Ascendant Methodology : the best way for EPM implementations

Ascendant Technology combines a proprietary, standards-based methodology to replicate successes from related industries and similar technology implementations to reduce risk and project timelines while increasing customer satisfaction and capability.

The ascendant method is a methodology that provides a consistent, structured, and practical approach to what needs to be done, when it should be done, how it should be done, and how it should be controlled. The ascendant method evolved from SAP AG's AcceleratedSAP (ASAP) method, and IBM practices, practice aids, and methods. The ascendant method supports rolling out a global solution to multiple markets/countries (i.e., several sites implanting SAP in concurrent, staggered go-lives). The ascendant method consists of a number of phases including: market initialization (evaluation), solution preparation, business blueprint, realization, cluster preparation, and cluster go live to sustain. Details of the phases are as follows:

Market initiation (phase 0)--The purpose of the market initiation phase is to complete the basic activities necessary to launch the template system's implementation project in the target markets. Each market initiation implementation project will have its own unique objectives, scope, priorities, and timeline. Typical activities in the market initiation phase include: market initiation planning; market data cleansing, standardization, and mapping workshops; infrastructure planning and deployment; local support organization planning and implementation; market application and system landscape integration; ongoing project and change management; and completion check. Sample key deliverables/results include: early adoption of data standards; local area network (LAN)/wide area network (WAN) deployment strategy; market application and system landscape strategy; and local support organization design. An alternative name for phase 0 is the evaluation phase. The purpose of the evaluation phase is to coordinate activities that are most often part of proposal development.

Solution (project) preparation (phase 1)--The purpose of the solution preparation phase is to commence and execute detailed scope, planning and preparation for the template implementation in the target market. Project preparation builds on the initial scope, strategies, and plans from the project proposal, which is the major deliverable in the evaluation phase, and helps create the project charter. Typical activities in the solution preparation phase include: ongoing project and change management; strategy and preparation for the business blueprint phase; infrastructure requirements; market application and system landscape; scope data conversion and functional design; a first data conversion dry run; and a completion check. Sample key deliverables/results include: project charter; project team organization structure; milestone program plan; detail blueprint phase work plan; and technical infrastructure deployment.

Business blueprint (phase 2)--The purpose of the business blueprint is to identify process requirements in a business blueprint document that defines how the organization intends to run its business. The main activity of the business blueprint phase is to perform a fit/gap analysis between the template system solution and the target market requirement. The approved gaps will determine the detailed design that has to be completed. Typical activities in the business blueprint phase include: ongoing project and Change Management; template fit/gap analysis; update data mapping and conversion design; a second data conversion dry run; document business blueprint; planning, review strategy and prepare for realization phase; infrastructure alignment; market application and system landscape alignment; induction of super and end-user training; role management; and completion check of business blueprint. Sample key deliverables/results include: fit/gap resolution and approval; data mapping and transformation; security processes; confirm end user roles and variants; and a documented business

Blueprint realization (phase 3)--The purpose of the realization phase is to localize and test the template systems for the target market, in accordance with the requirements documented in the Business Blueprint, and prepare a production ready environment (working production system). Typical activities in the realization phase include: ongoing project and change management; finalize data conversion documentation and developments; a third data conversion dry run; finalizing RICEF documentation and developments; configuration and process test; role management realization; custom development and technical connectivity; infrastructure deployment; cutover planning and simulation; integration testing; finalizing of super and end-user training; and planning and prepare for cluster preparation. Sample key deliverables/results include:market configuration confirmed; market role variants built; market custom development built; cutover plans approved; and a fully tested system.

Cluster (final) preparation (phase 4)--The purpose of cluster preparation phase is to complete preparations for the cluster to go live with the template systems and to complete the plan for transitioning to a day-to-day business operation. Typical activities in the cluster preparation phase include: ongoing project and change management; finalizing RICEF programs; final data conversion; market cutover simulation; market acceptance testing; cluster regression tests; deliver super and end-user training; completion check; and plan and prep for go live and support phase. Examples of key deliverable/results for the cluster preparation phase include: data converted; cut over checklist; contingency plan; production readiness review; legacy retirement plan; and execution of regression test.

Cluster go live and support (phase 5)--The purpose of the go live and support phase is to transition the target market to use the template systems for day-to-day business operations (complete the transition from pre-production environment to a live, stable, productive operation). Typical activities for the go live and support phase include: ongoing project and change management; plan for continuous improvement; plan and preparation for sustain phase; post cluster go-live support; production support; systems monitoring; and system management; and a completion check. Examples of key deliverable/results for the cluster go live and support phase include: production ready systems environment; production capable end users; and production capable support help.

Sustain (phase 6)--The purpose of the sustain phase is to implement a framework for maintaining and improving the performance of the production system.

Does an EPM project need of all these "features"? I think this method can be applied to all EPM projects giving our customer all the best efforts we can provide. Although the reality is really different, i hope many of us will understand the importance to share methodology and best practice.
Have you ever been facing Ascendant Methodology in your EPM project?

What's the problem? Why did it happen? and What will be done to prevent it? EPM root Analysis

EPM software not only are the best product to build your budget or your consolidated Financial statement but, more often, are the best instruments in our hands to understand why things happens.

Each big company has a detailed chart of account and each account hide many informations; not always our customer are able to understand Why things happens.
Even if is not properly the case, root analysis can be the best solution in that cases.

Root cause analysis is an approach for identifying the underlying causes of why an incident occurred so that the most effective solutions can be identified and implemented.  It's typically used when something goes badly, but can also be used when something goes well.
The newest and well known EPM softwares are nowadays able to apply a root analysis and CFO and stakeholders can sleep peacefully; by analyzing deeply our database, asking to aour collegue, answering to same question can help to understand our business, especially in the last years.

