How to Successfully Engage

Enterprise Software Vendors –

Software Selection

July 12, 2012

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About Your Presenter

• Sr. VP KeyedIn Solutions Consulting Group

– Helping companies align their business and technology

– Focus on people, process, and then the technology

– Subject matter expert on business process management

– On-going research into next generation of technology for

enterprise systems

• 25 years experience in enterprise systems

– USAF Research Project (1985)

– Founder of enterprise quality software company (1988)

• Trusted advisor to global organizations, government

agencies, and professional groups

http://www.linkedin.com/in/johncachat

Thought for the Day

Winning is a habit.

Unfortunately, so is losing

Vince Lombardi

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Today’s Discussion

• It All Starts With The Sales Team

• It Doesn’t Do What We Want

• Vendors Tiers And Costs

• Finding The Right Tier

• Contract Language

• SaaS Alternative

It All Starts With The Sales Team

Old School What You Want

Focused on the sale. Period

Clueless on the product

Post order implementation is the

consultants problem, not mine.

Focused on providing a solution that

meets your needs.

Knowledgeable on the product and

your industry.

Carefully documents the sales

process in order to provide a

comprehensive packet to the

consulting team.

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It Doesn’t Do What We Want

• Software “configuration”– Add-ons

– Emails, triggers

– Report writers

– Form designers

• Options– Change the process

– Customize the app

– Develop a workaround

– The KeyedIn approach

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The KeyedIn Approach

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• Use the ERP as is out of the box

• Create user models that sit on top of the ERP

• Have the vendor demo your process, not their software

Vendors Tiers

Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 4

Description Large

Enterprise

Midsize

($20-$200M)

Single Site Accounting,

HR, inventory

Typical

Clients

Multi-site,

multi-

national

Single or few

sites in one

country

Single Site

looking to

grow

Less than

$2M, startups

Examples SAP

Oracle

Epicor

QAD

MS Navision

INFOR - Syteline

INFOR – Visual

MS Great Plains

QuickBooks

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It is important to play with someone in the same league.

Vendors Tiers Costs (example)

Tier License

Fee

Implementation

Fees (1 to 1)

Support Total First

Year

1 $400K $400K $88K $888K

2 $200K $200K $44K $444K

3 $100K $100K $22K $222K

4 $20K $20K $4.4K $44.4K

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Where Is Your Company At Today?

Not all organizations at in the same place

Greenfield No current system in place. Users are happy with

anything. Few obstacles and constraints.

Brownfield Have and existing system with existing issues. Company

is used to doing things in certain ways. User resistance,

data migration, etc. are common obstacles

Blackfield Crashed and burned. New software will not solve the

problem - do not lead with technology. Business

alignment, people, culture, business processes all need

to be addressed before looking to technology – get

outside help!

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Finding The Right Tier

• Consider building a house analogy

– I have not even picked out the land yet

– Floor plan and general design provided

– House comes almost pre-built

– Here are the keys, move in

• Time frame, budget, resources

• SaaS alternative

– No hardware to buy

– No software installation, maintenance, or upgrade

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Contract Language

• Contract review

– Define business expectations / requirements

– Define deliverables

– The more specific, the higher probability of success

• If you do not have the expertise, get outside help

• Plan for contingencies

• Agree to change request process

• Agree to project reporting frequency and content

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SaaS Alternative

• Low cost of entry

• Lower total cost of ownership (TCO)

• Elimination of capital expenditure

• Dramatic reduction in internal IT costs

• Vested vendor interests - if your not happy, the vendor loses the customer revenue opportunity

• Much lower risk - faster implementations and outsourced expertise dramatically lower risk

• A more powerful and secure IT infrastructure - few organizations can match the infrastructure and security investments made by SaaS vendors

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Things to Remember….

• Know your organization and

play in your league

• Contracts can make or break

your plans

• If you need help, ask for it

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About KeyedIn Consulting Group

Experts providing solutions to specific problems

– Project Rescue

– Project Management & Virtual PMO

– People and Process Alignment

– Business and IT Alignment

– Enterprise Software Selection

Follow KeyedIn

Corporate Website: www.keyedin.com

www.twitter.com/keyedinsolution

www.linkedin.com/company/2434133?trk=tyah

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Free Whitepapers

Download

@

www.keyedin.com

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Upcoming Webinars

Register at

www.keyedin.com

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7/17/12 Business Processes: Can’t Live With ‘Em, Can’t Live Without ‘Em

7/19/12 Support for the New System: Go Live Is Just The Beginning

7/24/12 Selecting Consultants: Just Like A Marriage–For Better Or For Worse

7/27/12 Enterprise System Implementation Strategies and Phases

7/31/12 Project Teams: People Issues, Roles and Responsibilities

Questions & Answers

Q ACopy of Presentation Future Webinars

Contact:

Shelly Bird

sbird@keyedin.com

952-835-1041 ext.163

Visit:

www.keyedin.com

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