CRC-ASPEx was hired by a 250 person engineering and architectural consulting firm to evaluate existing business processes and how effectively they were using information technology to perform these processes. This client was operating offices in multiples states, and management wanted to evaluate how well the technologies in place had kept pace with the growth and requirements of the business.
CRC-ASPEx began by evaluating existing business processes, and identifying opportunities for improvement. We then evaluated which of these opportunities could be achieved using existing technologies, and which would require new technology.
Although some opportunities were quick-wins, we found that a number of opportunities were technology dependent, and could not be achieved without fundamental changes to their information technology infrastructure, and some significant investment in new hardware and software. Along with our evaluation, we performed a Cost/Benefit Analysis to identify the Return on Investment (ROI) that could be achieved from making these investments in new technology. To make sure that we did not over-sell our recommendations, we quantified our expected ROI conservatively. Even with a conservative approach, we felt that the investments would have an extremely attractive ROI, with an initial cost payback of less than two years. Management agreed with our conclusions and approved our strategic plan.
We completed a detailed set of requirements which were incorporated into a Request for Proposal (RFP) for new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. This RFP was sent to 11 vendors which we qualified as having appropriate solutions to meet this organization’s ERP software needs. After evaluating responses from the vendors, and receiving on-site demos from three finalists, a solution was chosen to meet our client’s needs. We worked with the client to configure the software to enable the process improvements we had identified in our original assessment. After conducting parallel testing and training of staff, our client went live with the new system.
Subsequent to our live date, the management committee independently evaluated the cost benefit analysis that we had originally prepared, to confirm our initial ROI and payback calculations. The actual ROI exceeded our initial estimates, and the payback period for the investment was approximately 6 months. The actual return on this investment exceeded the expectations of the management committee.