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By Paul L Reynolds

Please deliver on time! How many SAP project managers have made this plea to their delivery team over the years? When clients are choosing their systems integrator, promises of timely delivery are a key decision factor in nearly one out of five SAP selection decisions.


To put that in perspective, the promise of timely delivery sways a client from one integrator to another more frequently than vertical industry experience, customer references, and contract terms. Those other things are important decision factors, but they aren't the swaying factor as often as the promise of timely delivery. To hammer home the importance of the project schedule in the eyes of the client, timely delivery has been the most important delivery criterion for SAP clients in each of the last three years.

Performance Monitor research reveals that 17% of SAP systems integration projects are delivered late. Delivering an SAP project behind schedule does more than upset the executive team, however. When examining the impact of 14 different problems on overall goal attainment, the research reveals that unacceptably late go-live is among the top goal killers in SAP projects.

Fewer than ten percent of Capgemini and CSC clients report their SAP projects were delivered late - the best performance in the industry. BearingPoint and IBM also have excellent track records with respect to delivering their SAP projects on time.

This research includes 809 SAP projects led by one of the leading SAP systems integrators: Accenture, BearingPoint, Capgemini, CSC, Deloitte, IBM, and SAP Consulting.

The original version of this article can be viewed at: www.performancemonitor.net/mm.php?content=february_2008#how-often