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In these days of explosive business growth, funds for IT projects arent difficult to get. RoI and business cases can work well in convincing the CFO or CEO of starting the implementation of an IT automation project. Well, okay, thats still not easy. But its a one-time toll gate that needs to be crossed.

The real work comes in when youre implementing the project.

If youre a CIO implementing a project that involves the development of the application, your challenges are quite different from the ones youll face while implementing an off-the-self package. Here, Im going to focus on the latter: getting the most out of a package.

Getting past the evaluation process and selection of the best-fit commercially available off-the-shelf package, you need to ensure that your organization gets the best value for the money spent. To start with, the considerations are usually different if the package implementation is being done for an existing (probably manually-running) process, versus a process that is being implemented for a new business area.

The first step toward a successful implementation is finding a business sponsor who has the passion and the time to devote in implementing the system.

The implementation ownership should definitely lie with the business owner who can provide full-time resources for the project, spearhead the steering committee reviews on a regular basis, and keep team members on track. It must not been seen as an IT project, but a business project. The CIO should coach and influence the business sponsor.

The second key step to successful implementation is to ensure package to process mapping.

There are two ways of doing this: either the package is customized to fit the process, or the process is changed to follow the best practices defined in the package.

The challenge of the CIO is to ensure minimal customization of the package and convincing the user community to adapt and redefine the processes around the package.

Thats because the best-of-breed packages selected for an organization are usually developed by vendors considering the best practices and the optimal/standard processes adopted by the industry vertical.

And because, by ensuring minimal customization, the CIO will be able to ensure seamless version upgrades within a small budget, and avoid disruption to the business by embarking on complex migrations. This ensures standardized processes across business units and geographies.

Amrita Gangotra

After a packaged application goes live, the usage of the system, measured in terms the ramp-up of live transactions happening on it, will determine the success of the implementation. So your responsibility as CIO does not end with a system go-live. If the usage of the system is not as projected, your organization will not realize the business case.

There could be various reasons for low usage. There may be critical process-to-package-fitment gaps that were not addressed during implementation, or bugs not resolved in time, work-arounds taking up more user time. Or, simply, resistance to change. Unless these are resolved in time, the users will start staying away from using the system.

Knowing user needs and managing the change will need to be your focus as the CIO, during the initial phase of system usage. During this period, the continuous support and championship of the business sponsor is essential for you.

After the initial stabilization phase, you cant afford to neglect the continuous process of juicing the box. At the time of go-live, all functionalities may not have been implemented. Many new configurations and turning on new features at the right time could provide additional revenue or reduced opex to your organization.

Sometimes there are opportunities for consolidating multiple small systems into a single process in the package, by using these features.

This is a bit like when most people buy a gadgetan LCD, mobile phone or TVand want the best of features and value for money. After they buy the device, few really end up using all the features available.

It takes time to study, test, get trained and start using the new features. Unless this effort is made continuously, the full RoI of the device (or application) is not achieved.

Similarly you need to study, at least every six months, the effective usage of a package, in terms of transaction growth of already implemented features, and new features that can be implemented.

The author is CIO of Airtel Mobility Services and OneAirtel businesses. She can be reached at maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

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