Inside SAP Yearbook 2015

Issue 27 | Spring 2014

www.insidesap.com.au

The independent magazine for SAP professionals

INSIDE THE C-SUITE

2015

CxOs name their medium-term priorities

YEARBOOK

TODAY’S CIO, TOMORROW’S CEO? Making the jump to the top job RITCHIE TAKES LEAD AT SAUG

B1 GETS A BOOST: SMES BACK IN THE MARKET CERTIFICATION SAP SHAKES UP MODEL FOR CLOUD

CASE STUDIES HYDRO TASMANIA, SPOTLIGHT, AND MORE

YOUR NEXT PARTNER SAP LEADERS PROFILED www.insidesap.com.au 1

BlackLine Financial Close Suite for SAP® Solutions is an SAP–endorsed business solution.

BLACKLINE + SAP = ACCELERATED FINANCIAL CLOSE Let BlackLine’s Finance Controls and Automation Suite accelerate your financial close with role-based workflow, proactive email alerts, auto-certification, auto-transaction matching, real time dashboards and pre-populated templates.

NoMoreBullsheet.com or call +61 (2) 9089 8662

CONTENTS 8

20

24

33

36

51

4 5

Editor’s note News in focus

Hot Topics 8 Inside the C-suite: findings from the IBM global study

10 SME: Boost for Business One Case Studies 14 Future thinking: Hydro Tasmania 18 Securing responsive support: Sympatex Holding

20 Opening up a new web channel: Spotlight

22 Parting of the ways: Colonial First State

24 Powering change: Energex and

41 Taking certification into the cloud

Ergon Energy

27 Engineering a global talent company: Tenova

29 Taking control of reconciliations and the balance sheet: Linfox

SAP Leaders

Technology 44 HR/Payroll: Time Evaluation made easy?

45

46 SuccessFactors: What will get you here won’t get you there

31 Ritchie takes lead at SAUG

Events

33 Creating omni-channel operations: Larry Sweeney

34 Exchanging Excel for a better way:

48 SAUG Summit 2014

Therese Tucker

Careers 36 Today’s CIO, tomorrow’s CEO?

Mobility: There’s an app for that

Company profiles 51

Company profiles

61 Vendor spotlight

www.insidesap.com.au 3

HOT TOPICS

LEADERSHIP

Inside the C-suite What are the forces that will shape organisations over the next three to five years? IBM’s global C-suite study has the answers.

Over the last 10 years, IBM has undertaken an extraordinary research exercise to get inside the minds of the C-suite, conducting 23,000 face-to-face interviews with executives.

Most recently the insights of 4183 CxOs – including CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, CIOs and other assorted ‘chiefs’ – from more than 20 industries in more than 70 countries have been brought together in the IBM global C-suite study, produced by the IBM Institute for Business Value.

Together they give an insight into the landscape which will shape strategic thinking for the next three to five years.

Change at the pace of revolution Outlining the findings of the study at the 2014 SAP Australian User Group Summit, Todd Kirtley, general manager, global alliances, IBM, says not only is the current pace of change unpredecented, the jobs of business and IT professionals are more demanding than ever.

There are three key reasons for this acceleration: 1. An emerging middle class of over five billion people, with money to spend. It’s a two-edged sword – governments and institutions now need to provide services across five billion more demanding users, requiring business models and IT systems that can accommodate that.

“But more importantly, in growth markets, you have opportunities from new customers. Is your company really doing the right job of stepping out and putting together new products and services to address this tremendous market potential?,” Kirtley says.

2. Data is doubling every 18 months. With 15 billion mobile enabled devices and over one billion users in social networks, there is a huge amount of information being generated.

“You are thinking, are we really aligning our businesses to address the new emerging big data trends that are in the industry? Are we really positioned for this transformation around big data in the digital age?” Kirtley says.

3. There has been a fundamental transformation in end user devices. This is changing the relationship between business and personal use, and making users much more demanding of their devices and systems.

Overall, the question senior executives must answer is, are they making the transitions in their business that are necessary to compete going forward?

Technology paramount to transformation When it comes to the single most important external force shaping the future of their enterprises, CEOs overwhelming named technology. Other CxOs also saw it as one of the top three factors affecting their business, and this is up from the sixth most important external force in 2004.

“71 per cent of CEOs listed that as the number one focus that had their attention. I would have never thought that the CEO could actually talk about transformation of IT and digital. Increasingly we are seeing convergence between the point of view of line of business executives, IT executives and now CEOs,” Kirtley says.

While the line of business executives – those in finance, marketing, HR and supply chain – understand that they need more information on their customers, their products and services, and changing demographics, at the moment they are drowning in data.

“They are having a hard time going from data to information to insight to the predictive world they need to serve in a marketplace, change their business models, and come up with new products and services,” Kirtley says.

And who are they asking for help? The CIO. But the challenge for CIOs is that they are now trying to fulfil three key roles in most organisations.

1. Day-to-day operation of IT. With 80 per cent of most IT budgets spent on legacy systems and maintenance, there’s rarely enough money to be spent on new project development.

2. Partnering with line of business executives to transform the enterprise. “They start looking at data analytics, social systems and the next generation of systems that are going to come for the base of legacy projects that they have today. That transformation requires lot of trade-offs between expense and capital and projects and people and activities,” Kirtley says.

3. Looking into the future at how IT can pioneer change. In this role, they are looking at what might be next in order to adjust the business models to offer next-level products and services. “So the CIOs are basically, in a word, stretched. They have more on their plate than they could get done.”

Engaging in a more open ecosystem A key issue the research canvasses is how organisations will be engaging with their customers over the next three to five years. Only 20 per cent thought that traditional face-to-face

Data is doubling every 18 months.

With 15 billion mobile-enabled devices and more than one billion users in social networks, there is a huge amount of information being generated.

DATA

Technology paramount to transformation 71 per cent of CEOs listed it as the number one focus that had their attention.

TECHNOLOGY

ENGAGEMENT COLABORATION

Engaging in a more open ecosystem Only 20 per cent thought that traditional face-to-face interaction would be the way forward, while 68 per cent now believe extensive use of social and digital interaction will be a defining factor in customer relationships over this period.

interaction would be the way forward, while 68 per cent now believe extensive use of social and digital interaction will be a defining factor in customer relationships over this period.

“They are focusing much more on microsegmentation, and they are looking at customers as individuals. In order to make this happen, you have got to be much more open with your employees, your supply chain of ecosystem partners, and your customer,” Kirtley says.

This openness also extends how innovation will be introduced and driven in the organisation. Seventy-three per cent of CxOs stated they would be looking for partners external from the organisation to drive new product and service capabilities, and 61 per cent expect to see more partnering to increase value. “[Most CxOs] envisage that organisational boundaries will become far more porous, enabling greater collaboration with employees and partners to accelerate innovation. They also anticipate sourcing more of that innovation from outside.

Where once an enterprise could go it alone, and be successful doing so, it must now collaborate,” the report says.

In fact, 90 per cent of CxOs plan to collaborate much more extensively with their customers within three to five years.

The digital frontier The report says the emergence of social, mobile and digital networks has played a big part in democratising the relationships between organisations and customers. With this backdrop, CMOs consider it critical to have a strong digital strategy in place and want to overhaul every aspect of the customer interface.

Fortunately, they seem to be on the same page as the CIOs on this front – four-fifths of CIOs surveyed say they aim to digitise their front offices within the next few years to sync with customers more effectively, and 84 per cent of CIOs include new, mobile means of interacting with customers in their top five priorities for enhancing their organisation’s competitiveness in the next few years.

Achieving more together 92 per cent of CEOs heading outperforming enterprises think they and their fellow CxOs work effectively together in a collegial manner. Only 72 per cent of those heading underperforming enterprises can make the same claim.

Repositioning IT According to the report, as CIOs reposition the IT function from service provider to critical strategic enabler, they anticipate spending much more time on activities that have traditionally fallen within the CMO’s sphere, such as customer experience management and new business development.

Eighty-four per cent of CIOs expect to invest more in mobility solutions and business analytics, and again here CIOs are in sync with their CMO colleagues – 94 per cent of whom believe analytics and mobile will play an important role in helping them realise their goals.

Cloud, internal collaboration/social networking and business process management were also cited as investment priorities by 64 per cent of CIOs, with 87 per cent of CMOs saying collaboration tools will be critical to achieve their objectives.

“It is an everyone to everyone economy. We are now looking at not just individuals being the centre of the economy, but the world of social,” Kirtley says. “People trust their networks and the people they are connected to more than they trust individual corporates in many cases.”

And while generating deep insights using analytics is a key priority for CIOs, they realise they need a scalable and extensible information foundation with which to manage big data – and 55 per cent say this is lacking in their organisation.

Achieving more together With the study also comparing the views held by those in outperforming or underperforming organisations, it is clear to be successful in this dynamic environment, the members of the C-suite must pull together, the report says.

“A full 92 per cent of CEOs heading outperforming enterprises think they and their fellow CxOs work effectively together in a collegial manner. Only 72 per cent of those heading underperforming enterprises can make the same claim – hard proof of the dividends a united boardroom can bring.”

