
at your site? And, who else will the firm
assign to be on your consultant team?
How many new consultants will be sent
to your job to learn on your dime? You
should demand to know. Large firms
under pressure to grow market share
are notorious for hiring recent college
graduates and sending them out to train
on the job, posing quality and cost risks
to your implementation. They become
the focus of knowledge transfer, rather
than you or your team.
In addition to billing for inexperienced
consultants, large firms often get away
with padding their teams with additional,
unnecessary team members and billing
them at rates that exceed their expertise
level. You should also be aware that
large firms without the available
expertise will sub-contract risky
independents which endanger the
whole enterprise. Independents lack
loyalty and sometimes desert mid
project if a better paying job comes
along. Independents also are in the
habit of working independently as
opposed to being part of a collaborative
team. Sometimes they insist on their
ways, essentially banking the whole
project on them individually instead of
the collective wisdom of the team. But
large firms continue to get away with
risky practices and excess pricing
because they have more resources to
throw at their sales song and dance and
have important C-level connections to
close these types of projects. Let's put
this simply: watch for these tactics and
do what it takes to get an expert,
correctly-sized, and properlycompensated consultant team on the
job.
Keep in mind that each project has a
minimum required timeline, and padding
the team with additional people is often
a distraction. In fact, having more
consultants than the optimal team size
on the job makes the project harder to
manage. A good sized, efficient BPC
consultant team normally ranges from 1
3 people, depending on the project.

Be wary of and question large firms

suggesting large, expensive teams,
when compared to those suggested by
boutique firms. Larger firms may argue
that their larger team will reduce your
involvement. But is that what you want?
Companies that accept such advice are
often frustrated throughout the project,
baffled that their large-team strategy
slows everything down, tangled up the
result, and was the cause of insufficient
knowledge transfer.

and implementation, they can often step

in and quickly diagnose and solve
issues.
On the downside, many boutique firms
are relatively new and lack a stable
track record. However, you should be
able to find a few with a solid 10+ years
of successful experience.
It wont be easy to find a boutique firm
with all the qualities outlined above, but
they do exist and its well worth a
focused search to get the increased

Boutique consulting firms have a leg up on large firms in that they

can better control their processes, quality, and hiring to ensure their
sophisticated clientele is best served.
If considering a large firm, youll also
want to ask who provides support after
the implementation is complete. Of
course, SAP will support its product, but
your consultant will provide support on
the implementation should issues arise
after completion. The concern with large
consultants is that they normally offer
remote support through technicians that
were not part of the implementation
team and not familiar with your specific
environment.
Boutique Firms. Specialization and
focus are key advantages some
boutique consultants have over large
firms. The right boutique BPC
consultant firm is highly specialized and
extremely expert because BPC is its
core competency.
Boutique consulting firms have a leg up
on large firms in that they can better
control their processes, quality, and
hiring to ensure their sophisticated
clientele is best served.
Because of their smaller size, boutique
firms often give you direct access to
their highest level of expertise and
authority, even on the backend where
support can actually come from the
team who implemented BPC at your
site. Because support comes from the
consultants familiar with your processes

quality, reduced implementation risk,

competitive price, and superior support
that comes with the right boutique firm.
When in doubt regarding which size
consultant to go with, base your
decision on the people. In other words,
choose the team with the best people
based on the qualities and skills
mentioned above and youre more likely
to have a winning implementation.
.
- Choose a Partner with a Strong
Track Record
Ideally youre looking for a partner who
has been 100% focused on BPC for a
long time (10+ years) and has
experience with the latest releases of all
versions of BPC. The consultant should
have a loyal customer base from
multiple industries and various company
sizes including those in the Fortune 500
list. Go with a BPC consultant who has
a proven track record of successful
implementation thats on time and within
budget. Verify their track record by
calling references.
- Choose the Total Package
Youre looking for the total package; you
cant afford to deal with anything less. A
consulting firm that provides great
technical people or great accounting

people but lacks a good leader and

manager, can doom your project before
it starts. Likewise, having a great leader
and manager without the required
technical expertise and accounting
knowledge will lead to shipwreck on the
rocky shoals. Be patient in your search
and youll find the expertly loaded
package.

produce a superficial design and rush

into coding. Such practices normally
result in poor quality, disjointed
functionality, serious defects, and a late
delivery that is over budget. The
opposite is normally true following
sound and thorough planning.

