Greetings

In my first article in this thread I outlined some key factors in developing a robust procurement model and contract for business information systems. This addressed strategic facilitation and governance, the need for a robust and legally sound "Request for Proposal" document and the need to base the "Business Requirement Specification" on the strategic essence of the business. 

The second article looked at the importance of a detailed "Bill of Services", the importance of "Precision Configuration, the role of the "Business Simulation Laboratory", the need for a formal contractually based "Go-live" Certificate, the use of legally sound Certificates generally and the importance of a "Client Compact" as the reciprocal contractual terms for a client to underpin a fixed price.

This article builds further on these foundations by discussing "Executive Engagement", the "Facilitation of Change", the "Bid Compliance Checklist", the "Adjudication Checklist", the importance of a Prescribed "Bid Table of Contents", the key role of a comprehensive "Reference Pack" and the importance of a Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence as critical components of a total solution.

The recent report "BBC was 'complacent' over failed £100m IT project" highlights the importance of a robust procurement approach resulting in an enforceable contract.  Write-offs such as that suffered by the BBC are entirely preventable.  Recent experiences of BMW and Bridgestone are also relevant in considering what follows:

A vital component of the Client Compact is executive engagement, ensuring that Client Executives engage with the process and provide critical input and decisions timeously in a focused manner.   This has been discussed in more detail in the article on Executive Custody in the "Real Issues " thread.

Concomitant with this is a requirement for the Implementer to mobilize staff who can operate at the Executive level effectively, such that Client Executive time is limited to what is really required.  This necessitates a high standard of professionalism on the part of the Implementer.  Inherent in this approach is the role of Strategic Facilitator -- a senior advisor who is able to represent the Client Executives in terms of business and project insight to a significant degree.  The Strategic Facilitator is thus critical.

So-called "Change Management" is a key element of any large business systems project.  The common wording is inaccurate and unhelpful, I prefer "Facilitation of Change".  This is a role that the corporate Human Resources function should be actively involved in.

Much traditional "Change Management" involves using training and other measures as a blunt instrument to bludgeon staff into accepting badly designed and badly configured solutions that push large amounts of work out of the system and onto the users.  A well configured and well tested system, configured in close partnership with the business, will be easy to teach and easy to operate, thereby significantly reducing the Change Facilitation component.

That said, there remains a need for smoothing the path of change, particularly for staff members who have their jobs radically redefined or eliminated.  Appropriate expertise should be a core element of the requirement and the project.

The use of interactive computer based learning applications that test personnel so that they are only released to use components of the system once proven competent is strongly recommended.

Returning to the Tender documents, another key document is the "Bid Compliance Checklist", a list of all the documents that bidders are required to submit as part of their offer.

This checklist was originally created as an internal client bid evaluation team document, but I have found that it is helpful to provide the checklist to the bidders and have them initial every item to indicate whether they have provided the item or not.

The Bid Adjudication Schedule is developed by the Executive Team, facilitated by the Strategic Facilitator and comprises a hierarchical classification of the Key Criteria to be used in adjudicating the bid.

I generally work with between 7 and 9 primary criteria, each of which is broken down into between 5 and 9 secondary criteria.  Each primary category is weighted out of 100% to indicate relative importance and the child criteria are similarly weighted.  The primary weight is then applied to the secondary weight in order to give the overall weighing of each of the roughly 49 points.  These are the most important factors to be used in evaluating each bid.

The schedule is included in the Tender documents as a "Draft for Information" so that bidders are informed as to the most important elements that their offer must address.  This ensures that bids are more readily compared and that bidders focus on what is really important to the client in the summary of their bid, both in the bid documents and bid presentation.

The schedule is issued as a draft on the basis that, during the evaluation process, the adjudication team may revise the criteria as they gain insight into the offers.  This allows the business to revise the criteria or the weights.  Remember, the goal is the BEST solution for the organization NOT some school room arbitrary rigor that gets in the way of the optimum solution.

The structured and weighted list ensures that the most important items receive most focus, this works far more reliably as a decision support tool than a simple list of about 49 points without hierarchy.  This is FAR better than the lists of hundreds of detail points that I have seen applied on numerous occasions on sub-optimal projects.  Frequently badly structured lists result in bad buying decisions.

Well thought out lists, as with all the points regarding structure of information raised in associated articles, facilitate quality decisions -- the issue is the THINKING that goes into the structured list in terms of what is REALLY important from a decision making perspective.

A detailed "Bid Pack Table of Contents" should be provided which prescribes the Table of Contents that bidders must use for their offer.  This ensures that competing bids can be easily laid out next to each other and compared on a section by section basis.

This also allows adjudicators to more readily engage with and internalize competing offers, resulting in a more effective and efficient adjudication process and a more defendable and better quality recommendation.

