Once innovative and revolutionary, the use of offsite delivery has become not only a widely accepted practice, but a highly valued delivery alternative. Whether offsite, nearshore, rightshore, hybrid, collocation, or offshore, consultant SAP resources provide an option for implementations and ongoing support. To help you gain a better understanding of some viable options, I discuss two fundamental components involved in offsite delivery: the various offsite models and the pivotal role of the integration manager. After learning what options are available and how to maximize their implementation with the help of an integration manager, you will be better prepared if you choose to establish an offsite delivery model for your organization.

Although the model that guides offsite delivery resources has been widely employed since the middle 1990s, its use and notoriety (both positive and negative) has moved more recently to the forefront of delivery alternatives. In fact, because of the tumultuous economic times and extra sensitivity focused towards cost, opportunities for reducing expenditure are frequently encouraged and promoted by upper management.

Although cost is always a management concern, the tactical ramifications of working with an offsite delivery model creates its own challenges. More specifically, the method to successfully drive and manage SAP projects while using resources not physically located at the company’s site presents unique tests not experienced when production and delivery teams sit side-by-side.

Offsite Delivery Models

When discussing SAP offsite models, different terms mean different things to different people. SAP initiatives — such as implementations, SAP product upgrades (including SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse 7.0), and production support upgrades — lend themselves to a common set of outsourcing models. Two primary factors (location and size) affect these models. As the permutations increase, so too do their challenges. The list below highlights several of the main SAP offsite delivery models:

• Offsite. These resources are SAP resources that do not reside at the company’s delivery location. Offsite does not necessarily equate to offshore or nearshore. Offsite resources could mean resources sitting across town in another facility (i.e., corporate headquarters vs. an out-of of-town distribution center), across the country within the same country (i.e., corporate headquarters vs. regional office), or out of the country (i.e., corporate headquarters vs. out-of-country SAP Global Delivery Center).
  
  
• Nearshore. With the increase of India-based offshore delivery centers, companies with SAP systems began requesting similar alternatives closer to home. Depending on geographic location, this initially translated into either European locales (e.g., Ireland, Poland, and Hungary to support Western Europe) or South American locales (e.g., Brazil or Argentina to support North America). The value proposition for nearshore delivery vs. other offsite models is multi-fold: time zone advantages and equivalent quality as onsite resources.
  
  
• Rightshore. Rightshoring is a Capgemini term and outsourcing model coined in 2008 by three senior SAP consultants: Anja Hendel, Dr. Wolfgang Messner, and Frank Thun. Rightshoring, according to its authors, is more of a methodology than a specific model. “[Offsite] delivery creates the opportunity to improve quality and to allocate resources in a better way. It is not a question of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to [offshore locations]; it is about organizing a distributed delivery process that embraces onsite, nearshore, and offshore services” (Rightshore! Successfully Industrialize SAP Projects Offshore, Capgemini Deutschland GmbH, 2008). The major difference between a hybrid SAP outsourcing delivery model and rightshoring is that Capgemini-specific implementation strategies and methodology are built into rightshoring.
  
  
• Offshore. The most common, and perhaps most often misused, term surrounding outsourcing SAP operations is offshore. This term has most often been equated to using Indian SAP resources. Although the origins of SAP offshoring did possess deep roots beginning in India, this is simply no longer the case. Offshore SAP outsourcing is defined as using any foreign international location typically via a delivery location across the globe. India still remains a leading delivery and operations center throughout the SAP world, although many other well-established and newly emerging offshore locations exist. Countries throughout Asia, including Malaysia and the Philippines, as well as new economic powerhouse China, also have been providing SAP outsourcing services for quite some time.
  
