For CFOs & finance leaders running SAP transformations
Most SAP transformations don't fail on the software.
They fail on time, cost, requirements, and adoption — after the money's already spent.
The failure modes
Five ways these programs go wrong — and why the software is rarely the reason.
01 Delays
The six-month configuration becomes eighteen. Every slip compounds: the business case erodes, the sponsor's credibility erodes, and the team starts cutting corners to hit a date that's already gone.
02 Over budget
The number quietly doubles. Scope you assumed was included turns out to be an add-on. Rework you didn't plan for eats the contingency. The finance leader who approved the business case is left explaining a variance nobody flagged early.
03 Failed requirements
The program delivers what was specified — not what the business actually needed. Technically complete, functionally wrong. The gap between "the SOW says done" and "finance can actually close the quarter with it" is where these die.
04 Change management
The technology lands and the organization doesn't move with it. Process, training, and ownership get treated as an afterthought — and the transformation stalls on the human side while the software sits ready.
05 Business adoption
The one that actually kills the ROI: it goes live, and people revert. Back to the spreadsheet, back to the workaround, back to the old way. Deployed on paper, failed in practice — and the promised savings never materialize.
Every one of these lives in the seam between the technical build and the business outcome. The system integrator owns the config. The business owns the requirement. Almost no one owns the bridge between them — which is exactly where the program falls through. That bridge is what I do.
How I work
Prevention, or rescue.
Prevention
Starting a program?
Bring me in before the failure modes set in. I pressure-test the plan, the scope, the requirements, and the adoption strategy against 20 years of watching where OTC and Vistex programs break — so the risks get caught while they're still cheap to fix.
Rescue
Program already slipping?
If you're mid-flight and it's going sideways — over budget, behind schedule, or heading for a go-live nobody trusts — I diagnose why, fast, and give you a defensible path to salvage it. Not a restart. A recovery.
I work alongside your SI and technical teams, not around them — de-risking the program without disrupting it.
Track record
Both sides of the gap.
Twenty years building, implementing, and rescuing SAP Order-to-Cash and Vistex systems — across Vistex, IBM, and PwC. I've been the implementer who configures these programs and the advisor who has to make the numbers defensible to finance. That's both sides of the gap most transformations fall into. Now I work directly with CFOs and transformation leaders who want a different outcome than the one they've seen before.
Where to start
SAP Transformation Risk Review
A focused diagnostic of where your OTC/Vistex program is most likely to fail — or, if it's already troubled, why. Fixed scope, fixed timeline, clear written findings you can take to your sponsor or steering committee.
- For programs being planned: a failure-mode risk map before you commit budget.
- For programs in flight: a rapid diagnosis and a recovery path.
- Deliverable: written assessment + a working session.