SAP for Hospitality in the Caribbean: ERP for Hotels, Resorts, and Travel Companies

SAP for hospitality ERP connecting hotel and resort operations in the Caribbean

What is SAP for hospitality? SAP for hospitality means using SAP’s ERP and cloud applications, mainly SAP S/4HANA, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Ariba, and SAP Business Technology Platform, to run finance, procurement, operations, and analytics for hotels, resorts, and travel businesses. In most cases, SAP integrates with the property management system (PMS) rather than replacing it.

What makes ERP for the hospitality industry different?

Most ERP conversations start with finance and procurement. ERP for the hospitality industry has to start there too, but layer on guest-facing operations that most other industries do not have to reconcile against the books in real time: occupancy, housekeeping status, room readiness, service orders, and loyalty activity all need to connect back to revenue and cost in a way that is visible the same day, not at month-end.

The businesses that struggle most with legacy or fragmented systems tend to share the same symptoms: disconnected reservation, property management, and finance systems that require manual reconciliation; inventory and supplier management that stays reactive because nobody has real-time visibility into consumption; and forecasting that cannot keep pace with how quickly demand and pricing shift across a season.

Where does SAP for hospitality fit a Caribbean hotel or resort?

SAP’s reach in this industry is not incidental: SAP reports that it supports more than 80% of the world’s top hotel groups. That scale is a reason to take the platform seriously for a Caribbean hospitality business, but it is not a reason to adopt it uncritically; the fit still has to be evaluated against the realities of your properties, not SAP’s enterprise reputation.

  • Unifying operations across departments. SAP S/4HANA for hospitality connects front-of-house operations, housekeeping, maintenance, and finance into one system, so occupancy and room readiness data is not sitting in a separate property management system disconnected from the general ledger.
  • Automating routine guest-facing workflows. Bookings, housekeeping assignments, service orders, and check-in processes can be automated through SAP’s core platform combined with SAP Business Technology Platform, reducing the manual coordination that eats staff time during peak season.
  • Real-time operational visibility. Live insight into occupancy, room readiness, and maintenance needs lets operations leaders make same-day decisions instead of discovering problems in a weekly report.
  • Financial forecasting built for seasonality. SAP Analytics Cloud supports demand planning, dynamic pricing, and revenue forecasting that account for the seasonal swings inherent to Caribbean tourism, rather than assuming steady, predictable demand the way a generic finance module often does.
  • Procurement and spend visibility. Centralizing supplier management and spend data through SAP Ariba gives hospitality finance teams the visibility to control costs and catch profitability leaks that are easy to miss when procurement decisions happen property by property, disconnected from the group’s overall spend data.
  • Compliance and financial controls. As Caribbean hospitality businesses face growing data protection and safety regulatory requirements, SAP GRC capabilities support the audit trails and financial controls that regulators and lenders increasingly expect, without adding a parallel manual compliance process.

Is GROW with SAP a realistic path for a Caribbean hospitality group?

For a Caribbean hospitality business without an existing SAP footprint, SAP’s cloud ERP offering under the GROW with SAP initiative is the relevant starting point. SAP describes its cloud ERP as built on preconfigured, industry-specific workflows and best practices that let companies go live in weeks rather than months, a meaningfully faster path than the extended, blueprint-heavy SAP implementations of a decade ago. GROW with SAP is SAP’s packaged offering for companies adopting SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for the first time, combining the cloud ERP with preconfigured best practices, adoption tools, and partner support. SAP has published hotel customer stories on its cloud ERP, including Hesperia and Vila Galé, and we recently delivered a GROW with SAP public cloud deployment in five months for a mid-size organization.

That matters for a Caribbean hospitality group weighing SAP for hotels and resorts against a hospitality-specific point solution or a lighter accounting platform, a choice our guide to choosing an ERP system for a Caribbean business covers in depth. The right comparison is not SAP’s enterprise reputation from a decade ago. It is whether a modern, cloud-based SAP implementation, scoped tightly around finance, procurement, and operations, can go live fast enough and stay flexible enough to expand into guest-facing modules as the business grows.

