Some thoughts about gettings things done

There is definetely more advise on this topic out there than anyone could digest and hence I want to keep this very short. As you know there is not one way to get things done there are many ways that work for different people in different situations. What I have below is based on my experience with Business and IT Programs/Projects in the High Tech Industry.

1. Have a clear Goal!
• You can explain to anyone in the program in 2 minutes what this is program is all about
• Everyone else in the program can tell you in their own words (in 2 minutes) what benefits this program will provide
• You know what will define success and how to measure success
2. Think like an entrepreneur!
• Assume it is your money you spend on the program --> only do what is necessary to achieve your goal.  Whatever you do, do it right with 100% commitment!
• Involve the people you really need --> don't bloat the program with stakeholders if they don't have a clear role
• Be responsible - the buck stops with you! 
3. Be passionate
• You love what you do and are committed to make it successful for your customers, your team and yourself. Not being passionate is not an option!
• Engage the best people and ensure they can do their best work. 
• Everything can be improved! Therefore use every opportunity to make improvements.
4. Focus on your customer
• Make the program successful w/o looking at your own benefit will yield the biggest long term benefits!
5. Break your goals into digestible tasks
• Smaller tasks are better to understand and monitor for you and for your customers
• You need successes along the way to keep morale up. Plan for these successes.
6. Don't just talk about doing things but actually start DOING them
• Plans are very important and need to be there, nevertheless you need to start somewhere and it's probably not the ideal point. In order to get things done you actually have to start doing them. 
7. Keep things simple
• Ensure that stakeholders which are NOT full-time engaged in your program still fully understand the processes and systems you are implementing. If stakeholders don't understand what you are trying to do or disagree with what you are trying to do they can't support you. 

There are definetely many more great tips out there but the above is a good starting point to get things done. 

Some things to consider for your next IT Plan of Record (POR) task

Many of you work on IT Plan of Records and it always seems a struggle to communicate why your teams requirements are more important than requirements from another team. Please note that in general it is very important to put a Dollar ($$$) value on your requirements. This could be for cost savings or for revenue increases but it needs to be crystal clear to everyone (Business/IT) what the expected benefit is when this requirement gets implemented. If you think you can't put a dollar value on it think about potential customer satisfaction and something like customer retention rates. How does your company value that?  Below I have put some notes and an example you might want to consider next time you work on an IT POR

To Do

1. Collect all business requirements from your stakeholders (global + regional requirements)
2. Determine overlap of these business requirements
3. Determine if you have cost savings or revenue increases when you implement these requirements
4. Size and prioritize the business requirements
5. Present to IT POR committee 

Example

1. Business Requirement: All products that are added to a quote need to remain valid as long as the quote is valid.  Example: Quote 123 is valid for the next 30 days. Product ABC is only valid for 10 more days hence product ABC should not be added to the quote.
2. For our example let's assume that this is the same in all our regions (Americas, Europe/Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific).
3. This is clearly a cost savings requirement (.. with some additional aspects ...)
4. Questions to ask
• How many deals are currently impacted by this business requirement?
• Is every region equally impacted by this business requirement?
• What is the (manual) process to fix this issue if a product that is not valid for the whole quote validity period is added to a quote?
• How much time is needed to address this issue? ... and who is fixing it?
• What is the average annual Salary of the person that is fixing the issue?
• How much time is needed to communicate the solution of the issue (to the customer?)? .. and who is doing it?
• At the end we could have the following $ number (simplified)
• Quotes with invalid product numbers per year : 1,000 (globally)
• Time needed per quote to (in Min) to fix issue: 30min
• Communications needed (email, phone calls etc.) to clarify changes / confusion with customer/others (in Min) per quote: 20min
• Average Salary of person that is fixing the issue (according to HR tables): $60,000
• Average Salary of person that is communicating the fix for this issue (according to HR tables): $50,000

