Information Technology Final project. Computer Science Essay

FINAL CAPSTONE ASSIGNMENT COVER PAGE:GOLENN GATE UNIVERSITYFall 2018MBA323
(YOUR CONSULTANT/COMPANY NAME)
PART 1: HBS SAP 2014: REACHING FOR THE CLOUD CASE # 9-614-052
PART 2: SAP CUSTOMER SUCCESS PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART 1: HBS SAP 2014: REACHEIN FOR THE CLOUD CASE # 9-614-052
1. SAP Business Environment Page [3]
2. SAP Efficiency Offered by Cloud Computing Page [4] 3. Re-Conceptualization of SAP’s Core Business Model Page [5] 4. Roles of the Communities of Innovation Page [6] 5. Financial Challenges Faced By Cloud Computing Initiative Page [7]
PART 2: SAP CUSTOMER SUCCESS PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
I. SAP Customer Company Background and Issues for Recommended Vendor Products Page [8]
II. SAP Customer Success Proof-of Concept Implementation Plan Page [12]
III. APA Format References Page [15]
IV. Appendix (Project Management Gantt chart) Page [16]
 
PART 1: HBS SAP 2014: REACHEIN FOR THE CLOUD CASE QUESTIONS
1. SAP Business Environment Q1: What is the business environment that SAP finds itself in at the beginning of the case? What changes must it make to its business model? Why must it make those changes?
The SAP’s business environment described at the start of the case study is the one where the enterprise is recovering from the economic recession of 2008 (Lakhani et al., 2014). In this business environment, the market for cloud computing was anticipated to grow from approximately $7.8 billion in 2011 to around $15.9 billion by 2020. Such an environment provided several growth opportunities for software as a service (SaaS), but the market saturation of this product would be achieved in 2016 (Lakhani et al., 2014).On the other hand, in the same business environment, the market for infrastructure as a service (IaaS) was anticipated to reach peak global sales in 2014, and after that, economists expected the market of this product to reach commodization, margin pressure, and price deterioration. Between 2014 and 2020, the market for IaaS was expected to stagnate and start declining. The business environment that SAP was operating in transformed and moved faster than it had done in previous years (Lakhani et al., 2014). To realize a tangible growth, the company had to implement some strategies to introduce changes in its business model. Some of the strategies executed included the adoption of cloud techniques, speeding up the process of innovation, and retaining its global market leader status. The company resorted to employing lean and agile principles to innovation and speed up a time to consumption and time to market (Lakhani et al., 2014). Such changes were crucial in improving the relevance aspect of a product for consumers, achieve faster time to completion and improve product quality substantially. Implementation of new strategies led to instant success with the company making more than 50 times revenue in almost every sector. Apart from these changes, the company had introduced SAP HANA to replace the traditional databases.  
2. SAP Efficiency Offered by Cloud Computing Q2: What efficiencies for SAP are offered by the transition to cloud/network computing? How might those efficiencies inform your management decisions?In the 2000s, companies spent huge amounts of money in purchasing, maintaining, and operating servers (Lakhani et al., 2014). Consequently, they had to look for techniques to improve the server’s efficiency. Usually, at this time, companies used a single application in every server operation, reserved adequate capacity to handle peak times, and permitted redundancy in instances when a server collapsed. Subsequently, the servers were utilized inefficiently with low capacities of 5 to 20 percent (Lakhani et al., 2014). Companies resorted to introducing a technique called virtualization in a bid to increase efficiency in the operations. Such technology allowed users of a server within the organization to work more cooperatively and share information faster than when they used the traditional technique referred to as one application per server. With the new technology, users could now access several resources from different separate servers in instances of excess capacity. One of the characteristics of cloud computing that massively improved the efficiency of operations with SAP is its ability to allow the supply of pay-per-use service through the internet. Unlike in the past when clients would buy the servers and carry them to their workplaces, in this new system, servers were purchased and operated in websites of the sellers (Lakhani et al., 2014). The efficiencies resulting from the adoption of cloud computing can play a key role in various managerial decisions, including making important decisions about the services that best suit the business needs. For instance, such efficiencies would push a manager in a company fearing to adopt cloud computing to embrace the method to increase operational and cost-effectiveness to save funds to invest in other areas. Also, they can help managers determine, among the three common services in the cloud computing field, SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS, which one best suit the needs of their customers and invest in it more than others (Lakhani et al., 2014).  
