IS Consulting Process (IS 6005)

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IS Consulting Process (IS 6005)

• Masters in Business Information Systems 2006 /
  2007
• Programme in Professional Information System
  Practices

Fergal Carton Business Information Systems
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This week

• Revision class
• Reading list

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Topics covered 1st term

• The IS Consulting Business
• What does the IS Consultant do?
• Segmenting consulting practice (eg. Vision)
• Role of consultants on PPARS
• Typical asssigments
• PCB example
• GAP analysis (eg. UCC)
• ERP Projects scope, resources, timescales,
  phasing
• Consultant skills (analytic, technical, project)
• Consultant tools
• Identifying unique features of business
• Managing Client Engagements
• Requirements analysis and understanding the
  client goals
• Handouts
• Task definition and project resources
• SIB
• Preparing and presenting the solution options
• In-house vs custom

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Consulting practice in Ireland

• Segmenting the market
• Emphasis on services (from Helpdesk to ASP model)
• Any other research on market?
• Homework on Vision
• Typical consulting assignments
• Role of consultants
• Perspectives on IS function
• Do you know more than the client?

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Segmenting the IS consulting market

• What services are provided?
• IT strategy definition (laying out an investment
  plan for IT spend)
• Advise on IT cost reduction
• Feasibility study or business case for IT spend
• Develop requirements for new system
• Package selection and implementation
• Software development (Design, Build, Run, )
• Outsourcing operations (ASP, Helpdesk, IT
  support, )
• What markets are operated in?
• Public
• Commercial
• SME

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Propose, or not to propose?

• Changing your spots just to snag a project
• Fit of project with your capabilities
• Trade off between need to grow and comfort zone
• Challenge the sales team?
• Respond with a polite no-bid letter

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Vision exercise

• Background, size, structure, locations
• Unique selling point (if one exists)
• Industry sectors/practice areas
• Offers/services within these areas

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What do consultants do?

• Consulting project examples
• ERP projects big-bang or phased approach?
• Vital role of consultants availability,
  courageousness and tenacity
• Telephone company uses Tel no. to identify
  customers!
• Catering trade 14 stock loss, use of IT for
  control
• Gap analysis example colour coded fit of ERP
  to actual processes
• PCB case studies presented
• Skills a key issue in implementation debate
  (Project Mgt, IT support, PUs, )
• Structured process overview diagram a good
  communication tool
• Top down approach, talk to managers first
  protocol and common courtesy
• Including regional users in requirements
  specification

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Gap analysis

• Homework how to reconcile Requirements
  Specification (wish list) with ERP generic
  processes?
• ERP Finance modules for UCC
• Scope
• System requirements
• Responding to an ITT / RFP
• Requirements definition report
• Functional requirements by dept, process, module,
  

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Gap analysis expectation mgt

• Describe existing processes
• Document how things are currently done
• Review inputs and outputs of current process
  (screens, forms, reports)
• Outline problems with current way of doing things
  (speed, risk of error, )
• What improvements are expected from system
  (single point of data entry, faster reports, less
  manual work, )
• How to design and communicate the proposed
  solution
• Review requirements documentation answer with
• Walk-through solution
• Get sign-off from users

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Managing the GAP workshop with client managers

• Off-site, phones off, informal, actual consulting
  team members present, start in working together
  mode
• Company history and current challenges (get
  people saying yes)
• Overview of ERP (education, building awareness,
  testing the water for resistance, )
• Requirements for ERP (generic and company
  specific)
• Focus on benefits
• Understanding the cost of the Gaps (alternative
  functionality, workaround, modification)
• Addressing the functionality gap (get commitment
  for resources to work on Bs and Cs)

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Last week

• Role of consultants (cf. Wang Chen paper)
• Personal commitment invest the time in getting
  to know the client
• Winning trust
• Significant knowledge asymmetry
• Not doing, but advising how to disentangle
  yourself from an operational role
• Conflict resolution
• Freeman 5 concepts of IT advisory role
• Relationship
• Role
• Visualise success
• You advise, they decide
• Disentangle yourself from operational role
• Give the criteria by which you would make the
  decision, rather than the decision
• Be results oriented
• Managing the GAP workshop with client managers
• Off-site, phones off, informal, actual consulting
  team members present, start in working together
  mode
• Company history and current challenges (get
  people saying yes)
• Overview of ERP (education, building awareness,
  testing the water for resistance, )
• Requirements for ERP (generic and company
  specific)

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All Homes Provide A roof over your head A floor
under your feet A lock on the door Electricity,
water, sewer
Picture
A starter home Uses standard blue prints Can be
built with generic skills Requires much
compromise Doesnt have unique features Is very
similar to the next house Is generic in style and
function
Your dream home Architect develops a custom
plan Requires skilled craftsman Requires little
compromise Is unique where you value it Is like
no other house The style and function are specific
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ERP

• Why ERP ?
• Automate and streamline sales/quote/order/invoice
• Shorten order processing time
• Better inventory control
• Consolidates all sales information
• Improve sales information on customers
• Why reinvent the wheel, use best practice
• Scalability
• Robustness one system, minimises repetition
• Faster to implement
• Clear upgrade path (linked to vendor) better
  expansion capability
• Develop ERP skills in-house, useful for further
  projects
• Ability to implement, large team required!
• Quantifiable outcome timescale