Information is all we need to understand the business and the business's problems and more informations we have, more problems we can solve. And once the problem is found, we can start thinking how to prevent it!  
To much expenses? Few revenues? Some products are badly sold?
Starting analyzing unaggregated level of data and asking what and why people "create" business data is the aim of all successfull companies.


 

The three best skills each EPM consultant should have

Somethimes when people starts a new EPM project happens something really strange; people involved in the project doesn't have the right skills and ability required. The reasons can be different but at the end the reality is that some project take the wrong way and bring the projects to failure.

So, which are the three main skills to perform at the top? I think each of us should be:

1. Customer oriented: this mean that we should immediatly understand  the deep reasons that drives our customer to start a new project. Probably that reason concern a personal growth inside the company or simply a gain of time and capacity to give fast and responsive information.
2. Able to be indipendent: of course the best value provided can be offered better if we are able to start and carry forward the whole project: starting with the functional analysis and developing the technicalities the customer need to reach his goal.
3. Passionate and critic: this is the aim of all EPM project. Our passion should be transmitted to our team (both internal and external) in order to make things easier. Passion and criticism are the best way to improve ourselves and communicate our audience who we are, where we are going and why we are there!

How many of this skylls do you have?

Is SAP HANA the next revolution of EPM market? Probably it is...

The EPM market is changing and the biggest vendor are creating new platform to improve service and quality served.
But, first of all, what is SAP HANA?

SAP HANA is SAP AG’s implementation of in-memory database technology. An in-memory database (IMDB; also main memory database system or MMDB or memory resident database) is a database management system that primarily relies on main memory for computer data storage. It is contrasted with database management systems which employ a disk storage mechanism. Main memory databases are faster than disk-optimized databases since the internal optimization algorithms are simpler and execute fewer CPU instructions. Accessing data in memory eliminates seek time when querying the data, which provides faster and more predictable performance than disk. So, according with Wikipedia, HANA DB takes advantage of the low cost of main memory (RAM), data processing abilities of multi-core processors and the fast data access of solid-state drives relative to traditional hard drives to deliver better performance of analytical and transactional applications. It offers a multi-engine query processing environment which allows it to support both relational data (with both row- and column-oriented physical representations in a hybrid engine) as well as graph and text processing for semi- and unstructured data management within the same system. HANA DB is 100% ACID compliant. Now, the newest version of SAP BPC (SAP BPC 10) can take the advantages of a SAP HANA DB. This means a lot of things as fast data access, speed, and many other feautures. Of course this kind of implementation can be done by big customers that have a really complex database environment. By the way SAP HANA will be the next generation of EPM implementation giving owr customer all the power needed. Here the architecture schema: 

The importance of the right training on EPM solutions

Many customers doesn't care about good training session. Many of them thing that the most important things will be always done by consultats (reports, data entry sheets, dimension, user concept). If this sentence is true, is also true that many company can considerarly reduce project costs by training themselfs in the better way.

Of course this can only be possible with the right training session and the right peoples.
Usually, in fact, many customers overestimate the ability to train other people and let things go.
At the end, the perfect project can only be concluded with a really usefull training session; i usually spend 5-10 days at all with my customer in order to be sure they have the control of the EPM solution.

The advantages for our clients are:
-cost reduction
-reporting speed
-self motivation
-better use of the solution

In fact i had always a good feedback from my clients also after years; this mean not only lose of some money (for me), but especially customer retention and somethimes new and big projects!

So, if you think that training is not so usefull, you are wrong!

Is the Gross Margin Percentege (GM%) important for our customer?

Somethimes EPM consultants are more solution oriented than customer oriented. This means that for someone is more important to find a quick and dirty solution (IT solution) instead of thinking about the important things to offer to our clients.
For example many consultants doesn't knows the importance of Gross Margin Percentege (GM%) and doesn't understand the value of such important indicator.

But, what is the GM%? Why can be so important?

The calculation is:  (Sales - Cost of goods sold) / Sales

For example, a company has sales of $1,000,000 and cost of goods sold of $750,000, which results in a gross margin of $250,000 and a gross margin percentage of 25%.

This percentage is useful when tracked on a trend line, to see if there are any significant changes that may require further investigation. A decline in the gross margin percentage may be cause for considerable concern, since it can imply a decline in the competitiveness of a company's products and/or services.

Gross margin includes an allocation of factory overhead costs, some of which may be fixed or mixed costs.

The perfect EPM consultant should know all the main aspect of a financial statement in order to suggest the customer the best implementation method not only in terms of speed and performance, but also in terms of control and comprehension of their business.

What do you think about the importance of values communication?

Is the ITIL methodology useful in EPM projects?

ITIL is the most widely accepted approach to IT service management in the world. ITIL provides a cohesive set of best practice, drawn from the public and private sectors internationally. It’s based on capital equipment maintenance techniques that have been well documented and studied since the 50s – if not earlier. Furthermore, ITIL is about creating a learning organization that can identify stupid things, and avoid repeating them in the future. Is it important in EPM projects?

In my opinion everything is method or project governance is really usefull to help our customer to better understand what they are doing and the value we are trasmitting.

Best practise are always well accepted at each level and are easy to communicate and valorize. I mean...all best practise, especially if, as ITIL, are recognised all over the world. For many country ( i.e Italy, Spain, Greece ) the ITIL methodology is not yet been understood by many company, and customers dosn't care about this lack of "quality" provided...until thing goes wrong. It is possible that method, processes, money saving are not important nowadays?

 Why don't try to introduce that level of expertise and best practise?