Ask-the-SAP-Expert – Nick Ebdon

Ask-the-SAP-Expert – Nick Ebdon

Eursap’s Ask-the-SAP-Expert article is a feature designed to give you up-to-date information on the latest SAP news, featuring key thought leaders in the SAP space, as well as regular interviews with the best SAP consultants in the business.

This month, we feature Nick Ebdon, an SAP S/4HANA program manager with over 35 years of IT experience. Nick has worked extensively in the SAP ecosystem throughout the world and has been involved in S/4HANA deployments for many years. He is SAP certified in public and private cloud editions and has cross industry experience in the worlds of finance, law, gaming, insurance, retail, manufacturing, oil, energy, waste and local government.

Good morning, Nick, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us. Can we start by you telling our readers a little bit about yourself?

My SAP journey started when I was at IBM. I was a Novel network engineer, the internet was in the early days so probably around 1996 when Netscape was the browser of choice and Computer Weekly listed the jobs. Every day I would see SAP positions advertised so started doing some research, and with my technical background then Basis was the path, whatever Basis was! So, I contacted SAP and even had to have an interview to be able to get on the course. I then paid £14k out of my own pocket for the month-long Basis Academy at Bedfont Lakes in London. I came straight out and joined SAP UK Ltd as a Junior Basis consultant in a team of 12 – this would be around SAP version 3.0f.

I soaked up the knowledge and created my own word document which I called ‘The Bible’ with all my learnings. After 2 years, I left to go to the Middle East working in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain before returning to the UK. I then started to run technical teams covering development, S&A, Integrations, Infrastructure and Data for many years before managing programs including testing, change and functional. I did briefly explore being a technical architect, but I am a people’s person and the good technical architects used to call me a box drawer!

As an experienced SAP S/4HANA program manager, you must have seen it all in your time. Can you share your insights on the unique challenges and benefits of implementing SAP S/4HANA in large organisations?

Look, every program has its challenges, and these are usually the consequence of the sector that you are working in. So, for example, the Public Sector struggle with budgets and in finding and keeping good resource. Pharmaceuticals is heavily regulated and audited in terms of processes and testing. Retail is very data driven where real time information is required, Finance tends to have challenges in security and data issues and many integrations, so you need to understand these challenges as it’s not a one size fits all, so you need to adjust your delivery mindset. The benefits are many – I have learnt a lot from delivering a project in one sector that could also be used in another completely different sector.

The other benefit of a large project is that you usually deliver a program in phases so back office first: Finance, Sales and Procurement, perhaps HR; then comes the reporting from the data, so Datasphere and SAC; and finally further innovations.

What has been your experience working with SAP Rise? I’d really like to get your honest appraisal of the offering – warts and all!

Well, it’s not the panacea to all for your Basis issues which some people think is the case. I still don’t think that organisations understand what comes with RISE. It’s more than just hosting and the managed services. RISE includes the flexibility to choose the infrastructure provider, but people forget the Business Process Intelligence tools e.g. the SAP Best Practice Explorer and the Digital Discovery Assessment. Then there are the tools and services e.g. the Learning Hub and Cloud ALM. I think that everyone knows about BTP, but you need to understand the Cloud Platform Enterprise Agreements (CPEA) which allows you to try applications before your buy.

I guess the biggest knowledge gap is around the management of the SAP Basis activities. You will still require a SAP Basis team. Sure, you can slim the team down, but you will still require one. Service Requests will be returned to you for action. A couple of examples: with a client/system refresh, you will need to clean up the system first and rectify table inconsistencies. Secondly, if you’re patching, you may need to download the third-party patch to transport to QA. The message to remember here is that it’s not all performed by SAP.

Having worked in the Middle East, can you highlight any cultural or regulatory differences that organisations in that region should consider when adopting SAP S/4HANA?

Understand that culture and family are huge, especially when you’re trying to deliver a program. Mix in the religious holidays for additional challenges. For example, Ramadan is a key holiday, but the start date is never set. It is the first day of fasting for the holy month of Ramadan and that depends on when the new crescent moon is first sighted. Then add that into the call to prayer five times a day and the importance of family and how they come first, then you get a sense of the challenges! However, if you can deliver a program against that backdrop, you are doing well.

In your experience, what would you say are the key factors that contribute to a successful SAP S/4HANA implementation, particularly in large and complex organisations?

In no particular order:
– Good contracts before the programme kicks off.
– A Statement of Work underpinning the programme with the key deliverables, complete with RACI aligned to the metrics for the acceptance criteria for each deliverable.
– Programme sponsors that are committed to the program.
– Constantly reviewing the business case, ensuring that you frequently revisit it, ideally at each major toll gate.
– The project or programme is owned by the sponsor who has ultimate accountability for ensuring that the benefits are achieved.

