This article summarizes the key attributes of a high value business information system implementation.

This is presented in terms of business outcome with the bottom line being significantly increased strategic effectiveness resulting in greater competitiveness, profitability and growth.

Organizational efficiencies result as a by-product of the design approach that I advocate.  These give rise to overall reduction in unit overheads and operational costs.

It is recognized that these claims have been widely made in the past by the business information systems industry and seldom realized at anything close to what has been promised.  One report says that "19 out of 20 ERP implementations do NOT deliver what was promised".

Accordingly it is important to read this article in the context of previous articles relating to the "REAL Issues in Business Information System Implementation" and the application of an "Engineering Approach".  This is coupled to "Precision Configuration" and "Robust Procurement" in order to achieve this outcome.  Techniques are used which are substantially different to the norm of the industry.

I find that most people are so accustomed to the mediocre operationally mundane and strategically inept Business Information Systems implementations that dominate the business landscape that there is little or NO vision of what is really possible.

I discovered some years ago that even the mainstream big brand software companies and implementers did NOT understand many of the principles that I regard as fundamental and non-negotiable.  I further found that configurations that I regarded as extremely poor were regarded as acceptable and the norm.  I even found that terms like "best-practice" were used with regard to some of these highly sub-standard configurations.

I eventually concluded that the distribution of value looked as follows and that the industry norm, which I have seen repeatedly during my Pulse Measurement investigations, was at the bottom left of the curve below and that which I considered as desirable was at the top right of the curve:

I continue to find that most executives have NO vision of what the top right of the curve looks like let alone a vision of how they might attain such an outcome.

IF they once had such a vision it has been drummed out of them by years of mediocrity.

This article sets out what I consider to be essential deliverables for a business systems project outcome and, by extension, a currently operational system.  In my view what I advocate here should be the NORM!

If your organization does NOT have ALL of the following then I strongly urge you to get in touch with me to discover what can be done to move you towards this goal.

Following are the attributes that I regard as necessary:

Greatly improved management effectiveness through greatly improved information immediately available.  This is coupled to MUCH greater information diversity resulting in better decisions made faster at all levels.  This gives rise to dramatically improved competitiveness enabling accelerated growth both organically and through acquisitions.

Executives and managers have access to a wealth of information, literally at their fingertips -- orders of magnitude more diversity and accuracy than ever before -- coupled to a huge diversity of powerful and effective reports and models with dynamic and immediate drill down to full detail.

Executives, managers and staff have a high level of ownership of the system, understand exactly how it works and have a HIGH level of independence from implementer support with associated savings in operating costs.

All personnel are highly sensitized to the importance of neat, accurate and complete data with the result that the data is entirely reliable and trustworthy.  This leads to further efficiencies -- including that the organization runs more smoothly.

All the above lead to overall corporate leanness and efficiency such that the same white collar staff complement can manage a substantially larger organization highly effectively.  This enables substantial cost effective organic growth.  Furthermore audit time and cost have been materially reduced.

These benefits are the consequence of applying ALL the principles and techniques that I advocate -- as presented on my website and made available to my clients.

I would welcome the opportunity to connect with you by Skype, phone or face to face to discuss how I can assist you to attain this level of business outcome with your existing systems.  Please reply to this email or click here to arrange a meeting.

I look forward to discussing how I can assist you to unlock the FULL value of your Business Information Systems investment, no matter which software you have, how old it is or how dissatisfied you are with it.

Yours faithfully,

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

eMail       : James@James-A-Robertson-Associates.eu
Website   : http://www.James-A-Robertson-Associates.eu
Linked In  : http://uk.linkedin.com/in/DrJamesARobertsonERPDoctor

James A Robertson and Associates offer a range of services directed at enabling clients to put in place comprehensive measures to achieve the level of system effectiveness and efficiency discussed above in such a way as to give lasting high value low life time operating cost outcomes

I also offer short, sharp diagnostic interventions to determine why your business system, department or project is NOT delivering or is stalled, including easy to understand actionable advice on how to turn the situation around

I will also give you an independent evaluation of the health of your existing systems and give guidance on whether they REALLY need to be replaced or not and, in many cases, advise how to greatly extend the life and sustainability of those systems

Please click here to email me for more information

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: Strategic Essence is the Point of Departure
5: Determining Strategic Essence

A discussion as to why business information systems 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 outcome 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 are discussed in more detail.  Articles to date include:

1: Introduction
2: Bill of Services, Laboratory, Go-live Certificate, etc
3: Executive Engagement, Bid Compliance, Adjudication and other matters

Comment on some of the dramatic business information system investment failures of recent years.  Articles to date include:

1: The BBC Digital Media Initiative £100 million write-off
2: Bridgestone versus IBM -- The REAL Issues -- Overview
3: Bridgestone versus IBM Part 2 -- Governance and Procurement

Please browse my website for more information

The home page, http://www.James-A-Robertson-and-Associates.eu will give you a good overview of what I am advocating and help you to navigate the entire site.

The Table of Contents lists all the webpages on the site, there is a lot of deep content that is NOT immediately visible.

The Article Catalogue contains well over 150 articles on diverse topics.

The Article Keyword Cloud provides alphabetic keywords linking to many of the articles

The Conference page lists around 90 conference presentations, nearly all different with around 40 of the presentations live on the site for you to view and download -- email me if there is a presentation you would like to view that is not on the site.

If you would like to know more about me there is detailed information on the website and further detailed information on LinkedIn

Visit the Testimonials page to hear and read what clients and others have to say about me

Visit the Failure Catalogue to get a realistic perspective of the severity of the problems with the business information systems implementation industry.  There is also a description of what I mean by the word Failure in this context

The page on The Critical Human Foundation will give you some idea of the full diversity of the matters that I take into account in advising my clients

I look forward to discussing how I can assist you to unlock the FULL value of your Business Information Systems investment, no matter which software you have, how old it is or how dissatisfied you are with it