Picking the right Consultants

By Suren

Generally there are many ERP Implementations which tend to show resemblance of an implementation of a similar company elsewhere, why is this, the reason can be identified by taking a look at the consultants prior experience, most of them would have implemented what they already had done successfully in a previous project.

Sometime, this is good because it’s a solution that’s been tried, tested and has worked, however this need not always be the best solution for the current business requirements. That’s why I feel it’s always a good idea to have a consulting team with members from diverse implementation experiences from different companies within the same industry, this way as a company you’ll be picking out the best of the tested processes from different companies into your own.

Well, that said, this shouldn’t always have to be the consultants, look at the business users as well, if you’ve got business users in the implementation team all coming in with similar prior experiences from a previous implementation, then it’s likely you can expect the same as with a consultant.

However have no doubt, of the previous implementation experience that the consultants and the business users will bring into the company that should always be valued and rewarded. Just make sure it doesn’t get to a level where the current business requirements are overlooked and instead a solution that worked well for another business’s requirements and processes are being implemented in your business!!

All the best!!

World Economy: What goes down must go UP and down again!!

By Suren

Massive deficits, enormous debts and asset bubbles ready to pop, everyone is keeping an eye out on if there is going to be another GFC. There are telling signs that this could well in fact happen, but this time the experts predict if there are no proper actions by the countries that are experiencing these debts, we could see countries collapsing instead of companies, like what happened to Lehman brothers that sparked the financial crisis on 2008.

Thing don’t look too good for now, but then it never has, the last 3 years was the slowest move out of a dip in the markets and broadly due to the collective thinking of the general public that the worst is over, and this saw an uplift in many economies.

The stock market is controlled by human emotions and that of the mass general average investors. With the news about the credit rating in US and everything else that’s happening in Europe it’s not going to be surprising that the investors are going to pull out and save, and in effect curtail spending, increasing unemployment and most likely another GFC.

What’s more alarming this time is that the market could take longer to recover since stimulus package are going to be a rarity, international support is going to be a long shot especially since major players like China have their portfolios already tied in on US assets that are wobbly to say the least.

So then with all this what is the impact for ERP Implementations, there sure it going to be a dip but not at least until 2012, the best position for IT Consultants and IT Businesses is to make sure they setup sustainable business deals that will keep them afloat until mid 2013, current projects will continue since these have sunk costs in them and will have to be seen through, but come 2012 the budgets are going to take a beating and IT most probably is going to be the first to have the axe come down on it.

Up skill, expand into cross functional roles, build networks and be on the move would be the call of the day during this GFC period.

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, adapt to it and make it work for you.