West Trax SAP KPI of the Month – July 2016

Average Percentage of Custom Code Found in SAP systems

in the Pharmaceutical Sector = 43%

Custom code programs play a particularly important role in the care and maintenance of SAP

systems. Usually they cannot be tested and updated with standard mechanisms, but require time-

consuming manual planning and actions.

When planning projects such as upgrades and consolidation the financial investment associated

with custom code should not be underestimated. Even in day-to-day operations custom code

support requires considerable time and effort and often is a cause of excessive operating costs.

The West Trax KPI of the Month for July 2016 highlights the average percentage of custom code

found in SAP systems in the Pharmaceutical sector. This currently stands at 43%.

i.e. Of all programs and transactions found in SAP systems in the Pharmaceutical sector 43% were

from the Z, Y or user-defined name spaces. This benchmark is based on 87 system analyses. The

wide variation between Measured Best Practice (MBP) and average benchmark values recorded

suggests that many systems may contain untapped potential to minimise customisation, increase

standardisation and reduce costs.

Redundant or inefficiently used custom code, underutilisation of SAP standard software and a lack

of awareness of available standard functionality all inflate the already substantial costs associated

with SAP system operations and projects. Most of the systems analysed by West Trax record

significant underutilisation of major functional components that are currently available in the

systems and are incurring SAP license and maintenance charges.

Many organisations continue to support extensively customised systems or are burdened with

substantial overheads due to redundant custom code. As a result the business advantages and

added-value expected from their strategic investments in SAP are often unrealised. The

consequences include lower productivity, increased costs, reduced profitability, compliance

exposures and customer dissatisfaction. Opportunities to re-standardise may be overlooked

leaving less mature SAP systems poorly positioned to exploit the benefits of best practice business

processes and new technologies such as the Cloud and SAP HANA®.

Find out how well your SAP systems measure up against West Trax benchmarks

and the West Trax Maturity Model for SAP Systems

email info@westtrax.com or visit West Trax