Ensuring Business Readiness and Optimal Human Performance Following a Major Technology Infrastructure Upgrade Business Challenge As business-critical ERP systems age, they can eventually threaten the ability of companies to achieve high performance. That was the challenge faced by one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. Its financial, operations and commercial technology infrastructure—running SAP version R/2—had aged to the point where it was impeding the company in a number of areas. The company had grown in recent years through a series of acquisitions, yet the mix of systems was making post-merger integration difficult. As the date approached when SAP would cease technical support for the older R/2 applications, the prospect of supporting these systems “solo” was of increasing concern. The company also faced regulatory issues: complying with FDA “computer system validation” procedures for pharmaceutical companies would be difficult, given the age and complexity of the technology environment. Finally, the people of the company were challenged because of data quality issues. By revitalizing its systems infrastructure, the company believed it could quicken its pace toward high performance. It could increase employee satisfaction, improve business performance and
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Ensuring Business Readiness and OptimalHuman Performance Following a MajorTechnology Infrastructure UpgradeBusiness ChallengeAs business-critical ERP systems age, they caneventually threaten the ability of companies toachieve high performance. That was the challengefaced by one of the world’s leading pharmaceuticalcompanies. Its financial, operations and commercialtechnology infrastructure—running SAP version R/2—had aged to the point where it was impedingthe company in a number of areas.
The company had grown in recent years through aseries of acquisitions, yet the mix of systems wasmaking post-merger integration difficult. As the dateapproached when SAP would cease technical support
for the older R/2 applications, the prospect ofsupporting these systems “solo” was of increasingconcern. The company also faced regulatory issues:complying with FDA “computer system validation”procedures for pharmaceutical companies would bedifficult, given the age and complexity of thetechnology environment.
Finally, the people of the company were challengedbecause of data quality issues.
By revitalizing its systems infrastructure, thecompany believed it could quicken its pace towardhigh performance. It could increase employeesatisfaction, improve business performance and
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To further ensure optimal performanceby system users, the HumanPerformance team created an onlinequick reference resource using a toolclosely aligned with SAP, to enableusers to receive context-specificsupport as they performed the newprocesses in SAP R/3. The businessreadiness team also handled thesecurity specifications for each user.The team defined the security levelsnecessary for each role, which werethen implemented by the technicalteam. This approach enabled users toperform effectively on day one withoutdelays or problems involving securitylevels and protocols.
position the company for even greatergrowth with better profitability andlower overhead expenses.
The major challenge for the company:how to upgrade their enterprise systemto SAP R/3 and integrate an Aribaprocurement system, while minimizingbusiness disruption and ensuringoptimal performance from day one byemployees in the critical businessfunctions of purchasing, finance, orderfulfillment, manufacturing and facilitiesmanagement. People using applicationsin these areas processed upwards of$50 million in transactions each day;even a single day of interrupted servicewould have serious implications for thecash flow of the company.
How Accenture HelpedTo make it all happen, the companyturned to Accenture, a close partner for over ten years on a series ofstrategic and technology initiatives.Accenture was awarded the project in a competitive bid.
Accenture first worked with thecompany to outline the benefits from the project:
• Enhanced business insight to supportdecision making and setting thestrategic direction of the company
• Streamlined processes to complywith regulatory requirements
• More efficient partnering withsuppliers and providers
• Increased nimbleness and flexibilitywith a more efficient andcomprehensive ERP system
• Significant savings through newprocurement systems and vendorconsolidation
Accenture led the efforts duringplanning, design and implementation.Workforce enablement was oneimportant key to the success of theproject. For the system upgrade to havemaximum business impact, companyexecutives needed to sponsor andencourage the changes resulting fromthe program; the business users had tobe able to perform the new processes;and workers needed to be adept atperforming using the new tools at theirdisposal. Accordingly, Accenture put inplace a comprehensive “business
readiness” program, led by experiencedresources from Accenture’s HumanPerformance practice and AccentureLearning, an Accenture business unitproviding comprehensive training andlearning BPO services.
The program included changemanagement, training, communications,and executive sponsorship andalignment. Thanks to these effortsfocused on the human performancedimensions of the project, usersunderstood their roles within the newperformance environment, and wereable to use the system with minimaldisruption. The project team also saw asteady increase in buy-in fromexecutive sponsors, who eventuallywere holding regular meetings to trackprogress and contribute to the overallsuccess of the initiative.
For the training aspects of the businessreadiness program, the team leveragedthe deep instructional design expertiseof Accenture Learning, deliveredthrough the Accenture Delivery Centerin Denver, Colorado. By capitalizing onthe content development center—andits proven infrastructure, techniquesand track record—the company coulddeliver training with a greater impacton performance, with less risk and cost.
The training program includedcomputer-based training modules foraspects of the SAP and Aribacapabilities. The classroom-basedtraining delivered by Accenture for adisparate group of users received someof the highest satisfaction scores thatthe client had experienced. Accordingto Brian Fox, who led the Accenturebusiness readiness team, “We were ableto provide high-quality learning at lesscost through use of a proven learningmanagement system and developmentof training products by experiencedAccenture Learning people. Thisapproach allowed us to implement arobust and cost-effective trainingsolution on a national scale, in theshort timescales demanded.”
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High Performance Delivered Pharmaceutical company executivesand the joint client/Accenture teamlooked eagerly to the cutover date—themoment when the company locationsimplementing the systems would makethe switch to the new SAP R/3 systemand Ariba applications. Thanks to arigorous testing phase, and to a test run of the cutover phase—which wentoff with great success—the team wasconfident they were ready.
In October 2004 the new system wentlive. The months of hard work by thetechnical and business readiness teamspaid off, as the business operatedsmoothly with minimal disruption tooperations, to users or to customers.Thanks to programs in changemanagement, learning andcommunications, the companyexperienced high levels of performancefrom users on day one.
Working together, the experiencedAccenture and client team created for this company the means to excelimmediately, and then to achieve highperformance in the long run: a packageof targeted quantifiable benefitstotaling nearly $200 million over five years.
Copyright © 2005 AccentureAll rights reserved.
Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.
About AccentureAccenture is a global managementconsulting, technology services andoutsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenturecollaborates with its clients to helpthem become high-performancebusinesses and governments. With deep industry and business processexpertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture canmobilize the right people, skills andtechnologies to help clients improvetheir performance. With more than100,000 people in 48 countries, thecompany generated net revenues ofUS$13.67 billion for the fiscal yearended Aug. 31, 2004. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
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