Book Image

Maximize Your Investment: 10 Key Strategies for Effective Packaged Software Implementations

By : Grady Brett Beaubouef
Book Image

Maximize Your Investment: 10 Key Strategies for Effective Packaged Software Implementations

By: Grady Brett Beaubouef

Overview of this book

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. The book focuses on Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) implementations, and helps you to successfully implement packaged software. Using a step-by-step approach, it begins with an assessment of the limitations of current implementation methods for packaged software. It then helps you to analyze your requirements and offers 10 must-know principles gleaned from real-world packaged software implementations. These 10 principles cover how to maximize enhancements and minimize customizations, focus on business results, and negotiate for success, and so on. You will learn how to best leverage these principles as part of your implementation. As you progress through the book, you will learn how to put packaged software into action with forethought, planning, and proper execution. Doing so will lead to reductions in implementation costs, customizations, and development time.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Maximize Your Investment: 10 Key Strategies for Effective Packaged Software Implementations
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
Preface
Summary of Challenges

About the Reviewers

Bob Cutler, PMP has over twenty five years of project management experience in both the private and public sectors. He has lectured internationally on project management and is a contributor to the Project Management Body of Knowledge on the topics of time management and cost management. He has successfully managed multi-million dollar Information Technology projects in California for several large public agencies. All of those projects were completed on schedule and within budget.

One of Bob's specialties is project remediation. He has successfully turned around failing projects for multiple clients on two continents. His process involves focusing on the project's goals, instilling trust, and restoring morale. Client satisfaction ratings at the end of those projects have always been excellent.

Bob has been involved with national and global project management offices for two multinational corporations. On those engagements, he was responsible for identifying and/or developing tools and best practices for project managers across the organization. He has also delivered advanced training on scheduling, quality, and risk management, and was a key contributor to the development and modernization of his clients' project management methodologies.

Charles J. Miller, PMP is a Certified Project Management Professional with over ten years experience in managing high-performing teams in the computer manufacturing, software, and telecommunications industries. He has spent most of his career on large-scale Oracle ERP implementations, but has also been a leader of software and web development teams, financial process improvement initiatives, and general technology implementation projects. Charles lives in Denver, CO and currently works as a Professional Services Consultant for a Software-as-a-Service company that provides channel sales solutions to global technology manufacturers.

Chris Papesh serves as CEO of Open Healthcare Analytics, leading the design and implementation of open source data warehousing software for healthcare providers. He has over twenty years of experience in all phases of the design, development, implementation, and project management of computer business systems. Chris has been a leader in the Oracle, PeopleSoft, and Data Warehousing communities. Chris served as Technology Director for PeopleSoft Corporation and Oracle Corporation, and has led national Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing consulting practices. Chris served as an Assistant Vice President for Carnegie Mellon University and Director of Financial Services for the University of California, and has spent more than 10 years as a part-time university instructor.