Global supply chains haven't had this much disruption since World War II, and the United States wasn’t as dependent on oversea goods and manufacturing then. On March 19, J.C. Penney announced that it was closing 850 stores, affecting 90,000 store associates. Sadly, J.C. Penney joins an illustrious group of retailers closing for several weeks to…
Brian Barry
You've just spent four months doing your homework to replace your aging call-center and order management system. You've gathered user requirements, written an request for proposal, gotten capable vendors to bid on it, conducted demos and selected the finalist. Yet there's one more activity that, if not done superbly, will shake management’s confidence that replacement of the old system will go smoothly.
How many times does this happen in your company? You go to a meeting about sales performance, and marketing says it thinks sales are up 3.5 percent. But the merchants disagree and say sales are up 6.3 percent. The specific numbers in this example aren’t important; the point is the two figures aren’t close. And that’s the reality in most companies today.
Recently cited information from the technology firm CNET reveals that roughly 49 percent of IT projects suffer from budget overruns, and 47 percent suffer higher than expected maintenance costs. It’s imperative that companies identify and properly plan for all expenses associated with replacing a business application to avoid these costly mistakes. Here are seven ways to help you go about this process. 1. When considering replacing your software application, ask yourself the following questions during the due diligence process: * What applications will be considered, and what functionalities are required? * What are the major milestones and time frames necessary to complete the project?
