Reducing SAP implementation time/cost

A case study (here) and press release (here) about a quick, clean SAP Business All-In-One implementation at TomoTherapy.  What stands out about what worked?

• Using SAP Best Practices as the baseline.  It makes it very easy when one can leverage a fully documented and functional prototype.
• Using a partner willing to leverage SAP Best Practices.  It is instructive that two partners wanted to build from the ground up.  itelligence is an SAP Best Practices partner (see list here) — the case study is a little misleading about their role in SAP Best Practices — so they were able to bring speed to the table.
• Splitting the Blueprint SOW from Execution SOW.  We are doing more and more T&M design SOWs, which is great way to get “everything on the table,” as TomoTherapy’s IT director stated.

An aside: it is funny to see that while implementation took only 16 weeks, but it took the PR machine 14 months to get out the word.