31. October 2009 by admin.

Henry Ford once declared that if he had only listened to his customers he would have built a better horse and buggy.  While listening to a customer is an important part of the effective product manager’s role, turning what he has heard into enhanced functionality needs a different skill-set than just listening.  The produce manager must be able to make the leap of how emerging software technologies may be able to deliver the outcome in an entirely new way.  What Henry Ford heard was his customers expressing a desire to get from A to B quickly, safely and cheaply.  He was able to turn that desire into a completely different transport paradigm.  The effective billing manager should be able to do the same.

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15. October 2009 by admin.

There’s a debate about how many questions on functionality should be included in a typical Request for Information (RFI).  My view is that if there’s nothing special about your business then you can assume that, for example, one General Ledger’s pretty much the same as another.  But utility billing or tax billing systems?  That’s a relatively specialised beast, and one where not only are the current requirements pulled this way and that by regulators and government, but developments on the near horizon – smart meters for example – require a system that’s not only robust today but flexible enough for tomorrow.

And the flexibility’s not just built into the software – it’s built into the mindset of the people responsible for enhancing and extending the software.  That’s why the software vendor’s product development manager is such a key person and why in all the RFIs we manage, questions about that person and their industry experience play a central role.  What we look for is industry experience either directly as a revenue manager, preferably in multiple places, or as seasoned project manager with multiple, varying implementations to draw on - the more grey hair the better, in our view.

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11. October 2009 by admin.

How big should the team be that selects and implements software?  A Canadian consultancy believes that the optimum size is five or six, according to a story in IT World Canada.

When buying a commercial app or working with a vendor to create one from scratch, organizations are specifying too many requirements, including ones that are non-essential or cosmetic. According to one Info-Tech Research Group Ltd. consultant, the key to successfully selecting a vendor for packaged or custom applications is to identify core requirements quickly and keep the initial selection team small.

“If you have a team of more than five people who are commissioned with finding the right solution and requirements, you’re probably wasting a lot of effort,” said Andy Woyzbun, lead analyst at London, Ont.-based research and consultant firm. Especially for customized projects, design by large committee almost never works, he added.

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7. October 2009 by admin.

Earlier this year, managed care provider Centene finished deploying a new financial system, Computerworld reports. CIO Don Imholz says the project, which involved multiple PeopleSoft modules as well as financial planning and reporting software from Hyperion, was completed “very quickly”-in 12 months-and on budget.Imholz believes the project was successful for a number of reasons, including that the company implemented proven technology and hired a systems integrator experienced with PeopleSoft to help. Most importantly, Imholz says the project was successful because of “good teaming between the IT organization, the finance organization and the systems integration resources.”

In other words, much of the project’s success came down to people skills.

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7. October 2009 by admin.

Getting a project up and running is sometimes a matter of juggling figures to make its return on investment look unbeatable and the project timeline remarkable. Such juggling carries high risks, as can be seen from a report from the Auditor-General for the Australian state of NSW who has slammed a large State Government IT billing project that is expected to be nine years late and $23 million over budget. The project is intended to centralize the application and issuing of licenses, apart from driver’s licenses, used throughout the state. It was intended to replace more than 40 licensing systems in about 20 government agencies, issuing more than 4 million licenses of more than 300 varieties to individuals and businesses.

This is (at least) the second public sector billing project the Auditor-General has criticized. Most notable was his 2003 report, when Sydney Water ran into problems with a new billing system

Launched in 2001, the project was to have been completed by 2005, although it is not now expected to be concluded until 2014. “It is now nine years late, $23 million over budget and will return less than one-third of the original estimated net savings,” Auditor-General Peter Achterstraat said in a report released 7 October. “Put simply, this is poor project management.”

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