To read more of the insights from the study, visit www-935. ibm.com/services/us/en/c-suite/csuitestudy2013/

www.insidesap.com.au 5

SPOTLIGHT CASE STUDY

Fabric, craft and home decorating retailer Spotlight chose hybris, implemented by contiigo, to take its extensive product range online via an e-commerce channel and open up a new touchpoint for customers.

Spotlight opens up new web channel Spotlight Pty Ltd is the largest chain of fabric, craft, and home interiors stores in Australia. The company employs more than 6700 staff, operates in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Singapore and is headquartered in South Melbourne. The brand is synonymous with expertise in crafting, fabrics and home decorating.

Spotlight is a privately owned Australian family business.

It started with two brothers helping their mother run a dress fabric stall at Queen Victoria market during the 1970s and has grown to more than 120 stores across Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. Up until early 2014, Spotlight had a website but no online store. Another division of the Spotlight Retail Group, Anaconda, was already operating successfully online.

When Spotlight celebrated its 40th anniversary in Australia in 2013, it went to market to find a strategic online partner that could power e-commerce growth and keep pace with customer demand across its various multi-site/multi-brand platforms.

future growth plans across multiple sites and multiple brands, there were a number of key considerations.

“Our product range is very broad and we have a high level of promotional activity. The platform needed to be robust enough to handle our large SKU count, our operation in multiple countries, and ultimately service both the Spotlight and Anaconda brands,” Ward-Smith says. “From the outset, we identified the need to have a Product Information Management (PIM) system to support our e-commerce business and found the inbuilt PCM within hybris as a key differentiator.”

Peter Aarons, IT project manager, Spotlight, says the company undertook a formal closed tender process that evaluated a number of different providers.

“A cross-function panel drawn from our Spotlight and Anaconda businesses scored all providers against categories such as fit with business requirements, vendor integration, partner stability and support, technical approach and financial impact. hybris emerged as the clear leader,” Aarons says.

“We selected hybris based on the broad strength of its functional offering, together with our high confidence in its long-term viability in the market. A key feature that differentiated hybris was its unique PIM that could be integrated with our existing SAP product and pricing model,” he says.

Spotlight was already operating on the SAP platform so hybris being subsequently acquired by SAP was seen as a positive move.

Project drivers

Implementation

Spotlight CIO Adrian Ward-Smith says the decision to invest in an e-commerce presence was motivated by a number of factors.

“The online channel for the Spotlight Retail group establishes another touchpoint for our customers to interact with us. It provides a mechanism to both grow our business and to improve customer intimacy,” Ward-Smith says.

However, when the company went out to market to evaluate not only the best e-commerce platforms for its immediate needs, but also one that would accommodate the group’s

contiigo, one of hybris’ trusted implementation partners, was awarded the contract for the implementation and launched phase one of the project for Spotlight in August 2013.

“Our immediate focus was to build a platform that gave our customers the ability to shop 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Core to our customer value proposition is our breadth of range, so we needed to replicate that online and chose to roll out department by department,” Ward-Smith says.

Phase one included getting the base e-commerce capability

www.insidesap.com.au 7

Is your organisations HR and payroll an investment or an expense? Did you know that inefficient employee engagement could be costing you 35% of your payroll?

Do you have the right strategy and systems in place to help you maximise your employee and business potential?

HRO | OnDemand Payroll | Talent Management Global Payroll | Australian & New Zealand Payroll To find out how an NGA Human Resources solution can help your business contact us on 1300 866 400 info.au@ngahr.com NGA Human Resources is a global leader in helping organisations transform their business-critical HR operations to deliver more effective and efficient people-critical services.

We help our clients become better employers through smarter, more streamlined business processes - to save money, manage employee life cycles and support globally connected, agile organisations. This is how NGA makes HR work.

What sets us apart is The NGA Advantage. It’s a combination of deep HR expertise and insight, advanced technology platforms and applications and a global portfolio of flexible service delivery options.

www.ngahr.com.au

SPOTLIGHT CASE STUDY

online including fulfilment processes from hub stores and launching a home delivery service with a flat rate of $8.99 per order for Australian customers.

The hybris platform needed to integrate with SAP ECC for product data and SAP CRM for customer information.

Spotlight has a significant VIP program, so it was important for the retailer to offer the same customer benefits online, and to provide a consistent experience across channels.

“From a product perspective, knowing availability of stock is key. We are currently enhancing our inventory integration to provide a ‘near time’ view of stock on hand, which is essential for displaying availability by store and for future ‘click and collect’ options. Fortunately our back-end SAP systems were already receiving trickle feeds of transactions from our stores, making the integration relatively simple,” says Ward-Smith.

In phase one, the initial range was limited to the manchester, home décor, and party departments. Store picking and packing was facilitated through the development of an interface with a paperless picking system. When a customer places an online order, the system automatically detects which picking location has the capacity to fill the entire order and routes it directly for picking and packing. If no store has the complete customer order in stock, then the software will automatically split the order across two stores for dispatch directly to the customer.

The second phase of the project was launched in early September 2014, offering customers a number of additional

functions, including the ability to buy products by the metre such as Spotlight’s popular fabrics and ribbons as well as bulky items that incur a higher shipping cost. The sale of gift cards was also added online and promotional catalogues integrated with the shopping cart.

The final stage of the current release was launched in late September, to cater for New Zealand customers.

Upskilling the internal team The implementation effort was supported by a multidisciplined internal project team made up of both business and IT resources.

“The core team is relatively small, and we flex resources for content development and during testing phases. Throughout the project there has been a focus on building capability – this is in order to facilitate a seamless handover to support once the core project components have been delivered,” WardSmith says.

The back-end components of hybris, known as cockpits, are being used by about 15 Spotlight business users to maintain product data, imagery and other aspects of website content.

As the introduction of e-commerce touches most parts of the Spotlight organisation and affects many processes, the company had a dedicated change manager focused on communicating across the business and involving stakeholders in the transformation.

“Key to this is encouraging the organisation to think

Keeping your data safe can be hairy

Data breaches cost the same, whether they happen in your production or non-production environments. Choose Data Secure™ to reduce security breaches in your non-production SAP® systems. >>> info@labs.epiuse.com | Tel : +61 449 908 220 | www.epiuselabs.com www.insidesap.com.au 9 EPI-USE Labs_Data Secure_SAP Insider_ 10 March 2014.indd 1

2014/03/10 2:17 PM

of e-commerce as just part of what we have always done, rather than a separate silo. It is still retail and we are simply interacting with our customers using a complementary medium,” Ward-Smith says.

Business benefits In less than four months on the hybris platform, Spotlight is already fulfilling a significant number of online orders each day and by the end of this year will have close to 60,000 products available online.

“The whole online approach has been a major business transformation for us. The Spotlight business has never had an e-commerce site before so it’s been an exciting learning curve.

The hybris platform has been easy to use for our staff and smooth to operate on,” says Aarons.

The online presence not only provides convenience and familiarity with the product range for customers, it also enables Spotlight to extend its reach into remote locations that are not easily serviced through the store network, according to Ward-Smith.

“At Spotlight we have always had a high level of engagement with our customer. The introduction of the hybris platform simply provides another mechanism for us to engage with our customers and for them to engage with us,” he says.

“One of the key benefits of having the online channel is that we can use our CRM data to create a more personalised experience for our customers – being more targeted with things like our promotional offers increases satisfaction and helps build customer intimacy.

“As we progress, our online channel will become more and more integrated with our physical store network. From a longer term perspective, we wanted to make sure our platform would scale and continue to be developed in line with the e-commerce customer’s changing expectations, which are moving at lightning speed,” Ward-Smith says.

Future developments Spotlight is currently developing a mobile site for release in the coming months, leveraging the mobile templates that came with the hybris accelerator wherever possible to minimise development effort.

Development of ‘click and collect’ capability and the replatforming of Anaconda’s e-commerce site to hybris is also underway.

Further ahead, Spotlight is also looking at improvements to the in-store experience for customers through the introduction of iPads in store for sales teams and setting up an online portal so customers can enter their own measurements to obtain quotations and place orders for custom-made curtains and blinds.

“Our short-term goal is for the online store to generate revenue in excess of one of our largest stores and we are well on track to achieving this,” says Aarons. “Overall, we aim to improve the Spotlight experience through better customer engagement and increase the number of VIP customer cardholders that interact with us electronically.”

This case study is sponsored by contiigo.

Spend more time doing the things that matter...

See, share and do more with user-friendly business process solutions, including: Journal Processing | CAPEX | Financial Reporting | Non-Stock Purchasing | Master Data Management | OneList Approvals

Workflow | HTML5 Web Apps | SAP UI5 & Fiori | Gateway | Mobile Apps | Excel & SharePoint See | Share | Do

www.iqxbusiness.com

In 2014, SAUG have: • Added Webinars to the event program • Introduced a dedicated HR Stream at events • Increased attendance at events and SIG meetings SAUG also elected a new Chairperson at the recent AGM, and implemented a change in the constitution, allowing subscription only SAP users to join.

Take your place in the SAP community, and become a member of SAUG. With regional conferences, Special Interest Groups, website resources and many other benefits, we are the central and independent resource for information and issues related to SAP. www.saug.com.au

www.insidesap.com.au 11

Andrew Ritchie, manager of IT services at Officeworks, has stepped into the role of chair of the SAP Australian User Group (SAUG). Freya Purnell spoke to him about his SAP career, how SAUG is evolving to meet the needs of more SAP customers, and what he sees as the key trends for 2015.

