Erp Distribution Software - The Intangibles - The Magic Ingredient Of A Successful Project
By Peter J Clarke
Picture this.
You are a senior IT manager and have been asked to make a decision as to which of three IT suppliers you will award a contract to. This is not for a one-off project; this is for a long term relationship. You are told that all three companies could meet the business needs and technology requirements of the project, and their pricing and implementation timelines are all within 10% of each other. Sure, there are differences between the three - each has pros and cons in their approach, and the technology on offer is not exactly the same - but there is not enough difference to make one dramatically stand out above the others.


Who do you choose?
Successful IT projects - like success in many other areas - go beyond spreadsheets and bottom lines, specification lists and functionality profiles. There are many organisations that could do the job ... in theory.
The problem is finding the one that will not only do the job, but do it well, and one that can do it for your organisation, in your environment, and to your satisfaction.

What are the extra ingredients that you need to look for to help in your decision? What are the intangibles that influence your decision-making process, and how do you present them in a meaningful way when a decision to purchase has been made.

So picture this scenario.
Your three are enterprise distribution software solution suppliers and they have taken very different approaches to how they present themselves to your organisation.

Company A goes direct to the top - the CEO and CFO. The chairman of Company A knows your firm's senior management and gets on well with them - he's played golf with them in the past - so he is brought in to help pitch. Over a very amicable meeting at Company A's impressive corporate headquarters, the chairman tells your management about his company, how much they have invested in facilities, and the big name clients they've won. Impressive is the word - this is a large firm, with an impressive roster of past implementations.

Company B is more matter of fact. It gives a presentation to middle and top management - perfunctory but perfectly adequate. It stresses the relationships it has with other suppliers, to round out the offering, so to speak. In fact, it will be drawing on their skills and expertise should it win the contract.

Company C is a well-known

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Toyota - Automobile - auto - Toyota Avalon - Makes and Models
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Supreme Court of the United States - Supreme Court - Enron - Jeffrey Skilling - Law
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United States - Government - Cecilia Kang - Facebook - Washington Post
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White House - United States - President - Government - Executive Branch
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Gulf of Mexico - Energy - Business - Oil and Gas - Operating Companies
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Economic - Asia - Politics - Barack Obama - United States
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Education - Methods and Theories - Learning Theories - Digestion - Volkswagen
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United States - Home - Consumer Information - Advocacy and Protection - Business
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Fannie Mae - Business - Programming - NET - Component Frameworks
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Small business - United States - Democratic - Politics - Republican
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Federal Bureau of Investigation - Wikileaks - Afghanistan - History - United States armed forces
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Barack Obama - United States - President - Government - Elections
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Mail - United States - Recreation - United States Postal Service - Stamps
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Small business - Business - Barack Obama - United States - President
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Small business - Business - Barack Obama - United States - President
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Law - United States - Immigration - Services - Lawyers and Law Firms
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Oil spill - Environment - United States - Energy - United States Department of Justice
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Legal Information - Law - Sex Offenses - Crime - Child Pornography
Census data reveal broad differences among states in rates of uninsured
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Census - Government - United States - Department of Commerce - Executive Branch
GE to pay $23.4M to settle SEC complaint in foreign-bribes case
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General Electric - Business - Oil-for-Food Programme - U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission - Allegedly Unethical Firms
Bill on political ad disclosures falls a little short in Senate
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Democratic Caucus of the United States Senate - United States - Democratic - Senate - Government
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Workers United - United States - Work - Labor Movement - Labor
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BP - Tax - United States - Oil spill - Gulf of Mexico
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ChevroletVolt - General Motors - Chevrolet - ChevyVolt - Recreation
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BP - United States - Tony Hayward - Gulf of Mexico - TNK-BP
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Business - Financial Services - Banking Services - Banks and Institutions - Basel Committee on Banking Supervision
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Energy - United States - Rust Belt - Democratic - Technology
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Politics - Term Limits - Campaigns and Elections - Election Reform - Games
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IBM - European Union - Operating system - Microsoft - European Commission
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Climate change - Environment - John Kerry - Activism - Organizations
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Real estate economics - Business - Residential - Real Estate - Housing
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Business - Arts - Literature - Whistleblower - Internal Revenue Service
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Corrections - Law Enforcement - Law - State Agencies - United States
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European Union - Government - Iran - Multilateral - U.S. sanctions against Iran
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General Electric - United States - Barack Obama - President - History
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Business - Pulp and Paper - Materials - Paper - Bisphenol A
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Rod Blagojevich - Barack Obama - United States - United States Senate - Federal Bureau of Investigation
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Buzzword - Music and Audio - Multimedia - Buzz - Business
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Tony Hayward - BP - United States - Organizations - Gulf of Mexico
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BP set to name Robert Dudley, an American, as chief executive
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United States - Business - Chief executive officer - Tony Hayward - BP
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Wikileaks - United States - Julian Assange - War in Afghanistan - Classified information
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Nonprofit health insurers may be setting aside unnecessarily large surpluses even as some of them continue to raise premiums, according to an analysis by a consumer rights group.


