Don’t be Pushed into User Acceptance by Your SAP Services Consulting Firm

Large consulting firms will use a variety of techniques, including flattery, the idea that your interests are their interests and the illusion of power in order to get sign off on non-functional systems.

What This Article Covers

• Techniques employed by companies that need a sign off?
• What to consider before giving sign off.

The Issue

As IT projects have become less and less about the actual business value, and more about perpetuating IT projects, it has become more important than ever for the large consulting firms to obtain user sign off on implementations that do not actually meet business needs. Once the client signs the user acceptance documentation, they have progressed a far way in achieving their goal, and in protecting themselves from lawsuit. Since most often the system implemented has major holes or is not useful to the business, the consulting firms need a way to obtain sign off. The way this is accomplished is listed below:

Shorten the period for user acceptance testing so that it must be done very quickly and against a deadline

1. Co-opt the project managers from the client into adopting the time frame of the consulting firm. In this way, the client project managers actually end up supporting the consulting company’s agenda over their own company’s needs. Often the client project managers feel as if a missed user acceptance test deadline reflects negatively on them, and they want to mitigate this by agreeing with the consulting company to rush through UAT (user acceptance test) and just get approval.
2. Intimidate the users. I recently was at an account where the consultants almost filled the cube of the users. The user then felt as if they had 4 people to make happy rather than actually testing if the solution worked for them. Consultants may frequently remind the user during the UAT that the testing approval “really needs to get done.”
3. Denying the shortcomings in the system. It is normal for the user to get stuck and then for the consultant to take the keyboard and force a workaround. It gets the user through that portion of the UAT, but later when the consultant is not there, the user will fail in the same activity.

Playing Their Game

It may be hard to fully accept, but the consulting firm does not really care if the implementation is successful. All the big consulting firms have big brands and are relatively immune from failure. They get new projects simply on the basis of their name and the many relationships they have in the executive suites. Their main focus is getting all the project documentation signed off on. Once the documentation is signed off on, they can safely leave the account with or without a functional system, and they get to collect their money. In order to defend against being de-frauded by these firms, its important to insist on everything being 100% prior to the documentation being signed. If you refuse to sign, you will notice they will begin to react and treat your concerns with attention. After you have signed, they could care less what happens after that. Your only negotiation leverage is prior to your signature.

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