SAP S/4HANA Cutover Lead (Management Consultant)

ABOUT BLUE SKIES CONSULTING (BSC)

Our firm specializes in enabling strategic business transformation programs. We integrate technology, data, process, and people dimensions to design and deliver comprehensive solutions for digital and enterprise transformation initiatives.

We are a specialty boutique founded by industry veterans with the mission of creating a community of professionals who are driven by relentless pursuit of excellence and who also value professional and personal quality of life.

Our clients are our partners, and our relationships are the foundation of our firm. We support large scale global organizations in projects involving new technology implementations, corporate re-organization, and growth initiatives. We enable our partners’ success by connecting the dots across process, technology, data, and people dimensions. Our consultants drive program leadership and technology strategy, manage end-to-end enterprise data activities, and simplify organizational change.

SAP/S4 HANA Cutover Lead

The Cutover Lead will be responsible for planning and managing the execution of all SAP ERP project activities concerning transitioning the business from legacy systems and processes to new technology solutions following a new common process across all impacted sites and business functions.

This position requires strong analytical and organizational skills, with professional communication using a variety of mediums and methods to assure user comprehension. It will entail coordinating the activities of multiple departments, work threads, and/or physical sites around each go-live preparation, ramp down, cutover, and ramp up activities in a methodical and consistent model. It will include integrating all IT, data, and business activities across all impacted work threads and end users to prepare the organization for final go-live, hypercare and business transition to steady state.

The Cutover Lead will oversee the creation and ongoing execution of the Cutover Preparation/Readiness Plan, Business Ramp-Down, System and Physical Blackout and Cutover, and Controlled Business Start Up and System Stabilization plans.

The scope of this work includes gathering all requirements for end-to-end cutover activities, integration and creation of a consolidated and coordinated master plan, coordinating the execution of rehearsals and all preparation activities, and management of the cutover execution, reporting to project leadership and business sponsors.

A key responsibility will be the analysis of the cutover activities, risk management, failure modes analysis, and contingency planning.

Required Experience:

Understanding of end-to-end ERP functionality Plan/Source/Make/Quality/Sales Order (Management/Inventory and Warehouse Management/Distribution/Finance - SAP preferred)

Understanding of supply chain operations and relevant supply chain KPIs

Experience in leadership roles as part of global complex enterprise software implementations operating in highly matrixed shared service environments

Expertise in managing workshops, facilitating groups, and leading stakeholders through planning exercises

Expertise in communicating technical subject matter in a variety of modes and formats with skill at creating visualizations and other methods of translating complex information into easily digestible chunks in order to align various stakeholders from the shop floor to the C-Suite

Experience in developing and managing go-live readiness assessments, stage-gate reviews, and go/no-go decision processes preferred

Executive polish and ability to report out to senior executives

Minimum of five years demonstrating successful project and systems implementation experience in leadership positions applying project management body of knowledge principles (initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, finalizing)

At least one, but ideally two of the following three:

Experience managing data conversions

Experience managing IT cutover, code promotion, or software release

Experience managing physical site, equipment, and/or product transition from legacy to new process

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Ensure that data migration, IT release, and business cutover activities are identified, sequenced, and integrated

Ensure that business ramp down and ramp up plans are created and aligned

Develop cutover governance framework

Develop solution stabilization, support, and business ramp up framework

Develop a detailed Integrated Cutover Plan, manage rehearsals, and execution

Coordinate and manage go-live readiness work by all impacted work threads, reporting to project leadership

Develop benchmarks, metrics and measures for go-live readiness

Coordinate the milestones, priorities, and risks concerning Cutover within all phases of the program lifecycle

Manage and report on the project schedule, including updating of the project plans

Blue Skies Consulting provides competitive compensation tailored to qualifications and experience of each applicant. The annual compensation for this role varies, ranging from $100,000 to $250,000, depending on expertise and years of experience.