PHOENIX – next 5 steps

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  1. Return to the previous Payment Process and I.T. platform ASAP and shut down PHOENIX.
  2. Establish Single Federal Payment Function (organization) Head and Owner.
  3. Appoint Payment Function Heads and Payment Process Owners in relevant institutions.
    1. – Have them REDEFINE the Payment Process problem.
    2. – Have them AGREE on a new Common Payment Process.
  4. Prepare RFP for potential Payment Function and Process outsourcing/automation.
  5. Potentially Outsource, Automate or …. improve the efficiency of the existing function and process.

The above is not possible without direct involvement of the Prime Minister (to mandate steps 1 and 2).

The above Program MUST be managed by the Payment Function (organization).

This is NOT an “I.T.” Program – PHOENIX or SHARED SERVICES may not be a part of a chosen solution.

Total estimated realistic duration: 30-36 months.

Interim tangible results after 12 months and every 3-4 months thereafter.

“Saving” PHOENIX

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80,000 federal government employees are suffering the consequences of a disastrous implementation of a PHOENIX Payment System.

It is a very serious BUSINESS problem.

Conservative  government,  system software and training are quoted as potential causes to general public – traditional, hasty, ignorant, unprofessional, politically motivated, but convenient explanations.

Useless PHOENIX is a consequence of a much larger very serious problem – incompetent PHOENIX Program Design and Implementation Management.

Throwing money at modifying PHOENIX and hiring extra staff in Miramichi is a dead end road.

“IT” project is doomed to fail

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Because they are “IT” Projects – conceived and managed by IT 

In my experience this usually happens, when:

1. Business care less about IT and do not know how to manage it professionally

2. IT care less about the Business and do not understand it

3. Business and IT are two volunteers-divorcees,  forced to coexist behind the Berlin Wall, willingly built by both parties (systems-orphans, server museums and data cemeteries are some of the products of this divorce)

4. “IT” Projects are managed by IT – they are not supported by meaningful business case and have no business driver, thus are self-IT serving

5. IT forgets about it’s role as a Service

6. Business, IT, consultants, IT “ideologists/evangelists/educators” appear to be satisfied with this situation – ironically…

So what’s the point of talking about it?

“IT” driven projects are meaningless and IT application can only be effective, if/where Business takes professional ownership of projects’  business case definition and project implementation processes, thus destroying the Berlin Wall and institutionalizing a Business Project, which uses IT as one of many tools to achieve specific business objective. 

Why dare?

Consulting – a Victim or an Escape?

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Management Consulting generally prospers as a result of a mix of:

  • Business leadership’s inability and fear to take responsibility for it’s own decisions
  • Business leadership’s professional incompetence

Management Consulting domineering role in strategic and financial decisions making process is a Consequence of a poor Business Management – Consulting is their costly and voluntary Victim and a convenient Escape, thus is a risk-free business…

Business incompetence or IT fraud?

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….non-existing/broken business and IT relationships (Berlin Walls); politically motivated IT investment decisions; IT agnostic business managers and business agnostic IT managers; IT strategies, disconnected from the business;  unjustified heavy-duty IT systems purchases; IT/consultant-driven management decisions and projects;  “preferred” vendors and suppliers;  fully accomodating and ready-t0-cater for pay consultants; systems/applications orphans; data and server cemeteries; endless implementations; meaningless hardware and software upgrades; unrealistic project estimates and plans; ever-growing IT budgets; legacy systems zoos; absence of risk, process and data management functions in IT organizations….

Buying ERP?

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Planning a heavy duty ERP (SAP, Oracle, Peoplesoft..) acquisition ? 

  1. Why do you need ERP in the first place? What is the business problem you are trying to solve? Have you clearly defined it?
  2. Have you considered other solutions to your business problem?
  3. How will implementing ERP solve this problem? What competitive advantage are you going to gain and how will you measure it as a result?
  4. Are you high-volume transaction based, geographically distributed business with a static business model, deep pockets and highly professional business and IT management teams? Or are you counting on consultants to solve your internal program management challenges?
  5. Are you aware, how many years and how much money does it cost to implement a fully integrated ERP solution?
  6. Who is the Business Champion of this decision. Has he/she signed up on the appropriate Business Case and how will he/she engage in the program management process? Have business operations people signed up on the program implementation plan and are they prepared to work in parallel on the ERP implementation and fulfill their daily jobs ?
  7. Are you planning to use ERP as an accounting or business management instrument ? If accounting – why do you need ERP in general and are you aware of the potential consequences of a silo-based ERP implementation? If business management – are you prepared for a multi-year multi/mega million effort of an integrated business process blueprint definition exercise?
  8. Do you expect your major product/services and your business process to remain unchanged throughout the process blueprint definition process? If not, then how are you planning to align your blueprint with the changing environment?
  9. Are you prepared to undertake a dirty Data Management challenge and coordinate a company-wide trench-based effort of common/standard codes, data cleansing and marshalling/migration  into ERP databases from legacy sources? Why is this important?
  10. How are you planning to staff your PMO and what roles will be assigned to Business and IT in the process? Why is this important?
  11. Have you identified your major risks, their mitigation plan and are still determined to go forward?

If you are acquiring ERP because of a non-business related reason, you have wasted your time reading the above.

Berlin Wall

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The German one is history. The one, separating Business and IT is reality.

IT Strategy Obsolete?

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Business Strategy = IT Strategy. The opposite is false.

A well designed and thought through business strategy will clearly define the application of technology in achieving business objectives.