May 17, 2012 from SupplyChainBrain – “I spent some time last week at NetSuite’s first user conference in San Francisco. I’ve known NetSuite for much of its history, but I wanted the opportunity to mingle with hundreds of companies that have adopted ERP in the cloud. My immediate impression was that the enthusiasm level among customers and prospects was uncharacteristic of the rather staid enterprise application world. It isn’t easy to find people who are excited about their ERP systems, but this group certainly was…” 180 View – The article is partly based on a NetSuite user conference and discussion […]
Don’t Bother Building Consensus
June 2011 from Project Times – “There is a problem with building consensus. First of which is it may never happen. I often hear people referring to consensus as trying to get everyone to agree on a decision. A common definition of consensus is “An opinion or position reached by a group as a whole”. Here are negative scenarios that can result with consensus building as defined: A decision never gets made or is delayed – By trying to get everyone to agree, stubbornness can kick in and individuals can stall or stop decisions from being made. A weaker solution […]
Common Estimating Mistakes
May 16, 2011 from gannthead.com – “Here are some common estimating issues that can often negatively impact your project… Padding… Being overly optimistic… Bad requirements… Omission… Different levels… Being put on the spot… Forgetting the risk factor… Pressure from above… Failure to involve the “do-ers”…” 180 View – Estimating is tough and we ask for it all the time from the vendors when assisting our clients in a system selection project. The vendors don’t have enough information when responding to an RFP so they rely on past experience based on similar sized projects and what they think the market will […]
Avoiding project death by ROI
February 6, 2011 from The Enterprise System Spectator – “…My hypothesis is that, due to a reluctance to say “no” directly, ROI calculations are often a convenient way to refuse projects that management simply doesn’t want to do. This “ROI trap” can take several forms: Management argues the project budget is underestimated Management argues the benefits are overly optimistic Management argues the benefits cannot be connected to the proposed initiative…” Read more 180 View – We disagree. The so-called traps are in fact exactly the questions management should be asking. Often the people who are driving the project want it […]
Changes to the 2011 Rules of Golf
180 View – Just what I needed. Check it out […]
Successful ERP Implementations: Fact or Fiction
2011 from ProjectTimes – “…What is a successful ERP Implementation and how do we measure whether it was successful or not…” Read more 180 View – The article brings up a great subject but misses the mark in how to define success. The article discusses success in terms of scope, timing, budget with the bottom line that the client is pleased. Clearly all of these are important but we think not enough. We believe that the project should start with a definition of critical success factors (what an organization must do well in order to be successful) and the measurements […]
Talking Twin Babies
180 View – Babies have a lot to say. Check it out […]
What is that?
180 View – And so do our parents/grandparents. Check it out […]
The 90/10 Principle
From Stephen Covey – “Have you read this before? Discover the 90/10 Principle. It will change your life (at least the way you react to situations). What is this principle? 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react. What does this mean? We really have no control over 10% of what happens to us. We cannot stop the car from breaking down….” Read more […]
Best practices not always best
October 22, 2010 from The Enterprise System Spectator – “…The term best practices has at least two major and totally different definitions, and second, in many areas of business, there is not generally agreement on what are the best practices…” Read more 180 View – This is good article that reflects our philosophy. The major vendors and consulting firms always pitch best practice to their prospects and clients and that they are the source for best practice. I often see proposals that are based on the assumption that best practices will be applied to an implementation. But some processes are […]