Customer
A global oil and gas service company emerged from bankruptcy with new ownership in the form of a private equity firm.
Challenge
The new owners had engaged a large consulting firm to do an IT assessment of the business they had just acquired. While the firm did a reasonably good job on the assessment, they also advised the client that they needed a new ERP system and Human Resource management system with implementation costs in the millions. They even provided the business case for the project and a Statement of Work for the initiative.
The PE firm desired a second opinion on the necessity of this huge ERP and HRIS system implementation and they wanted this opinion from a company that was not self-served by recommending these types of huge cost transformational projects.
Outcome
CXO science reviewed the prior proposal and recommended postponing a new ERP initiative for the following reasons:
- A stronger business case was needed
- Costs as stated seemed underestimated and needed refinement.
- Benefits are not well quantified and thus difficult to set as goals and hold the team accountable for achieving
- Project scope needed a clear definition
- Timeline was ambitious and likely unrealistic
- The organization is not ready
- Business functional teams needed stabilization after a recent reorganization
- IT Team needs time to adjust to new leadership and to build trust with the larger organization
- An overall organizational design vision needs to be clearly defined, articulated, and put in place in advance.
In short, the large consulting firm had ignored the big picture and recommended a path that had a low probability of success. The firm indeed needed new systems but more importantly, needed to be ready to take on the challenge of such an endeavor.