Ritchie takes lead at SAUG There’s no question that retail is one industry that is caught up in a whirlwind of change – with retailers at the epicentre trying to leverage developing digital technology to match rapidly shifting consumer behaviours and expectations.

In the SAP world, the acquisition of hybris software, with its omni-channel e-commerce enablement capabilities, has also brought new focus to how retailers can create a better end-to-end experience for customers.

Andrew Ritchie has his feet firmly planted in this environment, having spent most of his career in retail, beginning with Woolworths and Millers Retail, in a combination of IT and retail operations roles.

He joined Coles Myer back in 2003, initially in a business engagement role, acting as a liaison between the IT function and various other departments. It was also his entrée to the SAP world.

Ritchie then moved to Officeworks in 2008, around the time the company was making a $20 million-plus investment in SAP. “Officeworks had already been an SAP customer, but they moved an acquired business off a legacy environment onto SAP, and introduced CRM, internet sales and a few other SAP solutions into the mix at that time,” Ritchie says.

Since then, the SAP portfolio at Officeworks has grown, and Ritchie has moved through a number of roles, including IT application manager and IT program manager to his current role.

One of the aspects of the SAP space Ritchie enjoys most is its flexibility, and the opportunity to network with others across industries.

“SAP covers such a diverse group of industries and organisations, and sometimes the solution that is great for me from a retail point of view might have come out of manufacturing, and vice versa. It’s the flexibility that SAP gives you as an enterprise platform to really grow your business and leverage the investments you’re making,” Ritchie says.

Interface with other industries 12 Inside SAP magazine

Membership of the SAUG certainly enables this type of crosssector information sharing, and as a major SAP customer, Officeworks has had strong involvement with the user group for some time, with representation in both the retail Special Interest Groups and the SAUG Committee. When Officeworks CIO Brett Proposch stepped down Ritchie joined the Committee, taking responsibility initially for the Executive Council, and later becoming vice chair. When Alan Hesketh departed the role of chair earlier this year, Ritchie was elected as his successor.

He has come into the role at an interesting time for the SAUG, which has been working over the last year to broaden its appeal and keep pace with the changes in the SAP landscape.

One such move was transforming the former CIO Council to become the SAUG Executive Council, opening up involvement to other C-level executives who have a stake in their organisation’s SAP investment.

“Depending on the organisation and its size, you see the IT function moving into different areas – sometimes it’s a direct report to the managing director, sometimes it sits under the CFO. We have now seen a move towards the Chief Marketing Officer having more of an IT focus,” Ritchie says.

“There are different people within organisations now that are relying on IT and in particular SAP to really drive their business as a whole, or their individual functional area. For us, it was really about expanding past the CIOs and getting full engagement of executives from within those organisations and giving them the voice to provide that feedback, because the reality is they are all engaged in some way, shape or form, whether it’s directly or indirectly in the SAP investment in their organisations.”

Another recent change has been to bring the organisation’s Constitution up to date with the new SAP landscape. Previously, only SAP customers who held perpetual licences were able to be members of the SAUG – which effectively excluded any customers of the newer cloud-based solutions. This has now been amended.

“Our focus now is to try and engage with all of those companies that are using Ariba and SuccessFactors to really show

SAUG SAP LEADERS

that we can add value for them,” Ritchie says.

Another focus is of course continuing to assist existing member organisations, on several fronts – “giving them the ability to network with other SAP users and leverage the knowledge and experience that is out there in our community, but also giving them a voice through the user group and with SUGEN, the global forum, back into SAP around what our members are looking for and changes they would like”, Ritchie says.

“The change of direction from SAP in relation to Fiori has been a good example of where the individual user groups and then SUGEN have been able to influence SAP to change their approach on different aspects.”

The year ahead While most organisations have moved past the initial shock and awe of big data and cloud computing, what is still common is a need to be faster and more responsive to end-user needs.

“Things are moving at such a rapid pace now, it’s a challenge for all the organisations to keep up, either with the technology or the requirements. People don’t want to wait two, three or four years for a project. Now they want to see really quick changes in their business that actually drive value, and more of an agile, lean type of environment. That’s typically not where most SAP teams have come from – they have usually come from massive projects, and the challenge now is being more progressive and faster,” Ritchie says.

For Officeworks’ part, Ritchie says constant engagement with customers and the business is critical to ensure IT can continue to drive improvement and meet their needs.

“We are out there in stores, with our customer experience teams, talking to customers and the people that serve those customers, finding out what they are looking for and what’s out in the market, and trying to be ahead of the curve in that respect.

But to be honest, it’s a constant challenge to make sure that we are adding value.”

The online space is certainly an area where the bar is continually moving higher, and Ritchie admits that here Officeworks has struggled with the pace of change. He believes the addition of hybris to the SAP ‘family’ will offer considerable opportunity for other customers.

“Originally, we had SAP’s internet sales engine and we had bought so many third-party applications in as the needs and wants of the customer changed, SAP was really struggling with the technology that it based itself on to assist with that,” he says. “hybris gives SAP a great platform to really grow their business, both from the perspective of a pure online capability in the multi-channel environment, but also some of the other functionality that the product has around order management and order fulfilment. Most people think of hybris as just an online platform, but it’s got a lot more than that.”

As for 2015, Ritchie believes it is the ongoing development of capabilities around HANA that holds the most promise for SAP customers.

“It will be the continued use of HANA and in-memory computing, more of a move towards cloud services or softwareas-a-service, and really continuing to leverage the purchases that SAP makes and the partnerships that are developed moving forward.”

Your SuccessFactors Partner and SAP Systems Integrator for business solutions SAP HCM is what we do

We’re global

EPI-USE focuses solely on SAP and SuccessFactors talent management solutions. This focus means our consultants have deep process and systems knowledge and experience, and further ensures that we are very closely aligned with SAP and SuccessFactors.

EPI-USE is a global organisation with offices located across the world. We leverage this structure to the benefit of our global clients to ensure project costs are minimised and local knowledge and expertise is utilised.

Integration specialists

EPI-USE consultants are focused on solution for your business. Not just IT solutions. Our consultants are widely regarded as the foremost experts and thought leaders in SAP particularly with regard to Human Capital Management.

In its 25-year history, EPI-USE has been involved in the implementation and maintenance of more than 500 HCM-based projects globally.

Level 15, 61 Lavender Street, Milsons Point, NSW 2061 Tel : +61 2 8904 9344 Fax : +61 2 8904 9433 www.epiuse.com

Our people

CALL US TODAY! www.insidesap.com.au 13

CAREERS

LEADERSHIP

Today’s CIO, tomorrow’s CEO? As technology becomes more important in generating competitive advantage, can the CIO leapfrog the CFO to become the heir apparent for the chief executive role? Maybe – but the key will be avoiding being pigeonholed as a technologist. Freya Purnell reports.

Predictions and debate about the changing role of the CIO have abounded in recent years. Can CIOs successfully make the transition from being seen as simply keeping the lights on to strategic partner? Will they be completely sidelined as the line of business only buys cloud-based point solutions? Does the CIO really understand the business well enough to take on more commercially focused roles? Are they contributing to the organisation’s success or simply guarding the IT fiefdom?

14 Inside SAP magazine

There are now certainly some examples of CIOs who have been entrusted with broader business roles, and even the top job.

Transfield Group CIO Stephen Phillips was handed additional responsibility for operations business processes in February, in the midst of the company’s massive Project Quantum SAP rollout.

At Suncorp Group, CIO Matt Pancino was promoted in June to the role of chief executive of business services, reporting directly to the group CEO. This is a well-worn path at Suncorp, with Pancino’s predecessor Jeff Smith also holding the CIO role first.

And David Hall, Jetstar CEO for Australia and New Zealand, is one CIO who successfully made the transition into the top job – though perhaps telling is that his background was in finance. Hall picked up business operations experience in the mining industry, and then joined Jetstar as CFO. When Alan Joyce became CEO of the Qantas Group in 2008, Hall was made chief-of-staff at Qantas, a portfolio which included technology, including strategy and transformation programs as well as managing the office of the CEO. Having a non-technical

person in such a senior technology role was a first for Qantas.

He told CIO Magazine that no technologist should believe that the CIO role is the glass ceiling for them, but also added, “I never claimed to be a great technologist – I have always seen myself as a savvy and commercially-oriented business leader…

What I was able to bring was financially savvy, strategic intent, but also the message that business-led technology was a true enabler. I needed to help people focus more on customer service aspects rather than just the technology aspects, and assist in transforming the Qantas organisation.”

That approach certainly paid off for Hall – so can other CIOs make the same transition?

Gaining a solid footing In some ways, now could be seen as a time of great challenge or great opportunity for CIOs, as their roles and that of technology in the organisation undergoes significant change.

It’s almost as though all the cards are being thrown up in the air, according to Rob Livingstone, who is Fellow at the University of Technology, Sydney, and also runs his own advisory practice.

