A friend of mine is a VP [economic buyer] at a large high tech company. We were talking about a business process management project at his company. Our thoughts...
Think about big projects.
1) Someone has identified a need.
Some typical examples include: You have a process that is taking too long. A very expensive error has occurred as a result of something wrong with your process. You are having trouble meeting weekly output goals. Your customers are not happy with their interactions with your company. You have discovered a new market that you would like to address, but your existing processes make it impossible to compete. And so on.
2) You have performed a return on investment analysis and your inefficiencies are costing you thousands of dollars daily. You know you need to do something.
There are 2 extremes: Go out and buy something quickly or spend a year or so making sure that you have made the right choice. Obviously, the task could land anywhere in between. Let's look at the pros and cons.
Quickly - You might get lucky and make the right selection but odds say you won't. This choice allows you to cut costs and make some progress on being more efficient.
Spend a year - Your odds of making the right selection go up, but are not guaranteed. This choice will cost you money for each month that you don't have a solution and this path doesn't ensure a successful solution.
No matter your chosen path, any solution you choose will likely need tweaking to make it work properly for your company.
The Takeaway...
Just do it!
My friend pointed out that the money you spent on the quick decision is not lost. What you will learn during the implementation of the 'Quick' solution will make you a much smarter buyer for the next decision. That next decision could be to improve your quick decision solution or to go another way, but you will be a much smarter buyer.
What is cost of procrastination? You will learn far more attempting to implement a solution than you will researching the alternatives.
You will never get back the dollars you spent while you were looking for that perfect solution. And, you will never find the 'perfect' anything. So, what are you waiting for?
Your Thoughts...
This is a rather radical approach, but seems to make sense - what do you think?
The good news is that next generation Business Software Technology allows you to "just do it" and it is not a compromise it is exactly what users require and "do it in days" when inevitable change arrives "just change it"!
Interesting blog from Forrester the end of frontline packaged applications? http://blogs.forrester.com/craig_le_clair/12-01-09-stuck_in_cement_when_packaged_apps_create_barriers_to_innovation