3. Re-Conceptualization of SAP’s Core Business Model Q3: As SAP re-conceptualized its core business model, it acquired companies. How does acquiring companies strengthen an evolving company’s business model? What management cautions should be observed?Many companies, as they evolve their business models start to look for other companies to acquire or merge with to strengthen their brand and fuel their growth. Acquisition strategy plays a critical role in strengthening the financial position and increasing the organization’s goodwill. Through the acquisition, the value is added to the combined entity by increasing the total revenues and reducing redundancies. Moreover, when a company acquires or merges with another, it gains more distribution channels, which will help the business to promote its brand over a larger area than it would before the acquisition. For instance, currently, SAP has outlets in more than 150 countries, some of which were obtained through acquisition and merging (Lakhani et al., 2014). With such outlets, the company can distribute its services all over the world, a feat that has made the company a world leader in cloud computing. The other benefit of acquisition is that the company has a chance of securing the existing business processes and technologies, which would otherwise consume a huge amount of money to develop. Such a benefit is evident in the case of SAP. When the company decided to change its business strategy, its CEOs decided to introduce cloud computing. To strengthen its course, the company has been acquiring companies with cloud computing services. For instance, in 2014, SAP acquired Concur Technologies, a cloud-based company that offered services in travel and expense management (Lakhani et al., 2014). The practice of acquiring new cloud companies has played a key role in increasing the distribution channel as well as reducing the cost of creating new cloud computing software. However, managers and CEOs should take precautions before deciding to merge or acquire new companies because of increased chances of the culture of two companies clashing. Moreover, there could be apprehensions among the employees from both companies because the workers of the acquired company may feel that their jobs have been put in jeopardy after the consolidation (Lakhani et al., 2014).   
4. Roles of the Communities of Innovation Q4:  What were the roles of the Communities of Innovation? How might that approach provide you with a particular perspective on management opportunities?Before the transition to the cloud, only professionals in SAP were the members of communities of innovations (Lakhani et al., 2014). Nevertheless, after shifting to the cloud, the membership expanded to accommodate other parties such as public authorities, research organizations, and companies. The SAP’s leadership provided a platform where individuals from different walks of life would bring their creative ideas. The main role played by communities of innovation in SAP was providing ideas that would help solve the complexity resulting from the presence of numerous websites as well as other issues. McDermott and other leaders came to understand the huge role played by communities of innovation in solving the website complexity as well as the company’s cloud transition. Having looked at the role played by communities of innovation in SAP, as a manager, I understand that innovation plays a key role in the organization’s operation (Lakhani et al., 2014). Thus, it is a tactic manager in different organizations should strive to implement to solve various issues such as manufacturing, sales, and employee management, among other things. An innovative community is an innovation in action, and it is a living component that connects people and organizations. As a manager, I would take advantage of communities of innovation to increase the resources of the company. Nowadays, finding quality employees is difficult. Most companies are finding it difficult to fill positions. The changing landscape of the global employment market has necessitated the need for innovative and creative employees with relatively specialized skill-set.Nevertheless, no single company has managed to hire all individuals possessing the skills they require. It is, therefore, crucial to engage in a creative collaboration because this will help fill the gaps and offer the company access to fundamental tools. Although innovation is an important tool in business today, it does not happen in isolation. For a manager, it will be essential to look for communities of innovation and send their employees to engage with other people in such communities, which will help the business to open creative doors in a way they have never imagined.   
5. Financial Challenges Faced By Cloud Computing InitiativeQ5: What financial (profit) challenges are faced by the new cloud computing/subscription model? How is SAP addressing those challenges? In 2014, the profits made from cloud sales in SAP increased massively, and sales made meant that the company could reach a €1 billion mark by the end of that year. Over 33 million subscribers were using SAP cloud services, and the company’s products were progressively moving to the cloud (Lakhani et al., 2014). Nevertheless, although the company realized indisputable success, it faced some financial challenges during this strategic transformation. The speed of consumption was still down, and only a few customers were willing to purchase new products and this negatively impacted the profits of the company.Moreover, the new technology in SAP led to some complications as a result of unaligned recognition of SAP economic value. The company had not been able to reduce the deployment time from 2 to 6 quarters taken by most of the traditional cloud service providers (Lakhani et al., 2014).Consequently, customers, as well as the company, could not start realizing the economic value of the products instantly.Further, SAP’s website was highly complex due to the presence of several websites offering thousands of products. This complexity made it hard for the company to attract more customers and as a result, SAP could not realize its full potential regarding the profits. The company had to implement cloud techniques to observe how customers used solutions and experiment it live (Lakhani et al., 2014). Subsequently, the company managed to reduce the deployment time from years to months, an achievement that increased the profits massively. Also, the company used social media to reduce the complexity resulting from the presence of several websites. The leadership of the company also sorted out the websites and got rid of the underperforming ones that did not provide any business value.           