“Executives in the line of business are looking to do things flexibly, cheaply, quickly, with great precision and at the lowest cost. That adaptability and agility does not always fit in with the conventional traditional model of how they have perceived the IT department working,” Livingstone says.

“There is a lot of change, a great diversity of perceptions as well as misunderstandings about how, when, where and what technology should be used within an organisation.”

Another issue is the comparatively low level of digital literacy on many established company boards – and specifically levels of understanding about how enterprise technologies work – a point not lost on the Australian Institute of Company Directors, which recently identified this as a challenge. Organisational context could also be a barrier for CIOs. “If you look at the transition from the conventional IT department which is working typically under a CFO, and it’s seen as a cost centre and ‘service provider’ to the business, those structures do not always allow or encourage IT to be a transformational value-add to foster and drive innovation across the business,” Livingstone says.

The emphasis on the cloud is also changing the way organisations think about their IT strategy, how it aligns with where the business is going, and issues around capability and cost, according to Peter Ryan, senior technology partner, Deloitte.

“I haven’t done as many IT strategies as I am doing now for around five years. So that’s a signal to me that the successful CIOs have now got to be thinking about what they have got and where they need to take it. They can’t do that as technologists. They have got to be talking to the business and aligning with the business,” says Ryan.

From a recruitment perspective, Ross Stacey from the CIO practice at Harvey Nash, believes that while businesses are genuinely starting to see technology as a strategic enabler, not just a cost centre, it’s not without some internal battles.

“There is a significant increase in demand for commercially

minded CIOs, who have a track record of influencing at the exec level; the shadow IT debate, however, has created an unwanted power struggle in organisational leadership teams,” Stacey says. “I think it would be clear to see that currently actually this battle is facilitating a clearer path for the CMO to move in to the CEO position rather than the CIO. The success of future CIOs does now rely heavily on their ability to demonstrate their value identifying and implementing technologies that don’t just meet the demands of the business but deliver competitive advantage, through the broader use of enterprise data, for example.”

Stacey says that while CIOs are lagging some way behind CFOs, general managers, and sales and marketing directors in being the obvious choice for CEO roles, this is changing – “especially as there is now a new breed of technology leader emerging who has strong experience outside of IT and is – arguably – more ‘battle ready’ for life at the top”.

The Harvey Nash CIO Survey 2014 found that 39 per cent of CIOs had strong experience in at least one other role, for instance, general management. Only 16 per cent had that experience in finance, and only 13 per cent in marketing, which are two disciplines particularly useful for a CEO to have.

And while some signs point to CIOs being taken more seriously, Peter McClure, CIO at MMG and chair of the SAP Australian User Group Executive Council, says this is not always the case.

“In my own organisation, I can say that I feel that I am certainly taken seriously and have a seat at the table whenever I need it, but that’s based on evolving credibility for what the function has been able to deliver,” McClure says. “In some areas, I have seen in banks, for example, the CIO role has stepped down a level after reporting to the CEO, and is now reporting to the chief operating officer.”

Certainly this has been the case at Airservices Australia, where the role of CIO was reportedly abandoned after its last CIO, Gordon Dunsford, left in March. In its place was established a general manager of business systems role, which sits within the agency’s engineering division, and no longer reports directly to the CEO. McClure attributes the changing priority for the CIO role to different organisational responses to industry-specific challenges, but maintains it continues to be an important job.

“Obviously in some fields, they are being severely disrupted by new entrants with advanced IT, whether that’s banking or consumer packaged goods or retail. In other areas, perhaps the changes are a bit slower like utilities or heavy industry.

All organisations, as they grow, are facing the challenge of complexity, and really you need a role like a CIO to help an organisation navigate that.”

There is, of course, the challenge of ‘shiny new object’ syndrome, with the advent of the Digital Director role increasing pressure on the CIO community, says Stacey.

“In central government now there is a feeling that the role of the CIO is redundant and it’s all about Digital Directors.

However, it’s more apparent probably that a new breed of CIO will come through with digital in their veins, and then the CIO will truly warrant a seat at the highest table.”

www.insidesap.com.au 15

CAREERS

LEADERSHIP

Key attributes for taking the lead in the C-suite CIOs have certainly had to switch from being reactive to getting on the front foot to successfully lead in organisations. This means adopting a proactive, consultative approach with an ability to engage the business, manage stakeholders, understand their market and shaping business strategy accordingly, manage change, and foster collaboration and influence.

“The research has shown that the most effective CIOs have very similar competencies to the CEO, in that they need to understand how the business works, they also need to understand the organisational context, they need to understand what the customers are, they need to understand where technology can underpin the business – and not only from a service point of view, but also in terms of adding value,” Livingstone says.

“One of the key capabilities that a CIO needs to have – in fact, any leader for that matter – is to be able to collaborate with, and have an influence with people over whom they have no authority. Strategic orientation is another one – how can a CIO think strategically in terms of business awareness, integration of information and the ability to develop specifically actionable plans in business terms?”

McClure agrees, saying, “You have got to have some sense of the broader pattern of things, where the world is headed, and how you can make a contribution in your particular industry, to enable your business to profit from that in some way or another.”

Of course, having reasonable technical skills is critical to actually deliver successfully in a CIO role – without which any move up the ladder will be impossible.

“If you don’t have technical literacy, you struggle because you really can’t translate some of the broader patterns into specific architectures and objectives. You just don’t know whether one is better than another; you have no sense of what is good. You

16 Inside SAP magazine

have got to have that nose for what works and what is likely to be a dead end,” McClure says.

And while in some quarters, data – big or otherwise – has become the favourite buzz word of the moment, it shouldn’t represent much of a shift for CIOs. “What people forget is that the ‘I’ in CIO does and has always stood for information. Data is not a new issue to the technology team, it has just garnered greater notoriety, in reality, because the digital economy has finally woken up the rest of the organisation to the importance of being able to centrally and efficiently access data,” Stacey says.

“The CIO needs to continue to immerse themselves within the business and continually and proactively promote IT as a ‘demand’ enabler and not purely a supply function. The most successful CIOs will be those that can create and foster a strong and trusted working relationship with the CMO and CEO.” Ryan believes that consultative process and guiding the organisation to the right solution – which increasingly may be in the cloud – is what is going to make CIOs successful.

“They are going to have a happy client, they are going to have controlled expenses, they are going to have the governance in place. That’s going to look great to the Board and the executive suite – and that’s where potentially all of a sudden they do become a CEO,” he says.

Avoiding the technology box Even with all these skills in place, how can CIOs position themselves as more than just technologists?

While the organisational context and how IT is structured and perceived within the company can be crucial, making the transition from IT leader to business leader also depends on personal positioning.

“If one were to be a fly on the wall in an executive meeting, and after 15 or 20 minutes of conversation, you don’t know who the CIO is, then they would have made it. Because they are not talking technology, they are talking in business terms,” Livingstone says.

McClure says it’s about making sure “you have got your own backyard in order” first, in terms of the foundational services the CIO is responsible for, and then having a vision and engaging with peers to collaboratively develop that vision.

“If you manage to break through a few barriers, and if you can develop those relationships, that will result in doors being opened,” he says.

Demonstrating a solid understanding of financials is essential, as is building a strong team to take care of the routine aspects of the role.

“CIOs need to build the right leadership team around them so they can focus less on operational IT and begin to drive strategy and innovation,” says Stacey. “With that said, I think the future lies in developing entire enterprises within an organisation that has a greater focus on the customer. Indoctrinating this principle throughout the IT organisation and shifting away from ‘keeping the lights on’ towards a customer-centric model creates innovative thinking and will resonate closer with the business.

It’s almost an entire paradigm shift.”

www.insidesap.com.au 17

TECHNOLOGY

HR/PAYROLL

Time Evaluation made easy?

This may seem like the impossible dream with SAP, but ROC’s Time Evaluation solution ensures the most complicated EBA requirements can be fulfilled in standard SAP. Sandy Eastman explains exactly how it’s done.

The clue is in competitive products – if you work with non-SAP time evaluation systems, you realise you can do the same in SAP. The traditional method of entering time through CATS is open to human interpretation, errors and possible overpayments in payroll, and undercharging in customer invoices. No matter what you enter, there is no reaction; it takes what you enter assuming that it is correct.

There are two timesheet entry point into SAP – CATS and Time Managers’ Workplace (TMW). Both have upload programs, but both do not evaluate and generate payments. yy CATS performs no evaluation – the person completing the timesheet has to know the rules for processing time in payroll and for contracts. yy TMW allows for all the same details as CATS, but all times are processed through Time Evaluation in a single pass, evaluating how to split the time or generate allowances, based on hours worked for payroll, costing, and billing.

While CATS can be easier to configure initially, Time Evaluation actually has the smarts to evaluate time according to the conditions in the employee’s Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) or the ‘bill to’ customer’s contract. TMW removes human intervention wherever possible and increases the integrity of payments to payroll and cost items for billing.

Using Time Evaluation to streamline and accelerate complex payroll and billing projects At ROC, we have now implemented more than 300 EBAs in one company across six countries in the engineering and construction industry with some hospitality and services included, plus more than 34 EBAs in agriculture (including growing), logistics, and marketing. Once our EBAs go live, we never get called in to correct time evaluation, our support is rarely used, and when it is, it is only for rates and work schedules for rotating rosters and renegotiations of EBAs, never for errors in Time Evaluation.

