case study: bridging the gap in information systems worldwide

Our client is a global business operating in the construction sector. When we came alongside, the company had different systems in each of its worldwide locations which was severely limiting the company’s ability to operate cohesively as a global enterprise. For example, one country had a PC-based system written and supported in-house, while another made extensive use of spreadsheets. The main location had a bespoke system which was over 20 years old, the original designers and programmers of which were no longer around, written in a programming language that had long since fallen off the radar. All of this represented a high-risk scenario.

We were asked to set out an approach to identifying a new unified system capable of being deployed globally. Clearly this system had to cope with the variations in accounting standards, currencies and languages, as well as addressing the client’s rather niche business requirements, making this one of our more challenging projects.

Initially we reviewed the broad options, and evaluated the pros and cons of Tier 1, bespoke, best-of-breed and packaged solutions. Naturally each route had a quite different profile in terms of cost, risk, future-proofing and functionality, but using our structured approach the options were clearly characterised and as a result the company chose to adopt the packaged software approach.

We then undertook a structured specification and selection exercise. Suppliers were pre-qualified and tenders issued and evaluated. Following extensive demonstrations, due-diligence enquiries and contract negotiations a supplier and solution was selected which offered an acceptable balance of risk, cost and capability.

We finalised the contracts and commercial negotiations saving our client significant amounts whilst securing favourable terms, including a fixed-price implementation. The system has now been rolled out to all locations and is providing a common platform for commercial processing around the world. So our client now has:

• a modern, supportable solution
• one system for all locations offering commonality of approach but able to cater for local differences where appropriate
• a strategy which will cope with business changes for years to come
• a low-risk IT platform upon which to base their business

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