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The Importance of the First Phase of Your IT Project
April 2009, Issue Vol. 5, No. 7
Billu Dyers Ltd (name changed)
is a company that grew from a
corner shop into a big enterprise.
Three years ago, those at the helm
decided to implement an ERP
solution within the organisation
and a reputed vendor was selected.
The vendor expected regular
interactions with those among the
top management, through the entire
implementation process. But Billu
Dyers Ltd (BDL) could not afford its
top management monitoring the
project and guiding the vendor. On
the other hand, it wanted the vendor
to complete the implementation
immediately, putting pressure on the
vendor to deploy the ERP solution
within a stipulated timeframe. So
the vendor went ahead without
completely understanding the
business processes of BDL. When
implemented, users at BDL found
that the ERP solution that was meant
to automate and streamline their
processes, was more of a headache.
Disillusioned, BDL parted ways
acrimoniously with the vendor and
moved on to another. As earlier,
the top management remained
inaccessible and did not guide the
vendor properly. The project failed
again, resulting in huge losses.
Many IT projects fail because companies do not realise
the importance of the initial phase of their IT projects.
Here are few points that can, if taken care of, lead your
IT project to a successful finish.
IT project management is a crucial
issue for organisations even
today. This becomes apparent
when we look at the number of failed
IT projects across different industry
verticals.
There are several organisations
like BDL, which time and again
commit such mistakes and squander
their money. Unable to spend time in
the beginning to draw out a proper
roadmap that fits their business
requirements, such companies
fail to realise the intricacies of the
implementation process because they
usually have a pre-conceived notion
that IT implementation is as simple as
buying a computer and installing it at
a particular place. In a nutshell, BDL
could have very well been an example
of a successful ERP implementation,
had its management seen the value of
working closely with the vendor right
in the beginning.
"The project governance
document should be in place if the
project size is reasonably big and it
demands a variety of subject matter
experts. The governance team
consists of the key stakeholders from
the vendor and the client to address
the issues that might come up due to
'Scope Creep', change management,
resources utilisation, human errors,
risk management, mitigation, etc."
suggests Shiv Kumar, executive vice
president, Business Development,
Zylog Systems Limited.
"So it's very important for the
vendor and client to define and
agree on the project level goals and
performance metrics; and this should be supported with proper SLAs (Service Level Agreements)," adds Kumar. Click here to read the complete article.
Contact:
ZSL Inc.
85 Lincoln Highway
Edison, NJ 08820
Phone: 732-549-9770
Fax: 732-767-6644
Email: info@zslinc.com
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