Exceeding Client Expectations in SAP Cloud Projects

Clients want implementations delivered on time and within budget, and they also want confidence that their SAP systems will hold up in the face of fast-changing business demands.

Since most new projects are cloud-based by design or are moving in that direction, clients have updated their ideas about what good service looks like. Cloud technology has shifted the centre of gravity from technical configuration to a more advisory and outcome-focused consulting.

This article by IgniteSAP offers a brief update on what clients now expect, and how to deliver on those expanded expectations with confidence and professionalism.

Changes in SAP Projects

SAP’s move to the cloud has added to client expectations that, along with technical proficiency, consultants will understand the broader picture: including client business goals, end-to-end process thinking, change adoption, and regulatory requirements.

In SAP’s modular cloud architecture, services and capabilities are distributed across different platforms, tools, and APIs. The addition of more preconfigured content and the SAP Activate methodology has made clients keen for faster results, but they are also looking for clearer structure in projects, with expectations around phase-based outputs such as fit-to-standard documentation, test plans, integration mappings, and cutover strategies.

Executive sponsors now expect much faster decision-making, better reporting capabilities, and solutions that require less internal technical maintenance once they’re live. There’s also more pressure to prepare internal teams for adoption with limited time and support, so consultants are increasingly drawn into questions of communication, training, and user engagement.

Managing Client Expectations for SAP Cloud

Early in a project consultants should help clarify what the client actually wants, compared to what they assume they’re getting.

The client may come into the project thinking cloud means rapid deployment without trade-offs. They might assume customization is as flexible as it was on-premise. Or they might expect real-time data integration with systems that haven’t yet been assessed for readiness.

It’s necessary to educate the client on the current options, offer an honest view of what will likely go well, what might require rethinking, and where decisions may be revisited later. Being upfront helps the client avoid disappointment and sets the tone for productive working relationships.

This means giving clients a better way of understanding what they’re buying.

Consultants who do this successfully ask smart questions at this stage about preferred business outcomes, adoption goals, and user engagement: because many of the change-related issues that emerge later, begin with assumptions made here. It’s also a moment to introduce how governance will work: who will make decisions, how design choices will be reviewed, and what happens when compromises need to be made.

Integration and Customization

Expectations often need to be recalibrated around integration. SAP BTP, SAP Integration Suite, and various APIs now offer more flexible options than ever before, but that doesn’t make integration straightforward. Cloud projects often bring integration issues to the surface early, especially when legacy systems or third-party applications are involved.

Consultants will need to spend time explaining the cost of complexity. This means open conversations about what can be integrated easily, what might require middleware or transformation layers, and what should probably be postponed.

Clients expect consultants to map out likely integration points, propose standard patterns, and highlight risks before design begins. When those conversations happen later, it usually leads to pressure on timelines and testing, and can affect post-go-live stability.

The same applies to customization. While in-app extensibility and side-by-side development offer new options, consultants must tread carefully. Clients want their systems to reflect their business, but they also want predictable upgrades, reliable performance, and clarity about what’s essential and what isn’t.

SAP’s recommendation for a “clean core” architecture (keeping the digital core stable and free from unnecessary modification) is becoming a more familiar concept to many. Consequently, clients expect a design that protects upgrade paths and separates custom logic from core functionality wherever possible. Helping clients weigh the long-term trade-offs of customization makes them part of the decision, and often leads to more sustainable outcomes.

Deliverables and Documentation

Cloud projects move quickly. Fit-to-Standard workshops, for example, can produce a large number of process discussions in a short time. Those conversations should result in clear decisions, captured and handed over in a way that future teams can pick up without missing context.

This means configuration workbooks, test scripts, data maps, and role assignments need to be correct, well organized, and easy to follow. Documentation is part of the product the consultant is delivering, and it is essential for the scalability and flexibility of the delivered system.

Many clients are now familiar with SAP Activate and expect to see documentation structured around features in its phases: using business process diagrams, functional and integration test plans, and cutover playbooks and training materials.

Clients also need to understand what’s being documented. A good example is data migration. A client might assume this is a technical extract-and-load task. But a great consultant will explain the importance of data cleansing, reconcile historical records, and flag any gaps in data ownership. Doing this early builds trust, and helps the project avoid last-minute panic during go-live cutovers.

Testing deliverables are another area where expectations have risen. Clients expect traceable test cases, mapped back to business process requirements, and supported by regression plans that can be reused after each quarterly release. This means consultants need to design a test strategy that’s ready for immediate go-live confidence and sustainable enough for ongoing change.

It’s also worth noting that as projects progress, clients increasingly expect handover documents to support internal training, and compliance audits.

Stakeholder Dynamics and Strategic Influence

In cloud projects, clients will have multiple stakeholders with different ideas about what success looks like.

Executives will be looking for cost reduction or new reporting capabilities. Process owners want stable operations. IT departments are focused on maintainability and integration control. These groups don’t always communicate well, and sometimes they disagree.

Consultants who can move between these groups, adjusting their communication to suit different stakeholders, are more likely to be trusted, which is essential for optimal adoption.

