The situation
S/4HANA programs fail in predictable ways: customization creep, a business case that quietly drifts from the delivery, design decisions that queue for months, and vendor governance that softens once the program is underway.
The manufacturer wanted the value protected from day one — starting at the RFP, not after the first slipped milestone.
What we did
- 01Ran the program PMO and value assurance from the initial RFP onward.
- 02Managed value and business-case delivery throughout — benefits treated as commitments to track, not projections to revisit.
- 03Ran the KDD council, giving key design decisions quick executive review and oversight so they were decided fast instead of stalling delivery.
- 04Held high-quality SI vendor governance with strict control of customizations, budget, integrations, and value delivery.
- 05Onboarded a lower-cost vendor for data migrations and integrations, scoped deliberately to decouple cleanly from the core ERP work.
The outcome
- The program delivered on target, with high quality.
- Customizations, budget, and integrations held under strict control — the classic S/4HANA failure modes never took hold.
- A two-vendor structure that paid premium rates only where they earned them.
Engagement delivered by Avirso leadership during their tenure at a global management consultancy, prior to founding Avirso.