Is SAP for hospitality the right fit? What to weigh before choosing it

A single-property boutique hotel with straightforward operations may not need the depth SAP provides, and lighter, hospitality-specific hotel ERP software could be the more proportionate choice. SAP for hospitality tends to make the most sense once a business is managing multiple properties, multiple currencies, or complex supplier and workforce operations that a lighter system starts to strain under.
Is SAP a fit for your hospitality business?
Business profile Likely fit
Single property, simple operations A lighter, hospitality-specific platform is likely more proportionate
Multiple properties or brands SAP is worth evaluating
Multiple currencies or entities across islands A strong SAP use case
Complex supplier and workforce operations A strong SAP use case
The bigger decision point is usually SAP and PMS integration. Most hospitality businesses already run a property management system for reservations and guest data. The question is not whether to replace that system with SAP, it is whether SAP can integrate cleanly with the existing PMS so finance, procurement, and guest operations data flow together instead of living in separate silos that someone has to reconcile by hand.
PMS vs. SAP: which system handles what?
Function Typically handled by How it connects
Reservations, check-in, and room assignment PMS Occupancy and revenue posted to SAP
Guest folios PMS Summarized into the SAP general ledger
General ledger, multi-entity, and multi-currency accounting SAP S/4HANA Single source of financial truth
Procurement and supplier spend SAP S/4HANA, SAP Ariba Group-wide spend visibility
Demand and revenue forecasting SAP Analytics Cloud Uses PMS and finance data
Integration layer SAP BTP Integration Suite Connects PMS, booking, and CRM tools
Planning SAP alongside an existing PMS? Discuss your SAP and PMS integration requirements with our team.

How are AI and SAP Joule changing hospitality operations?

SAP frames its hospitality AI roadmap around what it calls the Autonomous Enterprise: AI agents coordinating across finance, procurement, guest experience, and workforce management rather than automating isolated tasks. SAP identifies three pressures this is built to address, and all three map directly onto the realities of running a Caribbean hospitality business.

  • Cost and margin pressure. Labor, energy, food and beverage, and maintenance costs are under constant pressure. AI agents automate routine financial and procurement activities while giving finance and operations leaders real-time visibility into spend, rather than spending time gathering information from disconnected systems.
  • Consistent guest experience. AI-powered assistants connect guest-facing and operational processes so issues can be identified and resolved proactively, rather than reactively, across every touchpoint, in a market where seasonal, high-volume tourism makes consistency hard to maintain with manual processes alone.
  • Workforce shortages and scheduling. SAP names this as one of the industry’s biggest AI opportunities: recruiting, onboarding, training, and scheduling are still largely manual in most hospitality organisations. AI agents can take on the administrative load of workforce management, freeing managers and staff to spend more time on guest service during peak season rather than on admin.

We build SAP Joule use cases into every Caribbean hospitality implementation from day one, from AI-assisted guest service requests and demand forecasting to finance close automation, so AI adoption is part of the initial scope rather than a future project.

What sets Aevitas IT apart as an SAP partner for Caribbean hospitality

  • SAP Business Technology Platform and Integration Suite. Our SAP integration services design and build the integrations between SAP and the property management systems, booking platforms, and CRM tools a hospitality business already runs, the layer where most implementations succeed or struggle.
  • Deep specialist module coverage. Beyond core finance and procurement, our teams bring hands-on depth in SAP Real Estate Management for multi-property portfolios and Master Data Governance for groups operating across brands or locations.
  • SAP Business Data Cloud for unified data. Financial, operational, and guest data are brought into a single governed data layer, giving finance and operations teams a consistent source for reporting and for the data that AI models depend on, the same foundation we built when turning a decade of SAP data into a platform for intelligence for a telecom client.

How to choose an SAP partner for hospitality: a multi-property Caribbean checklist

  • Hospitality delivery experience, not just general SAP experience. Ask for case studies or references that reflect multi-property, seasonal, guest-facing operations specifically, not generic finance-only implementations.
  • A clear approach to PMS integration. Ask specifically how the partner integrates SAP with existing property management and booking systems, since this is where most hospitality SAP projects succeed or stall.
  • SAP Sell Authorization for the region. In a market with limited in-country infrastructure, having a single partner for licensing and implementation simplifies the engagement considerably.
  • Remote delivery discipline. Many Caribbean hospitality engagements are delivered with a mix of on-site and remote work. Ask about the partner’s delivery model, governance approach, and communication discipline, criteria we cover in our guide to choosing an SAP implementation partner in the Caribbean.
  • Application Management Services after go-live. Peak season does not pause for system issues. Ask who provides SAP application management services once live and whether that team has hospitality-specific experience.

