Best Practices: Software Evaluation For Mid-Sized Organizations
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Enterprise software solutions promise dramatic improvements in your business. Successful implementations have shown that promise to be achievable - if the right solution is selected. Nearly 30 years working directly with mid-sized organizations in hundreds of software evaluations provides a unique perspective. At some organizations, software selection begins a process of rapid business re-engineering and delivers significant value to the organization very quickly. Other organizations struggle with the evaluation process, stretching the evaluations to years in length, and delaying any anticipated benefits of the solution for even longer - if they are ever realized at all. The Gartner Group, a technology research firm, notes that half of enterprise system implementations fail to produce a positive return on investment in the first five years! The key to achieving positive results: effective management of the software evaluation and implementation processes.
While this basic advice holds true for all organizations, mid-sized organizations face a unique set of challenges. Mid-sized organizations have the business process complexity of the Fortune 500, but not the staffing levels. Keeping management ranks lean is critical to the success of mid-sized organizations. Rarely do mid-sized organizations find that they can spare a manager full-time for an evaluation or implementation project. More frequently, several managers participate on a part-time basis in the project, balancing the evaluation and implementation tasks with the daily pressures of keeping the business going. In this high-pressure environment, there is an even greater need to keep software evaluations and implementations focused and on track.