Published Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Performing a comprehensive, fully integrated global SAP HCM implementation in a single instance is a daunting task for many large companies. We believe paramount in achieving it is proper communication and coordination between SAP HR and IT Managers/Directors, HR Project Managers/Directors, HR Project Team Leads and change management teams. We explore this issue here, covering both challenges and key lessons learned about having the right strategy and approach in place to be successful. We hope it will serve as a useful reference for preparing business case analyses and managing a global SAP roll-in implementation — all in support of your efforts to minimize cost, manage project timelines and enhance decision making.

Overview

Global SAP HCM implementations are typically initiated in an effort to replace country-specific HR and Payroll systems with a single global SAP enterprise with an objective to help the company align global processes and country-specific processes while replacing US and European legacy/headquarters’ HR and Payroll systems. In addition, a phased roll-out approach can allow for certain countries to go live in an orderly manner (typically accomplished by size or importance). Following is a step-by-step breakdown of the main points we believe you should consider in your efforts to achieve a successful implementation:

Approach

To start, we recommend an approach that focuses on six key elements (illustrated below) of a typical global SAP HCM implementation. Below the chart is a brief description of each element

Standardize and simplify

Design an 80 percent solution (fit for purpose) that leverages common processes, when available, simplifies the processes, adopts SAP best practices, and minimizes dependency on custom code and modifications to core SAP.

Global template

Utilize a global template to help decrease implementation time, decrease cost, enhance decision making capability/speed, increase drive in consistency, and reduce localized requirements.

Phased rollouts, by country

Pros Cons

Early realization of support savings Legacy interfaces must be maintained

Minimizes process variation during implementation Later countries may “change” or spend on temporary improvements or cannot respond to business requirements

Fewer instances (temporary) Later time-to-benefit for corporate functions

Better integration Delayed shared service opportunities

Earlier time-to-benefit for each country

Better opportunity for continuous improvement

Aligned to organization

Global liaison and integration manager

Having a global liaison or integration manager that resides in the country that owns the global template can help result in: better communication between local and global roll-in teams; a reduction in language and cultural barriers; increased decision making capability/speed; an increased drive for consistency; and reduced localized requirements.

Change management

This is one of the most important elements of a successful global roll-out, because effective change management can help generate buy-in from key users throughout the affected network. Moreover, since HR changes impact every level of an organization, it is critical to engineer a well-designed internal communication plan by identifying a communication delivery mechanism that works effectively with different types of stakeholders.

Internal best practices and SAP knowledge

Leveraging internal best practices and combining those with SAP implementation knowledge can help an organization to align their processes and technology so they complement each other

Roll-out strategy

In the following example, the global blueprint was done by country one, or the roll-out country, and inherited by countries two and three, or the roll-in countries.

The following chart illustrates the rollout strategy for training. Choose a training tool as early as possible and pay special attention to any appropriate global requirements. An effective practice is to leverage global training documents when applicable.

Below, we show the rollout strategy for the technical aspects of the project. Most important to note here is that the security design should be given special attention due to the likely variation in compliance requirements for different countries, which makes security testing extremely important and highlights the need to conduct it earlier than during typical implementations.

Challenges

Inevitably, when faced with a global SAP implementation, several challenges will be encountered. Typically, they are global in scope and might include issues around offshore development, documentation, roles and responsibilities, training materials, scope definition and consistency, governance structure, and disciplined change control, as well as configuration difficulties. Below you will find some challenges you will likely encounter, based on our past experiences with similar projects:

Global Scope

Staffing challenges involving relocation, time zones, locations, languages, etc.

Definition and agreement of “global processes” versus “local processes”

Offshore Development

Expectations on documentation and quality standards

Stringent coordination and amount of guidance required

Documentation

Keeping changes to the business blueprint of global and local templates updated, as required

Multi-language requirements for documentation

Version control and access to documents

Roles and Responsibilities

Difficulties encountered in creating and communicating a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities — local, regional, and global

This holds true for all phases of the cycle implementation (blueprint, realization, testing and cutover)

Training Materials

Challenges around deploying material in several languages

Scope Definition and Consistency

Agreement of key HR actions and processes at a global level

Regard for local compliance and cultural requirements and the impact to the Global template

Governance Structure and Disciplined Change Control

Refraining from allowing localizations to influence the global template and that the global template remains truly global/universal

Defining disciplined configuration structure with phased, country-specific implementations

Developing a regression testing strategy that can be executed at any given time in any given location

Configuration Challenges

Enterprise structure

Global fields and actions

Limited groupings and rules options

Global settings for security

Global Organizational Management settings

Translations

Key lessons learned

Get detailed validation of organizational data, wage types, personnel data, year-to-date payroll and time results

Use go live metrics for early detection of issues

Begin early testing of forms for processes

Attend transactional training and make sure users are familiarized with new processes

Seek active support from leadership in the training process

Conduct transition planning for areas undergoing personnel/process change (cont.):

Don’t change key users

Retain key SMEs and core project team members

Address bottleneck areas and provide them additional support

Have core implementation team work closely with the process team

Clearly define, manage and govern global template

Get change management involved as early as possible

Provide frequent demonstrations of the system to the key process owners and stakeholders

Put in place effective communication plan that considers project plans, project status, plan updates,and issue escalation procedures

Cover key local and legal business requirements

Spend more time upfront with global template design

Use this as the starting point for the local design with country-specific HR representatives

Spend additional time to define global reporting requirements — ensure consistent use of data fields

Consider local data privacy restrictions when using global fields or processes while designing the security model

Set global data standards by infotypes

Globalize actions and reasons as much as possible to help ensure consistent reporting

Have a defined regression strategy for subsequent country rollouts

Have one core configuration team who gets configuration requirements sent to them by mobile localization teams

Prepare for international mobility

Use SAP standard global employment features where possible

Pay special attention to incorporating multiple countries’ local benefits and converting an equivalent salary during expatriate/impetrate assignments

Offer a net salary in global employment and then gross up the wage types

Know that the planning stage in a global employment process is extremely important from the design perspective

Try and use the global ID and a new personnel number for each assignment

Make sure the fluctuations in currency rates are dealt with during the international mobility process design

Configuration tips

Use sub features at the country level while maintaining features

Use an info-group modifier as well as a country-specific user group in process configuration

Use ENAME field for name format to allow proper sorting of global reports

Pay special attention to number range configuration and maintenance for phased, country-specific rollouts

Make sure positions are defined locally to incorporate local compensation as well as compliance requirements if jobs are structured globally

Security

Use composite transport strategy to avoid sequencing issues due to global and local teams configuring similar tables

Use global fields and/or custom fields to manage global security needs

Where possible, use SAP Solution Manager’s change request management functionality to create transport requests and manage transports

Make sure the global template considers global structural authorization settings to incorporate a global structural design

Consider custom functions for structural authorizations to incorporate country-specific structural requirements

Pay special attention to testing reports with global data

We believe following these tips can help make your HCM global implementation go smoother and faster — and help you achieve an enhanced outcome.

This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of Deloitte practitioners. Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, financial, investment, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte, its affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication.