Why SAP Key Users Struggle After Go-Live — And What Helps

They are described as the bridge between the business and IT. As multipliers. As the first point of contact for all questions about the new SAP system. As internal experts who pass their knowledge on to colleagues. In short: as the number one success factor in every S/4HANA implementation or larger SAP transformation.

What tends to get overlooked: all of this is expected to happen on the side. Alongside a full day-to-day workload, alongside year-end tasks, alongside covering for colleagues on leave, alongside the normal responsibilities of the department. And after go-live — when the project is officially closed and external support has been withdrawn — key users suddenly find themselves on their own.

A survey conducted by IT-Onlinemagazin on behalf of tts GmbH shows: around 80 percent of organizations report current or imminent key user overload. Almost a third see project goals seriously at risk — and nearly half feel the pressure clearly.

Source: IT-Onlinemagazin / tts GmbH, 2025

This is not an isolated case. It is a pattern that repeats itself across S/4HANA projects, template rollouts, and larger SAP process transformations — regardless of industry or company size.

What Key Users Are Expected to Do — and What That Means in Practice

The key user role looks well-structured on paper: co-design processes, test new workflows, create documentation, train colleagues, serve as the first point of contact for questions, and relay feedback between the business and IT.

What project handbooks rarely say: this role comes on top. The accounts payable clerk nominated as key user for FI-AP continues to post incoming invoices, prepare the month-end close, and handle supplier queries. The key user responsibilities are now added on — and after go-live, so is the unofficial role of first-level support for everyone who does not know how the new Fiori app works.

Whoever designates key users must also provide capacity, backing, and a clear understanding of the role — otherwise a critical function quietly becomes a hidden overload. That is not a question of the motivation of the people involved. It is a question of leadership.

What Key Users Are Typically Expected to Do After Go-Live

Serve as the first point of contact for user questions about processes and Fiori apps
Assess errors and unclear situations and decide: resolve directly or escalate?
Onboard new employees into the system
Communicate system changes and updates to the department
Collect feedback on process deviations and optimization needs
All of this — alongside a full day-to-day workload

Why the Overload Is Particularly Severe After Go-Live

During the project, support is still available: external consultants, a project team, regular check-ins, clear points of contact. After go-live, the project team withdraws. External support ends. The hypercare phase — if there was one — is over within a few weeks.

What remains is the full operational load of the new system. And it is precisely now that the questions arise that could not surface during the project: what to do when a payment run throws an error no one has seen before? How to post correctly when the process in the new system runs differently than in ECC? Who decides whether a problem is a user error or a system error?

Practical Note

The knowledge key users built during the project is often broad rather than deep. They understand the process at an overview level and have worked through test scenarios — but the real edge cases of day-to-day operations only emerge in live operations. Exactly when external support is no longer available.

There is also a problem that is systematically underestimated in projects: key users are frequently selected for their subject matter expertise — not for their ability to transfer knowledge. Someone who has known the purchase-to-pay process for years is not automatically a trainer. Methodological competence, didactics, and the patience to support colleagues with the same questions repeatedly are skills in their own right — and they are rarely developed systematically.

The Five Most Common Overload Traps

1. The Dual Role Without Relief

Key users are expected to reserve 50 percent of their time for the project — that is what some project plans state. In reality, day-to-day business continues, and the 50 percent comes on top. After go-live, the dual role becomes even more pronounced: a full working day plus unofficial IT support for the department.

2. Insufficient Depth in System Knowledge

Key users learned how standard processes run during the project. Edge cases, error patterns, and exceptions only emerge in live operations — when they are already expected to be the experts. This creates a gap between what is expected of them and what they can confidently answer.

3. Unclear Escalation Paths

Who do you call when the system shows an error no one has seen before? Is it a user problem, a process issue, or a technical fault? In many organizations, there is no clearly defined support path after go-live. Key users end up caught between the business, the IT helpdesk, and the external consultant — without knowing where the problem belongs.

4. New Employees Without an Onboarding Concept

Project training happens once, shortly before go-live. Anyone who joins the organization afterward is typically introduced to the system by whichever key user is available — informally, incompletely, and without consistent quality. The knowledge passed on does not match what new employees actually need.

5. No Backing From Leadership

When leadership does not actively protect the key user role — by genuinely creating capacity, making the role visible internally, and consistently standing behind it — the role becomes an add-on task without recognition. That wears people down. Motivation drops, and with it the quality of internal support.

What the Consequences Are — for the Organization

Overloaded key users are not a personal problem for the individuals involved. They are a structural risk to project success and ongoing operations.

Typical Consequences of Overloaded Key Users

Users ask questions less often — and continue working with workarounds instead
The IT helpdesk is overloaded with questions that are actually subject-matter issues
Errors in system usage become entrenched and turn into the new routine
The investment in the SAP transformation fails to deliver its potential
Key users lose motivation and withdraw from the role
New employees are onboarded incompletely — and entrench the mistakes of their predecessors

When key users fail, it is not the technology that fails. It is the knowledge transfer — and with it the real core of every successful SAP transformation.

What Actually Helps — and What Does Not

The answer is not to pile even more onto key users. The answer lies in concrete, structured support — before and after go-live.

What Does Not Help

One-off project training shortly before go-live. Informal briefings without consistent quality. The expectation that strong subject matter experts are automatically good trainers. And the hope that things will settle down by themselves after a few weeks.

What Does Help

Key users need targeted support in three areas after go-live: deeper system knowledge for the edge cases of day-to-day operations, methodological competence for passing that knowledge on — and a clearly defined source of backing when questions arise that they cannot resolve themselves.

Proven Approaches From Practice

In-depth follow-up training — 4 to 8 weeks after go-live, when the real questions of daily work have surfaced. Not before.
SAP office hours — regular fixed sessions in the first months where key users can clarify open questions with an experienced contact. No ticket, no form, direct answers.
Clear escalation paths — defined in writing: user errors go to the key user, process questions to the module owner, technical faults to IT.
Structured onboarding concept — documented and reproducible for new employees, not improvised each time.
Visibility of the role — leadership actively communicates who the key users are, what their role means, and what capacity has been set aside for it.

How I Support Key Users Concretely

As an SAP FI/CO consultant and trainer, I work specifically with key users after go-live — not with general overview training, but with hands-on support for the situations that actually arise in day-to-day operations. My focus modules are FI/CO: GL, AP, AR, AA, and bank accounting.

My Offerings for Key Users After Go-Live

Key user follow-up training FI/CO — module-specific, hands-on, focused on the real edge cases that only become visible in live operations
SAP office hours after go-live — regular sessions, for example two to three times per week in the first weeks after go-live, for direct questions without tickets or waiting times
Key user coaching FI/CO — individual support for key users who want to understand their role more deeply and fulfill it with greater confidence
Onboarding concept for new SAP users — structured, documented, and ready to use for new employees without starting from scratch each time

The format depends on what the organization and the people involved need right now. The goal is always the same: key users who can fill their role with confidence — who answer questions instead of passing them on, and who genuinely support their colleagues.

Is Your Key User Model Sustainable?

If you answer at least two of these questions with "No," there is a concrete need to act:

Do key users have protected, dedicated time allocations for their role after go-live?
Are escalation paths defined in writing — who receives which type of problem?
Is there follow-up training 4 to 8 weeks after go-live, when the real questions become visible in live operations?
Is there a structured, reproducible onboarding concept for new employees?
Are there regular SAP office hours where key users receive direct support?

Request a Key User Support Check

In 30 minutes, we look together at where your key user model stands —

and which format will most effectively support your key users after go-live.

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