We all want our HANA decisions to be successful. 80% of HANA migrations will start with HANA Analytics so we place our focus on this one aspect. Also it is critical to remember that the columnar and In-Memory is best suited most for analytics- so you need to get this one right from the start.
You should start with a personal goal that – I want this to be successful from the get-go. At the end of the game no one will ask you if you spent a little more or a little less but how it met business expectations. In fact all our research proves, beyond reasonable doubt, that BI projects that are successful, i.e. meet business expectations, are never audited for how much they cost. Conversely, every BI project that has failed, to meet business expectations, is never measured on how much it saved. The distance between success and failure is razor thin, just as the distance between lunacies and genius is. The decisions you take today, the advisors you associate with and the ones that influence your decisions- no matter how inconsequential they feel today might be knocking on your enterprise, and your career, door and somehow placing your career options kind of out of reach.
The success of your HANA migration is important to both you and your career to be put aside. Here are the top seven things you need to strike out from your workplace vocabulary if you want to achieve both tactical and strategic success that is now in your grasp- it is your right of first refusal...
1. “I don’t truly understand HANA”
... so I have my experts guide me in our HANA initiative”
Background:
In my last few HANA installations, now totaling over 19, I have met various
stakeholders that clearly state that they do not understand HANA and have
advisors that will take ownership and accountability for all decisions. When we
dove a little deeper we found that their internal experts had almost the same
level of HANA understanding as they did. Still diving a little deeper we then
found out that these key-internal-stakeholders then depended on their level 1
triad partners whose experts too knew a little about HANA but not to the depth
and breadth required to make a professional holistic decision that is
beneficial for the enterprise business stakeholders. In short what these
various layers guaranteed customers was regurgitation of corporate sales
positioning that were generically correct but not fine tuned for any single
customer. In BW terms that most customers get is standard business content-
which is almost guaranteed to sound very nice but rarely meet business
expectations.Content: When you accepted your current position as CIO, BI Lead or a Steering committee member you had a good idea of your role, ownership and accountability. As a CIO, BI lead, corporate information owner or a steering committee member you have taken the ownership and accountability to ensure that the decisions made by your group are tactically and strategically area aligned to meet business expectations. The key words here are ‘ownership and accountability’ and ‘business expectations’, everything else is a distraction- including the technology called HANA.
Very early in the game it is critical to remember that “HANA is business solution and not a technical installation”. As an owner of decisions you are no longer hired to state that you do not understand the executive HANA factors, i.e. do not understand the tactical or strategic impact of your HANA related decisions. It is also important to remember the Gartner 2003 and 2013 BI reports that clearly stated- 2003 “Fewer than 50% of BI projects will meet business expectations” and in 2013 “Fewer than 30% of BI projects will meet business expectations”. My translation: In 2003-2009 50% of reports in your PRD BI environment did not meet business expectations. In the 2012-14 period 70% of reports in your PRD BI environment are not being used, or will never be used, by your business users. If you nod yes to this statement you need a HANA Business Value Architect today, if you don't then you are planning for failure.
If you depend on your current experts then they can only take you down your current trajectories, i.e. what I refer to as the Gartner nightmare.
Recommendation:
Don’t end up blaming your ‘experts’ and ‘advisors’ when
your HANA initiative does not meet business expectations.
[1] The Executive decision team needs to get themselves a
‘2x2 hour HANA Executive workshop’. This workshop comes with a two hour executive
workshop and a bunch of checklists for each stage of the HANA decision. For
example what are the critical selection criteria’s before starting a HANA
Analytics project. Or, what are my alternatives to meet my business needs and
how do they stack with each other? etc.. Ask for a BW-on-HANA GPS workshop
executive brief. The second two hour is spent with actual operational resources
on how to use the checklists. The executive workshop decides on which two to
select and run the process through. It could be as simple as what HANA Cloud
partner to select for our HANA initiative.
[2] Without providing adequate executive training your
HANA migration is in-fact planning for
failure. Do not plan for failure invest a half day to access checklists to
success.
Modern executive and key-stakeholders must no longer expect to hide behind ignorance as that leads to item #x- the Do not resort to the blame game as there is a two hour solution now to mitigate that defect.
2. “Our experts
told us to do this”
Also called “What got you here will certainly not get you
there”
Background: In their 2013 Gartner put is very beautifully stating: “This is a time of accelerating change, where your current IT architecture will be rendered obsolete. You must lead through this change, selectively destroy low impact systems, and aggressively change your IT cost structure. This is the New World of the Nexus (big-data), the next age of computing.” Sondergaard, Gartner Sr. Analyst.
