Hint: It’s not just selecting the system
You may be feeling pressure to quickly select an enterprise system and get it implemented. Where to begin can feel overwhelming and one of the first decisions you’ll need to make will be whether to perform a detailed System Selection project. In our past articles we looked at the risks of skipping system selection and the benefits of conducting a system selection project. To help you decide if you really should invest time in a detailed System Selection project this article will describe the attributes of companies who successfully skip doing a detailed System Selection project and the symptoms that indicate a detailed System Selection process will bring value to your organization.
Deciding whether to conduct a detailed System Selection project
When assessing whether to conduct a detailed System Selection project it is important to keep in mind that the true value of a detailed System Selection project is realized during system implementation.
Companies who successfully skip a detailed System Selection project generally have:
- Robust system selection consensus from multiple levels of the organization
- Multiple employees with deep subject matter expertise on the system to be selected
- A detailed planning process before initiating projects
- Project management expertise specific to the Software Development Lifecycle
- A proactive plan for organizational readiness
- Successful history of system implementations
When the above are not in place and a detailed System Selection project is skipped, you’ll very likely enter system implementation unprepared. If you’re still unsure whether to conduct a detailed System Selection project, here are some symptoms that indicate a detailed System Selection process will bring value to your organization.
1. You have a technology gap impacting a sizable portion of the business
Your organization has identified significant enterprise level inefficiencies which can most likely be solved with software. The current technology is underperforming, siloed or non-existent.
2. The technology gap has been known for a while, but the solution is unclear
Addressing the technology gap has been brought up as a means to accomplish company goals for more than a few quarters. And/Or, addressing the technology gap has been pushed out for years because it is well known how complicated the effort will be. Quarterly, the project gets picked up and then it stalls due to lack of prioritization and lack of clarity.
3. Your stakeholders have different priorities that have not been ranked against company objectives
When you discuss the technology gap with other leaders in the company, you hear different priorities and potentially different system needs. One meeting leads to another meeting and the list of stakeholders and wish list items just keeps growing. A business case of feature requests needs to be conducted but leading the cross functional effort is very time consuming and hard to prioritize above daily operations.
4. You have a complicated application landscape
Company history necessitated a web of applications, a few home grown systems, and critical integrations. Documentation on how the applications exchange data is limited and any change to the application landscape must be done carefully. IT is already busy supporting technical debt and they are cautious about making any significant changes.
Meanwhile the technology scope has not been fully defined and no one can answer questions like:
- What should the scope of the ERP system be?
- Do we replace one system and maintain current integrations, or do we seek to replace multiple systems?
- Should we review replacement of our industry specific home grown system?
- Should Siloed systems like HR and CRM be included?
5. You’re not sure how to communicate to vendors exactly what you need
Each vendor you talk to offers a different flavor of the scope you communicated and many more options than what you asked for. When you give an update to your co-workers you’re asked about a wish list item that you didn’t know until now was a requirement. When you take specific requirements back to vendors, answers range from a confident “Yes of course” to a long-winded explanation of workarounds and future releases, you’re skeptical if they even understand what you are looking for. This causes you to swirl between poorly defined stakeholder requirements and vendor promises.
6. You’ve received several vendor demos and quotes and they all look great
As soon as you reached out to the vendors, they immediately scheduled a 1-hour demo with you. Every demo you’ve seen looks great! All systems look easy to use, have great dashboards, will be easy to implement, and will solve ALL of your company’s problems…. But you’re not that naïve! Quotes also look great, but the license recommendations are impossible to compare.
You’re unsure how to differentiate your options, challenge claims, and confidently understand the long-term cost, pros, and cons of each system.
7. The selection process is taking much more attention than anticipated
Months after you started this process you are receiving daily calls and emails from vendors. You’re not ready to make a recommendation and the selection committee does not have enough information to make an informed decision. You know you need a structured approach but meeting with all stakeholders, translating what they need, and assessing whether the system is a fit, ranges from a full-time job to a project in the backlog. You know you need dedicated resources and a structured approach to really move the selection process forward.
8. Big structural changes are planned for the company and this system is an integral cog
You’ve heard through the grapevine that a big change is coming. It may be a department re-organization, a merger, or an acquisition. You understand the long-term impact that a new system will have on the organization, and regardless of the upcoming change, you need to have a detailed understand of the pros and cons of each system. Further, with the organization in flux, you will need data on the selection rationale whether the decision is made before or after the big company changes are made.
9. Delivering the technology on time is critical
Leadership is relying on this system to enable efficiencies and take the organization to the next level. Although a new system is not even selected, your organization is counting on a timely implementation and quick realization of benefits. To deliver the technology on time, you require a detailed understanding of the system features that will be implemented so that you can have confidence in the implementation timeline.
10. You can’t repeat the implementation mistakes of the past
The last major implementation took twice as long as planned, even longer to stabilize and had embarrassing budget overruns. Stakeholders felt like it was done to them rather than for them, Customers experienced impacts in quality, and company moral took a big hit. This go-around must be different, the timeline must be well forecasted, budget maintained, and the organization overall must be prepared to embrace the change.
Leaning towards doing a detailed system selection project but still unsure of what it will take? In Part 4 we’ll provide you with a detailed System Selection project approach, resource allocation, and an estimated timeline. If you are seeking this knowledge now, reach out to us.