Working with Aevitas IT

We are an SAP Silver Partner with direct SAP Sell Authorization for the Latin America and Caribbean region and a regional office in Puerto Rico. Beyond implementation, we support hospitality clients with Application Management Services so a lean operations team is not left maintaining a multi-property SAP environment alone during peak season, and with SAP staff augmentation for hospitality groups that need specialist skills for a defined period without a full re-scope of an existing engagement.

If your hospitality business is weighing SAP for hospitality against a lighter platform, or trying to work out how SAP would integrate with your existing property management system, explore our SAP services for hospitality businesses or get in touch and we can walk through what that fit actually looks like for your properties.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is SAP for hospitality?
SAP for hospitality is the use of SAP S/4HANA and related SAP cloud applications to run finance, procurement, operations, and analytics for hotels, resorts, and travel companies, usually integrated with an existing property management system rather than replacing it.
Is SAP a good fit for a small or single-property Caribbean hotel?
Not always. SAP tends to make the most sense once a hospitality business is managing multiple properties, multiple currencies, or increasingly complex procurement and workforce operations. A single boutique property with simple operations may be better served by a lighter, hospitality-specific platform.
How long does a GROW with SAP deployment take?
SAP positions its cloud ERP to go live in weeks rather than months for well-scoped projects, but in practice, scope drives the timeline. Aevitas IT delivered a GROW with SAP public cloud deployment for a mid-size organization in five months. Our guide to the SAP implementation timeline in the Caribbean covers the full process.
How does SAP integrate with a hotel's existing property management system?

SAP does not typically replace a dedicated PMS. The more common approach is integrating SAP's finance, procurement, and operations capabilities with the existing PMS through SAP Business Technology Platform, so guest, occupancy, and revenue data connect to the general ledger without manual reconciliation.

Can SAP handle seasonal demand forecasting for Caribbean tourism businesses?
Yes. SAP Analytics Cloud supports demand planning, dynamic pricing, and forecasting models built to handle the kind of seasonal swings common in Caribbean hospitality, rather than assuming flat, predictable demand.
Does SAP support compliance requirements for Caribbean hospitality businesses?
Yes. SAP GRC capabilities support financial controls and audit trails relevant to the data protection and safety regulatory requirements increasingly expected of hospitality operators, without requiring a separate manual compliance process.
What is the biggest mistake hospitality companies make when evaluating SAP?
Assuming SAP means replacing the property management system entirely. The more effective approach is usually integration: keeping the PMS for reservations and guest data while using SAP to unify finance, procurement, and operational reporting across properties.
How are AI and SAP Joule changing hospitality operations?
SAP's Autonomous Enterprise model for hospitality applies AI agents to three pressures: automating routine finance and procurement work to free up staff time, connecting guest-facing and operational processes so service issues are caught proactively, and taking on the administrative load of recruiting, onboarding, and scheduling to help address the workforce shortages that are one of the industry's most persistent challenges. We build these Joule use cases into implementations from day one.
Does SAP support guest loyalty programs for hospitality groups?
Yes, through SAP Customer Loyalty Management, which drives loyalty and retention using personalized programs built on guest data. For a Caribbean hospitality group running loyalty across multiple properties or brands, this gives a single, consistent view of a guest's history and status rather than property-by-property loyalty tracking.
Can SAP personalize guest experiences across properties?
Yes. SAP Customer Data Platform brings guest data together to support real-time insights and AI-supported segmentation, so a hospitality group can personalize offers and communications across a guest's journey rather than treating each property or booking as a separate relationship.
Does SAP help with seasonal staffing and workforce forecasting?
Yes. People Intelligence in SAP Business Data Cloud supports seasonal trend analysis and absence forecasting, which maps directly onto the staffing swings a Caribbean hospitality business sees across a tourism season. SAP Workforce Forecasting and Scheduling and AI-enabled talent management tools extend this into shift planning and faster recruiting, addressing the workforce shortages that are one of the industry's most persistent operational challenges.
Can SAP manage facility and grounds maintenance for hotels and resorts?
Yes, through SAP Field Service and Asset Management, which supports AI-enabled dispatching and mobile work management for maintenance teams. For a resort with significant physical infrastructure, grounds, pools, HVAC, equipment, this brings the same kind of planned, trackable maintenance to facilities that SAP brings to finance and operations.

