Remote SAP Consulting - A Practice Whose Time Has Come
In today's SAP consulting market, many SAP clients and SAP consultants both need and prefer to work remotely.
For the SAP consultant, delivering remote SAP consulting offers the possibility of avoiding nights away from home.
For SAP clients, remote SAP consulting offers the benefit of reduced logistics costs.
SAP Remote Consulting
What's Not to Like?
Are there any mistakes to avoid or SAP Consulting Best Practices to follow when operating in these environments:
Our experience tells us that there are Technical, Project Management, Consultant and SAP Client Mistakes and Best Practices to be aware of:
Technical:
- Corporate security:
Corporate Security requirements must be met, however, they may have to be heavily modified to provide an optimal SAP remote consulting environment. These can prove to be one of the more complex business challenges to solve, but obviously, COVID proved that it can and must be done.
If your internal security team cannot or will not provide the access, then you cannot do a remote consulting project. - Bandwidth:
Depending upon what part of the world your business is in and what part of the world your SAP consultants are working from, you will need all the bandwidth you can get. Remote SAP consulting jobs are just as bandwidth intense whether you're in New York or India. - Remote Access:
There are a lot of different tools in use out there, such as Citrix, but we have found a variety of tools are actually being used.
Until complete testing of all Remote Access procedures has been accomplished by all members of the team, you aren't ready.
Work from home arrangements have proven to be a real boon for employee and employer alike. As a SAP services company, we work remotely almost always, and when we must go on the road, we ensure our people are well taken care of. - Social Media:
All great SAP consultants have an extensive list of fellow SAP Consultants on one or more chat clients. These consultants are often located around the world.
If you block them, you have essentially crippled the team. If this cannot be avoided, the SOW must be modified heavily.
We all know a lot, but our extended team knows even more. Remote companies go out of their way to encourage remote team collaboration. Customers benefit from this, and suffer when they prevent it from happening, as so many do.
Project Management
- Face-Time.
Depending on the culture you are in, this single aspect can make or break the idea of delivering a project via remote consulting.
In many companies and not a few countries, the culture requires a high-degree of face time between the PM and the client team. Remote work can be very difficult in these environments, even today, post COVID. - Remote Project Management:
Potentially possible, but depending on the complexity of the project, challenging at best, disastrous at worst.
Your key stakeholders usually need to 'press the flesh' and will often replace those who are unable or unwilling to be onsite.
That said, this author has remotely managed dozens of Hubspot Marketing projects, so it is possible. It's just part of the job description. - Team Management:
Requires a much higher degree of direct instruction to ensure everyone is working to plan.
Larger teams, beyond about 40 consultants, require assistants.
Many job seekers are looking for far more guidance from their project manager than they would typically get, and this, in turn, puts even more pressure on the project manager. - Time Zone Differences:
If you have teams working from other countries, i.e., India, they change to your shift, or your project will suffer extreme turn-over.
Tech companies from Indian usually have a tiny footprint in the USA or Europe, while the majority of their workforce is in India due to the cost differential. - Cultural Differences:
Given that if you are running a project, say, in France, with consultants both in the U.S. and Asia (been there, done that), you will have to be aware of and manage multiple cultural expectations. Your project timeline most certainly does not account for this now.
Remote Consultant
- Communication:
When working remotely, you will need to over communicate and via multiple channels.
As a project manager, you must keep in mind that number of communication channels and the additional friction that exists within these highly stretched and stressed communication channels. - Adjusting to the Clients Way of Working:
For many clients, it may be the very first experience with working a project remotely.
Expectations will need to be set by all.
You will need to step up your game to succeed.
SAP Clients
- Control and Feedback:
SAP Clients who engage remote consultants will need to learn to 'Trust' their consultants.
When your project consist of one or more global teams, you will, of necessity, require more management overhead to manage these remote consulting teams.
This is one of the biggest challenges of managing remote consulting teams. It also happens to be one of the biggest factors to be considered when accepting a remote consulting job. - Uninterrupted Attention Time Buckets:
Although very difficult given the highly wired environments we all work in, in order to work with remote consultants effectively, small, uninterrupted periods of your attention will be required.
The higher the job title of the client, the less likely this is and thus, the most difficult aspect of it. - Lean on the Project Manager:
Best practice is to have a dedicated PM for these. If you're engaging a SAP Partner, you will need a SAP project manager that can manage both sides of these approach.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Remote consulting can be advantageous to both SAP Clients and SAP Consultants, no doubt. However, it has its challenges and requires highly skilled team mates all around.
Impact of Artificial Intelligence
With the rapid advancement of information technology, the impact of artificial intelligence on remote consulting is expected to be significant. AI can assist in automating repetitive tasks, reducing human error, and providing real-time data analysis for remote consultants. This can lead to improved efficiency, faster project completion, and a reduction in costs. Additionally, AI can help improve the security of remote consulting by identifying and addressing potential vulnerabilities. As remote consulting continues to grow in popularity, the integration of AI will likely become a key factor in providing high-quality and secure services to clients.
Innovative Solutions Driven by Remote Consulting
Remote consulting is rapidly becoming a preferred option for SAP clients and consultants alike. One of the key advantages of remote consulting is the ability for leading employers to gain access to industry thought leaders and industry experts that they would not have had access to otherwise. Furthermore, it offers innovative solutions at a lower cost, as reduced logistics costs and avoidance of nights away from home can be achieved. With the integration of artificial intelligence, remote consulting has the potential to become even more efficient, with the ability to automate repetitive tasks and provide real-time data analysis. As the popularity of remote consulting continues to grow, its integration with AI will likely become a key factor in providing high-quality and secure services to clients.
Remote Consulting Delivered Business Development
Leading companies are now turning to remote consulting as a means of delivering business development services. With the advancement of technology, remote consulting has become an efficient and cost-effective way to gain access to industry experts and thought leaders. This approach has proven to be highly beneficial for both SAP clients and consultants, with reduced logistics costs and increased flexibility. However, remote consulting also presents certain challenges that must be addressed. These include technical and project management issues, as well as cultural differences and communication barriers. The integration of artificial intelligence can help overcome some of these challenges, providing real-time data analysis and automating repetitive tasks. As remote consulting continues to grow in popularity, it is likely that AI will become an essential component in delivering high-quality and secure services to clients.
Get SAP Remote Consulting
We have executed many projects remotely, with great success. Increasingly, our clients and consultants are asking for the opportunity to work remotely. Why not ask us now for some SAP Remote Consulting Support.
Do You Have Remote Consulting Experiences to Share?
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