Technology Acquisition

Chapter 6
Implementation

Implementation includes all activities required to develop the

vendors solution.

Although vendor typically take the lead in managing this

process, we need to know about relevant issues
surrounding design, development, testing and deployment
of solution

People involved in this process are internal implementation

team and vendor implementation team

The Implementation Process

The implementation process consists of four sub processes;
design, development, testing and deployment.
It is rare that you will be able to purchase technology and
implement it as is. There is typically some customization,
integration and data conversion required for the new solution.
The changes are defined in Design process.
Development includes all work needed to create or build the
changes required for the new solution
Once vendor delivers the solution, it requires a thorough
testing; system testing, user testing and potentially pilot
testing
After passing through testing, solution needs to be deployed.
Training, deployment and deployment support are discussed in
the Deployment section.

Design

Chances are that the vendors product will not meet your
100 percent requirements

Normally vendor will agree to customize its product to meet

your requirements in order to secure your business.

Once these changes are made the vendor needs to work

with you to integrate the solution within your environment
and with other systems within your business.

In the implementation phase you need to scrutinize the

vendors product and define any gaps between vendors
product and your requirements (defined in planning phase)

Once gaps identified you need to determine which ones are

critical to your business. Additionally which gaps needs to be
resolved immediately and which one can be deferred to a
later time (business analysts can help in this)

Its advised to prioritize these requirement gaps so vendor

works on important gaps first; for that you might need to
define requirements in greater details to vendor for his
better understanding

During design process the changes required to close the

gaps need to be designed. This design informs developers
how to modify solution to close the gaps.

Its a good idea to work with vendor to document the design

for architecture, process, data, application and integration
component of solution.
Technical analysts on your project team and vendors
implementation team should know what is needed in order
to document the design of solution

Development

There may be a situation when you find you are tracking

multiple gaps with multiple vendors.

Its a good idea to develop a database to help track the

changes. The database will help you organize priority, status
and ownership of all product change requests that are being
managed.

You should know which of your current systems needs to be

integrated with the new system because you will have
defined the system integration requirements during planning
phase.

Actual integration involves developing batch jobs or real

time updates between systems.

Regardless of ways of integration, you should plan for this

development in advance and be ready to dedicate the
resources necessary to properly integrate the new product
within your environment.

Testing

Testing includes all activities required to verify the quality

and capability of solution.

Testing is not much important while buying technology then

building technology as Vendors thoroughly test their solution
and in most cases product will have been successfully
implemented at several other companies beforehand.

In this case your primary goal is to test the components that

are unique to your environment

This includes testing the solutions compatibility,

customization, interfaces with other systems, performance,
user acceptance and results in a pilot test if necessary.

Various types of tests that can be performed includes

a)

System Testing

The process of testing the solution within your environment

to verify compatibility, performance, interfaces with other
systems and impact to environment.
These tests are typically conducted by your internal IT
organization and emphasis is on technology and technical
architecture not functionality

b)

User Testing
The process of users testing the solution for acceptance of
functionality and usability

These tests are conducted by end users of solution and

typically facilitated by IT organization.

There are two types of user testing: Vertical testing involves

testing of each group of functionality separately whereas
horizontal testing involves testing of business processes
(also termed as end to end testing)

Get commitment of users to allow the project team to work

through any issues that the users identify and not to talk
outside the testing team about the solution until the project
team has had a fair chance to resolve the issues.

c)

Pilot Testing

Its often a good idea to pilot test a vendors solution before

deploying it across the users organization. A pilot test is
limited deployment of the solution in a production
environment.

This test provides a last chance to ensure that the solution

is ready for full deployment.

Deployment

The deployment process verifies whether you made the

right decision in selecting a quality vendor with a quality
solution.

Deploying a solution includes training, deployment and

deployment support.

Vendors typically offer some form of training. In some cases

vendor will handle all training, in other cases a vendor will
outsource training to another company that specializes in
training. In most of cases vendor will train your trainers and
provide training material (manuals, technology based
training etc)

After training deployment begins. There are several ways to

deploy a system.

If there is an existing system, you may need to run both

systems in parallel and slowly transition the users to the
new system.