Reading between the lines in resonance to the earlier Gartner report in this article we clearly recommends changing your global BI methodology, i.e. standards, processes and governance, all we will get is land at the same spot in the very near future. Even if it means changing your current SI as their lowest cost option is to continue with the existing BW resources and methodologies. It reminds us of Albert Einstein’s statement “Lunacy is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results”. In short HANA there is a dire need to renew your total BI methodology to optimally leverage our net-new platform with renewed set of standards, processes, architecture, modeling and governance. Any triad partner (SW, HW or SI) that states that the same rules of BW will continue to apply to HANA is taking you down the path of Gartner’s nightmare. They are planning to reuse their current SAP BW assets to take your HANA project along the same trajectory as your BW has done up-until now. For these ‘experts’ my single question is based firstly on a question (in the form of an assumption) followed by the question you need to ask our triad ‘expert.
Assumption: The way we translate the Gartner BI report of 2013, i.e. “Fewer than 30% of BI projects will meet business expectations” is by performing a high level self audit with a single statement (my interpretation of the Gartner findings). Over 70% of the reports in your current PROD BI system do not meet business expectations’. If you nod to this statement then we go to the question- if you do not agree to the above statement you belong to IT and are not the business user community.
Question to ask: Tell us what is the business value of accelerating a 715 second report to 1 second if business is never going to use it?
.. and there you have the strategic answer to your initial assumption, i.e. the reliability of your taking your current methodology and simply installing it on BW-on-HANA
Recommendation:
Don’t end up stating that you did not know after your
HANA investments do not meet business expectations.
[1] START WITH a ‘BoH (BW on HANA) GPS workshop’. Just
like in a GPS situation where it is necessary to know your destination and your
starting point before you plot your turn-by-turn directions. The GPS workshop
is leveraged to document the same in a BW to à BoH HANA migration. These workshops take a mere 2-3
weeks and WILL save millions along the way. These workshops simultaneously
document your business expectations and technology current state and deliver an
executive charter and roadmap for BoH Migrations.
This workshop comes with a two hour executive workshop
and a bunch of checklists for each stage of the HANA decision. For example what
are the critical selection criteria’s before starting a HANA Analytics project.
Or, what are my alternatives to meet my business needs and how do they stack
with each other? Etc.. Ask for a BW-on-HANA GPS workshop executive brief. The
second two hour is spent with actual operational resources on how to use the
checklists. The executive workshop decides on which two to select and run the
process through. It could be as simple as what HANA Cloud partner to select for
our HANA initiative.
Only quitters throw in the towel, or blame others. Winners consistently plan to succeed. Wit5h current BVA (Business Value Attainment) principles, extensive HANA experience and scientific processes failure is no longer an acceptable option.
3.
“It’s not my fault”
Also
called “Let’s hang someone else and let them take the blame”
Background:
In their 2010 BI Valuenomics reported that: “98%
of BI projects are declared successful on the week after go live, yet less than
50% of them remain successful after 10 weeks.” Sondergaard, Gartner Sr.
Analyst.So this report indicates that most BI projects, regardless if they are Oracle, Teradata, BW or something else tend to fall off a deep cliff in under 10 weeks. As an executive it is critical to firstly ensure that this does not happen and secondly when it happens your key stakeholders don’t end up play the traditional blame game – “It’s not my fault”.
No one wants to ever start to be viewed as a blame shifter. However, it is only a matter of time before some finally find it most convenient to shift the blame to someone else. Executive do not simply need to take ownership and accountability, but they need to be trained to take ownership and accountability with a scientific approach of being able to ask the right questions and installing the right processes and standard to eliminate the probability of failure. Only by admitting to failure can an organization learn from their mistakes. Shifting the blame on someone else only ensures that we make the same mistake all over again. Pointing fingers strongly predicts that this same stakeholder will never truly learn from their mistakes.
Recommendation:
Don’t plan to get into any situation where you have to
shed blame from yourself and point fingers at someone else when your HANA
migration does not meet business expectations.
[1] START WITH a ‘2x 2 hr executive workshop’ for your
key stakeholders.
[2] Plan for success based on proven scientific
principles and only then work your plan
Never forget that HANA is not a technical installation but a business solution.
4.
“Let’s not involve business in BI projects”
Background: In their 2010 Gartner probably made the most powerful
BI statement since its inception: “..without
business in business intelligence, BI is dead”. Critical error when aiming for success
Still three
years out we continue to see the business owners and project investors kept out
of BI rooms in a planned protocol manner. Under the BVA principles – this,
according to Gartner and I, is planning for failure. Normal business
involvement is getting them to sign off the budgets, showing them business
content and getting their UAT sign offs. Since 2006 our experts have
consistently recommended and practiced including business stakeholders in
approval, decision, design, architecture, OLAP and deliverables in weekly conference
calls. This has resulted in our last two BI projects scoring above 80% user
satisfaction 20 weeks after go live, in a world dominated with under 30%
user satisfaction. Need we say any more?
Recommendation:
Make sure business is trained to take ownership and
accountability of their investments, assets and deliverables in all projects BI
including BoH.
[1] Remember that business funds most BI projects,
business is the owner of most BI deliverables and no one can tell me business
is not the judge of all deliverables. Once business states it does not work all
other comment have little value.
