SAP Enterprise Support KPI project leader and sponsor resign

IDG News Service - SAP's joint project with user groups to demonstrate the value for money of its Enterprise Support program is still on track, the company said Friday, despite the resignation of the two user group members leading the project.

Following complaints from users that a change in SAP's software support program had pushed costs up by almost 30 percent, SAP agreed to demonstrate the value of Enterprise Support by developing a set of key performance indicators (KPIs). It also offered to delay a future rise in support costs if it did not meet targets related to those KPIs.

SAP approached the SAP User Group Executive Network (SUGEN), which brings together the heads of SAP user groups, to work on the KPIs. SUGEN set up a project team with two members of the board of the German-speaking SAP Users Group (DSAG) as project leader and project sponsor.

However, project leader Andreas Oczko and project sponsor Otto Schell both resigned on Nov. 18, a spokeswoman for DSAG said Friday.

Jean Leroux, president of the Club for French-speaking SAP Users (USF) and one of the members of SUGEN, is concerned about the news, and following the matter closely, a spokesman for USF said. Leroux could not be reached.

Despite their resignations, Oczko, the DSAG board member responsible for operation, service and support, and Schell, a DSAG board member and also vice chairperson of SUGEN, will remain involved in the project, said the DSAG spokeswoman, Angelika Jung.

Jung would say nothing about their reasons for resigning the leadership of the project. DSAG may have more to say about the matter next week, she said.

SAP too had nothing to say about the cause of the resignations. "DSAG is an independent user group and we cannot comment on their decision," said SAP spokesman Christoph Liedtke via e-mail.

The resignations will have little effect on the benchmarking program, according to SAP. "We expect that the KPI program will be continued by SUGEN," said Liedtke.

The KPI measurement project is on track and will continue, although it is too early to speculate about the results, he said.

"The process is very promising. But it is premature to make any conclusions at this point -- for SAP as well as for others," said Liedtke.