 
PART 2: SAP CUSTOMER SUCCESS PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
I. SAP Customer Company Background and Issues for Recommended Vendor Products Page [8] The implementation of an IT project requires a comprehensive approach in order to assess the existing solution, identify the gaps, and determine how the proposed solution will meet client requirements and improve their business operations. The project implementation teams need to conduct sufficient requirement gathering exercises to make sure they gather all the relevant information from the client and identify key business processes and key users of the system. The process is vital in determining the approach to take on the implementation of the solution, data gathering, and resolution of differences that may come up along the way. The outcome of the requirements gathering exercise will also guide the project team in offering a particular SAP solution to the client. Also, the team can assess the effort required for the task, duration, and level of customization of the solution to fit the requirements. Effective management of requirement gathering ensures that the client is not disappointed by the product as their concerns and requirements are identified up front. Implementing new information management systems can be a daunting challenge for the team and organization as there are a number of factors to be considered.  The implementation team has to ensure that the project is successful while the client has to make sure that the new solution will not impede operations and ultimately not get a return on investment. Notably, it is essential for adequate preparations to be made before and after the project.  Comprehensively identifying existing business processes is vital for the teams as it helps visualize what the current business process do, who are involved and how they will be mapped to the new system.  The client can gauge bottlenecks in the processes and come up with measures to tackle them. The implementation team, on the other hand, has to ensure that the proposed system precisely fits into the existing business processes, and adds to the efficiency of the processes. In addition, it is vital to have a well-established team for the project implementation. The team should be composed of relevant users, and clear communication made on what is expected of each of them. This is essential before the project implementation to make sure cohesion exists and defining a working relationship. During the project implementation, identifying key objectives and milestones will help steer the project to completion on time and budget. Communication is vital during the phase as all the stakeholders need to be engaged to avoid inconveniences in later phases of the project. Finally, the go-live and post implementation phases involve closing of the project, conducting training for the users, and offering post-implementation for the implementation team.  The phase also entails thorough testing to make sure all systems are up and running and issues quickly resolved. Various changes come up when a new system is proposed and implemented in an organization. The organizational change can lead to acceptance or resistance of the system. It is vital that adequate measures be identified earlier in the process so that cases of user resistance can be handled through user training and workshops. Also, the project team should address organizational change properly, by engaging all stakeholders and factoring in the insights from the users. This section will review Lenovo Group Ltd, as one of the first companies to use SAP HANA solution. The analysis will cover key issues Lenovo faced in its journey to transform its business processes to the SAP ecosystem. Also, a successful proof of concept project plan will give a breakdown of the various SAP solutions that Lenovo is using to remain competitive and transform its business model. 
A. Company Background and Product Solution Issues Page [8]Lenovo is a global technology company formed from IBM’s Lenovo group that focused on personal computers. The company develops and manufactures personal computer components and products and offers diverse professional services to other businesses to enhance their operations and gain a competitive edge.  Historically, the company dominated the Chinese personal computer market before the acquisition of the IBM personal computing business.  The company started as a high-tech startup in Zhongguanchun, China by a team of scientists guided by Liu Chuanzhi.  The first product the company made was in 1990, and in 1994, it marked one million computers.  In the same year, the company went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Lenovo’s approach to the stock market had a western style in that it offered stock as an option to new talent the company hired.  The decade up to 2000 saw the company growth in revenue, gaining a significant market share and overtaking its rivals in the sector.  The company’s growth was fueled by low production costs in China and a surge of interest in technology in China. More people and businesses were looking for computers to modernize their lives and processes respectively.  In addition, the internet bubble of early 2000 gave the company a boost in increasing its growth and reach across the 2005. In 2005, the company acquired IBM personal computer division, giving a strategic position in the personal computer markets. The company also ventured into the mobile phone market, increasing its range of electronic products.Lenovo Group Ltd is a market leader in the personal computer...