IT in the Lab: Would You Select a Business Partner Based on System Functionality?
Implementation services are crucial to a project's success.
By Jackie Taylor, N/A
In the area of large-scale IT project implementation, there has almost been as much written about failed projects as successful ones. Which is as it should be, since much can be learned from both experiences. But what can surprise users is that the reasons for project failure are seldom simply technical. No matter how functionally rich and easy-to-use a system may be, if poorly implemented without the necessary skills and backup, the chances of project failure are significantly increased.
So why are implementation services often not given the weighting they deserve up-front in an IT project's planning?
Relying Solely on Functionality Can Be Unwise
How to Evaluate the Service Component
Choosing Your Service Provider
Focus Is Shifting to Service
Relying Solely on Functionality Can Be Unwise (Back to Top)
If we take a LIMS as an example, it can be seen that there are some historical reasons for this. It is generally recognized that a LIMS is a strategic solution and, in some organizations, literally mission-critical. The success or failure of an implementation project for a new LIMS can have serious consequences for the organization. Selection of LIMS, however, is still often seen as the preserve of the laboratory and responsibility for its selection and implementation is given to laboratory managers and their staff.
Often the only experience of large capital purchases that such laboratory personnel can call upon is centered around laboratory equipment (large instruments or instrument systems such as mass spectrometers and gas chromatographs). Understandably, this experience often leads to the lab staff using the same techniques in selecting a LIMS as they would use for selecting laboratory instruments. Typically, this means that their requirements of a LIMS are identified and satisfied by producing a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Invitation to Tender (ITT) document. A choice of system is then made based upon the replies to these documents, along with a demonstration of the system.
If you list the functions of commercially available LIMS products, they can all seem quite similar. New features introduced by one supplier will very quickly be adopted and introduced by others if they are worthwhile. Furthermore, if your relationship with the supplier is good, you should be able to influence the development of the product.
With this in mind, it is unfortunate that some potential users of LIMS focus solely on functionality in their system selection.
Service requirements and capability, whether direct from the vendor or a third party, are often left to the end of the decision process. Sometimes the customer has no knowledge of the experience, competence, or quality of the service organization that will implement the LIMS prior to the project initiation phase. By then it is probably too late, and, in a worst case scenario, what should ideally develop into a close business partnership has been entered into on the strength of software "bells and whistles." The question "does the system meet the business needs of the organization?" is very different from "does the system contain all the functionality that was originally identified?"
In other words, a large-scale system implementation project is about people, not technology. From the end-users operating a system that supports the way they work through to mapping the system to the organization's high-level business processes, the human element is key. It is vital that the service organization considers that, when working with people on a large-scale project, you are dealing with fears, company and individual cultural differences, existing working practices, and other legacy issues.
How to Evaluate the Service Component (Back to Top)
As a minimum, what services can you expect from a solution provider? Training and some form of user support desk should be considered the bare minimum. To better accommodate the human element of a project, more progressive vendors are extending their range of services to include project planning, business requirements definition, management of user workshops, milestone delivery, system integration, workflow modeling, and validation consultancy. Based upon the customer's own internal resources and skills, the scale of the implementation project and policy on outsourcing, a vendor can play an important role in selecting an appropriate package of services.
The fundamental assessment of the suitability of a service organization is:
- their knowledge of the customer's specific industry,
- their capacity to map a customer's business needs into the requirements, and
- their ability to define the best way to fully satisfy these needs with the product being implemented.
Choosing Your Service Provider (Back to Top)
This raises the question of who is best qualified to deliver services to support an implementation project; the system vendor or a third party contractor? If the system vendor of choice has its own directly employed service organization and can demonstrate a track record of service delivery, then this would appear to be the best option.
There are a number of reasons to support this view:
- Intimate product knowledge—It is unlikely that a third-party service organization will know the software better than the vendor itself, or, indeed, be as experienced in its implementation.
- Accountability—The system vendor should have more commitment to the project's success and the solution's subsequent maintenance. Certainly, the vendor has more to lose if the project is a failure when it has responsibility for the whole project.
- Single supplier relationship—Related to point 2, this simplifies project management and encourages the development of a business partnership.
At the very heart of the implementation process is the management of expectations, specifically concerning what can be done and what can't be done. Technology can help to solve many problems but only if firstly the problem is known, and secondly, it is known how to solve it. Computerizing a flawed business process will mean, in even the best case, that you will have a much faster flawed process. In the worst case, the process will fail completely because the intuitive actions that people previously took to keep the process working will not, and cannot, be recreated by the computerized system.
Software projects are notoriously prone to failure and involvement in a failed project can be career limiting for individuals and very costly for organizations involved. Implementing a LIMS takes time and requires resources and even if the entire implementation is out-sourced to a supplier or a third party, the customer will have to make resources available during the implementation. But, as already discussed, the success of a project is determined by the ability of the service organization to analyze what must be done to satisfy the business needs.
Therefore, when looking at potential suppliers, much more than just technology should be evaluated. By carefully selecting a supplier with a service organization capable of working to help manage both the project and its delivery, the decision-making team from the laboratory will ultimately save themselves both time and frustration. The decision on LIMS supplier should, therefore be based on factors such as:
- history in the business,
- number of support and service staff, and
- development budget as a percentage of revenue.
Perhaps the most important factor is whether it is the type of organization with which you feel you can work and, moreover, develop the sort of close business partnership that is a common aspect of successful implementation projects.
The key to successful projects where people are involved and where there are specific business needs that have to be met, is how those projects are implemented. However, because the business needs have to be known and understood and will change, and because people are involved, the implementation process is not a simple one.
Obstacles to successful implementations exist and have to be anticipated, understood, and overcome.
Focus Is Shifting to Service (Back to Top)
In LabSystems' recent contact with current and prospective customers, a subtle shift is being seen from the conventional emphasis of evaluation projects on software functionality to the early consideration of service provision. This trend is a welcome one and should help improve the poor reputation that the IT industry has of delivering successful projects.
Nowadays, customers are less inclined to view the sizeable costs of implementation as a poor reflection on the software. The days of simply selecting a system, such as a LIMS, based on functionality are hopefully numbered as the market accepts the critical role played by the service organization in a project's success.
About the Author
Jackie Taylor began her career after graduating from Bradford University, UK, with a degree in chemical engineering. She joined LabSystems nine years ago as an analyst and has been the UK Implementation Manager for six years, managing the Implementation group in the UK. Since the launch of Pathfinder, LabSystems' Professional Services group, Jackie has assumed worldwide responsibilities as the Global Internal Services Manager. Prior to joining LabSystems, she worked for a company developing real-time software solutions.
For more information, contact LabSystems at +44-0-800-01-85227, or info@labsystems.com.