Build Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

Your implementation doesn’t start with technology, but with an effective plan that the team can align on.

Analyst Perspective

Your implementation is not just about technology, but about careful planning, collaboration, and control.

A successful enterprise application implementation requires more than great software; it requires a clear line of sight to the people, processes, metrics, and tools that can help make this happen.

Additionally, every implementation is unique with its own set of challenges. Working through these challenges requires a tailored approach taking many factors into account. Building out your playbook for your implementation is an important initial step before diving head-first into technology.

Regardless of whether you use an implementation partner, a playbook ensures that you don’t lose your enterprise application investment before you even get started!

Ricardo de Oliveira

Research Director,
Application Delivery and Management
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight

An effective enterprise application implementation playbook is not just a list of steps; it is a comprehensive view of what is necessary to support your implementation. This starts with a people-first approach. Start by asking about sponsors, stakeholders, and goals. Without asking these questions first, the implementation will be set up for failure, regardless of the technology, processes, and tools available.

Insight summary

Building an effective playbook starts with asking the right questions, not jumping straight into the technical details.

• This blueprint provides the steps required to lay out an implementation playbook to align the team on what is necessary to support the implementation.
• Build your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook by:
  • Aligning and confirming project’s goals, stakeholders, governance and team.
  • Clearly defining what is in and out of scope for the project and the risks involved.
  • Building up a strong change management process.
  • Providing the tools and processes to keep track of the project.
  • Pulling it all together into an actionable playbook.

Lack of planning is the reason that 39% of projects fail. Poor project planning can be disastrous: The consequences are usually high costs and time overruns.

Almost 20% of IT projects can fail so badly that they can become a threat to a company’s existence. Lack of proper planning, poor communication, and poorly defined goals all contribute to the failure of projects.

A PwC study of over 10,640 projects found that a tiny portion of companies – 2.5% – completed 100% of their projects successfully. These failures extract a heavy cost – failed IT projects alone cost the United States $50-$150B in lost revenue and productivity.

Source: Forbes, 2020

Planning and control are key to enterprise project success

An estimated 70% of large-scale corporate projects fail largely due to a lack of change management infrastructure, proper oversight, and regular performance check-ins to track progress (McKinsey, 2015).

“A survey published in HBR found that the average IT project overran its budget by 27%. Moreover, at least one in six IT projects turns into a ‘black swan’ with a cost overrun of 200% and a schedule overrun of 70%. Kmart’s massive $1.2B failed IT modernization project, for instance, was a big contributor to its bankruptcy.”

Source: Forbes, 2020

Sponsor commitment directly improves project success.

Having the right sponsor significantly improves your chances of success across many different dimensions:

1. On-time delivery
2. Delivering within budget
3. Delivered within an agreed-to scope
4. Delivered with sufficient quality.

Source: Info-Tech, PPM Current State Scorecard Diagnostic

Executive Brief Case Study

Chocolate manufacturer implementing a new ERP

INDUSTRY

SOURCE

A successful software implementation provides more than simply immediate business value…

It can build competitive advantage.

• When software projects fail, it can jeopardize an organization’s financial standing and reputation, and in some severe cases, it can bring the company down altogether.
• Rarely do projects fail for a single reason, but by understanding the pitfalls, developing a risk mitigation plan, closely monitoring risks, and self-evaluating during critical milestones, you can increase the probability of delivering on time, on budget, and with the intended benefits.

Benefits are not limited to just delivering on time. Some others include:

• Building organizational delivery competence and overall agility.
• The opportunity to start an inventory of best practices, eventually building them into a center of excellence.
• Developing a competitive advantage by maximizing software value and continuously transforming the business.
• An opportunity to develop a competent pool of staff capable of executing on projects and managing organizational change.

Blueprint deliverables

Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook – Timeline Tool

Supporting template that captures the project timeline information, issue log, and follow-up dashboard.

Light Project Change Request Form Template

This tool will help you record the requested change, and allow you to assess the impact of the change and proceed with the approval process.

Key deliverable:

Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

Record the results from the exercises to define the steps for a successful implementation.

Info-Tech’s methodology for Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

"Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful."

Guided Implementation

"Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track."

Workshop

"We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place."

Consulting

"Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."

Diagnostic and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization. A typical GI is between 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

Workshop Overview

Contact your account representative for more information.