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Driving Synergy Between People, Processes & Technology

When you hear the word “system,” what comes to mind? Your laptop, a cell phone, the printer on your desk perhaps?

What if I told you that systems aren’t computers – but instead reflect the complex combination of people, processes and technology that run your business. And, when they’re not working well together, can severely limit your ability to compete?

I often tell clients, “It doesn’t matter what technology you are using.” Could be S/4HANA, ANSI X12 or smoke signals. What matters most is creating synergy – the balance between people, process and technology that effectively unites your team, optimizes operations and ultimately drives profit so that your company can outperform the competition.

I’ve consulted some of largest companies in the world. And if there’s one key takeaway in 20 years of working on systems, it’s that companies who find synergy find success.

How Can We Help? Explore Our Services.

  • With 20 years of specialized training and experience in the design, development and implementation of integrated SAP supply chain solutions covering order-to-cash, procure-to-pay and demand-to-ship processes across manufacturing and distribution industries, we can engineer any SAP system to support your unique business and operational needs.

    What sets us apart from other consultancies? We design solutions with TCO top of mind and prepare for your next project now. Why? Because we believe that the best way to lower TCO is through the use of standard SAP solutions that, when appropriately leveraged and applied, offer highly stable and reliable systems that are easy to maintain and upgrade in the future.

    That said, we know that customization is often unavoidable due to each client’s unique needs. Whether your team needs a custom report, interface, conversion, enhancement, form or portal, we are highly adept in all aspects of SAP application development and can use our extensive technical expertise to develop any solution to meet any requirement.

  • Studies repeatedly show that the majority of projects that fail to meet shareholder expectations had poorly defined business scenarios, processes and functional requirements.

    The reason for this is simple. Missing requirements (or those that get discovered too late) are often undetected until go live – where things become prohibitively disruptive and expensive to fix.

    We guarantee that with requirements properly elicited, documented and traced throughout each design, validation and production maintenance cycle, you will significantly improve project outcomes, lower TCO and insure ROI. Let us show you how it’s done!

  • If there is one thing that successful systems have in common, it's a well-planned and well-executed approach to managing projects – blueprints that effectively maintain alignment across the team, the scope of work and the organization.

    With a focus on preparation, risk assessment and organizational change management, as well as efforts to continuously align project and business goals and expectations, we leverage the latest in agile approaches (think Activate, Scrum and Kanban) to effectively manage your projects while maintaining an environment tuned for quality and speed.

  • Ben Franklin once said, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” His adage certainly applies to SAP projects. Taking the time to understand your business needs and anticipate barriers that could derail your success are critical steps to delivering ROI for your shareholders. How well are you able to predict successful project outcomes where ROI and TCO are your measures? If the answer is anything but “very well,” we can help.

    Our SAP Project Risk Assessment & Audit services utilize best practice risk analysis methods and tools to calculate threats to your project and provide you with a step-by-step risk mitigation plan that will quickly get things back on track and TCO under control.

  • Many companies face the same challenge when it comes to project management. While the project is well planned and there is a strong implementation team in place, a lack of qualified, disciplined oversight threatens success.

    When governance and controls are missing from your project, your team lacks the ability to assess risks and address the issues that arise from new or changed business requirements. And what happens next? Unplanned resources are consumed, threatening your project budget, schedule and quality.

    This all-too-common story is the top reason for scope and budget creep, and unexpected project outcomes. We can help by implementing all of the IT program governance and IT control systems you need to keep your projects delivering on plan and systems delivering on promises – effectively insuring your ROI through controlling TCO.

  • The success of your SAP project is ultimately determined by how well your system is validated against requirements prior to production cutover. Often considered the most resource consuming domain of the project and highly dependent on complete and accurate user stories, business scenarios and functional requirements, a robust validation strategy and approach are your best defenses against a costly or failed go-live.

    Unfortunately, too many in-house teams struggle to accurately calculate and communicate risks, and leave project and business leadership to lacking the confidence to approve a production cutover.

    This kind of misalignment can feed a culture of blame where there are no winners. To avoid the blame game, we recommend following a detailed validation approach where all activities are planned and prioritized according their assessed business risk.

Case Studies: Experience That Makes All The Difference.

A Paperboy Turned Systems Engineer Delivers on Customer Service

The summer of 1985 in a small Western Colorado town, a 10-year-old boy dreamed of buying his own car. (Surprise, that kid was me). Enter The Daily Sentinel and what eventually became a five-year commitment to owning and operating my first business – a newspaper delivery service.

So what does a paperboy have to do with building global supply chains? A lot more than you might think. Each day before dawn I received a daily shipment of newspapers that I purchased from the printer. Under the dim light in my parent’s garage, I spent two-to-three hours sorting, packing and then delivering my papers, rain or shine, to 150 customers who lived in my neighborhood. Over time I optimized my processes – controlling costs, managing billing, paying vendors and perfecting logistics. I dedicated myself to a job well done and ensured on-time delivery and an unwavering commitment to my customers (and eventually I got the car, too).

Fast forward 15 years and I had the opportunity to put those early supply chain chops to work for IBM Business Consulting Services’ Supply Chain Management SAP Consulting Practice, where I was among the company’s first organically grown cohort of SAP supply chain consultants, named “IBM BCS Industrial Supply Chain Management Rookie of the Year” and earned my first “Partner Performance Award” for contributions I made to client success.

What started as my first business has grown into a long and successful consulting career ­– leading clients to find synergy and success in all phases of their SAP projects. These days, I support in-house teams on high-stakes endeavors. I mentor business leaders on best practices. And I provide end-to-end functional and technical SAP expertise – the skills and understanding that are often missing from a project manager’s toolbox.

John Guttmann, Founder and Principal Consultant

“John always went above and beyond with his attention to detail and he taught our teams how essential it was to fully capture and properly define critical and non-critical business requirements which truly enabled us to successfully deliver on projects and enhancements. I always enjoyed working with John because he made it so easy for the team to deliver quantifiable results for the organization.”

- client executive

Synergy Enterprise Solutions: A Risk-Based Approach to Creating and Maintaining High-Performing Business Processes.

Synergy Enterprise Solutions: Client Engagement Survey.

Looking for help in taking your company to the next level? Take our short survey so we may assess your project needs and readiness!

“John is a phenomenal, hard-working, critical thinker who leads by example. He can devise solutions that get businesses to succeed; with a meticulous attention for detail and unwavering diligence, his expertise in SAP and Supply Chain shines through.”

- senior integrations leader