• Resulting $ amount
• 1,000 x 30min = 30,000min  (= 500 hrs / = 62.5 days)  (time to fix issue) 
• 1,000 x 20min = 20,000min ( = 333 hrs / = 41.5 days) (time to communicate fix)
• Annual work time for employees ... check this link. For the US it is 1,790 hours per year
• Average hourly cost (simplified) for the person fixing the issue: $60,000 / 1790 hours per year = $33.52 per hour 
• Average hourly cost (simplified) for the person communicating the issue to the fix: $50,000 / 1790 hours per year = $27.93 per hour
• Final numbers: 
• 500 hrs x $33.52 = $16,760.00  (Cost to fix issue)
• 333 hrs x $27.93 = $9,300.69 (Cost to communicate fix)
• Total cost = $26,060.69 Total cost savings amount. This needs to accompany your IT POR requirement 
• NOTE: This does not include customer satisfaction challenges (e.g. customer retention etc.) or the cost of fixing this issue (you need a cost benefit analysis for that). 

Next time you work on your business requirements follow this idea to increase your chances to actually get your requirements approved. It should help you to think more thoroughly about your requirements and hence come up with better data to justify the requirement.

Some thoughts concerning switching to a Cloud Configure/Price/Quote Tool

If you are thinking about switching to a cloud based CPQ Tool (e.g. BigMachines, Apttus, IBM Sterling, Callidus, Selectica, Cameleon) you will have to answer questions from at least five areas before you can make a decision on the tool and the process. Below I have put some questions that you should consider before making a decision

1. General Questions
• What do you expect to get from a SaaS/Cloud Configurator/Price/Quoting Tool? Note: Like for every other project you need to have a clear project charter!!
• Do you consider this a long-term investment?  Note: It should be considered a long-term investment because a change is probably not as easy as SaaS companies want to make you believe. 
2. Technical Questions
• Basic
• Who will setup the Data (e.g. Product Model, Pricing, Quote Forms) in the new CPQ Tool? 
• Who will keep maintaining this data going forward (onshore/offshore)? Keep in mind that you should expect to pay ongoing expenses here either for in-house resources or for consulting resources.
• How quickly do you need to make changes to your Data (e.g. change the product model, change the price components) ?
• How tightly is the SaaS/Cloud tool data into the rest of your IT infrastructure?
• What happens to your business if the SaaS/Cloud tool is not available?
• How much time and budget do you expect to spend on training?
• What Browsers does the intended tool support? 
• Do any of your intended users need to change their Browsers?
• How many employees/users do you expect to train on the new tool? (e.g. get certifications)
• Do you have a sufficient Broadband connection to ensure a good performance?
• What usage models (e.g. billing based on consumption) does the CPQ Tool support?
3. Security Questions
• Are you comfortable to upload all the data into the SaaS/Cloud tool (e.g. your price data, channel partner pricing data)?
• What is the SaaS/Cloud tool provider doing to ensure your data is secure?
• What is the impact of the SaaS/Cloud tool security to your other (e.g. on premise) IT infrastructure?
4. Data Migration Questions
• How do you plan to setup all the existing business data (e.g. product models, prices, quotes) in the SaaS/Cloud tool ? (e.g. open quotes from your current tool will move or will not move to the SaaS/Cloud tool?)
• What will you have to do if you should decide (at a later point) to move to another SaaS/Cloud tool? Note: There should be a clear path how this can happen even though it is understood that this will not be a trivial exercise. 
5. Integration Questions
• How will your CPQ tool integrate with your ERP system? Example: You create an opportunity in SFDC and SFDC is integrated with BigMachines. In this case BigMachines creates the quote (based on the product configurator and pricing in BigMachines). Once that quote is converted into an order (e.g. in the ERP system ... SAP or Oracle) the data needs to move from SFDC/BigMachines to the ERP system. While there are tools available to help you do this transition it is interesting to learn how much effort it is to get this setup and function flawlessly). 
• How much effort will it be to adjust the CPQ Tool/ERP interface (middleware) if you have any changes?
• How much are you willing to buy into a platform (e.g. BigMachines and Oracle, Apttus and SFDC) with your CPQ tool?
• How much customizing do you need from the SaaS tool? 
• Do you need to have installed based information in the SaaS tool (installed base info shows what products the customer already has) and how can that be integrated into the SaaS tool?
• Are the CPQ / CRM and ERP tools aligned? e.g. If you want to use SAP's Variant Configuration on the ERP side what does that mean to your CPQ/CRM tool?

There are obviously many more questions but I think that gives you a good starting point.