Insurance - Consumer organization - Home - Health - Consumer Information
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-- Thomson Financial


Sports - Teams - United States - Security - Stock
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Bankruptcy - United States - Law - Services - Lawyers and Law Firms
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Windows - Stock - Chief executive officer - United States - Press release
Facetime: Business workshops in and around Washington
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United States - Apple - IPhone - Wi-Fi - Education
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As the first reports of the Gulf of Mexico oil-rig explosion trickled in to BP's London headquarters in April, BP chief executive Tony Hayward wondered whether to fly immediately to the United States.


United States - Business - Chief executive officer - Tony Hayward - BP
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Brazil - South America - Travel and Tourism - Government - Travel Services
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Bell - City council - Los Angeles - United States - Counties
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United States - Tax - Taxation - Accounting - United States Secretary of the Treasury
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United States - Politics - Republican - Parties - Opposing Views
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United States - The Fix - Politics - Business - Government
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Environment - Energy - Oil spill - Petroleum in the Environment - Spill Containment and Remediation
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Business - CapitalSource - United States - California - Entrepreneur
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United States - Business - CapitalSource - Employment - Southern California
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United States - Immigration - Law - Anti-Immigration - Services
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Tony Hayward - BP - United States - Oil spill - Gulf of Mexico
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Oil spill - Environment - Energy - Petroleum in the Environment - Spill Containment and Remediation
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Tax cut - United States - Tax - Republican - Politics
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Medical cannabis - Colorado - United States - Health - Cannabis
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United States - Canadian Auto Workers - Government - Assembly line - General Motors
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United Airlines - Los Angeles - Denver International Airport - Federal Aviation Administration - Washington Dulles International Airport
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Disability - Business - Unemployment - Federal Reserve System - Sports
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Democratic - United States - Politics - Nancy Pelosi - Parties
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Ford - Mustang - Makes and Models - Recreation - Autos
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Tests - Programming - Business - Commercial Services - Security
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British Indian Ocean Territory - Asia - Jerry Garcia - Diego Garcia - Amir Bar-Lev
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Real estate - United States - Business - Services - Property Law and Real Estate
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Loan - Payday loan - Business - Financial Services - Payday Advance Services
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Pimco - Bond - Business - Investing - Stocks and Bonds
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Economic - Social Sciences - Consumption and Wealth - Inequality - Math
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Business - Pimco - Mutual fund - Investment management - Hong Kong
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European Union - Government - Multilateral - Business - Investing
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Charles Schwab Corporation - Liz Ann Sonders - Wall Street - Business - Stock market
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Oil spill - Energy - Environment - Petroleum in the Environment - Business
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McDonald - Business - United States - Middle East - Thomson Reuters
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Sunrise Senior Living - Business - Real estate - United States - Seniors
NACA brings free mortgage help to D.C.
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United States - Mortgage - Business - Financial Services - JPMorgan Chase
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Child pornography - Crime - Sex Offenses - Legal Information - Pornography
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John C. Dugan - Office of the Comptroller of the Currency - United States - John Dugan - Presidency of Barack Obama
Facebook's test: Building on ad revenue
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Facebook - Social network - Business - Online Communities - Rockyou
Cellphone industry group CTIA sues San Francisco over radiation ordinance
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San Francisco - CTIA - United States - California - San Francisco Bay Area
FDA reports problems at Johnson & Johnson plant in Pennsylvania
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Johnson & Johnson - United States - Tylenol - Pennsylvania - Food and Drug Administration
Stress tests of Europe's finances finds most major banks in good health
LONDON -- A broad probe into the health of Europe's financial sector found virtually every major bank in the region fit to withstand severe economic shocks and declared only a handful of smaller institutions at risk.



European Union - Mental Health - Health - Stress - Business
Federal budget deficit to exceed $1.4 trillion in 2010 and 2011
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Deficit - United States - Economic - Government - National Budget
Pay czar Ken Feinberg calls executive compensation 'ill-advised' but not illegal
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Kenneth Feinberg - Business - Executive compensation - Financial Services - United States
Massey Energy's Blankenship: No shame, but plenty of blame
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Massey Energy - Technology - Energy - Education - Oceania
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Scores line up for loan help in D.C.
More than 160 homeowners lined up in downtown Washington before dawn Friday in hopes of obtaining better terms on their home loans with help from the housing advocacy group Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America.



Loan - Financial Services - Business - Mortgage - Processing
U.S. housing slump continues, but D.C. area is doing better
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Housing - Real estate - Business and Economy - Affordable and Low Income Housing - Property
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More than a dozen companies that received federal bailout money handed out $1.6 billion in excess executive compensation at the height of the financial crisis, according to a report to be released Friday by the government's "pay czar."


Business - Investing - Mutual fund - Funds - Law
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Education Secretary Arne Duncan proposed Thursday that for-profit colleges be required to show through certain new measures that their graduates are not saddled with too much debt, an initiative he said was meant to protect students from "a few bad actors" in the industry.


