12 Mistakes to Avoid in Systems Selection
- Signing the contract prematurely
Avoid the sales person's push to close the deal with offers such as “I'll give you 20% off if you sign by month's end.” Don't rush the process, and don't let a vendor sidetrack your process by using sales tactics designed to end your competitive bid process.
Proceeding to review a contract should be based on the buy-in from the project team and sponsors. Avoid signing a letter of intent or license agreement without having all major modifications, services and implementation plan detailed out — deposits are nonrefundable.
- Not having fair and balanced contracts
You need a good contract in the event that disputes, arbitration or court hearings arise. Most contracts are obviously biased toward the vendor.
There are two major aspects to contracts that deserve your attention. First, the business case, including detailed modifications, conversion, services, hardware and software, pay for progress, implementation plans. Many of these points are never addressed in contracts unless you demand the vendor amend the boilerplate agreement to do so.
Then there are the legal terms: Have an intellectual property attorney review language and terms, and add the agreed-to language for business case. Merchants typically fail to do enough work here.
Buyers often use attorneys who don't have this expertise. We work as an expert witness in lawsuits regarding systems, and it's appalling what gets left out of the contracting process.
Incorporate all key materials and promises made into the contract. Nothing agreed to verbally is enforceable if it is not in the agreements. It's left up to interpretation by a judge, jury or arbitrator to decide the importance if you can't reconcile it with the vendor.
- Underestimating the implementation time frames
Demand that detailed project planning is completed and part of the contract. But don't force implementation if it's not realistic to compress dates.
Build in contingency time for when certain aspects of the plan run longer that expected. Most companies do not plan enough time for file conversions, integration planning, modifications, programming and testing.
Make weekly project meetings part of your discipline. Within 30 days of the “go live,” move to daily calls and meetings.
Buying a system is a huge investment, and a lot can go wrong during the process. But if you're disciplined and aware of these pitfalls and able to avoid them, you chances of success will be much better.
Curt Barry (cbarry@fcbco.com) is president of F. Curtis Barry & Co., a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm.
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© 2012 Penton Media Inc.
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