Regarding data, the transformation program should not be seen as the panacea for all your legacy data issues or even worse, to ensure that you are GDPR compliant. Take the minimum amount of data to run the business processes and please don’t ask the business how much data they require as they will always say “everything”.

Finally, you should always build a relationship with your system integrator of choice. The only way that the program will be a success and cross the line is with a collaborative top-down, one team approach. You chose the system integrator so don’t blame them but instead manage the system integrator effectively,

One of the biggest hurdles for SAP S/4HANA implementations is change management and the associated culture change when moving to a “clean core” model. How do you approach change management and user adoption when rolling out S/4HANA, ensuring that employees (both end-users and the IT team) embrace the new system effectively?

For me, user adoption is the most important KPI for the measurement of success, so engage the business and the IT Teams early. Find the advocates and use these people to promote change. Try to use a pre-configured demo system in the prepare stage to show what “good” looks like, run some drop-in sessions during the initial build phase and create some excitement. You need to take the whole company on that journey to success, and training is a key element as their roles will change in the new world.

With your extensive experience in IT, how have you seen the landscape evolve, and how has SAP S/4HANA positioned itself to address the emerging needs of businesses?

Clearly SAP Best Practices are evolving and continuing to grow. Can you believe it was over 10 years ago that the package was available for download with Rapid Development Solutions? This was then extended to Best Practices and now we have Model Company and Enterprise Management Layers which simplifies the entire implementation. Also, SAP are now seriously investing in the emerging utilities sector which is where the ISB-Global product WR1 is positioned as an SAP Product to support waste and recycling.

Sustainability is a crucial consideration in today’s business landscape and one I know is very close to your heart. How can organisations use SAP S/4HANA to contribute to sustainable IT practices, and what initiatives have you been involved in to promote sustainability?

I am passionate about sustainability, which is why I work for the world’s most advanced waste management software companies, ISB-Global Ltd. Its software integrates, automates, and simplifies to drive greater operational efficiency, productivity, and profitability for organisations that operate in the waste, recycling, clean energy, and environmental sector. The aim is to create clean, efficient operations that contribute positively to the environment and circular economy. The waste and recycling software solution is built on a stack that includes SAP. ISB-Global is currently the only waste industry software provider with a comprehensive ERP function. SAP is used for the back-office finance and accounting functions, and it’s a very stable and reliable solution.

Can you share any memorable or challenging projects you’ve worked on during your 35-year career in IT, and what lessons did you learn from those experiences?

I remember in the very early days of SAP, when you went live it was a really big deal, and you had a Go-Live party. I remember various celebrations – going skiing in France for the weekend, a trip to the south of France, and various other celebrations.

In your opinion, what are the most significant trends or innovations shaping the future of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like SAP S/4HANA?

The big word is AI, but organisations are struggling to keep up. RISE comes with SAP Build to automate process and robotic process automation for repetitive manual tasks like data extraction. There is now embedded artificial intelligence – none of which seem to be used that much yet, and now we have the next generation AI copilot Joule…

As we all know, the SAP ecosystem doesn’t stay still for a minute – especially now in this world of generative AI. How do you stay updated with the latest developments in SAP S/4HANA and the broader ERP landscape?

I am lucky my day-to-day role helps me. We are implementing some of the latest SAP products. Other than that, I follow the blogs of some key influencers in the SAP space.

I struggle with the SAP narratives and their marketing!

Okay, let’s have some fun now…If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice at the start of your IT career, what would it be?

Believe in yourself!

So, Nick, if you had to choose an animal to represent SAP ECC6 and another to represent SAP S/4HANA, what would they be – and why?

Well, my wife runs a successful falconry experience business so it would have to be a bird of prey. They have been in existence for many years, are agile, forever changing and can sometimes be aggressive!

What about your downtime then Nick? What are your hobbies and interests outside of work, and how do they help you maintain a work-life balance?

Following years playing and coaching rugby, I took up boxing at the age of 56 and fell in love with the sport. I train three times a week and am now starting my Level 1 course as I want to coach the youngsters.

I also like to fly-fish on the English chalk streams.

And if you weren’t working in the field of IT and SAP, what alternative career path might you have pursued?

Well, my dad was a policeman and my daughter is now a policewoman so who knows…

Lastly – the question we always like to ask – what advice would you have for newly certified SAP professionals, and the same question related to ECC6 consultants starting their S/4HANA journey?

Don’t stop learning! The end of certification is the start of the real-life learning. What you learn on the courses is not what happens in real life, so keep a ‘Bible’ – enter screen shots, notes and all the issues that you come across. Also find a mentor to help guide you through your early career.

Nick Ebdon talked to  Jon Simmonds