Project organizations are basically the project team who are necessary for planning, ownership, support, management, implementation and testing tasks during the project. Regardless of the technology chosen to deliver your EPM solution, a proper project organization needs to be established.
The input provided by the staff on the selection team helps to build up a solid list of requirements which you can confidently state as representing the needs of your organization. Once this is done, there are many detailed questions to add to a requirements checklist.
For the business case, the procurement officer and company executives will need to see financial figures indicating the ROI and other tangible company benefits of undergoing the proposed new investment.
Your audience
You should target the CFO or other C-Level individuals who are responsible to sign off on the investment. Remember who your audience is while preparing this analysis!
On a high level it should detail all relevant aspects of the project and include simple financial details to communicate impact to the bottom line and any other associated benefits/costs.
Suggestions for Business Case content:
A proper business case with clear cost/benefit analysis is the anchor of the new project. These analyses should be in the form of a TCO and expected ROI of new solution. It could be beneficial in the long term to invest in an experienced third party to give advice on how to do these evaluations and ensure you align these with the proper technology and solution provider. When it comes to demonstrating the value of a new EPM solution, concentrate on how costs and overheads can be reduced in the medium and long term.
An estimate on the ROI is a powerful means towards getting buy-in and support of your company executives.
Approval
Once the Business Case is approved the next step is to evaluate the different vendors and technology to understand your options and get an idea of the cost of the implementation.
The Shortlist
The first step is to establish a short list of vendors which should be based solely on the ability to meet the requirements as specified in the Business Case – this is done via a Request for Information (RFI) which will be presented to several possible vendors.
Once the details from the RFI can be analyzed a shortlist of vendors should be created which line up best to address the project goals. A detailed Request for Quotation will be submitted to these vendors.
Evaluation of the RfQ responses should align with internal procurement processes to evaluate the submitted proposals from the different vendors. Often these evaluations are structured to weight different functional and commercial details to provide an overall score which indicates the best fit of a new EPM solution with your organization.
In case a structured procurement process is not in place at your company regarding EPM solutions it is advised to invest in a third party to assist with this process as this can result in significant project efficiencies and long-term cost savings. Once a vendor has been chosen contract negotiations can begin and the initial project meetings can be scheduled.