Before making decision to write this article I wanted to make sure that it won’t be vendor specific article, but general criticism of consultancy and implementation approach to new / known industry in fresh business solution implementation. This topic will be covered through three perspectives: end user, implementator and consultant.
End user perspective
Decision about choosing right business solution, in no case, should be end user decision or proposition. This is maybe a bit rigorous but key fact is that, in most of cases (99%), end user has no idea about business solutions business or business solutions philosophy. This is job for business solutions consultans (partners) and independant third party counseling. In most cases, since this is mostly management decision, business system decision is focused on vendor marketing efforts and global presence of international vendors.
Implementators perspective with custom solution development
From implementators perspective, like in every business, key goal is to make most of implementation, sell as much man/days as possible and achieving successfull implementation. All of previously said needs to be packaged with end user acceptance and satisfaction with provided service. Everyone, regardles of business system implementation experience, who read last sentence probably had a big smile on his/hers face and commented: „highly unlikely“. But, how tough it may seem, that is key goal of business system implementation business. Every business system partner tries to achieve previously said goal, regardless of company’s mission or vision. But lets get back to topic from business system implementators perspective regarding industry solution decisions. In second sentence I mentioned phrase „sell as much man/days as possible“. Every implementator wants to sell as much billable man/days as possible. This implicates that implementator will probably try to provide end user’s specific industry with it’s own vertical solution. This means if partner didn’t already develop solution for specific industry, it will sell business analyst man/days, business process analyst man/days, more developer and consultant man/days than usual. Regarding business system business, this would be a goal to achieve. But every end user must consider that this isn’t always the case. It is always said that every international business system solution vendor doesn’t develop specific localized modules for every country and this is partners role in business system business. This specific business parameter gives business system implementators specific opportunity to gain billable man/days for specific localisation and legislation customizations and specific industry knowledge. This is price of global and international business system solution, but regardless to that, it is a small price to pay for vast advantages of globaly accepted business system solution.
Positive:
- Locally developed specific industry solution,
- Faster and in-depth support,
- Better development coverage and expansion opportunities,
- Better coverage of end user specific requests.
Negative:
- Higher implementation price,
- Untransparent implementation project tasks,
- Greater possibility of upgrade issues or upgrade impossibility,
- Customizations are most likely not developed according to best practice pointers,
- Lack of custom solution documentation.
Implementators perspective with certified vertical solution
As we talked about implementators perspective in previous section of this post, implementators perspective is mainly focused on selling as much man/days as possible. But after business analysis and deep scanning of end user’s business processes, consultants and implementators could face one big issue that could present a big problem which could prevent successful implementation or even stop whole project before it’s beginning. Issue at hand is: business processes or industry that implementators didn’t encounter before. This rises whole new set of questions and issues, and the biggest issue is supporting industry and business processes. Because of that, implementators tend to search for alternative solutions developed specifically for proposed business system solution and industry in question. In business solution business those solutions are called vertical solutions. Vertical solutions are vendor certified solutions developed by partners specificaly for one or few industry segments. One of examples of vertical solution is retail add-on which enables business solution implementation without deeper knowledge of retail business. This is possible because vertical solution partners provide implementators with developed add-on, education, consulting and developing support and even on-site support. This enables implementators implementation of business system solution for unknown industries. In practice this approach is less stress influenced because of knowledge and experience provided from vertical solution partner who is even invited to participate in implementation process through on-site analysis, business case preparation, education and development of needed customizations. My experience with vertical solution partner was with business system implementation for retail industry, where we needed add-on solution because it was too expensive and time consuming to develop our own solution. That is why we became partners for retail add-on solution. After becoming partner and got needed consulting education, we were able to provide support to our end user and implement business system solution to other potential retail customers.
Positive:
- High implementation price, but lower support costs because of business process coverage,
- Documentation and end-user manuals,
- Constant updates with industry evolvement, functionalities, localizations and regulations,
- Lower implementation stress,
- Cross-industry knowledge through business and business system consultations.
Negative:
- Needed consulting education,
- Limited customization development possibilities because of licensing policy,
- Complicated license policy,
- Untransparent consulting services,
Consultant perspective
Consultant perspective is, in my oppinion, best way to approach end user business case and propose best business solution option. This may not be the best way to go when approaching thrugh billable implementation perspective. But in the long run this way is best implementation, support and business system upgrade approach. Consultant perspective is in many ways same as „Implementators perspective with certified vertical solution“, but with one big difference: vertical solution is provided from third party and in many cases with no relation to proposing business system. In many consulting companies this is normal situaction and consultants aren’t limited with business solution frameworks. In most cases, looking from business case perspective, proposing business solution framework may not be best solution because of user interface, operating system or business system complexity. Main thing that consultants need to keep in mind is that this vertical solutions are developed in close cooperation with industry specific end users, business consultants and business holders and main key isn’t business solution framework but business case itself. Many industry specific solutions may seem to have complex or inconsequent user interface, but when consulting ana analyzing end user needs it is usually the best user interface. And in the long run, this is best way to go because whole customizations, further development, support, education and upgrade is delegated to third party who is entiteled to provide all said. Also, this approach guarantiees more user satisfaction with implementation of business system. From implementators perspective this way gives the least possibilities to manipulate end price of whole business system implementation. But considering long run, this may not be an issue at all because of learning curve and support prices which are agreed uppon when signing contract for business system support.
Positive:
- Quality of business process and business case (industry) support,
- Better reporting capabilities and supported end user requests,
- Ease customizations,
- Less stress for implementators because of delegation of specific industry case who can continue support of implemented business system,
- Focus on business system support,
- Manipulation of support prices.
Negative:
- Untransparent support cost,
- Development of business system integration,
- Manipulation of business system implementation,
- Invoicing support costs to vertical solution provider third party.
