PMi Consult - System Selection

Why do so many system selections go wrong or just take so long? - Quite often the team involved in the selection process have not had the experience of running a selection before and may not have knowledge of the specific business area, nor of working closely with systems vendors. This can lead into a selection process taking months to complete while risking reputation damage through the lack of appropriate communications with the external vendors.

PMi consultants have had experience of running many system selection projects across the financial services sector and has developed its own fast track methodology to minimise the time taken to select a system solution. Using our fast track methodology a typical selection project would last two months from initiation to recommendation.

The fast track methodology adopts the following approach:

• Use predefined templates which can then be fine tuned for each specific assignment. This cuts down work effort in designing documents from scratch.
• Use of model business requirements. PMi has developed model business requirements for many financial services functions which can then be tailored to individual client needs. This significantly cuts down the time taken to undertake in depth interviews and business analysis in order to prepare the detailed business requirements.
• Create a dedicated and committed selection team made up of appropriate business and IT personnel. This allows activities to be conducted rapidly and in close succession which reduces the actual elapsed time taken for the assignment.
• Run many of the activities in parallel. Based on experience we know which activities can be run in parallel and which cannot.
• Work closely with the short listed system vendors. Our approach is to ensure that all the vendors have sufficient information and guidance provided to enable them to present their products in the best way possible to match our client's needs.

Because each assignment is different it is important to adopt a flexible and innovative approach to these assignments. We have gained experience of running many system selection projects in a wide range of scenarios. This gives us the confidence and ability to adapt our approach to match the specific needs of our clients.