Craig Blumenow

Senior Program Manager @SEFE Energy UK

London, GB

The Role: SAP S/4HANA Programme Manager, for this European energy company. Reason for leaving: I was brought on board to manage the commercial negotiations with the main vendors, and then to manage the Design phase to completion. That will be accomplished by Feb 2025, at which time I do expect to be renewed for the rest of the programme, but contractually I am open to opportunities at that point.The Project: Extensive commercial negotiations with the solution integrator Accenture, as well as the other vendors SAP, KPMG, and Avanade. Programme planning, to align with very tight timelines to meet broader SEFE privatisation plans. Onboarding and stabilisation of the extended team (in-house plus vendors). Operationally manage the change of SI from KPMG to Accenture. Manage the Design Phase to conclusion: full greenfield re-implementation, moving from 2 distinct legacy ECC systems (Germany and UK) to S/4HANA. Scope covers extensive financial and controlling, procurement, sales, assets, logistics, Success Factors, Ariba, and data warehouse, as well as energy-company-specific processes involving sales, securities trading, and treasury.Achievements: Successfully finalised the contracting in budget for all vendors (MSA, SOW’s and related documents), including extensive negotiation and alignment on fees, resourcing, assumptions, and balance of risks. Defined and planned the deliverables list comprising the project, across all vendors. Onboarded the extended programme team: aligned ways of working, governance, hiring, secondments, resolved disputes, managed escalations, successfully aligned team dynamics. Implemented Management-by-Metrics approach for measuring and reporting progress, as well as for identifying and unblocking risk areas and issues. Transition from Process Design (facilitated by KPMG) to Detailed Design (facilitated by Accenture) has been successfully completed, overcoming various obstacles, some expected but many emergent.

University of the Witwatersrand

Bachelor of Commerce - BCom, Information Technology

University of the Witwatersrand

Bachelor of Architecture - BArch, Architecture