SAP Implementation in the Caribbean: Process, Timeline, and Risks Explained

SAP Implementation in the Caribbean

If you’re a Caribbean business considering an SAP implementation, the questions that matter most rarely show up in a sales deck. How long will this actually take? What could go wrong? What does go-live really look like once the consultants leave? This guide walks through the real process, a realistic timeline, and the risks specific to implementing SAP in the Caribbean, based on how these projects actually run in the region.

SAP implementation in the Caribbean typically takes five months for a mid-market business adopting SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for the first time via GROW with SAP, following SAP’s Activate methodology across five phases: Prepare, Explore, Realize, Deploy Readiness, and Go-Live and Hypercare.

Why SAP Implementation Timelines in the Caribbean Look Different Now

For years, SAP implementations had a reputation, and it was mostly earned, for taking twelve months or longer, even for mid-sized businesses. That reputation shaped how a lot of Caribbean companies think about SAP versus alternatives like Microsoft Dynamics, which has generally been perceived as the faster path to go-live.

That gap has narrowed. SAP’s cloud ERP offering, marketed under the SAP GROW initiative, is built specifically to compress the traditional timeline. SAP states plainly that its cloud ERP is designed with “preconfigured, industry-specific workflows and best practices” that help companies “go live in weeks instead of months.” The mechanism behind that claim, SAP GROW Fast, is a partner-led implementation model built on a predefined scope rather than an open-ended blueprinting exercise. Industry sources describe it as a “prescriptive, partner-led implementation model for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition that delivers a predefined Minimum Viable Scope (MVS) to enable predictable first-wave go-live measured in weeks rather than months.”

For a Caribbean business, that shift matters. It means the SAP-versus-Dynamics timeline argument, which used to favour Dynamics almost by default, is no longer as clear-cut.

The SAP Activate Implementation Process: What Each Phase Actually Involves

The SAP Activate methodology is SAP’s structured implementation framework – it organises every SAP implementation in the Caribbean and globally into five defined phases, each with a clear deliverable before the next phase begins. Whether a Caribbean business is beginning an SAP implementation with GROW with SAP Public Cloud or a more traditional S/4HANA rollout, the underlying phases follow this same structure. Here’s what each phase actually involves:

Prepare. Scope, governance, security principles, data strategy, and the integration and reporting approach get confirmed before any configuration begins. This is also when the implementation partner and client agree on what’s in scope and, just as important, what isn’t.

Explore. Fit-to-standard workshops run across finance, procurement, supply chain, and any other functional areas in scope. The goal is to map the business’s actual processes against SAP’s standard, pre-configured processes and flag where genuine customisation is unavoidable versus where the business can adopt the standard approach.

Realize. Standard processes get configured, integrations are built, and the team runs mock data loads and role-based testing. This is where the bulk of the technical build happens.

Deploy readiness. Testing wraps up, train-the-trainer sessions prepare the client’s internal team, and final data migration prep happens ahead of go-live.

Go-live and hypercare. Production activates, and the implementation partner provides intensive post-go-live support to stabilise the system before transitioning the client to standard run support.

SAP Implementation Timeline in the Caribbean: Five Months, Not Twelve

Rather than quoting a generic industry timeline, it’s worth looking at how this plays out on an actual Caribbean-relevant project. Aevitas IT delivered a GROW with SAP Public Cloud deployment covering finance, procurement, supply chain, integrations, and reporting over a structured five-month timeline, with business-as-usual operations resuming by month six.

The breakdown looked like this:

  •   Weeks 1 – 2, Prepare: Scope, governance, security, and integration approach confirmed.
  •   Weeks 3 – 6, Explore: Fit-to-standard workshops across finance, procurement, and supply chain, plus migration and security design.
  •   Weeks 7 – 16, Realize: Standard process configuration, integration builds, mock loads, and role-based testing.
  •   Weeks 12 – 20, Deploy Readiness: Testing completion, train-the-trainer sessions, and final migration preparation.
  •   Week 21, Go-Live and Hypercare: Production activation, stabilisation support, and transition to run support.

