What is Core Team?
Core Team is a Team, which will work from Client side, i.e. their own employees. (In some cases Client may heir the Consultants).
In which modules Core Team will work? In each module Eg: BI, SD, MM and FI etc… Client will recruit their team.
What is the Role of Core Team Consultants? I can answer this question in different ways like below…
Case: 1 In this case, Business People will act as a Core team member in related modules, because they know the complete business of their company, so they will give the business requirements to the Developer (Some other company which will implement the SAP). After implementation they may continue in SAP in their Company i.e. in Support phase, or they may go back to their Business again (In this case he/she becomes an END User).
Case: 2 In this case, Business People, Functional Consultants (from Client side) and Technical Consultants (from Client side) Eg: ABAP, BI, XI, APO etc…will act as a Core team member in respective modules, and they will give the business requirements to the Developer (Some other company which will implement the SAP). Here Functional Consultants will act as a Bridge between the Business People and Developer at the same time Technical consultants (from Client side) will work along the third party developer and his focus is always on Quality of work from third party developer and involving in the developments because he/she will be the person will takeover the system and need to support the system after implementation.
After implementation Business Consultants may continue along with Functional Consultants in SAP in their Company or they may go back to their Business again (In this case he/she becomes an END User).
Case: 3 In this case, Business People will just give the requirements to Developer (through Functional Consultant) and third party Developer will develop the System. After that Client may recruits their own Consultant Eg: ABAP, BI. He/She will be the responsible for future Support. In some cases the same thing is applicable for Functional Consultants, i.e. Client may recruits Functional or Technical Consultants just before Go-Live, and so after Go-Live these people are responsible for Support.
Whose Job is easy? Either Core Team Member job or third party Developer job?
It depends on situation; it will differ from Client to Client. If there is good co-operation and understandings in between Core Team and Third Party Team, then both jobs are easy and the developments will happen in smooth way. And at the same time, if the Core teams Consultants are having good experience and good command on their respective modules, then Core Team member’s expectations are always at high end and expect Excellent Quality work from third party Consultants/Developers. So in this case some clashes will takes please in between Core team and Other developer, to avoide this both teams need to work together without compromising in the Quality and with Commitment.
Out of Case: 1, Case: 2 and Case: 3 which is the tough one?
As per my experience, I can say Case: 3 is the toughest job. It will decide the future.
Why Case: 3?
I can classify the problems of Case: 3 in various ways like below…
System Understanding: Once the system is developed by some other developer (third party) after that to understand the system (before Go-Live) to the Core Team member, it will take more time. And lot of confusion and because of lack of time there may not be proper KT. As a Core Team Consultant he/she can’t check the each and every line of Code, InfoObject, InfoCube, DSO, MultiProvider, Transformation Mappings, Fields, Table, Program, Reports, and Enhancements etc…
System Testing: Core Team member didn’t get the sufficient time to test the System. Because End Users will see only values in the reports, they least bother about backend system Configuration, the reason is they just want to Report they are not Technical Consultants. So because of this we don’t know the behavior of the system after six months/one year. So to correct the system again it will effect on various factors like…
- System down Time (To load data from ECC to BI System).
- Reports may not show correct results. So decision making will become a problem for Management.
- Based on project need to hair extra resources.
- Users don’t believe on System, because of discrepancy values in Reports.
- Existing reports are not enhanceble because of some technical problems.
Like this I can say ‘n’ number of things.
User Interactions: In the last movement there may not be good interactions will happen with Business Users and Core Team Consultant. If we have good interactions with users we can easily understand the Business requirements and we will get the chance to give good solution for their problem.
Future Requirements/Enhancements: If Core Team Consultant will join in project before Go-Live/After completing the all developments, it is difficult for him to estimate the future requirements and enhancements.
Major drawbacks: If Core Team Consultant will find any problem in the system and which is universally acceptable one, and want to re-work (third party Consultant) on that developments, see the drawbacks like….
- Time lines. (No time left for Go-Live).
- Cost from Client Side and as well as from Vendor Side.
- Resource availability from both sides.
- User Testing/ Availability of Users.
- Impact on other Objects.
Like this I can say ‘n’ number of things.
My Final Conclusion:
As a responsible SAP Consultants, we need to educate (need to explain the advantages of the In-Time Resource recruitment) our Valuable Clients to recruit the Core Team Consultants in all modules (which are implementing for their Company) since beginning of the Project. It is beneficial for both Client and Vendor in various ways.
- Cost wise.
- Quality wise.
- Future Enhancements/Requirements understanding.
- In time Delivery.
- Confidence on the System.
- Good relation without miss understandings.
- Future business between Client and Vendor.
