Solving the puzzle of ERP technology: FAQs and answers.

• Author: Madden, Michael
• Position: Enterprise resource planning

The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) hosted its first annual Emerging Technologies in Public Finance videoconference this past March. The topic of the videoconference was, "Selecting Financial Systems for the 21st Century." General discussion areas included system selection methods, contract negotiations, implementation strategies, issues pertinent to midsize and small governments, technical architecture trends, critical success factors, and future developments. The second annual emerging technologies videoconference will be entitled E-Commerce and E-Government and will be held in March 2000. The following is a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) at the teleconference and highlights of the answers that were given.

Q. How do you get vendors to follow demonstrations scripts and use the current software version rather than a future software release?

A. Governments should set expectations early so that they lead the demonstration - not the vendor. All of the vendors should be provided with the same demonstration script and provided reasonable time to prepare. And most importantly, vendors should be told to only display or demonstrate the software currently available and in production at sites referenced in their proposal.

Q. Please compare the relative advantages and disadvantages of short-term vs. long-term contracts for software implementation.

A. Governments should implement software at a reasonable speed bearing in mind that they do not want to go too fast due to training issues and change-management concerns specific to their organization. It is important not to slice the implementations services contract into too many pieces as it can lead to greater instability in the vendor's project team.

Q. How do you avoid the pitfalls of never coming out of the implementation phase? ("Every small, expensive change feels like I'm being held hostage by the vendor.")

A. Governments should define the scope of the implementation clearly and prioritize applications and critical sub functions. Consideration should be given to phasing the project with less critical functions being part of later phases. Furthermore, it is important to increase the motivation and momentum of the staff to establish quick wins along the way. These quick wins can help increase momentum.

Q. What are the success rates for a phased vs. a big bang approach? Does this differ for small to medium-sized organizations?

A. It does not differ for small to medium-sized...