| The Problem of Procurement
You know your existing IT system needs replacing. The business
had moved on and this system is now keeping you from achieving
what you see as the company’s full potential in these
difficult market conditions. You have lost touch with the former
system supplier and you do not want to go back there again.
How do you set about procuring a new or upgrading an existing
IT System?
Here you sit in your office, with a budget approved and money
to spend with the right organisation and you are frustrated
by not knowing quite where to start.
Although you know exactly what the business wants from this
new system in broad detail, it is unlikely that you will know
sufficient for an IT supplier to provide a well matched system
without reference to others in your company. Such people include
the users of the new system, who may include you, but will doubtless
include staff in other departments or areas of the business.
Their views should be sought in considering the new system.
User Consultation
Even if you procure an off-the-shelf system, the users as
a group should be consulted about their views and opinions on
what they want to see in the system. Otherwise introducing an
imposed regime on users is likely to meet with at least token
opposition. The immediate result is that the company will suffer
a downturn internally, even if in the end the new system delivers
considerable benefit to the company.
Why put the success of a new system introduction at risk and
set up unnecessary barriers to its acceptance if a little forward
planning and consultation will avoid these issued almost entirely?
There will inevitably be a number of changes required in processes
and working practices as a result of introducing a new system
in any organisation. This has to be a given. But always work
to minimise such disruption as the knock-on effects can have
considerable impact on business effectiveness.
Deciding What You Want
In order to have a system that will support your business
in the ways that you want it to you must draw up a list of the
things the system must do; the functionality of the system.
This may sound like drawing up a shopping list and in many ways
it is very similar. Certainly the outcome is similar: a list
of features (items) that you specifically want to have included
in the system (your shopping basket). Each feature should be
carefully described so as to be a measurable unit of the total.
Try to keep each feature separate from other features, so that
each one can be dealt with individually.
Most business people find the initial stab at the features
list, what in IT speak is the system Requirements Specification,
quite easy. The features are general in nature or are ones about
which there is much detail already existing. However, to produce
the totality of the requirements to the same fine level of detail
and to ensure that each feature is unambiguously defined is
hard work. Often the businessman is just too close to the problem
to be able to take an objective view.
I Know What I Want, Now What?
If you have what you believe to be a good requirements specification
for your system, you need to find some organisation that can
provide you with a system that will meet these requirements.
Supplier selection is a business in its own right! In the end,
you have to find two or three suppliers with whom you feel you
could get along and present them each with a copy of your requirements
specification and ask for their reaction and some idea of project
timescale and cost. The response will depend upon the way in
which the supplier likes to assess new work. You should bear
in mind the following:
- your requirements specification is not likely to be complete
or consistent in its entirety and the supplier will most likely
want to review or re-specify the requirements. Either way,
your work has not been lost, but has awakened you to the complexity
of specification and has caused you to think about the systems
you want in detail. This will result in a better system;
- your supplier may require a period of study in order to
scope and assess the system from his perspective before he
is prepared to offer any detailed response. This is particularly
true if you are seeking a fixed cost response for supply of
the system. The supplier must be able to assess the risk you
are off-loading to him before he is able to provide you with
any more than arm-waving. You should respect this offering
of a study and be prepared to pay for it on a day-rate basis.
There will be no obligation on you to go with this supplier
after the study if you do not like the result. However, remember
that the supplier be giving you a very fair assessment of
the risk factors in the system. You should review the study
report carefully and ask the supplier to explain each point
in it to your satisfaction;
- projects in IT are usually phased so that a series of segments
of the whole system can be delivered one after another in
a defined build progression. This approach gives you prior
warning of what is coming and time to arrange user awareness
of and training for each phase. It also means that you are
able to review each phase in the light of the whole project
and ensure that you are seeing the system you originally wanted
being delivered;
- most importantly, every business is in a constant state
of change. This means that what the business wants this week
will not be what it wants next week. Inevitably, you requirements
for the system will change as the system is being assembled
and you will want to incorporate these changes into the developing
system. Be aware that although this is perfectly understandable,
your supplier will wish to minimise the amount of change to
be applied while he is building your system, especially as
most of this change will involve segments that are already
delivered. You are likely to incur considerable cost and time
penalties to the complete system delivery if you require every
change to be incorporated as you go along. It is better to
identify those (few) changes that are mandatory to the business,
legislative changes for example, and keep all the other changes
to a phase after the initial system is delivered;
- during the planning for each phase, you will need to consider
the impact of User Acceptance Testing (UAT). This is the testing
to be performed by the user – that’s you and your
staff – when a segment of the system is delivered to
you. Staff involvement may be minimal for some segments, but
considerable for others, requiring perhaps half of your users
to be testing the new segment. It is as well to ensure that
the UAT effort does not come when you are at your busiest
and rushed off your feet already!
If you are still concerned about your new system procurement,
Precision Design Technology will be pleased to provide advice
and guidance. Call the office and one of our Consultants will
talk to you and if appropriate will offer to meet you face to
face. Call 01628-782 413 or use the web site contact
page.
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