4. Ensure Thorough Planning

A phased approach to your BPC

implementation project offers you better
control of scope, schedule and quality.
Require your BPC partner to deliver the
implementation in distinct, well-defined
phases that are clearly outlined in your
design document.

Another key to successfully

implementing BPC is thorough planning
to create a solidly designed map to
control scope, schedule, cost, and
quality.

5. Require Phased Delivery

Your consultant should begin the

planning phase well before they come
on site. During planning they will lead
you through the creation of the project
blueprint. Youll start the planning
process by explaining your current
processes and challenges and what you
want BPC to do for you. Youll discuss
your data and data sources. Your
consultant will confirm the possibilities
and list the resources required to meet
your objectives. Your consultant will
explain the required work and the end
result. Youll determine requirements,
plan resources, partition the project into
phases, and establish timelines for
deliverables. Your design document will
outline everything from start to finish,
including post-implementation support.

In a phased approach, functionality will

be developed, tested and delivered in
stages, helping you better manage the
scope of the project by dividing the
implementation into bite sized phases
instead of a single, huge, final
deliverable. You, your team and
executive sponsor need to hear the
good and any bad news in small pieces
rather than in one chunk at the end of
the project, when it would be too late to
fix a mess.

Sometimes theres a feeling that the

sooner you get through planning, the
sooner you begin coding and the faster
your project will get done. Thats true if
you dont need your implementation to
work. Remember the age old adage, If
you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Most
failures originate before the first line of
code is written and can be traced to
poor planning. The worst thing you can
do is race through requirements,

The phased approach greatly minimizes

project risk and produces higher quality.
In a phased approach your consultant
will be testing and delivering parts of the
application in chunks so that if a
problem arises, it can be communicated
and dealt with early on. Data validation
is a good example. Data is tested in the
earliest possible phase. Data is loaded
into the application and the output is
compared to your legacy system

The phased approach establishes

frequent milestones so you can confirm
youre on schedule throughout the
project rather than just at the end.
Phased delivery ensures continual
communication and updates.

reports. If theres any variance, you and

your consultant will begin working to
determine if it was due to faulty
development or faulty data. Identifying
faulty code or a bad data source early
on will save great time and money. If
your data source is bad, youll need to
step back and evaluate the time and
cost required resolve the internal issue.

6. Transfer Knowledge
Immediately and Continuously
Transferring knowledge is another key
to making BPC work for your company.
First, you transfer knowledge about your
needs and requirements to your partner;
then you work alongside your partner
during the development, learning the
tool as you go; and finally, you and your
team will transfer your knowledge to the
rest of the users in your company.
Transfer of your knowledge to your
implementation partner begins during
the requirements and design phase.
The sooner that process starts the
better. If, at the beginning, you dont
have BPC installed, hopefully your
partner has a BPC environment and lets
you use their servers during
development so that you can start
learning the BPC solution even prior to
installing your SAP hardware. This will
buy you valuable time.
Transfer of knowledge between you and
your partner will be continuous
throughout the development process as
you and your team work shoulder to
shoulder with your consultant. The
consultant will train you and your team
along the way at each phase of
development. You and your team will
naturally become your companys
internal experts of the BPC tool.

Finally, you and your team will transfer

your knowledge to the other end users
at your company. A good
implementation partner will help you
design a sound training program to help
ensure user adoption throughout your
company.

comprehensive documentation. The

documentation contains the design and
blueprint. Its the project plan and a
how-to document that helps end users
understand how to use the system. The
documentation will serve as the
application development record, users
manual and training resource.

7. Insist on Comprehensive
Documentation

Conclusion

At the completion of thorough and

successful testing, your BPC
implementation partners job isnt done
until theyve both trained your team
completely and delivered

Now that youre about to implement

SAP BPC, youll soon enjoy its many
efficiencies and benefits. The only task
left is to implement it. Follow the 7 keys
discussed above to help ensure a

successful implementation at your

company.
We invite you to call SandPoint at (888)
236-2503 or (248) 429-7055 to discuss
your SAP BusinessObjects Planning
and Consolidation needs, get more
information, or request a free quote.

