Articles by Dr James Robertson

A redacted version of an actual manual for a JARandA Chart of Accounts for a small manufacturing company. This manual gives a comprehensive picture of how the Chart of Accounts is structured, how the Cubic Business Model works and the reporting and other opportunities that the design provides

Cnf 046 Insourcing -- Restructuring the IT Department for Better Business Focus and Increased Effectiveness --Armscor Case Study

Case study of a strategic planning project undertaken to develop a customer service focused IT Strategy for the Armaments Corporation of South Africa, the project used strategic marketing concepts to research business user, business requirements and concerns and convert these into a strategic action plan that was measurable and actionable thereby strengthening the position of the IT Department as a partner with the business

Dr James A Robertson PrEng The Business Information Systems Doctor

Business Systems NOT delivering?

Call the Business Systems Specialist

Dr. James Robinson

Dr James A Robertson -- has been involved in the effective application of Business Information Systems, including but NOT limited to ERP, since 1987 and in the profitable and effective use of computers in Business since 1981.

Drawing on a diversity of experience, including formal military training in Quick Attack techniques at the Regimental Commander level, Dr Robertson has developed highly effective methods of investigating any sub-optimal Business Information Systems situation -- be it an established system or a stalled project or any other source of Executive frustration -- quickly and concisely diagnosing the root cause of the problem and prescribing concise practical actions that Business Executives can effectively act on see the Pulse Measurement page and also the Sample Reports page for redacted real reports.

He has also developed highly effective methods of strategically enriching systems to unlock the full potential of existing investments, see the Precision Configuration page and couples this to architecting small pieces of clever software that harness the full potential of your investment, see the Software page.

If you are having problems with your systems, your project or your IT Department, call The Business Systems Specialist
James@James-A-Robertson-and-Associates.com

Business System Failure is RIFE -- we offer insight into why this happens AND WHAT is required to prevent it.

Failure is at epidemic levels with massive damage done to client companies -- if you are NOT aware of the extent of the problem please visit the About Failure page for a catalog of major failures running to billions of Pounds and Dollars.

All evidence indicates that the established players do NOT know how to deliver stable, reliable high value solutions that WORK.

There HAS to be a better way!

This website provides information relating to that way with a large collection of white papers, presentations, standards documents, etc that you can use to start bringing the situation under control

We also offer high level advisory services with regard to the application of the principles advocated on this website

We offer an ENGINEERING APPROACH to addressing these issues

By Engineering I mean the formal, structured, highly disciplined, highly systematic, highly practical approach that consistently delivers results in ALL areas of human endeavor where formally trained and certified engineers are the ONLY practitioners permitted to operate -- think large buildings, factories, motor vehicles, aircraft -- highly complex systems that work at a level that we take it for granted that they WILL work and where failure is all but unthinkable and, when it happens, attracts immediate public attention and rigorous investigation directed at ensuring that such failures are prevented in the future -- in fact, everything that the management consulting industry that implements complex software systems is NOT

This approach is discussed further on the Engineering Approach page.

Book -- The Critical Factors for Information Technology Investment Success

In 2003 I undertook an in-depth analysis of all the information and experience that I had gathered with regard to the factors giving rise to Business Information System failure including ERP and general IT and classified this information into a number of categories including "The Factors Causing Failure" and "The Critical Factors for Success" based on this I developed a two day Course "The Critical Factors for Information Technology Investment Success" which is still offered today.

Based on this I wrote the book of the same name, which is available in electronic form here for download:

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Random Selection of Articles by Dr James Robertson

TxM 078 Section 9.2 19 out of 20 ERP implementations do NOT deliver what was promised Financial Mail -- headlines

CIO 010 Is I.T. Really Moving "SO FAST we cannot keep up with it"?

Prd 033 Why would an Executive buy the JAR&A Analytical Financial Suite

Std 006 Procurement: 00c Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreement

A simple confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement which you can tailor and elaborate on as you see fit and which may vary depending on your legal jurisdiction and your attorney. I recommend that this initial document is kept simple as you want ALL persons attending the initial tender briefings to sign this

You would possibly have a much more comprehensive agreement for your short list bidders and possibly more comprehensive still for your final choice although I personally hold that very detailed documents of this sort tend to be excessive

TxM 050 Section 6: Why taxonomy software?

Cnf 092 Doing things differently and better -- ASCO Case Study 2

Case Study of the strategic benefits derived by African Sales Company from a successful ERP implementation that made use of Precision Configuration techniques to create a highly structured brand orientated Product Class master coupled to several pieces of custom developed software tailored to give the client capabilities that none of their competitors had, this supported significant competitively based strategic growth as well as operational efficiencies

Prd 024 Characteristics of the JAR&A StratGap Strategic Gap Analysis Process

SNw 056 The Alternative to Business Process – the RIGHT Approach

Having established that business process is irrelevant, distracting in dangerous in designing and configuring business information systems, what do we put in its place? This article discusses the progression of activities that an effective business systems specification, configuratoon, testing and deployment project should follow

SNw 050 The Real Issues in BIS: Part 3 – Strategic Alignment and Precision Configuration

Strategic alignment, the alignment of system concept and solution architecture with the strategic essence of the organization, why it exists and how it thrives, such that the systems enable management and staff to do the right things well as determined by the customers of the organization together with the need for Precision Configuration the very exact development of data content to model the business, are discussed in this section

SNw 003 Measuring Competitive Performance (Part 2)