Case Study: Systems Integrator Partners with Baer to staff S/4HANA Implementation

This global business consultancy and leading systems integrator (SI) serves as a strategic and technology advisor to some of the world’s largest enterprises. Their client, one of the largest aerospace and defense contractors in the world, is in the midst of a massive SAP S/4HANA transformation initiative that is bringing together dozens of disparate ECC systems under a single, global, unified platform. The SI’s role is to provide program oversight and to ensure that the client has the S/4HANA expertise they need to successfully complete it.

The Challenge: The Right Expertise, at the Right Time, for the Appropriate Investment

In choosing Baer as their enterprise performance partner, the SI has three primary objectives: they need the right expertise, at the right time, for the appropriate investment. Due to the scale and complexity of the transformation and the high number of resources needed, the SI must look outside its internal talent pool for surge capacity. They need streamlined, high-volume access to resources with proven experience in a wide variety of highly specialized skillsets in the discrete manufacturing industry. It is also imperative that each person the SI presents to their client is a top-tier talent who reflects the same high standards they have for their internal team.

Timing is critical—the scale of the undertaking is massive, encompassing dozens of system landscapes, and both the SI and their client have committed to a strict schedule. If they are not able to identify the right expertise in a timely manner, the impact of delays could reverberate across multiple business lines and hundreds of thousands of people. The SI and its client do not have time to work with multiple vendors, review large numbers of resumes, or go through multiple interview cycles—they need a streamlined approach. Another potential timing-related concern is onboarding. The new talent will have to be onboarded by whatever staffing company the SI works with, the SI, and their client. The SI needs a partner who can handle these complexities quickly and smoothly.

It is also critical that whatever approach the SI takes to identifying expertise, it be cost-effective. While many of the roles in question are highly specialized and the market is competitive, the solution needs to meet both the SI’s and their client’s financial parameters using pre-determined rates.

The Solution: An Enterprise Performance Partner with a Steady Pipeline of Top-Tier Talent

After discussing their needs, the SI opted for Baer as their enterprise performance partner of choice. As a trusted SAP Gold Partner, Baer has a deep understanding of S/4HANA and the expertise that the SI’s client requires, so they could hit the ground running. Baer has cultivated pre-existing relationships with proven resources through its proprietary Opportunity Edge network and was able to identify prospects quickly and with precision for the first major build phase, which simplified resume review processes and minimized interview cycles. Baer then put processes in place to streamline onboarding and accelerate start dates.

The SI’s initial engagement with Baer was to identify expertise for more than 35 development-focused roles to build, test, and deploy the initial release of the core solution. Specific skillsets include SAP full stack integration development resources like Fiori customization, RESTful web services, and HANA backend integration, etc. While this work is still underway, the engagement has been so successful to date that Baer is currently sourcing expertise for multiple functional roles.

The Results: Strong Communication Drives Successful Outcomes

By choosing Baer as their enterprise performance partner, the SI was able to access the right highly specialized S/4HANA, at the right time, for the appropriate investment—at scale. Baer provided streamlined access to dozens of highly specialized, top-tier S/4HANA development experts whose professionalism was in keeping with the SI’s internal team. The resources were identified in a timely manner and interview cycles and onboarding were efficient, minimizing delays and disruption.

Key ways the SI and their client benefited by partnering with Baer on this initiative, include:

• Streamlined access to specialized expertise that simplified complex processes – Working with a single enterprise performance partner to fill dozens of roles was more streamlined than taking a decentralized approach. In addition, since Baer understood the complexities of the three-party onboarding process for each candidate—Baer, the SI, and the client—they were able to simplify it with a straightforward, repeatable process. 
• A precision approach to placement minimized delays – Because Baer has a deep understanding of S/4HANA and proactively builds relationships with proven experts, they were able to pre-screen candidates with precision. This ensured a strong fit for the role upfront, reduced interview cycle times, increased client confirmation rates, and minimized program delays.
• An understanding of the marketplace supported cost efficiencies – Baer’s deep understanding of the labor market for specialized contingent S/4HANA expertise, their proprietary methodologies for proactively identifying and pre-screening proven talent, and their reputation for premium opportunities contributed to their ability to fill the substantial need for talent within the SI’s financial parameters.

Ultimately, the key to every successful engagement is strong collaboration between all stakeholders. In this case, that included Baer, the SI, and their client. All parties were committed to timely communication and responsiveness to rapidly evolving needs on the part of all stakeholders which enabled Baer to identify critical surge capacity as it was needed so the client could rapidly scale.

Partner with Baer on Your Enterprise Technology Transformation

To learn more about how Baer can support your SAP S/4HANA or other enterprise technology transformation, please contact Brian Trout, Executive Vice President of Sales or Jeff Lewis, Senior Client Executive.