SAP S/4HANA Implementation Support

Client: Fortune 100 Oil & Gas company

Services: Consulting

Areas of Expertise: Business and Technology

Industry: Oil & Gas

Challenge:

A Fortune 100 Oil & Gas company was executing a major program of work to implement SAP S/4HANA across multiple business lines. One business line was migrating from a legacy system that had been in place 20+ years. While a Big 4 firm was being used as the systems integrator (SI), the company sought expertise from another consulting firm to assist the end users who are totally new to SAP while also providing an independent quality control on the primary SI.

Solution:

Vaco was engaged to provide expertise in testing SAP functionality and business processes, master data mapping and validation, and preparing company employees unfamiliar with SAP to be new super-users. Our team of functional S/4HANA consultants were primarily focused on the Procure-to-Pay and Quote-to-Cash processes. In addition, consultants experienced in FICO, HSE, and interfaces were added to employee teams for more targeted activities.

During a period of 4 integration test cycles (ITCs) and an acceptance test cycle, the Vaco SAP consultants provided the following support:

  • During ITC1, the test plans initially created by the SI in ALM Quality Center were validated and executed. This allowed the Vaco team to become familiar with the company processes and SAP functionality; and assist a small number of initial company employee testers to learn how to test a modern, complex ERP. Test defects were identified and corrected, plus a few process gaps were identified that would require enhancing the SAP configuration and master data.
  • During ITC2, employee testers began to take more of a lead on executing test plans and Vaco consultants shifted focus to detailed analysis of more complex test defects and working on master data analysis and data load testing. Additionally, two Vaco S/4HANA consultants performed detail testing of key business controls configured into SAP. This entailed creating additional test scenarios, processing exception transactions, and creating detailed screenshot documentation required by the company’s internal controls and audit stakeholders.
  • During ITC3, all test plans, both the ALM functional tests and controls tests, were repeated resulting in most functionality meeting the company requirement that all test cases successfully pass twice. Data load testing continued for master data and documentation of how to update critical master data was created. The customer master design for this company was very complex and a 50+ page document describing the design in detail was broadly used by both the company employees and the SI’s consultants during the remainder of testing and training preparation. For Procure-to-Pay, FAQ documentation began to be drafted based on lessons learned working with the initial employee testers.
  • During ITC4, some functionality previously delayed and enhancements added to scope from prior test cycles were now ready and were tested. Additionally, test loads of dynamic data began. The company manages a very large number of cost objects for projects so testing of PO routing for delegation of the authority was complex. A Vaco consultant assisted in educating key stakeholders on the DOA workflow process, including identifying some nuances about routing that resulted in updating some business rules for routing and revising some master data. Vaco SAP consultants also began helping train a dispersed group of 50+ future super-users who would perform acceptance testing.
  • During Acceptance Testing, the new super-users were required to perform all testing on their own. Vaco’s SAP team provided support to the process, helping answer questions about how to perform certain transactions, and to research and coordinate resolution of test defects. For one key process, the business leader wanted to perform an end-to-end “day in the life” test to assess overall readiness for go-live. A Vaco S/4HANA consultant defined and coordinated the activities in this test which was above and beyond the acceptance testing requirements all teams were meeting.
  • For go-live, Vaco SAP consultants performed data preparation and data load validation tasks in the weeks leading up to go-live for master data and the immediate days after for dynamic data. Vaco team members updated documentation and FAQs for the company intranet. They were part of the employee team providing go-live support to the new super-users and end users for the first month; plus coordinated and tested resolution of production tickets. While all SAP go-lives are challenging, this period was unique in that it coincided with work-from-home restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most company employees and all consultants (including the SI) were working remotely in the weeks leading up to go-live and for the entire month of hyper-care.

In parallel to the above activities which were part of the company’s functional workstreams, there was a scope of work to update and test interfaces to other systems that would rely on SAP data, including an internally developed portal for customers. A Vaco integration consultant was added to the company IT team managing the interfaces to support successful completion of ITC1, ITC2, and ITC3.

  • The Vaco consultant was required to develop test scenarios for over 75 unique extractors/interfaces. This required meeting with both various business and technical employees to understand what the interface did and whether/how it was changing.
  • Once the test scenarios were defined and approved, the Vaco integration consultant coordinated user testing by the different groups and tracked/followed up to ensure test defects were resolved.
The overall result is the company had a successful “big bang” go-live for a large and complex business unit where almost all employees were new to SAP. And, due to COVID, the go-live was achieved under the constraint of work-from-home restrictions.


Vaco’s contribution provided an independent viewpoint separate from the Big 4 SI for many business process, SAP functionality, testing, and training issues. The support was also more cost effective than using another Big 4 SI. A Vaco Managing Director experienced in leading SAP implementation had developed the budget and managed the Vaco team, including swapping out skillsets and consultants as circumstances changed. The ultimate cost from Vaco was at the mid-point at the original budgeted range. The company’s goals for using a mix of vendors on their SAP S/4HANA implementation were met.