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In-house

• More control over process design
• More adherence to specific requirements
• More programmers required
• Own processes may be better than ERP template
• Have we got the resources / experience
• Design
• Build
• Support
• Cost of back fill
• Long term Support issues
• Time scale cost

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Phasing discussion big bang vs phased

• Business constraints or seasonality in business
  cycles (eg. Hershey)
• Scale ( users, countries, )
• Scope ( modules, interfaces, level of
  customisation, )
• Timescale and cost (NB. PPARS still costing 21m.
  a year)
• Different requirements between sites, resistance
  to ERP (get quick wins first)

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Package vs. custom debate

• What is unique to the business?
• Business model (cost, products, design, customer
  satisfaction, )
• Unique feature (products, production methods, IS,
  supply chain, )
• Leading questions
• Revenue, headcount,
• Current successes, recent announcements,
• Project timescale
• a trade off between cost and tying up resources
• Scope creep because of changes to the business
  model
• Eg. EMC integration of DG rejected because of
  timeline impact but later regretted

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Consulting skills

• IS consulting profession
• Consultant, project manager, analyst
• Consultant skills
• Analytic abilities
• Analysis tools (IT audit example)
• Checklists, presentation matrices,
• Adding value in reporting findings in a way that
  prioritises actions to be taken
• Technical abilities
• Project management abilities
• Example from Accenture

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Roles on ERP projects

• Key roles in ERP project Accenture example
• Client, consultant and technology vendor
  resources
• Doubling up of client and consultant resources
  (experience where it counts)
• ERP project team example (PCB case study)
• Steering committee (SC) meets once a month, only
  want a report on progress
• Project issues should be sorted out before SC
  meeting
• SC members represent first and foremost their
  functional areas
• Project Manager should not be on Steering
  Committee?
• Clarity of project team presentation, keep like
  resources together
• Time commitment to project (increases downwards
  through org chart)
• Reporting lines not trivial think where decision
  bottlenecks can occur (and place a consultant at
  that point)

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Things to think about

• In considering change, think about how people are
  goaled / measured
• It will always benefit you if you make your boss
  look good
• Policy driven approach
• Statement of work
• Decisions
• Reporting
• Milestones
• Planning
• Policies

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Things to think about

• Resistors easier to deal with than the George
  Halls
• Pfizer 3 IT development centres competing
  against each other
• Communication
• set your stall out, be determined
• Deliver tough message first, but how you
  communicate it is key
• Different deal shapes (eg. SAP licence issue)
• Is manufacturing cultural?
• How do you judge level of interdependence between
  plants
• Interdependence betweeen ERP and legacy
  (ownership issues?)

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More tips on proposals

• Consistency in style throughout proposal
• Knowledge of a sector state it or show it
• Who is the biggest benefactor of MIS?
• IT resources are important
• Customers like frameworks
• An architecture of functions might re-assure
• Phasing, on what basis?
• Package vs. custom discussion
• Security deserves attention
• Maybe customer doesnt understand new business
  model
• Honesty looks professional and increases
  credibility

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A methodology

• Requirements are representational you cant
  interview everybody
• Breaks a large task into manageable chunks
• Shows knowledge and experience
• Allows negotiation over the scope of work
• Inspires confidence
• Can take account of latest research / thinking
• Helps calculate FTE and budget

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Popular issues / projects

• Read current business press for ideas (SBP, FT,
  Economist, CEO, Fortune, )
• Outsource to Puerto Rico like Ireland 20 years
  ago
• Outsourcing the knowledge economy in Ireland
• IFSC now has reputatation for futures currency
  trading
• Centre of excellence notion holding on to
  higher value activities

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Marketing funnel

• Consulting sales is like any other sales
  creating client need is critical
• Discuss sales tactics with someone you know who
  is a good sales person
• Quantify the levels in the funnel (as you would
  for a sales campaign)

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Whats an IT strategy

• Strategy is a report which matches business goals
  to IT directions
• Lays out a plan for future investment
• Contains pointers to implementation initiatives
• Can refer to your experience of implementing
  solutions
• Hopefully leads to you being retained for the
  implementation work

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Croker Strategy

• Customers
• Sports organisations (IRFU, FAI, IOC, )
• Club / county / national team supporters
• Corporate Ireland
• Business conference users
• Concert goers
• Tourists
• TV viewers
• Internet users
• Stakeholders
• GAA
• Govt.
• Sponsors
• Suppliers
• Tourist Board
• Dublin City council

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PPARS project

• Governance
• Complexity
• Job title
• Responsibilities
• No payscale
• Bonuses
• Overtime
• Link roster to payroll?
• Resources
• Business process change, not system issue

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PPARS project information

• http//irishhealth.com/index.html
• PPARS is only a tool, a computer system, to aid
  the recording personnel data and payroll.
• Problems lay deeper than the PPARS system,
• e.g Business Process is poor,
• no standardisation,
• poor management of resources,
• no reports to monitor pay expenditure and pull
  back on over spends.
• The system is only highlighting the problems that
  exsist.
• The system is being used as an excuse. If
  managers managed and were held accountable and
  responsible for their actions, the roll out of a
  new system should not be such a chore!!