  
• Hybrid. Of all the outsourcing models, the hybrid approach is the delivery vehicle most commonly used. This model combines the use of multiple types of outsourcing models, including all of the ones described above. Typically, the hybrid SAP outsourcing model employs onsite and offsite resources. Offsite resources frequently come from the same offsite delivery model (i.e., nearshore, offshore, or offsite locally). Often large SAP implementations use multiple offshore delivery centers for different components within the implementations (e.g., Bangalore for SAP NetWeaver Basis operational support; China for SAP workflows, reports, interfaces, conversions, enhancements, forms, and portal objects [WRICEFP] development; and Budapest for SAP functional configuration). However, it is rare to mix offshore and nearshore. Typically, organizations choose one over the other for specific reasons such as language and culture similarities, time zone advantages, stronger ABAP skillsets in a nearshore partner, or stronger SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (SAP NetWeaver PI) skillsets in an offshore partner.
  
  
• Collocation. Popular within the technical infrastructure and networking world, data center collocation is an established practice. Based on its popularity, a recent trend has arisen focused on bringing this infrastructure model into the personnel realm. Whether limited by physical office space or focused on eliminating the investment costs of office space, equipment, computers, telephones, or other resource expenditures, companies are looking to their partners to take on this burden. It essentially shifts the logistical responsibility of housing the company's consultants for the duration of the SAP initiative to the outsourcing partner.

The Role of the Integration Manager

Regardless of the SAP delivery model being implemented, the proper integration between the onsite and offsite requirements is fundamental to ensure successful delivery. This begins with the integration manager. This role acts as the human interface and is essentially responsible for ensuring that:

• The offsite delivery mechanism understands the work that needs to be supported and completed
  
  
• The end product is completed on time and within budget
  
  
• Issues are quickly addressed and resolved
  
  
• Critical issues are escalated as needed
  
  
• User satisfaction is achieved
  
  
• A central go-to offsite delivery representative is designated onsite

All these factors hold true regardless of whether the integration manager is a representative of an external consulting firm or an internal resource. Ultimately, the business lines are the end client regardless. The integration manager role sits at the crossroads of many processes within offsite delivery. There are so many moving parts — work efforts being designed and developed across time zones, business workshops being conducted to gather business requirements, and executive and project management demanding production support status. Someone must remain on top of all of the activity. This role requires a person who can juggle multiple activities and multi-task effectively. Obviously, a comprehensive understanding of SAP products and technology is crucial (i.e., understanding how the SAP modules, products, and technologies interrelate is paramount).

The integration manager is not expected to be the master of all SAP knowledge (clearly an impossible task). Specific SAP application expertise (both functional and technical) still remains the responsibility of the respective application owners. Likewise, the application ownership remains the responsibility of those dedicated resources (as part of the overall center of excellence model) along with the corresponding work activities. Some organizations rely too heavily on their integration managers because of their broad SAP knowledge. Furthermore, some integration managers fall into the trap of accepting this responsibility for a multitude of reasons (e.g., their ability to deliver, guilt, embarrassment, unwarranted sense of responsibility, or perhaps a need to expedite issue resolution). Although integration managers should be familiar with all the SAP puzzle pieces, the specific details still must reside with the experts. Failing to delegate could ultimately lead to less than ideal results and backfire.

With delegation comes responsibility. Responsibility for delivery resides with the offsite model. Regardless of the model, the offsite delivery arm is responsible for acting as the arms and legs of the integration manager. Therefore, when leveraging an SAP offsite model, the SAP offsite consultants supporting the organization should perform all delivery work — whether technical (i.e., SAP NetWeaver Basis system monitoring, ABAP development of custom objects, design and modeling of security profiles) or functional (i.e., general ledger account creation, sales order type modification, plant extensions).

Companies often have what is essentially an onsite extension of the offsite integration manager — a support manager.

The Support Manager Role

Yosh Eisbart

Yosh Eisbart is an SAP veteran with more than 15 years of experience. He has been involved in global SAP implementations since the days of SAP R/2. Yosh has been instrumental in the architecture, design, rollout, and support of global delivery centers and centers of excellence (COE). Furthermore, Yosh has also played the role of integration manager driving COE activity and production support optimization.

You may contact the author at yosheisbart@benimbl.com.

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