Quality at SAP
Frequently Asked Questions
Describe SAP’s quality assurance programme.
The nature of SAP’s business is such that continuously striving for excellence is critical to meeting its customers’ expectations and its own success. Quality programmes are in place to enable improvement in its Software Development, Software Support, Partner Management, Customer Management and Services (Consulting and Education).
Traditional quality programmes are in place for SAP’s Global Development Organisation. This ensures SAP employs and adheres to best practise in how it manages and assures the quality of the design, development, testing and roll-out of its solutions. ISO certification confirms the effectiveness of SAP’s processes and adherence to internationally recognised quality standards (ISO9000:2000; ISO9001:2000; ISO9004:2000; ISO19011). SAP’s Global Support Organisation also meets those ISO standards in how it logs, manages and resolves software solution issues and requests.
SAP prides itself in running a sophisticated partner programme which enables its customers to make informed decisions in the selection of implementation partner(s) and how to control delivery. Certification status of the partner firm and its consultants helps identify appropriate skill levels and adherence to SAP recommended implementation management and methodologies. The key to successful implementations is often the seamless integration of the many deliverables from each partner and the business. Delivery against legal contracts does not guarantee the success of the solution in the business. Errors can happen through poor alignment of deliverables or a narrow focus on distinct deliverables.
SAP cannot assure the success of its customers’ business and complex implementations but it can provide a list of quality principles (see attachment) to empower its customers to ask the right questions. This enables them to decide on the best quality programme to meet their needs. Ideally such a programme extends over all parties and ensures collaborative quality standards that translate into business success. SAP offers services to support customers in their development and execution of such collaborative quality programmes. Again the quality principles can help a customer to systematically evaluate the situation and make an informed decision how and when to involve SAP. Part of the involvement may include Review Services (often referred to as QA Reviews) which provide useful advice on particular areas of risk.
SAP’s Education and Consulting Services adhere to strict quality standards designed around industry best practice guidelines (e.g. from the Project Management Institute), ongoing internal reviews to ensure adherence to those guidelines, and improvement initiatives to continuously enhance and validate its standards and guidelines. SAP has made a corporate decision to adopt the internationally recognised PMBOK standard for Project Management.
SAP’s internal processes include a strict formal quality programme to monitor all accounts against formal risk criteria. Based on the specific risks in each account, actions are taken and enforced with appropriate visibility and involvement of local and global management. This quality programme places a strong focus on how SAP sells, ensuring that customers are given the necessary information to make informed decisions about their solution and implementation options. SAP strives for ethical business conduct and consistently meeting customer’s expectations. Admittedly this can be difficult when customers and partners do not seek SAP’s input, but SAP does strive to at least outline best practice principles for quality programmes and strategic risk management, along with options of engagement with SAP to jointly assure the quality of the implementation.
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How will SAP prevent and address quality issues as they arise?
In addition to SAP’s pro-active quality programmes, as discussed in point 1, SAP has formal communication channels that allow for the quick and effective management of issues as they arise. Depending on the nature of the issue and its severity, different processes apply:
All technical issues need to be formally logged and are processed depending on their severity. This process is clearly documented and proven. SAP’s Support Organisation is known to be leading edge in its reporting and monitoring functionality and process, and compares favourably with all its competitors (for details please see questions on Support). A 24 x 7 hour help line is also in place for customers to enquire and follow up on issues where the normal process appears inadequate.
All non technical issues can be raised either via the Account Manager or, depending on the SAP engagement during the implementation, with the responsible Engagement Manager. Alternatively a formal mail can be sent to the Quality Director.
All formal notifications are reviewed with the involvement of the Account Team, acknowledged and then formally managed towards resolution, as agreed with the person (customer) who raised the issue. Each case is officially assigned to an appropriate resource with sponsorship at senior management level at SAP. The overall responsibility for the management of all issues lies within the Escalation Group and is supported by the Quality Director.
All severe issues are considered ‘escalations’ and are recorded and monitored by a global reporting mechanism designed for Board level control.
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What are the process/actions SAP initiates when it is advised of unsatisfactory performance from one of its company’s employees or any outside vendor?
As described in the previous section, all issues are assigned to an individual and managed accordingly. Each case receives an assessment of the situation and an appropriate action plan.
