West Trax launch SAP quality mark

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Nov 27, 2007

Organisations in the homebuilding industry can, for the first time, prove the effectiveness of their use of SAP systems to the wider business community thanks to launch of new award programme.

SAP specialist West Trax has launched the West Trax SAP Quality Award scheme to recognise best practice in how firms control and maximise the optimal efficiency of their SAP system.

The programme uses key performance indicators to show which businesses are getting true value out of their SAP systems across various industries.

In today's homebuilding industry, homebuilders must overcome the pressures of fast growth and increasing competition, cost, and schedule demands, while adapting to changing economic conditions linked to variable mortgage rates, equity markets, employment rates, and politics.

Successful homebuilders excel by building quality homes on time and on budget, executing efficiently, and sharing accurate, up-to-date information about projects and processes with construction contractors, customers, and internal departments.

The SAP for Engineering, Construction and Operations (SAP for ECandO) set of solutions, designed specifically for the homebuilding industry, enables businesses to standardise and integrate business processes - from marketing and sales to land development, construction management, payroll, and accounting - and extend those processes to suppliers and subcontractors.

Certification for the scheme is based on qualification criteria for seven defined disciplines.

To qualify in a discipline a system's KPI is ranked against all similar data gathered from KPI Scan analyses of live production systems in that industry.

A system qualifies for a Bronze rating in a discipline if it ranks within the top 30% of all systems analysed to date in its industry.

If it is within the top 20% a Silver rating is awarded and if in the top 10% Gold is awarded.

The following disciplines have been defined for the certification process:.

Degree of standardisation.

Unused relevant standard potential.

Percent custom developments.

Percent unused custom developments.

Custom development response times.

Custom development usage frequencies.

Documentation of used programs.

Quality Award Qualification Criteria.

The Award qualification criteria are as follows:.

Bronze.

Bronze results must be achieved in disciplines 1 or 4 and a new Measured Best Practice (MBP) value must be established in another discipline.

Alternatively bronze level results must be achieved in disciplines 1 and 4.

Silver.

Silver level results are required for disciplines 1 or 4 and a new Measured Best Practice (MBP) value must be established in another discipline Alternatively Silver level results must be achieved in disciplines 1 and 4.

The system must also meet the Silver criteria in two additional disciplines.

Gold.

Gold values must be achieved in disciplines 1 or 4 and a new Measured Best Practice (MBP) value must be established in another discipline.

Alternatively Gold level results must be achieved in disciplines 1 and 4.

The system must also meet the Gold criteria in four additional disciplines.

West Trax commissioned Jorg Schultze-Bohl, a publicly appointed certified expert from the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Darmstadt, Germany to audit and document the KPI Scan methodology and the requirements for the individual disciplines.

Enterprises whose SAP systems meet these requirements may now qualify for a Bronze, Silver or Gold quality award.

Those qualifying for a West Trax Quality Award can expect to benefit in many areas of their business.

Lean business processes, improved cost structures, increased user acceptance and shorter project cycles will increase the enterprise's competitiveness and market opportunities significantly, especially in today's globalised world, where speed, quality and price are key success factors.

Clients with outsourced SAP systems and their service providers will gain a key cost advantage.

Transparent systems require less maintenance and as a result costs can be reduced.

With its portfolio of complementary analysis tools, West Trax helps enterprises to optimise and align their SAP systems throughout their life-cycle whilst achieving significant and recurring cost savings.