Ten tips for selecting a new IT system

Choosing the right IT system is a challenging journey. Organisations can choose from many different systems and packages, and must also pick a suitable supplier. Michel Hoeijmans, Principal Consultant at Improven, shares ten tips for system selection.

Start by translating key business principles

When selecting, proceed from the chosen business strategy. Look for the most important business principles and translate these into principles for the design of the processes, people and IT. For example, a choice for 'operational excellence' places demands on your business processes and on the system to be selected.

Analyse information needs: who should information be accessible to and through which channels?

Map the organisation's processes and information needs and identify the dependencies of individual processes. In other words: what is the importance of a particular process. Also map the nature of the data to be processed for each (sub)process. Also take a good look at how the future IT environment should be structured: a cloud solution, an on-premise solution or a combination of both (hybrid).

Define key functionality by grouping processes into logical function blocks

Map the desired functions/roles to the business processes. Grouping the functions/roles and processes provides insight into bundled functionality (translatable into modules) that we are looking for in one or more standard packages. The process map with grouped functions serves as input for use cases for the selection process.

Define use cases

Using use cases (a description of the desired behaviour of a system based on input, output and key process steps or activities), draw up the schedule of requirements in the form of demo scripts, focusing on your organisation's critical processes and functions. After all, what is standard or 'normal' matters less in a selection. Use cases are used to sharply describe what the desired system should deliver as added value. Clients ask the 'what-question', the potential suppliers must come up with the 'how-answer'.

Use a good standards framework when assessing a package and/or supplier

Adopt a good standards framework for testing the software and the vendor. A standards framework consists of measuring the organisational fit of what is being offered. In other words: how well do the system and the supplier fit my organisation? Test at least on the following aspects: process fit, user fit, data fit, technical fit, strategic fit, supplier fit and price fit.

Make the choice based on a test setup ('proof of concept')

Invite suppliers to give a demo based on the defined use cases. You can also schedule reference visits to customers of the vendor in question to get a good picture all the way through. Before the actual purchase, try out the software package in a test setup and check whether there is sufficient knowledge in the market for support.

Limit unforeseen, extra costs

Make a pass-through of all costs (including implementation costs). Agree a fixed price with the supplier so that unexpected costs are not passed on to you. In addition to the annual recurring costs for licences and maintenance, these costs include the costs of introducing the system (set-up and training) and the project.

Pay sufficient attention to the implementation of the desired software

"Select to implement": when selecting, already take into account bottlenecks that occur in the current process. Essential in the selection of a package will be the extent to which the management of your organisation and the expected (market) developments can be supported with the package. Have suppliers draw up a plan of action in advance! How do they expect to set up the system, given its own commitment but also the commitment of your organisation. Have the supplier describe how they expect to successfully implement the system. Formally record these agreements during the contracting phase and let the implementation plan be taken into account in the choice of system.

Establish a project organisation with sufficient powers in good time

Consider selecting a package as a project and set up a formal project organisation for it. After all, just buying a package won't get you there! Consider, for instance, the implementation of the package (the costs of which can be even higher than the purchase price) and the impact of the system on the rest of the organisation. Set up a project organisation managed by a sufficient number of decision-makers.

Make use of external expertise!

Package selection is a profession! Therefore, make timely use of external expertise where necessary or let external consultants guide you during the selection or procurement procedure (contracting). The external consultant knows the market and usually the various suppliers and can protect the client from the many pitfalls during the process.