Why SAP HR/Payroll Projects Fail

This is an excellent article and having been part of 9 very large successfull SAP Payroll implementions I couldnt agree more that the blame of poor projects more often than not is the consultants/consulting partners fault.

I know first hand that the City of Portland which was not mentioned and a disaster (http://tinyurl.com/3655zh2) had an intial consulting partner that never had done a HCM let alone Payroll project.  I was a on a few calls early on and I could tell the project was headed down the wrong path. It was the economics that couldnt afford to have me take a spot consulting role though if they could turn back the clock they would do it in a heartbeat.

The LAUSD had a PA consultant that I had worked with leading the payroll team.  He was a good consultant but it was a his first payroll project (though that is not how he was sold to the client). It was the economics that caused the SI to provide a team of jr consultants to the project.

The SAP US Payroll product is as good as any product in the marketplace and the software works.  When you see SAP Payroll and failure/lawsuit in the same sentence it is never SAP's fault bottomline.  US Payroll has some complexities and you have to ensure your consulting partner provides individuals that have been on multiple project and is very detailed.  When you are dealing with employee paychecks and money there is no room for error.

My advice for clients is to do a detailed technical interview to ensure you are getting the right person.  To give you perspective I interview about 20-25 payroll consultants a year and about 20 of them are not in my opinion qualifed to be working on a payroll project.  There are enough good people out there with a great track record, references, deep understanding of SAP as well as the payroll laws of the country that there shouldnt be any "disaster" SAP payroll projects. 

Having been involved in SAP projects including payroll projects as a team member, project manager, client QA/review resource, Steve's observations are accurate. What appears to be a common characteristic of integration and consulting firms, particularly from larger firms in my experience, is the use of very talented strong consulting resources to sell a project and then inexperienced and junior resources actually implementing. I think the public sector also sets itself up for failure as the budgeting and procurement processes are often, but not always, prices focused first and process/performance focused second. In the end low budget firms that fail to insure the clients understand that low cost fixed price projects can only deliver results in all conditions are present for success. One recalcitrant client participant can cause delays and derail a project as easily as inexperienced or inept consultants. It is the integration and consulting firm’s responsibility to insure that the client is fully aware of this limitation.

Great article and words from a good SAP HCM/Payroll consultant's heart.

You are absolutely correct - the message to clients selecting their SAP implementation partner could not be clearer.

Unfortunately many (we know who) implementation companies and self claimed SAP HR/payroll consultants are out on the market - who are experts in hiding behind thousands of pages of blueprint documents, making millions of dollars before the clients wake up during the system integration test phase- only  to realize that by the time they plan to go-live, that they have nothing other than outdated project documents - but no working SAP system...

Steve- The collective wisdom is more like dissonant wisdom. The spin consulting organizations put on basic process and supporting system configuration amazes me. Being able to pierce some of the spin is what good networks of peers can do as well as conferences like SAPHR which focused on actual delivery and not the packaged sales information.