In some cases managing the integrity of data between

parallel system is too costly and it make more sense to take
every one off the system at one time and bring them all up
on the new system at the same time (commonly refereed as
cut-over or go-live)

The vendor should have experience in deploying its solution

in many different situations and should be able to
recommend the approach that is appropriate for your
situation.
Another important decision prior to deployment is who will
support the system. Most companies have an internal
support group that is responsible for supporting all
information systems.
Typically an internal support group will not have the
bandwidth to support deployment of a new system. For this
reason it is often necessary to create a deployment support
team (a temporary team that will assist in supporting the
new solution until system is completely deployed and has
become stabilized)

THE INTERNAL IMPLEMENTATION TEAM

The internal implementation team is responsible for

managing and executing the implementation of the system.

This includes all activities that take place from the time
contracts are signed to the time that system is fully
operational and support is transitioned to the operations
organization.

Internal implementation team typically have following roles

a)

Implementation Project Manager

This individual is responsible for managing the internal

implementation team and working with the vendors project
manager to coordinate implementation activities.

A project manager manages the whole technology

acquisition project from initiation to operations; however in
some cases he manages the project up to the point when
contracts are signed. He then transitions management of
project to a business subject matter expert. The SME
coordinated training, deployment and deployment support
for the business organization.

b)

Trainers

Trainers are responsible for training the end users. In some

organizations there is a training department that handles all
training programs, in others some of most experienced
end users are assigned to this role (if training department is
not available)

The trainers should be positive and optimistic about the

new solution.

c)

Technical Analysts

If the new solution require custom development or

integration with other systems, there should be technical
analysts on the internal implementation team.

They are responsible for designing the custom

development and coordinating the development activities
with their internal IT departments

d)

Testers

Some organizations assign end users to the internal

implementation team as full time resources. Other
organizations temporarily pull end users form their jobs to
test a particular version of system.

It is important to get a wide variety of end users involved in

testing, from novice to experienced end users

e)

Deployment Support

This team consists of business SME who have been on the

project team form beginning.

It is important that deployment support people be the most

educated about the vendor solution.

Some vendors offer training for these individuals, others

have their own personnel join the deployment support team
to help educate the team and relate issues back to
vendors development organization.

When implementing its important to have several respected

individuals championing the cause within their own
organization. It is easier for these people to rally support for
the new system when they are already respected.

THE VENDOR IMPLEMENTATION TEAM

Once contracts are signed and implementation is scheduled

to begin, the vendor will assign a project team whose
primary job is to implement the vendor solution.

Team members should be experienced and know exactly

what it takes to successfully implement their solution.

It is a good idea to establish good working relationship

between your and vendor implementation teams as early as
possible to ensure a god transfer of knowledge and
teamwork in overcoming obstacles.

The vendors implementation team consists of following roles:

a)

Vendor Project Manager

This senior person is responsible for planning, controlling

and executing all activities required to implement the
vendors solution.

The project managers is able to steer the project clear of

common mistakes and will have a better understanding of
when a project is in trouble.

Make sure that vendor project manager has a point of

contact in your organization who can help coordinate
activities and resources within your organization.

b)

Technical Lead

A technical lead needs to act as liaison between your

company and vendors development organization. This
person is typically a senior person from the development
organization who has a very deep understanding of the
technology and how it was developed.
Developers

c)

Vendors often assign developers to a project team when a

significant amount of custom development is required.
These developers will have a wide variety of experience
and expertise. It is vendors job to manage these
developers and make sure that they are capable of
accomplishing the task at hand.

d)

Support Analysts

Vendors typically assign one or more support analysts to

act as the liaison between internal support team
organization and vendor support organization. The support
analysts also play a role in supporting the deployment
support team during the deployment of system.

e)

Trainers

Trainer are responsible for either training your end users

directly or training your trainers. In either cases these
people will be responsible educating your company about
the vendors solution.

Its important to ensure that a smooth hand-off takes place

from the vendors sales team to the vendors
implementation team. The promises made by vendors sales
team need to be communicated to implementation team so
that it can live up to this promises.

Its a good idea to schedule an implementation kick-off

meeting between the acquisition and implementation teams
from both vendors and your organization.