The Most Important Part of an Enterprise Software Selection Project –You!

One of the most overlooked factors on an enterprise software selection project is the client-side team. Clients will understandably want the project completed as quickly as possible, at the lowest cost and impact to the organization. What will the software cost? How much will the implementation be? What about change management? These are all valid concerns; however one of the most important elements to a successful software selection and implementation is the makeup of the client-side team.

Before you undertake your project, here are some mission-critical factors to think about when forming your team:

• You want your most experienced people on the team, not the new or recent hires
• Have a mix of employees from all of the different key functional areas
• Make sure team members have the bandwidth to participate, and if they don’t, clear their schedules to accommodate the project time commitments
• Ensure that you have some IT staff on the project, not all, most, or none
• As much as possible, make sure that employees will be on staff throughout the project; i.e. take into account retirements, leaves of absence, etc. Larger projects can last a long time!