This also makes it very easy to assess the extent to which bidders are willing to align themselves with client requirements during the bid process.  A bidder who cannot be bothered to align with client requirements at the bid stage is unlikely to align later on.

In order to make the required scale of the project visible the Tender pack must include a comprehensive set of reference documents as a minimum requirement.  This should include samples of all reports, spreadsheets, outputs of custom software that is to be replaced, etc.  The goal is to define the current state as comprehensively as possible.

In the first stage of the procurement these documents can be redacted (sensitive detail removed or blacked out) but in the final stage of the procurement the actual documents and spreadsheets should be furnished in order to ensure that the preferred bidder is able to estimate effectively.  This obviously goes hand in hand with a robust Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreement.

It is important to note that this pack is a reference to the current state of affairs and NOT a specification for the future.  The future requirement must be developed in detail during the discovery stage once the software and implementer have been selected and there is full knowledge of what is standard in the new solution.  Budget provision must also be made for further definition of new reports and Business Intelligence models during the Laboratory stage.

As a general principle any new system should be accompanied by a Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence component for analysis and reporting purposes, particularly across multiple systems.  Provision should be made for this in the RFP or it should be explicitly excluded.

Note that, provided the principles outlined in the parallel thread on "Strategically Enriching your Business Information Systems" are applied and the comments in the "Real Issues " thread relating to data engineering and precision configuration are taken into account, a wealth of high value information will be unlocked in the data warehouse.

17. Three Stage Procurement Process

a. Stage 1: Narrowing the Field

b. Stage 2: Select Preferred Bidder

c. Stage 3: Detailed Discovery, Finalization of Project Plan and Contracting

d. Configuration, Customization, Testing and Commissioning

I have used this approach successfully to conduct fixed price fixed business outcome projects, and hope that you will find it of value.

If you are embarking on any form of business systems procurement, large or small, this approach can be adapted appropriately.  It also has application to procurement of other soft business improvement services.  Some of these principles can also be applied when entering into negotiations to renew contracts with existing suppliers.

I offer advisory services with regard to the application of these principles and would be delighted to discuss how I might be of assistance.  Please see the special offers at the end of this email with regard to one day interventions that will afford you the opportunity to add value with a small investment.

I also offer sets of electronic template documents for the above, one set suitable for small to medium size projects and another suited to larger projects -- these are available for purchase, email me for details.

Please forward this to anyone you think may find it of interest.

Yours faithfully,

Dr James Robertson PrEng

James A Robertson and Associates Limited
Assisting clients to thrive through effective and efficient application of Business Information Systems

Seeking to serve the Almighty Creator in all things

Mobile: +44 (0) 776-862-2875
Landline: +44 (0) 207-059-0007

A discussion of how strategic essence should inform ALL business improvement projects and particularly business information system projects.  This thread discusses the analysis of strategy, the planning of strategy and feeding strategy through into business system specifications and the management of business improvement projects.  Articles to date include:

Summary
1: Strategy Defined
2: Differentiation
3: The Essence IS Different
4: Essence is the Point of Departure
Determining Strategic Essence

A discussion as to why business information system (and other business improvement projects) fail to deliver on expectations or fail outright.  Coupled to discussion of the critical factors that must be taken into account in order to achieve successful outcomes.  This thread is progressively discussing more hands-on specifics of achieving high value outcomes and builds on the Strategic Essence series.  Articles to date include:

1: Introduction
2: Mythology and Lack of Executive Custody
3: Lack of Strategic Alignment and Lack of Precision Configuration

Discussion of practical specific measures that can be taken in order to greatly improve the information yield of business information systems at both the operational and executive strategic level.  A number of simple steps that can be taken immediately and more complex measures that can be taken over time. 

This thread is discussing increasing business system and data warehouse value yield using techniques that lead to significantly improved business intelligence capability, including support for the ability to "obtain answers to questions we had not previously thought to ask.  This builds on the content in the Strategic Essence and Real Issues threads.  Articles to date include:

1: Introduction
2: Principles of Data Engineering
3: Steps in Applying these Recommendations

In order to fully apply the methods and principles discussed in the threads above with regard to new systems it is vital that a robust and effective approach to procurement is applied.  This requires a tough procurement approach directed at achieving a tough business outcomes orientated project that ensures a high value outcome.

This thread discusses the components of such a procurement approach.  The individual documents and processes that make up the approach are outlined.  Thereafter the components will be discussed in more detail.  Articles to date include:

1: Introduction
2: Bill of Services, Laboratory, Go-live Certificate, etc

To inquire about purchasing any of the above services simply click on the link below each item, enter your details in the resulting email and send it to me.  If for some reason the email does not open please just hit reply to this email and enter your contact details.  I will revert to you in the manner you request to answer your questions and make arrangements.

Should you require further information please email me and I will be delighted to connect by email, phone or Skype to answer all your questions.

I look forward to being of service to you.

Yours faithfully,

James Robertson