It is not that we are smarter; we just built rules in SAP in the same way as competitive solutions build their rules. Some people call that working outside the box, when in actual fact most entrepreneurs bring working in many boxes to the table.

The Time Evaluation schema that calls on tables and rules to process time works closely with the main table that has a key that groups rules together. The schema determines which

18 Inside SAP magazine

groups will be processed today. The standard is normally groups ‘01’, ‘02’ and ‘03’. We used ‘TC’ for time catalogue, as we knew no one would call that into a schema.

Against ‘TC’, we used sub-groups so that all ordinary time came together, all overtime was in another band, shift in another, public holidays in another, and our billing in another.

Now when we get a new EBA or billing contract, we just go to the Time Catalogue section, copy each item required for payroll or billing, and change the ‘TC’ to the new EBA code.

If the minimum time to be paid on the call-out rule in the Catalogue is 3.00 hours, we only have to change the minimum in the copied rule from 4.00 to 3.00 hours.

The bottom line is we can create an entire new EBA within Time Evaluation in one hour. The rules that feed the schema are also adjusted. These rules are held in a checklist in Excel, so that we never overlook a rule.

Verification We also designed a new configuration validation report, providing an insight into how the configuration will work. SAP was limited from changing the tables and restructuring them as the product expanded its capability, due to so many companies being live on Time Evaluation with many years’ history. There were fields that should be consecutive that were now many fields apart. The new functionality was added to the end of the table and not inserted in the place that made sense.

We have developed our own configuration reports throughout SAP, so that anyone could read the configuration and tell us when we have it wrong. The most useful of these was the Time Catalogue report; it shows the Time Catalogue common starter kit rules, and the actual configured rules for each EBA. This made the process faster and checking the configuration in development easier. It enables us to check before we even do any unit testing. This report highlights when work schedules are critical, and then start and end times can be used. The situation or work requirements define when work schedules should be used.

If you take the hospitality industry as an example, where the breakfast session is reliant on an aircraft or train arriving on time, then the start and stop times are smarter, so that you don’t have to provide substitutions or work schedules to suit the new times.

The report separates these two groups in such a way that you can see if the master data reflects what the rules are expecting.

There is no rule in an EBA that cannot be met by standard SAP. The only customisation we have done is the building of the configuration report.

We have taken the mystery out of time evaluation and replaced it with standardisation, processes, and templates that are improved on with continuous usage.

This article is sponsored by ROC.

SUMMIT EVENTS

Summit comes to Sydney The SAP Australian User Group’s major annual event, the SAUG Summit, was held in Sydney in September, bringing together SAP customers to share insights and war stories. Here are a few of the highlights.

Riding the wave of digital disruption Since 2000, 52 per cent of the Fortune 500 have either merged, gone bankrupt, or fallen off the list – because of the huge wave of digital change that has occurred, starting with the dotcom bubble in 2000.

And those who turn their back on digital disruption do so at their peril, said Ray Wang, founder, chairman and principal analyst at Constellation Research, who presented a keynote at the Summit.

While it’s easy to get distracted by the technologies themselves – mobile, social, cloud, big data – it is actually the behaviour changes prompted by the technology driving the transformation.

“People are creating brand new business models with these technologies, they are doing something different, and in the course of that disruption, there is massive change,” Wang said.

“They are no longer building products and services, they are focused on the experiences and outcomes, and they are actually now pushing out even further by trying to keep a brand promise.

This is very important as we get into an era of digital business, because one bad experience cascades everywhere, and every set of good experiences builds that brand over time.”

This is not confined to the world of the start-ups either – Wang pointed to German medical device manufacturer Siemens as an example of using digital innovation to improve their service to customers. Once customers have invested in a milliondollar machine from Siemens, on top, they pay for support maintenance – paying more for a higher percentage of uptime.

To run this business model, Siemens needs data to tell it exactly why machines go down and when, which can also then be used for consulting and benchmarking.

“They are monitoring that machine on an hourly basis to figure out if a component is going. In this digital world, my business as a manufacturer is now able to take data analytics from a sensor analytic ecosystem, use that data with a rising model, and also deliver services in a way that their customers care about,” Wang said.

While it is easy to get caught up in the hype of big data, the point of having access to these vast repositories of information is actually to get insight in order to take action.

“This is what we call the data decisions pipeline. Every single digital business cannot be done without having a data pipeline.

If you don’t have the data, you can’t make the next set of decisions,” Wang said.

Mapping the way According to Wang, there are seven ‘signposts’ to be truly successful as a digital business in the networked economy.

1. Right-time contextual relevancy. This means showing consumers the relevant information that will be important for them to get things done.

2. Authenticity. To achieve this, brand methodology is key. “In a world of clutter and noise, we would have to get to this level of authenticity in order to be successful,” Wang said.

3. Choose your own adventure – by moving to probabilistic processes that can orchestrate APIs. 4. Utilise cognitive and soft warning systems. The programmatic systems we have used in the past are now being trained – going through learning processes to expand and change – and we will have more systems that incorporate artificial intelligence in the future. “We are seeing it in IBM Watson; we are also seeing it in other areas in stock trading systems.

They are basically learning on the fly – figuring out patterns in the stockmarket, reacting to those patterns, powering those patterns. That’s actually happening now, whether it’s in healthcare, travel, retail, or medical research,” Wang said.

5. Facilitate access to information. Having strong capability around integration and publishing streams of information will be important – and data access will be of higher value than data ownership.

6. Rethink competition. “We are not competing with the companies we think we are competing with. We are competing with self-interest, and part of self-interest is the friction we experience when we have to do something,” Wang said. “If it’s easier, you will trade privacy for convenience.

Every business at the end of the day is competing for someone’s attention and time, and if you don’t make it easy, you are going to lose. This is about transforming those experiences, so they are simple, easy to use, and instinctive.”

7. Collaborate within the networked economy and ecosystem.

Companies will build platforms, customers will build their own platforms, ecosystems will be created for co-innovation and co-creation.

“We are seeing these ecosystems pop up everywhere, and they are being organised by industries; sometimes they are led by technology companies, sometimes led by a few industry giants,” Wang said. “They are pushing markets forward, and you are going to see more and more of these over time. It might even happen in your procurement system, inside something like Ariba.”

Generate true digital disruption starts with thinking about new experiences, and building these experiences around data and new business models.

“Think about how you build an organisation that allows you

www.insidesap.com.au 19

to create and innovate, and then about where you can put these technologies into existing infrastructure. You want to leverage as much as you can, because every dollar is important here,” he said. “We are going to move away from gut-driven decisions to data-driven decisions, but you can’t do that unless you are collecting all this data, finding the patterns, getting to the insight. And then do not go it alone – find someone in a different industry that has similar goals, find a system integrator that wants to build with you, find a technology partner that wants to take you out of your current misery.”

The C-suite is also having to think dramatically differently.

“Your CFO needs to understand the impact of pricing models in digital, and the fact that we have moved from massive units of consumption to varying sizes of usage. The HR person is thinking about who to retire and what skill sets are we looking for – are they technical skills or are they aptitude skills?”

Wang said. “The CIO is thinking, how do we enable these technologies, how do we stabilise and actually modernise the organisation? The CMO has got to think about how do we track the next generation of customers and how do we make sure that we are delivering the experiences they expect.”

While the digital road might sound overwhelming, the alternative could be worse – ending up like one of the those former Fortune 500 companies. Obsolete.

SAUG focuses on value The SAUG opened the Summit with an update from then-chair Alan Hesketh (since replaced by Andrew Ritchie, see our profile on page 31).

Over the past year, the user group has been focusing on expanding its content and networking opportunities.

“We’ve been working hard on how we can increase the value the membership organisation brings to you. We’re only going to be successful if you choose to participate and use the content that we have available,” Hesketh told Summit attendees.

This has resulted in the addition of separate HR streams at conferences, recognising the addition of SuccessFactors to the SAP portfolio; increasing the Special Interest Groups (SIG) in areas of focus; and the introduction of webinars.

To help members continue their professional development, the SAUG has had its events recognised with the Australian Human

20 Inside SAP magazine

Resources Institute and the Australian Computer Society, and is looking into forming relationships with organisations, so that members can claim CPD points for attending.

Hesketh also reminded members of SAUG’s connection with the SAP User Group Executive Network (SUGEN), which was the key group involved in lobbying SAP to make Fiori a free solution, and with SAP itself. He highlighted the SAUG’s involvement in the SAP Customer Influence program, which provides customers with the opportunity to request specific developments from SAP. There are 110 Australian customers registered for the program, and currently 73 development requests from these customers lodged with SAP. The SAUG recently changed its Constitution at its recent AGM to allow more SAP customers to become members.

Previously, its wording effectively excluded customers of SAP’s cloud solutions, by requiring members to be owners of a perpetual SAP licence.

The changes have now made Ordinary Membership open to organisations which are users of SAP products and services.

Hesketh said growth in members is critical for the organisation’s future, and encouraged members to share the benefits they gain from the SAUG with other SAP customers.

