With several choices of integration method and many different SAP integration specialists, how do you go about choosing the right partner to help with your SAP® solutions integration projects?
Before you start speaking to anyone, it’s a good idea to draw up the following documents:
- A scope of work
- Your business case for the integration work
- An outline of the project milestones and desired go live date
Armed with that information, here’s a list of 20 questions you might find useful when deciding which SAP® solutions System Integrators would best meet your needs:
- Do they have a deep technical knowledge of SAP® solutions – data mapping, integration points, optional integration methods?
- Can they help me build a business case for the integration work?
- What experience do they have with integrating SAP® technology to my other business systems?
- Do they have that experience in my industry? (That may or may not be important: if the integration involves processes that are exclusive to your industry sector, then some experience would be an advantage.)
- Do they have reference customers for me to speak to?
- Do they agree with my business case? Is there anything that they can add to it?
- Are they comfortable with our desired scope of work, milestones and desired go live date? Any concerns?
- Who will be allocated to our project and what skills and accreditations do those individuals have?
- What implementation methodology do they use? Does their approach fit with our project management processes?
- Will they be crafting the integration from scratch or do they have some tools to use as a starting point?
- If they use a tool, how much of the integration work we need is available “out-of-the-box”?
- Will they provide ALL the tools and services that we need?
- How good a fit is that “out-of-the-box” solution to our exact needs?
- How will they carry out the work? inhouse specialists / off shore / outsourced
- What will they do to ensure that the SAP® solutions integration work is “future-proofed”?
- How will the integration be supported once the project is completed?
- Will your integration partner deliver integration to best practice standards?
- What is the cost profile for the duration of the project and beyond?
- Can they provide a complete turnkey solution? Will they need to access my technical team or can I simply outsource the entire project?
- Can they work with my existing IT / SAP® technology implementation team?
In most cases, having an integration tool will shorten the project, future-proof it AND reduce costs.
Some SAP® solutions systems integrators use third party integration platforms, but MATRIX is a little different. We have a SAP® software integration platform, SAP® software integration specialists and SAP® software integration support specialists all under one roof.
To find out more about the benefits of MATRIX, download our guide now.