[2] In all my 15 years of BI experience once business
declares that the delivered reports do not meet business needs there is little
any of the triad partners or IT can do to reverse that judgment.
[3] Instead of selling technocratic solution that is
built without business communications CIO’s need to market their BI
deliverables in full communications with business stakeholders.
If any of your Triad partner recommends you keep business outside the doors of your BI project room, show them your door as they will take your BI project towards the Gartner nightmare. Find a partner that will drive your project along the BVA principals of success.
5. “We don’t need any help.”
The rugged heroes playing cowboys and Indians (the US native Indian types) are mostly found in action movies, but they are unlikely to become heroes in your enterprise or your HANA implementation projects, just like legacy BI projects. Executives, BI Managers and client PM’s sometimes think that they can make it alone on a BW-on-HANA project but all their experience and their partner recommendations are consistently working against them. In the new HANA platform most of your existing standards, architecture, modeling and governance documentation is now obsolete. The BW-on-HANA migration is the type of project where you have to challenge your instincts, what you have learned so far about traditional BI. Gartner BI reports from 2003 onwards to 2013 clearly establish that what we learnt up until HANA will harm us more than help unless refocused by an experienced HANA Business Value Architect.
Recommendation:
Don’t try to make this journey on your own or with legacy ideas, advisors or partner methodologies
[1] HANA is a new business platform so get yourself a
‘HANA Business Value’ Architect
[2] In all my 15 years of BI experience once business
declares that the delivered reports do not meet business needs there is little
any of the triad partners or IT can do to reverse that judgment.
[3] Instead of selling technocratic solution that is
built without business communications CIO’s need to market their BI
deliverables in full communications with business stakeholders.
If any of your Triad partner recommends you keep business outside the doors of your BI project room, show them your door as they will take your BI project towards the Gartner nightmare. Find a partner that will drive your project along the BVA principals of success.
6. “This is the way it has always been done”
Simply doing things the way they have always been done is no way to run a modern business; it is also anti change and development. This is like trying to reach a goal ahead by driving in reverse. Your triad advisors may repeatedly state that they can leverage their existing standards, processes, designs and methodologies; they may also recommend they can leverage their existing resources and architects. They may further recommend that you can simply migrate your current BW to HANA as the path of least resistance. All these recommendations are completely erroneous to a very large degree. Yes, the current BW can be leveraged but there are changes you need to make before, during and after migration. For example your SI advisor should recommend reducing your current BW database by a minimum of 40% prior to commencing migration, and if your BW is anywhere close to normal then they should be able to guarantee this as a commitment. This has a direct impact on your TCO with a 40% reduction in initial costs, 40% reduction in migration times and 40% reduction on your annual support SLA costs. This is also just one of many areas where we can increase quality and decrease costs for BW migrations.
Recommendation:
Remember the initial statement ‘..what got you here is
not going to get your there’. Plan your migration prior to commencing your
migration.
[1] Find yourself a ‘HANA Business Value’ Architect’ that
you can trust
[2] Conduct a high level audit of your existing
methodologies and governance
[3] Consider undertaking a GPS business and IT workshop
if your BW is over 5TB of legacy
Never try to do what you have always done in the new HANA environment. Adaption is the only assurance to survival and change is the only constant. In the new HANA platform there is a need to conduct an executive audit for tactical, mid-term and strategic business benefits and then ensure that all tactical, mid-term and strategic initiatives align appropriately with strategic goals. This will assure [1] Increase your information quality; [2] Decrease migration costs; and [3] Decrease migration time- all of this contributing to overall success. It will also simultaneously prevent future deconstruction and wastage of valuable assets. You need to make a HANA Business Value Architect as your right hand advisor, and then come up with creative solutions that are proven to exceed business expectations.
7. “Can I get at least a 40% success?”
This actually happened in one of my recent, post 2010, BW on HANA installations. Ten weeks before go-live the customer called upon me and during my audit asked if they could at least meet 40% of business expectations. Unfortunately my report stated they would meet fewer than 18% of user expectations. This was a net new BoH installation. The client had hired Gartner for their initial executive planning and come away with a 50% probability of meeting business expectations in their new BI implementation. They then hired one of the existing SI’s, who used their existing BW team to deploy BW-on-HANA and drove the investment down the traditional path of Business content. This took them straight into Gartner’s nightmare scenario.
Recommendation:
Whether you are a BW migrate to HANA or a net new
BW-on-HANA customer your minimum tolerance should be over 80% business user
expectations. Once again remember the initial statement ‘..what got you here is
not going to get your there’. Plan your migration prior to commencing your
migration.
[1] In migrations start with a mandatory 40% reduction in
your existing database size
[2] Follow this through with automated remodeling of
cubes for HANA
[A] In net new BoH installations start with a global HANA
methodology that is documented and communicated
[B] Aim for a 80%+ end user satisfaction goal 20 weeks
after go live
Be part of success and do not plan for failure as an option.
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