BPM Rollouts That Hit the Mark

There's much more to BPM success than selecting software. Companies that get the best results take proactive steps to smooth implementation.

The most critical components of enterprise software initiatives -- setting objectives, deploying the system and training end users, for example -- often receive the least attention. Companies' primary focus is usually on deciding which system to buy. They believe that if they choose the right product, everything else will fall naturally into place. But when it comes to business performance management (BPM) soft- ware implementations, nothing could be further from the truth.

"Selecting the software is the smallest part of it," says Paul Boulanger, an Atlanta-based partner in Accenture's finance and performance management global service line. "The software is usually anywhere from 20 percent to 40 percent of the overall BPM implementation cost, which includes the cost of actually deploying the software system's capabilities and getting employees to use the BPM tool."

Success with BPM initiatives depends on a number of factors, not least of which is a clear focus on what you want to accomplish with the tool even before you go shopping for it. "The hardest part of the process is defining what you want to achieve in terms of performance as an organization and how this new tool can help you reach those goals," says Boulanger.

Making the Case

Without senior management's buy-in, the BPM initiative is going nowhere. A detailed presentation of the projected savings, benefits and ROI from the new system can persuade those leaders to loosen the purse strings, but your pitch must be sharply focused.

"Your projected ROI is going to be easier to measure if your focus is specific," notes Boulanger. "For example, if I don't have good customer data or information about which products are the most profitable, I can [use the BPM system to] develop measures to quantify that problem and work toward overcoming it. But if I just have a vague idea of what I want to do with it, the projected ROI will be hard to pin down, and justifying the BPM purchase will be difficult."

Implementation times vary widely, but the ideal seems to be around four to seven months. A shorter projected time can result in a hurried, sloppy installation. Projecting a longer implementation can kill the initiative before it's begun. "Senior management wants fast results, so if you say that the implementation will take about one year, chances are, it will be killed right there," Boulanger observes. "Develop an iterative development plan that rolls out new capabilities of the system on a frequent basis. Prioritize the most urgent needs and build momentum by solving each one."

In addition to a clear focus, a BPM initiative needs a strong champion. Winn Dixie Stores Inc., a supermarket chain based in Jacksonville, Fla., had both. Barry McMenamy, financial analyst, was in charge of the project. He designed the implementation to improve his company's budgeting process.

"Beginning in December 2002, it took us a total of 12 weeks to implement, including the training at headquarters (which was easy with the OutlookSoft BPM tool we bought), getting the administrative department and procurement to use it for their budgeting, and getting the district managers to begin using it," says McMenamy. "[The district managers'] technical skills were not as great, so that part was more of a challenge."

McMenamy pushed the BPM project through plenty of other challenges, too. "One lesson we learned was that a BPM software product can get bogged down authenticating the data if that data's not clean to begin with," he notes. To deal with change management issues, Winn Dixie "put a staff together to handle questions from users," he says. "In addition, we had to make sure we kept IT moving forward. They wanted to delay things from time to time, but we made sure they knew our implementation deadlines."