Requirements Engineering: Multiple Vendors and Accelerated ERP Implementation

With increasingly shorter ERP Implementation cycles, the Requirements Gathering Phase is being squeezed substantially which proves to be costly in the long run. Also, there are multiple cases where one vendor does the Requirements Gathering and another vendor does the ERP Implementation. What come to the second vendor are documents which are mostly incomplete. In that case it is necessary to come up with a Standard Questionnaire based on a particular ERP Package (say Oracle, SAP) and map the requirements against the questions. Developing a questionnaire each time is quite cumbersome and leads to a  potential loss of productive effort which could have been deployed elsewhere. Also, there are issues with consistency. An added advantage of having a Standard Questionnaire is the reusability of the Questionnaire for future ERP Implementations. Most of the ERP Packages available in the market cater to standard Business Processes which may not be relevant for a particular industry. This can be bridged by coming up with a Standard Questionnaire specific to a particular industry. This will help to keep tab on the customizations/workarounds needed to fulfill the business functionalities specific to a particular industry.

WHY DO CLIENTS GO FOR A MULTIPLE VENDOR SCENARIO?

There are increasing trends of clients going for multiple IT vendors. And by choosing to work with multiple vendors, clients can cut costs and foster competition between vendors, while taking advantage of vendor specialization and technical expertise. They can also reduce the risk associated with depending on a single vendor. But, managing a stable of multiple partners can also be time consuming, complex and expensive. Through 2007, according to Research Group Gartner, multisourcing will remain the dominant sourcing model. A survey of CIOs taken in February on cio.com showed that 42 percent use three or more outsourcing vendors, while 36 percent use fewer than three, and 22 percent are sticking with one.

WHY REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING IS IMPORTANT?

Any software system is measured by the degree to which it meets the purpose for which it was intended. Broadly speaking, software systems requirements engineering (RE) is the process of discovering that purpose, by identifying stakeholders and their needs, and documenting these in a form that is amenable to analysis, communication, and subsequent implementation. The bulk of the effort of Requirements Engineering occurs early in the lifetime of a project, motivated by the evidence that requirements errors, such as misunderstood or omitted requirements, are more expensive to fix later in project lifecycles.

THE CURRENT TREND IN IMPLEMENTATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS

With access to faster information becoming the differentiating factor between a successful and a failed business, more and more companies are embracing some sort of an Information Technology System. There was a time when companies used to employ a vendor to develop software for a particular problem. For example, a company used to employ a vendor for developing a Payroll Solution. The same company then used to employ another vendor to develop an Accounts Receivable Solution. While this led to savings for the company in the short-term, this used to prove costly in the long run when the question of integration across disparate systems arose. But why was there a need for integration? This is because the Planning guy should access the same data as the Purchasing guy for better decision making.

But this can be addressed by asking the same vendor to develop an integrated system. But there are some potential problems here. First of all, there is the risk of over reliance on one vendor. Secondly, the solution may not be fool proof leading to potential post implementation support issues. And finally developing a total solution works out to be costlier than buying a standard package from the market.

This led to the emergence of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Packages like SAP, Oracle. All that needs to be done is to buy the product and tweak it to the business needs. With ERP Packages becoming more and more affordable, companies are now shifting to a Package Implementation Solution.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH CURRENT ERP PACKAGES?

Though it looks easy, a full end to end ERP Implementation can be painful for a company. First of all, most of the standard packages have solutions which cater to Standard Business Processes which may not be relevant. Though some of the ERP vendors have come up with industry specific solutions, they do not address all the business scenarios. This calls for customized solutions which become very difficult to maintain in the Post Implementation Phase.

The major pain point in an ERP System is the Implementation Phase. With increased pressure on timelines, companies push for aggressive timelines. Though Requirements Gathering is one of the critical phases in the implementation, many vendors squeeze this phase to address the aggressive timelines. This often leads to requirements errors, such as misunderstood or omitted requirements, and are more expensive to fix later in project lifecycles.

Another trend which is widespread is having multiple vendors whereby each vendor gets a particular phase. Companies do this repeatedly primarily for two reasons. Firstly, this minimizes the risk of over reliance on one customer. Secondly, this leads to competition resulting in a lower cost for the company (Vendors try to outbid each other).  And it so happens that one vendor does the requirements gathering while another will implement the solution.  What comes to the second vendor are documents which may not be complete. The second vendor tries to complete this with potential loss of time and effort.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

The solution lies in having a Standard Questionnaire based on a particular ERP Package (say Oracle, SAP) and map the requirements against the questions. Developing a questionnaire each time is quite cumbersome and leads to a potential loss of productive effort which could have been deployed elsewhere. Also, there are issues with consistency. An added advantage of having a Standard Questionnaire is the reusability of the Questionnaire for future ERP Implementations. Most of the ERP Packages available in the market cater to standard Business Processes which may not be relevant for a particular industry. This can be bridged by coming up with a Standard Questionnaire specific to a particular industry. This will help to keep tab on the customizations/workarounds needed to fulfill the business functionalities specific to a particular industry.

CONCLUSION

 
Having a Standard Questionnaire for a specific Industry and specific to a particular ERP Package prevents a company from reinventing the wheel every time the company does the Requirement gathering thus managing the aggressive timelines. Also, the Questionnaire helps in highlighting gaps in a very short span of time in case of involvement of multiple vendors in requirements gathering (remember  that the vendor has to validate the requirements with potential loss of time and effort).

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