Other highlights yy David Roberts Jr. brought some American swagger to the stage to explain how SAP has played a crucial role in the growth of US retailer and sporting goods manufacturer Under Armour from start-up to global brand, and gave an insight into the company’s unique sportsinspired culture. yy Alan Capes, from Canadian National Railways, shared how replacing 250 legacy systems with what has become the largest SAP system in any railway in the world, has helped it become a market-leading and highly profitable private enterprise.

See www.insidesap.com.au for case studies on these projects.

COMPANY PROFILES Find your next partner 52

pg EPI-USE

53

pg RIMINI STREET

54

pg FOURPL

55

pg BLACKLINE

56

pg CONTIIGO

57

pg NGA HUMAN RESOURCES

58

pg ROC

59

pg ESKER AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

60

pg IQX BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

www.insidesap.com.au 21

COMPANY PROFILE

EPI-USE

PROVEN. EXPERT. DEDICATED. IT’S THE NATURE OF OUR PEOPLE.

Your SAP HCM & SuccessFactors Solutions Partner SAP HCM is what we do EPI-USE is a Global, World Class Services and Software Organisation specializing in SAP & SuccessFactors Human Capital Management Solutions, including Payroll, Workforce Management, Talent and Learning Management Solutions.

In its 25-year history, EPI-USE has been involved in the implementation and maintenance of more than 600 HCMbased projects globally and is seen as the SAP global “HCM Special Expertise Partner”.

We support an extensive set of Workforce Management solutions e.g. Kronos, Click, Workforce Software, Riteq, KABA etc.

We’re global EPI-USE is SAP’s complex requirements “Go To” Partner with services provided to large multi-nationals. As we are a global organisation with offices across the world, we leverage this structure to benefit our global clients and ensure that project costs are minimised and local knowledge and expertise is utilised. We have a large team in Australia with offices in all major cities and a near shore support centre in Malaysia.

Our HCM Services include end to end  Roadmaps and Advisory Services  Implementation Services  Upgrades and Support Services  Change Management services  On-going Business Process Support Services  HCM Developments

SAP HCM & SuccessFactors consultants all focused on providing the best solutions for your business needs rather than just IT solutions.

Our consultants are widely regarded as the foremost experts and thought leaders in SAP Human Capital Management here in Australia and globally.

Our HCM focus means our consultants have deep HCM process and systems knowledge and experience.

EPI-USE offers value added HCM tools that will accelerate and reduce cost  Payroll Processing Tools such Payroll Mangers WorkBench, Variance Monitor, HCM Query Manager and Advance Time Process Manager  40 SAP Country Payroll Certified Solutions in addition to Standard SAP Payroll  SaaS Accelerators to manage the requirement, testing and data aspects of a HCM SaaS Project  SAP Data management tools such as Data and Object Sync to create and copy SAP data

EPI-USE offers a Flexible Service model that reduces costs and increases the scale of HCM services  A blend of Onshore and Offshore delivery options to help with cost reduction  24 x 7 dedicated SAP HCM Support Centres (located both onshore and offshore) T: +61 2 8904 9344 W: www.epiuse.com.au

Our People are HCM Experts EPI-USE is the largest independent SAP HCM specialist, consulting organisation in the world, employing over 1200

DELIVERING VALUE THROUGH INNOVATION – EVERY PROJECT, EVERY SOLUTION, EVERYTIME

22 52 Inside SAP magazine

RIMINI STREET COMPANY PROFILE www.riministreet.com

Rimini Street Founded in 2005, Rimini Street is the leading independent provider of enterprise software maintenance services. The company is redefining enterprise maintenance services with an innovative, award-winning programme that enables Oracle and SAP licensees to save up to 90 per cent on total maintenance costs over a decade, including saving 50 per cent on their annual maintenance fees. Clients can remain on their current software release without any required upgrades or migrations for at least 15 years after switching to Rimini Street.

To date, nearly 900 clients, including global, Fortune 500, midmarket, and public sector organisations from across a broad range of industries have selected Rimini Street as their trusted, independent provider of enterprise software maintenance.

Among these are major organisations such as Toys ‘R’ Us, Veolia Environmental Services, United Biscuits, Sympatex, Pioneer Electronics, and Embraer S.A. Headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, the company has an Operations Centre in Pleasanton, California, and global offices in London, Munich, Sao Paulo, Sydney, and Tokyo.

Personalised support for SAP customers Rimini Street maintenance for SAP offers users significant annual cost savings, a higher value service mix, and the ability to avoid required costly product or support pack upgrades. With a seasoned team of SAP experts – offering more than 15 years of SAP development, implementation, and system management experience – Rimini Street provides world-class support for new and old versions of the SAP suite of applications.

As a Rimini Street client, you are assigned a named Primary Support Engineer (PSE) who you can contact directly to facilitate the resolution of support tickets. Our PSEs work closely with a team of SAP technical and functional experts, providing application fixes and updates as needed to support your missioncritical SAP applications, including your customisations/ developments. An ultra-responsive service level is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year.

Combining significant cost savings with premium service Maintenance from Rimini Street represents a 50 per cent reduction in SAP annual maintenance fees – in itself, a compelling saving. However, one of the key benefits of the Rimini Street service is that it allows SAP licensees to remain on their current, stable releases for a minimum of 15 years, without any required upgrades or support pack installations.

In addition, Rimini Street provides premium support services as part of our standard service contract, including: Customisations: Recognising that many organisations modify their SAP applications, Rimini Street’s standard service includes support for customisations as well as standard vendor code.

Interoperability: Including strategic guidance to prepare you for potential infrastructure changes, as well as assistance with verifying certification on new platforms and resolving

“Independent support is an effective strategy to free up funding for innovation and strategic initiatives. Rimini Street clients, on average, save 1.5 times their annual vendor maintenance fees each and every year. These are real savings that can be diverted to growth projects and innovation.”

Rebecca Wettemann, Vice-President, Nucleus Research Support for SAP solutions Releases: SAP ECC 6.0 and earlier, BW 3.5, SAP Business Suite components, including BI7, SCM, CRM, EWM, PLM, and GTS

Support for BusinessObjects solutions Product Lines: BusinessObjects Enterprise, Advanced Analysis, Interactive Analysis (Web Intelligence), Explorer, Dashboard Design (Xcelsius), and Crystal Reports Releases: BusinessObjects 6 and later releases interoperability conflicts.

Performance tuning: Providing proactive guidance and reactive support to ensure acceptable response times and system performance levels.

Combining the 50 per cent reduction in annual SAP maintenance costs, premium support services, and no forced upgrades, the savings from switching to Rimini Street can approach 90 per cent of the total cost of continuing SAP maintenance.

Global tax, legal and regulatory updates Rimini Street delivers the tax and regulatory updates you need to ensure your SAP applications remain compliant and up-todate with the latest tax and regulatory changes. We offer global tax and regulatory capability across nearly 200 countries and have provided our clients with thousands of customised updates, delivering them ahead of the vendor’s update schedule.

Rimini Street offers an alternative to SAP software maintenance that focuses on value and personal service. To learn how our maintenance programme can reduce costs and let you apply more of your IT budget to strategic business initiatives, contact us today.

T: +61 2 8216 0960 E: enquiry@riministreet.com W: www.riministreet.com

23 www.insidesap.com.au 53

COMPANY PROFILE

FOURPL

www.fourpl.com.au

FourPL FourPL brings expertise in supply chain and procurement integration to the local Australian marketplace, providing planning, logistics and procurement solutions.

With offices in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, we have a team of senior practitioners advising clients on SAP software products, ‘in a box’ services and cloud solutions.

FourPL opened its doors in 2011, after our four principals with diverse backgrounds recognised that the market needed more than just arms and legs.

Our fi rst customer wanted an advisory partner who bought with them practical experience, a flexible engagement model, and depth in ‘best of breed’ technologies.

We are still working with our foundation customers today, and have built a diverse customer base from transportation and logistics, government, fast-moving consumer goods, mining and resources, chemical and manufacturing.

We are loyal to our customers, and you can be confident that we get it – teamwork, commitment, depth and accountability produces sustainable results.

partnerships with global software and service providers, and we resell and implement SAP, Ariba and Ortec solutions.

How we can help

T: +61 2 9922 2636 W: www.fourpl.com.au

Over the last three years, FourPL has established strategic

24 54 Inside Inside SAP SAP magazine magazine

The key principles underpinning our approach are:  Innovation: Through more effective products, processes, services, technologies and ideas, we deliver the best outcomes.  Experience: With significant experience in our team, we are specialists in supply chain and procurement solutions.

The company is Australian owned with national reach.  Results: We solve real business problems with pragmatic solutions every time.

Awards In 2012, FourPL won the SAP Award of Excellence for Best Run Innovation, for an SAP Warehouse Management implementation, and in 2013, the SAP Award of Excellence for Supply Chain Management, for an SAP Transportation Management implementation.

BLACKLINE COMPANY PROFILE www.blackline.com

Global organisations close with confidence using solutions from BlackLine and SAP BlackLine is the leader in Enhanced Finance Controls and Automation software and the only provider today offering a completely integrated cloud platform – built from a single code base – that supports the entire record-toreport process, as well as a host of other key accounting and financial processes.