BRYAN WIRTHLIN
PRESIDENT | SANDPOINT
CONSULTING
(248) 429-7055
bryan@sandpointc.com
www.sandpointc.com

SandPoint Consulting Inc. is a leading Enterprise Performance

Management (EPM) consulting company guaranteeing top-notch
SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation (BPC)
implementations, training, support, upgrades, audits, optimizations,
rescues and other services.
SandPoint is a boutique firm that is one of the longest established
specialists in BPC since 2001 we have been 100% focused on
BPC (formerly OutlookSoft), developing industry-leading
specialization, expertise and results.
We strive to serve our sophisticated clientele with the industrys
highest quality consulting services. As evidence of that, we are often
hired to fix problematic BPC projects that other consulting firms have
failed to deliver correctly the first time.
Were with you every step of the way, fitting the most advanced
technology to your industrys needs. Our team has helped implement
hundreds of world class BPC business productivity solutions among
Fortune 1,000, 500, and 50 customers. Our seasoned (average 6+
years) and savvy consultants always produce superb, confident
users of implemented technologies and create smoothly running and
productive organizations.
We strive to take BPC best practices to a new stratosphere. We
are particularly focused on thorough planning to create a solidly
designed map and phased delivery to control scope, schedule, cost,
and quality; quick-start methodology that gives you free access to
our BPC NW cloud based servers for prototyping, developing and
training so we can start before purchase and installation of hardware
and software; extensive knowledge transfer and training to ensure
user adoption and project success; comprehensive documentation to
serve as the application development record, users manual, and
training resource; and, industry-leading support that primarily comes

from the same consultants who worked on your project.

But we go beyond the application of traditional best practices by
ensuring they are carried out by highly experienced, elite
consultants. Our savvy consultants are quite simply the most
confident cutting-edge experts optimizing SAPs BPC.
Our consultants are not only highly experienced with BPC, but they
also have experience working from your side of the table. Prior to
joining SandPoint, our consultants have worked in accounting and
finance departments at SAP client companies where they were part
of an internal team that implemented BPC. They have been
everyday power users of BPC in the work environment and therefore
have a knack for developing functional solutions that appeal to end
users and also meet real business needs. Having already walked in
your shoes, our consultants are uniquely qualified to guide you to the
end result you desire.
Additionally, our professional, friendly teams contain the leadership,
management, and communication skills required to guarantee
successful implementation with efficient, on-time, within-budget
delivery.
SandPoint is centered on integrity. We offer full transparency and are
happy to explain why we feel our smaller, ethically-sized teams are
optimal for your project. Benefits to you include higher project
quality, better control of scope, higher reliability in meeting
schedules, and reduction of billing.
We invite you to call SandPoint at (888) 236-2503 or (248) 429-7055
to discuss your SAP BPC needs, get more information, or request a
free quote.
SandPoint Consulting the quality choice in SAP BPC services.

Ive had a lot of experience working with different consulting groups

including Deloitte & Touche and Accenture, but now I choose to work
with SandPoint.

"The professionals at SandPoint were an invaluable resource to us

through our software selection process and helped us successfully
implement our new system on a very aggressive time frame and
within budget."

SandPoints sharing, collaboration and training was great and

With SandPoints knowledge of BPC and their continued support, we

allowed us to maintain the system ourselves. I highly recommend

SandPoint for BPC work.

have developed a very effective and efficient financial consolidations,

forecasting, budgeting and tax revision process.

Despite an aggressive timeline and tight budget, SandPoint met

BPC has enabled us to significantly improve our sales planning and

both and achieved my internal goals with fantastic quality.

forecasting process and timing. We are now able to spend

significantly more time analyzing the impact of demand, currency,
and commercial changes to our plan, as opposed to simply creating
the plan. Partnering with SandPoint was critical in helping us meet
these objectives.

SandPoints support is impressive and another key reason I work

Choose a solid partner I recommend SandPoint.

with them. They provide assistance whenever help is needed and I

appreciate how they bend over backwards to help me.

Choosing SandPoint was the best thing for our BPC investment and
project they got us back on track where our original partner failed to
do so.