New Research: 40% of Companies Running SAP Reluctant to Update Regularly

Survey data suggests IT teams concerned updates will introduce issues that disrupt business
By: Original Software
 
Oct. 31, 2014 - PRLog -- Forty percent of companies running SAP are reluctant to update the software regularly, according to new research by Original Software http://origsoft.com. Other data from the study suggest the most likely reason for this reluctance is concern the update process will introduce issues that disrupt business.

In a global survey of IT professionals at 60 firms with SAP installations about their approach to upgrading ERP applications, more than 80 percent of respondents reported that supporting the needs of the business was the critical success factor in any project. The same group also reported:

• When enhancing SAP, testing and validation is the heaviest workload by man days;

• The greatest challenges to testing and validation are “quality/quantity of test scripts,” “availability of SAP users” and “communication/collaboration” among members of the update team;

• One third of update projects overrun by about five months;

• And, more than a quarter of updates exceed budget by about 25 percent.

Interpreting the study’s results, Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software commented: “The reason many IT teams are afraid of frequent SAP updates is not only the amount of time, effort and money necessary for testing and validating updates, but the risk of disruption to business operations. For example, the last thing a company needs is to suddenly become incapable of collecting debts, which, sadly, is a scenario we have seen when companies have sub-standard testing processes.”

Armitage added: “Our SAP testing solution http://origsoft.com/solutions/sap-erp-testing/ addresses this concern directly by enabling IT teams to make more frequent changes, go live with confidence and cut overall project length by a third. Thereby closing the gap between what the business needs and what the application delivers.”

Phil Court, Head of Information Systems for brewing and pub group Marston’s, corroborated Armitage’s interpretation of the results with his comments during a recent interview with Original Software: “I would recommend this as great way to accelerate an SAP upgrade. It keeps costs down, enables business and project people to spend less time in manual validation, and focuses effort on areas of change. It has reduced risk for Marston’s.”

In a similar study earlier this year, Original Software and its research partner UK Oracle User Group (UKOUG) found nearly three quarters (72 percent) of Oracle E-Business Suite users surveyed cited “minimizing the risk of not supporting core business systems” as their most important success factor when upgrading. Read the EBS survey news release.

About the Study

Original Software conducted a 60-day online survey during the second quarter of 2014 among personnel involved in software testing and quality assurance at large and small companies around the world. Sixty technical and business managers responded representing multiple industries, most notably the fields of manufacturing and financial services. Respondents from 15 countries participated with more than half coming from the US and about a fifth coming from the UK.

About Original Software

Original Software enables organizations to meet their objectives more rapidly by delivering enterprise application functionality frequently and efficiently. Knowledge workers and IT professionals use our technology to streamline user acceptance testing, conference room pilots, manual and automated testing, project management, and regulatory audit of applications. The software provides the fastest way to capture and share business processes, validate application functionality, and manage projects in real time. Customers report massive increases in productivity, enabling them to keep up with changing business needs while reducing cost. More than 400 organizations, of all sizes and industries and operating in over 30 countries count on Original Software every day. http://www.origsoft.com

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Press Contacts

Bob Dirkes
US PR for Original Software
Tel: (312) 286 0518
rcdirkes@origisoft.com

Lucy Clark
UK PR & Communications
Tel: +44 (0) 7984 184461
lclark@origsoft.com

Maria Martin
Marketing Manager
Tel: +44 1256 338
press@origsoft.com

Contact
Bob Dirkes
***@origisoft.com
End
Source:Original Software
Email:***@origisoft.com
Tags:Software Testing, Sap Upgrade, Software Upgrade, Technology Upgrade, Business Software Applications
Industry:Computers, Technology
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