blog.mintek.com why asset management system implementations fail[1]

882019 Blogmintekcom Why Asset Management System Implementations Fail[1]

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Why Asset Management SystemImplementations Fail

Why Asset Management System

Implementations Fail - Part I

Iwas reading about the decision by Marin County

CA to walk away from a $30 million investmentin an Enterprise Resource Planning system after

outside consultants claimed it and wasnrsquot worth thecost to x the problems

A Case Study of Asset Management

Implementation Gone Wrong

This asset management implementation disaster isdestined to become a case study for graduate bu-siness programs because the parties failed to setthe customers expectations but also because MarinCounty and Deloitte Consulting were blaming eachother while the software vendor SAP took little or

no responsibility for its products

The sad part is they all lost Marin County adminis-trators for not thinking through their idea DeloitteConsulting for a lack of vision and skill and lastlySAPrsquos image for having a product that is dicult to

implement

The Root Cause of Asset Management

System Software Implementation Failure

Contrary to popular belief asking who is to blamefor the failed implementation is not the question thatcustomers software vendors or consulting compa-nies should be asking 50-90 of implementationsfail for software packages such as an EAM ERP CBM CMMS IWMS CIFM FMIS or any other type

of asset management tool because Sales sold a pro-duct that could not realistically meet the customerrsquosexpectations

What do customer expectations have to do with thisIn short EVERYTHING Successfully implementingasset management system software means that thecustomer is happy with the results It does not meanthat everything works perfectly Although this wouldbe nice there are countless points of failure duringthe course of an implementation As a result thecustomers and vendor expectations must be ma-naged from beginning to end

If you fail to realize that setting expectations is thetrue cornerstone of communication then you aredoomed to repeat your errors over and over againPurchasing and setting up an asset managementsoftware is not like buying a box of cereal It requireswork and a substantial amount of time

This is the rst of a multi-part series that every ven-dor potential customer and consulting company

should memorize At the end of the series a new

15102010 2010

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Why Asset Management System Implementations Fail

opportunity will be presented that may change theway asset management software is sold

Setting expectations is part of the overall commu-nication process To better understand the pivotalrole of communications let us rst dene the roleof the key players in the decision to purchase assetmanagement system software Although roles mayvary or change over the course of the sale and im-

plementation it is absolutely mission critical thatbuy-in is achieved from the customer at all levelsin their organization

In order for this to be accomplished decision makersfor the customer must actively engage in open com-munication with end users as well as other depart-ments whose resources will be needed (ex facilitiesstaff accounting purchasing IT) Without buy-inthe EAMCMMS system is just another tool forcedupon staff that will not be set-up or used correctly

The Sales Executive

Salespeople are driven to produce results Their goalis to either create a need or guide a potential clientrsquosneeds to their product Sales for big ticket itemsare usually relationship based It is the relationshipbuilding that forms the bond of trust as well as set-ting the early customer and vendor expectations

As the sales cycle progresses salespeople are res-ponsible for setting the table as they must matchcustomer expectationsneeds with the product theyrepresent Sales needs to present realistic vendorexpectations to the customer Vendor executivesshould not be wondering what was promised du-ring the sale

The Executive or Decision Makers

The Executive or decision makers are the person orgroup that can dene the top level need (pain) for anorganization They are the initial line of communi-cation to the vendor or third party consultant Mostimportantly the decision maker(s) are the person(s)accountable for achieving buy-in throughout thecompany

The other major role of the decision maker is toensure that there are enough internal resources to

complete the project before the asset management system software is purchased This includes but isnot limited to

bull Assigning a project manager or putting to-gether a team for the implementation

bull Making sure work ow processes are un-derstood This information determineswhere the bottlenecks are The problemsidentied will be among the rst expecta-tions given to the vendor

bull Making sure time and money is availablefor asset detail set-up It may take severalmonths or longer to collect and enter in as-set detail for tens of thousands of assets

bull Making sure time and money is availablefor staff training For example maintenancestaff will be the heaviest users of a CMMSbut they are always busy (otherwise youwould not need help) What is the plan tofree up their time

