Dead and buried

There’s a graveyard somewhere out there, where failed IT projects lie, along with wrecked careers and even ruined companies. A major implementation went sour, didn’t work, cost a fortune. Answers were demanded, fingers were pointed, people fell or were pushed, and sometimes the business failed because the capital expenditure blew out its budgets. It started out expecting to revolutionise its processes with a smart new computer system, and ended up with disaster.

What went wrong? In many cases they were projects that were doomed to fail from the outset, according to Ian Garvey, CEO of Greentree Partner Prerogative.

“A lot of projects are perceived to fail, or are set to fail, because the company isn’t clear, or its board isn’t clear, about what the success criteria are for a project,” he says.

The most common causes of failure for IT projects are:

1.    The vendor is more interested in selling technology than selling a business solution.

2.    The customer doesn’t really know what they require.

3.    The customer and the people doing the implementation fail to form a proper working relationship.

BEWARE OF TECH-SPEAK

“Some software vendors offer ‘technology solutions’ as opposed to ‘business solutions’,” Ian says.  “Often they try to wow the prospects with how that ‘technology solution’ will fix an imaginary problem – so the customer ends up buying a technical solution looking for a problem, rather than a business solution.”

When shopping for technology for the home – a DVD recorder, for instance – the buyer wants something that works straight out of the box. Few of us are keen to spend hours puzzling through a complex user manual, when all we want is something that will record our favourite TV programmes with minimal button-pushing.

The same principle should apply to business software, and any vendor whose sales pitch is filled with tech-speak probably doesn’t have the customer’s interests at heart, Ian warns.

“You've got a lot of solutions out there that have some very technical whizz-bang things, and it's unfortunate that sometimes customers do get carried away with that stuff, when they need to look at the actual functionality.”

Good business systems have sophisticated architecture, but are simple on the surface. “You don’t have to be a NASA scientist to understand them,” says Ian, “and they should also do just what you require, but otherwise be unobtrusive.”

To avoid being shackled with an over-large, over-budget computer system, a business owner needs to say to the vendor: “This is what I need it to do” or “This is my problem – do you know how to fix it?”

THE PRICE OF KNOWLEDGE

Any business that goes seeking an IT solution without a clear plan, and which fails to keep its goals in mind throughout the implementation process, is asking for trouble.

“Perhaps the implementation has taken longer, cost a little bit more; certainly it’s been a bit more stressful than people anticipate, and they forget what they were originally trying to achieve,” says Ian. “So it’s perceived to be a failure because it hasn’t achieved something that it was never meant to.”

Any significant project needs a manager who has constant oversight, who knows what it’s meant to achieve when it’s done, and who has those goals written down so that everyone remembers them. “If I was any project manager trying to implement a system, I would want to be quite clear about my success factors,” Ian says.

A crucial point in the process is when the people responsible for selling the system hand over to the team responsible for the implementation. Prerogative takes an unusual course here: it charges the customer for this process, asserting that the extensive knowledge already acquired by the sales team about the company, the way it works and the system it requires, is a valuable investment.

“When we get an order, we’ve got to hand over the best part of a month’s knowledge to the consulting team,” says Ian. “The reality of it is, the customer needs to invest in the supplier’s knowledge transfer.”

SUPPORT FROM THE TOP

Customers also need to be realistic about the true cost of a project. They’d love to have a fixed price at the outset, but this usually requires a fixed scope. Ian says there’s really no such thing, because requirements tend to change and evolve, and customers are generally better off allowing some flexibility in time and material costs.

This is where top-level involvement is so important. Someone at board level needs to own the project so that it gets the support it needs.

“If there’s someone on the board, or very close to the board, who understands the importance of the project and says they’re prepared to put the resources in to make it work, then that message will filter down to the end-users of the system,” Ian says. “If they can see how the company is going to benefit, then they’ll have the commitment and enthusiasm to make it work.”

Another potential point of failure is an unrealistic time scale for implementing the system. A customer who expects it to be fully up and running, say, two months from the time it was ordered is going to get very frustrated, especially if they’re installing a completely new, integrated system designed to carry out a wide range of tasks, and which requires their staff to do their job differently. Trying to do too much at once, neglecting adjustment and training issues, can be disruptive and expensive.

“Splitting a project into phases, and gradually implementing all the different modules, reduces the risk and eases the workload,” Ian says.

IN FOR THE LONG HAUL

Failure to follow (or complete lack of) a properly constructed plan, lapsed communications, and misconceptions about outcomes, all contribute to those holes in the ground where failed IT projects are buried. Ian says he hears such stories regularly, and so often they start with the customer failing to click with the vendor.

When making a big investment in computer systems, businesses must ensure they develop a good working relationship with the company supplying and maintaining their system, because it’s going to be part of their life for a few years to come.

“I tend to tell customers that they’re not just buying a software application; they’re buying a relationship,” Ian says.

“What you need to do as a business is to match your personality with your vendor, and that covers implementation, how it works, upgrades and everything in-between. Some fast-growing businesses need contact every month, while others are quite happy to be left by themselves. So it's important to marry up your business culture or personality with the people you buy from.

“Really, it’s the people you’re dealing with that count.”

ABOUT IAN GARVEY

Ian Garvey has built a career over 20 years, listening to the pain points of accountants, CEOs and COOs, and helping provide solutions to those problems through various business and ERP applications. Many CEO/ CFOs have become repeat customers as they move from business to business, which eventually led Ian to establish the first UK Greentree Partner eight years ago with a two-time customer, Simon Oldfield.

Whilst Ian is based in the UK, he can’t wait to get his skis on and glide around the Italian Alps, and when not on the slopes, he can be found sampling Italian cuisine.

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