BlackLine’s Finance Controls and Automation Platform increases business efficiency and visibility, while ensuring the highest degree of balance sheet integrity and reducing potential compliance risk. The company’s Finance Controls and Automation Suite features six integrated products which provide extensive control, visibility, risk mitigation, and automation to accounting and finance teams.

Delivered through a scalable and highly secure cloud model, BlackLine empowers over 1000 global companies to reduce the time and resources required to execute month-end closing with unparalleled accuracy, fueling confidence throughout the entire accounting cycle. With more than 100,000 users in more than 100 countries, BlackLine complements existing Corporate Performance Management (CPM), Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.

Account reconciliation is an underappreciated, yet critical, control to help ensure an organisation’s financial integrity. Weaknesses and inefficiencies in the reconciliation process often lead to mistakes on the balance sheet and overall inaccuracies in the financial close.

BlackLine’s flagship Account Reconciliation and Financial Close software automates and controls manual accounting processes that users typically perform using spreadsheets. An experienced provider of software to companies from the Fortune 100 to beyond the Fortune 1000, BlackLine provides quick-to-implement, scalable, and easy-to-use applications that automate critical processes to help improve financial controls for companies of all sizes.

BlackLine works with all major ERP platforms and general ledger (GL) systems and can dramatically improve the accuracy and timeliness of compliance reporting in light of heightened Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) requirements, diverging international standards and increasing government regulations.

One of fewer than 40 solutions across all categories and industries to be an SAP-endorsed business solution, the BlackLine Financial Close Suite for SAP ® Solutions complements the SAP suite by providing a more comprehensive Account Reconciliation offering that

provides greater functionality than that inherent in SAP. BlackLine also is an SAP Gold Partner.

Running alongside SAP, BlackLine provides clients such as Coles, The Dow Chemical Co., eBay, Linfox, Optus and Zurich, with unprecedented visibility into critical accounting and finance processes – ensuring accuracy in the numbers, minimising risk, and maximising efficiencies. Automation and optimisation of these core processes, beginning with account reconciliation, is a critical step for global organisations on the path to “closing with confidence”.

Leading advisory firms Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte, and PwC are among a growing list with ‘BlackLine Certified Implementation Professionals’ around the world.

BlackLine continues to move first to adopt technology and add functionality that will enhance the user experience and ensure the security of customers’ data.

To that end, BlackLine was the first provider to complete both the SOC 2 (Service Organisation Control) Type 2 examination and SSAE 16 (replacing the former SAS 70 standard) Type II audit report – the highest internationally recognised auditing standards developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), which sets guidelines for auditors to use in order to objectively assess the internal controls of service organisations. BlackLine also completed the ISAE 3402 international counterpart.

In 2013, BlackLine also became the first provider of account reconciliation and financial close software to secure the highly regarded and difficult to attain ISO/ IEC 27001 certification, confirming that the company meets or exceeds the latest information security industry standards, and also maintains and enforces robust and effective policies and procedures to ensure the security of the data managed by the BlackLine platform. BlackLine joins an elite group of only about 8500 organisations worldwide that are currently ISO 27001 certified. The company is the only account reconciliation vendor to have each of these critical security reports under its belt.

BlackLine headquarters are in Los Angeles, with offices in Atlanta, Chicago, London, Melbourne, New York City, and Sydney to support the company’s growing global client base.

T: +61 2 9089 8662 (APAC Headquarters) W: www.blackline.com/partners/blackline-sap/

25 www.insidesap.com.au 55

COMPANY PROFILE

CONTIIGO

www.contiigo.com

contiigo is the leading hybris implementer in AsiaPacific. As the original reseller of hybris in this region, we can offer insights gained from more than five years delivering hybris solutions. Today, contiigo boasts the largest team of certified hybris consultants and the most implementations in the region. And we are proudly the first hybris APAC Platinum Partner. hybris offers SAP users new opportunities to engage more closely with their customers, to drive savings in their business operations, and to grow revenue. As a standalone solution, hybris was already ranked as a leader in the eyes of Gartner and Forrester, and now with the muscle of SAP driving further innovation and new industry-specific solutions, you can be assured that there is no need to look beyond your existing supplier as you move forward with new customer-centric applications.

Understanding the opportunities presented by hybris as they apply to your business can be a challenge, though.

For example, knowing how hybris fits with existing SAP CRM, order management and mobility solutions. With several hybris/SAP integrations already completed, contiigo can help.

Experience with hybris is just part of the contiigo story, as we have been working with global brand-name companies on their commerce strategies and systems for almost 15 years. The solutions recently delivered for companies like Spotlight, Jaycar and Landmark have benefited from the experience we have gained with global businesses like Woolworths, Target and Asics.

For SAP users wondering what hybris offers, it’s important to think beyond ‘selling to consumers online’, as business-to-consumer (B2C) commerce is only a small part of the picture with hybris. The real opportunity for most SAP users is with hybris PIM (Product Information Management) and business-to-business (B2B) commerce.

PIM complements SAP’s Master Data Management solutions with business user tools to allow flexible management of product and content management, and the hybris B2B platform takes things a long-step beyond ‘supplier portals’ to enable powerful ‘B2C’ style experience for business customers leveraging desktop, tablets and mobile devices.

Over the years, contiigo has developed a comprehensive and proven implementation method for both B2B and B2C commerce solutions, and has gained a solid understanding of best-practices for all aspects of commerce including order management, fulfilment,

26 56 Inside Inside SAP SAP magazine magazine

payment systems, store integration and marketing. We will clearly spell out your options and guide you to the most cost-effective and practical solution that suits your needs. contiigo’s implementation processes are underpinned by strong governance, and leverage a significant base of project assets to support successful project delivery, ensuring all stakeholders have a clear understanding of project progress, that risks are managed, and that userneeds are appropriately addressed. contiigo’s undeniable strength is our team of trained, experienced, and certified consultants drawn from across the globe. It is by far the largest and most qualified hybris team on the ground in Australia. This focus on building a quality local team is unique amongst hybris integrators, and has been the key to the successful development of long-standing customer relationships.

Complementing this local expertise is an experienced offshore team that delivers cost-effective ‘scale on demand’ to meet large project requirements. A key difference in contiigo’s approach is how closely our local consultants work with the contiigo offshore team to ensure a clear understanding of business objectives, and resulting in multiple levels of Quality Assurance. contiigo offers a range of services, from multi-channel commerce strategy and solution architecture through design and development, testing, user training and ongoing 24x7 application support. We also conduct system and performance reviews and provide resource augmentation services to provide cover for on-site staff, on-site development and coaching. For SAP customers specifically, contiigo has completed several SAP integration projects ensuring products, pricing, orders, inventory and customer service alignment between hybris and SAP. Perhaps above all, contiigo works hard to develop strong business relationships, and strives to be ‘easy to do business with’ in all customer dealings. It’s one of our core values, and has helped ensure our growth over the past 10 years.

To find out more, visit www.contiigo.com, or call to discuss your requirements.

T: 02 8437 3531 E: info@contiigo.com W: www.contiigo.com

Corporate Overview

NGA HUMAN RESOURCES COMPANY PROFILE www.ngahr.com

NGA Human Resources premise, NGA provides the service delivery options to NGA Human Resources is a global leader in helping organisations transform their business-critical HR allow them to meet their evolving needs. This means operations to deliver more effective and effi cient peoplethat our customers can focus on HR management – critical services. We help our clients become better developing HR into a valued business partner that employers through smarter, more streamlined business contributes strategically to corporate success. processes – to save money, manage employee lifecycles, NGA Human Resources is a organisations. global leader in helping organizations transform their business-critical and support globally connected, agile This The advantage is clear isHR howoperations NGA Makes to HRdeliver Work Better. more effective and efficient people-critical We helpbyour clients Throughout the years, weservices. have been recognised many Evolving HR so you can more strategically manage industry analysts as a market-leading HR services: become better employers through smarter, more streamlined business processes — to save and develop your workforce is a journey of continuous  Gartner positioned NGA as a Leader in the 2013 Magic money, manage employee life technology, cycles and globallyforconnected, agile organizations. This is improvement which addresses process, andsupportQuadrant Payroll BPO Service, service.

At NGA Human Resources, we understand how NGA Makes HR Work — Better.  Everest ranked NGA as a leader in their PEAK research how to help you take this journey. Our many years of on multiprocess HRO in 2013, experience with HR systems and processes benefit our  Gartner rated NGA ‘Strong Positive’ in its MarketScope clients in different ways. Globally, we understand the for Comprehensive HR BPO in 2012, business of HR service delivery and the role it plays  Everest evaluated as of a Market Starimprovement Performer inwhich Evolving so you can more strategically manage and develop your workforce is aNGA journey continuous within anHR organisation.

We offer a portfolio of services the multicountry payroll landscape in 2012, and addresses process, technology and service. At NGA Human Resources, we understand how to help you take this journey. Our for HR Outsourcing, Payroll Outsourcing, and HR many years of experience with HR systems and processes benefit our positioned clients in different  IDC NGA asways. a Leader in the 2011 Consulting, leveraging NGA’s technology and partner MarketScape for HR BPO. solutions, from Workday, SuccessFactors, Oracle and Globally, we understand the business of HR service delivery and NGA the role it playsResources within an organization.

