General Contractor - California

The Situation
The company had purchased a network based system several years ago when it was smaller. They had more than outgrown the system and were having data integrity problems as well as performance issues in spite of the thousands of dollars they had invested in Citrix Winframe servers and custom programming.

The Challenge
Due to the dispersed operations and the size of the company, it was clear that a traditional system selection was not practical. Management believes strongly in empowering their people and getting broad participation in significant decisions. Due to the widely dispersed operations, it was necessary to carefully coordinate and plan meetings and presentations so that travel could be minimized and personnel time could be used effectively.

Solution
BCG assisted the client with a two-stage system selection that involved both a technical compatibility and a functional compatibility examination of available software. Once the short list of vendors was determined, a system selection was conducted with a detailed Request for Proposal (RFP) prepared with the involvement of personnel from most of the eleven offices. Two vendors, both Oracle based, were short-listed and detailed demonstrations were conducted. A single vendor was then selected to conduct a weeklong conference room pilot (CRP) facilitated by BCG. Following the CRP, final custom requirements were determined, an implementation plan was developed, and a fast track implementation proceeded using a core team approach.

Result
The client selected a state-of-the-art client/server Oracle based system and has implemented it using fast track methodology. The system went from planning to being live in under six months.

Lessons Learned

• It is possible to get organizational commitment and participation from a large geographically dispersed team with careful planning.
• Users are an important part of the selection process, even in large firms.
• Fast track implementation can save money if it is conducted properly.