Hello Everyone!
After implementing several C4C Projects, & being a part of the complete cycle right from Customer discovery up to Post Go-Live, I have concluded few critical aspects of a Project, specifically C4C Project, to ensure every project gets a smooth start & it sails through the project duration up to Go-Live in a seamless way resulting in excellent customer success.
These may be generic and people may be already doing such activities before & during the Project, however, reviewing them again as a checklist only builds your confidence stronger to move ahead with these projects.
[Note: C4C => SAP Cloud for Customer and SI => System Integrator, could be a SAP cloud partner or any organization implementing a C4C Project for a Customer]
Any project like a C4C project would start with several discussions with the Customer which ultimately results (If all goes positive) in the SI providing accurate
estimates for the implementation & the Customer signing the Contract/SOW.
Let us start with the SOW & estimates part first.
Depending on the Scope of the Project, the SI should provide accurate estimates to the Customer in terms of resourcing, timelines & billing.
It becomes prudent that the SI along with the estimates also provides all the assumptions made during the estimation process & clearly mentions them in the ROM/SOW.
In Projects specially where integration to a SAP CRM or ECC OnPremise system is concerned, these assumptions & educating the Customer before the actual start of the Project & getting a confirmation is of absolute importance.
Few thing to keep in mind while talking to the Customer would be:
1. VPN access to Customer's Network:
Depending on the Customer's internal security policies, this thing can take up to few days to couple of weeks too, hence ensure that this is being discussed & confirmed with the Customer well in advance of the Project start. If not done early before the Projects start, this can result into unexpected challenges both to the Customer as well as SI, like delay in getting access to Customer network which can certainly cause delay to the overall deliverable & timelines, ultimately impacting the final Go-Live.
Best practice: Raise this at least two week prior to the Project start date, to ensure that when the Blueprinting (PREPARE) phase is underway, the project team has access to Customer network through VPN (or any other means per the Customer security policies), so that they can validate the access & can start working on their deliverable to be performed on Customer systems.
2. Access to Customer's SAP ECC or SAP CRM and/or SAP PI environment:
Once the SI gets access to the VPN, the next step is to ensure that the Project team has credentials created for them by the Customer IT team on their SAP OnPremise systems. Again, this means that the SI will have to be assigned certain roles or the Customer would have to explicit assignment to the Project team to access specific transaction codes on Customer's SAP OnPremise to perform integration related activities.
It is crucial for the SI to get this access not later than the 3rd day of the Project start, specially when the duration of the overall project is short. There may be certain policies/guidelines/approvals which the project team members have to follow/adhere to in order to get access to Customer's SAP systems, which again can be time consuming depending from Customer to Customer as their policies for such activities may vary & their time to deliver these things would vary as well.
Best practices:Ensure that the Project team is able to access Customer's SAP OnPremise system, not later than 3rd day of the Project's first week (whichever is in scope for integration), and alos validate all the Transaction codes to validate that the team has enough level of access on those Transaction codes. This can become a pain if not done in the early stage of the project as getting around the access to Customer's system, after signing any NDA's, getting all approvals from all concerned authority from Customer side, Customer wanting to do any background checks on resources,etc.all these could be several reasons, which could cause delay if this activity is not done in early stage of the project. Make a list of all the Transaction codes for the system you want access to, & help the customer by providing this list with the names of all resources so that Customer has all the information to help the Project team in getting all required access in advance.
3. Access to Customer's Cloud for Customer (C4C) tenant:
This one is the most important, why? we are doing a C4C implementation project because. People reading this may think, what has this got to do with the best practice? My experience says, ensure that the Customer has purchased the license for C4C system, has got the relevant credentials with them in advance of start of the Project. Try not to embark on starting the Project before confirming with the Customer on their C4C tenant access.
Best Practice: During the initial discussions with the Customer ensure that they have the required no. of license for C4C & have the initial credentials to start the Project on this tenant. Now, there may be Customers who are in the process of purchasing/acquiring the required licenses to operate C4c system, in this case, make sure that before the Project starts, the Customer has the required licenses along with the initial credentials to start the build of C4C tenant. In case, the Customer does not have the license and or credentials, this can consume time from a minimum of one day up to as long as the Customer is able to get them! Always good to start with all the necessary things available at hand!
4.Customer's SAP OnPremise system status:This should be clearly asked & understood by the SI. There may be scenarios where the Customer's SAP OnPremise system is undergoing an upgrade. Although it is possible that this upgrade is not a necessity to start & build integration with C4C, however,
this upgrade can definitely impact the C4c integration project in several ways.
A SAP OnPremise upgrade is as good as an implementation project, in terms of the processes/activities/checks/testing etc. that happen during the upgrade. Now, assume that this upgrade is not a pre-requisite for the C4C integration, meaning Customer's SAP OnPremise system is already on the required level for integrating with C4C. During such upgrades, there are critical activities that happen on Customer's SAP landscape. For example, Transport freeze on Production/QA system, Integration testing, UAT, etc.
In a C4C integration project, there will be activities performed on Customer's Dev/QA & Production SAP OnPremise system, now although the upgrade may not be a necessity, but due to several activities as part of this upgrade, the C4C integration project might have to bear the burnt. The freeze period for example will not allow the C4c transports to be moved to Customer's SAP OnPremsie system, this will result in delay of SAP OnPremise Production build with C4C directly. There may be issues like delay in UAT or unexpected challenges during the upgrade which may ultimately cause delay & impact C4C integration project!
Best Practice: If possible, get a confirmation from the Customer, that their is no upgrade or any other highly critical activity supposed to happen on their SAP
OnPremise system by educating them on how this could impact the overall C4C integration project & its timelines. Having a complete & consistent SAP OnPremise system available for integration without any last minute/in-between challenges on SAP OnPremise system ensures that your integration build is going to be as planned & per the timelines.
5. SAP C4C Upgrade:Another very important aspect of a C4C implementation project that an SI as well as Customer should account for is the quarterly release cycle of C4C system. SAP upgrades the C4C version every quarter, in which there are new functionality being pushed with the new upgraded version. Let me first say that the best part of such upgrades is that it is an auto upgrade of these systems, which means that a Customer does not have to really perform any activities for the upgrade! SAP takes care of everything (bear in mind this does not include any Customer solution that a Customer may have built, in such a case the best practice would be to consult SAP if the custom work done is of very high complexity level specially one which has several enhancements done to the standard functionality).
Best Practice: During the initial discussions with the Customer when things are into the finalization/positive discussion stages, educate the Customer of the upgrade policy of SAP C4C system. If possible, depending on which month a C4C project is going to start, have the Customer review the new functionality being pushed into the upgraded tenant so that the Customer can make a call if they would be interested to include the new functions in the scope or not, this shall help the SI to better manage the Scope & the ultimate design & build of the system.
Alright, I believe this would be too much reading for everyone, so I would take a break here.
Nevertheless, as we travel through the journey of C4C implementation/integration projects, I would keep sharing my thoughts based on my real time experiences, with the community!
I hope this would be a good read for Customers/Partners/Consultants/anyone interested in a C4C Project's best practices derived from real time experiences!!
Happy reading to all & comments/feedback are welcome.
BR
Ankur