Case Study III-6 • BAT Taiwan: Implementing SAP for a Strategic Transition 495would be part of a post-implementation review process a
few months after implementation.
The country manager decided that having a third-
party independent of BAT to do the review would be a
good idea, and SAP Taiwan was selected. The first review
took place in early December and took the form of the
quality check for the Final Preparation Phase in the ASAP
methodology. The results were positive and the project
team prepared for the final steps: Data Conversion on
December 29 and Go Live on January 2, 2001.
We were unconcerned about whether someone from
SAP or an internal auditor did the review. The issue
was: Is the system quality up to the mark? Is there any-
thing substandard that could cause a system failure?
— Mr. Ma, BAT Taiwan Country ManagerGlobe House has sponsored some of the quality re-
views. It depends on whether the project management
would like to have it done or not. In Brazil, the reviews
are being done by an external consulting partner, but
it’s a much bigger project: Once a week a person
comes in and reviews the implementation progress.
— SAP Program Manager, Business Integration,
Globe HouseGo Live
Phases 1 and 1A went live according to the revised proj-
ect plan on January 2, 2001, with one major exception:
The functionality for processing the key accounts and for
printing the reports with the Chinese language module
were included in this release, but the GUI interface was
not integrated with SAP until mid-January. Instead, the
team’s contingency plan was used for the first two weeks
in January: The sales orders were entered into BAT
Taiwan’s R/3 system and then submitted to the system
used by the country’s long-time distributor to produce
the required government reports. This process made the
January close very difficult, although it was still com-
pleted within a week.
There was also a delay in the installation of a new
telecommunications line leased from the government-
owned telecommunications company in Taiwan. This
meant that a more expensive international dial-up line had
to be used to connect to Kuala Lumpur via Hong Kong until
early in February, when the leased line could be phased in.
Initially, there were also some order processing
problems. The Go-Live date was close to the Chinese New
Year (January 24), which meant heavy numbers of orders
had to be processed at the same time as the new business
processes were being implemented. Some orders were
delivered late, and sometimes an order contained the
wrong pricing, but within six weeks, these problems were
worked out. The second close in February went smoothly.
The original Phase 1 plan was for all APSS consult-
ants to remain onsite in Taiwan for two weeks after Go
Live. Because of the new Phase 1A schedule, the business
sponsor asked for four weeks of support. A compromise
solution was to provide two APSS team members onsite
for six weeks following Go Live. In addition to the Project
Integration lead, the MM consultant from APSS remained
onsite for the first two weeks and helped coach the users
through the new processes, and then the second financial
consultant and SD consultant from APSS were onsite for
the succeeding two weeks.
As of January 2001, APSS is running three separate
SAP systems for (1) Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand;
(2) Malaysia; and (3) Australia. BAT Taiwan’s R/3 system is
run on the same client system as those of Singapore and
Thailand.^6 Because all three systems use the same template,
each country shares the same organizational hierarchy, chart
of accounts, and data definitions. For example, finance is
subdivided into the three areas of operating, marketing, and
corporate finance, while marketing is subdivided into trade
and brand marketing. Each country is defined by a company
code, which represents a legal entity for reporting purposes.
Although the basic processes within the client are the same,
some configuration is specific to the company code. For
example, a country can have its own configuration to reflect
how it wants to manage costs, how it structures its depart-
ments, and with codes for its own area offices and key
accounts. Further, controlling area and operating concern are
defined at the company code level. There is no consolidation
of financials or profitability analysis at the regional level.
Exhibit 6 shows the cost center hierarchy for BAT Taiwan.Ongoing Operational Support by APSS
In the first 3 months of service, the production server run-
ning the Taiwan system had been down only once for a
period of approximately two hours. However, in the
weeks immediately following Go Live, procedural errors
led to a few processing errors. For example, incorrect data
was recorded on some occasions when the users specified
an incorrect company code (equivalent to a country code).
A multi-tier support plan is in place. Tier 1 sup-
port is provided locally, and APSS provides support
services via their help line based on six priority levels.(^6) The Thailand R/3 implementation was also completed in Fall
2000.