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PPARS scope (www.PPARS.ie)

• Personnel Administration
• Organisational Management
• Time Management
• Payroll (full Gross to Net)
• Personnel Development (Qualifications only)
• Training Events
• Travel Management (Expenses only)
• Compensation Management (Mass Pay Increases only)
  
• Managers Self Service
• Employee Self Service (Limited Pilot)
• Electronic time capture (Pilot)

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PPARS.ie

• Core Benefits
• An integrated HR system for the Irish Health
  System.
• Comprehensive employee data and profiles.
• Improved reporting / standardised reporting
  across and within agencies.
• Enhanced potential to improve the facilities for
  resource planning / costing.
• Potential to improve the alignment of resources
  to service plans.
• Enhanced information on organisational structure,
  reporting relationships, positions and staffing
  complements.

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PPARS.ie

• Core Benefits (cont.)
• Standard streamlined processes, procedures and
  forms.
• Reduced administrative costs.
• Compliance with the reporting requirements of the
  Department of Health Children, the Health
  Services Employers' Agency and the Office of the
  Comptroller and Auditor General.
• Potential for electronic information flow between
  Health Agencies and the Department of Health
  Children.
• Enhanced empowerment of Line Managers In line
  with best practice in HR.
• Improved employee satisfaction through, for
  example, improvements to career and organisation
  planning.

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Environments for IS / IT planning
Internal Organiastional Pressures demanding
further distribution of IS/IT control organisation
High
Opportunistic
Complex
Diffusion degree of decentralisation of IS/IT
control in the organisation
CRM
External Competitive Pressures increasing the
criticality of IS/IT to the business
Backbone
Traditional
ERP
Low
High
Source Sullivan (1985) in Ward Griffiths
(1996)
Infusion degree of dependence of the business
on IS/IT
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IT strategic grid (McFarlan McKenney)
Strategic
Factory
HIGH
Strategic impact of existing systems
LOW
Turnaround
Support
LOW
HIGH
Strategic impact of application development
portfolio
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IT strategic grid (McFarlan McKenney)
IT is a tightly managed shop which must not get
beyond its station
IT is integral to the business
Strategic
Factory
HIGH
Strategic impact of existing systems
eg. steelworks
eg. credit card
Dont call us, well call you
Lets get on with it
LOW
Turnaround
Support
eg. cement
eg. retailer
LOW
HIGH
Strategic impact of application development
portfolio
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3 forces driving firms around grid

• Fit between IT potential and operations
  strategy
• Strategic choices made about IT
• Changes in the competitive environment

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Limitations of Strategic Grid

• Every company has systems in 4 quadrants
• Systems may migrate around quadrants
• Therefore
• Use grid to plot range of business applications
• Investment appraisal approach for each quadrant

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Application Portfolio (adapted from Ward
Griffiths, Strategic Planning for Information
Systems, 1996)
Strategic
Key operational
Applications on which the organisation currently
depends for success
Applications critical to sustaining future
business strategy
Applications which may be important in achieving
future success
Applications which are valuable but not critical
to success
High Potential
Support
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Application Portfolio Example for a
manufacturing company
Strategic
Key operational

• Sales order management
• Links to suppliers
• Sales Forecast market analysis
• Product Profitability analysis

• Bill of Materials
• Inventory management
• Customer database
• Receivables / Payables
• Employee database

• EDI with wholesalers
• Manpower planning
• Decision Support (capacity plan)
• Expert fault diagnosis
• Document processing

• Time recording
• Budgetary control
• General accounting
• Cost accounting
• Payroll

High Potential
Support
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Reading list

• Handouts in class
• 1 Oct 06
• ERP Implementation Case Study (PCB), Fergal
  Carton
• Rick Freedman (2000). The IT Consultant, Chapter
  One, Part One
• 18th Oct 06 UCC ERP project documentation?
• Format of Tenders and Evaluation
• Appendix II, current data volumes
• Key roles and team structure
• 20th Nov 06
• SIB Industries Inc. (case study on ERP
  implementation project)
• 8 Jan 07 (soft copies also sent)
• How to deal with difficult customer, Peter Urs
  Bender
• Stand Up, Sit Down...Dont Fight, Fight, Fight,
  Jacobsen (2004)
• Sales and Marketing, Ch. 6, Rick Freedman (2003).
  Building the IT Consulting Practice
• What is the IT Consulting Business, Ch. 1, Rick
  Freedman (2003). Building the IT Consulting
  Practice
• 26th Feb
• PPARS handouts articles from Greg Baxter,
  Ciaran Buckley, Ian Campbell, John Kennedy and
  Auditor General report extracts
• Emails

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Freedman is light reading!

• Building the IT Consulting Practice
• 1
• 3 skim
• 4 yes
• 5 yes
• 6 have
• 7, 8, 9, 10 no
• The IT Consultant A Commonsense Framework for
  Managing the Client Relationship
• Parts 1 and 2