Project Management & Software Selection

BKD Technologies is at your side to help you remain confident when evaluating and selecting a new software solution.  We are here to provide project management assistance and help answer the tough questions about the cost and complexity of a new solution.

With an average of 14 years experience, our consultants are knowledgeable and trained to find the enterprise resource planning (ERP), business or financial management, industry specific, human resources management or reporting tool needed.

Our five-phase approach guides us to assist companies when identifying, evaluating and selecting packaged software alternatives that best suits an organization’s needs and help give a competitive advantage.

Phase One – Project Plan and System Requirements Document and Request for Information

The objective of this phase is to jointly develop a project plan, assemble the system requirements document (SRD) and prepare a request for information (RFI).  We will provide assistance developing a project plan, including detail tasks, begin/end target dates, resources and task dependencies.

In this phase, we will also provide assistance developing an RFI.  Distribution of the RFI (in Phase II) will include the SRD.  The deliverables include: Project Plan, SRD and RFI.

1. Assistance to organize and schedule project multiple resources
2. Identify & document needs
3. Develop an objective basis to evaluate functionality

Risks:

1. Omission of critical system components
2. Omission of input from every functional area

Phase Two – Screen Potential Vendors

The objective of this phase is to identify potential vendor solutions.  The deliverables include: Short list of vendors, vendor selection criteria and RFI responses.

Benefits:

1. Focus resources on solution alternatives meeting objectives and within budget
2. Avoidance of unproven technologies

Risks:

1. Consumption of time and resources on incomplete solutions

Phase Three – Vendor Demonstrations

The objective of this phase is to obtain a demonstration of two vendor solutions.  The deliverables include: Demonstration scripts and scorecard.

Benefits:

1. Obtain a demo based on your needs and requirements
2. Avoid demonstration that is not relevant to your daily operations
3. Track multiple demonstrations with a documented scoring mechanism

Risks:

1. Consumption of evaluation time on features not required
2. Unable to objectively compare multiple vendors
3. Purchase a solution which is too complicated to implement

Phase Four – Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

The objective of this phase is to estimate a three-year cost of ownership.  The activities in this phase include estimating software, equipment and implementation fees.  The deliverables include: TCO and reference call script.

Benefits:

1. Obtain an understanding of the total cost of ownership
2. Understanding the cash flow requirements of the project
3. Understand other user’s successes and issues with the proposed solution

Risks:

1. Hidden Costs

Phase Five – Solution Presentation

The objective of this phase is to present the preferred solution to executive management.  The deliverable include: Presentation to executive management.

Benefits:

1. Understanding the implementation effort, required resources and time frame
2. Position stakeholders to make an informed decision

Risks:

1. Making a poor purchase decision

Implementation Project Management

The above process positions us to provide implementation project management.  Using our OnTrack software implementation methodology we will provide assistance managing and monitoring the software installation and configuration, data conversion, end-user training, acceptance testing and cut over to live production.  OnTrack addresses two critical success factors: project communication and containing scope creep.

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