You approved the business case. Who makes sure it delivers?

A credible SAP business case starts with the specific value levers the organisation wants to pull — cost reduction, margin improvement, working capital efficiency — and works backwards to the capabilities and technology required. It includes realistic cost assumptions, a clear ROI timeline, and an honest view of delivery risk.

Fixed-scope means deliverables, timeline, and cost are agreed before work begins — and do not change without your explicit agreement. There are no hidden extensions, no mid-programme 'additional workstream' conversations, and no invoices that reflect effort rather than outcomes. You know what you are paying for before you commit.

Discovery by invoice happens when programmes begin before scope, business case, and readiness are properly defined. The SI surfaces complexity it claims was not visible at the outset, and the client absorbs the cost because stopping is worse than continuing. Prevention means doing the setup work properly before the SI is engaged.

The direct costs — consultant fees, licensing, internal resource — are visible. The indirect costs are where the real damage occurs: management time consumed by governance, business disruption during extended transitions, deferred strategic initiatives, talent lost to programme fatigue, and reputational cost at board and shareholder level.

Most programme financial reporting is retrospective and filtered through the SI. By the time a cost overrun appears in a monthly report, the decisions that caused it were made weeks earlier. Limelight's tooling provides live financial visibility — actual spend against budget, forecast to completion, and early warning indicators for cost risk.

SAP ROI is maximised when three conditions are met: the business case is built around genuine value levers from the outset; scope discipline is maintained so that what was promised is what gets built; and the organisation is genuinely change-ready at go-live so benefits can be realised rather than deferred.

The primary cost drivers are programme scope and complexity, SI day rates and team size, internal resource commitment, data migration complexity, integration requirements, and the cost of extended timelines caused by poor programme setup. Organisations that define scope clearly before engaging an SI consistently spend less than those that do not.

SAP transformation costs are notoriously difficult to estimate upfront — largely because most programmes begin before scope is properly defined. A RunFast Launchpad produces a realistic cost model with assumptions made explicit, giving the CFO genuine visibility to hold the programme accountable.

• Programme scope and SI team size
• Data migration volume and quality
• Integration complexity with non-SAP systems
• Change management and training investment
• Extended timelines caused by poor programme setup 

SAP projects overspend most commonly because scope is poorly defined before the SI starts, the business case uses SI cost estimates rather than independent benchmarks, change management is underresourced, and governance is too weak to challenge scope additions. Every one of these is preventable with the right programme foundations.

Prevention starts in the Launchpad phase. Limelight's model is built to prevent the conditions that cause overruns — not to recover from them after the fact.

• Vague scope baseline that SIs interpret generously
• Business case built on SI estimates rather than independent data
• Underresourced change management and business readiness
• Weak governance that cannot challenge scope additions
• Delayed recognition of problems that compound over time 

The first step is a structured consultation — typically sixty to ninety minutes — in which we understand your programme's current position, objectives, and the specific challenge you are trying to solve. We will be direct about whether and how Limelight can help. There is no commitment required and no proposal pushed before that conversation.