Education - Colleges and Universities - United States - Directories - For-profit school
Retailers hold Black Friday-style summer sales for Christmas shoppers
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Black Friday - Business - Christmas - Holidays - Consumer Goods and Services
Local Digest
Capital One of McLean posted a second-quarter profit Thursday as it set aside less money to cover bad loans. For the three months ending June 30, Capital One earned $608 million ($1.33 a share). That compared with a loss of $277 million (66 cents), a year earlier, when the bank repaid the government...


United States - Newspaper - Magazines and E-zines - Oceania - Digestion
New financial rulebook tangles loan bundlers, ratings agencies
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Business - United States - Ruby - Old School (film) - Publishing
Salazar pledges to limit Interior's revolving door
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told lawmakers Thursday that he will use his regulatory authority to impose strict new rules to remedy the revolving-door problems in his department.


Business - Petroleum industry - Barack Obama - United States House Committee on Natural Resources - Bureau of Land Management
Treasury Secretary Geithner says tax cuts for rich should expire
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner on Thursday rejected calls from some Democrats to extend tax cuts for the nation's top earners past their 2010 expiration date, saying the fragile recovery is no reason to avoid raising taxes on the wealthy.



United States Secretary of the Treasury - United States - Tax - Timothy Geithner - Politics
Existing-home sales drop for second month; end of tax credit seen as a cause
Sales of previously owned homes dipped in June for the second consecutive month and are expected to keep dropping at least through the rest of the summer, now that a lucrative homebuyer tax credit has expired.


Tax credit - United States - Business - Accounting - National Association of Realtors
Who they are
Deputy Treasury secretary, 48 -- Education: Yale, BA; University of Oxford, MS; Yale Law, JD. -- What he does: Second in command at Treasury. Works directly for Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. -- Prior experience: In 2008, joined the White House as deputy assistant to the president and de...


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supplier, has worked with you and organisations like yours before. Their management is on first name terms with you and the other people in your department. Probably with your bosses, too, though Company C doesn't seem the golfing sort. Their presentation was as much to you as to upper management, and it concentrated on brass tacks. In fact, drawing on their knowledge of your industry, they actually broadened the scope of the project by making a few suggestions for how it could be tied in with other work they had already done. They'd gone so far as to map out a procedure for how this could be achieved, and gave a few names of other companies where similar things had been done before.

Which one do you choose?
The big name company? Safe; no one loses their job by choosing the big name company, surely. And certainly there is a good relationship at senior management level.

The multi-sourcer? Nice to have a range of skills available to you; no-one does everything well, so it's probably useful for them to have relationships they can draw on.

What about the old hand? Established relationships mean you know what you're getting, and they do know your industry. Of course, every project is different, so how useful is a friendly familiar face?

What are the intangibles that make the three applicants different, and different enough to choose one over the others?

Technologically, they are on par, if not identical; same for price and scheduling. What's the magic ingredient that will help you make a decision?

The answer is that word that keeps cropping up; that nags away in the back of your mind. The deciding factor is the relationship that you will have - the relationship between customer and supplier; the relationship that you draw on between partners; the relationship that forms between trusted associates. The relationship that will be the most important issue if the project takes a negative turn, however short or trivial the issue may be. The relationship built on information that passes between partners, how much and how well one partner understands the needs of the other and the industry they're in, and reacts appropriately (or even proactively)? Can you draw on the relationship like a bank account, when and if you need it, enough to solve your problems, and that will accrue in value the longer it is allowed to develop?

Who do you turn to if the relationship turns sour? Whose throat is there to choke if you need to apply some pressure to get what you want, and more importantly what you need?

Which relationship offers the most practical outcomes, which offers the long term benefits that you need now and those that you will actually need into the future?

Who can you trust?

The answer might be the large firm, with strength, numbers and experience on their side.
The answer might be the multi-sourcer, as long as you know who to turn to and who's responsible when you need to fix a problem.
The answer might be the familiar face, who knows your issues and sets about solving them before you even realise there's a problem.

The answer is probably a combination, to a greater or lesser degree, of all three - strength, skills, and understanding. In-depth local and global knowledge, relevant and appropriate ERP solutions, best offerings in terms of functionality and price, world-class services - these are all attributes of a relationship that covers all of the bases, and is most likely to offer you what you need.

So what do you ask the three suppliers that will differentiate one from the other and help you make a decision? Technology alone isn't the answer, not in this instance. Price is an issue, but here it's no differentiator.

What you really need to ask them is about them - who they are, what they do, what have they done, and what they know about you and what you do. What sort of relationship are we going to have, and with whom and at what level will that relationship reside? Will you be able to draw on it, work it and change it? Will you be able to trust in it? Will you be able to trust them?

That is what is special about a successful enterprise distribution software project. That is what makes one supplier better than another. The magic ingredient of any relationship is the relationship itself. And when you have the right relationship in place - the trusted, flexible, knowledgeable and supporting relationship - you know you can move forward into a project and beyond, and face whatever problems, obstacles, barriers, changes and even the achievements with confidence and assurance, and the rest inevitably falls into place.
Peter Clarke is the Chief Technology Officer for IBS Asia Pacific. IBS Australia develops ERP solutions, enterprise distribution software solution, www.ibs.net/au/solutions/supply-chain-management.jsp">business management supply chain software for inventory management systems, manufacturing ERP software and business intelligence systems.