15102010 2010

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Operations - Client

This is the software implementation team who shareresponsibility with the vendor andor systems inte-gration consultants to make the asset managementsystem work Ideally this group represents all of the areas to be impacted by the asset managementsystem software including maintenance staff plan-ners engineers and management

It is very important that this function is not dele-gated to outside consultants because true buy-incomes from participating in the process to makethings better In addition this is the group that willassume the role of continually improving workowand processes for asset management

Operations - Vendor

This group includes the project manager EAM

CMMS trainers technical support and any otherresource needed to meetexceed customer expec-tations This group of individuals is responsible forunderstanding what was sold and how to deliver it

Ultimate responsibility for a successful implementa-tion falls squarely on the vendor Having a good pro-duct doesnrsquot do much if you canrsquot make it work theway a client wants Actions of the client or consultinggroup may be the cause of a failed implementationbut it is the vendors name on the product

The Consultant or Third Party

Consultants if used essentially play the role of project management They are responsible for makingsure that customer expectations and vendor productare set up correctly to achieve the desired goalsWhether consultants act as pure facilitators guidesor are contracted to perform the actual set-up of the system is irrelevant However it is critical thatconsultants understand the expectations of bothcustomer and vendor

Now that the general roles of the key players hasbeen outlined the next step is to understand whysetting the proper expectations are important to allthe parties involved Our next post will cover whyand how to set expectations between client vendorandor a third party

If you liked this article you may also want to read

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suite Contest includes a 1-year site license 10 webmobile licenses and support as well as trainingand implementation

15102010 2010

Page 3







j o l i p r i n t

blogmintekcom


opportunity will be presented that may change theway asset management software is sold

Setting expectations is part of the overall commu-nication process To better understand the pivotalrole of communications let us rst dene the roleof the key players in the decision to purchase assetmanagement system software Although roles mayvary or change over the course of the sale and im-

plementation it is absolutely mission critical thatbuy-in is achieved from the customer at all levelsin their organization

In order for this to be accomplished decision makersfor the customer must actively engage in open com-munication with end users as well as other depart-ments whose resources will be needed (ex facilitiesstaff accounting purchasing IT) Without buy-inthe EAMCMMS system is just another tool forcedupon staff that will not be set-up or used correctly

The Sales Executive

Salespeople are driven to produce results Their goalis to either create a need or guide a potential clientrsquosneeds to their product Sales for big ticket itemsare usually relationship based It is the relationshipbuilding that forms the bond of trust as well as set-ting the early customer and vendor expectations

As the sales cycle progresses salespeople are res-ponsible for setting the table as they must matchcustomer expectationsneeds with the product theyrepresent Sales needs to present realistic vendorexpectations to the customer Vendor executivesshould not be wondering what was promised du-ring the sale

The Executive or Decision Makers

The Executive or decision makers are the person orgroup that can dene the top level need (pain) for anorganization They are the initial line of communi-cation to the vendor or third party consultant Mostimportantly the decision maker(s) are the person(s)accountable for achieving buy-in throughout thecompany

The other major role of the decision maker is toensure that there are enough internal resources to

complete the project before the asset management system software is purchased This includes but isnot limited to

bull Assigning a project manager or putting to-gether a team for the implementation

bull Making sure work ow processes are un-derstood This information determineswhere the bottlenecks are The problemsidentied will be among the rst expecta-tions given to the vendor

bull Making sure time and money is availablefor asset detail set-up It may take severalmonths or longer to collect and enter in as-set detail for tens of thousands of assets

bull Making sure time and money is availablefor staff training For example maintenancestaff will be the heaviest users of a CMMSbut they are always busy (otherwise youwould not need help) What is the plan tofree up their time

15102010 2010







j o l i p r i n t

blogmintekcom


Operations - Client



Operations - Vendor










$23000



15102010 2010

Page 3







j o l i p r i n t

blogmintekcom


Operations - Client



Operations - Vendor










$23000



15102010 2010




blog.mintek.com why asset management system implementations fail[1]

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