Performance standards are clearly set for all SAP employees. Unsatisfactory performance is managed by the responsible line manager in accordance with documented Human Resource procedures. SAP Human resources has developed an ‘improvers’ programme that helps support the line management function where intervention is needed. Yearly, and sometimes quarterly performance reviews, help ensure consistent performance standards across the business.
Specific issues raised by a customer about an individual will be handled internally. The actual case of complaint will be managed as a separate case with the customer, in order to ensure a solution is found that meets the customer’s expectations going forward. Such cases are very rare as performance concerns are usually identified and resolved before they become issues.
SAP formally appraises its own vendors and contractors in line with its internal guidelines. However SAP has no direct influence on other parties that deliver to the customer, unless SAP owns the prime contract. SAP seeks to:
- provide guidance to customers about selection and management of vendors
- set standards of performance for certified partner firms
- in rare cases, SAP can take the role of a mediator between the customer and a vendor during a dispute.
SAP provides formal certification standards that assess consultant skills and the implementation methodology of the implementation partner. SAP also produces a list of 10 quality principles that, while in need of enforcement from the customer, can empower the latter to design their own quality programme and control the delivery of all partners against quality standards that translate into clear business success. Depending on SAP’s role on the project, SAP can provide direct assistance within the quality programme by facilitating the process through proven methodologies, best practices advice and review services.
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Provide process maps, exhibits and examples of the process to deal with quality issues.
Please find attached an outline of the SAP quality principles. Escalation and support processes are described in the Support Section of this document.
A detailed process document of SAP’s global organisational risk management process and tool can be provided upon request.
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Please describe any “Quality Service” incentive programmes that are in effect. Include any company specific programmes.
SAP’s incentive programme for employees puts special emphasis on customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction results from its annual survey are part of everyone’s bonus plans. SAP developers are further measured on their ability to resolve issues through the random customer satisfaction scores received during call logging. Consultants’ pay structure is based on their skills and consistent delivery against clear quality standards.
SAP’s annual customer satisfaction survey also includes a question on the quality of the implementation partner. At the beginning of each year the partner firm with the best customer satisfaction scores and visible adherence to the 10 Quality Principles is recognised by SAP and given the Partner Excellence Award. This award tends to feature in proposals as a clear sales differentiator.
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Does SAP currently have a system for customers to report quality problems?
SAP operates a formal system to log quality issues of existing software functionality and also to record quality issues due to functionality gaps and recommended developments. For more information please refer to the Support and Maintenance contract.
All implementations are given remote technical checks as part of the maintenance contract and some newer products are delivered in combination with specific safeguarding services. The purpose of these services is to give timely advice to customers, but they also enable SAP to seek customer feedback on the quality of the solution. SAP evaluates the summary of the feedback with regard to the content and roll-out of future functionality. Evaluation for future functionality is done formally during annual budgeting, but more pressing issues are escalated for immediate resolution when they become apparent.
As with all issue resolution and improvement initiatives at SAP, a director of the SAP organisation becomes the sponsor and champions a team that is set up to deliver against clear success measures.
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How are service quality problems corrected?
Service quality (as opposed to product quality) is usually captured in the regular meetings between a customer and the assigned management representative from SAP where SAP sits on the Steering Committee. All projects where SAP have adopted a strategic advisory or partner role have a senior SAP manager on the customer Steering Committee. The relationship with customers at this level enables regular discussions about expectations and delivery.
In accounts where SAP’s role is limited to being the software vendor providing some ad-hoc consulting to the customer (or partner) but with no real engagement model, SAP is bound to the previously described logging process or formal notification. Once the issues are identified, SAP always strives to better understand the problems and evaluate options for resolution.
Problems are usually corrected by first exploring the matter using the SAP formal risk management process. This may at times involve a customer or partner firm to enable joint discussions and decision making in order to find the most appropriate course of action. Resulting actions are then sponsored by the most appropriate person at SAP.
Consulting Services at SAP are managed by a formal organisation that sets and promotes quality standards globally and locally. Any changes to SAP’s methodology and skills are executed through this organisation.
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Does SAP track customer satisfaction? If yes, how is this done?
SAP runs an independent customer survey with all customers every year. The results are summarised and improvement initiatives are executed. Each customer’s results are reviewed and for any satisfaction ratings below average, an action plan is required.
Customer satisfaction is also recorded on the support system for logging and resolution of technical issues and similarly after training courses, workshops and seminars. In addition, SAP is currently rolling out a process to assess the level of customer satisfaction at project level (through post project reviews).
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