Using packaged software for Customer Relationship Management or Enterprise Resource Planning is often seen as a sure-fire way to reduce costs, refocus scarce resources, and increase returns on investment. However, research shows that the majority of packaged or Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) implementations fail to provide this value due to the implementation approach taken.
Authored by Grady Brett Beaubouef, who has over fifteen years of packaged software implementation experience, this book will help you define an effective implementation strategy for your packaged software investment.
This book is aimed at enterprise architects, development leads, project managers, business systems analysts, business systems owners, and anyone who wants to implement packaged software effectively. If you are a customer looking to implement COTS software in the future then this book will provide a strategy to maximize your investment. If you are in an internal IT role and you find that your internal software development methodology doesn't quite work for an off-the-shelf business software package then this book will provide you with perspective on how to adjust your approach. If you are an implementation partner looking to minimize the blood, sweat, and tears shed with implementing COTS software then this book will be a guide to filter out obstacles and enable implementation focus.
What you will learn from this book:
- Identify factors to consider when selecting and applying a methodology for gathering and validating business requirements for COTS software
- Minimize potential risks and maximize opportunities in your implementations
- Understand the difference between prototyping and modeling, and when they should be used
- Accelerate implementations by generating more knowledge and less information
- Maximize enhancements and minimize non-value-added customizations
- Increase Return On Investment (ROI) by developing a negotiation strategy with partners and users
- Leverage the lessons of knowledge management to assist you in managing the information generated during an implementation