Note: There is a significant overlap between Realize and Deploy, as we start training as soon as mock one.

That five-month result lines up with what GROW with SAP is designed to deliver for net-new mid-market customers: a defined scope, a compressed timeline, and a predictable path to production, rather than the open-ended twelve-month engagements that gave SAP its reputation for slow, expensive rollouts.

It’s worth being direct about what drives timeline variability: company size, number of legal entities or countries in scope, data quality going into migration, and how much genuine customisation (versus standard configuration) the business requires. A single-entity company adopting standard finance and supply chain processes will move faster than a multi-island conglomerate with legacy customisations to unwind.

GROW with SAP vs RISE with SAP: Which Path Is Right for a Caribbean Business?

GROW with SAP is SAP’s cloud ERP programme for net-new customers adopting SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for the first time, designed for mid-market organisations that want a fast, standardized implementation path. RISE with SAP is a transformation bundle for existing SAP customers migrating from on-premise ECC or older S/4HANA environments to a managed SAP cloud environment.

These two terms get used loosely, so it’s worth being precise.

RISE with SAP is generally the path for existing SAP customers migrating from ECC or an older S/4HANA deployment to a modern cloud environment. It’s less relevant for a Caribbean business considering SAP for the first time, but an important context if your organisation already runs SAP and is weighing a cloud migration.

GROW with SAP targets net-new customers, companies that don’t currently run SAP and are adopting S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for the first time. This is the more common path for Caribbean businesses evaluating SAP for the first time, since the region has a smaller installed base of existing SAP customers compared to the US or Europe.

Within the GROW with SAP path, GROW with SAP Fast-Track is the accelerated implementation offering: a validated, pre-defined scope combined with a simplified Activate methodology, delivered by qualified partners, designed specifically to compress the traditional timeline. It’s the offering most directly relevant to a Caribbean mid-market business trying to move fast without taking on unnecessary implementation risk.

Caribbean SAP Implementation Risks: What to Manage Before Go-Live

Timeline compression only works if the underlying risks are actively managed. A few show up more often in Caribbean-region projects specifically.

Data quality going into migration. Legacy systems in the region often carry years of inconsistent master data. Migrating only clean master data and open transactions, rather than dragging legacy complexity into the new environment, is one of the clearest predictors of a smooth go-live versus a painful one.

Scope creeps away from standard processes. The temptation to customize SAP to match old, familiar workflows is real, and it’s the single biggest driver of blown timelines and budgets. A disciplined fit-to-standard approach, adopting SAP’s best-practice processes rather than replicating legacy ones, is what keeps a five-month timeline achievable.

Multi-currency and multi-entity complexity. Caribbean businesses operating across multiple islands, currencies, and regulatory regimes add genuine complexity that a single-country implementation doesn’t face. This needs to be scoped honestly upfront rather than discovered mid-project.

Connectivity and infrastructure dependency. SAP cloud ERP depends on reliable internet connectivity, which varies more across Caribbean geographies than in mainland North America or Europe. This is a legitimate architectural consideration, not a reason to avoid cloud ERP, but it needs to be part of the planning conversation.

Partner experience gaps. Not every SAP partner has genuine Caribbean delivery experience. A partner who has only implemented SAP in single-currency, single-jurisdiction US environments may underestimate the complexity of a multi-island rollout.

Can Caribbean government agencies and public-sector organisations implement SAP?

Yes, and there’s direct regional precedent. A government-owned electric and water utility in the Caribbean engaged Aevitas IT to modernise a legacy SAP ECC environment that had accumulated years of customisation, creating system instability and rising support costs, while the organisation faced heightened public accountability requirements around financial reporting, audit readiness, and capital project tracking.

Aevitas executed the program in carefully sequenced phases specifically to protect uninterrupted electric and water service throughout, paired with governance-driven program management aligned to public-sector accountability standards. 

The engagement also built in structured knowledge transfer so the utility’s internal team could sustain the environment independently once Aevitas’s direct involvement wound down.

