The SOW is a key document from your vendor that can make or break the implementation. The vendors will do their best to reduce their risk by limiting scope to a high level list, assuming that you will follow best practices, and making a lot of other assumptions about you doing work that you don’t know or understand the effort to complete. As the vendor risks go down, the customer risks go up. We recommend the following: Scope is tied to the requirements in the RFP which need to be specific Best practices should only be applied to processes that […]
What the cloud really is
December 1, 2015 from CPA Magazine – “…Below you’ll find a short primer on the cloud and how to decide if the technology is right for your business needs. We’ve also designed a short survey to see how many of you are using the cloud in business – and if so, how” Read more 180 View – I (Michael Burns) wrote this article with a lot of help from Margaret Craig-Bourdin who is the editor of the online edition of CPA Magazine. The first version of the article was considered by Margaret to be way too technical for the […]
So the project has gone belly-up, what now?
December 3, 2015 from LinkedIn – “Most SMEs and many larger companies are not experienced in running projects. It is just not something they need to do on a regular basis and certainly not with this much at stake. An investment in the services of a skilled internal Project Manager is rarely a waste of money. It will often cost you more to skimp in this area and then have to recover afterwards…” Read more 180 View – The author, a business development manager for Pronto Software, makes a number of really good comments on why implementation projects fail and […]
Frostie Dancing To Shake Your Tail Feather!
180 View – I wish I could dance this well. Click here to check it out […]
Demonstration Scripts
A demonstration script is critical to the selection process but there are huge differences on how to do this. Rather than criticize the techniques we have read, I will share our methodology with you: Two demonstrations – You don’t want to go too deep on the first demonstration unless you are positive that the vendor will not waste your time (or their time) 1st demonstration – We base it on a small subset of the most important requirements in the RFP and limit the time to about 3 hours. We allocate a certain amount of time to each requirement and then […]
Should you restrict ERP selection to just the major vendors?
We don’t think so. There are many excellent products built by small companies for specific industries that are worthy of consideration. But there are risks that the vendor will not be around for the long haul. There are a number of ways to evaluate long-term viability: The system is built with old technology that is getting really difficult to support by the boomers ripe for retirement. There is a lack of investment in the system. Ask to see the product roadmap and recent enhancements. The company is not profitable. Private companies will be reluctant to release this but it can […]
Newsletter Changes
We have been sending newsletters each month for a very long time but as some of you may have noticed, we have only been sending them intermittentlyover the last year. The reason for the change is not writer fatigue but the perception of reader fatigue with all the emails. So in the future we will only send them out a few times a year. As well, in the past we often commented on published articles that we thought were interesting but from now on, we plan to only include original material we have published. We also often had a link […]
How to measure whether an ERP implementation is successful
It’s not time to celebrate when the system goes live. Nor is it time to celebrate even if it’s on time or on budget. It’s only time to celebrate if the benefits in the business case have been realized. Ideally the benefits are in the form of a measurable metric or a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) such as the time it takes to process an order. However many organizations don’t identify these measures of success and even if they do, they promptly forget about them as soon as the implementation starts as they have enough on their plates to consume […]
How to get an accurate estimate of ERP implementations costs
We ask the finalists in our ERP software selection projects for a detailed breakdown of implementation costs by module (g/l, a/r, a/p, purchasing…) and by task (customization, integration, conversion, project management, design…). We provide them with a lot of information to make the estimate possible: Detailed requirements Business process review which includes process, problems, type of problem, and impact of problem High level process maps Access to our client to get the tour and ask whatever questions are needed The finalists are asked to demonstrate a prototype of the to-be business process allowing them to validate assumptions. But sometimes, even with […]
ERP Cost Estimates
Buyer beware when estimating the costs of an ERP implementation. There are so many unknowns that make it really tough to avoid unpleasant surprises. The vendors are very reluctant to fix price anything when it comes to the services required because of the many unknowns – scope of work, who does what, capabilities and available time of buyer resources…. It’s especially difficult for the vendors in the early stages of the selection process. At the same time, the buyers want to have a decent ball park of costs before pursuing a potential solution. But there are guidelines that will help. […]