Managing Information Technology

490 Part III • Acquiring Information Systems

• ConfigureSAPsystem •Developfinalconfiguration
  
  
  • Prepare and conduct conversion
  
  
  • Prepare and conduct system test
  
  
  • Conduct security profile testing
  
  
  • Conduct user acceptance test
  
  
  • Conduct user training
  
  
  • Assess infrastructure readiness
  
  
  • Prepare for rollout
  
  
  
  

Design and

Prototype

2-Oct to 20-Oct 2000

Build and

Test

23-Oct to 17-Nov 2000

• Confirm SAP organization structure


• Detailed requirements study


• Impact to BATS (Symphony)
  template


• Design and complete business
  blueprint

Analysis and

Planning

25-Sep to 29-Sep 2000

1 week 3 weeks 4 weeks

• Design customized reports


• Develop users’ security profiles

Live

System

2-Jan, 2001

EXHIBIT 3 Eight-Week, Three-Stage Project Approach

(which could include contract employees hired by APSS
from their local market). These four APSS team members
would work at the BAT Taiwan offices, beginning with the
project kickoff at the end of September 2000 until two weeks
after the implementation date. A part-time APSS program-
mer would also be assigned to the project, but would prima-
rily work out of the APSS offices in Kuala Lumpur.

Initial Schedule

The original schedule was to implement the R/3 modules
in two phases. Phase 1, to be initiated September 25 and
completed by January 2, involved the modules to support
direct importation: parts of the SD, MM (purchasing and
inventory management), and FI/CO modules. Phase 2, to
be completed by June 2001, would involve implementing
the additional modules needed for direct sales and distri-
bution to key accounts, as well as the specific invoicing
system required by the Taiwan government and software
to support the reports in Chinese for the area offices. The
Phase 1 system would therefore support importing to just
one customer: Taiwan’s current distributor. The distribu-
tor’s system would continue to be used for the GUI report-
ing until Phase 2 provided these customized capabilities.
Initially, the plan was to complete the Phase 1 devel-
opment and testing within eight weeks (by the end of
November) to provide a buffer for training the business
users in not only the new system, but also in the process

changes associated with the new business model. The busi-

ness users would begin with 18 customized reports.

Although the APSS staff would be full-time, the

team members from Taiwan needed to continue to perform

some of their current functions during the project. Further,

the team members would also need to help train temporary

or new personnel that would be brought in near the end of

the project.

The Project Team

The leaders for the project team brought together three

sources of expertise from the three organizations involved:

IT project management from APN; BAT template, SAP

package, and technical knowledge from APSS; and local

business needs from BAT Taiwan. The country manager

for Taiwan, Mr. Ma, served as the business sponsor for the

project. The project leaders from APN, Taiwan, and APSS

were empowered to make project decisions and formally

reported to Mr. Ma and the head of IT for APN, via a proj-

ect steering committee. (See Exhibit 4.)

The Major Project Manager in the IT APN organiza-

tion, who had previously been a consultant for one of the

Big Five consulting firms but did not have any SAP training,

was the IT co-lead responsible for overall management of

the project. He developed the schedule and task breakdown,

the timing of each task, and the resources needed. His work

plan became the final project plan, and he was responsible