Case study - Taking on too much
 

Client situation

The client had spent a lot of time and effort completing the business requirements needs analysis across the organization.

The client had begun to review available enterprise systems and was excited about the project, and the potential benefit to the organization.

After some initial vendor discussions and demonstrations, the client was even more excited about the potential to automate every process and the real returns this would deliver. This translated to buying all modules of the system and attempting to implement them all at the same time.
 

Background

The organization was medium sized and had not undertaken a project of this nature before. The IT department was used to managing networks, servers and email and was not familiar with the vendor's technology.

Challenges facing the client

The client had to work through the following challenges:

• Understanding the real effort required to implement each module
• The resources required
• The impact of this on the project's risk profile
   

Key Outcomes

• Through conducting a detailed project planning process, using generic plans rather than high level vendor plans, it quickly became evident that the resources required were not available
• From implementing issues and risk logs early on, it quickly became evident this was not going to be possible
• A business unit was selected for the initial roll out, with the modules staggered over twelve months
   

Result

• Robust system selection methodology brought the process back to reality, even though it was introduced at a late stage
• Better management of cost and budgets
• Resource savings due to the establishment of teams to do the roll out
• Prioritization of modules and business units minimized achievement of benefits
• Significant benefits from the learning curve