We offer a portfolio of Human is a global leader in helping SAP. Ourfor HR services are available in more thanand 100HR Consulting, leveraging NGA’s technology and partner solutions, from services HR Outsourcing, Payroll Outsourcing organisations transform their business-critical HR countries the world.Oracle and SAP. Our HR services are Workday, around SuccessFactors, available in over 100 countries around the world. operations to deliver more effective and effi cient peoplecritical services.

The NGA advantage We help our clients become better employers through What sets us apart is the NGA Advantage. It’s a smarter, more streamlined business processes – to save combination of deep HR experience and insight, advanced money, manage employee lifecycles, and support globally technology platforms and applications, and a global connected, agile organisations. This is how NGA makes portfolio of fl exible service delivery options.

HR work.

1. Deep HR experience and insight: What makes our HR

Corporate Overview

solutions unique is the depth and quality of the industry knowledge embedded within. This means that our experience, skills, and methodologies add real value for clients, by enabling processes that truly transform how they deliver HR services to their employees.

2. Advanced technology platforms and applications: NGA offers a range of options that can be tailored to best meet our clients’ needs, because we can fl exibly deploy a combination of our own HR services and BPaaS platforms, or other leading industry platforms. This means that clients can work with NGA to deploy the right solutions for their specifi c needs, without worrying about technical platforms, dead ends, or compatibility issues.

3. Global portfolio of flexible service delivery options: Whether our customers choose to unify workforce systems in the cloud or on-

T: 1300 866 400 E: info.au@ngahr.com W: www.ngahr.com

27 www.insidesap.com.au 57

COMPANY PROFILE

ROC

www.roc-group.com.au

ROC What makes us different?

Our team

First and foremost, ROC is a company of innovators, committed to service and continuous improvement.

We aim to make SAP HCM easy to use, with minimum human intervention, zero customisation, using a standard template approach which is flexible and allows for customers to be different from one another, at the same time delivering cost benefits and user satisfaction.

We are very aware that no two customers are alike, and the journey is never easy for the end-users. We don’t ask them what they want, as they cannot possibly reply in SAPanese and there begins the confusion. We try to understand what their system has done in the past with reverse engineering and ask them to confi rm our fi ndings.

We understand that starting the journey can be difficult because change is always a challenge, but once we take companies across that chasm, they never want to go back.

In the words of Hasso Plattner’s art teacher: “Whenever you detect that you don’t change your mind that is when you know you have become old.”

That’s why we both cause change in the companies we work for, and we continually change our approach – always seeking a better way.

ROC has team members from all around the globe, but what binds us together is a shared team sports background, with many of our associates being active competitive sailors.

The same team spirit that is required in the thick of a wild storm binds the ROC team together when facing tough project requirements and deadlines. No one stands alone, and whenever someone is faced with what seems like an impossible task, the team pulls together and takes action to make the task easier.

Our greatest differentiator is the breadth of each member’s skills. All of our associates touch every aspect of SAP HCM, and we believe this makes us think more outside the dots than someone who is strong in only one HCM stream. Every team member must work at some time in every stream – either as the stream lead or as a simple administrator, doing everything from data loads and test scripts to training material and documentation.

We have re-engineered traditional implementation approaches in our Just In Time methodology, which allows us to deliver the seemingly impossible.

We pride ourselves on our responsiveness, which enables us to provide support remotely to customers both onshore and off – whether the client is across the Harbour Bridge in Sydney, or across the sea in China, we manage calls the same day they come in, so issues can be fi xed before a customer could even get a local consultant on site.

As mentors, we follow philosophers Sun Tzu and Confucius. We treat others as we would want to be treated; taking someone to task when they have made a genuine mistake will only cause that person to make more mistakes.

We never want to know who spilt the milk, we just do our best to take care of it and make sure that such an accident cannot happen again.

Our mission statement says it all:

Our innovative approach Our team designed the fi rst SAP Global BPO. The approach we took and the template we designed enabled us to deliver 31 payrolls across 11 countries in just 10 months, with only 12 associates located in our Sydney office. Those initial clients are still with the Global BPO today. For this project, the cross-skills of our team meant that one associate owned all the configuration components from time entry and time evaluation through to payroll and full HR; including setting up company codes, banks, and cost centres (usually an accounting team’s role), and another associate was the key client contact for blueprinting, training and testing. This innovative approach allowed us to deliver outstanding results for the client.

We continued this drive for change when we created a new approach to Time Evaluation. Instead of entering time into CATS, requiring the end-user to evaluate the time for the contract and billing, we made it possible to enter time through Time Managers’ Workplace and have SAP evaluate the time against the contract – removing the need for human intervention for billing. Employees and contractors alike now simply enter the start and end time for the job they are working on, with no need to worry about whether overtime or shift allowances apply. This has also simplified the transition to hand-held devices. (See page 44 for more information on our Time Evaluation solution.)

28 58 Inside Inside SAP SAP magazine magazine

Our vision is to utilise our skills in such a manner that we use our intelligence to deliver services in the most effective and efficient way possible.

We do that by being on an endless journey to perfection, by learning from what we have done before and wherever possible never reinventing the wheel.

Our goal is to make everyone we meet along the way, be proud to work with us.

We believe ‘People are the key’ and people will be the key to our success, be they partners, vendors or associates.

T: 02 9956 5968 E: info-anz@roc-group.com W: www.roc-group.com.au

ESKER COMPANY PROFILE www.esker.com.au

Esker Australia and New Zealand Esker is a worldwide leader in document process automation solutions for SAP and other ERPs. Esker cloud solutions enable companies to automate the processing of fi nancial transaction documents in accounts payable, accounts receivable, customer order processing, and procurement.

Esker works with more than 80,000 companies worldwide to eliminate paper-based processes and ineffective manual processes to improve their productivity and effi ciency, and reduce their environmental impact.

Esker has global headquarters in Lyon, France, US headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, and ANZ headquarters in Sydney. Since 1997, Esker ANZ has worked with more than 1800 companies in Australia and New Zealand to help them run their businesses leaner, smarter, and more agile.

Companies such as BHP Billiton, Fonterra, Sony, Mars, Samsung, Nestle, Siemens, Orica, Dulux, and many other multinationals as well as many local SMB companies run

Esker solutions to drive the processing of their business transactional documents.

Esker is a certifi ed SAP partner, and a certifi ed SAP ByDesign partner. As a truly committed SAP partner, Esker runs its business on SAP ECC6.0.

For more information, visit our website, follow us at twitter.com/EskerANZ and read our blog on www.blogeskeranz.com.

Contact: Christophe DuMonet T: 61 2 8596 5107 E: christophe.dumonet@esker.com.au W: www.esker.com.au

29 www.insidesap.com.au 59

COMPANY PROFILE

IQX BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

www.iqxbusiness.com

IQX Business Solutions IQX Business Solutions is celebrating five years of helping users See, Share, and Do more by providing user-friendly business process solutions for SAP. The solid growth in demand for intuitive, flexible and costeffective applications that can deliver holistic business insights, accelerated process execution, and improved user productivity is illustrated in the diagram below.

Five years of sustained growth At only five years old, IQX is proud of its achievements: more than 50 customers, in five countries, serviced by 25 permanent employees. To sustain the 50 per cent annual growth trajectory, IQX has recently appointed Heidi Fischer as the fifth member of its management team.

Joining Richard Frykberg, David Cole, Alex Xie and Grant Slinger, Heidi’s primary responsibility as Director of Business Solutions is on the commercialisation of existing IP to add to the current portfolio of packaged business process solutions.

Not just lipstick on a pig Uniquely, IQX brings together SAP and non-SAP data and functionality with images and other supporting documents. IQX enables collaboration between both internal and external business participants and drives productivity by combining SAP and other applications into intuitive user experiences and seamless business processes.

30 60 Inside Inside SAP SAP magazine magazine

OneList Approvals The synthesis of all IQX capabilities and the fl agship IQX product is OneList Approvals. OneList is a multi-system task aggregator that provides consistent access to analyse and action assigned work items with little or no training.

With a highly flexible service-driven user interface design approach, OneList can be configured to address any task list and execution scenario from any system. Prebuilt adaptors exist for SAP, SharePoint, K2, and an increasing range of third-party systems. Users are able to access OneList from Outlook, SharePoint, Web App, or native iOS or Android applications. The key benefit for customers of OneList is increased process velocity: from buying, to hiring, to selling – OneList boosts competitiveness.

Office, mobile and web apps IQX supplies a broad range of Excel, Outlook, SharePoint, responsive web, and native mobile applications for all functional areas. Solutions are custom-built, prepackaged or partner products. Whilst traditionally .Net development focused, based on extensive JavaScript and SAP integration experience, IQX is now a leading Fiori and SAPUI5 customisation and Netweaver Gateway integration partner.

T: 02 8007 4790 E: sales@iqxbusiness.com W: www.iqxbusiness.com

Rimini Stree

t | Research

Report

Assessing the Business Case for Independe nt Support of SAP Research Findin gs Based on with Detailed 27 SAP Client Case In-Depth Client ROI Interv iews Studies

Published: September

Foreword by

2014

Rebecca Wettem

ann, Vice Presiden

t, Nucleus Researc

h

www.insidesap.com.au 31