This means being able to translate what’s happening in the system into language that makes sense for each group. Consultants who can explain trade-offs without deflecting blame, are more likely to get support from senior decision-makers when difficult calls need to be made.

It also helps if communication is consistent. If stakeholders hear different things from different parts of the consulting team, or if priorities shift too often, clients will start second-guessing decisions.

That’s why project governance is so crucial. Most clients now expect a governance model with clearly defined decision forums: such as design authorities, steering committees, and escalation paths, where conflicting priorities can be addressed. These give everyone involved a shared structure for how decisions are made, tracked, and communicated, and they give consultants a strong platform for providing strategic guidance.

Regulatory Expectations and Data Sensitivities

Clients are paying closer attention to compliance. Whether it’s GDPR, industry-specific regulation, or internal audit requirements, clients need consultants to be aware of how their work touches on data privacy, access rights, and security protocols.

In practice, this means being ready to respond to questions about data retention, audit logging, user provisioning, system change history, and encryption practices.

Even if the client has a dedicated compliance or security lead, consultants are expected to support those efforts. Tools like SAP Cloud Identity Access Governance are increasingly used to help manage user access and segregation of duties.

It’s also common for clients to raise concerns about system security more broadly. They may want to know what happens during a breach, how user behavior is monitored, and what fallback processes exist. These questions can surface even in early project phases and are often reviewed during cutover planning and handover.

Data sovereignty has also become a central concern in many industries, and clients will often ask where their data is stored, who can access it, and whether there are regional fallback options. In many cases, they carry legal accountability for that data.

Consultants don’t need to be legal experts, but they do need to understand what SAP’s hosting model provides, which regions are available for data residency, and how to direct clients to SAP’s Trust Center when specific assurances are required.

Post-Go-Live Expectations and Support Models

When the project reaches go-live expectations shift into a new phase.

Go-live brings with it an entirely different set of criteria for success. Now, the system must support day-to-day operations, and unresolved issues quickly become visible.

Clients need fast responses to incidents, predictable escalation paths, and visible action on feedback. Many also expect service levels to be defined, with target response times for different issue types and agreed channels for urgent requests. A consultant’s role here is to help business teams, not just the IT contacts. This means watching how the system is used, checking that users are logging in and completing tasks correctly, and helping translate confusion into manageable fixes.

It also means helping internal support teams build up their knowledge so that the dependency on consultants reduces over time, but with continuity.

That includes walkthroughs, recorded demonstrations, access to previous decisions, and documentation structured in a way that matches how the business operates. The goal is to help internal teams feel confident in owning the system.

Knowledge transfer must be taken seriously: not as a one-off event, but as a working relationship during which handover is built gradually and with care. In many cases, clients use this period to evaluate whether the consultant will be brought back for future phases, so it’s important to leave a good impression. 

The Consultant’s Role in the Long-Term

Clients now expect that the system will keep evolving, through quarterly SAP releases, changing business structures, or other emerging needs. Consultants who treat go-live as the end of the relationship miss the opportunity to add value in these follow-on stages.

Some of the most trusted consultants help clients toward a roadmap for continued improvement. This might include preparing for upcoming SAP innovations, identifying areas for automation, supporting continuous process optimization, or reviewing adoption metrics.

This is also where consultants can help clients define what ongoing success actually looks like, and how to track it. Did processing times decrease? Are users more self-sufficient? Is reporting more accurate or faster? Has manual effort reduced in key workflows? Too often, these questions are not clearly answered.

This is also another opportunity to help client know how system improvements connect to business value, and for some, helping them prepare evidence for internal business cases or funding cycles.

Professional Development

If expectations from clients have grown, so too must the consultant’s approach to learning. 

Familiarity with core modules and configuration is still important, but consultants now also need working knowledge of tools like SAP BTP, Integration Suite, Signavio, and Cloud ALM. Clients don’t expect consultants to master every platform, but they do expect them to understand how these tools connect, what problems they solve, and how they’re evolving over time.

That includes staying current with SAP’s roadmap announcements, to offer useful context when discussing what's available now versus what’s still on the horizon. Consultants who follow the roadmap are better placed to help clients plan realistically and avoid solutions that may soon become obsolete.

Guiding Expectations for SAP Cloud Systems

It is important to say no when a request isn’t right. Whether it’s unnecessary customization, an unrealistic timeline, or a proposed integration that introduces more risk than value, consultants need to develop the confidence to propose alternatives. The best way to ensure expectations are met is to first check that they are realistic. This doesn’t always come naturally, but over time, it becomes one of the most important skills in consulting.

The expectations that clients bring to SAP cloud projects are determined by competitive and economic pressure, ambition, and a desire for quick outcomes.

There is a lot of work put into spreading understanding of the possibilities of SAP systems for businesses, but these are not always appropriate for all SAP customers. For consultants, this means sometimes saying no, but it also opens the door to deeper and more meaningful involvement, guiding clients to the right choices. 

Those consultants who are able to adapt to cloud deployment, in terms of tools and techniques, but also in how they think and communicate, will find that their value only grows.

The most trusted consultants are the ones who facilitate the smoothest project, delivering SAP systems that realize business goals, and even exceed expectations.

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