The Situation...
“Raghav, you seem to have lost all appetite,” said Suhasini. “Is something wrong at work?”

Raghav tried to avoid the conversation, but could not hide the tension that writ large on his face.

He was a senior IT manager at RapCorp—one of India’s largest real estate companies. But the last few weeks at work had been difficult for him because of the repeated delays in the ERP project that he was handling. And this had a direct bearing on a number of new projects that RapCorp was betting its future on.

“I’m being made the scapegoat,” said Raghav wiping the beads of sweat off his worried forehead. “I came into the project only after the SLAs—the contractual obligations—were frozen and the price determined,” he said. “Mr Awasthi, our CFO, then negotiated the price on behalf of RapCorp after the SLAs were determined,” Raghav sounded exasperated.

“It’s like saying to Nirmala, your domestic help, that you will do all this but I will pay you only as much,” added Raghav. Suhasini immediately understood what Raghav was going through.

The vendor was cutting corners to ensure the deal was not loss making and Raghav was bearing the rap. “Why don’t you tell Mr Awasthi and your MD,” said Suhasini sounding like an enthusiastic fifth grader.

“No Suha, it doesn’t work like that.” “I am responsible for the smooth delivery of the project, and the vendor is using our project as a training ground. All new recruits are being tested at RapCorp by the vendor,” added Raghav.

“The management does not understand and every morning, I dread the thought of picking up the phone when it rings.”

“It’s either the MD or the sales head, and all they do is stop short of yelling.”

“How do I explain?”

Raghav’s predicament is rather genuine. He is being held responsible for the delivery of a project that he has not negotiated. He has not negotiated the SLAs, the deliverables or the price. He has no say on the resources being deployed too.

The big questions...

• What should Raghav do to ensure that the project is delivered smoothly, without any further delays?
• What should RapCorp do to institutionalise the process of deploying big ticket it projects in the future?

Check out the answers...

Review, involve the vendor

By Prasad Rajappan, Founder and Managing Director, Cnergyis

About me: A production engineer, with experience in ERP, operations, business process reengineering and Information Systems. Has been previously associated with Reliance, Mahindra & Mahindra and Ernst & Young

What should Raghav do to ensure that the project is delivered smoothly, without any further delays?
Raghav is in a typical position that most implementation managers come across. Invariably, the price negotiations take place without having a full perspective of the project dynamics and deliverables. Having landed into such a situation, here is what Raghav can do:

Work with the vendor and document the deliverables against each milestone and create a list of gap areas. This could be in terms of deliverables or quality of service experienced so far. He should try and understand the vendor’s concern in terms of his profitability; if possible, identify internal team members to add to the vendor’s resources. If the vendor has genuine issues, Raghav should help find the solution.

Having gained the support of the vendor, he should take the analysis sheet to the CFO or the MD and present it as more of an attempt to ensure project success, rather than a complaint. Raghav will have to impress upon the management on the need to revisit the project resource allocation, in case he feels that the current one will not yield the desired quality and timeline targets.

Once he has succeeded in doing this, Raghav should present a periodic review and status update to his management so that they are in sync with the actual challenges and achievements.

What should RapCorp do to institutionalise the process of deploying big ticket it projects in the future?
Ideally, the project or delivery manager has to be a part of the project planning and SLA signoff. The vendor should be made accountable to the project manager from day one. Even if the manager is not privy to the pricing, he should have a say in the deliverables.

RapCorp should also form a project directorate or steering committee for future projects. This should include all the project sponsors and senior stakeholders. The project manager should make a joint implementation plan along with the vendor that should be presented to the steering committee before the kick-off.

There should be a weekly or fortnightly review process. Besides, the vendor payment should be linked to the milestones and signed off by the project manager.

Also, for any ERP implementation, it is important to have strong internal domain and process experts in the team who can measure and drive the outcomes. These internal process owners and power users should start learning the ERP so that the organisation gets what it aspires for.

To summarise, RapCorp should follow the basics of any  IT implementation project:

• Involve top management and ensure proper organisation-wide communication
• Induct team members from each of the business functions involved
• Set up a steering committee that should have have complete project plan in hand
• Chalk out deliverable-based payment schedule for vendors
• Conduct periodic reviews and set up process for mid-term course correction

Inform bosses, involve them too

By Karandeep Singh, Head IT, Fullerton Securities

About me: An MBA and MCA by qualification. Has over 14 years of experience. Worked with firms like Lucent Technologies and Fidelity Investments

What should Raghav do to ensure that the project is delivered smoothly, without any further delays?
Raghav should quickly take stock of the current stage of the project and call a meeting of CFO, CEO and core team members. He should apprise them of the background, current situation and stage-wise update of the project.

He should also update them on how the vendor is treating the company and the kind of resources that are being allocated by the vendor.

Raghav should then define the way the project is to be taken forward so that it can be successful and implemented as per the timelines. He should also split the project into phases and define roles for each person of the core project team. The CEO should acknowledge the same and inform the core team members to be accountable for the delivery.

As a next step, Raghav should arrange for a meeting of his senior management with the vendor and discuss the current state of the project, pushing them hard to have best resources working on the project. He should redefine the timelines if required. All payments should be linked to actual deliverables and strict penalties should be laid out in case of slippages.

With all this groundwork and focused approach, the project should come back on the track.

What should RapCorp do to institutionalise the process of deploying big ticket it projects in the future?
Moving forward, for all projects, a core team should be formed, drawing members from IT and functional departments. However, the overall responsibility should lie with the department wanting an application to be rolled out.

The functional person should own the project and the IT department should help coordinate with the vendor. The entire requirement should be frozen at the earliest so that the SLAs can be defined and commercials linked to them accordingly.

The project phases should be monitored closely by the project manager, followed by a weekly update to all stakeholders and a monthly update to the steering committee.

No new changes to applications should be made unless there are regulatory changes or other such exceptions. Any mid-term changes should be approved by the CEO and a strict change management process should be adhered to. Any changes in time or cost requirements (again, only in case of an exception) should also be signed by the CEO.

Categories concern areas

By Dolly Bhasin, Managing Director, SPH Consultancy and eServices

About me: IT professional with over 25 years of experience in R&D, data communications, product development, project marketing and consulting

What should Raghav do to ensure that the project is delivered smoothly, without any further delays?
Raghav should list out the key areas of the SLAs and mark them by the following categorisations:

Critical: Activities very crucial for the company (high risk and critical).

Compliance: Activities that need compliance (need to be done).

To watch: Activities that need to be monitored closely to prevent recursive and repetitive negative effects.

Difficult to achieve: Activities which are difficult to achieve but have been agreed upon in the SLA.

Raghav should then try to allocate time and resources to plan how to monitor and keep close check on the activities in the above listed manner, to ensure compliance to SLAs.

For the last category of activities, a realistic assessment should be done and adjustments made accordingly. The team working on the project need to be communicated the above and given incentives to ensure compliance to SLAs. Taking a proactive approach to ensure proper adherence to the SLAs in this manner will reduce the risks.

What should RapCorp do to institutionalise the process of deploying big ticket it projects in the future?
The company should ensure that someone from the delivery team (project manager or supervisor) is part of the team doing SLA negotiations.

The person should either be a direct signatory for the SLA document or should indirectly approve it through an internal document. Proper project management and governance system should be planned and implemented by the company in future to avoid such occurrences.