8.10. System selection process
The system selection process generally followed the 13 steps described earlier in this article. After analyzing the financial and strategic viability, as well as the geographic support capability of all major software providers, a request for quote was prepared and sent to the 13 qualifying suppliers. Nine responded with formal proposals. The proposals included detailed documentation and manuals describing the products, functionality, and implementation cases. A select team of IS and operations personnel from various Huck sites and a representative from Huck’s parent company met for a week to review the proposals. Based on the proposals and some additional solicited information, a short list of suppliers was selected for a complete product demonstration. Two software vendors (SAP and Baan) were selected for the final review. The demonstration and final selection process was a marathon, six-day event. The selection team was composed of 31 people representing all disciplines and locations that would be implementing the software. Included on the team were internal auditors from the parent company. Each supplier provided a two-and-a-half day demonstration of the software. On the sixth day, the selection team met to compare notes, review strengths and weaknesses, and finally achieve consensus on the best software package. The option to select neither supplier was always kept open. Ultimately, consensus was reached, and Baan software was selected. The justification criteria demanded by the CEO was that only hard dollars in savings or profit from increased revenue could be used to support the decision. The final justification relied on profit from increased sales through enhanced capabilities, reduced cost of system maintenance, and labor efficiency (reduced head count for a given level of business activity).There was a major shortcoming in Huck’s software selection process. A pre-implementation pilot was not performed. Because of time constraints, it was not even considered. Moreover, the diligent checking of references for first-hand feedback of system performance in real-life situations was not adequately pursued. The resulting lack of information led to a major surprise. Huck fully expected its new ERP system to have a fully integrated, finite production planning and scheduling system. In fact, having a fully integrated system had been a key decision factor in the selection process. But, three months before the targeted ‘‘go-live’’ date, the project team learned that Huck would be a beta test site for the integration interface programming. The integration did not yet exist! Performing a pre-implementation pilot and diligently checking references would have uncovered this fact early on (although it probably would not have changed the software decision). But a major surprise would have been avoided, and the promised and expected benefits would have more easily flowed from the implementation.