GAVDI International

Preparing for the SAP HCM Journey

Like all small and big expeditions the pre-condition for a safe journey is thorough preparation. Pinpoint the exact destination, analyze the road ahead of you, find the right crew and mobilize for the journey. These are just some of the tasks in the preparation for SAP HCM.

Built on extensive implementation experience, GAVDI can provide a wide range of SAP HCM preparation services. The services are structured in the packages below.

Each activity within a package can be combined into a tailor-made customer preparation project.

Envisioning the SAP HCM Solution
Assessing the SAP HCM Potential
Building the Business Case
Analyzing and Designing HCM Processes
Prototyping the Solution
Training the Crew

To have a detailed presentation of the GAVDI Preparation Services see below or contact your local GAVDIOffice.

Envisioning the SAP HCM Solution	What will the end-result be? Our customers have been asked this over and over again when starting a joint SAP HCM project. Envisioning the end result at the beginning of a process is difficult - and can often be overwhelming. To overcome this challenge, GAVDI has developed an introduction to SAP HCM targeted at management and key persons in the SAP HCM Project. GAVDI is presents SAP HCM for the target group in a 2 to 3 day long workshop. Before the workshop GAVDI has customized a high-level prototype of SAP HCM. This customization is based on input from the customer such as the current system and processes, high-level wishes and requirements, current shortcomings, etcetera. During the workshop the consultants will present the high-level prototype to the target group. As many questions as possible are answered by showing the best practices of SAP HCM and discussing what is relevant for the customer. The results from the workshop are documented and serve as input for subsequent project activities.
Assessing the SAP HCM Potential	What will we gain from an SAP HCM Project? It is another guaranteed question we receive from our customers. GAVDI offers an SAP HCM assessment method combining project experiences and SAP HCM Benchmarking. The assessment process starts with building the As-is Performance Model (APM). The APM is made by analyzing the customer input such as the HCM Strategy, current performance, current high-level processes, requirements, shortcomings, etcetera – and the potential result produced from the envisioning process. The APM is then compared to an SAP HCM Best Practice Model (BPM) thereby revealing the potential for improvement to the customer. The results are documented and used for the subsequent project activities.
Building the Business Case	What is the cost-benefit and investment payback of an SAP HCM project? Also a natural question to be answered before starting a SAP HCM implementation. GAVDI uses its own SAP HCM Business Case Model. The two sides of a Business Case are described. The benefit-side comes from the Assessment Process and Costs/Investments are estimated by the GAVDI experts. The estimation is done by comparing the objectives from the Envisioning and Assessment Processes with the GAVDI experience data. This includes high-level estimates for both initial investments such as SAP Software Licenses, Hardware, external and internal implementation project costs, etc. – as well as recurring costs for operations. The costs and benefits aspects are used in the GAVDI financial cost/benefit model giving a number of key financial factors. It may also serve as the foundation for calculations in the customer’s own investment evaluation models.
Analyzing and Designing HCM Processes	Once the decision has been taken to implement SAP HCM, the more detailed preparations start. At that point the main question to be answered is: “How should the new HCM processes be”? GAVDI incorporates a combination of Business Consulting techniques and SAP HCM Best Practice for the process design. All the As-is HCM processes are described – and rated in terms of quality and business importance. Hereafter, the standard SAP Best Practice processes are evaluated for all the processes but with special emphasis on the processes of highest quality and importance. These processes may need special designs to meet critical business needs - or require special attention to the change management of the implementation. The result is new HCM processes based on the standard SAP processes as extensively as possible, to make implementation and maintenance easier. At the same time it also takes into account the critical issues of the customer.
Prototyping the Solution	GAVDI also offers a system-based and more interactive way of process design. Instead of describing the new processes traditionally – or as a supplement to this – GAVDI customizes SAP HCM with the processes chosen. This may be done for all the processes but the most common approach is to do the prototyping for either the new main processes or more in detail for a certain part of the processes. The prototyping technique is workshop-based and quite similar to the Envisioning technique but on a much more detailed level. Therefore, the prototyping technique is often used as a subsequent activity when the customer has started the preparation process with the Envisioning service.
Training the Crew	The main training of a SAP HCM project – the end-users – is of course part of the Implementation services. The training part of the preparation activities is targeted at the key personnel of the customer who is going to be part of the implementation team. Our experience is the applying the Envisioning and Prototyping services actually provides an indirect but also effective training process for key personnel. If these services are not used, more structured education supplements the gap in training. GAVDI offers tailor-made course and workshops for the key personnel. See our general Training service for more information.