The result: improved financial transparency and audit readiness, reduced technical debt and operational risk, and clearer visibility into capital investments and infrastructure costs, exactly the outcomes a publicly accountable Caribbean utility needs, delivered without disrupting the essential services residents depend on.

Why Your SAP Implementation Partner's Caribbean Experience Matters More Than the Platform

The technology decision, SAP versus an alternative, is only half the equation. The other half is whether the implementation partner has actually delivered in the Caribbean before: working across multiple currencies, navigating regional regulatory requirements, and managing the connectivity and infrastructure realities of island geographies.

As a Caribbean SAP partner, Aevitas IT holds direct Licence Sell Authorisation in the Caribbean and Latin America region, meaning clients work directly with Aevitas on licensing rather than through an additional reseller layer. The firm is an SAP Silver Partner operating a boutique delivery model: senior SAP consultants, several with backgrounds at larger global system integrators, working in smaller, more accountable teams. That combination is what makes a five-month GROW with SAP timeline realistic rather than aspirational, and it’s a meaningfully different model from the large system integrators that dominate SAP delivery in bigger markets but often lack dedicated Caribbean bench strength.

Aevitas IT delivers SAP implementations across the Caribbean, including Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas, the OECS islands, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, with nearshore delivery supported from its Puerto Rico office. The firm holds direct SAP PartnerEdge Sell Authorisation for the Latin America and Caribbean region.

Planning Your SAP Implementation in the Caribbean: Next Steps

A five-month SAP implementation timeline is achievable for Caribbean businesses with GROW with SAP, but it depends on disciplined scoping, clean data going into migration, a genuine commitment to standard processes over customisation, and a partner who understands both the technology and the regional operating context.

Ready to scope your SAP implementation in the Caribbean? Aevitas IT delivers structured GROW with SAP deployments with direct PartnerEdge Sell Authorisation – contact us to map a realistic timeline for your organisation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the typical process for an SAP implementation in the Caribbean?
It follows SAP's Activate methodology: Prepare (scope and governance), Explore (fit-to-standard workshops), Realize (configuration and testing), Deploy Readiness (final testing and training), and Go-Live and Hypercare (production activation and stabilisation support).
How long does an SAP S/4HANA implementation take for a Caribbean organisation?

SAP implementation in the Caribbean takes approximately five months for a mid-market organisation adopting GROW with SAP Public Cloud with a defined scope, compared to twelve or more months for a traditional on-premise rollout. Actual duration depends on company size, number of legal entities and countries in scope, and the quality of legacy data going into migration.

What is GROW with SAP and is it suitable for Caribbean businesses?

GROW with SAP is SAP's cloud ERP programme for net-new customers adopting SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for the first time, designed for mid-market organisations that want a fast, standardized implementation path. It is well suited to Caribbean businesses, most of which don't currently run SAP, giving them a defined, accelerated path to go-live.

What are the biggest risks in an SAP implementation in the Caribbean?
The main risks are poor data quality going into migration, scope creep away from SAP's standard processes, underestimated multi-currency and multi-entity complexity, connectivity dependency across island geographies, and working with an implementation partner who lacks genuine regional delivery experience.
Can Caribbean government agencies and public-sector organisations implement SAP?

Yes. Public-sector and government-owned organisations in the Caribbean, including utilities, have successfully modernised on SAP, with sequenced delivery phases designed to protect uninterrupted essential services throughout the project.

What does go-live look like for a Caribbean SAP project?

Go-live is followed by a hypercare period, typically several weeks, where the implementation partner provides intensive support to stabilise the system before transitioning the client to standard run support. Business-as-usual operations typically resume within a month of go-live.

How much does an SAP implementation cost for a Caribbean business?

SAP implementation costs in the Caribbean vary significantly based on scope, number of entities, and customisation requirements. A GROW with SAP public cloud implementation for a single mid-market entity is typically far less expensive than a traditional multi-year on-premise project, because the predefined scope and pre-configured processes eliminate open-ended design work. A Digital Discovery Assessment is the most reliable starting point for an accurate cost estimate for your organisation.

Why is it important to choose an SAP partner with Caribbean experience?

A partner without direct regional delivery experience is more likely to underestimate multi-currency complexity, regulatory requirements, and infrastructure realities specific to Caribbean geographies, all of which can extend timelines and increase risk if not planned for upfront.