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Just the other week, I was asked, “Why do you think our project to install a COTS (commercial off the shelf solution), went wrong, over-ran and needed a budget increase of nearly £2m to complete”?
Its a too common tale and an interesting question and also one that I had limited scope to comment on, as I was not aware of the project in question, nor was involved in my current remit with the organisation. For sure, software implementations go wrong, friction occurs and this post will try to cover some of the key gotchas, around COTS projects.
Firstly, is a COTS solution for you?
Maybe it isn’t and you should be building something from scratch, particularly if you are seeking a particularly unique solution to a unique problem. Most problems are not unique and if you have peer organisations, successfully using commercial solutions, that should really be the first avenue to investigate. Why re-invent the wheel if you can see a number of solutions to compare and contrast and find the one that gives a good fit.
Choosing a good COTs solution is a bit like finding your life partner (and who is 100% happy with theirs?). All other halves have some irritating features, but no-doubt if you are still together, a great majority of things work out between you pretty well. Don’t throw the idea of a COT solution out because others have had issues. It can sometimes be difficult to get to the bottom of issues as organisations and managers rarely are comfortable sharing their failures. In practice, much can always be learned looking closer into what went wrong, ready for the next up-coming projects.
Many projects fail pretty early on, with the initial specification of what’s needing to be achieved and what’s needed from the COTS solution. A too high level or no spec at all is not recommended and always is likely to lead to receiving an initial bargain supplier quote. If your needs are vague, so will be pricing.
On the other side of the fence, back in the day as a supplier, I have often looked at an initial requirement and honestly determined it as easily done for £200k. I was generally carefully to detail exactly, what was included, which would generally flush out multiple missed additional requirements. Not all supplier sales folk would or do. My experience of many years doing implementations taught me that sales need to go better, otherwise the poor implementation consultants ultimately pick up the gaps later. That £200k could quite easily increase by a factor of ten, depending what was missed.
Costs should always be assessed and compared over the full contracted project life, typically five, maybe ten or more years these days. It’s a level playing field then for all.
Factor in all database licences, Cloud instances (you know, Live, Train, Test etc), additional software (MDM managers and security solutions) or hardware (tablets, laptops, workstations etc), from the very start.
Contracts are important and far too many projects I have reviewed, started with a poorly constructed one, or something I can recognise as a suppliers original, with little or no clarifications / alterations. In the instance of one client I worked with, a 108 page supplier contract had just been signed / countersigned at the bottom, committing that organisation to a five year minimum cost of over £700k, even if no solution was ever implemented or goes live. I was told the ICT director had ‘just signed it’, as it looked quite large and complicated. It was not balanced in favour of a more even relationship between client & supplier, even though the proposed product was just freshly released.
Which brings me on to another key area. Are we contracting to established and proven product? Does the solution exist at all, or is it just a ‘wire frame’ or cosmetic prototype? Are there any other live users, utilising it in the manner we expect to? If not, expect high risk, of to be perhaps footing the bill later, to make the solution work or finish it for your needs.
Risk is the third factor in what I would call the ‘holy trinity’ of procurement, together with well specified requirements and accurate cost. If your organisation has a relaxed attitude to risk, IE cost could be three times or more expensive or take 3-5 times longer than expected, a more relaxed approach could be taken. If like most Local Authorities, Councils or squeezed Social Housing providers, there is a pretty fixed budget and its absolutely needed live in x months, due diligence needs to fierce. Contract penalties need to be writ’ large.
So lets imagine we have our preferred supplier, suitable product and tight contract. There is plenty that can go wrong over an 18 month project. Client or supplier could resource it badly, both need to get that right, with my preference finding ways to get the A-Team involved. Quality and experienced staff, support better outcomes, go-lives and future system/process transformation.
Extended implementations are more costly and delay realisation of expected benefits.
While all projects can be expected to encounter some change control, that strong spec mentioned earlier, helps control what comes up and what’s valid. Where good contract and specifications have been available, over the last decade I have probably saved clients getting on for £1m in total, in rejected change control. Much of it due to supplier disconnect between sale and implementation, rather than sharp practice.
One last thought, keep your project focused. While this is a challenging prospect over perhaps an 18-24 month project, try hard to stay fixated on achieving original project outcomes. Understand when projects are drifting and challenge suppliers and your own team quickly, to keep on track.
While this has been a bit of a whistle stop tour of this subject, I hope its helpful to organisations considering or embarking on a new COTS implementation project. Comments or questions welcome – feel free to get in touch!
Related Post: Complexity of solutions, can make it very hard to always 'Keep it real'
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Television – Friction.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009
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