SAP services partner, Quartet Solutions, has been contracted by the South African Mint to provide project-based consulting and training services, as well as second-level support for its SAP ERP systems.
SAP is critical to the Mint. The organisation implemented the system in February 1997 for financials, production planning, logistics and HR. After considering the different options for providing the best SAP support, Mint management decided to retain internal SAP skills for the first line of support and contract with a consulting company for second level planned support.
"Quartet Solutions won the contract after impressing the Mint with its approach, pricing structure and pending BEE profile," says Rosemary Wiesner, systems manager (Admin Systems) at the Mint. "Planned support encompasses user training, recommending improvements to the system, assisting with small projects and ongoing development of the SAP systems on a monthly basis.
"Our internal SAP support team is very small and therefore limited in what it can do. Due to time constraints and the breadth of SAP, it cannot always provide sufficient training for users, while the additional support role it fulfils means that projects can take too long to implement.
"Responding to changes in the business is challenging with a small team," Wiesner says. "The support-based contract signed with Quartet will ensure the provision of services that will improve productivity and the use of information within the organisation."
Paul Bouchier, a director of Quartet, says the value of the annual contract is not fixed and will vary according to project-based needs identified by the Mint. "We offer two levels of support. Firstly, from an ongoing application support point of view and, secondly, planned project support. For example, if the Mint wants to look at best business practice in the cash management field, we will pull the skills required into a project team and execute to a previously agreed project plan," he says.
"The agreement will allow us to continue improving the functionality of our SAP system," adds Wiesner. "Ultimately, the purpose is to constantly improve what we are doing with SAP and how we are using it. Part of that must always be to further the education of users."
The Mint's SAP team meets regularly with users to determine if they have any special requirements and, if these cannot be handled internally, Quartet will provide the necessary skills and capacity.
"Quartet assists in maximising the use of technology," adds Bouchier. "With SAP, or any ERP environment for that matter, users only make use of a relatively small percentage of the total functionality of the system. Our expertise enables these users to be more effective and productive, either through adapting the system, or by providing training services."
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