When it comes to board reporting, I have seen everything ranging from 100 page slide packs to, what can only be described as, an A4 Infographic. Every company is different, and largely what goes into the report and the level of detail is driven by when the exec team are 'used to seeing'.
As a fundamental there are five things that are mandatory for any board - for any project whatsoever, not just an ERP programme. Each month the board should see: whether the programme will still deliver its benefits, cost to date, what it will cost to finish, the risks that could change benefits or costs, the decisions it needs from leadership, and whether the business is ready to receive the outcome of the programme. Each area should come with evidence and, needless to say, none of it should need any form of explaining. It should make sense to a layman.
Reading that back it sounds obvious. However, most board reports on SAP programmes still miss at least two of the five.
A two-page template
This is the page we would want a board to see. It fits on two sides and, importantly, every line has an owner.
| Section | What it shows | Who provides it |
|---|---|---|
| Benefits | Each major benefit, its owner, and whether it is still on track | The business owner of each benefit |
| Cost/Cost to complete | The current forecast, the change since last month, and the reason for the change | Client-side programme finance, with the delivery partner's input marked |
| Schedule | The next major milestone and the confidence in hitting it, with the evidence behind that confidence | The client-side programme lead |
| Top risks | The three to five risks that could change cost, date or benefits, each with an owner and a date - together with mitigations in place. | The risk owners named |
| Decisions needed | What the programme needs from this board, and by when | The programme sponsor |
| Business readiness | Whether each major area of the business will be ready to run on the new system | The heads of function, supported by change management |
Why most board reports fall short
Most programme reports are written to reassure. Status stays green until the week it turns red, because nobody wants to be the person who turned it amber. Reports describe activity, such as workshops held and documents signed off, when the board needs to know about outcomes. A long report often hides the one fact that matters - normally on page fourteen when everyone has lost the will to read that far into the deck.
There is also the question of who writes the numbers. The forecast to complete is usually built by the people doing the work. However honest they are, the board is being asked to trust a figure produced by the people who will be judged on it. A board that only ever hears good news eventually stops believing any of it.
Why the decisions section matters most
The decisions section is the part boards most often skip, whilst actually being the part that keeps a programme moving. A programme that needs nothing from its board is either in very good shape or not telling the board what it needs.
The decisions section also changes the tone of the meeting. A board that is asked to decide things becomes part of the programme. A board that only receives updates becomes an audience. That distinction matters when the programmes are high profile and will fundamentally re-wire a business.
Business readiness, every month
There is a trend in focusing on business readiness only in the last few weeks before go-live. By then, any problem is very hard to fix. Asking each head of function for a simple view of readiness every month, from early in the programme, gives the board a much earlier warning. It also tells the heads of function that the board is watching, which tends to help.
Where the information should come from
The board report should come from one source of truth that both the client and the delivery partner work from, rather than from slides assembled the night before. It should be written by the client side, with the delivery partner's input clearly marked. That is a matter of accountability rather than trust. The client owns the programme, so the client should own the story it tells its board.
Where Limelight fits
We lead the client side of SAP programmes. We work with our clients inside Prism, so the board view comes from the same evidence the programme team uses every day. We will be talking about this at UKISUG Connect in Birmingham, from 29 November to 1 December.
If you sit on a board or steering committee and want a clearer view of your SAP programme, book a Readiness Review. It is a 45-minute conversation with one of our directors. You can do that by going HERE.
